Blaze (The High-Born Epic) Read online

  “I’ve been meaning to ask you,” she said as she looked at the damaged parts. “What happened to this thing?”

  “Sunshine was Partly Cloudy today,” he smiled.

  Sarah just looked at him.

  “The mule bit it.”

  “Oh,” Sarah laughed as she put the hat on a log.

  Then she put the garland on his head, and turned to go pick some more flowers. He finished his bouquet about the time she finished a second garland. Then she put the second arrangement on her own head. He was slightly disappointed with his bouquet, but he presented it to her anyway.

  The flowers didn’t change her looks that much, but Harold had to admit to himself that she was beautiful. The white and purple flowers contrasted fittingly with her tanned skin, hazel eyes, and straight, dark hair.

  “Here you go,” he said as he presented her with his bouquet.

  “You’re so sweet, Harold Knight,” she grinned, tucking her chin down slightly as she smelled the flowers. She opened her eyes and half-hid her face behind the flowers. Her head turned slightly, but her eyes stayed locked to his.

  He gently pulled her close to him, and she looked up at him. He clasped his hands around her waist as she slid her arms around his neck. They made eye contact and stood for moment, then began moving their lips toward the other’s lips. That’s when they heard it.

  A blood-curdling scream was coming from just around the bend.

  “Help me, Harold! Help!!!” he could hear the voice calling as it seemed to move farther downstream.

  “That’s Ollie,” he said as they both sprinted toward the bend.

  Harold could not believe what he was seeing when Ollie came into sight. It all ran through his head so quickly. Now, he knew why Colonel Foxx had been walking around the fence this morning.

  His snake had gotten out.

  It had always been so far away when Harold saw it that he had never fully understood how big it really was. It was easily six or seven times as long as him, and almost as thick. He noticed that it had a flat tail like an eel and it registered with Harold that the tail was why it could swim so fast.

  The snake had wrapped once around Ollie, holding her in the center of its body. Now, it was swimming downstream with her. And to Harold’s dread, it was moving fast, much faster than he would’ve thought possible. He recalled the stories about disobedient villagers’ children being fed to the snake, and he realized they were true. It had laid in wait, watching them, picking its prey, and coming after the smallest one of them when she was by herself.

  The look in Ollie’s eyes filled Harold with resolve. He had absolutely no idea what he was going to do if he caught the snake, but he would worry about that when he caught it. Harold sprinted towards her, water splashing all around him.

  The snake was moving swiftly downstream, and it passed Cooper who was nearly frozen with terror. As it was gliding past, the little boy caught his courage when his screaming sister was pulled by him. He hit it once with his stick, but couldn’t hit it again, so he began running after it.

  Scott was downstream a little farther than Cooper and he roared as he hit it with his stick in the face. Harold noticed that it actually flinched. Scott whacked its body two more times before it was out of his reach. Then he too gave chase.

  The pytheel didn’t slither like other water-traveling snakes because its flat tail allowed it to swim more like a fish. As its tail moved from side to side, it held its head high out of the water, and almost all of Ollie was raised out of the river also. Only the part of the creature behind Ollie was in motion, and it was moving rapidly, pushing the monster with frightening speed. The pytheel was easily moving faster than a man could run, and Harold felt sick to his stomach. It was pulling away from both Scott and Cooper as fast as he was catching up to them.

  He looked at Ollie’s face and her outstretched arms. She was supremely helpless. Pity and rage welled up in Harold as his eyes began filling with tears, and he jumped out of the water, and turned up the bank so that he could run faster, resolving himself to die or kill the snake.

  As he hit the trail, his speed increased, and he began gaining slightly. He felt extremely hot, and he heard a loud boom. He noticed Cooper and Scott wince at the noise, and he was farther down the trail than he realized. Cooper turned and looked at him, and stopped. As he passed his little cousin, he saw Cooper’s mouth open, and his eyes were wide. As Harold ran by him, he saw Cooper’s stick slide out of his hand. Strangely, he was only watching Harold run, and was paying no attention to the snake.

  Harold felt tremendously hot, but redoubled his run. In just a few steps, he passed Scott. Harold thought it very strange, but Scott had also stopped running, and was holding his stick high in the air while jumping up and down. Unlike Cooper, he wasn’t blankly staring at Harold; he was cheering him on like a boy watching two other boys fight.

  Farther down the trail, he could see Scape running and barking with his ears pinned back against his head. As Ollie screamed, Scape barked and yowled at the same time.

  Harold didn’t know how, but he was actually gaining on the snake. He caught a whiff of smoke as he watched Ollie futilely struggling to break its grip. He heard another loud boom, and suddenly he was only a few steps behind Scape who was kicking up dirt and mud as he darted down the trail. Then the snake began moving faster, and Harold wasn’t gaining ground anymore. In fact, it seemed like it was getting farther away from him. As he sprinted, he thought about the belief in Ollie’s eyes when she had told Sarah ‘I bet they weren’t strong as Harold.’ Tears flooded into his eyes, and he shouted with effort as he willed himself to run faster.

  Time slowed...

  Ollie looked up at him. She was beyond hysteria. Her seven year-old eyes were filled with horror and tears. Her terrified and pitiful scream echoed through the forest and struck something deep inside of Harold. It was a feeling beyond description, but an image of rolling storm clouds flashed through his mind.

  ...But she was so far away, and the snake was swimming faster than he could run...

  ...Ollie’s teary eyes looked toward him...

  ...his eyes met hers...

  ...both of her little arms reached out for him...

  ...Harold grimaced in effort...

  ...her fingers extended for him...

  ...Harold stretched out his arm...

  Thunder crashed all around him, and he saw a flash of fire. Water splashed, and he didn’t know how, but the snake was right in front of him. He gritted his teeth and seized its head. A primal fury enveloped him as he thrashed violently with the creature. He was almost unable to get his arms all the way around its body, but somehow he did. Then he squeezed as hard as he could, he almost couldn’t believe it. He actually felt the snake’s bones cracking under the power that had come over him. Suddenly, he felt the snake wrapping itself around him, and he saw Ollie fly through the air, and land quite a distance upstream.

  As it coiled around him, he noticed that it seemed to be in pain, and he felt incredibly hot. Its head rose up above him, hissing and shrieking as it opened its mouth. It didn’t have fangs, but rows of sharp little teeth, and Harold caught a glimpse of putrid meat between some of them. The shrilly hiss coming from it sounded both angry and painful and its head and body seemed to slither in the air as its muscles began tensing. It struck at him, but Harold caught the upper jaw with his right hand and its lower jaw with his left. That’s when he saw it.

  Roaring fire covered his hands and arms.

  The snake took him under water and Harold couldn’t believe how much pressure he felt as it tried to crush him. Then, he felt so hot that he thought he was going to melt, and there was a tremendously bright light all around him. He wrenched the snake’s jaw back and forth, and he actually felt something snap. Even under water, he heard the snake shriek, and the pressure on him lessened somewhat. As Harold and the creature twisted and twirled underwater, he continued thrashing while trying to rip off the snake’s head. He didn’t think it
possible, but he felt even hotter than a moment ago. His lungs were burning, and suddenly, he couldn’t feel any more pressure.

  He rose above the surface and gasped for air. There was fire on top of the water tracing the body of the snake, or rather what was left of its body. Almost nothing remained of the snake. A strange fire was consuming it, and the water seemed to do nothing to stop the living flames that were racing over it. The fire was burrowing into the water, angrily gnawing at the part of the snake that was beneath the surface. All of the snake’s skin was gone and there was very little muscle now, and the bones were burning rapidly. The fire almost seemed to have a life of its own, and it appeared that it was not going to stop until it had eliminated every last vestige of this child-eating snake.

  The fire was acting just like he felt, and in mere moments the snake was no more.

  The river was rushing around him like he was in rapids, but the water was nearly up to his chest. It wasn’t deep enough or rocky enough to have rapids, and this part of the river was not even fast moving. It should not have been like this.

  He looked upstream to see that Scott was swimming and pushing a small log out to Ollie. Cooper and Sarah were on the bank just a few yards behind Scott and Ollie. They stood there, gasping for air, in slack-jawed amazement just looking at Harold as Scape barked and ran in circles. He could see patches of fire here and there, up and down the trail he had just run, and he looked at the last patch of land where he remembered being.

  It was about forty yards away.

  At that spot, he could see that several of the trees were blackened and a small fire burned in one of the lower branches. He looked back at Scott who helped Ollie onto the log, and began pushing her back to the shore. Harold still couldn’t figure out why the river around him was so choppy.

  Then he saw steam.

  The water in his immediate vicinity was boiling. Harold looked down. Furious flames were billowing from his entire body. The flames nearest his skin were blue and those farthest from his body were bright red. He could even see the light beaming from underneath the bubbling water. His overalls were completely gone, and he stood there in the chest-deep water, naked and on fire, wondering what had just happened.

  “This is the most awesome thing I’ve ever seen!” Scott yelled as he helped Ollie onto the bank. Then he began running circles around the others, roaring and swinging his stick back and forth. He was so completely enraptured in excitement that Sarah, Cooper, and Ollie came out of their trance, diving onto the ground and into the river, and Scape ran up a tree just to avoid his stick and mad fit. Scott slid to a halt, slinging sand in all directions, then he shouted and began hooping and hollering. The others had turned their attention from Harold, because he was clearly not as dangerous as the insane, wild pygmie that had just stormed the riverbank. Scott whipped his stick around several times like a lasso, thrust it into the air above his head, and struck a pose like a victorious warrior.

  “Harold is Fire-Man!!!” echoed through the woods.

  Chapter 5

  “It’s a good thing you had that towel, Sarah! Fire-Man would be walking home butt naked if you hadn’t brought it!” Scott said as he swung his stick at a bug. “Fire-Man, you were there one second! And gone the next! It was like, BAM! And then, BAM! And then, BAM again! Then you were on that dirty snake, showing that dirty snake what Fire-Man does to dirty snakes! And Ollie was all flyin’ through the air! And I was swimmin’ to get her! And the water was on fire! And there was all this light in the water! And the dirty snake was burnin’ up! And the water was boiling! And you were like this!”

  Scott arched over backwards, and roared. He was surprisingly loud. Then, he ran off, hollering, as he darted through the woods. He stopped in front of a tree, and began beating it with his stick. After several good whacks, his makeshift sword broke. Unfazed, Scott looked from side-to-side, and quickly found another limb. He sprinted to it, picked it up, and roared as he resumed his attack on a small oak.

  Scape ran up the nearest tree, and put the lowest branch in between himself and Scott. He peeked around it, wide-eyed, as he stared at Scott with his strange ears standing straight up on his head.

  “I told you that young ‘un was loose-headed,” Harold said to Sarah.

  “The whole village is gonna’ think we’re all loose-headed if we tell them about this,” Sarah replied.

  “Harold ain’t loose-headed!” Ollie said. Harold was holding her and she was sitting on his hip with her head resting on his shoulder.

  After the pytheel had burned, the flames covering Harold had stayed for about a minute, and then slowly extinguished. Though Sarah had already checked Ollie, Harold looked at her himself. She only had a small cut on her arm and some red marks on her hips and upper legs that probably wouldn’t even bruise.

  They were standing at the spot where they all said that Harold had disappeared. Or rather the last spot he had been before he disappeared for the third time. There were two smaller black marks down the trail behind them, but this was the largest one. This blackened spot spread out almost like an explosion had occurred there. The trees around it were scorched, and Cooper was standing in the center of it poking the ground with his stick.

  “So, tell me what happened again,” Harold said.

  “I don’t know,” Sarah replied. “We started running after Ollie, and you got ahead of me. You turned up the bank, and I thought my eyes had gone bad, but your overalls were on fire. Then, there was a loud bang, and I saw fire spread out from where you were, and then it all just came back together and you were farther down the trail.”

  “Yeah,” Cooper said. “And I turned around, and I saw a Fire-Man with glowing eyes running at me. I didn’t even know it was you. But you ran by me and then you passed Scott too, and then BOOM! I saw fire go everywhere, and you were way down the trail.”

  Scott crashed through the leaves toward them and tree bark fell all around them as Scape nervously clambered higher up the tree as Scott slid to a stop in front of them.

  “Then BOOOOOMMMMM!” Scott arched over backwards flinging out his arms. “Fire went all over the place! And it all flew through the air! Then WOOOOSHHHH!” Scott brought his arms back together. “The fire landed right in front of that dirty snake! And then you were like this!”

  Scott started pounding the ground with his stick and giving his best Tiger-Man roar.

  The others just watched his most recent spell with stunned amusement.

  “Son,” Harold said, trying to hide his smile. “You have got to calm down.”

  He was actually strangely thankful for Scott’s near lunacy because Ollie was giggling at him. He would’ve expected her to be withdrawn and crying if Scott were not running around completely unhinged. Harold didn’t think the outbursts could last much longer, because the little boy was streaked with sweat, and panting furiously, but his eyes were still wide and full of excitement. His demeanor reminded Harold of Jim’s dog that was always tied to a tree. When he let it off its leash, it acted a lot like Scott was acting now.

  As Scott ran off roaring and terrorizing trees, Harold looked at Sarah. She had a look on her face that he’d never seen. In fact, she was barely even paying attention to her little brother. If she had been herself, she would’ve already calmed him down, but something very important was on her mind. Something troubled Harold about her look.

  “Cooper, are you sure all the fires have been put out,” Harold said.

  “I don’t see anymore,” Cooper said.

  “Well, let’s get back to the house,” Harold said. “I’m bad sleepy.”

  Ollie was still sitting on his hip, and hugging his neck. She gave him a kiss on the cheek.

  “You came after me, Harold,” she said as she looked at him in adoration. “I love you.”

  “Nobody, and nothing gets my girl,” Harold said as he kissed her forehead. “I love you too.”

  “See,” Ollie said to Sarah. “I told you Wolf-Man and Tiger-Man weren’t strong as Harold!” />
  Sarah regarded Harold and seemed as if she was about to cry, but not because she was sad. Her face betrayed her confusion.

  “Okay, everyone, come here,” Harold said.

  Scott sprinted up, and stood at attention like a soldier. Cooper mimicked his stance. Sarah just stared blankly.

  “We can’t talk about this, guys,” Harold said while looking at Scott.

  “Yes, sir, Fire-Man!” Scott replied.

  Cooper nodded.

  “Colonel Foxx would punish us for killing his pytheel, and probably take all of us away,” Harold said and eyed them very closely. “I’m serious about this, guys. We would be taken away.”

  The two little boys nodded their heads.

  “Remember, tiger-men and wolf-men know how to be silent, because they are soldiers.” Harold said and eyed Scott again.

  “Yes, sir, Fire-Man!” Scott replied. “We won’t say nothin’!”

  “Also,” Harold said. “If anyone asks about why I come home with nothin’ but a towel, tell them that I took off my overalls to let them dry, and someone stole them. Okay?”

  Everyone nodded in understanding. Harold rubbed Ollie’s head and she just smiled. Harold looked at Sarah who still had that strange look on her face.

  Harold sighed as he began walking toward town and the others followed in behind him. After going down the trail for a few minutes, Harold was satisfied that the children were composed enough for him to leave them. Harold gave Ollie to Sarah, but Ollie decided that she would just walk and hold Sarah’s hand.

  He decided to take the long way, so people wouldn’t see him with only a towel wrapped around himself. He jogged most of the way, and he beat the others home. Thankfully, Aunt Nean wasn’t home either, and he managed to slip into the house unnoticed by his neighbors. He went to his bedroom and opened his closet.