Black Fire

The young woman raced through the woods. She was frightened and the fear made her faster. She heard the pounding of the footsteps behind her, and she also heard the heavy breathing of her pursuers. She increased her speed and ran through the trees,practically flying. She ran heedless of the twigs scraping at her and she dodged big branches and skipped over logs. She was satisfied ot hear the voices ofthe men falling farther back and she ran faster.

She burst through a clearing and saw a cottage. Great pain was coming to her now....and it convulsed. She screamed for help. "Sanctuary!Please!" she cried out.

Miache sat at his scarred wooden table and set his tea on it. He heard the cry for help and moved quickly toward the door, overturning his chair. He ran out and saw the young woman collapse in front of his cottage.

He picked her up gently and saw the was unconscious and carried herinside. He closed the door with his foot and brought her to a bed. He laid her on it and looked at her. He noted that she was bleeding from wounds on her body and face, twigs were in her hair and she was covered with soot and dirt. Her stomach was round with pregnancy and more noticeable was the big W on her dress.

Miache saw that the girl was ready to give birth. He immediately got out hot water and other things when the girl woke with a scream. "They''re coming! They'll take me and kill my baby!"

Miache went to her side and soothed her. "Don't worry your baby will be just fine. Now just push. I'll take care of it." with that he went outside and quickly drew a circle around the parameters of his house and chanted an invisibility spell. He went back inside when it was finishedand helped her through her contractions. He tried to make conversation. "What's your name?"heasked.

"Elisha." was the breathless reponse. He could see the pain in her eyes and felt a keening cry go through her as she struggled to give birth. "That's a mighty big babe you have."he said. Elisha could only nod and pushed. "There now just one..more...push." She gave a loud shriek of pain and it was soon joined by a wailing of a baby.

Miache carried it and wrapped it in a small blanket.He checked and saw it was male. "Well you have a beautiful baby boy, what will you name him?" he asked. "Sybill." was her answer. She fell back on the pillows and peace came on her expression. Her breathing slowed and her body slackened. She murmured, "Now that it is done I can finally rest."

Miache's eyes widened. "Rest yes that would be good." he agreed even though he knew she meant a more permanent rest. "Sleep now I'll take care of him for you." "Promise me. He has to be preserved....for the sake of the future..." she said weakly. "I will." he promised.

With that death stole her away. Miache brushed away a tear and turned at the baby who had stopped crying and was watching everything. "Looks like I'm your pa now." And so Miache fulfilled his promise to Elisha. He raised Sybill and saw quickly that the boy had the gift of magic. Quickly he taught Sybill everything he knew and hid him away from the outside world.

As years passed so did Sybill's knowledge of the art of magic. Miache called on other wizards to help him teach Sybill and they communed with him. Finally the time came when Sybill had learned all he possibly could. And Miache knew it was time to truly follow Elisha's wish.

One day he took Sybill aside and talked to him. "Sybill, when your mother died...she asked me to preserve you...for the sake of the future." he started. Sybill nodded and merely watched Miache with wide, serious eyes. "I have searched for it's meaning and have come up with only one thing.." Miache continued. "I have to put you in a state of suspension and when the time comes for you to revive the spell will be removed and you will be able to do whatever it is you have to do in the future."

Sybill took all this in and slowly nodded. "Do what you have to then." Miache brought Sybill to a cave and drew a circle around him. Miache shouted a word and soon Sybill grew still, like a statue. Then Miache soon backed away and the cave shook and stalactites and stalagmites dropped and rose from the ground surrounding Sybill's body. Miache touched the encased Sybill and ice blanketed it. "Good-bye Sybill, my son."he whispered brokenly. And he vanished.

Buffy stood in front of the cemetary gate, the wind rustling through the leaves of the trees that surrounded her. Her hair was blown into a golden cloud around her face as she conemplated her surroundings. She stuffed her hands into her jacket pockets and whistled soundlessly. Even for California it was cold. The winds were brisk, and the vampire-slaying business was SLOW!

Buffy was bored. It confused her why after the vampires had increased in numbers for the past week, they suddenly seemed to have gone back to the rocks from underneath which they had come from. She gazed around her, perturbed. She shrugged and started to walk back on the street when she heard a twig breaking. She spun around, whipping a stake out of her jacket. Her eyes searched the grounds but she could see no one. She had nearly convinced herself that it had been her imagination when she heard a sudden shrieking. Cursing the vampire pecularities, she broke into a run towards the source of the sound. Her eyes widened, then narrowed when she saw a group of vampires circling a young girl.

The girl was laid and tied down in the middle of a big circle that seemed to blaze of fire. The vampires were concentrating on the girl and on the raised ground and the person standing on it. The man stood over the girl and was making strange mystical signs in the air in front of him and was chanting a word. Buffy took a long look at the situation and decided to go after the chanting guy. She took a running leap and somersaulted through the air and landed on the ground behind the leader. She immediately slammed her leg at him and when he pitched forward she followed it up with a quick blow to the back of his neck. She then went to the girl as the vampires swarmed around the circle but strangely enough, they couldn't seem to get in...She had no time to ponder this as she quickly freed the girl and directed her to a spot wherein the vampires hadn't covered yet. "Run as fast as you can!" Buffy shouted. "Now g-" she didn't have time to finish her sentence because a shot of pure energy knocked her down and stunned her. She fell on the ground face up and saw the man she had attacked approaching her. It seemed that a cloak of blue fire was shimmering around him and his hand was covered in the same blue fire. He lifted it again and threw a bolt at her. She rolled out of the way in time. She saw that the girl had run off and the vampires were in pursuit. She said a quick prayer for that girl and got up. The man moved slowly towards her and laughed evilly. His stance was that of someone who knew that he'd already won and a smug sneer was on his face. She went on all fours and with a snarl she lunged at his legs and he fell down. She took advantage of it and slammed a hard punch into his jaw, knocking him unconscious. Buffy realized that this wasn't a vampire and a stake wouldn't get rid of him. 'But if he's mortal that should get rid of him.' she thought. She saw that he was slowly surfacing to consciousness and she threw her stake at him. Instead of it going deep into his chest it stopped as if rfozen inches away from her target. She scrambled up and backed away. The man looked at her, than at her stake, then back again. Then suddenly......he disappeared.

Buffy's jaw dropped and she brought her hand to her head, disoriented. "Well.....that was interesting."
"I'm telling you Giles, if the guy hadn't left on his own, I would have been sitting Slayer duck." Buffy said the next day. She had been telling Giles of her encounter with the magickal man. Giles listened to her, his face taking on that absent 'I'm-going-off-to-my-own-world' look he always got whenever he was about to embark on another search for another supernatural occurance or creature. "Buffy...I must ask. Can you still describe to me the appearance of this man?" Giles queried. "Yeah, I think so. Um about medium height and build, dark hair and really creepy black eyes." she offered.
"Thank you. Define creepy." he said. "Creepy as in definite Hellmouth fashion creepy. They were like bottomless." Buffy answered. "Bottomless?" Giles questioned. "Well....." his voice trailed off as he turned his attention to a tall stack of books and began sifting through it. Buffy looked around glumly as she waited for Giles to finish with his search. Times like this she really missed Xander and Willow. But they were gone, off with their respective families for summer vacation. Only she was stuck here. With Giles. She sighed again. "Buffy. I do believe I've found your friend." Giles called softly to her. She turned and looked at the book Giles was holding. "The Mages of Old." she read off the book's cover. She lifted a brow at Giles. "Mage?" she said. "Well it is quite logical your foe would be in here from the details you have told me. He used magick in fighting you and he was in the midst o some ritual when you came upon him and his motley crew." Giles stated. "I wouldn't call them motley exactly...." Buffy began. "Buffy please. Look at this." Giles broke in. She looked at the picture and nodded. "Yeah that's him all right." she affirmed. "And his name is.....Aidyn." she added. "I'll take obscure and weirdly spelled names for five hundred Alex."
"Buffy. I must say I expected such comments from the absent Xander and not from you." Giles said exasperatedly. "Well it is my solemn duty to pester you with Xander's lame cracks in his absence." she teased. Her eyes returned to the picture of the man named Aidyn. "If he uses magic....how can I fight him? It's pretty obvious that Willow's the magickal one in our circle of Scoobs." Giles frowned at that. "Yes that does present us a very difficult problem. Mayhap there is another person in Sunnydale who is able to use magic." he said hopefully. "Ix-nay. Amy's a rat and Willow's a surfer babe." Buffy shot down that hope. "Well....it is quite inconvenient that all of our group has gone off for the duration of the summer." Giles sighed. "Our lycanthropic friend Oz, is off visiting his more human relatives, Xander is pursuing the prolific future of being a gambler in Atlantic City then he'll proceed to D.C. to get a little culture. As much culture of one like Xander can get. And Willow is surfing the beach and not the net with her family in Florida." she recited. "Angel's.....well we all know where Angel is, and Cordelia and Wesley and Faith. They're all off to the exciting smoggy city of angels...or Angel." she continued. Giles' brow shot up. "Well you seem to know everyone's activities." he said dryly. "Yeah well...." she said. "Knowing the Slayerettes and Co.'s social calendar does not help us with this pyro-happy guy." "I'm sure the answer will come to us." he soothed, "In the meantime it might not hurt for you to get more practice in combat. And maybe I might find some books on the craft so you could start on being able to use magic. Such a problem like this might arise again and the Slayer must be prepared and....." Giles was again off and running on his Watcher spiel. Buffy could only sigh.
There was a sudden tremor in the ground and a magical spell was removed. Sybill fell down from his ice encasement and landed roughly on the ground. He got up slowly as the shaking receded. He dusted himself off and staggered out of the cave. He took in his surroundings. 'How long has it been?' he thought, dazed. 'I-I need to find some shelter so I can recuperate and -" the thought was cut off as darkness overcame him and he slipped to the ground unconscious.

"Buffy!" Giles shouted as the ground shook beneath them. Books came tumbling off the tables and shelves and scattered around them. Buffy lithely leaped over to Giles' side of the counter and shoved him down. She crouched low on the ground and covered her head with her arms as above them lights jiggled madly. They could hear the terrified shrieks from outside and they looked at each other wide-eyed. "What's going on?" she shouted to Giles. He looked at her mutely and his face expressed that finding out would be the very first thing he would do once the quakes stopped. As suddenly as it began the shuddering stopped and they both straightened slowly. They stepped from behind the counter and observed the damage around them. "Looks like Xander's bedroom." Buffy joked half-heartedly. Giles seemed agitated. "Oh my Lord. I do have my work cut out for me." he muttered. His eyes widened. "Buffy!" he yelled again. "Wha-?" she got out before Giles shoved her out of the way and she fell to the floor and cried out in surprise when she saw a bookshelf topple down and crashed on Giles. "Giles!" she screamed. "No!"

Inny's Diary