"Eli!"

    Her scream traveled faintly across the house, but there was something unusual about the flames that separated us. The house may have been a tinder box from the day it was built, but no fire should have been spreading as fast as it was. I backed up into the main room as sparks leaped up from the floor at a pace that exceeded that which I walked. Above the roar of the flames, I could make out the distant beat of war drums and the shouts of men. My breath caught in my throat as a high pitched shrill accompanied them. For the briefest moment I felt obligated to leap unto the flames, but then a support beam in the ceiling fell down and the urge was lost.

     "Eli!" Aldyth cried from the other side of the house. "What happened!? Where are you!?"

    "Back room!" I placed a fallen table on top a stretch of flaming boards and used it like as a damper to vault over the fire. Aldyth stood frozen at the far end of the sitting room. Using the table in place of stilts, I leap-frogged my way across the house until I made it to her side. "And now I'm here."

    "Thank the stars, Eli," she threw her arms around me in a cool embrace that was a welcome change to fire's....fiery...rage. "Don't disappear on me again. It came out of nowhere." Her face flushed with panic.

    I patted her back quickly then pushed her away. As nice as it was, I wouldn't let Aldyth hug me to death -- not like this anyway. "You have a mighty fine, fire resistant table. You should be proud. Now we get out of here, yes?"

    The flames glowed amber in her dark, red ringed eyes. Her lips pressed into a line as she nodded. "Yes, we must find my brother."

    "And my family," I added.

    "Yes, them too."

    "As much as I appreciate your enthusiasm, and truly I do," I grabbed her by the hand and started pushing toward the back door whilst using the table as a shield. The pounding of drums outside seemed to intensify with every step we took. It was like the will of the sound alone was what drove the flames to spiral higher and higher. The shrill flute cry  returned and I let out a small gasp as my hands instantly flew to my ears.

    "Eli, what's wrong --"

    "It's controlling it," I whispered.

    "What is --?"

    "The sound... It -- "

    "The house is on fire," she reminded me hastily.

    "Yes..." The floor burned under the soles of our shoes, but we had no other choice but to withstand the heat or die trying. The fire burned a ring around us like it was trying to herd us into a corner. Every time we moved, the flames would move with us. "It's as though it's alive...."

    "Well...it is most positively not dead." Aldyth leaned over my shoulder, then yanked me back as the roof started caving in above us. The fire backed us up against the wall and I was starting to see it with eyes and a mouth full of teeth. It was almost as if it was physically thinking of ways to kill us -- as if the heat and suffocation weren't enough. Smoke rose up from cracks in the floor making my lungs shudder with each new breath. Everything my parents ever told me about fire safety was instantly dissolved as the flames danced their little jig barely inches from our feet.

    "Don't move," I hissed as Aldyth got pressed between me and the wall.

    "Oh excellent plan, Eli. I was actually thinking of diving right in and swimming laps, but you're right, staying still is definitely the better option. Maybe if we don't move, it won't see us!"

    "I'm thinking...."

    "Think harder."

    A dozen halfwitted plans flew through my head, none of which were very plausible. Maybe we could bash through the wall or learn elven magic in the time it took to drop a pin. Aldyth whimpered and dug her nails into my arms from behind. Instinctively, I grabbed the table I was using earlier and placed it against the wall. "Get on top of the table," I told Aldyth in as stable a voice as I could manage.

    She looked up at me with sad eyes and whispered, "It will only prolong the inevitable, Eli. What about you?"

    I didn't say anything, just gestured for her to climb onto the table. She tried to glare her way out of it, but I held firm. She climbed up onto the small table that came up only about to my hip and situated herself so that she was sitting with her legs crossed. Then with a half sob, she wrapped her arms around me and buried her face in my shoulder. "I'm glad you are my friend, Eli."

    I squeezed my eyes shut as the fire started licking at my ankles. The burn was excruciating, but I didn't complain, I wouldn't, not in front of her. In a moment it would catch onto the legs of my breeches and thus would begin my own slow, painful demise. My lungs burned with smoke but I tried to see something better: sunlight and trees, the image of how the world was only this morning. I could not fathom what could have possibly brought the words of the village song to my lips, but the next thing I knew, I croaked out, "I danced in the morning when the world was begun...."

    Aldyth rubbed her hand up and down my back. "I haven't heard that song in ages."

    "Really?" I choked over a hiss and held back the urge to claw at the walls. "They play it at all the parties. Just last week when Ingred and Horus got married." I stomped on the floor to try and squelch a flame under my shoe.

    "I wasn't invited..." she sighed in a mournful tone.

"But all of Gris was in-in-agh!-invited," water sprung to my eyes as the flames licked at my legs like a thousand molten spiders crawling into my veins, but the tears quickly evaporated from the heat.

    "Eli!" She exclaimed and squeezed me tighter. "Stop this madness and get up here. You can't just let yourself be burned alive!"

    "The table doesn't fit the two of us....besides, you're right, it'll only prolong the inevitable."

    "Oh Eli...." She sniffed and buried her face back in my shoulder. I hunched down over her to shield her from the embers floating down from the ceiling. Her hair was soft under my fingers and I tried to raise a hand of comfort to her in this final hour. For the first time in my life, Aldyth seemed like a child, a kid who needed to be told that everything would be alright -- even in the shadow of obvious irony.

    My voice came out whispery, hollow, and full of cracks as if I were already gone. "I danced in the morning when the world was begun, and I danced in the moon, the stars, and the sun..." She trembled against my chest as I continued. "I danced down from heaven and I danced on the Earth...."

    "At Bethlehem I had my birth," she managed to choke out the last line. Suddenly Aldyth sat up straight with a gasp, "Look! Look, the floor!"

    I pried my eyes open for a moment and gasped in wonder. The flames that had been on the verge of swallowing us alive, had receded back a step, smoldering angrily like we were surrounded by a round shield. Aldyth slid down from the table with eyes full of wonder. "Sing again!"

    "What!?" I exclaimed.

    "The flames started going back when you started singing. Sing again! Make them go away!"

    "Fire doesn't work like that, Aldyth."

    "Well this one does, go on!"

    She was insane, always had been, always will be. But we had no other options short of learning wizardry so I consented a few more lines. "Dance then, wherever you may be. I am the Lord of the Dance, said He." Sure enough the fire withdrew another step length.

    Aldyth hurried to the space and looked back at me expectantly. "Go on! More!"

    No one will ever believe this...."I'll lead you all, wherever you may be. And I'll lead you all in the dance, said He!" A narrow path started halving the sea of flames. I took a cautious step onto the path and as soon as my foot touched down, the fire crashed like a wave in the space where I had previously stood. I quickly sang out the next verse before the flames came down and smothered us. "I danced for the scribe and the Pharisee! They would not dance; they would not follow me! So I danced for the fisherman for James and for John! They came with me and the dance went on!"

    Step by step, a path cleared through the fire. We both sang our hearts out, but eventually we made it out the back door came into view. As Aldyth continued on with the chorus, I started ramming my shoulder against the door. Someone had locked it from the outside. "Hell's fire," I gasped before running at the door with what little room I hard. Suddenly the wood splintered and snapped from the hinges. Aldyth and I raced away from the burning house in a fury and collapsed on the ground a little ways away.

    "By gods above, what was that?" Aldyth asked.

    I winced as I tried to move my legs. "I do not know. I do not want to know. But we're out." And then I hugged her.

A/n

*offers everyone crackers for that cheese* I kinda want crackers now....to bow and to bend we shan't be ashamed! To turn and turn will be our delight! Til we turn and we come 'round right! Dance then! Wherever you may be! I am the Lord of the Dance, said He. I'll lead you all! Wherever you may be and I'll lead you all in the Dance, said he!

Edited. 6.27.16