Star Stable: The Legend of the Storm Rider

Chapter Five: The Fire Incident

She was looking around warily too see that she wasn't in Valedale Village anymore, but Irma seemed to be standing in the center of an ancient Fort Pinta in the middle of the night. She took in the sightings and noticed that the people in the armies were wearing clothes from the Middle Ages. She eyed the area around her warily and realized that she was seeing a lost memory of the past, maybe that's why nobody was acknowledging her sudden presence in the area.
That's when she suddenly realized that the whole entire place was under attack. Back and forth, everybody was fighting on either horseback or on foot all over the fort. There seemed to be fire spreading all over the place from the walls and buildings of the fort, and the cry of battle echoed throughout Fort Pinta. Some of the fire was being used by a young man on a black mare.
Through the confusion, Irma narrowed her eyes to gain a better look of the man and his horse. He seems to be age of forty. He has curly blond hair and bright green eyes that seems to be glowing through the smoke, while his skin is much like hers and bares no injuries of any sort. He was wearing black shoulder-pads on top of his dark tunic with a dark gray long-sleeved undershirt, on his hands were black riding gloves, black trousers that ends at his black riding boots, and clasped behind him was a emerald green cloak that has a shield on his back. He was riding a completely black mare that resembles a North Swedish horse and has intelligent amber eyes. The mare has a medieval, Y-shaped, and baroque-styled war bridle, the English saddle was on top of a green riding blanket.
Irma gave an inward cringed as the rider and his mare had started galloping towards her, with a flaming sword in hand. But she was tired of being afraid, she could feel loneliness and intense feelings that she couldn't make out. She stood her ground firmly and stared evenly at the riding horseman.
She barely even flinched as the rider had pointed his flaming sword at her chest, but Irma stared up at him with a firm, calm expression and kept her calm posture in front of the intense warrior and his fierce mare. But she was surprised to see his regretful green eyes has a slightly startled look, almost as if he could see Irma, and had lowered his sword from her chest. Irma looked down at his trembling sword and up at the horseman in the eyes calmly, despite the rapid beating of her heart.
If she didn't know any better, she could have sworn that he was trying to tell her something with the desperate look in his eyes. He suddenly looked really agitated and anguished for some reason, but Irma wasn't able to hear what his situation was to her for some reason. She looked up at him sympathetically and with a helpless expression.
"I'm sorry. I don't understand." Both her eyes and her body language showed this to him, in which he and his mare could see from her and was considered rare for them.
Before anything else could happen, a massive explosion had happened in the courtyard and...

Irma had suddenly bolted awake in her bed to hear the sounds of yelling, screaming, and panicked horses crying out in fear. She felt a massive wave of fear washed over her. No, it's not for herself. It was for her horse partner, Tempest. Irma was worried that her mare was caught in the spreading wildfire. She quickly gotten ready and ran outside with a horrified expression. She could see the panic in the village and the stables had somehow caught on fire. Everyone was rushing around in a massive panic as they struggled to put out the flames.
"Tempest!" Irma looked through the crowd as she searched for her mare in worry. "Tempest! Where are you!?"
A shrill whinny was heard as a familiar horse with a dazzling silvery-gray coat and strong, but graceful precision had started galloping towards her. Irma narrowed her eyes and cried out in joy when she saw her partner galloped through the smoke and stopped in front of Irma.
"Tempest!" Irma wrapped her arms around Tempest's graceful neck as she hugged her partner and the mare lowered her head, returning the embrace. "I'm so glad you're safe."
But she and Tempest broke the hug to see that the fire was blocking the only exit in the stables and was trapping the panicked horses inside. The druids made sounds of anguish and the children started crying for their horses. It touched Irma's heart and was determined to help the partners reunite with each other. She looked up at Tempest and the mare nodded her agreement.
"We have to help them." Irma mounted Tempest and it wasn't long till they had started helping out with the fire emergency by getting buckets of water from the Silversong River and towing wheeled barrels of sand to take out the fire with Irma's lassos. But the fire was really relentless as it spread around the village and started heading towards the forest.
"Oh no." Irma had caught sight of the jumping flames as Tempest kicked down a barrel of wet sand with a horrified expression. "We have to pick up the pace."
"The fire had jumped into the forest!" yelled Avalon as he helped out with the fire beverage.
"We're all going to die!" a druid screamed, only to be nudged by another druid.
No, thought Irma firmly with narrowed eyes and tightened her grip on Tempest's reins as she glared at the hot, blazing flames that surrounded everyone. Not if I have anything to say about it.
The fearful panic of the horses that were all trapped inside of the stables and the cries of fear from the druids had made Irma more determined to stop this mess once for everyone. Everybody may be in panic or in fear, but she wasn't afraid as everyone else was. She was both calm and determined to stop this mess for everyone's lives.
"Irma. We must use our power." A strong, warm voice was soon heard echoing through the strange space, in which reminded Irma of the sea. The voice is clearly a female and sounded human, but inhuman at the same time. She decided to just roll with it.
Irma's bright blue eyes shone with electricity and her inner power has begun to roar. Her fierce blue aura soon revealed itself from behind her and the blue aura had also started radiating from Tempest, causing her blue highlights crackled with electricity. Their auras are radiating bright blue from behind Irma and Tempest. They felt it burn strong and bright like a fierce thunderstorm, but the power of it wasn't touched by them till now.
Irma felt something deep within her soul set on electricity and felt its warmth spread throughout her body. She felt something deep, powerful going through her and lifted her right hand that has a ball of blue electricity crackling in her hand. She couldn't see it, but her blue aura started glowing even brighter. Irma was surprised to see that she had instinctively tossed a magical ball has been tossed into the air, the sky had became filled with silvery-gray thunderclouds at an instant.
She closed her eyes and focused on summoning the rain, while pushing away the sounds of panic and fear out of her mind as she focused; the gentle sound of dripping and dropping of rain. The bringing of water drops. The soothing rhythm of raindrops. The rapid pace of the rain as it rides along with the wind.
It wasn't till the wind had started to pick up and a flash of lightning flashed through the silvery stormclouds, followed by a deep rumble of thunder from overhead.
"Keep going!" Irma and Tempest continued to combine their powers as one. For a brief moment, it almost looked like Tempest has a pair of silvery-blue phantom wings on her sides to Rhiannon and Avalon. Streaks of blue had started to appear in Irma's flowing hair, but it wasn't long till three intertwined circles had suddenly appeared into the palm of her left hand without her knowing. Though, three intertwined circles tattoo had suddenly appeared in a small flash of light on Tempest's neck and the partners didn't notice it as the wind blew through her mane and tail.
The wind and rain has started to increasing in speed as it started circling Irma and Tempest, creating an updraft and the rainstorm had started pouring down over the woods and the village. Underneath them was a silvery circle with the symbol of lightning in the center of the magical circle. Lightning flashed in the distance, outlining Irma and Tempest in its brief white light. It was like being inside of a breezy, raining tornado as the rain continued pouring down.
Irma gritted her teeth in powerful determination and she suddenly looked up, her blue eyes glowing like blue lightning against the gray gloom as she and her partner continued pushing their powers to the very limit. In the next moment, everything changed. They started glowing brighter and brighter until a flash of blue light had occurred from the rider and the mare. The blue light shone up towards the approaching night sky, causing the Pegasus constellation to be aligned and the stars was sparkling with renewed strength.
It wasn't long till the heat of the flames had started to be diminished and only the faint scent of smoke could be seen from the aftermath of the wildfire. The panic and fear from both humans and animals had started to fade away, much like the fading smoke around them. Irma had let out a breath and Tempest sighed in relief. She almost fell off of Tempest, but the mare shifted her weight and Irma leaned against her horse's neck.
"Irma!" Rhiannon ran towards Irma and helped her dismount her mare. The woman offered her hand to her apprentice, in which she takes, and Rhiannon slipped an arm over Irma's shoulders. Behind them was both Tempest and Nex, who both seemed to be protecting the two of them from the onlooking druids and animals. "Are you okay Irma?"
She calmed herself down with a deep breath and met Rhiannon's warm brown eyes with weary smile.
"I'll be fine." Irma chuckled as Tempest laid her head on her left shoulder and noticed the fog around the woods.

Before the evening fog had lifted, a secret meeting was being held in an ancient stone structure in inhospitable terrain that was usually empty. Not many people know about it, but if they do, it's called the Secret Stone Circle. There were other names, too difficult to pronounce, since they existed beyond language, time, and space. It was an old site of worship, ritual, and magic. The place consisted of a circular, paved area where no weeds had grew. But Sasha could see wildflowers: red, white, and sun-yellow roses wound their way along their cliff; cow parsley and daisies shone white. Shining in a purple druidic markings was all of the Guardians and the Soul Riders on the stone floor. On the standing stones that shone with mysterious purple glows from strange carvings.
The Keepers of Aideen had filled the stone benches, they spoke in murmurs and vibrated with anticipation. They were joined by the five hidden Soul Riders and Guardians in the scarce place.
Fripp, the eternal leader of the druids, stepped forward. Despite his big squirrel-like in appearance, he was something else entirely. He is mainly sapphire blue with a white underbelly that has a pink marking on it. He also has a pink marking on his forehead, on his tail, and ears. He wields a short wooden staff surrounding a small magenta jewel.
"The second Legendary Rider has found her horse," said Fripp. "The signs of the two riders has been spotted. We have yet to find the third Legendary Rider. The light has shone brightly when the Legendary Riders had set foot on the island and awakened their powers." He met everyone's gazes evenly, one by one. "We must find them."