The next couple days are bright and sunny, not a cloud in the sky; a complete contrast to the depressing night before.

Begin day five.

Ten more to go.

I walk toward Ignis, clutching a fish in my hands, my clothes soaked, my pants and sleeves rolled up and my hair a mess.

Indifferent to my looks, I feel proud as I stride over to Ignis. The fire girl stops working on the mud house and turns to me.

"Hey Ignis!" I practically sing, bouncing to a stop next to her, the fish held like a trophy in front of me, "Guess what guess what guess what?"

Ignis sighs, propping one hand on her hip and waving the other one animatedly as she speaks to me, "What?"

I beam at her, thrusting the fish forward, "I caught a fish!" I exclaim. Ignis rolls her eyes as she takes the fish and starts to cook it, clearly annoyed by my enthusiasm.

What can I say? This is an achievement for me, being the first one I'd caught for the past two days. Not for lack of effort, mind you. It's a lot harder than it looks. They way they wiggle in your hands, making them slippery. That, plus the fact that you almost certainly had just leapt forward and are probably wet, in a bad position, and possibly injured, does not help matters.

Ignis finishes cooking the fish and hands it to me, "Just put it in the fish-hole." She tells me, turning back to the house.

I nod and am about to walk into the house when Terro pops up from behind Ignis, his eyes sparkling, "Wait wait wait, Blitz, caught a fish?!"

I glare at him and Ignis groans.

He ignores both of us and keeps going, "This is monumental! This is, this is.....I have to go get my-! EEEEOW!!!"

I smirk.

That, my friends, is the sound a Terro makes when you slap him with a fish.

I ignore his whines and walk into the mud house, going past Kin who congratulates me.

I smile at her, glad someone is being an encouraging friend.

Once I put the fish in the fish-hole, I walk back out to the river to hopefully keep catching fish.

The only thing I manage to do is get soaked to the bone and bruised all over. Stupid fish.

Surprisingly, Neve is the best at catching fish. You'd think it'd be Nero, but apparently that kid is pretty clumsy. He only managed to catch one, like me, but that was because his fish stupidly jumped out of the river and onto the grass, where a beaming Nero picked him up.

Neve has caught four just today. Yesterday she somehow got six, and the day before she got three. I don't even know why we're all fishing, Neve is a pro and could feed us forever.

Night rolls around and all the designated fishermen step out of the river, dripping and grumpy. My enthusiastic attitude had vanished and was replaced by a sulky cloud.

Ugh.

"Fishing's hard." Nero whines as we walk back to the house for dinner.

I nod firmly, but Neve just shoots him a smile which makes him scowl.

I laugh, making all the other poor souls that had been chosen for fishing laugh too. Well, except Nero of course, who grumbles something under his breath.

The fishermen had been me, Kin, Neve, and Nero while Terro and Ignis worked on the house. Anemos had kept an eye open for the Black Serpents, but there had been no sign of them. Yet.

"Well, I saw a fox today." Anemos says once we reach the house and start passing out food.

"Really?" I ask, perking up. I love animals.

Anemos nods, "Yeah, a vixen. I think there are babies nearby. She had a squirrel in her mouth and looked on edge."

"Awww...." I say. Baby foxes? Adorable! The vixen was probably on edge because she was protecting her babies.

For a minute nobody speaks, the only sound being chewing and swallowing sounds, but then Ignis speaks.

"The house is coming along nice." She says, taking another bite into the fish, "It'll probably be done soon."

We nod and Kin speaks up, "So all we do for ten more days is just.....stay here?"

"And keep the Black Serpents out!" Nero pipes in.

Anemos nods but Kin looks doubtful.

"It seems a little.....I don't know.....easy." She says, finishing her fish, her eyes wary and nervous, "Maybe the vixen was nervous for another reason....."

I get a bad feeling.

She's right, it does feel a bit too easy.....what are they going to do? Throw something at us? If so, we have to be ready. But for what? A tornado? Flood?

I shudder. That would be bad.

"We'll be fine. They probably just wanted us to take over the Black Serpent's base and keep them out." Terro says firmly.

I shake my head, "No, I think she's right. We should set up more guards. I can help Anemos."

Ignis is about to protest but I cut her off with a wave of my hand, "I suck at fishing anyway. It can't hurt, right?"

Nobody disagrees so I take it that as a yes.

I nod, "Good. Then lets get some sleep, something crazy could happen tomorrow."

And with that I finish my fish and lay down on my bed, my mind swirling with all the possibilities of tomorrow. It could be just like today or completely different. I guess we'll just have to be ready for anything.

Just as I drift off I hear everyone else going to sleep, their deep breathing filling the room, soothing me.

We'll be ready. For anything.

. . .

Turns out, we didn't have to be ready.

Nothing eventful happened for the next two days. Everyone was on edge, but nothing happened. Literally nothing, and it was making us all nervous and jumpy.

Nero jumps at every sound and Ignis once burnt down four trees because a squirrel broke a stick.

She was not sorry after.

My new job is very boring. Me and Anemos just circle the camp, looking for anything that is a threat, but I guess it's better than being wet and frustrated. Plus, I get time to think about Dad, Zhen, and my teammates. I even spend some time wondering about Purna back in Dendo City. Why was she so stressed out when Zhen bullied us? Why did she end the call so soon when we were outside of Dendo City? What was happening at Dendo City? Is there something going on with her and Blonde Boy?

A couple times I get so frustrated I run my hand through my hair and huff loudly. There are so many questions but not enough answers. I had already gone through several different theories for all my questions, there was so much alone time. It is actually quite scary what my brain can come up with after being alone for an hour.

Finally, however, something happened on the third day.

I started coughing.

I know, right? That's it! At least it took my mind away from all the questions and theories, though. That was a relief.

My coughing escalated quickly however, and soon I had to sit down as my body was racked with my wheezing gasps. The tickle in my throat seemed to never end and so I just sat there, coughing and coughing, until Anemos reached me and ran over, his eyes alight with worry.

"What happened? Are you okay?" He gasps and his eyes become even more worried, "Are you choking?"

I try to speak, but am unable to through the coughs, so I just settle with rolling my eyes. Seriously? Choking? What would I choke on?

I do manage, however, to point to the river.

Anemos starts trying to guess what I want. Apparently we're playing charades now.

"You want to say your last words to someone? You need to go? You're hungry? You want to swim? You want to go fishing again? There's something in the water?"

Seriously, this kid is awful at charades.

"Oh!" He exclaims, smacking his forehead with his hand, "You want water!"

I would have patted him on the back and given him a sticker if I could.

However, I could potentially be dying, so I don't.

Anemos gives me an apologetic look, "Sorry! I can't carry you! I'll be right back!" And with that he disappears, leaving me to die alone.

How sad.

To my relief, however, Terro appears, running toward me at full speed, his eyes alight with worry, much like Anemos' were.

I let out a choking gasp to tell Terro where I am and a second later he is running toward the river, me bouncing in his arms.

I can barely breath now and my coughs are quick and small, making my eyes water at the pain in my throat. It feels like sandpaper is rubbed up and down it every time I cough.

I am vaguely aware of someone putting me down and water being given to me, feeling the refreshing liquid slide down my throat and clear the itch there for a bit.

Then I drink some more. And more, and more.

I can't imagine what is bringing this on. I guess, now that I think about it, I haven't had water all day....maybe that's what it is. But I've never had a coughing fit like this before! The only other time was.......

Wait a minute.

Oh no.

Perfect, just perfect.

Why am I always the alarm for this?

"Fire." I cough, but it sounds more like 'far.'

"What?" Kin asks, putting her ear near my mouth. I am a little surprised. When did she get here?

"Fire." I get out again, and this time Kin understands it. Her eyes widen and she moves away from me to tell the others.

"What? What did she say?" Terro asks urgently.

"Fire!" She exclaims.

The other's eyes widen and it's then I notice that everyone else on our team has gathered around.

Then, Nero groans, "What? Again!" He whines.

That seems to snap everyone else out of their stupor and they get to work.

"Nero! Neve! Kin! You guys go and grab as many fish and berries as you can carry out of the house. Meet us there. Ignis and Terro, you two help Blitz. We have to get away. We don't know where the fire is coming from, it could be all around us for all we know!" Anemos exclaims, getting right to business. Nero, Neve, and Kin nod before running away to camp, and Terro and Ignis each slip an arm under mine. Lifting me up, we follow the three who just ran to camp.

Anemos runs ahead, shouting encouragement as we move at a slow pace. He disappears, leaving us to awkwardly walk-run forward.

The water had certainly helped my cough, so I manage to half-walk, but we are still moving at a painfully slow pace. The river is only about twenty feet away from the house, but it feels like miles. I focus on taking one step after another, pretending each step is taking me a mile. It kind of works.

After what feels like a year we come across the mud house and are soon standing next to the others, who look antsy, each holding fish, berries, or both. I feel horrible about slowing them down, but there's nothing I can do about it. I guess I could make them leave me, but the determined glint in Terro and Ignis' eyes makes me forget it. There is no way they'd leave me.

I feel touched.

"Come one! Blitz, is there any way you could, I don't know, Dart or something to speed things up a bit?" Anemos asks, his arms full of berries.

I cringe. That's actually a really good idea. I try it and feel the world slow down. This is better.

We start moving, away from the camp and the river. Away from our temporary sanctuary. Away from where we hope the fire is. We push through the leafy trees and duck under low hanging branches and sticks. Terro has to snap sticks that are closely knit so we can get through, but it takes precious time.

I am moving faster for sure, but I still need help to stand, as the refreshing effects of the water have faded away, leaving me with what feels like a giant mosquito bite in my throat, and the only way to itch it is to cough.

And cough. And cough, making it itchier and more painful.

I hate mosquitoes.

We are about twenty feet away from the mud house when we see the fire. Thankfully we were right as to where it was and it is just reaching the mud house.

We stop.

We can't help it.

And we watch. We watch as the house catches fire. We watch as the mud gets harder and harder until it starts burning, the mud crumbling away. Piece by piece it falls, landing on the ground in slow motion.

Then the fire is catching the trees we just pushed through, eating away at the leaves we came out of.

And it's moving a lot faster than we were.

"Come on we have to move! Run you guys, run for your life!" Anemos shouts, his voice full of panic and fear. A panic and fear so scary that it squeezes my heart and makes my eyes widen. My heart quickens and I start to sweat.

We need to get out of here. Now.

We run. We run as fast as we can. My coughing is worse now that the smoke is reaching us, but I try to ignore it. I force Ignis and Terro to let go of me and run beside them. I stopped Darting. I can't, my body is being racked so hard .

Ignis and Terro have started coughing too, and I feel bad for them. I would grab them one by one and Dart up ahead like I did in the obstacle course underground from before, but I can't with my awful cough. My stupid, stupid cough, even if it did probably save us from the fire.

It's now I start to wonder why we didn't just get in the river and stay there. We could have waited until the fire went away, but I guess it's too late now, huh?

Neve, who is ahead of us, trips and falls, letting out a quiet scream as she lands on a pile of pointy sticks. I run up to her and grab her arm, pulling her to her feet, not stopping. She stumbles after me, but regains her balance quickly enough. I release her and slow down a bit so I'm behind everyone, ready to Dart and help someone if need be.

Nero is desperately flinging a gallon of water behind him every so often, but it only slows the wild flames, meeting it's fiery demise in hisses and pops. Ignis is trying to control it, but it's too big.

I can feel the fire now, it's waves of heat rolling over us, every time making me hotter and hotter. My clothes have been long since soaked through, and my lips are parched and cracking. My eyes water and my nose burns at the heat and smoke. I feel myself slowing down, my legs going numb. I've never run this long before. How long have we been running? Hours? Minutes?

I don't know, it feels like decades. The heat laps at my heels, but I can't run any faster. I can't. My body can't take it. The adrenaline my body was running on before has long since gone out. Every time my foot slams into the ground, I slow.

I risk a glance behind me and almost get my eyes seared out of my head. The fire is ten feet behind me, raging on the trees. Climbing and racing, seeing who it can eat first.

I guess it'll be me.

The other's are gone. I can't see them any more. Probably up ahead, waiting for me at a safe haven.

I'll never get there.

For some reason marshmallows pop into my head. They get put into a fire, cooked, sometimes burnt, but they never die. Never scream. Never feel pain.

I wish I were a marshmallow.

I feel the heat, so vivid I can't take it. The pain, so sharp I can taste it.

It feels like when you are walking on hot sand and it burns the bottom of your feet, except it's ten times worse and all over your body, leaving no spot untouched. I guess you could relate it to a sunburn, too. If you have a bad one right on your back and someone slaps it. You know that sudden, searing pain? Yeah, that's what it feels like, except all over your body and it's being constantly slapped, harder and harder.

So basically, it hurts. It hurts bad.

I start to give up, to give in to the fiery mass chasing me. I can't win. What fire wants, fire gets. I think about Darting, but for some reason I can't. I'm just so, so tired. My legs have long since been gone and I can't feel my arms anymore, pumping at my side.

Hopefully death will be quick.

I close my eyes, ready for the fire to take me. I hope Dad doesn't hate me for it.......

"BLITZ!!!"

My eyes stay closed and a lazy smile curls at my lips. It's Dad. He's calling me and my brother in for dinner. Chicken tonight, if I remember. I like chicken.

"BLITZ!!!!"

I open my eyes a peek but don't see anything. I'm still running. I guess my body just won't turn off. I can't even feel it as the branches and sticks slap my legs and scratches my arms.

Suddenly, a hand appears out of nowhere and clamps onto my arm. I feel pain slice where it grabs on, but don't cry out. The arms yanks me and I fly into where it appeared, closing my eyes.

Then I give up and everything goes black.