Chapter 9

So, sorry for me being gone. I was in the hospital than turned around and got the flu. Ontop of getting a new horse in from arkansas, ive been so busy.

Now the fields of fire are a creation I made from a dream. The title picture of the story is what it looks like. The fields of fire, a chain reaction from the Caldera blowing. PM if you don't understand what the Caldera is and the sizable impact it has on everything it touches. I do pray that it never blows in my lifetime, because my own home and land will be destroyed.

_________________________________________

    "Tian wake up," Axel nudged his side. The boy lazily opened his eyes to see all of the village people standing and peering out of the slots of the carriages.

Tian got to his feet shakily and pushed his way through to one of the slots. The people huddled against each other nervously, speaking under their breaths in fear of being heard and beaten once more.

"Look!" Someone shouted in both fear and excitement.

His eyes widened at the chaotic sight in front of him. He'd never been this far East, and he'd never seen the fields of fire. Hundreds and hundreds of miles filled with lava and active volcanoes. They were passing one of the geysers right as it erupted, spraying boiling water against the sides of the carriages. The people shielded their faces, but the spray still left a sting against their exposed skin.

"It's beautiful," Jocelyne whispered.

"My family originally came from here. They said that the ground beneath them had split apart. Hundreds died as lava rose from the cracks of the Earth. Ash had blanketed the sky so thick that they choked to death. But this place, it was once beautiful farmland. Rolling hills and massive rivers. But when the volcano blew, the beautiful land was reduced to nothing but the hellish fields of fire."

"They say even the cruelest of beasts can't survive here. The water is acidic and burns the skin and the land beneath your feet melts your toes. If you get too close to the boiling bits, your nose fills up with blood and you become sick."

Ash still blanketed the ground, hundreds of years after. The massive volcano raged beneath them, spewing continuous lava that only seemed to harden as it moved. The ground shook beneath the large trucks, keeping the place in a constant state of horrifying movement. The acidic wind carried the ash into the carriages, creating a chain reaction of coughing and choking. Where there wasn't lava, there were massive pools of greenish purple water with steam rising up and curling against the glint of the sunlight. It bubbled and boiled seconds before another geyser blew hundreds and hundreds of miles up, spraying out in the sky and raining burning hot water against the ground. The further they went, the harder it was too breathe. They were traveling straight through massive plumes of thick choking ash.

"Take cover!" Tian ordered. "Cover your mouths! Don't breathe in the ash, keep your mouths and noses covered!"

The people hovered close to each other, using the cloth from their clothing to cover their own faces. Ash poured in all of a sudden, and the carriages started to heat up from the metallic bottom. The very air tasted acidic and poisonous, and despite the cloth over their faces, they couldn't stop coughing and choking. Ash blew in through the slots, settling on their skin and in their hair, covering it in endless gray.

"My skin is burning," someone wailed, dropping his cloth to nurse his burnt flesh on the bottoms of his feet. Immediately, the ash started to swirl in towards him and covered his mouth. He fell back, unable to catch a single breathe. "I can't breathe!"

He spluttered and clawed at his throat, but the ash kept clogging his mouth. Tian slid to his side, the feces and muck taking his feet right out from underneath him. Bile rose up in his mouth and he tried to not to let it go any further. Tian tried digging at the ash in the man's mouth with one hand frantically. The man inhaled more and was starting to grow blue without oxygen. There was ash everywhere, deep in his esophagus and against his white teeth. Axel came to his side and they managed to dig out enough of it to clear his airway. He sat up choking and wheezing with watery eyes. Tian shoved a cloth back over his face with a glare.

"Don't ever do that again," Tian ordered before standing against the wall.

His feet burned inside the shoes, but standing was the only option for everyone. Just by touching the sides of the metal walls, their skin started to smoke and ache.

The people wailed as the sunlight was starting to disappear. The biggest ash plume they'd ever seen rose up, spreading across the sky. Lava spewed up from a deep orifice in the ground and anything it dared to touch caught fire. It sprayed against the sides of the vehicles with an unearthly roar and the people flinched back in fear.

"Stay back!" Tian ordered, removing his cloth only briefly. The people couldn't help but clasp their hands together and pray. 

♡ ♡ ♡ ♡

Countless hours later, they were finally able to collapse and rest. The heat was gone and there was no more ash coming in through the openings. They dropped their clothes and nursed their burns as best as they possibly could. Their throats were dry and scratchy and the vehicles finally spluttered to a stop in the dark. Without sun, they couldn't move. His mother had told him about those vehicles before. Solar powered. During the night, they heard the men moving around outside the vehicles, but the doors didn't open.

With the rest of his people trying to fall asleep despite the disgusting filth they were forced to wade in, Tian was finally able to assess his own wounds. The bruises and cuts from earlier were starting to close or turn a different a lighter shade of purple. It was hard to tell amongst the ash that had settled on his skin, stuck to him like glue by his own sweat. With shoes, his burns weren't as bad. He was afraid though, as he watched his people. They were terribly bruised to, and thirsty. And it was only half his people in his carriage, the other half were across from them. However, the other half didn't look out their openings so Tian truly didn't know if they'd made it through the fields of fire. What scared him the most, though, was where they were going. The man from earlier had protected him as best as he could, but now they were heading into territory that would be even more hostile towards him. He was afraid for his people, but he was more afraid for himself.

Tian sighed before sitting down once more. He traced the lines against his skin with his fingers, shaking his head. His father had been able to channel light through the lines so easily. Tian, he'd never even seen a blip of possibility with his. However, his father knew something Tian didn't. It felt like a cruel joke that the universe was playing, forcing something against his shoulders he knew nothing about. As far as he knew, Tian was the last of the Kukouk and he wasn't even a full blood.  

He shook his head. He just had to focus on getting his people out of the situation that they were in. The biggest threat is what would happen when they reached the Capital. Slaves, that's what Marie had said before she… before she'd died. The Capital was so big that they needed slaves now, or maybe they always have had slaves. They were truly going into a world they knew nothing about. His people… he couldn't let them be slaves. No matter what, Marie would want him to get them out. Somehow, if he could break the restraints and escape, they could do it. However, what blocked their chance of freedom was the Fields of Fire. His people would never make it across alive. They'd be caught before they could get anywhere and then maybe he truly would be killed for it. Or worse, the people Marie trusted him with.

But his heart felt so heavy thinking about her. She'd been the first real mother to Tian. She'd protected him, loved him and saved him. And now Marie was gone. If only he wouldn't have went up into those mountains. He should have turned around, and even Moth would still be alive. Old man Cam, who during his first winter, kept him fed with his own rations. Marie's mother… they didn't even know how many more years the woman had left, but she'd always been lively. She had had the same attitude as her own daughter, but she'd also helped raise Tian. How many kids had those men killed? Elders? People Tian had known well? His true mother had warned him that he'd always be hated and despised for the marks on his skin, but Marie's people had taken him in and loved him when he had no one. And they'd all been foolishly human, completely and utterly human. Now, Tian hadn't been there when they needed him. Even when he was stronger than them, his powers failed when he'd needed them most. Controlling a wolf pack? What use did that have when the men slit the throats of the children he'd helped deliver?

He was supposed to have the strength of a dozen men, enhanced speed and agility like his father. But when he needed it most, the fear had overpowered it all. Then Marie died and he'd been overtaken by rage and his people had all been captured.

Tian hissed, slamming his fist against the side of the carriage hard enough to leave a dent. He should be strong enough to rip this metal apart. He should've been a warrior, not a 100 year old boy that was as weak as any other human his age.

"Marie," Tian whispered. "What should I do now? I don't know where we're going, I don't know what awaits us. I'm scared. I know hell awaits me, but please tell me there's a way I can get our people to safety."

She never answered.