Raptor

"Wake up."

Jason's eyes snapped open and his muscles tensed as adrenaline coursed through his veins. He peered into the darkness of the cave, watching the slightest breaths of the wind and wondering what had panicked him so. Everything seemed normal.

He got up and lifted his hand, fire sprouting in the air above his palm. The light danced on the cave walls, casting long shadows in the many facets of stone. He knelt beside Andrea, who was already sweating profusely, and pulled more energy from her core.

"That's strange," he mumbled. "How did she gather it so quickly? At this rate, I'll have enough vials to last me the rest of my life. Alright, sunshine," he said, nudging her shoulder, "it's time to wake up."

She shivered and pulled the blanket closer to her shoulders. "Five more minutes, Mom," she whined, rolling away from Jason.

"Mom?" The man crossed his arms and grunted. "I'm not your mother. I'm not even a woman. Now get up. We have a lot of ground to cover, both physically and mentally."

Andrea heard nothing. She had already fallen asleep, evidenced by her soft snore. Irritated, Jason stomped his foot into the ground, which caused the stone beneath her to tremble for a moment before small bumps popped up and poked her in various places.

"Ow! I'm up, I'm up!"

"Good. Let's go."

She grumbled and rubbed her eyes. "Sure know how to wake a person."

"Trust me, I could've done worse."

"Oh yeah? Like what?"

Jason shouldered his pack and marched from the cave. "Where shall I start? I don't have enough water on me to splash you awake, but the Element in useful in other regards. Such as freezing your veins, and other things I won't mention for the sake of time and your sanity. Fire, well, that one, I assume, is rather obvious. But you'll have your fill of Fire soon enough. And there's more to Earth than what little of it I have done. I could have opened a chasm so deep you would have never stopped falling. And Wind... We should start your training again. It will be easier for you to control since you're not burning with excess energy."

"Wait, what about the Wind? I didn't even know you can control that Element."

"Forget Wind. Fire will be the death of you if you don't learn how to function with it."

Andrea wanted to press the matter but instead she took the stone Jason had given her and began the exercise. True to his word, she found it much easier to control the heat without combusting, managing to turn the stone red in record time. Once she had masted that practice, Jason instructed her to regulate specific levels of heat. She had to maintain the stone's orange without causing it to turn red or yellow for at least five minutes. Then she would repeat the process but for blue, then green, then red, then yellow. Jason was pleased with her progress, which was much better than the day before, but he still felt she was not fully grasping the concept.

"I think I've got this down now," Andrea boasted. "Look, I can practically change the color at will!"

"Shh!" Jason halted and fell into a fighting stance. His senses were on red alert as he studied the surrounding cliffs.

"What is it?" Andrea whispered, her eyes also searching but for what she knew not.

Jason muttered a curse. "When I say, run."

Several long minutes passed. Gravel fell from the cliff face and Jason leapt towards the source, grabbing onto some unseen creature. A piercing shriek echoed through the canyon, which Jason promptly answered with a torrent of flames. The creature he held materialized from the shadows, its fangs and talons a glistening red as if painted in blood.

"What is that!?"

"Raptor. Go, Andrea! Run!"

"But--"

"I said, RUN!"

Adrenaline overtook her fear and shock. She sprinted through the canyon, but where could she go? She couldn't survive without him; he had already made that abundantly clear. What was she to do? There were no weapons, no shelter, and no help.

Fire. That's right. She had Fire now. She could--

No. Her body could not withstand the flames. She might save Jason, but would only kill herself in the process, proving his point. There was nothing she could possibly do to help. Perhaps that's why he told her to run.

Meanwhile, Jason wrestled with the raptor. It wasn't nimble enough to reach him as he clung to its tail, but that couldn't stop it from shaking him around like a sack of potatoes, slamming him into the walls and ground. Whenever he got the chance, he would shoot a bout of flames at the heads, but its elemental core absorbed the fire.

"I was afraid of this," Jason growled with a curse. "I don't have enough water." With one last fireball, he released the raptor's tail, which sent him flying several yards down the canyon. He shrugged off his pack and swiped a vial from inside.

"Looks like I'm doing this the hard way," he said before downing the contents of the vial. The energy he had collected from Andrea was some of the strongest he had felt in a long while. As it coursed through his veins, invigorating his muscles and heightening his senses beyond what his brain could process, he pushed aside the other elements and focused on Water.

The raptor shrieked at Jason as it positioned to charge, unaware of its coming doom. The man looked like easy prey, kneeling there like a perfectly cooked meal waiting to be eaten. As it neared, it sensed the shift in the elemental balance, realizing too late that its adversary controlled Water, not just Fire. But it was too late to flee.

The Water burst from Jason's core, dousing the raptor and the surrounding area with the liquid. As the discharge slowly evaporated under the insufferable heat of the Burns, Jason fell to his hands and vomited. His entire body trembled violently and a thick fog descended on his brain as it attempted to recuperate from the sensory overload. He curled into a tight ball to wait out the ailment.

By the time he had recovered, the sun had already set and the moon shone brightly upon one of the canyon walls. Slowly, as his limbs were sore and stiff, Jason gathered his things, which had been scattered in the flood. He picked up the book he carried in his pack and almost mourned that it remained unharmed. A few of his vials had shattered, leaving a faint glow where the energy they stored gradually dissipated into the surrounding area. The special rations he kept hidden where completely wasted, but his cookware was relatively unharmed.

Shoving it all into the pack and noting that he would need a new one, Jason began to walk in the direction Andrea had run. He knew she had escaped in time, but somehow that made her survival seem less likely. After all, she was a Flame with no control or tolerance of her element. Her Fire would kill her if the Burns hadn't already.