Seek 6: The Raid

 A reptilian shriek fractured the night. Shadows shifted through the trees, claws tearing at the earth in a wild frenzy as spurred heels dug deeper into scaly flesh. Silence. Outside the village of Secra, moonlight filtered through the jungle canopy, coils of darkness evaporating into the clearing as a hand, an eye, a boy of seventeen emerged into the light. Beneath him, clawed feet dug into the rich, dark earth, scales reflecting midnight as the armored salamander awaited orders from a second rider. A call rang out, then shouts resounding in the dark, and then silence once more as each of the legionnaires raised his arm before him and a jet of flame erupted from each calloused palm. Smoke poured from the first few huts in billowing cataracts, acrid and black, and screams burst from the night. The boy glanced down at the stone in his left hand, it's sanguine face glimmering in the fire's glow. His right arm raised, he took a deep breath, and the flecks of gold in his eyes shimmered for just a moment before a stream of flame blossomed from the center of his hand and night was consumed in the blaze. Bent human shapes stumbled through the yellow haze, smoky silhouettes blowing into the night, and somewhere beneath the ashen pall covering Secra, a quavering voice repressed sobs as it hushed a child's cry. Coughing, wailing. A dusky shape emerged from the wreckage of a hut, its raw and blistered hands dragging from the firestorm a smoldering bundle, ragged breath now fled.