I gradually drifted awake and checked Asten. He slept peacefully, a half smile on his face. I no longer felt restless. There was something soothing about being close to him, our limbs intertwined. The lids of my eyes lowered sleepily, but I remained in a half-dozed, half-wakeful state, which is why I was able to react so quickly when incipient, dark plumes of smoke rose from the west.
Quickly, I disentangled myself from Asten and shook him. He groaned, reaching for me and trying to pull me back. “No!” I hissed, patting the nearby ground for my leather harness. “Wake up, Asten! Ahmose?” I called out.
“What is it?” Ahmose was at my side almost instantly.
“There’s smoke,” I said.
He peered into the murky twilight. “Could it be another campfire?” he asked.
I shook my head. “Too big. Do you want to stay with Asten or come with me to check it out?”
At hearing his name, Asten finally roused himself enough to open his eyes. “What’s going on?” he asked.
“Smoke on the horizon,” I answered matter-of-factly. “We’re debating on who’s going to stay and watch over you.”
Asten gave me a long look, one that I couldn’t decipher. “I’m well enough I think to go with you,” he finally answered.
“Are you sure?” I asked. “You slept like the dead.”
Again Asten paused, a slight frown wrinkling his brow. He had an air of expectation, as if he was waiting for me to say something else, but then, dutifully, he began unwrapping his bandage. His thigh was perfectly healed.
“Can you stand?” Ahmose asked.
With the help of his brother, Asten took a few cautious steps and then bent to stretch out, testing his muscles. “I don’t understand how this happened,” he said, remarking on his returned strength.
“There’s no time. We’ll explain on the way. Hurry!” I added when I felt like they were moving too slow. “The smoke is coming from the area where I found the mother tree, and I’ve made a vow to protect her.”
Asten helped me shrug into my leather harness, his fingers sweeping along the hemline of my shirt at the back of my neck. I started and stared at him in puzzlement as he murmured, “We wouldn’t want you to be an oath breaker, then, would we, Little Lioness?”
“Uh, no,” I answered blankly, feeling like I must’ve heard him wrong or missed something. “Let’s go already!”
They followed, trusting me to find the right path, which I was able to do easily. Even with the smell of smoke filling my nostrils, I knew the direction I’d walked before and recognized the trees. The smoke overhead billowed, becoming blacker with each step.
The closer we got to the mother tree, the more certain I was that the fire would harm her soon if it hadn’t already. Tension bubbled up inside me, filling my frame, and I pushed the two men harder, running and darting through the underbrush faster than they could, even as immortal guardians of the afterlife. My claws came out, and I tore at the vines and branches that got in my way.
We hit the fire line all too quickly. Ahmose stepped forward and used his power to find the safest path. Despite his ability, we were often burned and our progress slowed but we were able to move along despite the char in the air and the fog of black smoke. When it became too difficult to see, I learned of another gift Ahmose possessed.
Taking hold of my arm, he stopped me. “Stand still for a moment.”
Raising his hands in the air, he chanted a spell, and a gentle wind lifted my hair and the hem of my shirt. A stiff gale moved all around us, and I had to squint and brace myself against a tree in the maelstrom. Within the span of a few moments the smoke had cleared away enough for us to continue, but the wind he’d created had stirred up the fire even more.
The mother tree was just ahead. The trees around her were black and burned like charred skeletons reaching toward heaven for divine assistance. Around the mother tree, white, sparkling smoke lifted into the air, and though her leaves shook and her branches trembled, she was still alive. Hope blossomed.
“Hurry!” I cried. “She’s still there!” We closed the distance and ran to the tree, stamping out flames in the grass at her roots. I turned to Asten. “We have to stop the fire!” I shouted. “Can you make blankets so we can smother it?”