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Alrighty. It’s Saturday, the time has arrived!

Introducing the second Ash Fall snippet! It picks up where the other one left off.

@theinconceivable1 (did you want me to keep tagging you or no?) @caleb-e-king @h-jones @the-fledgling-artist @i-david

Okay so, don’t forget, I want criticism! Also, is it too much infodump?

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“Hey. You coming?” Then he must have noticed Kor was scowling at me. “Um. Do I want to know?”

Korzen looked at Jaren. “Probably not. Where are you taking us?”

Jaren seemed relieved that we weren’t going to take his interruption the wrong way. “Oh. We’re going to Dawn’s Reach. The base of the Flames of Freedom.”

I gasped and whipped around to stare at him. If what I had heard from the rumors was right… “Isn’t the Flames of Freedom what the rebels call themselves?” Jaren looked startled and I couldn’t blame him. I’d been told that the intensity of my gaze could be pretty frightening sometimes. “Well?” I asked.

Jaren seemed to recover his senses. “Yes. Why? Is there a problem?”

I exploded. I hated myself for it later, but I couldn’t help it. “Of course there’s a problem! They’re rebels!” Jaren took a step back. I’d also been told I could be rather frightening when I was angry too.

“How?! How could you?! You told me you were going to take us somewhere safe! I trusted you! But the rebel’s base?!” My eyes blazed and my fingers curled into fists. Jaren was taking us to the rebel’s base! The rebel base was probably one of the most dangerous places in Ash! I couldn’t believe he would betray us like that! He was our cousin! That thought calmed me down enough, to realize Jaren was talking and Kor was looking at me worriedly, my twin had stepped between me and Jaren.

“-know, Eiri. I’m sorry. W-we can go somewhere else if you’d like.” He was stuttering, that snapped me out of my temper. Fast. Jaren never stuttered. He was always the tower of calm and stability. I must’ve scared him more than I’d originally thought. Then, I realized Kor was saying my name, repeatedly.

“Eiri. Eirivia. Eirivia Evermore. Hello? You in there?” He waved his hand in front of my face and was about to knock on the top of my head when I irritatedly smacked his hand away.

“I’m here. Calm down. And Jaren? Sorry. I… I shouldn’t have gotten mad at you like that. You were doing what you thought was best. I can’t say I understand why you’re taking us to the rebel’s base, but I still shouldn’t have… exploded like that.” Jaren and Korzen both looked relieved that I was back to normal. Or at least as normal as anyone could be. I took a deep breath, part of me still wanted to yell at Jaren, but I knew he was just trying to help, so I’d control myself. Hopefully.

Jaren seemed to be rapidly regaining his usual composed self. “It’s alright. I know you sometimes have your… moods. And that you can’t always control them.” I nodded hesitantly. I was deathly afraid that I would hurt someone when I had one of my… tantrums. I would call it what it was. At least, inside my head I would. I looked up suddenly, Jaren was speaking again.

“I was going to take you to Dawn’s Reach because… because I’m a rebel.” He gave me a slightly fearful glance and continued, “I was taking you where I knew you would be safe. But, if you’d rather not go there…” He trailed off and gave me another look. Korzen and I were both staring at him in an astonished silence. Kor spoke first, mainly because I was still too shocked to say anything,

“You’re part of the Flames of Freedom? Awesome! My cousin is a rebel. My cousin is a rebel!” He was taking this a lot differently than I was, and considerably better too.

I finally regained my senses and also spoke, quietly, wary of another tantrum, “Well, that explains why you were taking us there. I’m sorry I didn’t trust you. If you’re actually one of the rebels… they can’t be all bad. I guess we can try going there.” I was also now even more ashamed of my earlier reaction and felt my cheeks heat slightly.

Kor nodded enthusiastically, and looked at Jaren pleadingly. “Please can we go? Please? I really, really want to see the base. I bet it’ll be really epic.”

Jaren laughed, the seriousness of the past few minutes forgotten. “Sure. It might not live up to your standards, though. Just a warning. Anyway, we better get going.”

Kor nodded eagerly. “Let’s go!”

Jaren grinned. “All right. But let’s try to avoid yelling to all of Ash that I’m a rebel.”

Kor looked slightly abashed. “Oh. Right. Sorry.”

Jaren gave him an amused look and started walking. “It’s fine. Just don’t do it again.”

Kor stayed where he was for a moment, then caught up to our cousin, muttering under his breath as he went. “This is so epic.”

I shook my head at my twin’s antics and followed. We were soon out of the woods, but that was to be expected. This was Ash, a world covered in volcanoes and lava. A fire world. Pockets of life like the small forest we’d just left were few and far between. Now there was just a rocky, empty wasteland as far as the eye could see. I sighed. The old legends say that Ash wasn’t always so desolate, that it used to be lush and green. I privately believe the stories, if asked I would deny it, but there’s life here. I’m proof enough of that. And I just couldn’t see humans being able to live here for as long as the histories say if the world had always been this unforgiving. Every human on Ash is stubborn, we have to be, to survive. If the harsh conditions weren’t enough, there’s also the dragons, phoenixes, lava elementals and the Elder Spirits. Very few people have ever seen the Spirits, but any of the other three could kill you. That is, if the terrain doesn’t.

I was so lost in my thoughts I almost didn’t see the river right in front of me, the lava river. There weren’t any rivers with actual water in them, at least, none that I had ever heard of. I stopped just in time, and joined my brother where he was watching Jaren do… something. My dear cousin was busy over by a large boulder, he seemed to be searching it for… who-knows-what.

We waited, and after a few minutes Jaren straightened up with a triumphant shout, “Found it!” Korzen and I exchanged looks.

“What… exactly did you find?” I asked cautiously.

He grinned at me. “This.” He pointed at a spot on the rock that looked identical to everywhere else on the rock.

Kor looked confused and I raised an eyebrow. “This? Mind explaining just what I’m looking at here?”

He nodded and pressed the place he’d been pointing at. “Sure.” The ground rumbled and I braced myself. Earthquakes were common pretty much everywhere in Ash, but my fears weren’t realized. Instead of an earthquake, a shelf of rock slid out over part of the river.

Jaren grinned at me again. “Ta-da! Instant bridge. I’ve never tried it before, I’m glad it works.” Then his excitement was gone and he was back to his normal, placid nature. Korzen’s eyes were wide. I could tell he was impressed, and I think Jaren could too.