At first, the title she had given Smith slipped my mind as I suddenly charged forward toward the candlelight. At that point, it didn't seem of any great importance. Smith was alive, and that's all that mattered to me.
"SMITH! SMITH, WHERE ARE YOU!?"
I yelled in excitement as I came to a halt at the back of the room where the candle was still afloat. Within seconds, Himora was at my side, his sword now sheathed.
"Calm down, Bastion!"
He said as he caught his breath.
"As loud as you're being, he's likely to die of shock from you yelling like a madman."
The joke was in the air, but to me it didn't seem as funny as he'd meant to be, for the truth of the matter was that Smith was hurt pretty badly in the fray that we had been caught in, and I could have actually made him worse by disturbing whatever peace he may have found in this strange place.
I grew quiet after the comment and did my best to hold back my excitement.
"S-so, where is he?"
I asked no one in particular, for the woman had not yet shown herself, and it seemed as if we were standing in a large empty room alone, talking to nothing more than the candle itself. Himora was just as confused as I was, and apparently, a bit more on edge, for as I turned to him, I realized that he held his sword fully at the ready before him.
"This is weird."
He more so thought aloud than anything else.
"Yeah, it is."
I agreed.
"But being kept here in the dark is really starting to tick me off."
I said as I placed my left hand on my hip and relaxed my grip on my spear, which was in my right.
"If anyone was to attack us, it would have been done by now, and that woman just seemed to be playing games with us. Where the hell is she and Smith?"
All was quiet for a moment as the words left my mouth, and made me even more anxious to find Smith and the strange Herbalist. For the moment, I had forgotten all about the girl who had taken him, and in an instant, she came rushing back into my head. Before I knew what I was saying, the words left my mouth.
"I wonder where that ice-girl went?"
But I received no answer from Himora, who seemed to be lost in thought. He just looked at me and glanced away toward the large black wall and the freaky candle that floated there. I noticed that it never seemed to lessen in size the entire time we stood there, and by now it had been a while.
Without another word, Himora stepped toward the candle and reached for it.
I had the thought of stopping him in my head as his hand grew closer to the undying flame, but it was washed away by the remembrance of his elemental status and how fire could do virtually no harm to him.
I did suddenly pose a second question that, unfortunately, would go unanswered.
"Himora, what are you do-"
Before I could finish my sentence, I was forced to throw my hands up to shield my eyes from the candle the moment Himora's fingers made contact with it.
It all happened so fast that I barely had time to bring my hands back down before the super bright light had faded as quickly as it had come.
Himora no longer stood before me.
For a few long, tense seconds, I stood alone with my spear poised for combat. The room had suddenly gone completely black, followed by the disappearance of Himora.
A tear formed in my eye as they failed to adjust to the seemingly endless darkness, and fear swept over me as my mind failed to analyze what had just occurred.
The seconds became minutes, and my knuckles cracked and ached from the strength I had applied to my grasp on the long, solid shaft.
My heart beat wildly, and in the pitch blackness of the room and its haunting silence, I could hear it beating loudly in my ear.
After about five minutes of me standing at guard, a small light appeared several feet in front of me where Himora had once stood.
It was a flame.
A tiny, red, and orange flame that seemed to be growing bigger by the second.
I took a quick step back as it suddenly grew from the size of a grape to the size of my fist and back to its original grape size in a bright flash.
It took my eyes but a moment to readjust to the new light in the room, and when they did, I realized that the candle was there again, floating just as it had been before Himora had ventured to touch it.
My mind was numb with fear, excitement, and paranoia as I pondered on what to do next, but there was only one thing I could do, and I knew it, but at the moment, I didn't want to accept that fact.
I closed my eyes and took a step forward, not wanting to see the fate that would take hold of me once I proceeded.
Within three steps, I could feel the heat of the enchanted flame just a foot away from me. It seemed to call to me softly, and my heart beat to it, strangely beckoning me forward.
With a slow movement and a deep, hard swallow, I lifted my arm and reached for the ever-burning flame.
As my hand grew closer and closer to the candle, I could feel the heat increasing, threatening to burn and singe my fingers, but something about the warmth made me want it more.
It seemed to reassure me that I'd be okay, and that the entire world called for me to touch the flame atop its wick...
That's exactly what I did, and man, did I ever regret it.
Upon contact, the bright flash took my vision, and a loud ringing in my ears caused me to go deaf! Just as any sane person would, I panicked and pulled...or tried to pull away from the sudden intense light, but its pull was too strong and I was sucked in.
I'm pretty sure that what happened only took a second.
Two at most.
But it felt like hours had gone by once I had touched the candle, and the horrible brightness and ringing seemed like it would never go away.
By instinct, I found myself crying out for help in pain and in fear.
I called for my dad, for my mom, for Himora, for Smith, and I even called out to the mysterious Ice-girl, but no one answered, and before I knew it, I was face-down on a cold, hard floor.
My body ached from head to toe, and my eyes burned and refused to open upon my command.
"Uuugh... what the hell... was that?"
I said to myself as I tried to climb to my feet.
"Feels like my body was just ripped apart and put back together..."
I thought aloud.
My arms felt heavy, and my free hand felt as if it were on fire; the other was numb, and its fingers seemed to be frozen around the shaft of my father's spear.
"Stupid... candle!"
I scolded aloud.
"Stupid girl! Stupid Herbalist! Stupid fire!"
I was pissed, and my body agreed and seemed to simply protest my every move with a surge of pain with every inch I rose.
A pair of voices caught my attention from across the room. This new room was nothing like the last that I... we had been in. It was full from wall to wall with tables and shelves full of books, bottles, and bags that were all filled with who-knows-what from who-know-where, and to top that off, the smell was twice as bad as that of the last room.
"God, take me now..."
I said to myself as the voices grew louder with their advance.
By now, the pain was starting to fade, and luckily for me, it did so just enough for me to pull myself to my knees and raise my spear to waist level.
My eyes had not fully regained any of their sight, so the room itself and the two approaching figures seemed large and blurry.
Honestly, at first it frightened me, until the pain washed my fear away and snapped me back to attention. I may have been 50% blind, deaf in one ear, and basically paralyzed, but I decided then and there that if I was going to die, at least one of them was coming with me.
"S-stop!"
I yelled, trying to sound as intimidating as possible.
"You take another step, and-"
"And what?"
Came Himora's voice to my one good ear.
"You gonna poke us?"
He said teasingly.
"You and I know that you're in pain and exhausted, so just lie back down and relax for a moment until the Maugyk wears off, you'll be alright."
As if on cue, my eyes began to grow heavy, and I could feel my spear slipping from my hand. Suddenly, my body went limp. I could feel myself falling toward the floor, but the impact never came as a pair of strong, soft hands caught hold of me and lowered me slowly to the ground.
"Easy, now."
I heard a soft voice whisper into my ear.
"Just rest yer bones now, lad, ye'll be just dandy."
I couldn't make out what race the accent originated from, but in truth, right then, I couldn't have cared less.
Within seconds, all was black again, and I drifted off into a dead sleep.