A rising fire.

This weird dream again. 

The guy with the red mask stood in front of the wooden cabin. He was standing in front of an open door, just like it had happened last time. 
But this time, I could see someone inside the cabin. Yet another person wearing a black robe and the same mask. 

The guy in front of the door started speaking.
Once again, the voice was heavily distorted.

Guy wearing a red mask: static noise her static noise dies static noise everyone static noise priority static noise 

I woke up. I was under a tree. Astra was standing guard while Faylinn was sleeping next to me.
It was just a dream, but this time I woke up with an insane headache.
Why do I keep having the same dream?
And who is the masked guy?
What is he trying to tell me?

I was starting to get curious. But there were other priorities.
We needed to keep travelling east. 
I still needed to find Marcus.

I got up, but Faylinn was still asleep. 
I went to Astra to decide what to do.

Leonel: Good morning, Astra. 

Astra: Oh, you are awake. Good morning, Leo. I hope you had good dreams. 

Her soothing voice almost erased my headache in a matter of seconds. 

Leonel: Good dreams? Hmm, not quite. Just weird dreams as usual. Anyway, should we wait for Faylinn to wake up by herself?

Astra: Oh, don't worry. I know how to wake her up. Hehe.  Astra said in a cute and soft voice. But I could see a terrible evil grin on her face. She was going to do something...

Astra got close to Faylinn. She used her earth-type magic to move dirt from the ground and started covering Faylinn's body, leaving only the head exposed.
Faylinn was now under a one-meter-tall pile of dirt. 
Astra can be evil sometimes...
But it seems this wasn't enough. Astra then proceeded to get closer to Faylinn's left ear and suddenly started yelling: "Spider! Spider! A spider is climbing on Faylinn's hair!"
Astra was definitely evil. There was no doubt about it.

Faylinn woke up right away, but she didn't realize her body was under a giant pile of dirt. The fact that she couldn't move her arms only added more fear to the situation.

Faylinn: AHHHHHH! WHERE ARE THE SPIDERS!!!!??? 

The pile of dirt basically exploded, with Faylinn quickly leaving her earthy imprisonment; her body was now covered in flames. She probably went all out with her fire-type strengthening magic.

She started rubbing her hair like crazy, probably trying to find any spiders that might be hiding under her orange hair strands. 
But then... she saw Astra trying really hard to contain her laughter.

Faylinn: ASTRAAAAAA!!!! YOU DID IT AGAIN!!!! I'M GONNA REDUCE YOUR FACE AND YOUR COW-UDDERS TO ASHES!!!!! 

Astra couldn't contain her laughter anymore.
And Faylinn couldn't contain her anger. The air around her was literally rising in temperature.
Judging by Faylinn's words, it seems that Astra has done this before.
This was fun to watch, but I felt I needed to stop Faylinn.

Leonel: Faylinn, calm down. We need to keep going. Our water supplies will not last forever.

It was true. The oppressive heat was slowly melting us. And it wasn't just because Faylinn was heating the air around her. 
This must have been this world's equivalent to summer.

Astra: That's true, Faylinn. Calm down. We need to reach the next town before we run out of water and become dehydrated. You wouldn't want the poor spiders in your hair to die of dehydration, right? 

Faylinn: Astraaaaaaa!!! Faylinn said with her body engulfed by flames again... 

Astra just started giggling while Faylinn was staring at her with the eyes of a bull on a rampage.

Leonel: Girls, do you think we can reach the next town before nighttime, or do we have to sleep under a tree again? 

Astra: I think we should reach the next town just in time for dinner.

Faylinn: Leoooo, what are we having for dinner!? Faylinn said in a very energetic voice.  It seems her anger toward Astra was gone and she was now more interested in food. 

Leonel: I don't know, Faylinn. We will find out once we get there. 

We started our long walk toward the next town.
I didn't even know the town's name, but from here, I could see that all of its buildings were like very thin towers. 
Does every town have its own unique kind of buildings? The last town had buildings carved into giant boulders; the other one had buildings in the form of giant spheres. Architects sure have a lot of creativity in this world. 

After walking for a few hours, with some sunlight still around, we saw something. 
Far ahead, we saw a pillar of fire reaching the sky. It was at least 10 times the size of the towers in the town we were trying to reach.
It looks almost as if the fire pillar came from behind the town.

Faylinn: Look! That's some huge fire! Faylinn pointed at the fiery column with her right hand. 

Astra: That fire must be easily over a hundred meters tall. That's no ordinary fire; that's a fire magic spell, and not a normal one. 

Leonel: Do you think there is trouble ahead?

Astra: That's probably the case.

Leonel: Could it be the Nara? 

Faylinn: It can't be a Nara. You would never need a flame of that size to defeat a Nara. 

Astra: Faylinn is right. Something that size would only be used against highly dangerous creatures, but even then, something that size seems a bit of an overkill. Also, not many people are capable of using a fire spell of that scale. This is unusual, to say the least. 

Faylinn: Trueeee. I've never seen a flame that big. We should hurry up. I want to know what happened there.

Astra: Faylinn, we are still three hours away.

Faylinn: Leo, once we get there, can we buy a land dragon? I don't want to waaaaalk.

Leonel: I don't know how much it costs to buy one, but we sure need one. We probably also need a tent and some sleeping bags. 

We kept walking while wondering what that pillar of fire was.
Eventually, we reached the gate of the town. 
We were tired, weak, sleepy, and thirsty.
We needed to find an inn as soon as possible.
But, of course, things are never as easy as one would want them to be...