A Symphony Of Frost And Flame

12 • RAEHERYS

The wildfire raged like hell as it reached up to touch the night heavens. The intense heat pushed the surrounding villagers away—but not Raeherys. It welcomed him instead as he hasted towards the burning house.

"My King!" Fetyr called out behind, but Raeherys couldn't hear anything else other than the cries of the helpless women inside—and the child. The damn child. He shouldn't have agreed to what the Lawdra had said earlier. It was a mistake—a big mistake.

The blazing wooden stairs creaked as Raeherys climbed on it towards the door. Flames embraced his body, but it didn't hurt him. He instead absorbed more energy from the heat, sending his blood into a raging flow.

Raeherys pushed the door.

But it's locked.

"Open up!" Raeherys said, knocking hard—but the people inside gave no response ... only their screams. They might have been stuck inside, he thought.

With brute force, Raeherys clenched his fist and then struck the burning door. The impact instantly destroyed the wood, slamming the door open.

At first glance, the woman he saw earlier was crouching at the center of the bamboo floor, hugging her two children—a young girl and an infant, sobbing and crying for help. They covered themselves with a soaked human fabric.

When she saw Raeherys, the woman's eyes widened in fear, as if she's about to face her end. "Please, not my children!" she begged. "Don't eat them."

Raeherys stepped through the doorway, raising his hands up. "I'm here to help."

"No. Get away, you beast!" The woman covered her children firmly with the wet blanket.

"There's no time—"

Raeherys stopped as the burning woods cracked above the ceiling. "Watch out!" He dashed forward and blocked the debris on top to protect the humans. The woods hit his back and his head—making him growl in pain ... but fortunately, he was fine.

The woman looked shocked, her lips parted open. "Please—"

Raeherys cried out loud as he wrenched all his muscles to throw the woods away.

"We have to go, now!" he said, reaching out his arms to her.

At first, the woman hesitated ... but then she finally gave her two children for Raeherys to carry while she followed him out of the doorway. They used the wet blanket to cover the burning path towards the door. At last, they managed to storm out of the house before it broke and crashed down along with the flames.

The woman and her children were coughing hard from the smoke. Raeherys tried to comfort the whining infant, but hopeless it was. The baby kept on crying and crying with a few tiny coughs.

As they moved far away enough to safety, Raeherys could feel eyes around him. He gave the crying infant and the young girl to the woman. She took them possessively, then moved her children away from Raeherys.

"Stay away! This one's a dragon in disguise!" She warned her fellow humans.

"Did you see it? He walked through the fire unhurt ..." One villager spoke out.

"I saw it too." Another said.

Raeherys glanced around him as the humans stepped back and held their families tight. He thought they would attack and kill him with no second thoughts ... but they appeared to be unarmed. They didn't look like those brutal, merciless humans described by the mondras.

"I won't hurt you. I saved them." He tried to convince the villagers, but in the end, he realized he could never change how they see him.

"You burned my house!" The woman accused in tears.