Filed to story: The Chosen Saga Novel PDF Free
“Holy Goddess,” Talon whispered as he watched Mac burn for the second time. “How can anyone survive this?”
“If I can’t get to him soon, he won’t,” River answered.
“I can’t do anything. I can Keep the land here quiet so the lava stays dormant, but I can’t help you get closer. Not through this.” Terran put a hand to the ground where he knelt, and they felt the shaking subside.
“I can pull the air from around us to kill the flames, but he won’t be able to breathe.” Talon looked at River, helpless.
River watched on as the Fire grew more turbulent. He couldn’t see Mac anymore, but the fire was growing hotter, the flames, brighter. He debated for another moment before he looked down at Talon. “Do it, and do it was fast as you can. Get ready to move. I need to get to him as fast as possible. When we get there, can you put your shield around his shoulders? Allow his body to continue to burn but only feed air into our lungs so we can heal him without burning.”
“Yeah, I can do that.” Talon nodded. “Terran, can you watch me, I don’t want to burn out, and my limit is less than yours.”
“Yeah, I’ll cover you.” Terran patted his back.
“You ready?” River waited for the others to nod. “Let’s go.” Within a blink, the fire went out. Mac had collapsed half way down the hallway, and the three men ran towards him. Without air, the unconscious Mac lay gasping and choking, contorting his body and clawing at his throat. The three ran to his side and dropped down next to him. Talon pushed air into their lungs and let air flow past Mac’s shoulders. His body burst back into bright blue flames, but Talon only fed enough air into the four of them to survive. The skin around his face was blackened but didn’t catch aflame again.
River looked over him as much as he could through the fire. He had burned off most of his flesh and red scales covered his body, but those too were starting to turn black and flake off. The fire had burned away all of his clothes, leaving him bare. River hovered his hands over his still burning hot skin, took a deep breath and drenched Mac in water. Mac’s body seized, and then started to convulse.
“He might burn again, Talon. If he does, just be prepared to suck out the air again. Let’s try not to die.” River placed his hands on either side of Mac’s head and slammed his power into his body. Skin flowed down his body in a wave, starting at his forehead and ending at his toes. Pink skin, flushed with newly replaced blood, twitched from the quick regeneration. A pained moan left Mac. River grunted right before falling over. River had used up every drop of power to heal all the damage inside and out of Mac. He had nothing left to give. Nothing left to protect himself. And nothing left to even stay awake.
“Both are out cold.” Talon poked both men. “What do we do?”
“I will check the Keep; you stay here with them. Just in case, make sure they don’t lose contact with each other. River might still be healing part of Mac inside and I don’t want to interrupt it and hurt either of them.”
“Okay, but Mac looks healed.”
“Just because he looks better outside doesn’t mean he’s better inside. I have seen River do this when there was the plague in Earth. I pulled him away from a patient when he collapsed, and he lost a ten-cycle-old little girl. I learned not to touch him until he does it himself.” Terran stood. “That little girl still haunts him, and me.”
“It was neither of your faults,” Talon countered. “You know that.”
Terran nodded. “Still doesn’t take it away, or her mother’s screams. At least he was able to save the older sister. Anyways, I will be back.”
“Okay, we will be here.”
“What the fuck,” Mac groaned when he woke up. He put his hand down and pushed himself up, and he heard another grunt.
“Mind moving your hand, man? You’re using my stomach to hold yourself up and it hurts.” Mac jumped a little, surprised as River sat up next to him. “Where are we?”
“I don’t know.” Mac stood and looked around. “This isn’t my Keep.” River stood and both men looked around the fabric covered room. They took a few steps before they heard it, someone was crying. They walked out of the tent, in to the heat of the desert.
“Is this real?” River picked up a handful of sand and let his drift out between his fingers. “It feels real.”
“I think the crying is coming from there.” The two approached the biggest tent, and the crying stopped. “Hello?” Mac pushed open the flaps into the dark tent. “Is anyone here?”
“Who is there?” a woman’s voice, thick with tears, called back.
“Why are you crying?” River countered. “We won’t hurt you.” That caused the woman to snort. The men approached a figure with dark red hair over her face. She was hunched over herself in a dark corner of the room.
“I am not afraid of being hurt; this is the only place where I can cry. I can’t show any pain or fear awake, so I wait until I am asleep. Why are you here? How are you here?”
“We don’t know,” Mac walked closer.
“Stop.” She held up a hand, still hunched over.
“It’s okay, we won’t hurt you.” River tried to comfort the woman on the ground. “Where the fuck are we? Why are we here?”
“We are in the desert in Fire.” Mac took another step. “Why, I do not know.”
“Me. You are here because of me.”
“Why?” both men asked.
“Because even hallowed out, without even wanting to, somehow, you’re here. Somehow, even though I’ve been stolen, tormented, and beaten unconscious, my soul still calls out to you fucking people. So, I create these fucking dreams and then I am tormented even more. Are you real? Are you him? Am I just insane?” A soft laugh came from the woman, and it turned back into sobs.
Mac looked at River, and then they both took a step. “Miss…”
“Miss?” Disbelief sounded from the woman on the ground. She then started mumbling to herself. “Well, they definitely aren’t the darkness, he has never pretended not to know me. Must be a dream.”