Winds of Fire

Chapter 18

-.... Guys!!.... Guys, wake up!......

-Nnghh... - The yells in the distance awakened Talulah. Despite the sleepiness still clinging to her eyes, she stood up from the ground and walked over to the fissure's entrance. She didn't go unnoticed though, as his boyfriend Will heard the sound of her steps and woke up as a result.

-*Yawn* Good morning, darling... - Upon laying his gaze on the draco, he noticed her standing right outside and with her hand resting on the sword's handle. A bit puzzled by this, he shook his sleepiness off and asked. – Tal, it's something the matter?

-Shh, don't you hear it?

The boy put his full attention and listened closely. For a moment there was only silence, but soon he began hearing the shouts as well... and it didn't take long before he realized who they belonged to.

-Blyat, that's Matt's voice!!!

He jumped up and rushed to entrance, joining Talulah there. The two stood and attentively watched the woods ahead, tension building up in the air. Their pulsation became higher by the minute as the voice got closer and closer. Only a few meters remained... and then the painful wait came to an end. To their relief, they spotted Matt coming out from behind the trees, a bit tired but otherwise fine. The boy stopped in front of them and spoke.

-Will, Tal! Hah... I'm so glad I've found you. – He said between pants as his legs came to a halt. – I starting to think I wouldn't make it back...

-Leave that for another moment. What the hell happened to you? – Asked his friend in a worried tone.

-I- I don't know where to begin. Mostima and I went down to the river to fill our water bottles, a- and well...

-Get straight to the point. – Talulah intervened. – What did you find there?

-A body, that's what we found!! A bloody dead Russian!!!

His yells were so loud that he inadvertently ended up waking everyone from their slumber. By the look on their faces, one could tell they weren't quite happy about their sleeping getting interrupted in such manner. Scratching her eyes a bit, Croissant stretched her arms and spoke.

-Dudes, why you all shouting like that? You've just ruined the wonderful dream I was having...

-Do you mind to explain what's going on? – Asked a sleepy Texas.

Matt turned shifted his attention towards the rest of the team and began explaining.

-Long story short, there's a fuck*ng dead Russian officer floating at the river, and we don't have a single clue of why it's there in the first place!

Croissant frowned a bit.

-A dead Russian you say? Why are you worried then? It's actually good for us, that guy could have found our campsite and revealed our position to the Army!!

-No, you aren't getting it. – Said the boy. – I'm very worried because: a) Since it's clear that we aren't responsible for this, and unless I'm wrong, the Russians don't go around killing their own people, then it's safe to assume that there's a third party involved; and b), because not even a second after Mostima and I found the corpse we spotted that in the distance.

Everyone followed with their gaze to where Matt was pointing at... and there they saw the colossal column of smoke silhouetted against the morning sky.

-My God, the smoke's coming from the Russian positions at the North Pass... - As she said those words, Exusiai realized the absence of a key player in this. She threw a dead-serious glance at Matthews. – Matt, where's Mostima?