SALAMANDER, n. Originally a reptile inhabiting fire; later, an anthropomorphous immortal, but still a pyrophile. Salamanders are now believed to be extinct, the last one of which we have an account having been seen in Carcassonne by the Abbe Belloc, who exorcised it with a bucket of holy water.
~ The Devil's Dictionary, Ambrose Bierce

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There's that moment between sleep and waking when you're conscious of the world but not quite with it.

I think I dreamed an infinite number of people crushed in on me, trampling me down to the ground, while blind and helpless. Stuck on the ground, I could not move my arms and legs and my body ached from the pressure.

My skull echoed with a sound hammering its way in. A voice screamed for Daniel over and over again, pleading for entrance.

"Go away. Daniel isn't here." I don't think the voice heard me over the crush of others.

Light flooded through reality. Three woman towered over me. The tallest one drew her sword.

Everything snapped into place. I was hog-tied on the ground. The three women were my supposed kidnappers. Someone outside, pounded on the door, screaming my name, asking me to let them in.

Maybe that someone would rescue me. Oh man, did my head hurt.

"What do we do? He would have answered it by now." Juliva asked Larathia.

"I sense something dark about this." Larathia moved to the entrance, taking a stance with her sword, ready to face anything on the other side of the door.

"Um, excuse me everyone, could you please untie me." I croaked out. I could definitely use something to drink.

"No," Sah’rona said, "We're not doing that."

"Why not? I'm not going to run off somewhere."

That was the truth. I was going to stay here at home, take some painkillers, and sleep for as long as it would take for the headache to go away. It's not like I had anywhere to be. The job search could wait a bit.

"Who's at the door? Tell them to stop pounding. I feel it in my head." I groaned. My collar remained silent. I felt a bit sick and exhausted from whatever they did to me. Still, my emotions and stress weren't riding high at the moment so I’ve got that going for me.

None of the three made a move to answer. The door pounding ceased. Whoever it was, slammed the door. I craned my head around as best I could to watch whatever would come through.

The loud thud happened again. The door jamb creaked from the stress.

A thud followed by more cracking.

Thud, and more cracks.

Thud and the door burst open. The door jamb had splintered apart.

"Oh, my precious Daniel are you alright?"

I made eye contact with what had entered and I wish I had not. My next door neighbor, Mrs. Harrison, stood there, or at least I think it was her, or maybe what's left of her. I cringed at her smile.

Mrs Harrison turned to face Larathia, she shrilled out, "You thought you could steal Ignis Vitae from us."

I didn't know her to well, but she was nice, and always ready to help. Some would probably say she was a bit nosy with the business of others. I didn't mind. People these days were for the most part afraid of each other. She wasn't, and I found her to be a pleasant neighbor.

What I saw scared me and I don't scare easily.

Her form was no longer the elderly gray haired woman, but something grotesque out of one of the horror novels I've read.

She was large, hunched over. A tattered sundress hung off her. Sections of her skin were bare revealing patches of normal color skin mixed with decaying and desiccated flesh. Long muscular arms ended with claws. Her face had a crazed look, almost unhinged.

What the hell am I in the middle of? It was kind of surreal. Maybe I was still dreaming.

Larathia stepped forward to meet Mrs. Harrison, her sword held out. The air shimmered around, her cloak billowing out behind. Mrs. Harrison lashed out and Larathia parried, then slashed Mrs. Harrison's arm in response. Bright orange blood splattered out, smelling like a putrid rotting corpse. The blow didn't stop the monster as she struck again with her other arm sending Larathia through a wall further into the house.

My collar beeped.

"We've got to go," Screamed Sah'Rona. "Juliva, get him out." The dwarf jumped through the hole in the wall after Mrs. Harrison and Larathia.

"I will." Juliva cut off what view I had.

"Untie me."

"No. I'll get in trouble like last time."

"But how are you going to carry me?"

"Magic of course." She moved her hands, and whispered something. I floated up.

"Get my backpack. Please, I need it."

"You're what?"

"The bag I had when I came in. Please. I need what's in it. Just get it."

"All right."

I was already moving out the back door on a cushion of air. The sounds of breaking and smashing emanated from my house.

Outside would have seemed normal if it wasn't for the other neighbors coming out of their houses, many of them in the same condition as Mrs. Harrison.

"You know, we can't take them." I screamed. We need to hide. Run away."

Juliva ignored me and moved us across the street.

"Where are you taking us? We're going to die if you try and fight them."

"Shut up, I got this."

Juliva reached out her hand. A black SUV appeared. She pulled open a door. The magic moved me into the back seat. My backpack hit me right after.

Yes, she got my backpack.

I couldn't see anything other than the interior. My bindings prevented me from moving high enough to see out a window. The door slammed shut behind me. I heard another door open and slam shut. The engine started.

The SUV lurched forward and turned, before slamming to a stop. Juliva was driving. She honked the horn. I almost fell between the seats, but contorted myself so I didn't. It was taking my exertion to keep me suspended there.

Juliva screamed, "Come on, they're everywhere.

Two more doors opened. One of my kidnappers crashed on top of me. I grunted, the air knocked out of me. I gave up, and fell between the seats. The SUV moved out, jumping the curb and hitting what I think was another car on the way.

Something pinged off the car, then again, then more. Crap, someone's shooting at us now.

It was Sah'Rona in the back with me. "Hey, can you help me get upright." The dwarf stared back the way we had come from. "Please, Help me up. I get car sick. I could throw up any moment."

Breakfast was long digested by now and I had yet to have lunch so I probably wouldn't.

"No, okay, I'll just stay here then if that's alright with you." Sah’rona didn’t say anything.

The SUV swerved over the road. A bump here, an impact and scraping noise there. The nausea built up, and so did the collar’s beeping.

"Look, um, could you please sit me up. I don't feel so good."

Too late. I puked. Apparently there was something in my stomach. After the first mass of vomit, I dry heaved two times before my stomach gave up. The world swam about me while beeping away.

"Oh god that's nasty, worse than the Pomort's blood." I think that was Sah'Rona.

"Check on him." Make sure he isn't hurt."

Sah'Rona pulled me up, eliciting a series of dry heaves from me. She cut my leg bindings from those on my arms and sat me upright. Julia drove. Larathia rode in the front passenger seat.

My nausea subsided allowing the anxiety to take the lead. We must have been going sixty, maybe seventy miles per hour, weaving through traffic.

The collar beeped away. I'd like to think it was possible for someone to adapt to stress at hand. The SUV swerved to the left, throwing me against the dwarf.

"Can you stop driving like a madman, You're drawing attention to us."

"Magic," Juliva yelled, "It's a glamour effect, tells people not to notice us."

"Do you even know how to drive?" She sideswiped another car. "Your trail of destruction is going to lead them right to us."

"I saw how to drive in a vision while meditating, and I watched a few videos online. It's not hard at all."

"I didn't ask if you knew how to operate the vehicle, do you know how to drive on the road with everyone else."

She didn't respond.

"Look, you're going to kill us. I take it that none of you know how to drive. I don't want to die. Stop, let me drive. I promise you, I will go with you wherever you want me to go. Just let me drive."

"No," Juliva yelled. "My driving is fine."

I looked back at the path of destruction we had wrought behind us then noticed something as we passed through an intersection.

Cameras up on the stoplight pole.

"That's nice you think your driving is fine, but does your glamour work through a camera?"

"What? uh no. We're only dealing with organic life. It's a different glamour for tech."

"Super. There's a camera and there's a another one. There's also numerous security cameras in places that can see out to the street. Everything in this day and age is networked. If whoever wants me besides you, can access that, then they can see us."

"Really?"

"Yes, really. What the hell is this? Amateur hour? I get kidnapped by a bunch of ren-fair fanatics, and you guys suck. I was fine until you came and did this. I don't know who Mrs. Harrison really is or what, but she was fine before you guys showed up. The neighborhood was. People were shooting at us back there."

Juliva maneuvered the SUV onto the freeway. Thank god it was the on-ramp rather than an off-ramp.

"Get off the freeway." I ordered.

I don't think any of them were paying attention to me now, but I kept at it.

"Are you fucking stupid? Get off the freeway. Get off now." I yelled the last.

"Sah'Rona, shut her up." Larathia yelled.

"Why should I get off?" Juliva asked.

"Because we're stuck on it, if they can see through the glamour then it's easy now. Like shooting fish in a barrel." Anyone could ambush us now.

Juliva didn't get off. We zipped by one exit, then another, then another, barely missing the light afternoon traffic. Sah'Rona attempted to gag me. I squirmed and wormed as best I could.

"God damn it, are you trying to kill us, because I know you're making it easy for whoever wants you and me to get it done."

My collars incessant beeping stopped, giving way to a small light flashing red.

"Is my collar flashing red?"

"Yes," Sah'Rona had so far failed to gag me. She was strong, but between Juliva's driving and my refusal to stay still she hadn't succeeded.

"Fuck! Now the authorities know where we're at."

"Huh, how would they know?"

"My collar has GPS tracker, which activates if there's a problem. It's made to notify emergency services. I'm a big giant beacon broadcasting our location. I don't give a fuck what you do now, but they definitely know where we're at."

I gave up, and Sah'Rona gagged me.

I don't know how Juliva missed seeing the semi-truck changing lanes into ours, but she did. Juliva almost made it clear ahead of it, but didn’t. The SUV wedged at a near forty-five degree angle against the front left quarter of the semi. The driver of the truck realized what happened and moved back to his own lane. We didn't go back to ours. Instead, we rolled over onto the roof and slid quite a ways down the road.

Thank god I wasn't tossed out and only ended upon the vehicle's roof. Once the SUV came to a rest, I saw Juliva lying partly on the roof and the cracked windshield. The elf and the dwarf were already out.

"Fuck you guys." I mumbled through the gag.

"They're here." Larathia yelled.

The ground erupted on one side of the SUV forming a wall. Someone grabbed hold of me by my shirt and pulled. My backpack had fallen between my legs. I clamped down on it as best I could, not wanting to lose it.

I was dragged clear of the SUV onto the hot asphalt. It was Larathia who had pulled me out. She didn't appear harmed and quickly moved out of sight.

Gunfire erupted.

Juliva appeared dazed and confused crawling out of the overturned SUV.

"Juliva, Juliva," She was out of it, but moved towards me. "Untie me."

She crawled over, "Huh, what?" She was out of it. Blood streamed down her face from a head wound.

"Untie me, Juliva, You need help."

She crawled to me. Her skirt was gone leaving her knees red and raw from the asphalt. Losing consciousness, her body collapsed on me. I shifted as best I could and managed to grab her knife out of its sheath. It was quick work to cut my bonds.

A monster like Mrs. Harrison came over the wall, only to meet Sah'Rona's ax. Orange blood splattered everywhere and it went down. I put my backpack on.

"Can one of you remove my collar," I yelled to the elf and dwarf.

"No, we need tools, or a thief to pick the lock," Sah'Rona yelled back, before lobbing a stone up and over the wall. An explosion soon followed along with screaming.

Bullets whizzed by.

I checked Juliva. No major wounds or damage beyond the head injury. She was light enough I could easily carry her even if it risked more damage to her I couldn't see. We definitely couldn't stick around.

We were in the left most lane of traffic and there was no cover between us and the shoulder.

I yelled, "I'm getting out of here." I carried Juliva's limp form in my arms. I made eye contact with Larathia, " We can't stay here forever."
More gunfire erupted. Rounds were penetrating the wall

"We need to run for it." I pointed to the forested area beyond the highway shoulder.

Larathia nodded. She pulled out a number of small objects from somewhere inside her cloak, and threw them over the wall. I didn't watch anymore as I took off across the freeway with Juliva. It sounded like the 4th of July. If anyone shot at me, they missed. I reached the shoulder, then slid down the embankment and made it to the tree line.

I stopped to look back, and both the elf and dwarf were there with me. Larathia pushed me around to keep going into the forest.

We went for another half hour into the forest till Sah'Rona called for a break. Larathia used some magic on Juliva, healing her wounds, allowing her to regain consciousness.

Sitting down on a fallen tree trunk, I asked Sah'Rona, "Is my collar still flashing a red light?"

"No. The light is gone."

"Wait, what do you mean? It's got a battery that should last a few hours at least."

I felt the collar and realized what happened. The spot for the GPS transponder was deformed and partly broken. At some point something had struck it, cracking it off and I hadn’t even noticed. What luck for them.

"At least we don't need to worry about them tracking me by my collar. Now can you guys tell me what's going on? Who were those monsters, and why were they shooting at us?"

Larathia spoke, "Those monsters we faced are Pomorts. They appear to have been your jailers, or at the least, those who kept you hidden. They disguise themselves as humans to get close to their prey and feed off their life energy. Their true forms are the hulking cadaverous brutes you saw today. As for who was shooting, they could have been allies of those Pomorts or ones still fully in their human disguise. You are the fire of life. They've most likely been feeding off you the whole time and you didn't know it."

"Feeding off me? Wouldn't I be dead?"

Sah'Rona spoke, "A normal person would be dead, but not you. You're the Ignis Vitae as they called you. The Fire of Life. You don't run out of energy."

I'd like to think I gave them the best skeptical look of my life. "That's cute, but my fire doesn't seem to give life to anything. It only kills and destroys."

This time it was Juliva. She stepped in front of me and pointed, "It seems, you've forgotten who you are. My visions, the prophecies, and the artifact say you are the Fire of life, even if your body and mind do not recognize it. I have seen your fires in my visions. " Juliva tapped her head. "I do admit that they seem terrifying. But I have also seen your power give hope to others, strengthening them, and making the world a better place. You are the one who doubts."

I didn't believe them. Then again, I'd seen some fairly intense magic use today, a monster I've never heard of before, and met three women who seemed resolute in their belief I'm the chosen one or some crap like that. None of it may be the truth, but I did know that even the most convoluted lies and deceptions have a kernel of truth somewhere in their foundation. Also my house was probably destroyed, and I had no job so maybe this would be interesting.

"So what do we do, if I'm this Fire of Life?"

Juliva spoke, "We're returning you to Jord. You will take your place at the head of the Fire Temple. Then in concert with the Water, Air, and Earth temples, we restore balance to Jord."

"Well ladies, you're in luck. It looks like my calendar is clear for the foreseeable future. I'll go with you to this Jarn, Jork, Jirl, or whatever the place is. I've got nothing better to do."

Neither Sah'Rona or Larathia seemed amused at my words, while Juliva seemed pleased.