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There was the stench of decay and misery that seemed to seep out of the moss under his boots and soak everything surrounding it. Hanging heavy like the damp fog, and making the air feel endlessly stale. Kai tried his best not to make a sound as he crept through the coils of poisonous brambles and the army trees that seemed to spying on you. The dry wood, a precious cargo, clutched close to his chest as his head swiveled, eyes always watching the sky or his back. His body tense as he moved, ready to draw his blade at a moment’s notice. This place was not kind, this place did not offer a second chance.
Kai learned that the hard way. He still couldn’t see out of his left eye.
It wasn’t until he reached his hovel, a small shaft cut deep into the granite flesh of a cliffside, did he allow himself to breathe. Relax? No, he hadn’t done that in maybe a year at this point. But here he felt safe enough to breathe and not expect something to come out and choke him. Nimbly avoiding the number of traps, he set up just in case. Kai was greeted with his camp.
The set up was basic, a fire, a collection of little useful nick-nacks he had picked up from the many wreckages that littered the monster lands (mostly pots and pans), a place to sleep and finally the crown jewel that rested in the back.
The wreckage of the Destiny’s Bounty.
Kai eyed the ship with the same odd mixture of relief and frustration he had been feeling since the weeks of its discovery. He had been so happy when the compass finally led him to something useful. For a moment his path felt clear, Kai would fix the Bounty had go home. However, the damage was worse than the fire wielder initially expected. The airship was his first shred of hope in so long, he refused to let go of it, even if it took longer for it to pay off in the end.
He dropped the wood in a safe dry patch away from the flames, and gripped a water pot he had set underneath the dripping spring that morning. It was nearly filled to the brim, fluid sloshing around as he lifted it up and set it on the fire to boil. An empty pot was placed underneath the spring, and Kai grabbed a few roots that he determined (after much trial and error) as safe to eat. Soon the sweet smell of a makeshift stew filled the cavern, causing something in his sleeping spot to stir.
Kai didn’t have a bed. The best he could do was a patchy nest built of soft plants, furs and old blankets he managed to scrape together. It wasn’t much but it was enough. And in the corner of that nest, laid a small lump, bundled up in a large fur cloth, with a tuff of bright red curls tumbling out. That little lump shifted, rolling over and Kai found himself being stared at by a set of big hazel eyes.
No.
Please no.
First Master where ever you are please no.
Please let there not be an actual baby in this hell.
Kai shouldn’t have been running towards the sound. He shouldn’t get involved; it was probably a trap. However, he was too human to ignore the cries of a little kid.
Kai still couldn’t believe what he found that day.
To witness a tiny child, a little girl, her hands set ablaze with flames similar to his own fighting off a swarm so big it blocked out the day light. The fresh corpse of a dragon at her back. Kai didn’t hesitate in drawing his blade, and taking another cut into his robes. It was only after the last of the bugs were split open and bleeding did, he register the quiet sobs behind him.
The little girl was crying and trying to shake the dragon awake. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what had happened.
Kai had been cautious in his approach, knowing that she had no reason to trust him. It had been the right move; she had growled turning her flames against him the instant she noticed Kai came closer. In response he sheathed his sword and forged a tiny spark in his own palm.
“It’s okay, I’m like you.”
Kai brought her home. He really couldn’t do anything else.
Problem now, was that he had no idea what to do with her. She had cried her self to sleep after he had pulled her away from the dragon. Which hurt a lot. First Master, she couldn’t have been older then six or seven, did she even understand what death meant?
And what was with the fire powers? Fire was his thing! Best Kai could figure was that this place was so confusing that it made it possible for two fire wielders to exist at once. Though, he was still a little skeptical of that, even if it was his most logical theory.
(The other theories both involved time travel and questioned his own humanity too much for Kai to entertain as likely, but not impossible.)
Kai shook his head and turned to her, trying to flash a comforting smile. It had been so long, it felt wrong for his lips to twist upwards.
“Hey,” he tried to make his voice soft, “You hungry? Soup’s almost done.”
She blinked at him, frozen in place. Those big hazel eyes sparkling with uncertainty, and her fiery red locks a mess framing her tiny face.
Hazel eyes and red hair.
They’ll have hazel eyes and red hair, I’m calling it now, Sky.
Kai shook off the memory, forcing himself into the present.
“Not a dream.”
He jumped at her voice, so quiet and rough.
“It’s not a dream,” she whispered again, “You’re here, and heatwave…” Her eyes filled with tears, “…is not.”
Kai sighed, “You’re right. He’s not.”
She curled up into the furs she was wrapped in, trying to hide her whimpering and shivering. The sound was so familiar it seared Kai’s soul.
Nya crying out for their mother while feverish.
Lloyd clinging to him after being woken up by a nightmare.
He was on his feet before he could stop himself. His pants ruffling as he kneeled in the nest of scraps and furs. Kai brushed the little lump where the girl laid, and those teary eyes looked up at him.
“Heatwave’s not coming back?” She whimpered.
“No, Cranberry, he’s not. I’m sorry,” Kai said.
The tiny stuffed sniffles were more audible now. Kai starting rubbing her back, maybe it was habit, maybe it was instinct he wasn’t sure. But it seemed to work, she shuffled closer, practically leaning on his leg at some point.
“Cry it out, kid. It’s okay. I’ll keep you safe,” the words were practiced, something Kai had said many times before.
Only this time he wasn’t sure if they were true.
Wyldfyre wasn’t sure what to do.
She wasn’t scared. Dragons didn’t get scared.
But Heatwave and Care-giver Bot were gone. That made her sad. Yeah, sad was the right word. Dragons could be sad. Dragons cried when they lost a clutch of eggs, or wailed when someone was hurt. Yeah, she could be sad.
Sad that they weren’t coming back.
There was a cry of frustration from the oddly shaped house resting in the corner of the cavern. The new dragon seemed work on it non-stop, and seemed that it wasn’t going how he wanted it too with the thing he just threw across the cavern.
Wyldfyre couldn’t help but look at him curiously. She always sort of knew that she was a different kind of dragon then what Heatwave was. No other hatchlings had Care-giver Bots, nor did their flames come out of their claws like her. However, this one. This one was like her, only older. Bigger. Not a hatchling. An adult.
He said to call him Kai, and he took care of her. Offering strange smelling water that tasted good and filled her stomach. Making sure she had a warm place to rest, and let her curl up next to him when she got too sad to sleep.
He felt like Heatwave…but different.
Kai let out another cry of frustration.
Curiosity getting the better of her, Wyldfyre left Kai’s nest and trotted over. He wasn’t focused on her, eyes still pinned on the odd shiny parts of his weirdly shaped house. Wyldfyre didn’t get it, why was he so fixated on this house. Dragons didn’t need houses…unless their kind of dragon needed it, and that’s why Care-giver Bot was taught Wyldfyre about them. Did Kai’s Care-giver Bot also teach him about houses? Clearly, he was too big for one now, but maybe when he was a hatchling?
Wyldfyre was standing next to him now, and though he didn’t react he did notice her.
“Hey kid, what’s up?” Kai spoke.
“Why are you working on your house?”
“House?”
Wyldfyre pointed to the oddly shaped object Kai was working on.
“Oh, it’s not a house, it’s an Airship,” Kai said returning to his work.
“Airship?” Wyldfyre puzzled, that wasn’t a word Care-giver Bot taught her.
“It’s like a ship that flies through the air, takes you places.”
It sounded stupid to Wyldfyre. Dragons had wings, they could already fly…but no. Heatwave had wings, Wyldfyre didn’t. Her kind of dragon would need an airship wouldn’t it.
“Why are you fixing it?” Wyldfyre asked.
“To get out of this place, and back home to my family,” Kai answered.
‘Family’ Wyldfyre knew that word. Family was group of people who took care of each other, loved each other, had fun together…and Heatwave and Care-giver Bot weren’t there.
“Hey what’s with that face?” Kai asked.
Wyldfyre didn’t answer, just wandered back to the nest.
Her family was gone.
Kai probably wasn’t an expert on the whole grieving process, but he was pretty certain that’s what made Wyldfyre retreat back to the nest just when she started asking questions. Lloyd had a quiet period just after Sensei Garmadon was sealed in the Cursed Realm too.
Still, that didn’t mean that he was just going to let her waste away. She was underneath his care, and thankfully, Kai had some experience with taking care of a kid’s physical needs at least. Today’s assignment. Bathtime.
The Bounty’s bathroom hadn’t been all that damaged, however, Kai couldn’t get the plumping system up and running so he’s had to improvise. He started with gathering multiple pots of water from the drip spring and dumping it all into the Bounty’s bath tub. Then he stuck his hand into the water and used his elemental power to warm up the liquid inside.
Now for the hard part.
“Alright, Wyly,” Kai shook the little girl’s shoulder, “Bathtime.”
Wyldfyre shifted upwards, furs and blankets unfurling. Eyes groggy, hair a mess and a trail of drool staining her cheek.
She rubbed her face, “Wha-?”
“Bathtime!” Kai said cheerfully.
It was one of the few times that Kai actually felt the emotion he was channeling. He was finally in a position to take a proper bath, rather than just a quick rinse off in the cleanest shallowest river he could find. He could not wait to feel clean again.
Unfortunately, Wyldfyre didn’t feel the same.
He had seen her resistance incoming so he elected to let her bathe first. If splashed, he would clean himself afterwards. It worked with Nya and Lloyd when they were little and grumpy about bathtime.
However, neither his little brother and sister had fire powers at the time.
“Ah no!” Kai exclaimed when Wyldfyre fingers lit up, “We do not set people on fire when angry.”
The little girl growled, trying to look intimidating when she was currently soaking wet and covered in soapy suds. It wasn’t working.
“C’mon kid your hair is a mess, and it needs to be straightened out,” Kai said waving one of Nya’s combs that he found on board.
“Dragons don’t have hair to be straightened out! And Dragons don’t need baths.”
Kai sighed, that was another thing he had noticed about Wyldfyre. The girl was convinced she was a dragon, not a human. Which if she was raised by them, a highly likely possibility, would make sense. She also was convinced Kai was a dragon, which begged the question, had she seen another human before? No, she understood Ninjargon, another human had to have taught her to talk right?
Not important right now Kai.
“Other Dragons don’t need to have baths or their hair taken care of, but our kind of dragon do. It’s to keep us healthy, and not get sick. You don’t want to get sick, do you?” Kai said, playing into the kid’s fantasy a little.
Wyldfyre wilted, but she wasn’t happy about it, “No.”
“So, I need to handle your hair.”
“But it hurts!”
“It wouldn’t hurt so much if we did it regularly, but you were long overdue for this kid.”
It was true. Kai was horrified by the state of Wyldfyre’s hair when he got close up. There was dirt, pebbles, sticks and even bugs stuck in it. Thank the First Master, that Jay left some shampoo in the bathroom from the last long-term mission otherwise Kai would be fighting this on his own. That wasn’t even starting on the amounts of knots and dreading that had ensnared the red locks. Eventually Kai had to admit defeat and cut some parts out. He tried to make it make it neat, but he was working with a squirmy child and only a small knife for the job, so it wasn’t professional standards let’s say.
Once it was finally over, Kai dressed her in the least moth-eaten t-shirt that remained on the bounty and let the kid sleep her first bath off in the nest, while he prepped his own. No way was he cleaning himself in water that was almost black after Wyldfyre was done with it.
Kai sometimes wished he was more like his dad.
Ray Smith was a lot of things, but right now Kai wished he had inherited the man’s blacksmithing ability over anything else. He was pretty sure that Nya got all of the genius genetics, since she was such a good engineer. Meanwhile Kai still struggled with making proper weaponry with regular consistency. He’d improved over the years sure, but it wasn’t enough to fix the bounty, beyond some spot wields.
There was shuffling feet nearby. Kai looked to his right, seeing the little girl standing next to him. That confused look twisting her features back on her face after weeks of solemness. Good, she was beginning to accept her loss. It was nothing she would forget or get over, but she could learn to live with it.
“What’s up?”
“Why are you using your fire like that?” she pointed to the spot welds, “There are faster ways to burn something.”
“I’m not trying to burn it, I’m trying to make it stronger,” Kai said.
“With fire?”
“Yep, fire isn’t just for turning things into ash, come ‘ere, let me show you.”
Before Kai could realize what, he was doing, he had his lap full of a small child and the smell of awkward beginner welts began to fill the cavern. There was something tender about this moment that he wanted to hold onto. With the hellfire raining outside, this was something precious, a little kid learning the other possibilities at the end of her burning fingertips.
“Alright, not bad, you got enough juice but we need to work on your precision kid,” Kai said.
“Precision?” Wyldfyre sounded out the word.
“Your control. Fire can be dangerous if not properly reigned in.”
Wyldfyre scoffed, “I am the danger.”
Oh…Kai recognized that tone, that pride. This was something he needed to explain before something went horribly wrong for her.
“I mean for other pe- er…dragons like us, Wyldfyre. We don’t have protective scales like other dragons. Fire could hurt them, if we aren’t careful. You don’t want to hurt other dragons right?” Kai said, hoping the little kid logic would get through to her.
Wyldfyre looked to be deep in thought after, Kai said that. Likely the ides of burning someone else on accident having never been brought up to her. Not that Kai blamed the dragons who raised her for that, they just likely didn’t realize it was a lesson she needed.
Wyldfyre didn’t know that you use fire to make things. All Care-giver Bot and Heatwave told her was that fire was dangerous and not to be touched. At least until her own fire burst forth from her talons.
Kai however, seemed to use fire for everything. He used it to make good tasting water. It wasn’t like melons but it still filled her stomach. He used it to clean things, which while she hated the bathing process, did make her feel better, her head felt less itchy. He used fire on the shiny parts of the airship, turning the gleaming grey into a glowing gold and making it all squishy.
Wyldfyre didn’t know that fire was used like that. That her kind of dragon used it like that. It made her feel…no not scared, dragons didn’t get scared…mad? Upset? That she didn’t know. She was the same kind of dragon as Kai, why didn’t she know?! Why didn’t Heatwave or Care-giver Bot tell her?! Sure, given her size she was probably still a hatchling, but she wasn’t fresh out of the shell!
Well, screw that! She was a dragon! She was danger! She was going to know everything! And she was going to make Kai tell her!
“How do you know that fire makes the shiny hard stuff squishy?” She asked one day when Kai was rearranging a bunch of thin black vines inside of the Airship.
“The metal?” Kai glanced up from his work before returning to it, “My dad taught me. Well, not exactly, it was kind of something I figured out to help my sister, but my dad gave me tips as to make the welds cleaner.”
“Your family...taught you?”
“Yes…?”
Something cold sunk in her middle. Well, Wyldfyre…didn’t have a family anymore…no! Dragons are not scared! And she was not scared!
“Did they teach you…other things?” Wyldfyre asked, completely on the sly.
Kai hesitated, but eventually spoke, “Yeah, they taught me lots of things.”
“What things?”
“Well, it was my master who really taught me how to use fire first.”
“Master?” Wyldfyre asked the word one she didn’t remember Care-giver Bot teaching her.
“Master Wu. He was like this old guy who taught me and my siblings everything. Made sure we knew how to fight and use our powers safely…”
Old guy? Like an elder? Or Patriarch? Clearly the leader of whatever herd Kai came from. Was this Master Wu supposed to be her Patriarch too? Wyldfyre wondered. Even if she wasn’t raised with them, she would still be a member by birth, right?
“…My parents kind of went missing when I was younger, and for a while it was just me and my sister. Once Master Wu took us in though, the family got a whole lot bigger.”
Wyldfyre puzzled over that. Was it common for hatchlings to get left behind for their herd? She ended up with Heatwave and Kai apparently lost his birth mother and father too. Only to be taken in by the patriarch?
“Your family was big?” She felt herself ask.
“Yep. Not counting Master Wu, and Nya, I got a whole gaggle of brothers…”
Wyldfyre didn’t need to ask much more to get Kai talking about their herd, or his family at least. He had four brothers, Jay, Cole, Zane, and Lloyd. On top of his sister, Nya. Who he called really smart, like dangerously smart. No one wanted to mess with her.
He called Jay the funny one, always joking and sometimes annoying but that’s what brothers were sometimes, apparently. Jay was also apparently his sister’s mate if Wyldfyre was understanding his weird terms for it correctly. Which she probably was, she wasn’t dumb!
Cole was the steadier supportive one. Big and intimidated when he wanted to be, but a softy underneath. Really liked something called cake, and Kai got teary when Wyldfyre asked him to explain cake to her.
Zane was cool and collected. The opposite of Kai apparently, but in a good way. Also really smart, and something called a Nindroid. She still didn’t understand what that word meant, but Kai told her not to worry about it. Zane had a mate too, someone called Pixal.
Lloyd was the “baby” of the family. Though, he was apparently an adult too. Wyldfyre didn’t get it. However, it was very clear that Kai was very fond of Lloyd. Lloyd might be the next in line to be patriarch too, since he was the only one blood related to Master Wu.
Wyldfyre would think on the conversation, long after Kai told her to it was time to sleep. She didn’t have a family anymore…not found…not even born.
“Fuck.”
Kai knew going out was risky, everything in this place from the mud to the rock to the moss wanted to kill him on principle alone. Monsters were always hungry, and always hunting. Anything smaller or weaker might as well have a big billboard, saying “Dinner!” stuck to their head.
Kai didn’t forget this…unfortunately the monsters didn’t either.
The gash in his side sluggishly wept red. Blood oozing in between his fingers, slipping underneath his coat and soaking his skin slick. It wasn’t deep, nor big, but that didn’t matter. Kai could smell the metallic stench of a fresh wound and if he was aware of it…everything was aware of it.
A hollow cry echoed from the stormy heavens above, and Kai dived underneath a gangling tree root. The soft mud scraping against his belly and pulling painfully at his wound, as he slid. He didn’t look back; he didn’t need to see the beast. The root gave way to sharp claw in a crackling scream and shower of wood chips. Kai’s boots met ground with panicked urgency, taking off into the fog running on nothing but adrenaline. One hand pressed into his dirty wound, the other drawing his sword.
He knew it was a risk to leave his camp, to leave the safety of his shaft. However, food stores were running low, with a second mouth to feed, a growing mouth, Kai needed to get more to make them last. Without the proper resources or time for a garden, foraging and hunting were Kai’s only options, both of which were high risk.
The beastly bird shrieked a second time, startling Kai’s already weary heart into a sprinting drum beat.
I got to shake the smell.
Legs burning from the run and pulse practically breaking his ribs in response, Kai makes a sharp turn. Cutting through dead leaves and sticky soft ground, running away from his shaft home instead of towards. The bank is a sharp incline, but Kai doesn’t care. He leaped over it, landing in the icy fluid with a splash. The water is shallow, barely covering him, but by watching the shadow against the riverbed slit, Kai knew when the beast turned around, having lost the will to eat him.
His lungs burned for air, as he crawled out of the water and onto the opposite bank. Coughing and sputtering, with the fowl taste of river muck on his teeth.
Kai moved slower on this trip home, ever aware of his surroundings but there was a weight on his limbs now. Dragging him down and softening his usually sharp haste. Clothes and furs soaked through and weeping water. The moss on the rocks growing slicker from his drippings. Meagre musty breezes sending chills up and down his flesh. Kai shivered as he slipped into the shaft, and dropped into the cavern he called home.
He could feel the meek mild beginnings of a fever slowly creep up from underneath his skin, and swore to himself. The wound in his side, almost seemed to twitch and squirm with the amount of heat it gave off. As if something alive with trapped in it. Kai swallowed heavily; infection was not a good thing right now.
A small gasp echoed from across the cavern and Kai looked up to see a horrified set of big hazel eyes.
“You’re bleeding!” Wyldfyre exclaimed.
So much for hiding this…ugh…
…but as much as Kai hated that she knew, and what he was about to ask, he also knew this might be his only shot.
“Wyldfyre, Cranberry, I need you to listen to me closely okay? I’m going to be alright, but I need you to do exactly what I say, got it?” Kai said trying to keep the pained keen out of his voice.
Wyldfyre didn’t panic or cry, only nodded with slightly teary eyes. She took every instruction regarding wound care he gave with grave seriousness. Putting water on the fire pit to boil and grabbing the first aid kit left in the bounty. He did the hard part; after having her dumb hot water onto the wound, Kai sent the girl into the bounty while he cauterized it. Wyldfyre didn’t need to see that bit, not yet, not while she was still so small.
By the end of it, Kai laid in the fur nest with his wound freshly wrapped and taken a dose of probably expired antibiotics left in the first aid kit. Wyldfyre was distant, shuffling her feet away from the nest. Her hands fidgeting as if uncertain what to do next, unable to let out that last bit of adrenaline that Kai knew was running in her blood.
With slow careful movements, he pulled his upper half upwards enough to wave her over, “Come here,” Kai rasped.
That’s all she needed, and the little girl dashed over to his side. She wasn’t crying, but Kai could tell her body wanted too at least. Shivering underneath his one arm embrace. Kai held her close, wishing he could’ve shielded her from this. Words of blame spat from his own mind attacked his conscious with acidic blades.
How could you!
She’s a child!
She doesn’t deserve this!
How could you be so reckless!
She’ll die without you, you idiot!
Kai bit back at the burn welling up in his eyes, and just pulled Wyldfyre closer.
“You did so, good Cranberry. I’m so proud of you. I’m so sorry. You won’t have to do this again. I promise.”
Kai can only pray that he can keep it.
Kai got hurt.
Even a brave dangerous dragon like, Wyldfyre had to admit that was scary. The adult remained in the nest for two more days, constantly removing and replacing the strange flat vines he had wrapped around his wound. Wyldfyre had watching him closely during this time, adults don’t just lounge around unless something was way wrong. Kai especially, he was always moving around doing something in the cavern or venturing outside.
It was wrong to see him so still. Last time something like this happened, it was when what Heatwave called the Wasting Sickness passed through the Wyldness. WyldFyre had never seen so many dragons lay down in the dust, their scales flaking away and rotting to black, some never rising to their talons again. She couldn’t let that happen to Kai. He couldn’t die.
When she woke up, still wrapped in Kai’s limp, yet warm embrace that first day. There was this burning determination in her belly. Sneaking out Kai’s hold was as far as Wyldfyre got however. She couldn’t make soup for Kai, none of the needed ingredients were there and going out of the cave would make Kai upset. Besides, it wouldn’t help him, Kai wasn’t sick.
He was hurt by the monsters out there.
Kai was going to die and leave his family.
Like Heatwave…
No. No! Kai wasn’t like Heatwave. Wyldfyre was stronger now, smarter. She was going to save Kai. She just needed to figure out what kind of soup would help him, get the needed things and make it. Determination reignited, she bounded towards the exit of the cavern.
The outside world was colder then Wyldfyre remembered. She didn’t know if it was from her being used to the fire Kai kept going or if the Wyldness was warmer, but it didn’t matter. She had to find melons and herbs for Kai, and mash them up into medicine, just like how Heatwave did for the other dragons.
The young fire wielder bit back a growl as the ground cloud swirled thicker around her. Horribly annoyed by this stupid weather, she continued forward…only to run straight into a very large and looping tangle root. Rubbing her face from the itchy feeling the bark rubbed into her skin, Wyldfyre hissed, teeth shown. Flames bright as blue and red suns consumed her hands and were hurled at the trembling wood. Heat consumed the tender chips and splinters as a guttural scream fills the heavy mist.
The root ripped itself up from the ground, and Wyldfyre smirks. Pride bubbling up with in her belly. She had this! The outside wasn’t that scary. She was fire! She was danger! She could handle getting medicine for Kai.
That throaty scream returns, flooding through the eerie quiet and Wyldfyre only had the time to blink before the root came swinging back. The blow was so hard it felt cold with pain, throwing her back into the muddy ground. Wyldfyre’s fangs clicked together, the taste of blood and soil slicking her tongue. Her head pounded, a rock slide of boulders hitting her skull both inside and out.
Wyldfyre blinked, her body going stiff as the cries continued. Another root flying and crashing through the muck in front of her, splashing wet ashen ground into her face. She jumped to her feet, rubbing her fists into her face, wincing as she only managed to smudge around the blood from her nose and bits of dirt around her eyes and mouth.
Another scream raddled the clouded dark sky and a rainfall of barbed whips came rushing down. Wyldfyre leaped back, spitting sparks on instinct. They embers to weak to cause damage only set to infuriate the hailstorm of wailing roots further. Through the fog of her headache, the little girl kept snarling back, her fists ablaze and firing wild shots. The barbs continued their barrage, cutting burning scrapes and slices in Wyldfyre’s clothes and exposed skin.
As embarrassing as it was, she wanted to run. Dragons never ran from a fight! Dragons always fought back and won in a blaze of glory and blood. However, the only one bleeding was Wyldfyre. The scattered cuts across her body screamed as they were pulled by her violent shots. Mud flew wild as smoke and the smell of burning and blood swirled with the surrounding fog. Wyldfyre didn’t see the root aiming for her leg.
Eyes watering from the heat and mud splatter, a ripping flash of hot agony split her ankle. Wyldfyre screamed, feeling the uneven slick ground crumble and melt beneath her. She tumbled, the ditch sudden and shallow and wet. Her hands were doused in murky puddle water, flames vanishing with a hissing cloud of steam. Nearly slipping when weight was put on her palms, the little girl struggled to rise. Only to feel the ground quivering underneath her messy fingers. Fresh roots burst forth from the surrounding mud, quickly coiling around Wyldfyre’s small frame. Their brambles and barbs digging into her flesh and tugging her down. One grabbing a firm hold on her head and mushing her face into the muck.
Panic consumed Wyldfyre as her lungs began to burn, all she was able to draw past her lips was pebbles and wet dirt. The roots didn’t relent. They wouldn’t burn; her claws wouldn’t light. They wouldn’t break; wood twisting and turning with her struggles, keeping a firm hold. A fog filled her pounding head. She couldn’t breathe.
She couldn’t breathe.
She couldn’t-
“Let her go!”
The hold on her body fell away with a quick slice, and a shriek that felt distant. A firm clamp latched on to her upper arm and yanked Wyldfyre to her feet. A gasp was choked through her filthy teeth, as soon as the musty air hit her mouth.
Blinking her eyes open, Wyldfyre found Kai standing over her. A smile broke out on her face at the sight of the adult up and about until she saw his face. His features twisted into something dark and angry.
There was another scream from the fog swirling above. Kai gripped her shoulder and harshly pulled her to follow him. Kai was running? Why was he running? They could both handle this stupid tree!
“We-” Wyldfyre tried.
“Quiet!” Kai growled, startling Wyldfyre with her mouth open.
Kai had never growled before. There was this fury in his tone, something Wyldfyre had never heard erupt from his throat. Kai chatted with warmth in his voice, something that put you at ease, and made the world feel brighter. Now that warmth was gone, replaced with something hot and rageful and desperate. It made a shiver trail through Wyldfyre’s sore legs.
Neither of them spoke until Kai had dragged them both back and shoved Wyldfyre down the shaft.
Wyldfyre wasn’t sure why, but her stomach felt heavier once they were inside. Kai still looked angry, his frame tense, and eyes unable to look at her. Every time she saw his expression it made that heavy feeling worse.
Kai let out a sigh, finally breaking the silence, “What were you thinking?” his voice was cold now, but no less hard and desperate.
Wyldfyre had the words, her answer ready, but for some reason her tongue didn’t obey, feeling stuck to the roof of her mouth.
“I told you, that you could not go outside,” Kai continued, “I thought you understood that. What were you thinking?”
Wyldfyre looked up to Kai, ready to…she couldn’t remember. Kai looked, awful. His posture tense and upset, with a layer of pain in his eyes. Any fight that might have been left in her banished at the sight. He looked worse. Wyldfyre wanted to make Kai feel better, not worse.
Kai sighed again, exhaustion washing over his face. Wordlessly he moved to the water pot underneath the dripping spring and set it to boil. Wyldfyre blinked and suddenly Kai was dragging her over to a fresh warm bath tub. The water hurt this time. It made every one of the cuts in her skin sting and burn. Worse was Kai insisted on scrubbing each one of them out.
The one on her leg was the worst. It was long, and deep. The skin torn at awkward angles and Wyldfyre didn’t realize how gross and painful it was until she saw the oozing foot prints she left in her wake as it dripped down her leg to the floor. Kai had shaken his head at the sight of it, and once it was wrapped, he didn’t let her walk back to the nest. Carrying her in his arms instead.
Kai sat by the fire, his back to her from where she laid amongst the furs and sheets. A hand clutching his burnt side. Her stomach cramped harder.
Kai knew what it meant to be scared.
He was only five when he woke up alone in the blacksmith shop with his parents gone. His mother and father unable to come running to his aid no matter how hard, long or loud he wailed. Kai was scared then, scared about what would happen to him and Nya. It didn’t stop him from figuring out, from making work.
He was fourteen when Nya was kidnapped and that sent him into a fearful spiral. A spiral that was off and on for the next ten plus years. Zane dying, Lloyd’s dad becoming evil again, getting trapped in the first realm…Nya joining the sea. Then finally the storm that dropped him into this hell.
This hell, this land of kill or be killed. This land that took all who wandered into her trap, chewed them up and spat them out, until they were too twisted to recognize themselves in their own reflections. Horrors lived here, and there wasn’t a moment that Kai wasn’t gripped with fear. Fear for his own life and sanity. It was a miracle he hadn’t lost either.
However, nothing could compare to the utter terror Kai felt when he woke up in the cave alone.
Wyldfyre was missing. Kai had lost that little girl in this realm of utter hell.
Then he had seen her being strangled in those roots and…He clenched his fists to stop his hands from shaking.
He needed to get out of this place. He needed to get both of them out of this place.
“I wanted to get melons.”
The voice was small, much like the first night she was here.
Melons? Kai turned to look at Wyldfyre. It had been a while since he was confronted with little kid logic, but melons?
“For you, they helped the other dragons when they,” her words trailed off into a frown.
His hand drifted to his aching side without him noticing. Understanding more painful than the wound branded into his side.
She was just a kid, a stupid little kid who didn’t fully understand the situation they were trapped in. A kid who wanted to help him, because she cared, and didn’t realize the full extent of what she was risking.
Gingerly, Kai toed off his muddied boots and crawled into the nest. He pulled Wyldfyre into his arms, and just relished that they were in this moment. They were both alive, and breathing. That he hadn’t failed the baby he found and grown far too attached too.
“I’m sorry…”
His shirt was wet. Kai must have been more tired than he thought. He had noticed she started crying.
“I didn’t want you to die,” Wyldfyre sniffled, “Your family needs you.”
Kai took a deep breath, “You’re right, but you can’t put yourself in danger like that. There are monsters out there that are hard for the mightiest of dragons to face. Even mightier than you. Mightier than me. You shouldn’t have to fight this.”
“I’m good at fighting.”
Kai snorted, “Yeah, you are, but you shouldn’t have too. You’re a kid – a hatchling – you’re supposed to protected, safe with your family.”
“…but my family is gone.”
The words slipped out before Wyldfyre could stop them. She would forever deny crying about it, but now the tears wouldn’t stop. She hadn’t said the truth she knew out loud yet and that only seemed to make it feel more real. Something that actually happened, something that was true. Not a dream Wyldfyre could ignore and brush away.
Kai’s hold on her stiffened, pulling her closer. His blunt talons finding her hair, carting through the threads gently.
“Not all of them,” Kai whispered, “You still have me.”
Wyldfyre feels heat rise up in both her eyes and belly after that. Her family, Heatwave and Care-giver Bot, were gone, but Kai was here. And he wasn’t leaving. Through, foggy tired thinking, Wyldfyre remembered a lesson that Care-giver Bot gave, about what words were used to define family. None of them had felt right for Heatwave, he was her patriarch the one who protected all in the family. Kai wasn’t that, he wasn’t a patriarch. Not even in his own herd. No, he was something different, an old word that Wyldfyre had nearly forgotten about.
“Go to sleep kid, I got you.”
“…I love you, Dad.”
Wyldfyre clocked out not long after. The little girl snuggled deep into Kai’s side, with drool dribbling off her lips in slumber. Unfortunately for Kai, he wouldn’t be getting any sleep anytime soon. The last thing Wyldfyre mumbled bouncing around his skull like rocketing bullets.
“…I love you, Dad.”
No one had ever called Kai that before. Sure, the others had made jokes. Nya giving him cards on Father’s Day that read “for everyone’s favorite Teen Dad”, but those were always teasing. Kai was just the big brother who did too much for his own good, and everyone knew that.
This wasn’t that. This was a small child, almost smaller then Lloyd had been, looking up at him with tired but sparkling eyes, speaking the words with so much truth behind them. No hesitation, no question. Only conviction. As if Wyldfyre had simply decided that Kai was worthy of such a title. Something hot filled his chest and welled up in his face and eyes. Kai wasn’t sure if he was enough for such an honor, but by the First Master he was going to try.
Kai huffed gently, mindful of both his wound and the baby in his arms. He was dad. He had a daughter. What would the others think? Probably call him crazy for running off and having a baby, before spoiling her. The fantasies were gentle. Nya teaching her all the games they used to play as kids. Lloyd and Jay hosting movie marathons, Wyldfyre sitting between them on the couch as they cheered. Zane and Cole baking in the kitchen, while his little girl listened to them argue about cooking technique when they both knew Zane was always right. Tucking her into a bed of her own, warm, soft and safe.
If you can keep her alive long enough to see them that is.
That traitorous little voice, it was one Kai was growing to hate. Still, as much as it made Kai’s heart sink, he knew it was right. None of that would ever happen, if he couldn’t get them out of this hell. The fire wielder looked at the Bounty, still only half working, lying slumped in the ashes.
Kai told that voice to shut up.