Araidea – Goddess of the Flame
Chapter 4
It has been twenty three moons since Mantra opened the gateway and I jumped through. Wounded and bleeding from an arrow in my side I passed out as I landed on the soft white sand. When I woke up I was laying on a mat in a stone hut. An old woman stood in front of a fire in the center of the main room. She was stirring a cauldron of something that smelled great. I set up realizing I was starving. She handed me a cup of hot strong liquid indicating I should drink it and turned back to the cauldron. A few minutes later she handed me a spoon and a plate of some kind of stew. I took a bite – it tasted as good as it smelled. For three days more I did little but sleep and eat while I regained my strength then on the fourth day she handed me some clothes. “We walk, Fire Wytche.” She said going out the door. The first thing I see when I step outside is a mountain rising in the distance against a purple sky. I stand there lost in thought and wonder at the beauty and power of this place as a song rises unbidden from my throat. “I stood out here once before with my head held in my hands, For all that I had known of this place I could never understand. On the hills the fires burned at midnight, Superstition plagued the air, Sparks fly as the fires burn at midnight, Stars are out and magic is here, the stars are out and magic is here... So, the sisters smiled to themselves, and they whispered as they shone, and it was from that very instant, I knew I would never be alone. Many stars were long forgotten, many faded and became ghosts, still my sisters glittered down from heaven, and always there when I needed them most... and always there when I needed them most.” “Grandmother said you were the one.” “She said when she asked Araidea to come to our rescue you fell from the sky, with your hair like the Dragon’s fires and your skin the color of the white sands.” “Are you the one? Are you Araidea, Goddess of The Flames?” I turned to see a mysterious looking chestnut skinned warrior walking towards me. His body language told me he was no threat but something about him made my heart catch in my throat. “I am Dawnreaper a simple soldier of Terra, I fell through some kind of gateway.” “Like everyone else where I’m from I am capable of simple magic but I am not Goddess, Wytche, or even a witch though your Grandmother seems convinced differently,” I answered returning his gesture of greeting. Over the next months while I healed the woman everyone in the villages called Grandmother instructed me in the ‘Art of Majick’ which she insisted was as different from normal magic as night from day. She taught me spell work and herbal magic, how to read the signs and cast the ‘telling stones’ and the art of calling the spirits to aid my work. I learned fast; it seemed natural like I’d known it before. Then came the day when she called me Wytche and declared I was ready to become The Fire Wytche. A few weeks ago I accidently dropped saltpeter into a pan that contained a paste of sulphur and charcoal I had been using. I laid it aside and grabbed another dish to start over intending to finish what I was doing before cleaning up but I got sidetracked and didn’t get back to cleaning up until the next day; by this time it had dried into a cake. I began chipping at it to loosen it and threw the first few pieces that came loose on the coals; to my surprise they exploded into flame. I knew I’d found a key to adverting the disaster the old woman is convinced I am sent here to prevent; I just have to figure out how to use it. It took several tries to get the proportions of the compound right before I could begin experimenting. I now know when it’s lit it burns quietly but if it’s thrown against certain heated stones it will explode into flame; then came the day I blew the lid off a pot – it flew into the air and buried itself into a tree twenty feet away. It was ready. “Flint will not be coming tonight. You might as well go ahead and eat,” the Grandmother said handing me a plate of food. “What makes you think I care?” I answered trying not to blush. “I’m old, not blind; I’ve seen the way you two look at each other. You are both alone, there is no reason you should not come together. “ “He sent word by messenger to be ready in two days; we are going to Dragon Mouth Pass.” She continued then picked up her plate and went inside not giving me a chance to say anything else. I put down my plate and went for a walk, taking a path I hadn’t noticed before up into the hills. There I stumbled onto a hidden clearing where I came across an apparition. It spoke. “I am Araidea, Goddess of the Flame. I have been called by the Old Seer.” “In times long forgotten, we trapped a Great Dragon and imprisoned it under this mountain. For eons it wreaked havoc on the land, breathing fire, trying to free itself but to no avail; finally it gave up and slept. Time passed. Many people came to this place and the legends were forgotten; now the Dragon is awakening again. The woman has tried warning them but few listen: but I heard her prayers and I called for you, my Daughter; you will save the people.” I woke up the next morning in the hut. I had no idea how I’d gotten home but I did know exactly how we were going to stop the Dragon. We leave our mounts below and begin the climb to the cave the locals call Dragon’s Mouth. I am told it is called this because the pressure builds up inside the mountain to the point that it’s forced out through fissures into the cave where it escapes out the opening as steam. Someone decided it looked like the mountain was breathing – hence the name. The last thing I remember after we reach the mouth of the cave is turning to survey the terrain below us and hearing a voice in my head saying “Heed Well, Fire Wytche.” Flint and I sit at the table going over the diagrams I’d drawn while we were in the cave; the first sheet is a drawing of the back wall and shows a curved set of lines with X’s marked at different intervals. This wall was warm when I’d felt it meaning there is some kind of chamber or shaft leading deeper into the bowels of the mountain behind the seemingly solid wall. The lines are markings where the black powder will be painted and the X’s are stress cracks where the powder balls will be placed. There are also diagrams of where charges will need to be set into the mountainside in order to direct the flow of lava – when it comes – away from the populated areas and hopefully down a deep, dry river gorge towards the far off ocean. “The men are returning tomorrow to set everything up. How much time do we have?’ Flint said. “Araidea said a matter of weeks, maybe; blowing the wall open may cause a sudden vacuum and set the eruption off causing it to rise to the opening sooner” I answered then hesitated before speaking again. “Flint, I have decided to go with you in the morning to make sure everything is right but we need to say our goodbyes now…” “I won’t be returning with the rest of you after everything is set up. I need to follow my destiny. Dawnreaper is gone and I might be Wytche but I don’t feel like a Fire Wytche. I am no longer who I was when I arrived, but I have not fully become who I am meant to be and I care too much about you to have you go through this with me or to ask you to wait until I’ve found the answers I need. The help I must seek now is not of this world.” Flint got up from the table and walked away without saying anything; I just sat there. When I returned from the clearing where I’d gone to meet with Araidea I heard Flint speaking to someone. Ducking behind a tree, I listened. “Yes, I do love her, but I can’t say anything that might persuade to stay.” “So you’re just going to let her leave without asking her to marry you. Do you think she doesn’t know you love her? I’ve seen the way she looks at you, she feels the same way.” Came the answer. “I hope so but she has to follow the path she was set on when she dropped from the sky. I can only pray the Goddess will lead her back to me. Come on. We need to get back.” I hurried away before I was seen.
