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Alrighty and part 2. Once again, I hope you enjoy it.

As always, comments are appreciated and requested.

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Continued from the masks we wear, part 4...

Letting out a sigh of relief, I let the door shut, leaning my head against it and closing my eyes. It was about eleven in the evening and our friends had just left. After Alex and I had gotten back from the tournament, we had all gone to dinner together and then sat around chatting for hours. Today had been a heck of a lot of fun, but now I was well and truly worn out, even with the new gifts I possessed. What I really would have liked to do just then was collapse into bed and sleep until Sarah physically dragged me out of bed sometime tomorrow. But, hearing my mate's footsteps on the soft carpet behind me made me turn around, my eyes opening on their own. And at the sight that greeted my tired eyes, my brain did an immediate about face, forgetting all about bed and sleep. My mate stood there, blocking the way into the rest of the house, one mask in each hand, a familiar sly grin on her face. Returning her grin, I slipped off my camo jacket and tossed it onto the equipment bag I had left near the door, following her as she led the way into the living room. By the time I got in there, she was already in her underwear, and I hurried to match her, leaving my clothes in a trail leading to the door.

In a few moments, we were nude once more, and Sarah sat on the couch, beckoning me closer until we were sitting a little way apart, facing one another. With a smile on her face that wasn't quite mischievous, but very close, Sarah handed me my mask and I eagerly lifted it to my face, settling it into its usual place. The second it touched my skin, the magic in the living wood went to work, unlocking my true self once more. At once, the pleasant tingling sensation surged to life in my body and I shivered, luxuriating in the sensation of fur suddenly sprouting from my skin, my eyes closing in ecstatic anticipation. The transformation only took about thirty seconds, but it was one of the most liberating sensations I had ever felt. It was as if the mask banished every burdensome thought when I wore it. When it was over, my body had shifted in size and shape until I was a large wolf again, silver grey with white highlights and it felt nothing short of wonderful. And moments later, when I had opened my eyes once more, the vixen that was sitting across from me looked me up and down, nodding once in shared satisfaction; this was much better.

Grinning from ear to ear, the hint of mischief still in her gaze, Sarah the vixen turned a bit so she was sitting fully on the couch for a moment, getting into a crouch and then, without warning, she pounced, playfully tackling me. Unable to keep from laughing, I fell backward, landing so I was sprawled on my back on the couch, Sarah nibbling at my neck, pretending to growl fiercely. Trapping her with my arms in a close hug, I growled in return, licking at her ears. Giggling, she nuzzled into the fur of my neck, snuggling in close and I hugged her tight to my chest, pressing us together. Utterly content, we held each other in silence for a few minutes, doing nothing more than listening to each other's breathing, nuzzling each other gently.

Finally, after who knew how long (and honestly, who cared?), Sarah slowly slid off my grey furred chest, sliding over towards the edge of the couch and I obligingly shifted so I was on my side, laying back against the back cushions, allowing her to settle in against me. Moving with lazy slowness, Sarah reached out for the remote and started channel surfing while I spooned up to her, searching for a show we could both enjoy. We finally settled on an episode of CSI we had recorded, and as the theme played, she laced her fingers through mine, tugging my arms closer around her, beginning the usual process of twining our limbs together. Many of the intimate moments we had shared in the last few months had begun this way, and though neither of us was really in the mood for sex right now, one never knew how the evening would turn out. After about half an hour, when the CSI team was closing in on the murderer and even our tails were pressing close together, I remembered the odd tenseness that Alex and Kendle had seemed to share once again and I suddenly wondered if Kendle had discussed it with Sarah. Though Alex and I, good friends that we were, had barely scratched the surface of the issue, I wouldn't have been at all surprised if the two girls had discussed it in detail, seeing as they were close confidants.

"Sarah?" I asked, speaking quietly so we could continue to watch the show while we talked.

"Hmmm?" She replied, turning her head a little to look back at me.

"Did you happen to notice today that Alex and Kendle seemed sort of tense together?" I asked and she nodded. "So it wasn't just my imagination."

"No, it wasn't just you." She said, tugging the arm I had draped over her closer to her body. "Did you talk to Alex about it?"

"Yes, but he claims he doesn't know what is going on." I answered. "He said she has just been a little distant to him lately. Why, did Kendle give any explanation?"

"Yes, though I think she is being ridiculous." Sarah said, heaving a sigh. "I mentioned it while we were on the way to the mall and she tried to pass it off as her just needing some space. But when I pressed her, she said that she was starting to question whether Alex is the same person she fell in love with."

"I don't think he has changed much since they met." I interjected and she nodded.

"Neither do I, but that is what she said." Sarah paused a few moments to watch Captain Brass interrogate a suspect and then continued. "After we talked about it for a while, she said that she has started to wonder whether Talon was the person she fell in love with, not Alex."

"And what exactly is that supposed to mean?" I questioned, unconsciously cocking my head to the side in confusion, looking all the world like one of my four legged cousins. "Talon is Alex."

"That is what I said." Sarah stated. "Kendle just sort of shook her head and changed the subject. Like I said, I think she is being ridiculous."

"I agree." I said, nuzzling into her hair, between her velvety soft ears. We fell silent for a while, watching the end of the episode, and then, just as the end credits were starting to roll, a thought occurred to me. "You know, maybe there is a way to show Kendle that she is being silly."

"What did you have in mind?" Sarah asked, reaching for the remote once more to start another show.

"Maybe Orlan has something that could help." I suggested, absently stroking my mate's side with one of my hands, while Sarah started an episode of Burn Notice. "Since we were going to go visit him tomorrow anyway, we can ask."

"I don't know if that is such a good idea." Sarah replied, arching her back against me to encourage me to keep stroking her pelt, the first spicy notes of arousal starting to creep into her scent. "I mean, do you think they could handle it?"

"Well, we did, didn't we?" I retorted, tracing the curve of her ribcage with my claws. "I mean, look what it did for us."

"You make a good point." She stated, letting out a light gasp as my fingers trailed upward along her solar plexus, the spicy note getting stronger by the moment, sending electric thrills through my body with each breath. "I suppose it wouldn't hurt to try."

"Good, that is settled then." I said, pulling her into a close hug once more and nibbling her shoulder. "Now then," I said, gently caressing my mate's breasts with my fingertips, making her shiver, a look of pleased frustration appearing on her face. "Shall I continue, or am I distracting you from the show?"

"Well, since it is recorded, it doesn't matter if I am distracted, does it?" Sarah questioned, reaching back with one hand to caress the fur of my neck. "Don't you just love DVR?"

"Not as much as I love you." I replied, kissing the top of her head while my fingers began their journey down her red furred stomach. When my fingers trailed down below her belly button, she shuddered and gasped, glaring back over her shoulder at me.

"Why is it I can't seem to help myself around you?" Sarah questioned, grinding her hips backward against mine. "You..." Just what she was going to call me became a mystery as she sucked in a surprised breath, a wave of pleasure washing through her at the searching touch of my fingers upon her nethers.

"I know, love, I know..." I replied, rising up enough to give her a kiss on the lips. "I'm a bad wolf..."

***

Grinning to myself, I held open the fogged up greenhouse door for my mate, allowing Sarah to walk through it ahead of me. As the door shut behind us, I breathed in the humid fragrance of the huge building with joy, feeling the chill of the autumn air we had just left subsiding. Already the green robe and heavy cloak I wore seemed a little oppressive, but that was easy to ignore in here. The greenhouse was easily the size of a football field inside, twice as large as the house that sat outside it in fact, and it was the very definition of a druid's paradise. As it turned out, Orlan had made a fortune developing climate control systems when he was younger, and he had done some of his best work for this wonder of engineering. The environmental system kept the inside of the building at the perfect temperature and humidity of late spring year round, keeping the plants within its glass walls blossoming. And more, it was filled with plants of every description, from trees of all kinds, to tiny white flowers in the grass no larger than the head of a pin. The air felt more alive inside the glass dome than anywhere I had ever been and to a druid, it was intoxicating, every breath almost euphoric in intensity.

Sharing a delighted grin with Sarah, I offered her my arm, and when she had taken it, loping her own green clothed arm through mine, we began the long, slow walk along a path lined with small stones. They had been long overgrown with soft moss, and though the path forked on several occasions, the faint strains of the same eerie flute and harp music that I had first heard in Orlan's festival shop guided us unerringly towards the dome's heart. When Orlan had agreed to join our grove (as a group of druids is called), he had graciously offered the dome as a place to hold our gatherings. Today was the Autumnal Equinox, and as with the Summer Solstice and Lammas, the two holidays that had passed since we met Orlan, our grove was meeting here to celebrate.

It took us a good ten minutes of slow, pleasant winding to reach the center of the greenhouse, but when we had, we both stopped, taking a moment to kneel in reverence, bowing our heads at the edge of the broad circle of grey stones that alone were kept uncovered by moss. In each of the four compass directions, five strides from the center of the ring, a stand of stones had been built, piled without mortar with painstaking precision so they would never wobble or topple, and on top of each was a small, handmade basin of clay. One basin was filled with clear, glittering water; another held a pile of smoothed stones like river rocks. The third held only a single cone of incense, its smoky trail blowing this way and that in the breeze of the environmental system, and the last held glowing coals that sparked and flashed occasionally with red flames. And kneeling in the center of the sacred circle, dressed in his usual richly embroidered dark green robe, was Orlan. The elder druid's eyes were closed, and though we had been quiet when we walked up, he obviously knew we were there. After a few moments, his eyes opened and he got up, turning towards us with a smile.

"Welcome my friends." He said, motioning for us to walk with him. "It is good to see you."

"Its good to see you too Orlan." We replied, allowing him to lead us off towards the far wall of the indoor garden, away from the circle. As we walked, I told him about the tournament and he told us of his progress in searching out the others who had his gift, the gift that had allowed him to make the masks that he had given us. Though we had been the first to receive masks, in the months since then, the other members of our grove, since they were all furs already, had come to share in the secret of the masks, and our gatherings had become all the more special because of it. But as we sat down on comfortable benches that sat near the glass wall, looking out on the browning plain that sat outside the greenhouse, Orlan looked at me with an evaluating expression on his face.

"So," he began, smiling as he poured steaming tea into three cups. "Though I am pleased to see you both, I take it there is a reason you showed up early."

"There is." I confirmed, taking the tea he offered with a nod and he motioned for me to continue. "We have some friends that are having a similar sort of problem that we went through before you met us."

"And you think that the same solution will work for them too?" He said, smiling. I nodded and he cocked his head slightly. "But I take it they are not druids, or we wouldn't be having this conversation."

"No, they aren't." Sarah answered. "But it would mean a lot to us if you could help anyway."

"Don't mistake me." Orlan said, holding up a hand. "I didn't mean I wouldn't help. I just meant that the masks would not be appropriate for them." He paused as if considering it, and then his smile widened. "I think I have just the thing for them, assuming they are the friends you have mentioned before."

"Yes, those are them." I replied, still surprised by how much the old man could remember. We had mentioned Alex and Kendle to him a long time ago, when he had first invited us here, and I could not remember the topic having come up since.

"Wait here." Orlan said, getting up and heading in the direction of the door that connected the greenhouse to his home. "I will be right back."

It took Orlan about twenty minutes to return, and when he did, he was carrying a small wooden box that looked sort of like the ones fancy calligraphy pens came in. When he had sat down once more, he held out the box on both palms, holding it with reverence. And as I reached out to take it, I noticed that the smooth lid was engraved with a familiar circular design. It was a ring, much like to the ones I wore around my finger, but thinner, a single ogham word written four times around its circumference. The word was Tine, or Fire in English. When Orlan relinquished the box into my hands, he spoke once again.

"These are something I made a long time ago." He said as I unlatched the box and lifted the lid. "I have been waiting for the right person to give them to, and if you are right, then your friends are them."

Inside the box, resting on a bed of smooth green velvet, were two rings. They were perhaps a half inch wide, and formed of many strands of stone that curled about each other, twisting over and under one another so that it was almost impossible to tell how many there were. But on the top of the ring, carved from a single clear stone that might have been a jewel, was the shape of a dragon's head. But where a jeweler, working with the most precise tools, might have been able to make a vague dragon shape, these were of such perfect, exquisite detail that they looked almost as if they were just asleep, even down to miniscule scales almost too small to see. One was crimson red, with miniscule spines and horns of onyx black, and the other was a deep green with a hint of blue, with white instead of black for its horns. And then, even as I admired the craftsmanship with which they had been made, a faint glow seemed to pass through the stony bands, a glint akin to the light that sometimes surged through the ogham on my rings, or on Orlan's ever-present staff. The brief gleam of light revealed something I missed; along the inside edge of the rings, carved onto the twisting stone, were words written in ogham, but what they said I couldn't see, the runes seeming to shift and change by the moment.

"Well, you have been right every time so far." Sarah commented as I gently touched the red ring with my fingertip, the fey red light flashing through it once more, accompanied by a sudden flash of the blue light that washed through the runes on my own rings. Orlan smiled at the compliment and then his need to reply was suddenly cut off as voices came up the path from the direction of the circle. Grinning, I closed the box and tucked it into an internal pocket of my robe, already planning how to present it to my friend. Finishing his tea, Orlan stood up and took from within his robe a mask, much like mine in shape, raising it to his face with an easy smile. Sarah and I followed suit, the tingling sensation that accompanied the transformation far stronger than it normally was, the abundance of living things in this place giving the power in the masks even greater strength. Orlan, now in the form of an aged black wolf, his fur tipped in grey, led the way back to the circle of stones, and when we arrived, we found eleven more robed anthros, both male and female, waiting for us. Greeting the rest of our grove warmly, we put aside thoughts of the outside world, allowing them instead to turn to the far simpler thoughts of celebration and honoring all that lived...

***

Smiling to myself as Alex flicked to the last page of the manuscript I had printed out for him, I went over my plan one more time. We were currently seated in the room in my house that was my writing office and Sarah's drawing studio, the two of us having split off from our significant others when we had gotten home from dinner. In the week since Sarah and I had met with Orlan, I had concocted what I thought was the perfect plan to give the rings to Alex, but now that it came to it, it was hard to actually start the conversation. The trouble was, my friend being who he was, he hated accepting random presents. In fact, the last time I had given him something, it had taken almost twenty minutes of cajoling to get him to actually take it, and that had been a movie that he had liked and I had preordered. So, I knew how hard it was going to be to get him to take something like the rings, which were far more substantial gifts.

"You know," he began, lowering the manuscript, "I have said it before, and I will say it again, you have a gift for writing."

"Thanks." I replied. "It comes from lots and lots of practice. But everything sounds good? The flow is natural and everything?" he nodded and I returned the nod, settling back in my chair. "Oh, and speaking of gifts..."

"Oh not again." He laughed, rolling his eyes as I got the ring box from the desk drawer where I had stowed it. "I keep telling you not to do that."

"Yeah, yeah." I said, holding it out to him. "This will be the last one for a while, I promise."

"That is what you said the last time." He stated, reluctantly taking the box and brushing a thumb over the carved design in the lid.

"Well, its been 'a while' hasn't it?" I replied and he grinned, shaking his head.

"You and your relative measurements." He said, examining the ogham letters incised into the wood more closely. "What does this say?"

"Tine." I translated, "It means 'fire'."

"Neat." He commented, opening the lid and looking inside. When his eyebrows raised in a look of surprise, I grinned wolfishly at him.

"Actually, I should have said that these are a gift for you and Kendle." I explained. "I know you will enjoy them."

"I can't take this." Alex protested, looking up at me in shock and trying to hand the box back to me. "They must have cost a fortune."

"Talon, they were given to me by one of my fellow druids, so I could give them to you." I replied, pushing the box back towards him. "He made them, just as he made the masks that we keep on the dresser in Sarah and I's bedroom. Orlan's gifts drew Sarah and me closer than we have ever been. Maybe these will do the same for you two. And if not, well at least they will look good."

"Orlan made these?" Alex said, picking up the red ring carefully and examining it closely. "How did he do it? The detail is extraordinary."

"You know, I am not really sure." I said, watching him carefully as he returned the ring to the box. "In any case, you can't not take them. I have no use for them."

"Alright." He said, heaving a sigh of resignation. "But seriously, no more random gifts ok?"

"Ok." I replied, getting up and clapping him on the shoulder. "Come on, I am sure the girls are wondering what is keeping us."

***

Alex sat down with a sigh on the couch in his apartment, kicking off his shoes as he settled back against the soft cushions. As much as he enjoyed the company of his friends, it was always nice to get home, especially because he and Kendle had class tomorrow morning. 'Speaking of Kendle', he thought, his eyes on the brown haired girl as she hung her jacket in the closet and then headed off down the hall without saying a word, leaving the hall light on behind her. Alex watched her go, admiring her form even as she walked out of the room. Heaving a second sigh, he wondered once again what could have possibly happened to make them so distant. When they were with their friends, or out and about they were fine, but when they were alone together, it seemed like they were miles apart even when sitting side by side on the couch, and it was starting to grate on his nerves.

Shaking his head and letting his thoughts go, Alex allowed his imagination to drift a bit, smiling in spite of his annoyed mood. Even after dating as long as they had, he still found it hard to resist the urge to stare at her. She wore her hair about shoulder length, the bangs cut just long enough to frame her emerald green eyes when it wasn't tied back. She was lean, but not skinny like some girls were, their daily morning run keeping her fit and healthy rather than stick-like. She was only about an inch and a half shorter than he was and still the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. But the most amazing thing about her was that, somehow, every time he looked at her, an image appeared in his head of what she might look like as a dragon, and that always made him feel even more attracted to her.

And, of course, that made it all the harder for them to be having the issues they were having. Taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly, Alex listened as his girl got ready for bed, waiting for her to be finished so he wouldn't have to deal with the awkward silence between them while he got ready, which left only the awkward silence while they were laying down to sleep. Leaning forward and lacing his fingers together, he banished the draconian vision of Kendle and thought instead about the conversation he had had with his friend. Devin had always been...well, odd was too strong a word for it, but unique was closer to the mark, and in the last few months he had seemed to become even more so. Still, Devin and Sarah had seemed to become closer than ever recently, which might have explained his new oddities. Standing up and sliding his arms out of his jacket sleeves, he started to head for the bedroom. But even as he was getting up, he heard a clatter and he looked down to find that the small wooden box his friend had given him had slipped out of the pocket where he had stowed it.

Pausing for a moment, he tossed his jacket back onto the couch, bending down to pick up the box, the words of his friend coming back to him. He had said that Orlan's gift had made him and Sarah closer, though that statement still made little actual sense. Cocking his head to the side, he looked at the ogham letters with curiosity. Despite his friend's assurances, he wasn't too sure about the rings. He hadn't mentioned it to Devin, but when he had first held the box, he had imagined, or thought he had at any rate, that the wood tingled at his touch. The only time in his life he had ever felt anything like it was the time in physics lab when they had been playing with tesla coils. Part of the lab that day had been to hold your hand near the coil to demonstrate the conductance of human flesh, and when he had done it, his hand had tingled just the same way as it had when he touched the box.

Just as he was about to set the box down on the coffee table, Alex suddenly looked back around the living room in surprise. He could have sworn, just for a moment, that he had heard faint music of the kind that his friend stockpiled in his music library, an eerie sort of celtic tune, all harps and flutes. And then he caught a sudden flash of reddish light in the corner of his eye that made him look back at the box. When his gaze returned to the gift, the college student stared at the engraving in the lid, not quite sure of what he had seen. As impossible a thought as it was, he thought that the carved symbol, which, since he had first seen it had been the same dark brown wood as the box, had glowed.

After a moment of staring at the box, he suddenly realized that no, he hadn't imagined it. The carving was gleaming, a strange, scarlet light shining from the smooth shape, casting strange shadows around the dimly lit room. And, as he stared at the strange apparition, frozen in surprise, he heard the eerie music again, soft and echoing like it came from far away, but the sound was much more distinct than it had been, now unmistakable. Though he knew he had never heard the tune before, it sounded somehow familiar, like something from his distant past. It reminded him strangely, of the woods he had wandered in his youth, and somehow, in a way he didn't understand, of his favorite tree, a tree he had found that had grown into a shape like a dragon's head.

"Uh...Kendle?" He called, turning his head towards the hall, though he couldn't seem to wrest his gaze from the carving in the lid of the box. And even as his girlfriend replied from their bedroom, the tingling sensation returned in his fingers, the wood seeming to be warming up in his grasp, the light from the symbol growing brighter as if lit from within by fire. "Can you come here a second?"

"Be right there Alex." She called in return, her tone neutral. While he waited for her to come back out of the bedroom, Alex felt his heart beat starting to pick up, the music growing louder in his ears, the scarlet light somehow growing until it filled his sight. And then, the sound of his girlfriend's footsteps made his sight jerk towards the hallway, snapping him out of his trance in a second. The strange music faded back into the distance of his hearing, becoming so soft that he had to strain to hear it. "Did you hear music just now?"

"Uh...." Alex replied as she walked into the living room, looking at the box he held curiously. The glow had vanished, though strangely, the box seemed to be even warmer than it had been moments before. "Was it sort of an eerie sounding Celtic tune?"

"One of our neighbors I would expect." She answered, standing next to him and laying a hand on his shoulder. "You ok? You look like you have just seen a ghost." "Yeah, I guess so." Alex said, peering suspiciously at the carving in the lid of the box, daring it to contradict him by glowing again. The carving remained obstinately dull and he at once questioned if he had seen it in the first place.

"So, what is in the box?" Kendle asked and he finally looked up at her, meeting her green eyes evenly.

"A gift from Devin." He stated, pushing the lid of the box upward with his thumbs. "Something for the both of us."

"Well that was nice of him." She commented, her eyes widening when she saw what was inside it. "Oh wow."

"Yeah." Alex said, still not wholly sure he was actually awake and not having some sort of really bizarre dream. As he stood there considering the rings, lost in his own world, Kendle tugged him back towards the couch, letting him sit down before she sat next to him, reaching up to take hold of one end of the box, turning it to look at the rings more closely in the light coming from the hall. "He claims that one of his druid friends made them."

"I find that hard to believe." She said, taking the green ring from the box and laying it on her palm, looking at it from every angle. "How on earth would someone get such detail from stone?"

"I don't know." Alex said, taking the red ring from the box once more and looking at it just as suspiciously as he had looked at the formerly glowing carving. "A laser maybe?"

"Maybe." Kendle said, gently rotating the ring so the dragon carving caught the light from the hall. "But who do we know who would have access to a cutting laser like that?" Just as the question was leaving her lips, a flash of greenish light suddenly washed through the surface of the ring, making her jump so badly it nearly fell out of her hand. "Whoa!! Did you see that?"

"Uh huh." Alex said, staring at his own ring, transfixed by the dragon carving. The strange ring was glowing scarlet in his palm, and more, it was giving off a discernable heat, like a tiny flame had been kindled in its heart. The carving looked so real in that moment it was almost alive, as if it was just waiting for some signal to suddenly leap into being. Slowly, as if compelled by a will that was not his own, he picked the ring up in his left hand, holding it out so that he could slide a finger into it. As the stone circle slid around his middle finger, he was dimly aware that Kendle was doing the same thing next to him. Nothing happened at first, the ring sliding easily past his knuckles, but when the ring had settled against his hand, he realized two things at once. One, the ring fit him as if it had been carved specifically for him, and two, the strange scarlet light was now shining only from the outline of the dragon carving, though it was blazing so brightly that it seared itself into his retina, leaving its bright imprint even in the darkness of his closed eyes.

And then, though the light was bright, and the stone warm, nothing seemed to happen and Alex let out the breath he had unconsciously been holding. Grinning over at Kendle, he found her wearing the same, almost relieved grin on her lips. He wasn't sure what he had expected to happen, but he was relieved that nothing had, and what was more, that he was no longer transfixed by the carving on the ring. Shaking his head, he reached up and tugged at his T-shirt's collar.

"Heh...not sure what that was all about." He said and Kendle nodded. And then, as he looked at her, he suddenly cocked his head. Something was different about her, though what it was he couldn't even begin to guess. It was just a faint feeling that something had changed. Maybe it was something in her eyes, a slight shift in shape... And then, something else, something far more concrete, caught his attention. "Is it warm in here?"

"A little, yeah." Kendle said, flicking her arms a bit to bring a breeze under her nightgown. "Did you adjust the thermostat when you came in?"

"No I didn't touch it." Alex replied. Something was definitely going on here, there was no denying it. And then, all of a sudden, before he could so much as consider what it could be, he felt entirely too hot, like he was sitting a little too close to a campfire. Shaking his head and resisting the urge to start panting, he leaned forward, pulling his socks off his suddenly sweaty feet. "What the heck is going on here?"

"I don't know." Kendle replied, sweat beading up on her brow as she too sat forward, dragging her footies off.

Alex was about to suggest that they go take a cold shower or something to cool off when he suddenly felt the sensation change. All at once, he didn't feel too warm all over anymore. Doubling over suddenly, he gasped, clutching at his chest in sudden fear. It felt as if someone had replaced his insides with lit coals. It was like a bonfire had suddenly roared into being where his heart used to be, a fel heat that was growing by the moment. Flames suddenly seemed to roar in his ears, drowning out the music entirely and he dimly heard Kendle call his name in alarm, reaching out for him, but her hand never got to him. Instead, she suddenly gasped in pain, her arms recoiling to clutch her own torso. Though he tried his best to do something, to reach out to her, Alex couldn't seem to command his body to do anything rational. Instead, with a suddenness that he couldn't explain, blazing heat suddenly exploded in his scalp, as if his hair had ignited, making him clutch his head, groaning in pain. But more fires were being kindled within him by the moment, the fire in his heart seeming to be spreading to his shoulders and then down his spine with the speed of a wild fire on a windy day. Then, when the fire reached his lower back, he lurched suddenly forward as if he had been kicked, falling onto his hands and knees before the couch, narrowly missing the coffee table.

Now Alex couldn't seem to get enough air, gasping with every breath, his lungs feeling perilously close to igniting as well. He tried to cry out, tried to say something, anything, but he couldn't seem to get his tongue to work. Then, without warning, his back hunched as the fires grew even hotter, curling his body like bacon in a pan. He couldn't hear anything but the roar of the flames and the same fel scarlet light was steadily encroaching on his sight until he saw only small, distant images, ringed with scarlet fire. And then it happened again. His whole body suddenly grew hot, his flesh scorching with its heat. He couldn't breathe, he couldn't cry out, couldn't even think. But he could feel.

Alex could feel every ounce of heat in his flesh and if he had been able to think, he might have worried that the carpet he was kneeling on would catch fire, but he wasn't even capable of forming such a thought. And then, as he burned on the inside, something started to change, something started to shift. The flames started to feel less like pain, becoming something else altogether, and the heat was growing still, but it felt different than it had even moments before. Over the roar of the flames in his ears, he heard a strange sound, a sound like cloth tearing, but it seemed somehow distant, unconnected to him, insignificant. And then, the scarlet light obscured his sight entirely, the fires that raged within him growing to a fevered pitch. At last, it was too much and blessed, cool darkness descended on his sight...