Solira: The Ocean: The World is on Fire - I Think I'm Drowning [any]

He stood perfectly still, as if carved of stone. But I knew he was alive, breathing, beating. I could see it, the life in his still body, the light in his dominating gaze as he silently beckoned me. His eyes had always been absorbing. Looking into them made me feel weak and insignificant, and similarly they empowered me, these haunting, gorgeous eyes. They lifted me high when I saw the passion in his heart reflected in them. They stung me hard when I watched the pain he felt twist within them. These eyes, how I loved them so, as I loved him. This fiery, hopeless tiger. It was of course bound to happen, that I would be attracted towards that which would destroy me. I was no better than a bug in that manner.

I laughed, my mane dripping like black water across my features. He laughed then. Such a laugh, it destroyed my heart, shattered my world. I at once looked up at him, his face turned up with the merriment. I longed for him, yearned for him wildly. I could not resist, could not tempt myself. My mouth was slick with saliva, my chest bruised with the erratic thumping of my cowardly heart. I called for him, pleaded for him as I burst from my spot. ”Rune!” My voice was choked as it came from my throat. He flashed his devilish smile at me before he turned, running from me as I ran to him. No, no no! Don’t run, don’t go, don’t leave me. My eyes stung with a hot fervor. My legs ached as I asked for more. Run, more, faster, longer, RUN!

But he ran all the faster as well, his tail hairs nearly tickling my face… I was so close! He laughed into the wind and it whipped back to me with an oddly mocking echo. I screamed for him. And then darkness overtook him. My heart leapt into my throat, thorn and bleeding and burning. He left, he vanished… A shriek split my lungs in half as I continued to plunge onward, and then the darkness swallowed me too. I fell into him and we rolled as one in this murky darkness. So easily my agony twisted into euphoria. A smile lit my features, the joy so immense it ached as it throbbed through me. As he leant his bronze muzzle to me I leaned towards him, longing for the embrace and the warm touch, the scent of his earthy musk captured in my nares.

But it burned. It burned too much, his touch. And his smell was not the scent of freshly dug dirt after rain. It was acrid and stale, sizzling inside my nasal cavern like a livewire. It smelled like fire and flesh and hair and death. I struggled away from him, frantic to escape. My eyes could only see the darkness but I felt him close in around me, hot and stale. No! It was all I could think. No! I had to get away. Why wouldn’t he let me go? Why was he burning, burning me? No!
- - -

Huyana woke up screaming, black legs thrashing and digging into the thin soil that bordered the forest edge and the lip of the shore. Eyes peeled back across terrified eyes, but she found no respite. The darkness remained, overwhelming. She squirmed, but the heat and the fire did not leave her. She gasped, but the burning smell was the only air to be had. It rushed greedily into her lungs, choking her, weighing her down. She screamed again, blue flesh alive with torrents of movements as she struggled to her feet, racing away from the hellish spot, galloping into the consuming darkness as the fire ate at her skin and infected her lungs. Her water pulled and swatted at it, but it was sinking inside her, growing dim and faint as the fire overpowered her.

Water II - Bullet Rain - Apprentice - Solira