SALAMANDER, n. Originally a reptile inhabiting fire; later, an anthropomorphous immortal, but still a pyrophile. Salamanders are now believed to be extinct, the last one of which we have an account having been seen in Carcassonne by the Abbe Belloc, who exorcised it with a bucket of holy water.
~ The Devil's Dictionary, Ambrose Bierce

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The scent of lavender and a hand reaching down over my mouth startled me to wakefulness. Larathia knelt over me. I had at some point in the night, rolled over onto my stomach.

“Be quiet.” She whispered.

I shook my head with agreement and she removed her hand. Juliva and Sah’Rona were already up, moving stealthily about, gathering their few belongings.

Rubbing my eyes, I sat up then stretched. I was in for a surprise when I checked my phone. Holy crap, I got eight hours of sleep. That was almost unheard of for me. Rarely my sleep lasted more than four hours even with my sleep meds.

Larathia motioned me over to the curtains. She pulled them slightly back and directed my attention down to the parking lot.

Out of all the vehicles, I could see in the parking lot, three of them stood out, two SUVs and a sedan. I could see nine men and women standing around the vehicles talking with each other. There could be more for all I knew. None of them appeared out of the ordinary. Certainly not like a Pomort, or a Dwarf. They’d occasionally glance up at us.

I whispered,“ I take it they’re not friendly. What are we going to do?”

“We’re going to jump over the balcony as soon as they come up the stairs,” Larathia whispered back.

“Magic?” We were on the second floor of this motel. I had no desire to jump from anywhere onto anything.

“Yes.”

I moved away from the door and sat on the bed. Opening my bag I found my pistol was still there.

You’d think that someone with powers like mine wouldn’t need a firearm. But you’d be wrong. A gun won’t fire if you don’t pull the trigger. My powers, on the other hand, were wild and from my experience, ultimately uncontrollable. I wore a collar to lock my powers down so I didn’t hurt anyone including myself, and that didn’t even work all the time.

There’d been the rare occasion, I needed to defend myself. Situations where it was easier to use a gun over my powers and deal with the law and the resulting consequences. Getting my concealed carry permit had been one of the best investments I’d ever made. But when you think it about, a man who could incinerate a person and melt the strongest of armor just by being near them, relying on a gun to protect himself, is a sick joke. The magazine came out. Still full. Putting the magazine back in, I chambered a round.

Larathia said to all, “We’re under observation. A group of eleven people is down there. One of them is scrying us, but I’ve fooled them with my magic. When I break my cover spell we need to bait them up with a conversation that would make it seem we’re vulnerable. Once they’re on the stairs is when we go out. Sah’rona, you know what to do.”

Sah’rona nodded a yes. I nodded an affirmative as well and grinned. “I’ll lead the conversation. Just go with it.”

Larathia held her hand up, then brought it down signaling the end of her spell.

“A wonderful morning ladies.” I scowled. “Are we really going to Chicago of all places? I hate Chicago.”

Juliva responded, “Yes. That is where we catch our ride back home.”

“Oh please. You have no idea who you’ve messed with. You may think that your pitiful pleas for help charmed their way into my heart and fanned the flames of righteousness I believed, but you’re wrong. It was only your enchantingly beautiful appearances igniting a raging inferno within my loins that distracted me. Know this witch. I will not be fooled the same way twice. It was your own actions that dispelled the illusions you sought to trick me with. A blaze of anger and rage now burns within my soul at the injustice you’ve, uh, um, vexed me with.” I almost didn’t have it there at the end.

Sah’rona, normally dour and taciturn broke into a smile. A tiny smile. Okay, for a second her resting bitch face was gone. No change in Larathia.

Juliva smirked, “Oh Please, fire mage, more like a broken matchstick. What’s the worst you can do? Heat my bathwater? A boy scout has an easier time lighting a campfire than you do. You’re helpless as our prisoner. You’re going with us to Chicago whether you like it or not.” Oooh, she was good.

Larathia signaled the unknown people were heading towards the stairwell. She held up six fingers and pointed to the right of the door and then five fingers and pointed to the left side.

“Hey, I’m hungry ladies, how about you conjure me up some breakfast. Some hot food. Can’t you just wave your hands, go abracadabra, and get me some food already?”

“Just tape his mouth shut. I’ll go get something out of the vending machine.” Juliva said.

“You’re going to regret this, you will, I’ll send all of you to your fiery demise in hell,” At that point, I faked having been gagged, by trying to talk through my own hand over my mouth.

Larathia whispered, “Go when I say.” She already had a hand on the door, holding the handle already turned so she could pull it open in one smooth motion. “Go,” she ordered. The door slammed open and we were all out. Larathia went first to the left, then Sah’Rona exited the room to the right.

Juliva held onto my hand. “Come on,” She yelled as we both went out, and over the railing. Two stories up was still a long way to fall. True to Larathia’s word, we didn’t fall, so much as float down.

A tearing cracking noise of stone and metal twisting apart came from behind me. Glancing back saw that both stairwells this side of the motel had collapsed along with those on them.

When I touched down on the ground, I pulled Juliva with me. I brought us to the three cars the unknowns had arrived in. All were unlocked. The sedan was still running with its keys in the ignition. Jackpot. Leaving Juliva, I went to the other two cars and with two shots per car from my pistol, I flattened a tire on each one. The smell of gunpowder filled my nostrils.

Juliva had followed me, curious to what I would do. She clutched her ears with each report of the gun and went to her knees. Unlike me, she probably couldn’t hear anything other than ringing. Loud noises never really seemed to bother me. I picked her up and managed her into the back seat of the remaining car. Getting into the car, I could see the gas tank half full. We could get gas later if we needed to.

Sah’rona and Larathia were at the car. Sah’rona piled into the back with Juliva while Larathia took the passenger seat.

None of them had their belts on, not that I think they realized they should. They certainly didn’t care about that in the SUV we escaped in before. Time to leave. I dropped the car into gear and put the gas on, peeling the tires out and slamming everyone back into their seats as I ripped out of the parking lot.

Lucky for me no other car or pedestrian was in the way of our hurried escape.

It was several minutes before Larathia spoke. “They have tracked you somehow. Maybe a curse or some uncommon or rare magic that is even hard for us to detect.”

“I didn’t detect anything out of the ordinary, “ Sah’rona spoke.

“Me too,” Juliva added. Looking in the rear view mirror, she appeared to have recovered from the shock of the gunshot noise.

“I’m going to make another check.” Larathia turned to me and began doing her magic. It felt like small tendrils of force plucked at my body in places. Kind of unnerving.

“Nothing. We’ll have to do a more thorough check later. Just make haste.”

“Uh okay.” I kept us at the same speed. I’d only stop when we needed gas.

“I mean go faster.”

“No.”

“No?” Larathia looked incredulous at my refusal.

“I’m already going the speed limit. I’m not going to draw any attention to us. The last thing we need is a state trooper pulling us over for speeding.”

The elf wasn’t happy with my refusal. Oh well.

“You’re an expert with air magic right?”

Larathia didn’t respond. I glanced over and she was staring ahead down the road, her jaw clenched. I didn’t have to look hard to see she didn’t like me.

“Can you do your magic thing and give us a tail wind. At least cut our gas mileage. The less we have to stop, the better.”

She said nothing, but she did do her magic thing with her hands and a few words.

“Won’t they know where we’re going? I mean mentioning Chicago won’t fool them since it was obvious we knew they were there, and they knew I was there.

Juliva spoke, “Yeah, I guess they would follow us.”

“You found me with the tracking device right? Maybe they’ve got something similar.”

“No, there’s no way they could build the tracking device. This one’s ancient and we have it.”

“Well someone built it for you to have. If it was built once, it can be built again,” I suggested. Magic never made sense to me whether it was this world or any other.

None of them said a word to challenge me. At least the drive didn’t need to be silent. I turned the radio on. Seeking through the frequencies, I tuned into the country station I usually listened to. Near everyone I’ve ever met can’t stand the genre of music. I don’t care about the lyrics all that much. The instrumentation, on the other hand, I love. Give me folk and country style music any day of the week.

“Ugh, will you turn that cat wailing garbage off?” Sah’Rona said.

It seems we have our first complaint.

“No.”

“Larathia, turn it off,” Sah’Rona ordered

Larathia reached over, and I slapped her hand away. If looks could kill I’d be dead. I didn’t wilt under her gaze.

“I’m driving. I control the music.” If she wasn’t going to personable, I was going to be blunt with her.

“I kind of like it,” Juliva whispered. No one else said a thing. I did turn the volume down a notch or two. Sah’Rona grumbled something under her breath. It was over an hour before Larathia even looked in my direction.

The rest of the drive was uneventful. I watched in the rearview mirror, and it didn’t appear that anyone was following us. For all I knew, they are. They did find us this morning.

Once we entered into Detroit, Larathia navigated us to a small nondescript park with a small playground and a baseball diamond. I parked the car in the parking lot. Getting out I stretched.

“So where’s this portal.”

“It’s there in the middle of the field.” Larathia pointed.

“I don’t see anything. Are you sure?” There are no stupid questions, but with Larathia there seem to be annoying ones.

“Yes. Come on and don’t waste any more time.” The elf ordered.

I grabbed my stuff from the car and we walked over. A short homeless man shuffled out from one of the bleachers. I stopped walking and pulled the pistol out of my bag. Sah’rona from behind prodded me forcing me to take a few steps.

“Did you find the avatar?” The man asked.

“Aye Garn, we found it.”

Wow, Sah’Rona sounded so happy to have acquired me. At least Juliva was nice.

“Where is she,” he asked further.

“I think you mean him. I’m the avatar. At least they think I am.” I spoke up.

He gave me an appraising look, then looked to Larathia, “Are you sure you found the avatar. Isn't she supposed to be a she? She’s ugly for a lass.”

If my life hadn’t been turned upside down over the last few days and this Garn wasn’t talking about me, I’d be rolling on the ground with laughter.

Juliva answered, “It’s him. We triple checked the compass. It’s him.”

Two large black SUV's decided to show up at that moment. Both sped down the road and slam on their brakes in front of the park. A number men in unmarked tactical gear, toting assault weapons piled out. They started moving toward us with their weapons up.

“Shit,” I said.”We got to go. These don’t look friendly.” I looked down at the .45 in my hand. I tried to assume a firing stance, but someone pulled me from behind.

“We are going. Come on.” Larathia yelled. She pulled me back, practically dragging me into a tight grouping with the others. Juliva was screaming a stream of nonsense.

The world faded away to static.