Sorry it was so long in coming folks! But, I think that you'll find it was worth the wait! This chapter is kinda short, but the others will be longer, I promise! I don't own Ronin Warriors, but I do own the girls and Hajime. Thanks and please R & R!
Nature's Fury
Chapter 5
Cye and Rowen continued to walk towards the campground, pleased to see that the stormy sky had cleared without even a drop of rain.
Suddenly, Cye stopped.
"Do you smell that?" He asked Rowen.
Rowen sniffed and wrinkled his nose.
"Smells like smoke." He muttered, looking around for the source of the smell. Cye gasped and pointed to the sky. Straight ahead, great billowing puffs of smoke were emerging from the forest. Rowen gasped.
The wind picked up, causing the smoky cloud to grow in size and blow towards them, washing them in a cloud of smoke and ash.
"Cye! What about Sage!?" Rowen shouted. He immediately began coughing as the smoke entered his lungs. He could just barely make out the figure of Cye through the smoke, doubled over with his coughing. Cye looked at him, horrified, and the two sped off in the direction the smoke came from.
Sage was deep in a meditative trance. He was vaguely aware of the smell of smoke and heat registering in his mind as he meditated, but chalked it up to a campfire and the heat of the sun. He sat, cross-legged, in the center of a clearing, when suddenly his eyes snapped open. He had just remembered. They were the only group in the camp at that time.
He jumped to his feet and gasped. The forest around him was on fire. He whipped around and gasped again when he realized he was surrounded by a wall of flames. He coughed as smoke and ashes assailed his face. He covered his face with his hands and gagged, the smoke was choking him. His eyes watered at the smoke and heat as he desperately searched for a clear path away from the burning inferno. There was none. He thought vaguely of his armor orb, back at the campsite in the RV before he collapsed to the ground. Darkness began to creep into his vision as he was overwhelmed by the smoke.
Rowen coughed, gagging on the smoke and ashes he had inhaled.
"Sage!" He cried through his coughing. "Cye!"
Rowen knew he was in trouble. He had lost track of Cye soon after they had gone looking for Sage in the smoke. He knew he was wandering around in circles, unsure of the way out of the smoke and dust. He could feel the heat growing stronger around him, and knew the fire was gaining on his position. He coughed and called to his friends again. No answer. Even if they could hear him, he wouldn't be able to hear their answers over the crackling of the brush nearby as it burned. His stopped moving and collapsed to the ground, unable to breathe. He gasped for air, rolling onto his back in the dirt, coughing fitfully and choking, his mind screaming for oxygen as his lungs filled with smoke.
Cye breathed out a sigh of relief. He had found the river. He stood on a cliff, overlooking a huge, swiftly flowing river. He reached into his pocket to call his armor. With his armor and the water from the river, he could stop the brush fire and save both Sage, and Rowen who he had lost track of. His hands groped wildly through his empty pocket for his armor orb. Suddenly, Cye felt sick. He had left it in the RV. In all the hustle of the fire and his mad dash to the nearby river, he had completely forgotten that he didn't have is armor with him. He felt like crying. He stared back at the burning forest, imagining his friends in there, hoping, praying that he would rescue them. He screamed in fury and was about to run back into the burning forest, when suddenly the ground around him shook. He lost his balance and fell, rolling over the edge of the cliff and down thirty feet into the violent river below. His last though before he hit the water was of his friends, trapping in the raging inferno.