Brian Pratt - Fires of prophesy

He begins to feel the tingle that always heralds another mage who is working magic. Glancing back toward the mages on the hill, he sees one has his arms raised. “Fly!” he yells to Jiron as he kicks his own horse into a gallop and rides to the southeast, angling away from the two armies.

The tingles suddenly intensifies and he looks back to see a fireball flying toward them. He counters with a spell and it explodes harmlessly before it even reaches them.

The cavalry has swung to intercept them but aren’t gaining very fast. James realizes he’s unlikely to destroy both armies without unleashing something cataclysmic. His only hope is to hide, disappear. Suddenly, a memory surfaces of a time he and his family had vacationed in Las Vegas during the summer when a Santa Ana had come through. They had been caught out on the back roads and the flying sand was so bad, his grandfather had to pull off the road and wait it out because he couldn’t see the pavement.

He yells to Jiron, “Take a cloth and cover your face!”

“What?” he yells back.

James pulls out a cloth and yells again, “Cover your face!” He then takes the cloth and ties it around his face until only his eyes are showing. He sees Jiron getting the idea and beginning to do the same. James starts concentrating on air pressure and the winds begin to increase.

They’ve left the armies on foot behind but the cavalry is still gaining ground. Jiron realizes that they’re not going to be able to outrun them. He looks over to James and sees him there with his eyes closed. He moves his horse closer to James and grabs his reins so they won’t become separated.

As they continue to gallop, the wind begins to pick up. It’s almost as if the wind is slamming into the ground and drawing the dirt and sand up into the air. Before too much longer, the air is becoming hazy as more and more of the dirt and sand is being sucked up into the air.

The intensity of the wind hurls the sand into them with sufficient force to sting where it strikes exposed flesh. Jiron looks back but the dust in the air has obscured everything and the cavalrymen are no longer visible through it.

He begins to angle slightly more to the south, hoping to throw off their pursuers. The storm continues growing in intensity and he hollers to James, “That’s enough! You’re going to get us killed if you don’t back off!”

James’ eyes fly open and he looks tiredly to Jiron as he nods understanding.

When the storm doesn’t subside, he yells to James, “Stop! You’re going to kill us!”

Yelling back, James says, “I have! The storm has taken a life of its own. I can’t control it any more!”

“Damn!” Jiron curses as they continue galloping to the south.

The winds steadily keep increasing and soon larger stones have been picked up by the winds and begin to pelt them. One stones strikes James on the thigh causing him to cry out. “Stop!” he yells to Jiron.

Coming to a stop, they both dismount. He has Jiron stay close to him as he attempts to create a barrier around them to keep the storm out. Suddenly, all is calm as the dome springs into being, the sand and wind continue pelting the outer side of the dome. The dome extends fifteen feet in diameter and ten feet high.

“How long can you hold it?” Jiron asks, retaining tight hold of the frightened horses’ reins.

Considering it, James replies, “It was the initial construction that used the most magic. It’s drawing what I call maintenance magic now, just enough to keep it stable. Probably for quite a while.”

Jiron says, “Good.”

The horses are restless, but appear they’ll be okay. Jiron looks out at the swirling mass of sand and stones in awe. “Just what did you do?” he asks as he turns back to James.

“I thought I would make a dust storm to hide us in so we could escape,” he explains. “But when I cancelled the spell, it continued. It seems I inadvertently triggered something that was on the verge of happening anyway, though maybe not to this degree.” Indicating the storm outside, he says, “It’s probably situations like these that make people hate mages, or at least distrust them.”

Jiron nods his head and is about to reply when they hear a scream and turn to look as a man, at least they think it is, hits the side of the invisible dome. Most of the skin has been flayed from his bones by the storm. A ghastly appearance, they can see its skeletal mouth opening and closing and then it’s picked up again by the wind and disappears.

They look to each other, James feeling very bad about the whole thing. “I guess we’re not going to have to worry about pursuit when this is over,” Jiron states.

Trying to fight back nausea, James replies, “You’re probably right.” He looks out to the storm again and then says, “Maybe you should try to get some sleep, I don’t know how long this will last.”

“What about you?” he asks.

“I dare not fall asleep,” he replies. “The barrier might end.”

Jiron unconsciously looks out at the storm and nods his head. “Alright,” he says as he makes to lie down. “Though how I’m going to sleep in this is beyond me,” he states.

James sits there as the storm rages outside the dome. He realizes after a while that Jiron has finally managed to fall asleep and hears soft snores coming from him. As the day progresses, the storm continues in its intensity and as night comes, the light begins to fade.

Casting his glowing orb for light, he keeps it soft so as not to awaken Jiron. The horses finally settle down as they become use to the roar outside the dome. Sitting there with nothing to do as he maintains the domes integrity, he becomes bored and tired. He’s beginning to find it hard to stay awake. The events of the last few days and the continual draw of magic to keep the barrier up are starting to take its toll on him.

Getting to his feet, he paces around to keep himself awake and begins to sing songs from home. Some he knows in their entirety and others he gets through the first couple of verses before losing it. All through the night he stays on his feet, refusing to give in to the tiredness that’s making his eyes droop and voice start to slur.

Sometime near dawn, the storm finally begins to subside and quiet down. Jiron comes awake and sees James sitting there, head drooped down to his chest, asleep. Startled, he gets up and begins to go over and wake him up when he realizes the dome hadn’t collapsed with him falling asleep. It was covered completely with sand, light from the morning sun dimly filtering through.

Calming down, he sits back down and allows James time to sleep, knowing he has to be extremely tired after all he’s done the last couple of days. He only has to wait a short time before James awakens. He begins to panic when he realizes that he fell asleep. “Relax,” Jiron tells him reassuringly, “you’re spell didn’t fail.”

“Yes, it did,” he corrects him. “I no longer feel any drain used to maintain it.”

Gesturing to the dome around them, he asks, “Then how?”

Going over to the side of the dome, James examines it and says, “The storm has packed sand and dirt around us so tightly, that it held together when the dome failed.”

“You mean we’re buried under the sand?” Jiron asks incredulously.

“It would seem that way,” replies James.

“Incredible!” Jiron exclaims as he moves over to the dirt packed in around them. He touches the side and a small portion of the dirt comes loose. Then suddenly more begins to cascade down until the integrity of the entire dome fails and collapses down upon them, burying them in a foot of dirt and sand.

The horses panic as the dirt hits them and James cries out but quickly realizes that there’s really not that much dirt covering them.