Aurora and the Fire by Jessica Hammatt (philippa perry book .txt) 📖

fire.

Slowly and deliberately, Aurora glided to the fire almost touching, then ascended up and over the flames to come to rest inches from the Eiya. The elder woman bowed her head for a moment then rose again, gray thoughtful eyes meeting the sun of Aurora’s emotions through her eyes that shone brightly with her passion. With her mind, Aurora questions, “I believe someone called upon me?” The old woman nodded. Patience wearing thin, Aurora demands, “Well? Shall I stand here in my condition which your people brought upon me, and guess at the reason?!” She supposed something in her eyes more than her words caused something to happen in the old woman. Eiya quivered then knelt down and gave a true bow to the fairy. Her mind quick but precise for Aurora to easily understand every word, but also spoken with quiet humility. “I am truly sorry and take the responsibility and it’s consequences for our misjudgment of you and your partner, my lady. We of the earth have to hold strong for all those in our protection. A vision came to me not but days ago of two visitors, one a dragon, would come from beneath the ground. I wasn’t sure how to handle this until I saw the fire from the skies and I just thought. Oh, I was just so afraid for my people, then I saw you and the dragon came to us and……” Eiya quieted quickly when she felt Aurora’s hand touch her shoulder. The woman’s gaze rose to meet Aurora’s eyes. Burning hot and brightly with the color of an emerald crystal, she met the woman’s gaze with such intensity even Dreka paused in his feast to watch and listen. “ What vision came to you of the vision with the fire like rain?” she asks fiercely. Quickly, the woman answers “Fire from the heavens, huge balls of flame coming to our world, mistress” Aurora gestured for the old woman earth dweller to rise and then she herself simply dropped to the ground. Dreka, at her side in a flash, holding her as she knelt there and swayed like a tree in a storm. “What is it?’ he asks, worry aching in him as he watched his love be wracked with such distress.
“The same one I had just last night” She was able to gasp out finally. He wasn’t sure at first what to make of her words until his mind replayed the horrific display he had woken up to. So not a nightmare, his mind conceived , but a vision of balls of fire from the sky and these people had had the same one and thought dragon=fire so it must be the new comers at the cause of this catastrophe. What a reasonable lot this bunch turned out to be.

After some time had passed along with the jolt she had gotten from the old woman and their shared vision, Aurora was back at the tent. Standing at the entrance, her eyes to the skies and somewhere past where the eye could see, her mind fills with thoughts both dark and desperate. She still refused to eat no matter how many times Dreka begged and insisted food from the feast he had stolen away in his pouch. Her body may have been weak but her resolve strong. Aurora knew she had to get back to her people and soon.
Warn them if they had a brain to listen to her as they rarely had in the past. Arms enclosed around her as these thoughts swarmed her. Dreka’s warmth soothed her worry and she hoped could continue to soothe her till morning. Then in the morning she would eat and regain her strength and they would begin their trek back to the lands of her people. Aurora, after calming her inward storm, turned to face her partner. His eyes were dark again but still held some of it’s fiery light. “My mighty protector. My friend, I’m afraid we can not prevent what is coming but perhaps we can save as many as possible when it does. I must return to the Arian people and warn them, then we will prepare the best we can a defense.” He nodded, then bent down, his lips almost touching hers, “I would follow you into hell, my fairy, as long as it means I am at your side”, with that he pressed his mouth to hers. Electricity danced inside both of them and they could feel each other’s sensations. It was like nothing else and when Dreka stood, both were so lost in the feeling they’d just shared and each other that the first wave of fire almost descended without either one noticing.

Both Aurora and Dreka watch in horror as the gigantic balls of flame hurdle toward them as far as they could see in any direction. All Dreka could think was they have to move. He grabs Aurora up off her feet, who doesn’t realize this because she’s still captured by it all, and lifted into the sky as far away from the destruction as he could get. The fairy at his side who had regained her senses, fought herself away and glared at him momentarily before jetting toward the clearing they’d been hours before. The hell rains from the heavens and crashes to earth all around them. He flies as fast as he can but not fast enough to catch her before she reached it. The clearing was gone, only a huge crater remained in it’s place and everything a flame in all directions. The speedy flight she accomplished to get here as fast as she could was taking it’s toll and if not for Dreka behind her ready to catch, she would have fainted and fell deep into the crater below. Instead she fainted into his arms. He flew fast and strong. All night long he flew until the barrages of fire ceased. Now, as morning fades onto the world, he looks out at the flames and smoke blotting the sun. He is not seeing all this, though, instead he sees his love, his partner stirring from her slumber and knew that the sight of last night’s storm would not compare to her when she completely awoke.
Aftermath

Aurora’s eyes drift open and find Dreka’s. For a moment he saw her before reality struck it’s chord. So beautiful, even the markings that cover her body up to her neck was drawing him nearer to her. Then he saw her eyes sink and widen with the realness of today and what happened the night before. She couldn’t stand, she realized, and conceited to sitting cross legged on the mountain top and looking out at the lands and far into the horizon.. Dreka knew she was letting everything sink in and didn’t want to disturb her but the way she was looking she was going to pass out again at any moment. He slides over nearer to her slowly and offers over the pouch of food. At first she doesn’t see him and when she does, shakes her head and resumes her gaze. His worry turned to fury when he addressed her, “You can’t even stand and fly right now if you had to. All the poison is gone from your body except your head which is the only reason I can think of why you refuse to eat. Do you want to remain grounded? Or if you do get into air, faint mid air only to fall your untimely death?” The silence hummed between them for several breathes, then she lowered her head and nodded. This time when he offered the pouch, she took it. Dreka could see it hurt her to eat and understood that her mind and body had been refusing food for so long now it hurt her to consume it. This only lasted through a third of it then she regained her appetite and finished off the rest quicker than Dreka would have been able to and that surprised him.

Aurora was beginning to feel much better. Strength was returning to her body once again and her mind sharpening to it’s normalcy. She could see where Dreka had taken them for sanctuary. The mountains just at the border of the vast water and behind the mountains lay the beginnings of her people’s lands and her waterfall sanctuary. “You must be tired after such a long flight” she sung on the air to him. “What do you mean?”
“Don’t you know where we are?” “Of course, I knew you may want to be close to your people when you woke and regained strength. Those waterfalls of yours helps, thought that’s where you’d want to go before beginning surveying the destruction beyond.” He lowers his head to her in respect for those who may have been lost in the night. Her hands close around his head and lift him to meet her. Aurora lifts off the ground with Dreka in tow and they ride the winds solemnly to land at the pool at the base of the circle of mountains and their waterfalls. The sanctuary remained untouched by the wrath that swept all around it. She guided her unsure friend to one of the water falls. “Don’t worry, I won’t let you drown” His chest heaved outward as he stood his tallest to show he was unafraid. Through then beneath a soft flowing waterfall they came to be as one with soothing water flowing over them. Power fills both as they consummate their love for one another. Flow of energies and passion rage in each of them then raw burning pleasure escorted them on their ascent into oblivion, each their own but together as one for now and always. They are bonded for eternity by both nations’ laws and no one could speak against them otherwise. When both lay beside the pool watching one another’s reflection in the water, Aurora was the first to voice what was inside the whole time. “I am yours, Dreka, of the Dragon Nation, for all time. You are my beloved and partner who I am now a part of and you a part of me. No matter what, we will shall never part, my love” then raised to meet his lips then leaned back to look into his eyes. “ Aurora, I am with you always. Our love spans all the worlds and the universe beyond. We feel and know what’s inside the other. I give a promise, my love, that whatever horrors await us on the other side of this sanctuary, I will be at your side unafraid because your love strengthens me.” She gave a half smile and delighted herself in his words of unfailing love she knew to be true, then agony overcame her and time for such things left her. Aurora leaned in but Dreka stopped her. He knew what was starting to rage within her. Her body already began to tremor and vibrate as it had on that morning before the storm. Instead he embraced her with arms and wings, then when he felt her tremors subside slightly, he released