I woke up to a hand shaking me frantically. I opened my eyes groggily, it was still dark out, my body was simply not adapted for this time zone. I may as well be solar powered. To be honest I was glad to have been forcibly yanked out of that nightmare. I would be having bad dreams for the rest of my life after that one, but I had learned something that could just give us the advantage over the Bride of Frankenstein's ugly twin sister.

I groaned and tried to shut my eyes again, as a mumbled, "Edinburgh. They're in Edinburgh," as a sort of half-hearted distraction to whoever had decided to wake me up. However, that clearly didn't last long as the person who had decided to interrupt my beauty sleep was very determined that I stayed awake. So, they did the only reasonable thing and slapped me in the face. Hard.

I howled in pain, sitting bolt upright at such a speed I should have given myself whiplash, and then experienced another stage of agony when my forehead collided with the person who was still hovering above me. Until I have my morning coffee I'm about as coordinated as a cross eyed octopus, so it wasn't a pretty sight as I flailed on my back rubbing my cheek which was stinging like I'd just taken a patch of nettles to the face, and my forehead which I could almost feel it was going to become a Tom and Jerry style cartoon bump. (Kids ask your parents).

I opened my eyes to see who had slapped me and then had karma perform a one eighty on. Sheira was the unfortunate victim in this case, nursing her nose which was probably already red. And I say probably because I couldn't see a damn thing. The fire was smoking in its pit, which meant it had only just been put out, but a faint red glow was pulsing from just beyond the treeline. Add to the fact that Sheira seemed to be panicking initiated full red alert sequence. But first I had a slightly more pressing matter to attend to.

"What the hell was that for?" I hissed at Sheira. "Do you usually just go around slapping people first thing in the morning because that is a terrible method for an alarm clock."

Sheira's scowl was hindered somewhat by the fact that she was shielding her mouth with her hands, "what do you think that was for?"

"Can I have three guesses?"

"I have been trying to wake you up for the past fifteen minutes!"

I knew I was a deep sleeper, but geez, that was deep even for me. "You could have just poked me before causing me grievous bodily harm."

"What do you think I did first!"

"There's no need to move to violence!"

"Will you two SHUT UP!" roared Shadow. I honestly had forgotten he was there and he was looking panicked to say the least. He was pacing frantically and darting around the clearing, checking the sigils that he and Sheira had carved into the trees earlier tonight.

"Wusgoinon?" I said through a yawn.

"We may be under attack," growled Shadow.

Well that certainly woke me up. "What!? What did I sleep through?" I jumped to my feet and scanned the treeline. "And what the hell is 'may be' supposed to mean?"

"Alright, let me rephrase that. We are under attack so keep your voice down!" he hissed.

The red pulsing light appeared from more areas around the clearing. Alarm sigils I thought. Shadow and Sheira had been running around the campsite before we turned in for the night, carving sigils into the trees surrounding us. However, a sudden high pitch scream followed by a pulse of lightning made me very much doubt that these sigils were friendly.

Sheira was looking around in a panic, her eyes were wide and from the vague silhouette I could see, she was trembling. I walked over to her and took her hand in mine partly to calm her down, partly to make sure I wasn't going to be left behind in the middle of a wood, in pitch darkness, filled with people that wanted me dead. Sheira stopped trembling but, understandably given the current situation, still looked terrified.

"How did they find us?" she asked, "how did they know exactly where we are?"

My dream came hurtling back to me. "Sabrina..." I growled, "she actually did it."

I briefly forgot that my travelling companions didn't have the foggiest clue what I was talking about. "What?" they said simultaneously.

"Oh yeah, you don't know about that. Long story, I'll explain later."

At that exact moment several beams of light were just visible scanning through the darkness. At least five people were there, and many more were searching the rest of the area. Shadow put his finger to his lips and gestured for us to hurry, but quietly.

Ever played one of those videogames where you have absolutely no way to defend yourself and you're being stalked by something that wants to kill you, skin you and eat your liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti? Yes? Well real life is a lot worse than that. The darkness helped to hide us, but we had to dart behind trees or suddenly drop to the ground to avoid the beams of light, hoping and praying that they would just continue their search and not come any closer.

Then there were the sounds. Twigs would suddenly snap, faint crunching footsteps could be heard, sometimes in the distance and sometimes like they were standing right next to you. And half the time I wasn't sure if it was them or me as I had to test each step to make sure I wasn't going to step on the typical horror movie twig and make that cliché real.

It was nerve racking to say the least, and the adrenaline certainly didn't help. I didn't let go of Sheira's hand the entire time. Most infuriatingly of all we didn't seem to be making any progress at all. Whether that was because of the speed we were going at, or the darkness that threw you off your compass, or the fact that the Army was widening its search, we just seemed to be going on forever. And then as if our situation couldn't get any worse -

"They couldn't have just disappeared!"

"We have to find them, or Molly will have our heads."

"Come on, let's try over there."

Over there just happened to be right where we were standing, and the other two conversations were coming in the opposite directions. Wonderful, we're trapped like rats. Shadow was looking around frantically, desperately trying to find somewhere to hide. But where could we go? We were surrounded by trees, we couldn't run anywhere - trees. I looked up at the tree we were standing under. Its branches looked strong enough, strong enough to hold three people at least.

I waved my arms to get the attention of the others and frantically jabbed upwards. They seemed to get the message as Shadow nodded, gestured for us to be quiet and pointed upwards so that Sheira knew the plan as well.

I've never climbed a tree so fast in my life. Clinging from a branch wasn't an ideal situation in anyone's book, but this particular tree was sturdy, and the branches were wide enough to easily carry the weight of all three of us. Sheira and Shadow were both clinging to the trunk above me while I, lying across on top the branches, got a perfect view down onto the growing crowd of Army members.

"Hey! What's that over there? ... Oh, wait it's just you guys. Any luck?"

"Nah, they've vanished."

"Can't have. Their fire only went out a few minutes ago."

"Having a little gossip session, are we?"

I peered down at the group again. There were now eight people standing below us, five boys three girls, all talking about us while we were right under their noses. Well, above them, technically. The girl who seemed to be in charge had black hair with a pink streak running through it, while the others were all holding torches except for a person in a baseball cap. For the sake of argument let's call them Pink Streak, Baseball Cap and Torches One through Six.

Pink Streak seemed less than happy about the current situation. "Have you found anything yet?" she barked.

No one wanted to answer her. Eventually Torch One piped up, "I'm afraid they've vanished."

"Vanished," growled Pink Streak. Everyone took a clear step backwards. This could be interesting. "VANISHED!" she roared. Everyone leapt backwards. "How could they be gone when we have concrete proof that they're here!"

"Those warning sigils must have tipped them off," suggested Torch Two.

That clearly wasn't the right thing to say as she was instantly slapped by Pink Streak. The sound made all of us jump, scattering leaves onto the ground. I held my breath.

"Those warning sigils," spat Pink Streak, "also vaporised anyone that got too close. Anthony got too close and now he's just a pile of ash." She turned to one of the girls, "I know that you two were close."

"He was my boyfriend," growled Torch Three.

"Ah well, at least you'll have his ashes," Pink streak just shrugged like human life wasn't all that important at all.

"We have more important matters to attend to," said Torch Four flatly.

"Exactly, like where the hell have they gone. We have scouts scouring the area and yet they've come up with nothing. Ideas anyone?" asked Baseball Cap.

"They're still in the forest," said Torch Five.

"Duh," Torch Six didn't seem to have much between the ears.

"Hiding then. They haven't left so they could be anywhere. In the dark with this much cover, they could be standing no less than a few feet from us and we'd never notice."

Oh, the truth is a cruel beast. With perfect dramatic timing. Just don't look up.

Pink Streak was getting impatient. "We need to find them," she snapped, "Molly is getting more creative when it comes to her executions and I don't want to be on the receiving end of one of her syringes."

The rest of them muttered in agreement and out of the garbled words I swear on my life I heard someone say Juliet. I was beginning to seriously doubt that my "Dream" was just a dream.

Baseball Cap sighed, "they couldn't have gone far so they're more than likely to still be in the forest."

"And what if they're not?" said Torch Six.

"Why don't we just ask?"

Pink Streak pondered her option and nodded. "Good idea. You! Get me Sabrina."

I didn't even have to look at my travelling companions to see that they were staring at me like I'd gone mad. Maybe I had, but I had almost clear reasoning to say that I'd experienced an oracle moment. A bright screen glowed from the darkness and when I peered down to look at it I almost fell out of the tree. Sabrina's face was peering upwards, exactly as I had seen it. Short black hair with blue and purple mixed into it, septum piercing, grey school shirt, exactly as I had seen her in my vison (Because I refuse to call it a dream now).

Sabrina glared viciously at Pink Streak. "What do you want, I'm busy."

Pink Streak returned the glare, "that's a lovely way to greet someone. Tell whoever programmed you that most humans start with hello."

You could smell the tension as well as cut it with a sword, burning or otherwise. Geez, these two really didn't like each other.

"At least I don't go walking around like a gothic prostitute," Sabrina spat back.

"I'll get you for that you little bitch."

"I'd like to see you try."

"Girls, can we spare the arguments for later? We have work to do," Baseball Cap pleaded.

The two girls gave each other a final glare before stiffening into business like postures. "Very well, Sabrina we need you to locate Nick and Sheira."

Sabrina laughed, "you've lost them?" she said is disbelief.

"No, we haven't-"

Sabrina roared with laughter, "you've lost them! Oh my god this is too good! I gave you clear directions to where they we're and you've let them get away."

I couldn't see Pink's face, but I imagined that she was a little bit annoyed by Sabrina. "We didn't let them get away, their campsite was surrounded by warning sigils which also vaporised two of my soldiers, so they had a pretty good heads up that we were coming so stop sniggering and locate them before I report your incompetence to Molly."

All things considered, Sabrina looked pretty chilled with that threat. "I'm not the incompetent one but I have orders from on high to assist you in any way possible, no matter how badly I want to see you on the testing table."

Sabrina disappeared from the screen while Pinky vented to every that was around to listen. I just thought about how Molly's soldiers were so desperate to avoid her wrath that they would stab each other in the back, frame them, and throw each other under the bus just to stay alive. You saw it all the time in nature documentaries, a new leader takes over the pack and the results are either order or complete anarchy. Molly was a dictator and ran her troops with an iron fist, their fear of her made them efficient but they weren't afraid to kill each other off to keep her happy.

Why on earth would you willingly join?

Sabrina's head bobbed back into view. "I'm the bearer of bad news this time."

"What!" snapped Pink Streak. "You're supposed to read the winds. How on earth can't you see them?"

"I never said that."

"Then where are they."

There was a pause, before Sabrina sighed. "I don't know."

Her rival laughed triumphantly, "I knew it! You're nothing but a second-rate wind reader, you couldn't tell a person from a tree."

"Then how did I find them in the first place?" Sabrina retorted. "I read the wind, not the air, so there's only so much I can do with a still night. The only reason I located them in the first place was because they were in a clearing."

"So, we need space?" said one of the others, I lost count of who was who.

Pink Streak contemplated that point. "I have an idea. Return to base camp and get everyone back there, and a for you Sabrina," she smiled greasily, "Thank you for all your help."

Pink Streak went to turn off the screen when Sabrina piped up again. "Maybe you're right."

"Hmm?"

"Maybe I am a second-rate wind reader but here's the thing, I'm a first-rate now. My predecessor was turned to liquid in front of my eyes, screaming until her tongue cooked in her mouth. I suppose what I'm trying say is, don't mess this up. There's always someone coming up the ladder behind you."

The screen went black as Sabrina signed off leaving Pink Streak trembling where she stood. She gulped uneasily and looked at the seven people watching her. "Go back to base," her voice was shaking, "and get me Leah!" she barked which resulted in all of them jumping and scurrying back into the darkness.

Even then we didn't move. I had no idea how long we clung to that tree but by the time I finally swung down to the ground I was numb with the cold, had a cramp in my leg and I didn't want to imagine how many splinters I had. The forest was dark, the sun was just beginning to peak over the horizon giving off just enough light to see the baffled looks on my travelling companions faces.

Sheira piped up first. "Okay what the hell is going on?"

"What she said," agreed Shadow.

"How did you know about Sabrina? You were muttering like a madman in your sleep and she came up a lot."

Would they believe me if I told them the truth? I'd just be like hey guys, guess what. I had a really weird dream last night that gave me crucial information and I saw someone melt like the Wicked Witch of the West. Any report from the night watch? "It's a long story," I finally settled with.

Sheira huffed grumpily, "we've got time."

"No, we don't," said Shadow. "We don't know when they're going to come back, so let's have this conversation in a populated area."

"I cannot believe that I'm about to say this, but I agree with him."

Sheira looked from Shadow to me and then back again and then growled irritably. "Fine," she snapped. She started walking off before she stopped and looked back at us, "where are we?"

Fair point. Our escape from the nutters meant we had completely lost our bearings and we had no idea where we were. Was that the reason I was feeling a bit paranoid? Yeah, I know, we're stuck in the middle of nowhere, but I couldn't help feeling really weird. Something was off.

Shadow looked around and pointed off into the distance. "You see that light there that's the horizon, so we need to go towards that."

I flung out my arm to stop them walking, "wait a second. Can anyone smell burning?" They both looked at each other and shook their heads. I held out my other hand, reached out with my power and felt a very familiar feeling. "That's not light," I gasped as it slowly crept towards us, "its fire! They're burning down the forest!"

To say we ran for our lives was the understatement of the century. For some reason I don't think any off us really fancied the idea of burning to death (unless you were one of those weirdos who chose burning to death rather than drowning in the 'How would you rather die?' game), I didn't even have a 'oh I'm a Fire, I can take this' moment as I could distinctly remember that Sheira had told me that I would still burn to a Nick flavoured Dorito under wild flames.

And this fire was wild. My own flames felt tamed and responsive, they were an extension of me and would listen to my every command. These flames couldn't have been more different. They were uncontrolled, vicious and aggressive, ripping apart anything they touched without mercy whether it be plant or creature. The smell of burnt meat was present but faint. If I hadn't been so concerned about keeping myself alive I would have shuddered. The intense heat also prevented that.

Sheira was struggling, her ice powers were weakened when in contact with heat this powerful and so she was lagging behind the rest of us until I grabbed her hand and forcibly dragged her along with me. My entire world had turned orange, trees screamed and cracked under fire, the sky had long since turned black with smoke but still we kept going, we had to. The scent of smoke choked me like a pair of hands wrapping around my throat as every second that passed made the air in my lungs burn and every breath was difficult as the air was so thick it was like trying to inhale tar.

Our bearings had been thrown well out of whack, so we were literally going to keep running until we broke free of the treeline, but the blaze had produced a maze of burning trees, walls of fire that seemed to leap hungrily towards us when we neared and an obstacle course of fallen objects pulled straight from the devil's sadistic version of Total Wipeout. But enough thinking about the scenery, and back to now.

I was still dragging Sheira behind me as Shadow and I desperately tried to find a way out of the woods by following animal tracks or rivers which were actually steaming but everything came to a dead end or literal firewall. (I'll never get the chance to make that joke again so live with it) And at this point I was either hallucinating from the smoke or those flames were actually leaping down from on high to get me. They were looking like people. I needed to get out of these woods. But somehow, I was managing to literally fight fire with fire by ripping up one of my own shields and creating a temporary solution to a blocked pathway which had the unfortunate flipside of draining my energy like I had a slow puncture.

"Hurry up!" yelled Shadow. Sheira and I were both weak and struggling to stand and he saw this, so he darted back to assist us when our luck hit rock bottom.

CRRRREEEEEEAAAAAKKKK

I looked up in time to see the massive form of a tree timbering right down on top of us. I yelped in shock, shoved Sheira forwards and felt the enormous weight miss me by a hair length.

"NICK!" Yelled Sheira. Flames licked at my shoulders as I desperately scrambled under the tree to get back to my friends.

Why under? Well the top was sprouting flames like it was from a Mario game so under it is. Sheira and Shadow grabbed my wrists and tugged as the flames drew nearer around all of us. I desperately scrabbled to free myself as the tree was now making noises like it was about to snap again and then rather than a Nick Dorito, I'd be a Nick flavoured flaming kebab, and that wasn't on my to do list. Dying wasn't on my to do list, but you get the point.

Shadow had whipped darkness around the tree and was now trying to lever it up, so I could wiggle free, while Sheira was now frantically tugging at my arms. When I felt the flames lick my ankles then I started to panic. I'm ninety nine percent sure that the fact that my eyes were watering were from the smoke not because of the fact that I was about to die in the middle of nowhere and I was going to burn to death in the biggest twist of irony that could ever possibly manifest. Congratulations, you can control fire, now burn, baby, burn.

But I had cheated death on more than one occasion so why shouldn't I avoid it by the skin of my teeth now? Well I did, so that's one up to me Mr Grim. I don't know what gave way first, either I managed to finally worm my way under, Sheira hauling me out with such force I was sure she dislocated something, or that Shadow had manged to lift the tree high enough all resulted in the fact that I shot forwards, sat on Sheira for a brief moment, saw the inferno behind me and decided that running would once again be the best course of action here. I once again grabbed hold of Sheira's hand and bolted through the woods, running and running until -

"LOOK!" yelled Sheira.

I followed where she was pointing and saw a sliver of white light pushing its way through the treeline. She was exhausted by now and her legs may as well have been made of liquorice.

"Come on!" Shadow looped his other arm under Sheira's shoulder and half ran, half carried her until we finally burst through the treeline and ran our way to freedom...

Yeah that's a joke. Well the last part anyway. You see by this point our luck had well and truly run out and we'd figured out what the point was in setting fire to the forest. As we broke through the treeline, literally the exact moment that I set a foot down a sudden bright flash of purple filled my vision. Shadow cursed very loudly, in a language that I'd never heard of, but it probably wasn't suitable for daytime TV. After the purple flash everything happened very quickly. A strange sensation overcame my entire body, I felt like I was being squeezed, ripped, torn, it was like my whole body was tearing itself apart. It felt like accessing my beast form just a thousand times more painful. My vision blackened, I felt like I was made of jelly and my brain may as well have been a baked potato at that point.

It only lasted a few seconds, but it felt like an eternity before the feeling disappeared in an instant and I now found myself flung forwards, face down in the dirt and moaning in considerable pain. To quote The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy it felt like my brain had been bashed out with a slice of lemon wrapped round a large gold brick. All I was thinking about when I looked up was how this compared to a hangover but that thought was instantly registered as not important when I found myself staring at the tip of a spear.

"Ah..." I looked around at my surroundings.

The Army camp that we had landed in had clearly been expecting us. All manner of weapons were drawn and pointed right at us, elemental powers crackled from the hands of their masters and beasts of every shape and species snarled at us flashing teeth and vicious claws. Sheira and Shadow moaned next to me but didn't move. Pink Streak was staring down at us, she had a triumphant smile etched across her face and now that I actually got a good look at her, she looked startlingly familiar.

"Leela?" I asked.

Molly had said that there was a spy in Camp, and in that moment, I found myself praying that this girl was just her doppelganger. But the look that she gave me confirmed that she really, really didn't like the fact that I'd just said that.

"Okay, not Leela, sorry about that, you just look like a friend of mine," I gabbled conscious of the bow strapped to her back.

She gave me a look that would make strongmen weep. "Ah...so you know my pathetic, goody-goody baby sister?"

That explained a lot. Although she and her sister had the same face they were clearly chalk and cheese so to speak. Leela was bright, bubbly, resplendent in bright pink and cowboy boots, and genuinely someone you wanted to be around. Her sister (a couple of years older, possibly eighteen or so) was her complete opposite. A surly, tight lipped goth girl, dressed from head to toe in jet black, even down to her hair which was clearly dyed as you could still see slivers of blonde peeking out from the dark.

"Well now I know two members of the family, what's your name?" I asked. I was trying to keep all the attention on me while Shadow and Sheira managed to come around.

The girl's expression soured further. "I'm Amy," she growled bluntly.

"Well you two couldn't be more different if you tried."

Amy scoffed. "Why would I want to be like that pathetic goody-goody? From the moment she was born our parents favoured her. Their little ray of sunshine always getting the biggest ice-cream, or the best toys, never getting told off for anything while I was their little scapegoat. And when they found out that we were elementals all the praise went to her while I never got a single word," she spat. "The babies always steal the attention and yet we were here first."

Not from my experience. Personally, my parent showed little to no favouritism between me and the twins. The only reason I was favoured slightly more was because they had to spend more time with the little ones.

"No, they really don't." Sheira had finally made an appearance even though she sounded like she was nursing a severe head cold. I had the vague recollection of Sheira saying that she had an older brother but now she was around and partially conscious I could move onto the interrogation. Shadow was still moaning on the floor, but he could take care of himself.

"Also, what the hell is wrong with you people?!" I yelled. Everyone took a step back in shock. "Someone here has watched the Hunger Games on too many times because that was complete overkill."

"Well it got you here, didn't it?"

"Only because Sabrina couldn't find us," I waited for their reaction and wasn't disappointed. They were shocked to say the least. Amy was gaping like a fish, you could almost hear her brain trying to work out how we knew about that.

"How...?" That seemed to be the only word that she was capable of producing.

"She's the one that called you a gothic prostitute, right?"

Amy flushed a vivid scarlet, the colour clashing easily with her hair. "Were you watching us?" she growled menacingly.

Usually that would be my cue to shut up and make a swift exit pursued by a very angry group of elementals, but for some reason I kept talking. "And just for the record, which one of you guys is Leah?" Nobody moved but they all spared a quick glance at skinny girl with tightly coiled brown hair and sunken grey eyes who couldn't quiet meet my gaze. Sheira had given me a few quick lessons on reading energy and she had the signature warm burning sensation of a Fire. I waved to her and flashed her my best grin, "must be some elemental to burn down a section of forest. How are you going to explain that to the locals? Teenagers? Lightning? Spontaneous combustion?"

"You talk too much," snapped the boy in the baseball cap.

"I know," I answered cheerfully.

Amy drew her bow, she had the expression of an angry French teacher about to go full hulk mode after one of her pupils put the phrase 'Le mange le petit enfant' into his exam paper (I had detention for a week after that one and my ears continued to ring for a further month).

She marched up to me until her arrow was less than an inch away from my face. "I am going to ask you one more time. How. Did. You. KNOW THAT!" she screamed.

A chuckled sounded faintly from behind me. Everyone turned to see Shadow slowly push himself upwards, a wicked grin etched across his lips. "You never think of looking up, do you?"

The reaction of the Army members was like that of a group of people that had just had a rattle snake tossed into their room. All weapons were turned on Shadow, while every beast either stood forward snarling or ran for cover. Every member of the Army looked scared, even the new ones, with their brand-new leathers and shiny boots. Shadow's reputation preceded himself.

Amy's bow was trembling in her hands as she stared down at shadow. Her eyes were noticeably wider as her pupils had shrunk down to the size of pinpricks and her complexion now resembled that of a sheet of paper.

"What? - How? - Wh - Wha?" Her ability to form a coherent sentence had also deserted her.

Shadow got to his feet and stretched until I heard his shoulders pop. "Hello again Amy, its been a while. Although I would prefer to see you on your knees, begging for mercy as I'm about to cut your head clean from your shoulders but circumstances mean that I'm going to have to wait. But I'm patient, and after you dragged me though that portal, which was an incredibly dirty trick to play, you'll be dreading the long wait."

"What are you doing here?" Amy recovered her voice enough to snarl out a reply. "Its not like you to associate yourself with fresh meat. Especially two little brats."

Shadow shrugged, "they asked me to help them, and I am."

Baseball cap scoffed, "since when have you done anything for free?"

"Who say I'm not? Nah, they're paying me for my services. But enough about me, how are you faring Josh?" He directed his question to the boy in the hat, a typical jock with a smug face that was waiting to be punched. "I see you've shacked up with Amy, but let's be honest, there isn't girl in the Army that you haven't-"

"That's enough!" snapped Amy.

Shadow shrugged, "whatever. You couldn't spot us six feet above you, so you've got no chance in figuring out how much he's fooling you."

"You're going to pay for that," she snarled.

"Oh, I don't think I will."

I coughed nervously in an attempt to salvage the situation. "I don't mean to break up the reunion or anything, but we really need to go."

"What and miss out on all the fun?" Josh cackled.

"Precisely. Toodles." Sheira grabbed Shadow and I and pulled us both away from the group. A sudden deep hiss from directly behind me caused us all to perform a quick one eighty. I turned to face my attacker, my hand going for Incaendium first instead of snapping my fingers and summoning a flame. Maybe I was still a little wary of my power, but a flaming sword had a certain point to it. It said, 'back off or burn' and that was a message I could happily cower behind.

I heard a few gasps from the crowd behind me and I could have sworn I heard someone say, 'nice sword'. However, my blade failed to connect with anything as my target leapt away to a nearby tree.

"What the hell is that?!" I said upon getting a good look at the creature sat in the tree.

"That's my Cupid," I heard Amy say fondly.

"It's Gollum."

"He's a cherub."

"He's ugly."

"He's a mythical."

"Bull. He looks like a baby in a wig. And not a cute baby, I mean like one of those freaky masks just dyed a violent shade of pink."

"It's in a dress," said Sheira matter of factly.

"Toga," insisted Amy.

"Dress," I agreed.

"Can we all just admit that the thing looks like something crawled out of a hole, died and then was attacked by an eight-year-old with face paints, and cut him in half when he gets too close?" asked Shadow.

"You're not walking away from this. Molly specifically wants these two but if I deliver you I'll be promoted to one of her generals, I'll be honoured, I'll-"

"Have your chance of death severely lowered?" I remarked.

Amy fell silent at my point. After a little time passed she spoke again, "that's true. But isn't that what we're all after?"

"You won't beat us," said Shadow.

Amy flicked her hand dismissively, "its thirteen against three, I like those odds."

And they started advancing on us. The three of us started backing up until we were met by the snarling wall of beasts. We were trapped. "We have to fight our way out of this," I growled bluntly.

Shadow nodded, "Sheira how many can you take on by yourself?"

"I'm trained to fight four at a time," ice danced in her fingers.

"Good. Nick you take Joshua, Incaendium will show you what to do. Sheria can take the four on the left and I'll take on the rest. Ready? Beasts out!" Flame, Ice and Crash all leapt out of nowhere and immediately rounded on the beasts behind us. "Let's do this," he muttered and the three of us surged forwards.

Have you ever been in a real fight? Well have you ever been the one that just hangs in the back until someone squares up to you and demands that you start throwing punches? Well in this situation, that was me.

Josh sneered at me, "well lookey what we have here. A little boy with a sword he doesn't know how to use."

"How do you know im not just fooling you?"

"Are you?

"Err..." Well done Nick, give yourself a clap and a half for that stunning comeback.

Josh laughed, "I don't mind that," he drew his sword. It was much thinner than Incaendium but looked strong enough to not be sliced in half by him, it was made of steel and had several notches cut deep into the metal of the hilt. How many kills he had made.

I readjusted my grip on Incaendium as I felt him purr to life in my hands. Good, my thought of 'help me help me help me' had finally been answered.

Cheek! How dare he think that he can beat me with that bread knife. Let's show this little prat what we can do.

"Good plan, but there's one teensy, weensy little problem. I don't know what I'm doing!" I hissed as quietly as I could.

I felt Incaendium sigh (There was really no need for that). You don't have to know what you're doing. You just have to do everything I say, but you will have no room for error, so every command must be followed like your life depends on it.

"It probably does."

He's probably not allowed to kill you.

"But that doesn't mean he'll pull a Jamie Lannister."

What?

"Never mind."

Aright. Let's do this. And remember, your limbs depend on this.

With that encouraging mantra now firmly lodged in my heads I advanced on Josh. Around us the fighting continued. A quick glance to my left showed Sheira impaling a soldier on a beam of ice while she froze another one to a human shaped ice pop. The beasts were sending fur and feather flying everywhere as the ripped and tore and trampled their way through their opponents. Shadow was just causing carnage. Josh smirked in front of me and brandished his blade in a way that was supposed to be threating but just came off as weird.

"Have it your way then," and he lunged, swinging the blade downwards in a move that should have cracked my head open if it was for Incaendium.

Bring it up!

CLANG! The impact of the two blades connecting sent a shockwave through my body but I held on.

Pull down and push away.

I don't know whether it was Josh's shock that allowed me to push him away from me but the glare that quickly settled over his face told me that he wasn't going to let that happen again.

Alright work with me now. Right. Left. Up. Right. Block it, flat end forwards. Push him back! You should have at least two feet between you and him if he comes forwards either you move or move him. Kick him if you have to. Down. Up. Left. Left again, watch out for that feint. Nice one. Parry that strike!

I've never worked so hard for anything in my life. Perhaps it was just because I was desperately trying to keep myself alive, or perhaps it was because I barely knew what I was doing. It was probably the latter. But Incaendium's commands combined with my pretty fast reaction time meant that I was actually holding my own against Josh, I may have even got the upper hand at a few points, but I really wasn't focusing on that.

Josh's attacks were becoming wilder and unpredictable, swinging his blade like a whip so he would catch me and slice me in half eventually. But I stayed back, swinging Incaendium to catch the blade mid swing in order to try and knock it out of his hands. On a few occasions he did seem to lose his grip, if only for a second, before he came hurtling back towards me in a frenzy of rage.

Oddly enough, I could handle it. Fighting did not feel easy, just let me get that straight, but it did feel like I could do it. Like a weightlifter. You can clearly see that it's very difficult from the strain on their faces, but they can lift a weight equivalent to my entire family combined over their heads like it's a bag of sugar. This felt natural to me. A sword in my hand, fighting one on one with an opponent, it feels right.

As Josh and I battled it out away from the battle field I quickly spared another glance to find my friends. And Shadow. Sheira was busy ploughing her away from a wave of inky black enemies that were being conjured from other elementals hands. With one flick of her wrist a beam of solid, glittering white ice, blasted its way through a hoard of shambling figures while she sent a shard hurtling towards the elemental who shrieked and barely managed to leap out of the way before the shard impaled him. Those gloves really did work.

Ice was tussling with another beast, a long red snake who was howling in pain above her as she rammed her teeth into the snake's skin, and at the same time flicked another beast, who resembled a scorpion across the battlefield, with speed similar to that of a bullet train. Flame was battling it out with Josh's beast, a golden dog, and was winning, easily ripping at her gold fur which was quickly turning a dirty red. Crash was just acting as a tank, bulldozing anything and everyone that came within his peripheral vision.

Shadow was busy fighting six, no wait, one elemental as he just took out the rest of them with a flick of his hand. Which left him alone with Amy. Amy's crimson red streams of energy came thick and fast towards Shadow, who was simply deflecting them without much effort, but he was looking annoyed. Amy wasn't helping. She was saying something to him that I couldn't here over the clash of steel, but it only seemed to be pissing him off as his attacks became stronger, aiming to kill. None of them were going down as easily as we'd expected. Hmm...I wonder.

I quickly aimed a slash down on Josh's arm, slicing an angry mark that instantly dyed the sleeve of his hoodie a deep red. But that wasn't what I was looking at. I was staring at his skin which, sure enough, was healing before my very eyes. Ah ha!

"Healing sigil, huh? Nice trick, Shadow does it better."

Josh grimaced and brought his blade down over my head which I parried, showering us both with sparks. "Shadow isn't a healer," he spat.

"Huh?"

"He might look like one, but he isn't. Even though we have to give him some credit for giving us the idea."

"I've seen him heal, how is he not a healer?"

Josh smirked, "so he hasn't told you then? Ah well, I guess you'll never know. So, shut and just die already!"

Watch it! Roared Incaendium. What did he think I was trying to do? I was following every single one of his commands to the exact second and yet he and I were locked in a stalemate. Both of us were visibly tiring so the dirty tactics were coming out. Strikes were becoming less powerful but more vicious. Josh lunged at me, swinging his sword to my right. I went to intercept as I felt a sudden kick to my gut. I gasped in pain and stumbled backwards, wheezing but I only just managed to stumble backwards to avoid getting myself decapitated.

So that's how you want to play, huh? I thought, well let's see how you like it.

Two years of living on London's roughest estates certainly teaches you a few things. I swung Incaendium, flat side forwards so it caught Josh full in the face. He yelled in pain before I slammed my foot into his gut and then shoved my palm into his chin. His head snapped backwards, blood streaming from his nose from where Incaendium had broken his nose. The look in his eyes would have made Pompeii look like log fire.

Backing up rapidly seemed like a smart move. Josh roared in rage and slammed his hand into the earth. The ground rumbled and instantly shattered beneath me, the dust rising into piles that shifted unsteadily beneath me. Sand dunes. So that's what his element was. But I didn't have time to admire his handiwork as he was now sprinting full pelt towards me, sword primed. I tried to back up, but then quickly concluded that walking up a sand dune backwards was incredibly difficult, especially considering the fact that it was it was under the command of someone who wanted to relieve me of my head.

Josh leapt on me and rammed his blade against my throat. I gasped, frantically wrestling with Josh who was pressing his entire body weight against my neck. I writhed against the sand, trying to slip out from under Josh, only for him to slam a fist into my head. What happened next may have been a knee jerk reaction, or deliberate, but either way it worked. My knee rammed into his crotch, (Knee jerk reaction, get it?) which was quickly followed by my flame coated hand slamming into his face. He rolled off of me and howled the flames eating away at the blood that was trickling down his face. It gave me the chance to sprint up to the top of the dune.

Right, what next? Sand, sand, what the hell could I do with sand? What could I do with sand? My brain decided to input a piece of information that was probably the stupidest thing I'd ever come up with and I've had my moments. What could you make with sand in literally every survival game ever by applying fire? Glass. This was incredibly stupid.

I flipped Incaendium to my left hand (Never been ambidextrous, but there's a first for everything) and began channelling heat in my right. "It's over Anakin, I have the high ground!"

Star Wars quotes always seem to fit in everywhere, but Josh was clearly not a fan. He bolted up the dune towards me while I waited and waited and waited until the last second when I slid down the dune and slammed my right hand into the sand. The reaction was better than I could ever have hoped. Fire leapt across the surface, melting instantly into a fine sheen of dirty glass, with Josh trapped on the top of the pile like a demon tree topper. He screamed in fury and pure agony the skin on his arms peeling away with the sudden heat and began slashing at the ground beneath his feet with his sword in an attempt to shatter the glass. I slammed my own blade into the mound, shattering the glass into a fine powder of sparkling light.

Josh hit the ground but was back up on his feet in time to deflect my own strike. I blocked, he struck back and parried. I felt like I was operating on auto pilot. I could barely hear Incaendium anymore, but I needed him to tell me how the hell I was going to finish this.

"Any...tips...for...disarming?" I wheezed.

Watch for a weakness and then knock the blade out of his hands.

"Really? That's it!"

Yes. Now DUCK!

Josh's sword whistled past my head, probably grazing my hair, as I only just ducked in time to prevent my head being removed from my neck. Right, now I just have to wait for him to mess up. I leapt back every time he swung his blade, carefully watching for anything, something, that would give the power to give me the upper hand. I watched his lunges, battering away his attacks while also hurling fireballs at his face to keep him away from me. His blade always swung to my left, well he was right-handed, leaving his right side open. Opportunity seen, now I just had to act on it.

I waited for the right moment.

Then I took it.

I hurled a fireball at his right arm, knocking his blade arm away while I came in close and swung my sword upwards to slam the blade out of his hands. But that didn't happen. I found myself staring into Josh's eyes while I felt something dripping down my fingers. I heard the clatter of a sword. I felt my world slow. Josh coughed, red liquid drippled from his lips. No. No, I couldn't have...I wasn't...I couldn't have.

I didn't want to look down, but I had to see. The hilt of Incaendium was pressed against his stomach, blood oozing from the wound where the blade had punched its way through his chest. This wasn't where you tricked your siblings by holding the sword under your arm, this was real. This was actual blood and a wound that was burning, filling the air with the scent of burning meat. I pulled my sword out as fast as I could and backed away as fast as I could. He had a healing sigil, didn't he? Could it heal that?

My question was answered when Josh dropped to his knees and fell backwards onto the dirt. His eyes gazed skywards, blank and glassy. Dead.
No.
No.
NO
NO!!!
I wasn't a killer. I couldn't have done that. I couldn't have. I was trying to disarm him, I didn't...I didn't...I killed him... A high-pitched scream vaguely reached my ears, but I could only stare at the pool of blood that was slowly spreading from Josh's body. I was numb to anything.

The arrow imbedding itself into my shoulder snapped me out of it. I howled in pain as another arrow whistled past my hand, the sudden shock made me drop Incaendium. Amy fired arrow after arrow with such speed I barely had time to dodge her and with such ferocity she snapped her bow string. She bellowed in rage and charged at me, cracking the bow against my face. I fell to my back and scrambled out of the way before she buried one of her arrows into my chest. She picked up another bow and released the torrent again. Flames crackled in my hands and I threw up a shield, deflecting any arrow she sent flying at me. I desperately tried to keep up with her, but she was just too fast, too vicious and I was still exhausted.

"NICK LOOK OUT!"

Amy's beast, Cupid, launched himself at me. I snapped round, bringing me left hand to for a shield on the other side of me. I heard him screech and recoil from the heat, but it obviously wasn't enough as another tirade of arrows punched through my barrier. It needed to be stronger, I had to create a solid wall around me.

Gritting my teeth, a poured more energy into my flames. They roared louder and burned a bright orange, but they still kept punching through. It wasn't just Amy and Cupid anymore. All the beasts and their masters, the ones that weren't holding back Shadow and Sheira anyway, had joined in and were hurling everything they had at me. Arrows, knives, projectiles, elemental blasts, everything was being directed at me.

More...I needed more. More heat, more energy, more power. More energy flowed into my flames, building them higher and stronger so that the flames had almost encircled me entirely. With a sudden whoosh of heat the flames connected and spun skywards, twisting and spiralling into a vortex of pure heat. But still they were getting through. I made the vortex hotter and hotter until they fire burned white. Nothing was getting through now, but this was too much. Too much energy was being sapped from me, and I couldn't stop it. I couldn't stop anymore, it was out of my control. The fire was feeding off me, devouring my energy until there was nothing left.

I felt myself loose my grip of the thread of control I had left, and I dropped to my knees. But the flames continued to spin, using me as their energy source until I burned out. The flames roared in my ears, licking my skin, as my vision darkened, as everything I had was taken as fuel. Something hissed to my right. I turned and barely managed to make out the black orb that was forcing its way through the wall of fire. That's powerful, I thought as the orb finally forced it way clear and slammed into my head.

***

That was a long one, sorry to keep you guys waiting. I've got my exams coming up soon so the next chapter might take a little longer to arrive but it will be here ASAP. In the meantime leave a vote if you're enjoying the adventures of Nick and company and leave a comment saying what elemental power you would have. See you next time!