Kaia the Argent Wing

[CW: Gore.]

The fire spread for all of thirty seconds under Chloe’s renewed winds, until the storm bird finally rose to meet the challenge. Its scream cracked like thunder, and a new wind bore down on us from its direction. With two opposing streams of air colliding, the gusts became erratic—swirling in from all directions. Snow, fire, and random detritus began to batter our party, while the noise became an all-encompassing cacophony.

All around us, houses were going up as sparks and flying coals landed on them like rain. It was utter insanity, like something out of a movie. I didn’t even know fire could spread that fast. It was like the flames had gained an alien sentience, and they were voraciously consuming anything they could get their hands on. The heat was enough that my wings felt like they were getting sunburn. Did wings get sunburnt? Gosh, and the smoke… it was choking.

“Back up, back up!” the Captain suddenly yelled through the noise, gesturing for us to retreat. “This is going to get—”

Light blasted my eyes, bright enough to leave a jagged line across my vision, and a titanic snap-crack threatened to burst my eardrums. I stared uncomprehendingly up at the area where the terrifying occurrence had happened while my ears rang and my vision danced. What… what was that?

The Captain was screaming now, arms flailing wildly in an attempt to get us all moving. “Back, back, back!”

Someone tugged on one of my wings, and I stumbled after them, turning to see who it was. Mel, looking shell-shocked and terrified, was pulling me away from the rapidly growing flames that were being whipped into a frenzy.

She saw my confusion when I began to follow under my own power and shouted, “Lightning! The heat from the fires—”

Her eyes widened, and she turned and began to outright sprint up the hill. Oh no, what now?

Looking over my shoulder as I ran, I almost stumbled from awe and rising terror. Spiralling up almost thirty feet was a twisting cone of fire and debris, and it was growing and flickering like it was— dark, pitch-black eyes opened within the searing depths of the fire tornado, and I felt myself tip over the edge into panic. It… it was actually alive.

I kept my wings firmly glued to my back as I ran, and everyone else appeared to be doing the same thing. It felt like we were running for hours like that, but when we finally pulled to a stop, we hadn’t even made it to the small plateau that Edgewood proper was built on.

Slowly, and with a racing heart, I turned to look down the hill. I was met with a sight that, for the first time since the Storm arrived, looked truly apocalyptic. At some point, the storm bird had stopped fighting Chloe’s chanted wind, and it was nowhere to be seen. Without the bird’s battering gale, the living tornadoes of fire were devouring entire houses at a time as they marched away from us.

“Did… did we win?” Someone asked in hopeful disbelief. “We’ve won!”

Looking out across the relatively small plain between the hill and the winding river, I couldn’t say they were wrong, either. Everything beyond the steep embankment we’d decided to use as a firebreak was burning in some form. The snow was long gone, carried up into the sky as steam where it joined the clouds. Every now and then, there’d be a flash and a boom as the humid updraught gave birth to lightning.

I was still breathing heavily from our flight, but I found it within myself to grin at Mel, who was still beside me. “I think we did win,” I muttered to her.

She returned the smile. Her gasps for breath matched mine, and around us the remainder of our team was doing the same.

Just as I was relaxing, fear returned with a vengeance, and I stood bolt upright. “Why can I hear everyone breathing?”

Looking down towards Riddlebank, the living fire tornados had stopped their uniform march, and now they were wandering randomly, looking for more fuel.

Realisation dawned on everyone in a wave, and we all turned to look back up the remainder of the hill towards the school. The wind had stopped. Chloe’s wind had ceased, but because it was wind and it didn’t just turn off instantly, we hadn’t noticed right away.

“That’s too soon,” the Captain said into the uncomfortable, eerie silence. “That’s much too soon! Those… those fire things, they could easily make their way up the hill! There’s so much fuel up here.”

“Time to move!” I barked, worry knotting my insides. Was Chloe okay? She knew the plan. She knew that if she stopped before we were sure the fire had burned too much of Riddlebank to turn back, we’d be in trouble.

We weren’t the only ones who realised what this meant.

An all too familiar shriek sounded back from the direction of the fires, and when I looked back, I saw it through the smoke, I saw it in its entirety. I’d been picturing an eagle when I thought of it, but the storm bird only had the poise and deadly grace of an eagle. Its body, head, and tail were more reminiscent of a vulture, with a curved, impossibly sharp beak that attached to an almost bare head. Its skin was mottled pink and remained uncovered until halfway down its long neck. The feathers were white on top, but below the surface, they shifted into greys and blues, making it look like, well, a storm cloud.

Opening its beak, it shattered the silence once more, but from its open maw something other than sound issued forth. It was tough to see at first, because there wasn’t anything to see, but when the targeted gust of wind grasped a living tornado, we realised— An articulated magical gust of wind doing the bidding of the storm bird.

The gust of magic flung the column of flame up the hill like it were nothing more than a handful of ash and cooling embers. It was far from anything so benign, though. The flaming tornado disintegrated as it flew, spraying the hillside with burning embers. There was a core to it, though, and that continued sailing through the air, right towards… towards our home. Oh no…

“Go!” The Captain ordered with a frantic shout.

We didn’t need further urging.

Overhead, the storm bird crowed again as we ran, letting out a jarring sound that was almost laughter before it wheeled away, heading for the mountains. One last jab to remind us that we might have won, but it was still a demigod, and we were nothing but terrified mortals. I hated that thing. I hated it, and one day I’d hunt it down and put an end to it. Not now, though. Now we needed to save Edgewood from whatever that burning core of living fire was doing to our home.

We tackled the last of the hill with desperate speed, and in my case, several flaps from my wings. That is, until they suddenly guttered out and I was left with my normal Silver body, armour, and axe.

“Cynath!” I called urgently as we finally crested the rise. It was only a few blocks to the Central Avenue River, now, but it felt like miles.

“Hurry!” My goddess replied, her pained scream audible to everyone.

If I’d had any room for it, my gut would have filled with yet more anxiety, but I was full to bursting. I kept running, as did everyone else.

We were still sprinting when we rounded the corner and gained our first look across the school parking lot and up at the main building. It was like a meteorite had slammed into it. The fiery core of the tornado had smashed into the previously H-shaped main building, carving a burning furrow down the length of one of the front wings. The actual core was hidden from view inside the building, but its effects could be seen regardless as it torched everything around it. The building was going up in flames.

I expected to see people trying to put the thing out, or at least evacuate our folks from the building, but instead… instead the parking lot—where Chloe and her chorus had been—was a battlefield. Dead and dying people were scattered all across the pavement, and very few were on the ground due to burns.

I didn’t wait for any orders from the Captain, I simply ran headlong into the fray.

Immediately, a man saw me and raised his axe, intending to rush me, but then his eyes widened with fear. At his feet was a guy who I vaguely recognised from the year below me in school. His chest had been caved in, and blood was gently pulsing out of the wound. I couldn’t tell if he was conscious. I hoped he wasn’t.

“You!” The murderer quailled, his voice rising in pitch as panic took him. “Faithful! Faithful! They have retu—”

I cut him and his words short with my axe.

Fury and anguish began to push into the edges of my vision, but I desperately clung to lucidity and control. I knelt beside the mortally wounded boy on the ground and took stock. The man… the man I’d just killed had hit the kid low in his ribs, breaking one of them and pushing it into his chest cavity. Through the ragged hole, I could see that his lung had been punctured, while his… I didn’t even know what that was… it was a mess.

Taking a moment to gather my mental strength, I pulled his rib up out of his lung, ripping it further in the process. My stomach hitched and briefly threatened to empty itself, but I clamped down with ruthless determination. Placing the rib back approximately where it was supposed to be, I hit him with my healing touch. The blood slowed to a trickle, and I felt tears of relief pool in the corners of my eyes when I saw his lung and whatever the other organ was stitching themselves back together.

Stable, I hoped.

Finally, I realised that I had tunnel-visioned in on the dying boy, and I jerked my vision up and reached for my axe. Around me, my team from the battle down the hill was wading in, spells flying and axes swinging. Most were pulling their blows, trying to keep from outright killing people, but as I’d just experienced, it wasn’t easy.

The man I’d killed was just to the side, his head several feet away, still leaking blood. Oh goddess… I killed someone, I…

He had an armband on. It was white with a black cross. At the junction of the cross was a single red, white, and blue star. I’d never seen the symbol before, but I knew what it was all the same. I knew, because I also knew the man I’d killed. He was one of the men who broke Tess’ bow a few weeks ago. He was one of Pastor Thomas’ people, and… oh goddess. They’d attacked the chorus.

“Chloe!” I cried, rushing to my feet.