บท 7: Victims
Eva's infrared guided her through the dungeon's dangerous, rat-filled tunnels. She hid behind a wall when a black figure invaded the red. She instantly knew it was a guard.
Eva's sword shook in her hand. She hoped she wouldn't have to use it. She didn't know how to swordfight. Axis was supposed to teach her. That was as if he hadn't yet been turned into liver-kabobs.
Eva knew the tunnel was cold,–she could see her breath–but her fiery hair kept her warm. Her boot hit a piece of the wall that had fallen off. Eva hastily picked it up. She juggled the fragment from each hand, and then she aimed it down the tunnel opposite of her and the guard.
Bang! The fragment must have hit another loose wall piece. It sounded like a cat had run into a vase while trying to catch its mouse.
"What in the world–?" the guard asked. He headed in the direction of the noise.
"Okay, here goes," Eva whispered. Her infrared showed her that no more danger was nearby, for the time being. She just hoped it wasn't too late for Axis.
Eva barely made it. By the time she stepped out of the dungeon, her infrared vision faded and her eyes stopped glowing, allowing her hair to cool down. It draped over her shoulders.
Unaware of her presence, the Meraki Clan gathered around the bonfire in the center of the hideaway. There was Axis, tied up to a wooden pole, with his hands behind his back. He wanted to change his form, but he had trouble with his wound and the fire behind him. The glowing embers sucked his life force from him.
The sun dipped behind one of the teepees. It casted a shadow that stretched from it to Eva. She stood only a few feet from the dungeon, with her eyes fixed upon the bonfire. Her infrared returned, but instead of the bars and Gawain turning black, it was now the Meraki Clan and Axis.
"Thank you," Eva told the sun. She needed all the fire she could muster. She put one foot in front of her and her other one behind her. She held her sword behind her back. "Time to show these people not to mess with Evangeline's Flame." The grass under her feet burned away to nothing but black corpses. A red glow–Eva's fire–outlined her body. The world may have been black and white, but it wasn't to her.
Eva rushed to the bonfire. She left burnt patches of grass in her wake. Like what she did to Axis earlier, she shook her head like a dog. The embers skyrocketed off it and landed on a few of the clan's capes.
"Argh!" they yelled when they noticed they were on fire.
A riot broke out. The clan scattered. They tried to put out the fires on their people.
A few children sitting on logs clapped. It was hilarious to see adults scared.
Eva pushed her way through the scattering crowd. "Hang on, Axis!" she called.
Axis recognized her voice. "Eva?" He squinted his eyes to see her better.
"Don't move," Eva ordered. "I can't see very well. Everything has turned infrared."
"Infrared?" Axis shook out his head of black, now scraggly hair. "Don't worry, Eva. I'm not going anywhere." After all, the clan had tied him a smidgen on the tight side. That did not stop him from trying, though. Axis scraped the ropes around his wrists on a sharp point of the pole.
Eva kept her hand on her sword hilt. She refused to let it go. She slid across a puddle of mud, under the legs of one of the clan members. One can imagine what happened to that poor man.
Eva was almost at Axis. The black glitch of his figure wiggled gently, like leaves in a light breeze. The area grew darker and colder.
Eva closed her eyes. She cheered to herself. "I'm gonna make it!"
Smack! The butt of a crossbow smacked her in the chest before she reached Axis.
Yelling in pain, Eva reached for the bow. She landed at the feet of someone–someone familiar. Of course. Of course, she wouldn't get out of this that easily. Eva coughed mud and grass out of her lungs. She clenched her teeth.
The two girls–Eva and Elaine–were both victims of the infrared. Eva was red, and Elaine was black.
Ready for a fight, Eva met the clan leader's daughter's red and black eyes.
Elaine tossed her crossbow off to the side. She reached back and swiped Axis's sword from his belt.
"Aw," he said.
Elaine ignored him. "Let's settle this like good girls," she told Eva. "Do you see the infrared? So do I."
Eva rose to her feet. Frustrated, she groaned. How could she beat this girl with her crappy sword skills?
The girls paced back and forth from each other.
Elaine pointed her sword tip at Eva's chin. "You and I are on two different waves. Let's see which one is stronger."
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