Page 13 of Sealed By Fire (The Nature Hunters Academy 2)

The water elemental queen smiled, and humor was in her eyes. “Yes, child. We wait.”

3

Do I still have my breasts?That was the first thought that went through Shelly’s mind when she was once again able to think. At some point, the pain had stolen her consciousness. But because life apparently hated her, she was again cognizant of the fact that she was burning. Was it a little ridiculous to be worried about her breasts? Probably, but no matter how small they were, they were all she had, and she damn well didn’t want them burned off. Tara would have told her she had an unhealthy fascination with her breasts, kind of like the one she had with Tara’s impenetrable hymen. The thought of their running joke surrounding Tara’s imperviousness to pain almost made Shelly chuckle.

As the heat and flames continued to burn, Shelly realized the pain had either lessened a bit, or she was growing desensitized to it. Or perhaps all of her nerves had been burned to the point there simply was no feeling left. Whatever it was, she wasn’t going to complain.

Forcing her mind to focus on something other than the pain, Shelly tried to get her brain to tell her eyes to open. The effort was as fruitless as it had been the first time she’d tried. Shelly felt as if she’d lost all control of her body.

“What isss that?”

The words caused Shelly to jump. At least she would’ve jumped if she’d had control of her body. As it was, she remained totally still. But inside, she jumped. Shelly had never heard such a strange-sounding voice. It sounded like a hissing snake, but it had definitely said words. That meant her ears were working, at least. That was good, right?

“It isss a girl, a mortal,” another hissing voice said, this one a little higher pitched than the first.

“She burnsss, and yet she livesss,” the first voice said. “Try and touch her.”

“Why ssshould I try and touch her? Why don’t you try and touch her?” The higher voice hissed.

Okay, how about no one tries to touch me.Shelly wished she could say the words out loud.

“I don’t want to be burned,” the deeper voice said.

“I don’t want to be burned either, you imbecccile.”

High hissy voice is getting an attitude.

“We ssshould tell our lord about her,” the deeper voice said.

No, no you should not.She didn’t know who their lord was, but nothing good ever came from hissing voices. Just look at Harry Potter. If these two hissing things were required to run off and tell their “lord” every time they came upon an unconscious burning girl, well, he or she was certainly going to be bad news for Shelly.

“You tell him, then. I do not wish to draw hisss attention,” high hissy voice whined.

See!Shelly wanted to shout. If you’re his minions and you don’t even want to draw his attention, then why in the ever-loving-world would it be a good idea to tell him about me?

“I don’t underssstand why the mortal doessn’t jussst burn up,” high voice said.

“If we knew we could touch her, then we could jusst eat her and forget about her.Thenwe wouldn’t have to worry about our lord finding out we didn’t tell him about her. Problem sssolved.”

Changed my mind! That’s the worst idea in the history of ever. Do NOT eat me! I’m not edible. No one wants to eat me, I promise. There’s no meat on me, and I don’t taste like chicken. I’m all bones and gristle. I probably taste like charred skin. Nobody likes charred skin. Why can’t I talk? She could hear, so her brain was obviously working. Why didn’t the rest of her work?

“What are you two doing here?” A new voice joined the others, only this one didn’t sound a bit hissy. It was gravely, as if it hadn’t been used in a while.

There was a scuttling sound and then a whimper. “We are on our way back to the ashen forest,” the high voice answered with a quiver.

Hissy sissy. Shelly chuckled to herself. At this point, what else could she do?

“Then be on your way.” Gravel voice huffed.

“We found this mortal,” the deeper hissy voice argued, sounding irritated that someone had given him a command.

“This level is not your concern, little demon. This one is mine.”

There was more hissing, but no words. It sounded to Shelly like a couple of cats showing their displeasure. Then there was the scuttling again, but soon it faded into the distance.

“You do not belong here, mortal,” the gravelly voice said, and Shelly thought she could detect a hint of pensiveness in the tone.

No dog feces dude, Shelly wanted to say. Nobody belonged in a burning building, or wherever it was that she was burning.Am I in a burning building?The gravely dude had called the hissy ones “little demons,” and the hissy voice had said something about an ashen forest. None of that sounded to Shelly like she was in Kansas anymore. So where the bloody hell was she?

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