New Fiction #3

This one was written for a magazine but got REJECTED. I wish publishers were more specific about what they want. Sheesh, just tell me exactly in plain American English what the hell you want. I re-vamped some of my old characters for this because I like them that much, their story must be told! So there's this dude named Shogari, I created his name using Japanese kanji - 初刈 - which was fun and I really like these kanji, "sho" meaning "first" and "gari" meaning "to reap" as in farming but ultimately the name, as I see it, means first to reap, but the character himself is not at all Japanese. Kara is a common female name with various meanings depending on the language and country. I'm using Kara in the Turkic form to mean "black".





Fire burned his hand but all he did was throw his head back and laugh, the foolish mortals, did they not know that he was the living fire by now? Apparently not. With a casual flick of his wrist as if he was wiping something dirty off of his hand, the fire ceased to exist. "Now let me give it back." He smiled viciously, inflaming the air currents around his enemy who began to run around in a circle screaming of the pain, tears falling from the puny mortal's eyes did nothing to diffuse the fire. The man fell to the ground begging for his life with the last use of his now hoarse and raspy voice.
"Smoke kills just as much as the fire itself and a burning human? Well then...I guess I can consider you Mongolian barbeque." The master of pyrotechnics laughed a little more before sucking in a breath tasting the stench of freshly burned flesh. No matter how many humans he burned, he never got used to the smell. 
Most people had forgotten about him, not that they ever really knew him. Some rumors of his true identity were spread in whatever town or city or country he visited. He was called the Master of Pyrotechnics, the Flame Magician, less welcomed nicknames were derogatory terms like demon, hellspawn, Satan was the worse. The masses couldn't know what he really was, not that it was a big secret for him to keep but he was so old, his mere existence was now considered nothing but myth. That also hurt the most.
After all he's done for mankind, they simply write him off as cultural folklore. 
He slept for centuries but he never really died, if he did give up on living, the entire world would go with him but that didn't mean that he loved the human race. He liked them, they were entertaining creatures but he didn't love them. He loved his own life more and that was the only reason planet Earth hadn't perished yet. 
He left the empty parking lot behind the warehouse where he had burned the incompetent ingrate. The man had said that he had information on the whereabouts of his counterpart, so quick to believe in anything that would bring him closer to his wayward companion that he had fallen into a predictable trap. It wasn't anything dire that would wind up with him being dissected and studied in a top secret laboratory but this fanatical hunt by zealots were getting a bit too much on his nerves but he restrained himself tonight and that was all the mercy he could afford right now.
If people thought they knew the truth of him and were trying to kill him, what did that mean for his companion? 
Always more partial to night than day, he walked the length of the warehouse districts to the dining districts, he was hungry and was strangely in the mood for Korean barbeque.

She woke up in a dingy motel room that she was sharing with Astra Niedelschan-Rivera, a human who was not so human, however the woman had street smarts that Kara didn't possess and she was glad that the older woman carried multiple weapons. She was an apt protector, not that Kara needed one but guns were normal as where Kara's ability to fire conjure were not. Not that her fire could kill people. She never quite mastered the art of killing with it. 
Her counterpart, Shogari, had the ability to kill using fire, Kara's was more humane. Her fire healed. It even healed her when Shogari killed her all those centuries ago.
Rubbing her bright red hair, Kara could hear water running from the attached bathroom and knew Astra was up. A glance outside the window told her the time, a dark 9 o' clock at night. As it was summer, the sun was stealing time from the moon making the day longer, Astra wasn't able to travel in daylight. She had a fierce allergic reaction to the sun's rays. 
Kara had seen the blisters and boils on Astra's arms the day they met, the dark haired Austrian-Spanish beauty had been cornered by Bounty Hunters who were looking to cash in on the hefty bounty on her head when she ran into Kara down a narrow street in Prague. The red festering sores were absolutely disgusting, appalled by the woman's allergic reaction, she quickly grabbed her arms and used her gift to heal. Now there was no evidence that the woman ever had them. 
Astra headed out of the bathroom already dressed and ready to go. "Shower's on for you. Bathe, dress and let's go." They were somewhere in Bavaria and had no idea where to go to next. Astra's vote was for her favorite home away from home in England, a place where grey skies most often visited. She was perfectly fine in rainy, cloudy or snowy weather, she could go out in the day and be a normal woman. Kara had no preference although she had wanted to visit France, her grandmother's ancestral homeland, or was it called Gallia back then? 
Shaking her head of useless thoughts, she got to her bare feet to head into the bathroom.
Astra slid into the driver's seat of her black car, one recently donated to her by a benefactor who was in need of her skills and discretion. "I can drive you know. I learned in the west." Kara said taking her seat on the passenger's side.
"Europa is west," Astra reminded her, making her think that Kara's kind was specifically bad at directions.
"West of west. I learned in Texas."
"Never been there." Astra responded blandly, she's been visiting America for many years but she never had cause to go to Texas.
"A lot of German heritage there." Kara added feeling that Astra wouldn't be so out of place in Texas, not with so many people sharing the same heritage as her.
"I'm Austrian and Austrian people are originally Celtic, we just speak German. I'm damn near of Gaulish descent." Astra snorted.
"And my father's people were the actual Persians, not like the dark hair and dark eyed people you see today." Kara countered. Hundred of years or rape had weeded out the red hair and blue eyes of the Persians the same it had with the Turkic, nonetheless she was a throwback of an ancient origin no longer recognized. 
They spent the long night in silence only erupting in arguments in regards to the radio or Astra's personal mp3 player before they stopped for food, exiting a highway to find fast and cheap edible delights. The road disappeared under miles until the morning sun threatened to infect Astra once more. "It's funny, the sun is nothing but a ball of fire and it keeps trying to kill me," Astra sipped what was left of her melted milkshake through its red straw that she had purchased hours ago.
Taking the very next exit, Astra feverishly searched for a motel in the city. 
Drawing the curtains across all the windows in the motel room, Astra pulled out her laptop to purchase plane tickets for the two of them for the closest airport, night flights. In a couple of hours they would be in dreary old London. Astra knew who she was running from but she had no idea what Kara was trying to escape.
From the London airport to Astra's hideaway flat that housed a portion of her personal arsenal, she lit up a cigarette in the living room to ask her little friend who and what she was, not that she needed any details, she was just curious was all. Kara sipped from a bottle of water staring at what was left of her fish and chips in front of her. "You're not in any real danger with me, Astra," came a different sounding voice from Kara's mouth, one that sounded older and much wiser. Astra said nothing about the change, maybe Kara had a split personality of some sort. 
"But if he shows up....I cannot make any promises."
"He who?" Astra felt a stab of concern, she could take care of herself no problem but what if she couldn't against whoever she was speaking of? 
"Who indeed." 
A chill ran down the dark haired woman's spine. The following day she would get no sleep as her mind kept repeating Kara's words, who indeed?

Out of boredom Shogari entertained some children in a public park with his fire magic, they had thought he was just a really cool magician as most people did. They didn't know that there was no trick to it, at least not for him. Fire was as natural as walking and breathing. He could consciously summon it just as well as subconsciously and there were rare times when his life was actually in danger where the fire that flowed althroughout his veins defended him.
The small children laughed and giggled until he raised his brows to coax one of them to touch the flame sprouting out of his hand. He would show them a little of reality then it would be back to fun and games. A brave child reached out carelessly only to pull his hand back to cradle it against his chest, "that burned!" The child wailed before running off to find his mother without a doubt. 
"Hey mister is that fire really hot?" Asked another boy.
Shogari held out his hand, "why not see for yourself?" 
The child gingerly poked at the contained flames with a forefinger, pulling his hand back in quick response to the heat. "How comes it doesn't burn you?" The boy asked skeptically as he looked the adult over. Shogari was of average height with a common short haircut and neat beard. There didn't appear to be anything different or odd about him but suddenly the child felt a bit wary and unsafe. 
"Burn me?" Shogari asked humorously, "I am a dragon! You can't burn dragons. Can't drown us either." He slept for decades under the ocean floor and when he lifted his tail, hurricanes would ravage the sea. 
"Sure you are mister." The kid responded, all of the tension drained from his body, the adult must have just been a very good magician, probably worked at a well known circus. The group of children dispersed when he clapped his hands eradicating his magical inferno but there was no magic to it. Nothing mystical or otherworldly about it. He was quite convincing as a liar but he never lied about what he was, he was more than a dragon, he was the dragon. He was the only true king of the world but he had always allowed the humans to rule themselves as he was too selfish to care about their fluctuating needs. 
With a flap of his massive wings he could create tornadoes that would level a city completely, if he wanted to stomp around on the ground, he could puncture the Earth beneath him, and if he wanted to set the world ablaze.....there was no one who could stop him. 
His counterpart could contest him but never actually stop him, he supposed though that she was still upset about him killing her over a thousand years ago and that's why she was hiding. So be it, he thought to himself as he headed towards another restaurant, not Asian cuisine this time, something more delicate and lighter, he had 20 stomachs to keep full after all, besides, he was meeting an old friend for dinner later.
His friend chose the restaurant Sultans which served only the freshest of Turkish cuisine. Similar to Shogari but not a dragon like he was, this woman was able to choose her physical shape, could even change her gender if she liked but for the last decade she masqueraded as head nurse L.C. Shogari and the shapeshifter always had a friendly relationship that suited both of their needs just fine, spotting her sitting on a couch waiting for him, he joined her at the relaxed table.
"Is that you Turtle?" He asked pleasantly.
She smiled faintly, "you look exactly the same as last time I saw you." 
Shogari waved a hand to dismiss her statement, "hair grows long, I cut it, I can't change my human mask like you." His eyes darted from her soft face to other parts of her body before settling back on her brown eyes, "no longer masquerading as a child I see."
"Yes...there's only so much a child can do." She waited for him to sit before saying anything else.
Once he was seated beside her, he asked about her choice of eatery, he was actually hoping for something that served alcohol not that it could make him drunk but he did always enjoy drinking as a hobby. "I thought you'd be more accustomed to it. Besides, Greek and Turkish food are awfully similar if not down right the same-"
Shogari lifted his eyes to view the waiter coming to fill their water glasses, "don't let them hear you say that," he whispered softly in an ancient language that only the two of them would understand. 
The waiter, a tall yet portly man smiled friendly at the two as he handed them the menus then excused himself to wait another table. Shogari opened it to see food similar to his own native cuisine and although he could eat an entire sheep wool and all, he had grown fond of the human dining experience and often preferred it more even if it could never fill up his 20 stomachs. "Let's make this a true meal then with all the courses. So what are you calling yourself now?" He asked casually from over atop his menu.
"You may call me L.C now."
"Ah."
"My Turkish is lacking, you may have to help me pronounce these words." L.C looked up at him with all the childish mischief she had gained in all the centuries she lived. 
"Certainly."
They spoke idly of their recent travels while awaiting their drinks and appetizers, during their main course, L.C handed over an old thick journal she had found, "it's an old medical journal written by a woman in Athenian Antiquity, I've read through it, she was spot on with her theories but since she's a woman her contributions are largely unaccounted for."
Shogari snorted, "I didn't know women could be physicians in Athenian Antiquity and you give this to me why?"
"I heard rumors of someone wanting this and was aimed to do anything to get it. A man," she turned her head away focusing on a single spot on the floor, worry invaded her face as she tried to recall more of the anonymous warning she received, "a ruthless man called the Damaged Wolf...that's all I know. I have nothing to defend myself if he should pay me a visit so it may be safer in your claws...or belly." 
Shogari placed the old record in his jacket's inner pocket. "Now....you called my here because you know where Kara is." 
She held up a finger, "what's your rush King? Let's wait for dessert."
"Fine. I'm having samsa, and you?"
"Oo this ice cream dish looks good. Order it for me."
When they were halfway through the desserts, L.C began to speak again, "I can't be sure but it's just a hunch.....Kara may have been spotted by one of the Ravens in Europe. In Germany I last heard."
He nodded. "The Ravens don't like me very much anymore."
"Of course not." Not after he incinerated one that tried to convince him not to torch an entire city to the ground. The Ravens who were messengers of death and calamity always followed people who were about to die or cause chaos in any kind of form, that being said, the Ravens were always fluttering around in bird form because only Elite Ravens could transform into humans and they could only do that for a short period of time.
After that the Ravens began to fear the fire he wielded and only the bravest of them interacted when they had to but only if it was absolutely necessary. However the Ravens would take a request from L.C as long as it didn't interfere with their primary duties. "Contact the Ravens, have them follow Kara loosely, not too close or they'll be ensnared by her. I have the sneaking suspicion that if she and I were captured we would become the focus of inhuman experimentation. Religious zealots have already attacked me convinced that I was a demon. Kara's fire can't harm so she's in more potential danger than I am."
L.C nodded. She knew Kara very well so his concern was justified. "I will." 


Kara reluctantly showed Astra her fire after six weeks of living in her London flat, the woman deserved to know. In her hand sprung a medium sized flame that stood stationary without dancing and waving like normal flames would be by exposure to oxygen. Upon closer examination the flames held different colors, vibrant colors like purple and gold and a little bit of pink, it also appeared to be more fluid, liquid in essence. "Touch it, it's cool."
Believing in the redhead, Astra reached out to touch the fire and felt a light coolness. She eyed Kara strangely, "what are you?"
"The phoenix. I'm only one, there are no others. My fire governs the state of Rebirth as does my presence in the world, in fact I'm much older than you but I normally live alone except for when I encounter my counterpart......the dragon."
Astra looked around her small apartment, "a dragon really? If you're a phoenix shouldn't you be on fire all the time and be a bird?"
Kara glared at her with glowing gold eyes, "ignorance. I adapt. I can take human form and I only show my true self if it's unavoidable."
"So why are you here, now? Are you a sign of a global catastrophe?"
Kara began to laugh, "ridiculous made up theories. No. I'm just as much alive as you are and I have every right to a normal life like you do. There's no apocalypse coming, at least not from me. I'm able to sleep for lifetimes, its been over a thousand years since I last woke, normally I'm only roused from slumber when the dragon wakes...." Kara tilted her head upward to the ceiling as if she was looking at the sky, straining her ears to hear. "So he must have woken up recently."
"Is that good?" Astra figured that if a dragon had waken up and was flying around then someone would have seen him and his presence would have made headlines in the news.
"Of course. We aren't harbingers of doom or anything. We're capable of being either good or bad if we want, just like anyone else. He has bit of a temper though and he doesn't take well to people destroying nature so he might have killed people cutting down forests and what not. Our loyalty is to the Earth, not to humans. He gave mankind fire and he can take it back. So if I was your kind, I wouldn't provoke him. His fire can't be doused by water or sand so if he wanted someone to burn for all eternity he could literally do it, at least with my help he could."
"Maybe we should find him?" Astra asked skeptically, maybe he could be kept using such extremes on people who didn't really deserve it.
"Can't. That's not the natural order of things. I only go to him if he wants to be crowned king and wants to rule with his iron claws, other than that, he comes to me."
"So he'll find you?"
"He always does."
"Then what happens?"
"We fight, he kills me, my body is engulfed in flames, I am reborn in another part of the world, the cycle repeats." 
Astra swallowed a German curse, "that must be tiring."
"It is but without the ritual......nothing else on this planet could live."        

 
Gisalrico Vincenc Otokar, a biophysics scientist had greatly undermined the rumors floating through his office by the lesser competant staff. There had been talk about a string of recent burn victims that had made its way through the lower fifty states from west to east, so great was the number of burn victims, news reporters were considering it a possibility of massive suicide by fire. 
It made for a morbid debate amongst employees and co-workers who shook their heads at the epidemic but he wouldn't concern himself with morbid news fodder until someone mentioned that in one specific report that friends and family of a victim refused to believe it was suicide and that the victim was indeed murdered. Police had followed up the investigation to find the victim had been doing a little investigation of his own, the victim's investigation detailed the daily routine of an unidentified man whom he believed to be a demon.
Gisalrico snorted, demons, bah! Who could ever belive such beings existed? Sick of hearing their fanciful tales he snapped at his subordinates who were busy drumming up their own theories on the demon. "You're here to work not gossip about made up news stories." 
He walked back to his lab. 
He was the last one to leave the lab, it was eleven at night and all of his workers had gone home but he was just now experiencing hunger. Slamming his car door, he headed towards Sabrina's Diner to order his usual steak and mashed potatoes but he never made it. Younger men on bicycles circled him while taunting loudly, insulting him before one took out a gun and shot him in the shoulder. Two more shots had him on the ground in pain as the men searched his bloody body for his wallet. Taking the cash and his gold watch, they hopped on their bikes and took off down the road.
Unable to move, he laid on the dirty street bleeding to death.

Thin light came through the roughly closed blinds that dust floated on. Gisalrico laid stiffly on the sofa bed trying to move his neck to try to glimpse his surroundings. Across from the bed a man sat in a chair with a glass of water sitting on the table beside him, "if you want the water you'll have to sit up, Otokar." 
  Gisalrico struggled to lay back against the puffy pillows until he could properly see the good samaritan who saved him. He eyed his gun shot wounds as best he could, his shoulder was stitched but the wounds on his side was burned where the bullet had punctured him. "Who are you?" He asked skeptically.
"I am called Shogari, it means first to reap. You may want to think of that as a warning and as a source of relief. I found you shot, lying on the ground. I brought you here, treated your wounds. Now I'm no doctor but I've learned a little something so you may still want to go to a hospital.....when I let you leave."
"L-l-let me leave?" Gisalrico's mouth had gone dry, his senses heightened as fear crept in making his ears burn. What did he mean by that?
"Yes." Shogari replied as he got up to hand the injured man the glass of water, he wore a plain black t-shirt, he didn't appear threatening. He handed Gisalrico the glass. "You're a biophysicist and I heard that something interesting will be arriving at your office in the next few days....ignore it. Or....those burns wounds will be worse. I'll leave you to collect your thoughts." The strange man left him alone, he could tell he was utterly by himself when he heard a thick door slam that echoed through the hollow hall. He shivered from cold despite it being the middle of summer. 
Shogari hadn't lied, when he was released from the hospital something interesting had shown up at his office. It was a plain brown box similar to small packages that could be bought at the post office, inside of it was two sealed vials of blood. One was labeled human, the other was labeled demon. He hadn't forgotten about Shogari's warning to ignore the package and he was going to do what the man had told him but scientific curiosity got the better of him. 
He didn't believe in demons or anything supernatural or paranormal so he was sure that if he analyzed both blood samples, he wouldn't find anything out of the ordinary but what if he did? What if? What if one of those blood samples held secrets within its DNA that no man had ever discovered before? Could it be used to cure diseases or could it be weaponized? The possibility of what if taunted him, lured him into disregarding Shogari's warning.
He started with the blood labeled human, he gave it the necessary treatments before getting ready to use gene therapy to check the genetic conditions that the donor might have had. When the results came back negative of the usual blood defects, then he used forensic testing to find the identity of the donor. Those results gave him nothing and was a waste of his time.
He moved on to the next sample, he could feel and hear his heartbeat racing in anticipation but he had to calm himself or else he'd make a mistake and would ruin the only sample he had. His hands trembled as they sweated inside the plastic gloves as he handled this vial with extra care. He ran the same series of tests, beginning with the gene therapy. 
He held his breath before getting the results back, the paper he held in his hands astounded him. Demon or not, this couldn't possibly be right. He had to have made a mistake, no, he argued with himself, Gisalrico Vincenc Otokar did not make mistakes! 
He tried the other test but the systems that identified criminals had nothing. He spent the rest of the day cross checking databases to find the two donors, the human donor was one of the burn victims but the other......was it Shogari's? Was that the reason he wanted Gisalrico to ignore it because if he tested Shogari's blood he would find something not quite right, something a little more than human DNA?  
His blood contained an unidentified animal DNA as well as carbon dioxide and nitrogen, two of the chemical compounds that make fire. He was a walking combustion tank. How did he not succumb to the nitrogen? How did the chemical even end up in his bloodstream? He didn't 
appear sick when he last saw him, he seemed completely fine and wasn't suffering from any 
visible ailment. What was that man? His scientific brain burned with questions that needed answers but the man hadn't given him a phone number or any other form of contact information, how was he supposed to find him again?
The apartment he woke up in, that was a good start. 

Shogari had already moved on from the eastern city, although he could fly he thought he'd tried something new like riding an airplane. He sat in the thin chair staring at the small television that was fixed in the back of the headrest in front of him, his arms folded across his chest as if he was angry. He didn't like the plane. It was cramped, there were too many people around, the food wasn't nearly enough for him and worse of all, he couldn't open the window.
He couldn't feel the wind on his face, couldn't breathe the crisp sea air as they flew over the Atlantic. He chewed his tongue allowing a small facet of his true nature to slip through his mortal disguise. A fang larger than the tallest man's arm slipped out of his mouth as he tried to keep his composure. He wasn't claustrophobic at all but this was a bit more than he could handle, he sighed, this is what he got for trying something new. Shaking his head he allowed the shell to break a little more until a large wing popped out from his back, crushing the row of seats across the aisle from where he sat.
Screams filtered the small space as he fully changed his form, his large body breaking everything in the plane until his weight had the mechanical device plummeting out the sky itself, by then half of the passengers who road economy class were already dead. Shaking his reptilian head, he spread his massive black wings causing the sides of the plane to completely shatter, ripping the vessel apart completely, he was finally free of the constraints. 
He flapped his wings twice to keep him afloat as he watched the white aircraft crumble as he fell from the sky with speed that seemed slow to him. Never again, he reminded himself, would he take a plane. Uncaring of the people's lives he just took, he flapped his wings again thrusting himself northeast for the small island nation. The Ravens hadn't let L.C down and she had delivered on her promise, the phoenix was alive and staying in a city called London. 
Kara had a better chance of surviving if he was around, this time when they met they wouldn't be fighting nor would he kill her. He was sure that scientist had disobeyed him and soon there would be a massive hunt for the two of them. This time he was going to protect her.