Yesteryear Fiction

Master of Flame
By Pablo Miller


“You can’t win, Jareth!” Dalen yelled, grinning like a madman as he slashed air, lashed out toward the hunched, cloaked figure who dodged like lightning, slipping over and beneath every twist and stab of Dalen’s burning sword. “Flame is my element! Yes! It loves me! Protects me!” Another slash, Jareth barely dodging. “Fire doesn’t love you! Just look at your face! Fire hates you!

Jareth spun sideways as the tip of the burning sword caught his cloak and ripped into the fabric, tearing it away from his scarred body, his butchered, mottled face.

“You’ve so much to learn.” Jareth scowled. “Fire doesn’t love you.” The edge of a smile touched his twisted features. “Those it loves, it kisses, it tastes, it makes love to and tries to devour.”

“What are you saying?” Dalen asked, suddenly hesitating.

“Fire loves me. It would do anything for me.” Jareth grinned. “I am it’s true master.”

In that instant, Jareth broke into laughter, watching as Dalen’s sword flared suddenly and flashed, devouring its wielder in an instant of crackling flame and broken, frantic screaming.


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Pablo Miller lives in So Cal and drives a truck for a living. It is fun. You get to write entire stories while driving.