Read The Fire Bringers: An I Bring the Fire Short Story (IBF Part 6.5) for Free Online

to tell him that so were many early humans.
    More hoots sound in the forest around her. Sucking in a breath of oxygen and magic, she pushes her power to her limbs, eyes, and ears. If she can dodge them …
    She hears the stones whizzing through the air before she feels them. And then she’s falling, Durga spilling from her arms. Amy lands with jaw-rattling force on the ground, Durga falls a few inches in front of her; the shroud of invisibility is lost.
    Amy crawls forward on her hands and knees. “Momma!” Durga cries. And then, lifting her head, Durga screams, the world seems to rock, stones whizz from the trees, and everything goes black.
    x x x x
    Bohdi emerges at the research outpost just as Lemurlikes are ripping the limbs from the corpses of the scientists and elf mage. The magical generator is dead, but he doesn’t have time to ponder why.
    “Another!” cries one of the Lemurlikes.
    They turn toward Bohdi. Grasping his marble, Bohdi puts his face on all of the Lemurlikes, drops invisibility around himself, and weaves through the throng as they attack each other.
    His headpiece crackles with Steve’s voice. “Status.”
    “All the scientists are dead,” Bohdi says. “Searching for Amy and Durga.” Bohdi’s words are detached and distant to his own ears. He doesn’t feel distant, he wants to set the forest on fire. Amy would survive, but Durga ... He scans the foliage and sees broken branches and trampled undergrowth in the direction of the savanna. Bohdi starts off at a jog in that direction, sending projections ahead as he does.
    Suddenly, a cry splits through the mountains. “Momma!”
    Bohdi’s projections hone in on the sound. He sees Amy crawling toward Durga, her green hair twisted and filled with leaves, her pointy elven ears caked with dirt. Their daughter is crying, one of her wings is hanging limply, her hair is in disarray, and her face is covered in grime. Lemurlikes are stalking toward her.
    Bohdi screams, and the Lemurlikes next to Durga erupt into flames. Eyes going wide with fright, Durga screams and the world rocks.
    The Lemurlikes, now walking torches, stumble and fall in the underbrush, setting it alight. Bohdi almost sobs as the fire approaches Amy and Durga. The magic marble in his hand is almost out of charge; with a snarl he tosses it to the side—the tree it hits catches on fire. Pulling another marble from his pocket Bohdi slips through the In Between, and emerges in the flames next to Amy and the sobbing Durga.
    Durga throws up her arms and one of her wings. “Daddy!” she cries and begins to cough. Bohdi cools the fires on his skin. Covering his wife and daughter with his body, he sends his projections as far as they will go. He finds a cliff of solid rock on a mountain between the forest and savanna. He pulls the last marble from his pocket and slips into the In Between, Amy clutched awkwardly with one arm, Durga coughing in the other.
    For moments that stretch too long they are in the In Between. Amy and Durga are heavy, and the marbles aren't as powerful as Laevithin. Bohdi reaches with his memory for the cliff face, pulls with his mind — and then brings them back into the universe two feet above the cliff. They crash to the ground and Durga screams in shock. The sound pierces Bohdi’s ears and the world rocks and sways. For a horrible moment, Bohdi thinks the rocks beneath them will collapse and crumble. He sends out projections, looking for another safe place to land and sees flaming trees tumble to the ground, setting the forest alight as they do.
    Durga whimpers, the world stills, and Bohdi takes a deep breath. Amy is still silent and unconscious. Bohdi’s last marble still has some power; he can’t use it to heal Durga’s injuries or create a World Gate home, so he presses it into Amy’s hand. Steve’s voice crackles in his ear. “Bohdi, status update?”
    “I got them. We’re safe for now.”
    Durga whimpers, “My wing hurts,” and Bohdi can’t do