Skye Silver & The Soul of Fire Vol.1

By now the sandstorm was in full effect and it looked like we were in the center of it.

We were all gazing out the windows searching for any way out of the Sandstorm when a figure appeared coming through the walls of the sandstorm.

“Who is that!” I shrieked.

Kitai and Ms. Cruise both turned their heads in sync to look out his window.

“Is that?…” Kitai said in a low confused tone.

“Get out of the car now!” Ms. Cruise wailed.

Kitai and I rush out of the car to the side Ms. Cruise is on and duck behind it with her.

“Who is that?” I asked.

“It’s Assail,” Kitai responded.

Just as he said his name you could hear Assail’s voice carrying over the wind.

“Let’s not make this more difficult than it has to be!” He yelled. “Just give me the girl and the book and ill be on my way!”

“I know why you want the girl but what’s the reason for the book?” Ms. Cruise said.

“I know you know who that book belongs to. I just want to return it before the Gods realize its missing.” He answered.

“So you stole it!” Ms. Cruise exclaimed.

“I wouldn’t say stole.” He replied. “I borrowed it to sniff her out. I was going to return it when I found her but well you know Antonio gave it to her and now he’s dead in her house with no sign of it. Thanks by the way for leaving him there you saved me the trouble of chasing him down to kill him.”

“He used him as a pawn,” Kitai said.

“So what do you say we end this quickly?” Assail Said.

You could tell he was getting close to the car as he spoke.

“Sure.” Ms. Cruise responded.” you leave right now and it will be over!”

“Oh you know I can’t go that easy now, then all this hard work would have been for nothing.”

“Hard work?” Kitai exclaimed. “What are you trying to do?”

“Now would be a good time to learn how to use your power,” Kitai said now looking at me.

“What?” I said caught off guard.

“Your power,” he repeated. “This guy is one of the greatest fighters of Astral the least you can do is protect yourself while we fight him. How did you burn Chris’s hair?”

“You heard about that?”

“Skye the whole school heard about that”

“Oh well, I don’t know it just happened like the skin thing.”

“The skin thing is just because you’re not of these people. Nifty little way of keeping Demi-Gods away from humans.”

“Well, I’m sure you know I have gallons of water from the sacred waterfall and a lot of diced fruit from the gardens. The sand bowl won’t be too hard to find but that Soul of Fire is another story!” Assail replied.

“You’re trying to build an army to take over Astral!” Ms. Cruise accused.

“Oh no!” Assail exclaimed. “I’m going to take over the earth!”

The car we hid behind suddenly flew away like a Tornado had snatched it off the ground. The car flew through the wall of the sandstorm we were inside. The sand flying around us was so loud I didn’t even hear the car land on the outside of the sandstorm. We all stood to face him Ms. Cruise on one side of me and Kitai on the other.

“How can you take over Earth? The Goddess of Nature would never let you!” Ms. Cruise exclaimed.

“The Gods do not interfere with the problems of Humans nor Demi-Gods but merely watch them for entertainment! I bet Treasure or the Goddess of Nature as you call her is watching us right now waiting to see me take that Soul of Fire and continue my journey to be the most powerful Demi-God on the planet.”

For a moment I realized what he said was true. Some of the most evil people in the world rose to power and slaughtered millions of innocent people and no ones God did anything. Or how my foster parents would talk about how slavery went on for 400 years. That still has effects to this day yet again no God has done anything. Earth had gotten so bad it was normal to say “The good die young” when in reality that is a nightmare. Can you imagine bringing a child into the world where the good die young? Churches, Theaters and elementary schools all falling victim to Active Shooters. There are bombings around the world. In some countries people get killed for merely having a different belief.

“He’s right, there’s no way the gods are interfering with whats happening here on Earth unless they’re evil themselves,” I thought.

“Well if you want the Soul of Fire you’re going to have to go into those Caves cause you aren’t getting it here!” Kitai exclaimed.

“And what makes you so sure?” Assail smirked.

Kitai smirked back. “Cause we won’t let you!”

Kitai took a step out in front of us. Both of his hands each had a flame covering them. It was like something out of a comic book. Assail laughed out loud like a Villian standing before a sidekick without the main hero. Kitai was a joke to Assail but he was soon to find out like most people he had underestimated him.

“You do know who I am right?” Assail asked as two flames began covering his fist as well. “Everything you can do I can do plus more.”

The two began walking towards each other. It was like a Mexican standoff in the middle of a sandstorm. They gazed sizing each other up as the distance between them decreased. With both of their fists clinched the fires surrounding them now raging they came face to face.

Kitai threw the first punch. I was shocked because Kitai was never a fighter in school but his punch was precise as well as powerful. you could tell he was no amateur at fighting. Nonetheless, Assail dodged the punches like Kitai was throwing them in slow motion. Watching the two fight reminded me of Ninjas in Naruto or Sayians in Drago Ball Z they were fast, strong, smart and powerful. It was hard to keep up with them between the speed of their fight and the sandstorm altering our sight.

“I have to help him!” Ms. Cruise said, “He can’t defeat him alone.”

Ms. Cruise ran full speed towards the now fireball that was Kitai & Assail in hand to hand combat. She jumped higher than any human ever could Pulled her fist back in mid-air and came down fist first on the fireball like water from a firemans hose.

When the dust settled, Kitai stood next to Ms. Cruise who was in a kneeling position with her first in the ground. Assail had disappeared in the sand after the impact. Ms. Cruise stood up and we all looked around for any sight of Assail but he was nowhere inside the walls of the sandstorm.

Just as Kitai was about to call out to me, Assail came lunging out of walls of the sandstorm behind me.

“Watch out!” Kitai yelled.

I turned to see Assail in mid-air gliding towards me and before I could think I closed my eyes threw up an X with my arms and tucked my head down. I hoped whatever happened the blow would not be fatal.

I felt a strong pressure of air hit my arms and push me backward. When I opened my eyes there was what seemed to be a ball of fire surrounding my entire body like a shield. When I noticed Assail laying on the ground with a path of dirt leading to where he stopped it was apparent the shield not only protected me but propelled the attack back and blasted him in the opposite direction.

Assail leaned up with a visibly distraught look. When I stood to face him the shield vanished into the ground at my feet. Kitai and Ms. Cruise rushed to my side. Assail was hurt and the sandstorm had calmed. We were able to see through the walls of the sandstorm we were trapped in.

“Three Demi-Gods all with the power of Fire Manipulation, “Assail said as he stood to his feet. “This should be fun!”

He jumped into a fighting stance. Kitai and Ms. Cruise both jumped in front of me and also assumed fighting stances. They stood still for only a moment before Kitai and Ms. Cruise both rushed full speed at him. They moved so fast the dirt under their feet rose about two feet off the ground.

The sound of the impact was thunderous but this time there were no flames. Assail not only blocked both of their punches but he also had water in his palms that extinguished the flames around their fist as soon as they made contact. Then he closed their fist in his palm and snatched them both toward him while lunging his head forward. His hair turned brown like the sand flying around us just as he made contact head butting them both.

When their heads collided with his they both fell to their backs and sand began pouring out of his hair. He then turned his attention to me with a devilish mug. As he walked through their unconscious bodies towards me the sandstorm around us began to fade. Subsequently, there was a ball of water forming in mid-air directly above Assail. The closer he got to me the larger the ball grew.

“See I Have the power to manipulate water even if its just the slight humidity in the air or the sweat off your body” Assail said. “and this should be just enough to drop that shield of yours.”

I didn’t know if what he said was true or not so I did the best thing I could. I ran in the other direction. Not that I was a coward but if it was me he wanted Id rather he didn’t kill Kitai and Ms. Cruise to catch me. I didn’t make it very far before he was a few steps behind me but far enough to where Kitai and Ms. Cruise were out of harm’s way for the moment.

When I heard his footsteps closing in I stopped and turned to face him.

“Whats wrong?” He asked. “Lose faith that fast?”

“Look, ill give you the Soul of Fire if you just leave us alone,” I said.

“If only it worked that way he said.”

“Wait, what do you mean? I exclaimed.

“Oh, they didn’t tell you?” He laughed “what a shame. The only way to take the Soul of Fire is to kill the body hosting it i.e. you!”

“And let me just say killing you will be an honor. The daughter of a Queen and my favorite God Fugaze dying by my hand will be an accomplishment in my book.” He said, “You know if he actually cared about you I would probably feel bad about this and if he wasn’t banished to planet Mercury I would actually be too scared.”

“Well if you fear my father you should certainly fear me,” I replied.

He laughed. “I’m afraid that not how fear works.”

He lunged at me with his fist pulled back. I put up the X again this time while standing with my eyes wide open. Just as he was about to land the attack a ring of fire formed around me and sprang up from the ground to surround me.

The shield pushed him back again but this time with not nearly as much force as he was still standing. He rose both of his hands and proceeded to slam them down pointing at me. The ball of water above him came hurling at a high speed in my direction. When the water made contact there was a hole made in the shield for a moment and Assail came full speed punching through the hole and hitting me directly in the stomach. I dropped the X and flew a few yards back. I felt like my stomach surely had a gaping hole in it that he punched clean through. The only thing I could do was gasp for air as I lay there feeling like my stomach had somehow latched on to my spine.

Assail had approached and now stood towering over me. “Astral isn’t all its cracked up to be anyway.”

As he said that he rose his arms up putting his hands in the sky and a Sword made of flames appeared in his hand. He looked down at me. “Hold still he said.” As the ground beneath me seemed to come alive and grab my arms holding me down. He flipped the sword down and centered the tip of the blade with the center of my heart.

Unable to move I was sure I would die right at that moment. He rose his sword until his arms were fully extended and I could tell he came down with all of his might. However, there was only the sound of water splashing rather than flesh cutting and being burned. The fire sword had vanished and Kitai was standing a few meters away with water dripping from his fingertips.

Assail looked at Kitai shocked because he assumed Kitai had only possessed the power of fire manipulation.

“Well well,” Assail said. “Maybe this will be a little interesting.”

“Don’t you move now.” He said to me as he began walking towards Kitai.

With nearly no words exchanged the two clash head to head again. I was so caught up in the fight I hadn’t noticed Ms. Cruise rushing over to me.

“Get ready to run!” she said as she neared me.

She slid to where I was and punched the ground where my arms were trapped breaking the ground and freeing me. She pulled me up and pointed to the car.

“Go get the book out of the car and hide behind it!” She said. “I’ll be there in a moment.”

I ran in the direction of the car and Ms. Cruise ran opposite towards Kitai and Assail. When I reached the car it was upside down. I reached in grabbed the book and stayed hidden behind the car as instructed. after a few moments of hearing the battle, I grew worried.

I peeked my head up to see how the fight was going but all I saw was Kitai running full speed in my direction.

“Skye behind you!” He yelled.

I turned expecting to see Assail again jumping out of nowhere to attack but it was instead what seemed to be a portal made of wind circulating so fast that it was visible.

“By the time I could turn to face Kitai again he was diving at me. He speared me into the portal And stood up quickly to turn back to the portal. When I looked out past Kitai through the portal I could see Ms. Cruise running in our direction. She was just meters away from the portal when all of a sudden, a tornado snatched her off of her feet mid-sprint.

“No!” Kitai screamed.

Ms. Cruise now floating in the middle of a tornado looked at us, smiled and said: “Go find your mother.”

The tornado began spinning faster as it pulled Ms. Cruise in the other direction. The last I saw of her She was pouring flames down the tornado to the bottom where Assail was controlling it from. Finally, the portal closed and Kitai fell to his knees with his eyes full of water.

“She’s gone,” He said. “she really is gone.”

I tried to comfort him kneeling beside him and putting my arm around him. I never could find the words to console someone who had just lost a family member so I sat silently with him for a moment.

“I’m sorry Kitai,” I said. “Your mom wouldn’t have been here if it weren’t for me.”

“No” Kitai responded as he looked up at me with a single tear rolling down his face.

“My mom and I made the decision to protect you on our own,” he sniffed and wiped his tear away. “and that’s what I’m going to do. Get you to your mother safely and get that book back to the Gods.”

Kitai stood to his feet and I stood with him. We gazed at our surroundings and I knew I was in an unfamiliar place. Even the air was different from home. The Las Vegas heat was no more and the sand we were just surrounded by near Area 51 was swapped with trees, massive boulders and a pathway just big enough for about 2 or 3 people side by side.

“Where are we?” I inquired.