Chapter 4: Usurping of Power

The Child of Fire

Fire is life and warmth, Fire is heat and passion, Fire is the knowing of what you do not want to know.

The flames surrounded her, she couldn't get out, her small head swerved from one side to the other, looking for a way out. Nothing. She was stuck and was going to die.

"We have something to show you." The little voices whispered in her head.

"Who's there, where are you?" She asked out loud. Confusion had set in about three seconds before that. When she realized the flames were not hurting her.

"Look into the flames and tell me what you see, my little fire child." The voices all said in unison.

"I.. I.. See a girl, with long blue hair. She riding a horse, as fast as she can." She said.

"What else do you see?" The voices urged the young child on.

"A man is with her, silver hair and silver eyes. He protects her, and she him." The young child said.

"You will wait for these people, then you must leave. Go with them on their journey they will need you. But do not be tempted by outsiders. These two they know not of what is to come. They will need your help."

"But I am just a kid." The little girl said.

"No Ashling, look into the fire and see who you truly are." At this the voices disapated and the young child turned to the fire and saw what was in the flames as they wrapped around her.

A young woman beautiful and exotic, long black hair with red flames running threw it. She wielded a Bow and Arrow. Next to her stood a young man, with long blonde hair and green eye's. About her size in stature. Maybe a few inches taller. He walked along a dark path with her.

Then the scene changed. There was a temple and four women, who were pregnant all gave out a scream at once. Being pulled by an unknown force she is shown that each of these women has a daughter. One of them looks like her. The other like the girl from the fire.

These two where the only ones she saw. She was ripped back out into reality, as she was hit with a jug of cold water.

"Alsandair, I am going to kill you" The young woman screams. The blonde boy runs for his life out of the house yelling his 'I love you's 'to his mother.

The woman laughs at her son and daughter. It will soon be time to say good bye. She felt it when she awoke this morning.

Ashling swept by here in here night dress not giving a hoot what anyone the worked on the farm thought as she raced after her brother. It was time to pay.

She ran forever, trying to catch up. Until in a split second she was down on the ground screaming in pain.

Alsandair turned and high tailed it to where his sister lay screaming on the ground. He reached out for her and felt as she was going cold as ice.

The screaming died down and she rocked her self back and forth, repeating. "I will not leave you, never leave you." over and over for a good five minutes.

Alsandair looked to his sister with a face of pure shock. She quickly stated to shake her trying to get her out of what ever she was in.

"Ashling wake up, wake up. Ashling you need to wake up." He kept repeating over and over again.

Until finally her eye's cleared and they were once again their normal violet color. She looked into the face of her brother.

"Death awaits them and us. They are near." With this she gets up like it was an ordinary thing.

Alsandair just follows like he is being pulled. He knew something was coming it was pulling at his heart, with everything it had. A loneliness that he had never felt before. That of an unwanted person, that of a broken human.

As he walked into the house he heard his sister call to his mother.

"Mama, We need to talk to you." She said in her melodious voice.

"Yes sweetheart I know." Her mother said.

They went to sit in the great room, for they were not poor, they had all the comforts one could seek.

"We will be leaving soon mother." Ashling said.

"Your destiny calls you my children." She answered.

Alsandair was standing to the side he hated it when they spoke like this. They were always the cryptic ones. As he was getting even more annoyed it was starting to rain. The sky darkening. The clouds moving fast. Then the down pour came.

"Alsandair, do not be so upset." His mother said.

"But, what is it you speak of, our Destiny." He replies.

"You will both go and you will protect your sister and she you." She said

"But I need to stay here, to protect you, I will not leave you alone." he said with vehemence in his voice. "I will not leave you to the wolves that want what you have." he finished with a raised voice.

"I can't take care of myself son, you need to go, you have to do this. This is your Destiny. I knew it from the day you were born." She said.

"Once they arrive, you and them will take the path straight North. If you follow that path directly you will come upon a Shrine. There you may rest and be safe, and seek the others." She said as she walked away with tears in her eye's.

She was loosing her family so that her people may live. Let them be loved. Was her thought as she ascended the steps to her room.

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A few hours later, Ashling and Alsandair were sitting in a pub. Though they were young, no one would dare try to through them out. Ashling's temper was well known, and that of Alsandair could match hers. They were left alone to there own thoughts.

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While out side the rain had not let up.

"Moira you know if you stop the rain we can get there faster." Cahir said

"I can't, its like someone is pushing against me. They have a strong will." Moira said.

"You need to figure out how to heal yourself, you can heal everyone else why not you.." He said.

"I have no clue, but it doesn't hurt that much anymore." She said as she saw Cahir gaze down at her side.

He hated that she never showed weakness, as the huge slash on her side was still bleeding and looking worse as they rode on. He didn't understand why she had stayed to fight, it was not her fight is was his. Yet, she had refused to leave.

'yeah, like you refused to leave her stupid.' his mind answered for him.

Cahir looked ahead, he saw the lanterns lit in a small town, there he could get her help. He looked over to his sister, her blue hair was matted down around her face, she looked paler than normal, and her eye's had heavy dark circles under them. As he watched his arms shot toward her and caught her as she fell from her horse.

He hoisted her in front of him and rode foreword, racing with all his might. He will not let her die, she wouldn't let him.

He looked behind him making sure that her horse Ice was following. The name truly suited the horse. It was a silver blue in color and no one had ever seen one quite like it.

He had the young woman held firmly in his arms as he came upon the first place in the town. A small pub.

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Inside the pub, people were enjoying their leisure time, well that is they were until the door was thrown abruptly open.

A huge man was in the shadow of the door holding a small figure in his arms.

"I need a healer." He bellowed.

Every head in the pub turned to stare at the man. But two heads in particular, shot higher than any others around them.

Ashling looked to her brother and he nodded, the went straight toward the man who held what looked like a child in his arms.

"We can help you." Came a voice from in front of him. But since he was almost 6 ft tall, he had to look down to find the origin of the voice. Before him stood a young woman and young man, as different as night and day. The woman with long black hair and red streaks. The young man with long blonde hair.

"We were attacked and she was injured. Can you help her, are you healers." Cahir said in a low growl.

"No but we can get you to one." The raven haired beauty before him stated.

"Lets go." He heard the young man say.

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The group of young people mounted their horses and rode off in the direction of a large farm.

Cahir was a little more than confused. How could a healer afford to live like this. Then he figured it out.

"Mama we need your help." The raven haired girl said.

With these words a woman looking much like the young girl waked down the stairs, staring at the child in his arms.

"Bring her here." She said and Cahir followed.

Slowly he layed his sister down on the plush sofa, and backed away so that the woman could do her work. To his amazement, her hands began to glow and the wound on his sisters side began to heal.

A few moments later the woman stood up, looking to Cahir.

"My name is Allie, this is my daughter Ashling, and my son Alsandair. Who are you, and what has happened to her." She said lightly.

"My name is Cahir and that is my sister Moira, we were attacked on the way hear, by a band of bandits. She would not leave as I had asked her to. She insisted on staying and fighting. I could not protect her." He left off in a whisper.

"It looks as if she wanted to protect you, and did she." Allie asked.

"Yes, the blow she got was aimed at my neck." He said rubbing at a non existent cut on his throat.

"Come you need food and she needs to rest." Allie said.

Cahir and the woman's children followed her in to the kitchen, walking slowly, Cahir cast a look back at his sister, her color was already returning.

"So why have you come and what do you seek." She asked of the tall handsome man.

"My sister and I seek a life and a death." He answered most gravely.

"Who's death do you seek?" She asked.

"That of the King and his Soldiers." Cahir replied his eye's turning to ice.

"Why do you seek his death, has he not protected us?" She asked.

"He is a murderer and a rapist, he has slain our father and our friends, because of him we have no home. We are now wanderers." He replied getting irritated at this woman's questions. "And if you are with him, then I will kindly get my sister and leave you." He finished getting up and going toward his sister.

"It is nothing like that I just needed to make sure you are who I thought you were." SHe replied gently touching his arm.

"Who do you think we are?" He asked. He needed to get out of here before he pummeled this woman.

"You are who you are." She said cryptically.

Alsandair was looking at the massive man in front of his mother, and could feel the rage pouring off him.

"Mother I think it would be wise to not be cryptic at this point in time." He said sweetly.

"It is the best time to be cryptic, I need to know my family will be safe with this man." She said brandishing her hand toward the silver haired man in question.

"I do not understand you woman, why should your family have to be safe with me?" Cahir asked briskly.

"You are to journey together as soon as the child is better." As he heard the woman's arrogant voice he rounded on her.

"That is no mere child woman, she is more than any one I ever met, and you will not, I repeat will not call her a child, she is more of a woman than I have ever seen." he ragged out.

"I think my mother only calls her child because she is so small, I actually thought she was a child myself." Ashling said, trying to hold in her temper.

"You have strong feelings for the woman in there, who is she to you?" She needed to know to make sure this is who she had seen in her vision.

"She is my sister and the only family I have left. If you will excuse me I need to check on Moira." He said and briskly walked out of the room.

"They are the one's mother." Ashling said.

"I know, I just hope he protects you and Alsandair as he protects her. You will all need each other for this journey." She said as she sat and rested in a chair next to the table.

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"Moira you need to hurry and heal, these people have lost their minds. We need to get out of here. They may even befriend the king." He said looking to his sisters small face.

"I assure you we are no friend of the King, but, I cannot assure about the sanity of the rest of my family." Alsandair said. As he too a seat on the opposite side of Moira.

"She has power over water doesn't she." Alsandair asked.

"How did you know?" Cahir responded with a look of distaste.

Alsandair merely pointed to the blue hair atop the small head.

"She radiates it, this one." he stopped for a moment and began again. "I thought I was good with water, but she seems to be better, her power oozes off of her." He said reaching to move a strand of blue out of her face.

Before his fingers neared the girls head, his arm was gripped by an iron clad grip.

"No one touches my sister." Cahir growled.

As the hours wore on, everyone fell into a restless sleep except for the one on the sofa. She lay in a dream state, watching all her friends killed before her. She watches as she tried to heal the one's in her village that could not be saved. She watched as they burned her father's body, along with the rest to set the souls free. She watched as she and Cahir rode out of the city and into the endless journey that they knew not was to lead them.

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The next morning, Four woke to the smell of eggs and bacon. Cahir looking to check on his sister, turned his head toward the couch and noticed she was missing. He leapt out of his chair like a cat from water. Running threw the house calling her name.

"Moira, where are you?" He screamed.

"Calm down Cahir I am in the kitchen." She said loud enough for him to here.

"What are you doing you should be resting." He nearly growled at her.

"Why, I feel perfectly fine, and no more cut." She said raising her shirt so he could see that her side was fully healed.

"That is not the point." He said as she interrupted him again.

"No the point is you are to protective and need to get a grip." She quipped at him with a smile hidden beneath sad blue orbs.

As the last words escaped her lips, three more people entered he room.

"What was all the screaming for?" Allie asked.

"Cahir flipped when he could not find me Mam." Moira said, as she sat eggs, bacon and biscuits down on the table.

"Thank you dear, but you should not have, you should be resting." She said.

"Thank you see someone thinks I am right." Cahir said.

"Yes but you also thought me crazy last night remember." She quipped.

The rest of the morning went on about the same. Same chit chat and idle conversation.

Until Ashling spoke.

"We leave at sunset Mama." She said

"I know my dear. You must all get your things and get ready." Allie looked down and sighed. She then stood as did the rest of the table. She wondered over to her children and took them in an affectionate hug. Whispering to them how much she loved them and wishing them a safe journey.

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The night was upon them and they each jumped onto their own horse, Moira on a silver blue mare named Ice. Cahir on a silver mare named Quicksilver. Ashling on what looked like in the dark of night a black horse, that really in the sun had hints of violet to its hair. The mares name is Firestar. Alsandair hopped on his mare of the most seeming light black that it looked like a ghost in the night. This mare was Spirit.

The set off for the next leg of there journey, They were headed north.