The Carnelian Fox Read online

  “Really?” As if Callum needed to ask that question.

  “Nah, they’re swimming in the bloody things. They know they have to cater for all these show Primes.”

  “You didn’t consider one?”

  “Hey, I’m not one to put a well-trained candy type down.” I pointed at him with my best lecturer impression. “They’re incredible against shadow and psychic types, not many things are.”

  “They don’t look the part if you want to be a credible battle Prime. I mean, you can get away with a glittery, cutesy thing.”

  “Because I’m a girl?”

  “Because you’re a girl,” he agreed, patting me on the head. He could be an irritating git sometimes. “See, females have an unfair advantage in battle.”

  “I’ve decided not to have this conversation.”

  “How about one about leaving town?”

  “Oh yes!” I bounced on the spot; everything was suddenly overwhelming. In a good way. “I’ve genuinely dreamed about this so many times.”

  “More times than you’ve dreamed about my dad?”

  “I’d say about on par.” I winked at him. I’d creep him out if he pushed me to that.

  Truthfully, this was the biggest moment of my life, even bigger than realising my best friend was the son of Sebastian Capshaw, one of the greatest battle Primes in the world and my childhood hero. Now I was starting my adventure. I called Callum my best friend, but he didn’t have much competition. I’d spent way too much of my school life actually studying to waste time talking to people. It took everything I had to get the meagre grades I’d managed to get by with to get into college, and if I had spare time, I spent it working to pay the tuition fees.

  At least the government would pay me now. Well, I’d get a nominal upkeep and free lodging, anyway. As long as I kept my eye out for aggressive unbonded Gems and responded to any emergency reports in my area. It was kind of the loosest possible description of a job. But after this, once I’d hacked away at this low-level work for a while and proved myself by collecting challenge points, the world would open up for me. I could be anything. Work with earth Gems in construction, travel the world with my team as SOS response, track and remove high-level threats. Yeah, I could do that, but I set my sights higher.

  I wanted to battle in arenas. Proper ones - not circles in the dirt while a few bullies made snide comments. I wanted to take on the best of the best in the entire region, no, the world. I wanted the title of Grand Master. And the money and fame that came with it. Once I got that my mum would never have to work a twelve-hour shift again, and my sister could have her own Gem too, whichever one she wanted. And there’d still be plenty left over for scholarships for kids even poorer than me that wanted to train up.

  “Daydreaming about world dominion again?” Callum prodded me back to reality.

  “It is inevitable.”

  “Do I get to be your head lackey during this reign of terror?”

  “Depends, I want to keep my options open.” I grinned, wondering why I always pretended to be better than him when he was the one with perfect grades and access to the best gear.

  “Then I’ll have to work hard to impress you.”

  We bantered back and forth until we got to the town square where we split apart. I was heading to the downtown apartments and Callum across the parks to his parent’s sprawling residence. I still felt awkward going there even though everyone was super welcoming. More for who lived there than the vast, beautiful building and expensive furniture. I always thought about the years of watching Sebastian on TV, cheering him on and vowing I’d be doing the same one day. It’s properly embarrassing trying to talk to someone you had posters on your walls of as a kid. I say ‘as a kid’ but the last two came down the day I realised who Callum was and how much he’d tease me if he saw them.

  “Meet at the gates in an hour?” I suggested.

  “If my mum’s done hugging me by then.”

  ***

  “You bring me a snake home,” Zoe wagged her finger in my face as I tried to hug her goodbye. “A corrosive one. A really big one.”

  “You wanted an electric buffalo last week.” And a flame hippo the week before that, and a giant earth moth before that. I was getting exasperated.

  “But I just saw Randy Miller in the quarter finals and his corrosive snake was insane!”

  “You can’t just go with whatever other people are using, Zo, you need your own thing.”

  “You said you’d bring me whatever I wanted.” She batted her eyelashes, but I wasn’t falling for this eleven-year-old’s charm. Ha, she was growing up and getting less cute every day.

  “Yeah, but if I travel all the way to the Aralis mountains to find you a corrosive and you’ve decided you want a bloody water Gem by the time I get back, I’m going to be so annoyed.”

  “Just get loads and I’ll pick when I graduate.” Zoe seemed to think this was a perfectly reasonable request…

  “I’ve only got my team of six and enough storage for a secondary team, I can’t afford to keep more, not until I start winning prize money. I’ll get you something good though, Zo, I promise.”

  “And promise me you’ll stay safe,” Mum added. “You stick with Callum or find someone else to travel with if you decide to go separate ways.”

  “We’re taking the same route, Mum, we’ll be fine.”

  “Plans change, honey. Make sure you always have a backup one.”

  I really wish I’d listened to her.

  Chapter Two

  The greys of the town soon gave way to the vibrant greens of Talkis forest. I took a slow breath, filling my lungs to capacity with a gentle trickle of healthy air.

  It was happening. Part of me never believed it would. Even when I’d scraped together the fee, crammed the revision in every night, down to when I’d ripped my results open this morning, there was this voice saying that someone would come and out me as a failure at any second. I had a hard time separating what was an achievable dream and which parts of my thought life were a delusion. But, hey, I had a Gem, a few credits in my account, and my life ahead of me.

  Our first journey took us through a well-travelled route towards the closest city, that meant the road should be free of wild Gems. Plenty of other Primes were close enough to respond to any alerts and remove potential threats.

  “Surreal, isn’t it?” Callum stretched and readjusted his travel pack.

  “Yeah, I walked this way to Talucia a load of times with Mum. Today feels new though, like it’ll be different when I get there.”

  “Which challenge do you want to go for first?” he asked.

  “Well, what’s the general plan? We get ten points for the first win but then it drops with each hall in the same city. So, do we hit every challenge or just go for maximum points and move on?”

  “Do the maths, we can get twenty-two if we hit all seven - ten, five, and three before it drops to one, seven in a city - so that’s three cities to get all fifty. But we’d need to rest our Gems every couple of challenges. If we stick to three that’s still eighteen points and three objectives, or even get the ten and five then move on? We’d have more chance to catch some new Gems between too. They make it harder the more points you have.”

  “I just left school, don’t talk about maths.”

  “What do you think we learnt it for?”

  “Torture?” There was no way he’d convince me otherwise.

  “There’s a master that uses air Gems, our flames will have the advantage.”

  “Yeah and then they get harder with our disadvantage…” My quick thinking shocked me. I say quick, but I’d had these kinds of strategy meetings with myself for years.

  “If we’re only taking on two, we can go for the easiest in the area.”

  “Doesn’t that feel dead cheap?” I kicked a pebble along the well-worn track.

  “Are we in this to reach the next level or to feel good about ourselves?”

  “I want both.” I folded my arms wi
th finality. “We’ll do your bird thing because I don’t want to do the first on my own, then I’ll pick one randomly. And if I suck and fail, I’ll come to wherever you’ve gone afterwards.”

  “You know I still have to wait for you if you take forever, right? I promised your mum and everything.”

  “Just let me learn my lesson, okay?” I didn’t want to scrape by and grab as many points as easily as possible. I wanted to earn them the way I’d always gone at everything with 100% effort, it’d feel wrong not to. And the championships wouldn’t be full of easy wins after that. This wasn’t a qualifier to me - it was the next level of my education.

  The pathway we followed meandered through a sparse woodland, it was much quieter and had way nicer aesthetic than the road that joined the two settlements. A chorus of birdsong rang through the branches, just ordinary old-fashioned birds with no special powers.

  I would have liked to run into some Gems to practise battle, but this was too close to habitation and though they roamed extensively, the government worked hard to keep the areas of high human population safe. Finn was still recovering too.

  It was mid-afternoon before the industrial smells drifted our way. And before long we broke through the tree line, spotting the squat smear of the smoke ridden city. Officials had wild, natural areas pruned back like ugly weeds to make sure nothing could sneak up on the inhabitants.

  Callum grinned and took the lead, an uncharacteristic spring in his step proved he was holding back from bolting towards Talucia. I followed, just as delirious - all drunk on adventure. This was what life was about.

  Only a handful of skyscrapers remained. No one built something so inescapable nowadays. The couple left were relics of a time when the only things that ruled the skies were machines under human control. When I was a kid, I’d seen a rogue corrosive eagle that got stuck in the top of a church tower. The pieces of sizzling tile hitting the ground lived with me for a long time, I’d almost sworn off corrosive Gems for life.

  A wire fence ringed the city, I reckoned it was there more to make people feel safe than to protect them. I could’ve hacked through with my teeth and nails if I’d had enough time. It sure wouldn’t deter something that could breathe fire.

  Two Primes sat at each entrance, guarding the way through the barrier. It was the kind of grunt work I’d never be able to bring myself to do. Yeah it paid better than drifting, but it had to be the most boring thing imaginable. And they didn’t get to strengthen their teams sat there all day either.

  A slack faced dude waved us through with a quick scan of our eBands and ushered us into the dingy outskirts. This was the least used entrance, and it was obvious the city council weren’t that bothered about its appearance. Graffiti plastered the drab walls, each overlapping layer declaring a new owner of this territory. I wondered what J3st3rK1ng’s real name was, maybe he had a battle Gem too.

  “This is… pleasant.” Callum wrinkled up his nose, it had been a while since I first experienced that toxic blend of urine, weed smoke, burned out engine, and despair - you learn to blank it out after a while.

  “What, you never came this way before?”

  “We always drove in the proper way.”

  “Alternative doesn’t mean it isn’t proper,” I argued. “We’re on an adventure, so no chauffeur, I’m afraid.”

  “Hmm, Let’s get to the first challenge.”

  He was less than amused with our surroundings, so I pointed out the main street and led the way into the city centre. As we burst from a narrow alleyway, the fake overlayer of the city became clear. Within the space of a few strides everything transformed into bustling walkways gilded with decoration and capitalism.

  Shops lined the wide, clear streets, each displaying overpriced wares. Bright signs screamed out how much of a bargain they were because the outlets had cut them down from an even more ridiculous cost. Soft toys of Gems that the most famous Primes fought with took centre stage. Maybe Finn would look back at me from a display one day.

  “Ah, civilisation!” Callum took a deep breath and broke into a wide smile. “Now this is more like it. I know where we are now.”

  He took over the lead position, he’d scoped out the challenge the last time he’d come with his dad. Wish I’d convinced Mum to let me do the same when we came here.

  Towards the back of the vast retail area and historic market square, which just sold expensive tat outside instead of inside, we entered the business sector. Offices crushed together, fitting four floors in where there should be three, so they could choke out every bit of square footage to sell without being over the height limit.

  Then, growing out of the urban drudgery, a huge dome appeared. If it met the restrictions at all, it must have been by a feather. A tight mesh, once painted a vivid red but now chipped to reveal an unmemorable silver-grey, covered the outside. Vines and flowers and leaves wove through, all alive and vibrant and spilling out into the concrete that surrounded it.

  A short tunnel with a rusty iron door sat on one side, making the entire thing look like a humongous, sprouting igloo.

  I felt a smile light my face at the natural, untamed beauty in front of me. And then I bolted to the door, dragged it open and slipped inside.

  I entered to a cool, spacious arena filled with even more plants. They flourished around the inside of the dome all the way up and across the ceiling, leaving a trillion slender beams of light fighting through them to brighten the Challenge Hall.

  “Hey there!” A voice hailed me from across the room and a twenty-something girl sprung up from a yoga pose and dawdled towards me. Her long, whitish t-shirt hung down over thighs clad in skinny lounge trousers. Her bare feet scrunched in the blades of grass with each meandering step.

  A chorus of deafening birdsong belted out from unseen creatures dotted around the foliage. The woman quietened them with a dismissive wave of her hand, smiling up at her flock. None of those chirps came from boring, ordinary birds.

  “Oh, I have two visitors, do I?” she said, scraping back her unbound hair into a rough ponytail while checking Callum out. “I’m Teresa, Challenge Master of air, wings, and speed! Are you both challenging today?”

  “Sure are,” Callum said holding out his wrist.

  Teresa tapped her slim, stylish eBand to his then pulled up a hologram of his data. I offered my ancient chunk of metal and she took my details too.

  “Okay, rookies. Cute.” She tapped her chin for a couple of seconds and then her eyes lit up. “Oh, I’ve got a goodie to start you off.”

  She touched a capsule hanging from her necklace and a tamarin with a silvery sheen appeared between us. An air Gem. You could tell because they were colour coded: red for flame, pink for candy, white for frost, and so on. It was one of the first things a budding Prime learned.

  “This is Dapsley, all you have to do is have one of your Gems beat him in a race to that platform.”

  Teresa pointed upwards, and I followed her finger, tilting my head all the way back to spot a wooden platform hanging from ropes in the dome’s top. I made out a series of planks and branches jutting out from the plants growing in the mesh, a maze of a track with no obvious route. My poor, fingerless fox would have to out-climb a monkey!

  “Who’s up first?” Teresa gave a lopsided smile, that girl sure was enjoying our twin looks of bemusement.

  “I’ll go,” Callum said, his voice thoughtful. He must have a plan.

  He tapped Charlotte’s capsule, and the draco materialised. I brought out Finn too, so he could watch and help me plan. I still couldn’t get over the fact that this gorgeous cub was all mine, so I picked him up for a better view and a cuddle.

  “Check this out,” I whispered to him. “This crazy girl wants you to race her monkey all the way to the platform up there.”

  Finn looked up and then looked into my eyes. I swear he nodded.

  “Let’s do this,” Callum said, motioning Charlotte forward. The draco crawled towards the centre of the arena on her stubby legs.
How was she supposed to win this race?

  “Three, two, one, go!” Teresa yelled, pointing her Gem towards a thicker trunk growing out of the mesh.

  “After him!” Callum commanded.

  Charlotte scuttled behind the nimble beast, her whole body undulating with the effort. On flat ground she wasn’t too far behind because she was so much bigger, but I was pretty sure that advantage would disappear once the climb started. Dapsley threw himself into the lower vines and didn’t slow as he pulled himself upwards.

  “Charlotte, burn that tree down!”

  She inhaled and engulfed the entire network of branches that Dapsley was traversing. The air Gem cried out and leapt sideways, over five times his length, then resumed his climb.

  “Everything around him, box him in.”

  The little dragon complied, spraying her flames around the edge of the area the tamarin was ascending. The stench of burning vegetation soon overwhelmed the fresh air of the dome, smoke tickled my lungs. Dapsley dropped to the floor.

  “Catch him!” Callum shouted from the balls of his feet, leaning into the challenge. He was so born for this.

  Charlotte darted in, swiping at the downed monkey.

  “Billow!” Teresa called out her first command.

  Dapsley spun and scooped at the air, creating a massive gust of wind that took Charlotte off her feet and planted her snout in the dirt.

  “Air dart,” Teresa said.

  Her Gem plucked a materialising arrow made of swirling wind from mid-air and launched it like a javelin towards the downed dragon.

  “Light it up,” Callum snapped.

  Charlotte snorted out a stream of flame, licking the air bolt in writhing, rising fire as the added oxygen fed it. Dapsley launched himself out of the way of the backlash of his own attack.

  “Take him out.” Callum was cold, detached, focused on the win as Charlotte downed the little tamarin with her next attack and then began the lengthy ascent to the platform unopposed. I thought nothing could stop him from reaching as far as he wanted to climb in the league.