Fire Starter

They were running from me; I could sense it. Their paws crunching leaves with each pounce, wings beating overhead, hooves stirring up the forest floor. Good, I thought. Everything ran from me, it was the way nature was designed.

I crawled up a tree and sat in it’s bow. I’d wait here until most of them had cleared, then it would be my land. My haven.

Smoke pushed it’s way through my lips and I laughed. The embers were tickling my innards. Oh but it hurt-- I needed to feel the flames engulf me, it had been so long. Far, far too long.

I could hear the trees worried- the one beneath me shook, and I caressed it’s bark with my palms. “It’s been awhile, old friend.” I whispered just for her, and a wisp of smoke snuck out and hugged her trunk.

“She’s here!” screamed a voice so small and pitiful I wanted to scold it. It was a mouse, panicking a few metres away. “Run!” It called again, “Run! Run!”

I sat up so that my feet were on the branch, perched like a bird. “Run!” I mocked, in my most convincing mouse voice. He froze and sniffed the air, eyes wide, then he was gone. The smart ones knew when to leave. It doesn’t take long for the flames to surround you, and then what? There’s no place to go but up.

As the sun dipped below the hills I could tell most of them were gone, and the fire was starting to burn out of control from within me. I lept to the ground, running my hands through the leaves, and scooped an armful up, then I breathed. It took a minute for the fire to catch up with the steam rolling off my tongue, but when it did the leaves burst into flames and I cast them free. Like blazing butterflies they soared through the twilight sky- little thrill seekers; my children. Most of them fizzled out and drifted down again, but they were just the beginning.

I ran through the forest, the fire racing beside, and inside me. Every inhale fueled it with oxygen, and every exhale set it free, licking up the tree trunks, biting up the dry weeds. The forest lit up. My entire body was in love with the heat and the smoke that swirled around and around

That’s when I noticed it. A sound no louder than a thought. My eyes found it immediately: a bird, limp on the forest floor. I knelt beside it, curious- I’d never seen a bird up close before, they were always the first to flee. This was indeed special. I went to touch it, stroke it’s delicate wing perhaps, but then I thought better, and for one of the few times in my life I didn’t want to burn something. I thought it was dead. It was just lying there, so beautiful, with black feathers that hugged its body so loosely. Then it twitched. I continued to stare at it, completely stunned. It should be dead, I thought. Nothing survived my fires. I wasn’t some urban, toaster-oven mishap, I was a forest fire a dragon a uncontrollable blaze! Things this fragile just didn’t survive my fun.

Is something wrong with me? I wondered, Am I getting old? I shivered and knelt beside the frail creature. “Hello tiny thing,” I said, my voice squeaking from lack of use. The bird’s head flicked toward me, and it blinked. I could tell it wanted to say something, but for some reason it felt it couldn’t. Maybe it thought I couldn’t understand it’s strange tongue.

I reached towards it with a wiry finger, my skin gone back to it’s cold persona. The bird flinched and flapped it’s wings, struggling to get away from me.

“What is wrong with you?” I inquired, more to myself than anything.

It went still and I thought it had died. It’s little breath gone- and I was sad. I was truly sad and disappointed I’d never know what had caused it to survive me. I sighed, turning away from it for a moment, then looked back and- jumped backwards. A man was sitting where the bird was, long wings spread wide.

So this was what a Fallen looked like.