A flash of pale blue light followed by the crack of thunder raced across the night sky. Luca ran into the river with another empty bucket and plunged it into the water. The bucket filled quickly. Another flash of light and crack of thunder made him jump. He lifted the full bucket and hauled it out of the river. Water sloshed over the top of the bucket as his feet slipped and he fell in the trampled mud. Luca grimmaced with determination as he stood and dragged the overly large bucket up the river bank to the waiting line of already filled buckets. A Ruk boy, perhaps fourteen years old, ran out of the forest. The boy tossed two empty buckets at Luca, then grabbed two of the filled buckets before turning to run back into the forest. Luca glanced to his side. The other seven year olds, himself included, were positioned along the river, each struggling to keep the line of buckets filled. The Ruk boys at seven years old were only a head taller than himself and had no advantage being Ruk at this age, all were struggling and exhausted. A nine year old Ruk boy, Mara-Tuuk, the leader of the River Team of seven year olds, shouted as he ran along the river bank. “Keep moving, keep the buckets filled.” Mara would stop occasionally and grab an exhausted boy and pull him back to his feet. Luca grabbed another bucket and rushed back into the river. His bare feet splashed water as he ran back into the river. The storm had come suddenly, without warning, and he hadn’t had time to pull his boots on. He pushed the bucket under the water as a hot blast of air struck him. Mara’s voice rose over the rush of wind. “Fire Storm! Get in the river, get in the river!” Luca looked to his right at the other bank of the river. The wind had changed direction and a wall of flame was now rushing at the helpless seven year olds. He could feel the super-heated air being pushed ahead of the flames. Luca shook his head. Getting into the river was the wrong thing to do, if the Fire Storm stalled over top of the river, everyone would burn to death, or be boiled alive. “No!” screamed Luca. “Get out of the river, now!” Mara and the other boys paused, unsure what to do. The wall of flame was nearly on them. Luca dropped his bucket and stretched his arms downward, and willed the molecules of his body into the supersonic movement ability that was unique to his species. He was about to do something his father had warned him should never be done. He leapt forward at a run. A boom like an explosion rolled outward from Luca’s body. The boys on the bank of the river were knocked down as Luca broke the sound barrier. The effect was spectacular as the river exploded upward in a wall of water. Luca ran the length of the boys standing along the bank, then stopped, turned around, and did it again. The wall of water Luca created met with the wall of flame baring down on them. Steam rose in clouds as the two primal forces fought for dominance. Luca ran the distance back and forth three times. The wall of water won as the flames were engulfed and extinguished. Luca crawled out of the river and collapsed on the bank of the river. Mara-Tuuk and the other seven year old Ruks knelt next to him. “I didn't know Aeden’s could do that,” said Mara. “Are you okay?” Luca nodded weakly. “It takes practice to go really fast. I…just need to catch my breath. Do you have anything to eat, doing it makes you really hungry?” Mara fished a bag of sun seeds from his pocket and handed one to Luca. "Never eat more than one sun seed at a time, it's like eating a whole meal." Luca took the seed and popped it into his mouth. His eyes widened as the flavor exploded in his mouth and strength flowed back into his muscles. Mara stood and waved a hand at the other boys. “Back to your buckets, the Fire Teams still need water, move it.” *** Jack walked in a line with the other twelve-year old boys. Most were Ruk, but two were from a species he had never seen before. All the boys carried rakes, shovels, axes, and picks. Smoke was heavy in the air and Jack coughed, his lungs not completely healed yet, but there was nothing he could do about it now. They climbed about half-way to the ridge line and stopped. Sar-jat, a fourteen year old Ruk boy, and leader of Jack’s team pointed at a large boulder. “Okay, we need a fire break from that boulder, around the Sunth Saplings, and up to the far ridgeline. Let’s get on it.” Lightning streaked across the sky as Jack hefted his rake and started pulling pine needles, leaves, and deadfall back. Other boys with picks and shovels began turning the soil over where Jack had cleared it. If the wind shifted, the fire would sweep over the ridge and engulf the Saplings; they couldn’t allow the fire to have any fuel to advance. The smoke thickened as they worked. Jack glanced up at the sky, the lightning was getting closer. He heard a loud explosion and turned his head in time to see flames rise up along the ridge. “Lightning strike!” shouted Sar-jat. “Everyone to the ridge, we have to put those flames out.” The boys turned and ran towards the flames. Jack paused. The fire was a danger, of course, but it wasn’t the main danger, at least not yet. The boys could use their shovels to dump dirt on the flames and keep it from spreading, but… Jack looked up at the sky. The Lightning was the real danger. He ran toward the grove of Saplings. The wavering shapes of small Sunth boys curled up next to their tree and weeping caused Jack’s anger to rise at their helpless situation. Lightning and fire were the Sunth’s deepest fear. There was little the Sunth could do to defend themselves in Jack’s reality, just as Jack was limited as to what he could do in their neural reality. He felt energy building in the air and followed it to a tree with a boy wailing at the top of his ‘lungs’. The Sunth boy felt the energy of the pending lightning strike and knew it would be his death. Jack positioned himself next to the Sapling and held his hand in the air. Jack caught the bluish bolt of lightning in his hand, and channeled it through him. With his other hand, he threw the lightning bolt towards the ridge. Flames rose in the grass where the lightning stuck. He saw the Ruk boys running to the new flames to deal with the threat. He felt another energy field growing and ran to the Sapling that the raw forces of nature were targeting, and again he caught the lightning bolt and threw it at the ridgeline. Three more times he caught and threw the lightning away from the Saplings. Jack was panting heavily when he heard a voice next to him. “How are you doing this?” asked Sar-jat. Jack looked up, sweat covering his face. “I’m a Gate Keeper, channeling energy is what I do.” Sar-jat nodded. “I’ve heard of the Aeden Gate Keepers, they’re also called the Sun Children.” “I’ve never heard that before,” said Jack. “You keep doing this, we’ll clear an area for you to throw the lightning so we don’t have any more new fires.” Sar-jat paused for a moment. Jack looked exhausted. Sar-jat didn’t think Jack would be able to keep this up much longer. He turned and ran back to the other Ruk boys. Jack felt the largest energy field yet growing. He ran to the targeted Sapling and held his hand up. The bolt of lightning struck and seemed to last forever. Jack was pushed to his knees as he fought against the deadly primal force. He…couldn’t hold it…he lifted his other hand to try and push the lightning away. It was too much, it was as if the weight of an entire sun was pushing him into the ground, but just as he was about to lose control of the energy he was holding, he felt strength flowing into him. He turned his head. The Sunth Saplings were all facing him, their palms facing outward and tendrils of plasma as from the corona of a sun were reaching out to Jack, infusing him with strength. Several older trees from nearby joined the young saplings. “He’s one of Sun Children, lend him your strength,” shouted one of the adult Sunth. Hundreds of the tendrils of plasma from all over the Sunth forest reached out to Jack until he was able to push himself back to his feet. Jack threw the lightning bolt away. He turned toward the forest, every Sunth ‘eye’ was on him. He heard the whispers of their voices. “The Great Tree has sent a Sun Child to protect us,” they whispered in unison. The strength of the Sunth flowed into Jack until his perception grew to such that he could see out over the entire forest. The valley was surrounded by the burning Ruk forest, and that was still a battle to be fought, but now he had the strength to snatch lightning from over the Sunth forest and toss it aside as easily as if he were playing a game of catch. *** Tan stood with the Ruk men, pulling deadfall away, cutting trees, and building fire breaks along the distance between the Sunth and Ruk forests. The fire raged all around them, and still the fire jumpers and water planes from the RS-71 hadn’t arrived. Runner boys were carrying buckets of water from the river to the men, but it was throwing a teaspoon of water on a fire storm spreading outward at alarming speeds. The heat of the summer had brought with it heat lightning, and the lightning had brought fire with every strike into the already dry timber of the forest. Millions of acres were going to be lost, there was nothing they could do about that, but they had to save the Sunth forest. Reports were coming in that the Sunth forest was now surrounded by raging fire storms, and the only thing between those fire storms and the Sunth, were the Ruk. Tan swung the massive Ruk axe again and again to down the giant redwood. The strength of his species from having evolved on a heavy-gravity world was serving him well now. The tree fell and immediately the men set to cutting the tree apart. If they could only get a break with the wind, they would be able to create a controlled burn and destroy the fuel the fire needed to advance. But for now, all they could do was try to remove as much burnable material as possible. Ruk teenagers rushed forward as the men cut the logs apart. The teenagers loaded the wood into every available truck that had been pressed into service to haul away the timber. Young Ruk girls carrying drinking flasks made their way down the line of men. Tan took a long drink from a flask and handed it back to the girl. He set himself to another tree and swung the axe. The crew foreman came up to Tan. “Wind shifting…west, moving line…you last man east line.” Tan nodded his understanding. The Ruk were learning his language much faster than he was learning theirs, though, he wouldn't have been surprised to find out that Jack and Luca were already well on the way to being proficient in the Ruk language. The foreman hurried off and Tan went back to the tree he was working on. The heat of the fire was becoming brutal as it moved closer to his position. They had to clear a firebreak before the flames arrived, or there would be nothing between the fire and the Sunth forest. He wondered how Jack and Luca were doing, and hoped they weren’t in any danger. The storm had come in the middle of the night without warning. He’d been woken by shouts and the smell of smoke. The Ruk were efficient if anything. They had quickly formed into teams. Luca had gone with the seven year olds to fill water buckets, and Jack had gone with the twelve year olds to build a firebreak along the ridge around the Sunth forest. Tan heard someone shout. “Tetha!” He recognized the word as meaning, “Timber!” He looked up to mark the falling tree’s position, and ensure he wasn’t in its path. He heard a girl scream. One of the water girls was directly in the path of the falling tree and had frozen in fear. Tan dropped his axe and sprinted towards the girl. The falling tree was coming down fast. He jumped at the girl and pulled her aside just ahead of the tree crashing to the ground. Several Ruk men came to check on him and the girl. Lagu-dagas, the mother of Jack’s ‘girlfriend’, Kalu, ran up to them next. The Ruk woman was in charge of the water girls. She grabbed the girl and patted her down for injuries. Tan heard a crashing sound above in the trees and looked up. The fire jumpers had arrived.