Chapter 7: 7. Child of Fire
After that weird incident, Magnus was one hundred per cent sure that something wasn't right. Since he slept under that tree, these strange things had been happening. But he had an idea about how to get his answers.
Though for now, he was on a tour of Queen's house. And surprisingly, the Queen also came there. Most likely a PR thing but for the kids, she came to meet them and it excited them.
However, Magnus didn't like her after the first glance. She seemed calculative and a cold woman who doesn't care about anything except herself.
So, he kept his distance. The queen also noticed one kid staying away from her. But she didn't think much about it. She had things much more important going on in her head.
~The national registry has been checked. There has been no newborn with the surname Pendragon in the whole country. Where could this so-called king be?~ she wondered.
"HERE..."
She was jolted suddenly. She was too occupied with her mind that she forgot about her surroundings and dropped her handkerchief.
To her surprise, the kid who was standing away came to help her like a gentleman. She patted Magnus' head with a smile.
"Thank you, dear." After saying that, she left.
"She sure looked grumpy," Bobby commented from behind him.
"She's old. What else can you expect from old people, look at our teacher?" Magnus replied.
"Haha..." Bobby laughed looking at Mrs Jones
They then went with the class line.
He was not very interested in the palace or treasures anymore. All he wanted was to talk with that painting.
After that was lunchtime. Magnus, of course, had pancakes. But this was the first time he brought them to school so he found a problem. They were cold.
~Hmm, didn't they say I'm very warm?~ he thought.
So, he pressed his metal lunchbox between his palms. ~Get warm... Get warm... Please...~
He waited for nearly 5 minutes and when he opened the lunchbox, it was not just warm, but hot as if it came out of the oven.
~Woah, I really am warm.~ he gloated and started eating.
"Hey Magnus, what did you bring for lunch?" Bobby returned to him after washing his hands and sat beside him.
"Pancakes." Magnus happily chirped.
"They look... tasty..." Bobby drooled while staring at Magnus' lunchbox.
Magnus looked at his lunchbox and then at Bobby. Considering it was his friend, he offered.
"Okay, you can have some. I brought too much anyway." He lied. His appetite had become monstrous for a 9-year-old.
Bobby happily ate it. Then he gave Magnus a sandwich from his box, "Here, let's exchange."
They had lunch and then they were to return to school. While returning there were some fewer restrictions so Magnus didn't have to sit between two girls again. Instead, he took a seat at the back where all the fun was.
He wanted to make another round inside the Palace to see the painting but it required a ticket and they weren't selling at that time. Deciding that he'd come again with his family, he forgot about the incident for now.
He enjoyed the trip home, playing with some friends and just generally chatting. It was an hour-long drive back to school so many kids had already fallen asleep in their seats.
He, on the other hand, was up and looking at his hands. He was trying to understand how his body's heat worked. Because he also understood that normal fever can't heat the pancakes that much. There must be some trick.
Just as he was engrossed in his thoughts, a loud noise of tyres skidding came. He quickly held onto his seat. Soon, he was thrown out of his seat.
*BOOM*
Magnus' head bumped on the headrest in front of him. Thankfully it was a cushion type and he didn't get hurt.
The accident was a big one. He looked at the front and saw many of his classmates had fallen to the bus floor. Many were bleeding from places. Those that were sleeping didn't get a chance to hold onto something so they were thrown very hard.
Crying voices came soon. Then Magnus looked at the driver's seat. His mind went numb. The bus had collided with the back of a dumper truck. Not only that, the structure of the bus wasn't very strong so the driver was squashed on his seat, probably dead already. But Magnus couldn't think about such things at the moment, his mind was telling him to get out of the bus, so he was looking for a way out.
Their teacher was also hurt. She was in her 50s and didn't have a very healthy body, but due to the adrenaline, she got up and looked at all the kids. Her heart panicked seeing so many of them injured.
"EVERYONE, COME WITH ME. WE NEED TO GET OUT OF THE BUS." She shouted.
But they were all 9-year-old kids, their bodies had frozen in fear and pain.
The teacher looked at the driver. He was dead. But then she noticed that the main door was also damaged and couldn't be opened anymore.
*WOOSH*
Suddenly, with a pressure leaking sounds, the engine caught fire. The fire spread to the front and burned the dashboard, along with the driver's body.
Everyone panicked. She quickly ran to the back of the bus where the emergency door was.
*BAM* *BAM*
She tried to open it. But it didn't budge. It was stuck there. She tried to use all her strength but nothing helped.
Slowly, the bus was getting filled with smoke, making it harder to breathe.
*Cough Cough*
Magnus looked around for a way out. Only the windows could be used to get out. But the problem was, there was a long rod set in the middle of the window, making it too small for everyone to get out. These rods were placed to stop kids from putting their head out.
So he got up to try and break it. But he first looked at all his classmates, crying and hurt. Then he saw his teacher just standing in one place.
"Mrs Jones... get everyone to the back. Away from the fire." Magnus shouted.
Mrs Jones, whose mind had gone numb, quickly got to action. She started pulling all the kids to the back. Those who were too much injured, she delicately lifted them to the back.
Magnus, meanwhile, kicked the glass out of a window. Then he started kicking the metal rod.
*BAM*
*BAM*
"Come on..."
The fire was continuously increasing. Some seats in the front had already caught fire.
Magnus had bent the rod but it was not enough. He stopped kicking and tried to bend the rod upward so that a large enough opening would be available.
He grabbed the rod tight, gritted his teeth and tried to use all the strength in his tiny body. Unbeknownst to him, his hand started heating up much more than ever. The metal rod started heating up and even turned red under his hand. He slowly found it easier to bend the rod.
"HAAAAAAAAA...." Slowly, it started bending upwards, away from the window's frame. Soon, there was enough space.
"Mrs Jones... Here. Use this window." He shouted. She had just finished gathering kids at the back.
Everyone was panicked at the moment, so when they saw an opening, they all rushed to it crazily. Magnus was pressed in between them and no one was able to get out.
Anger rose in Magnus' head. He worked so hard to open this path and if they acted like this, all of them would still die.
"CALM DOWN... EVERYONE." He shouted.
His voice had some kind of effect as everyone heard him. All the kids' minds told them to stay back from this voice.
"Everyone, get out one by one. Otherwise, no one will get out." He ordered them.
They heard him this time and started jumping out. Soon, some passersby also ran to help and caught kids jumping out.
But the fire was too strong. He realised that it would be too late before everyone could get out. So Magnus ran to the other side to open the window there too.
This time he just kicked to shatter the glass and then used his hands.
"HAAAAAAAA... OPEN...." He used all strength in his body to bend the metal. This time, some kids and teachers saw him perform the feat as they were not in frenzy as before.
Bobby, who was sitting beside Magnus before, had also not gotten out. He saw Magnus and ran to help.
But Magnus didn't need it. He was already bending the rod. But this time, he noticed the reddened metal under his hand. However, he hid it and bent it all the way up.
"QUICK, BOBBY. GET OUT." Magnus commanded.
"What about you?" Bobby asked back in concern. He was really taking all this trauma well for a 9-year-old. Bobby wasn't freaking out like the other kids.
"I'm just behind you, now go," Magnus replied.
Bobby nodded and jumped out. Magnus looked back and saw kids jumping out one by one. Mrs Jones was helping the injured kids get out.
Soon some kids started to jump out from the new opening too.
*Cough Cough*
The smoke was too much now. Everyone was coughing. Mrs Jones was the one coughing the most though. Because she was taller than kids and all the smoke was only touching the roof because of the open windows now.
Magnus also helped some kids to get out from his side. The one with the heaviest injury was a girl who had her arms broken. She tried to stop her fall with her hands but ended up breaking them.
She was the last one so Magnus decided to get off the bus with her. He himself was shocked by his ability to lift this girl with not much problem.
He handed her over to a man outside, helping evacuate. Then he himself proceeded to get out.
It had just been 3 minutes since the accident and the fire. But to him, it felt like an hour had passed because of all the tension.
As soon as his head was out, he took a satisfying long breath. The fire had already reached the back of the bus and he was just on time to get out.
*Cough Cough*
Magnus' ears stood up. He suddenly heard coughs coming from inside the bus. He was about to jump but looked back. It was just fire and smoke. He couldn't see anyone.
*Cough Cough*
Then he noticed where the voice came from. It was Mrs Jones. She had fallen to the floor. No wonder Magnus didn't see her before. He had thought that she had jumped out.
He aborted his escape and went back in, against his mind telling him to ignore it, but another voice from somewhere inside him was telling him not to worry, that he can do it. The fire was raging and it was only a matter of seconds before it engulfed the whole bus.
He quickly tried to lift her up. But she didn't co-operate, instead, she tried to reach out to something.
Magnus looked at what she was trying to get and found it to be her purse. A small cylindrical inhaler thing had fallen out of it.
He didn't know what the thing was but he had seen people use it. So, he grabbed it, put it in Mrs Jones' mouth and pressed it. It sprayed something vapour-like into her mouth, making her calm down and co-operate. But she had inhaled a lot of smoke and was on the brink of falling unconscious.
It took a lot of his strength. Lifting a kid was easy, but lifting an adult was still too much for his 9-year-old body.
"AAAAAAA... You're so heavy..." Magnus breathed. His face had turned red.
The fire also caught up. He dragged Mrs Jones to the window and threw half of her body out for people to grab her.
Magnus didn't know that the fire had already caught up with him and his back was already on fire. He just didn't feel anything, it felt like simple heat to him.
As soon as Mrs Jones was out, he also leapt out of the window.
He landed on the ground and ran to the people to safety. A few moments later, the bus was fully engulfed in flames, along with the dumper truck it crashed into.
*Sigh*
"Ha....Ha...Ha... Fresh air is the best." Magnus breathed quickly.
*Ambulance and Firetruck Sirens*
Emergency services also started arriving soon after. Magnus was shockingly totally unharmed. All the kids were safe. The teacher was safe. Only the driver died.
He patted his clothes to clean them. But noticed his pants were torn from the knees.
~Oh no, Mummy is going to get mad at me.~ he shuddered thinking.
"MAGNUS..." Suddenly Bobby's loud voice came from behind him.
Magnus turned around. Bobby's face looked worried and scared. "What? Oh, you got your head bandaged? Good."
"Magnus... Y-Your back. T-There's no clothes a-and it's all black..." Bobby loudly exclaimed.
Some emergency staff also noticed them and ran to help. They saw Magnus' back looking all black. The clothes were burnt too. Even his ass was visible and it was also black.
"WHAT?" Magnus was shocked. He had not felt this happening.
Paramedics quickly picked him up and took him to the ambulance.
"I'm fine. I'm not burned, really." He tried to argue but no one listened. He was immediately sent to the nearest hospital.
He wasn't in pain at all, so when he reached the hospital and was being taken in on a stretcher. He saw the name of the hospital. It was 'Queen Alexandra Military Hospital'.
Seeing the name, Magnus was frightened. His face started sweating.
"Oh no, not here." He cried in fear.
[A/N: Rather than just announcing his abilities. I am trying to show them. This way, when he grows up and uses some powerful magic, it won't come off as a shock.
Also, yes, the bus driver died. Magnus will have some thoughts about it in the next chapter as he is a 9-year-old and just saw a dead man for the first time in his small life. Though he won't be turning emo.]
[Discord - https://discord.gg/DgHkrAn]
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Special thanks to *Douglas Flower* *Umar Latif* *Julian Rocamora* *Darrien Steely*
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