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Zephyr joined Fenna, sweat already beading along his brow from the oppressive heat. He worked quickly, packing fire moss into his sling bag, eyes flicking skyward every other breath.
"Last bundle," he said, voice slightly hoarse.
Fenna sliced the final mat and handed it over. Emberling chirped, peeking her beak above the sling. Her eyes caught the moss’s glow, and they sparkled faintly, her first real spark since they’d left the core of the volcano.
Then a sudden sound....
Zephyr’s head snapped up, ears pricking. He tilted slightly, filtering ambient noise from the direction of the ravine’s lip.
Crackling. Dry twigs. A weight shifting above.
He scanned the upper ridge, squinting into the fractured light.
Star snarled, deep and guttural, cutting across the tension like a whip crack.
From the treeline, three ember wolves slunk into view. They were low-bodied and skeletal-thin, with pelts that shimmered like coals buried under ash. Their flanks steamed faintly, and every breath they exhaled left curls of smoke in the air. Rank-E wild beasts, but fast, smart, and vicious in packs.
Their eyes glowed like twin forge-embers, locked onto Star, who held the cliff’s edge with rigid tension. The drake’s claws dug into the stone. His tail lashed once.
Zephyr hissed, back tightening. "Visitors."
Fenna, still crouched, froze mid-motion. "How Many?"
"Three."
Her fingers tightened around her knife. "Can we climb up?"
Zephyr’s gaze flicked between the piton rope and the wolves above. Climbing meant exposing their backs. On obsidian shards, even one misstep could cripple on fall. Worse—if a wolf rushed while Fenna was mid-ascent...
He made the call. "Star, use your Tremor!"
The drake reared up and slammed both hind claws into the rock beneath him. The cliff shuddered, cracks spidering across the rim. Dust avalanches fall down, blinding the lead wolf. Two staggered back, slipping on their approach. The third, however, found footing and lunged.
Star met it mid-air, tail snapping across its side —CRACK— a whip of bone and fire. The wolf spun mid-leap and crashed sideways into a patch of black ferns, yelping.
Zephyr clipped Fenna’s moss bag to his belt, his voice was sharp. "You climb. I’ll flank left, draw them off and finish them with Star."
Fenna hesitated only for a heartbeat. Then, She nodded with tight jaws, and hooked the sling strap over her shoulder. Emberling tucked her head beneath Fenna’s chin, trembling as the sounds of snarling and falling rock echoed overhead.
Star roared again, spitting Rapid Fireball across the cliff’s edge. The attack missed its mark but sent molten glass flying, forcing the wolves to scatter and reassess.
One wolf broke off, circled wide, and darted down the opposite side—its glowing eyes fixed on Fenna’s line. It leapt, bounding across glass ferns like a shadow of flame.
Zephyr ran. He vaulted over a ridge, hatchet in hand, feet crunching sharp obsidian shards. One twisted root nearly caught his ankle. He grunted, snatched up a fist sized stone shard, and hurled it.
The stone clanged off the wolf’s flank, not enough to hurt but enough to redirect. The beast jerked mid-step and snapped its head toward him, teeth bared.
"Come on, mutt," Zephyr muttered, planting his feet. "Let’s see if the training drills paid off or not."
The wolf lunged with a deep snarl, jaws snapping toward his chest.
Zephyr sidestepped, letting its momentum slide past, and brought the hatchet down hard into its shoulder. Bone gave under the strike with a sickening thud, and embers sprayed from the wound. The wolf twisted, fangs grazing his tunic.
He ducked and rammed his boot into its chest, knocking it backward into a sprawl of glass-leaf ferns. They sliced its forelegs, blood sizzling against molten rock.
Above them, Star finished the second wolf, claws tearing through the ribs as flame licked along his scales. It collapsed in a twitching heap.
The third wolf, seeing its packmates fall, hesitated. It growled once, then turned and limped into the forest, vanishing into the black trees.
The wounded one still writhed, claws scraping at the shattered obsidian shards as it struggled to stand. Its breathing was ragged, labored with thin ropes of steam puffed from its torn maw with each heave. One foreleg hung limp, shredded from the glass leaf ferns it had crashed through.
Burnt fur curled in bloody tufts where Zephyr’s hatchet had landed. But still, it tried to flee. Ember wolves didn’t die easily, especially with human strength. They dragged themselves away with raw hatred in their eyes.
Then the shadows shifted.
Star dropped beside Zephyr like a falling meteor, the full weight of him landing with a thud that shook the small stone. His claws dug into the earth. Steam hissed from his nostrils. His eyes glowed, no longer orange but a deep, molten ruby, like twin cores of volcanic fury pulsing beneath transparent gemstone. Each breath from him sent waves of heat rolling through the fractured terrain.
The wolf paused mid-drag, neck twisting with a pained snarl. It turned with desperate, trembling looks but it was too late.
Star didn’t roar... He didn’t need to.
He stepped forward with regal certainty, the kind that needed no witness or word. His body lowered into a prowler’s crouch, shoulders tensed, tail slowly curling. His wings flared halfway—not in threat, but balance, a predator’s instinct.
The wolf let out a last, high growl—a pitiful defiance. Its red eyes met Star’s. What it saw there wasn’t flame. It was judgment.
Star lunged.
In a single bound, he crossed the ravine floor. His claws struck the wolf’s chest with bone-splitting force, slamming it into the jagged rock. The beast wheezed, ribs shattering on impact.
But Star wasn’t finished.
He pressed a hind claw into the wolf’s gut, pinning it down like prey. His jaws opened, glowing heat coiling in his throat. Emberling, hidden in Fenna’s sling above, whimpered and buried her face, not in fear, but instinctual mourning. Fire reminds her of her mother.
A swirl of light gathered between Star’s fangs, and then...
FWOOOOOM!