The First Touch (50 page)

She
called out to him but he did not raise his head.
Soon she
felt the tears streaming down her cheeks,
as she tried to rise but could not, her abdomen was still healing. He was injured and about to be killed
,
she needed to help him. Mirth saw that
Autumn
was
repairing
herself
and when she called out
,
he finally jumped at
Drake
.
Autumn
saw
Drake
fall backwards and Mirth quickly decapitated him his head rolling away. The males lit Ivan on fire and the smell of his burning flesh sent pain running through her body.

Then Mirth began approaching
her
again and another thud sounded. This time as a blood covered Henry crashed into Mirth ripping his arm from his body.
Autumn
noticed happily that the li
mb was badly burned though, as
another pain hit her and she instinctively crawled to Ivan’s burning body. She put her hand on to his burning back and the flames felt good, she pulled them inside of her. Then Ivan gasped for air and
Autumn
fell over as the hunger hit her h
ard. She nearly blacked out
then, but she heard Grayton screaming her name as Serena fell to the floor next to him.

Through the crowd
she
could see that the fi
ght had turned into a war, a
s the waves of
cries
r
ang out from all throughout
the great hall. Sounds of
dying
men and woman rang out in her mind
,
echoing. There were more than two clans
warring
again
st the other five. When Henry fell to the g
round
, shaking it with his thud,
Autumn
returned her attention back to the two men fighting for her life. Mirth walked slowly to his fallen adversary, cursing him in a foreign
tongue
and kicking his lifeless body.
Autumn
felt Galen fall next and then Flora and Helen who screamed horribly attempting to keep the wave of men and women from enveloping them.

The sound of their fall caused
Autumn
’s
power to surge, they were all down, all of them now. She was utterly alone, the only
one
left to save the others. Then she screamed and felt the
building shake as her rage began to
release
from
its
cage. The joy was
instantaneous;
her feeling of
pain left her skin and entered
her lungs. Then it too was eaten away by the smoke filled air that
assaulted
her.

Next she felt the
cleansing burn of the flame co
ming up from her belly. It burned her throat as she closed her eye’s feeling Mirth approaching her as the flames sc
reamed inside of her head,
Let it out!
She
felt the flames
bubbling
her skin
from the inside,
and sending pain dow
n her spine. She kept thinking
,
I don’t want my people to burn, everyone else but those fighting for me, not my people.
Then she felt Mirth’s weight on the boards in
front of
her. The pain stopped suddenly and she
felt it
release
. Her back bowed and then arch hard and she opened her mouth and let the flames out.

The flames shot from her like a volcano spewing lava hot and coving Mirth who shot straight into the air. The flames multiplied once they hit their targets and the stage cleared at once. Mirth’s men ran all clearly on fi
re, while Mirth watched
from high up above.
Autumn
let out a growl
that gurgled with fire
. S
ho
o
t
ing
power through her face as the flames licked her skin
,
warming her
entirely
. She felt like a dragon and as she looked down at her hands tha
t curled into
claws below her,
she could
feel
the vibrations under her
from the bodies that still
fought
on
top of the
collapsed
rooftop
.

Then she saw the massive claw shadow that stuck to the outer layer of her hands. She turned left and saw
that her shadow was huge. Massive and
horned with wings
…
and it was on top of her.
Autumn
opened her mouth testing it and more fire spewed out
,
beasts of myth
.
She blinked, h
er eyes felt new too, if it were possib
le she could see even more,
sharper.
Autumn
smiled and looked around at the burning stage and saw Galen
lying
on the floor. He had win
gs and there was also a glow co
ming from Grayton’s skin. He was slowly putting himself together on the
other side
of the stage. She smiled and felt Mirth’s eyes on her from up above again, then heard a step come from behind her.

Autumn
twisted snake like towards the sound, and saw
another Mirth
,
standing in a corner. His eyes were closed and his heart raced in his chest
, like that of a human’s
.
Autumn
looked up at him confused, there were
two Mirth’s
? Except that Mirth did not have a heart beat, none of them did save Ivan
and her as far as she knew, but this other Mirth had a distinct,
thump, thump,
thump
.

Then she found herself distracted, as she saw Utvic
appear, still invisible to the others, he was uninjured, and
glowing brightly. He walked swiftly towards
Autumn
his expression pained, “Are you alright?”
Autumn
nodded though she was not sure if she really was or not. Utvic stopped short eyeing her closely,
sensing
the change
, the creature within was not within anymore, but out and frightening.

Autumn
felt his gaze and smiled, and he stepped back cautiously when she did that. She felt her stomach growl and it rumbled all the way up to her throat and ripped free. Utvic stepped back again, putting his hands into the air protectively.
Autumn
nodded waving him away
squeezing
her eyes shut and then
whispered, “Take Ivan with you.” He nodded and pulled Ivan’s body away with him as he left the great hall.
Autumn
felt a rush as she heard
Ivan’s beating heart, alive but still
unconscious
.

Autumn
watched as Mirth signaled for two of his men to follow Ivan only to have
Autumn
raise her hand and stop them. They watched her still
kneeling
on all four gri
ping her stomach and shaking, and
they slowly crept forward
testing her resolve
.
She
hissed and as they grew
closer to her. Then she growled low and let it
rumble
in her chest as her last warning
sounded
. The taller of the two pushed the small
er man forward testing her mistakenly for the last time
.

Autumn
stood as he
approached
and felt the fire burning to come out of her again. So she parted her lips and sprayed him in the face and then walked after the other. She
followed him through the crowd and after nearly a minute she stopped and snapped her fingers. Then she raised her hand and lifted him off the ground and slammed him back down.
Autumn
then grabbed his head and tore it from his body quickly and without hesitation
, coving the remains in flames
. Then she jumped back to the stage in one
magnanimous
leap.

She headed straight to the second Mirth on the stage and sliced
its
head from
its
body. The Mirth i
n the air fell to the floor his head rolling away from his
shoulders as well. Then she covered the bodies with fire from her chest.

The mayhem
that followed could not get any worse.
Autumn
let the blood rage finally take over as she pounced on each of Mirt
h’s remaining clan members, draining
each one dry
. T
hen
lit them on fire with her mouth, and then threw
them into a large pile in the center of the stage. All save one female that made it obvious that she was not intending to continue fighting now that Mirth was dead.

Autumn
forced the girl to slice her finger so that she could confirm
the girl’s story while others watched. Afterwards the female
fled from the castle knocking into several others in her hasty departure
, alerting another clan to a shift in power.
They
ceased
fighting with
Autumn
’s
supporters and moved to the rear of the
dilapidated
hall
at once, signaling to the others that the fighting was finally over, and Mirth had lost.

Autumn
jumped up and called out in her mind, “If you are with me then you should be on the left side of the stadium. If you are not then you should be on the right hand side.
If you are unsure simply stay to the back please.” Minutes later
,
they were split into three groups, as
Autumn
hummed a sweet tune encouraging
compliance
. W
hen she tur
ned from the groups, she
looked at her slowly recovering clan.

They were all pretty damaged, many b
urnt and some missing limbs even
Drake
was still decapitated awaiting
revival
.
Autumn
headed for him first, placing his head back and
alighting
him. He sat up quickly and
she
stretched
out and hugged him. He looked around at the burning stage and
disheveling
audience, then at
Autumn
’s
changed face and twisted his head
, “
Autumn?”
She
nodded, and then she stood helping him to his feet.
As she did her fingers glowed, much like Utvic, and a thought occurred to her, he might simpl
y have an abundance of darkness
in that glow.

Distracted she
walked to the center of her clan as a thought
occurred
to her then placing
her hands together and
radiated
heat from her
palm
s. She thought about each of them one at a time healing each one of them completely. When she opened her eyes again they were all whole again
, and only a few seconds had passed
. Then she walked to the edge of the stage and did the same for the left side of the auditorium.

When she opened her eyes the left side was all
staring
at her in devotion and the right side watched her in horror.
Autumn
smirked
as many of the bodies near the back moved clo
ser to the left side then, asking
politely
,
“
So will there be anymore challengers for me or my clan today?”

All eyes watched her and silence followed.
Autumn
nodded and turned to Henry, “This meeting is finished then?” Henry nodded, and
Autumn
said, “If you would like a private audience with me I will be
available
the day after tomorrow as soon as the sun rises.”

Then
Autumn
stepped to the right side and said
, “
I am extending this
invitation
to all,
regardless
if they are for and against my leadership, so if you have any
lingering
questions or concerns then please feel free to come and see me.” Then she stepped back
to center stage while the pile of dead bodies behind her hissed and popped, “Oh and thank you all for coming, I hope you all have a safe trip home.” The looks on the faces of many were near comical and
she
suppressed
a giggle. The
surreal
feeling that followed sent a smile
to her face as she turned towards the council.