Free Winter Warrior (Song of the Aura, Book Two) by Gregory J. Downs Page B

convince her. I can stride fire!
     
    ~
     
        A hundred yards. Gribly kept running and shouting, hoping against hope his friends would hear him.
     
        “Stop! You have to stop! It’s too strong! I’m the only one who can stop it in time!”
     
        Fifty yards. It wasn’t working. Lauro was too high to hear and Elia was too far. If he could only reach the draik before it hurt either of them! Why couldn’t he run fast enough, blast it?!? He was pushing himself so hard he thought his heart might pound itself right out of his chest. The wind whipped his hair back in a fluttering flag of pale yellow behind him as he sped through the night, pumping his legs and slamming the ice with each foot as they fell faster and faster. One-two-one-two-one-two-one!
     
        Twenty yards. He raced on and on, ignoring the pain from the hard ground against his soles. Whatever footwear the Zain had given to him he had lost in the Ice Demon’s storm. Now only rags bound his feet, but he was used to such conditions from his life in Ymeer.
     
        Ten yards. Thirty feet. Lauro was battling the draik with wind, but it could only last so long. He could stop it, if only he reached the prince in time!
     
        Ten feet. Gribly whisked paste the charred skeleton of a Treele tent and bounded the last few steps towards the battle.
     
        He reached the draik and was about to do as his dream had shown him when Lauro threw a stormy gust of wind across the empty space and blasted the draik off its feet. The force of the gale flipped the Sand Strider on his back like a helpless beetle, and he cracked his head hard against the cold ground.
     
        The world shuddered and went all red-black. Gribly thought he had died until a fresh burst of pain from his skull and the return of his sight assured him he was not.
     
        “Gah…” he sat up unsteadily and leaned on one arm. The stars danced circles in the sky above him as he struggled to stay upright. His stomach heaved and he gagged over the ice, but nothing came out. Haven’t eaten in days…
     
        His friends needed him! Forcing himself to his knees, he looked up just in time to witness the draik roast Lauro in its belly-fire.
     
        “No!” he shouted hoarsely, “Stop!” But his wavering voice could not be heard over the wild fighting. He tried again: “STOP!” But again he wasn’t loud enough. Blast- blast- blast!
     
        He scrambled weakly to his feet just as the draik let its fire die. He expected to see the charbroiled corpse of his friend, but instead he rubbed his eyes, sure he’d seen wrong. Not only was Lauro alive and ugly as ever- but Elia was there too! The nymph was standing between the wind Strider and his monstrous opponent, bent over slightly as if she had just stopped the fire herself.
     
        No…
     
        She had stopped the fire herself!
     
        Gribly watched in something between wonder and horror as the draik let loose another torrent of fire that engulfed the girl. A few tense seconds passed, and when the fire abated Elia was still unharmed. More than that- it looked like she was actually c ontrolling the flames! She was striding them!
     
        The draik roared angrily when it saw it had been foiled twice. Gribly woke from his stupor with a jolt, realizing he had only seconds to act. Elia was more powerful than he had realized, obviously, but she couldn’t stop the draik’s charge. Lauro was sprawled out behind her and had just scrambled to his feet when the monster barreled forward.
     
        Elia lifted her arms and flung up a wall of water from the melted ice in a futile attempt to slow the beast, but it splashed through and thumped her hard with its snout. It must have been an accident- the thing had obviously meant to claw her or kill her- but she flew back into the wind Strider, knocking them both down in a topsy-turvy pile.
     
        “NO!” Gribly screamed, sprinting after the draik.