Smoke and dust (prologue)

At first I didn’t know whether it was dust or smoke. A thick haze of vapor hung over the city, masking the setting sun. I stepped forward as though in a trance. My mind was too busy admiring the dusky silence that gleamed off the glistening walls to realize where my feet were placing themselves. Closer and closer I drew, until I could no longer see the top of buildings, placing me somewhere in the middle of the downward slope of Fiery Hill.

My feet led me to a school that headed the rest of the sparkling city. I walked through the towering gates to find a sandpit with a little girl in it. She was sitting cross-legged on the sand, building a castle. She wore a faded pink dress that looked as though it was meant for a birthday party.

As I drew closer I heard her humming a distinct tune. It sounded familiar though I could not place it. She didn’t look up at me, or give any sign of feeling my presence.

Holding up her hand she let the sand run through her open fingers until it melted in with the rest.

I kneeled down beside her and looked into her face, but it was masked by long glossy black hair. She still paid no attention to me.

“Get away from her!” an anxious voice called from the distant hill. I turned my head back to see who was yelling. The broad figure of my keeper came pelting down the hill, holding her numerous skirts up and waving a hand fearfully to me.

“Run child! Come back!” She yelled.

I wondered why she was yelling so frightfully.

I turned back to girl and let out a piercing scream.

The glossy hair had been swept back to reveal a truly terrible face. Her reddish skin was stretched taught over it, resembling a skeleton. Pouchy swollen red eyes emerged out of a sunken scull. Her lips curled to reveal sharp black teeth in a mouth full of blood.

I scrambled to my feet an ran faster than ever, back to the other side of the hill. I didn’t look back as my keeper huffed alongside me, and only turned for one last glance at the top of the grassy slope.

The girl was standing beside a trampled sand castle, a limp doll fell to the floor as her black hair drifted in front of her face again and I skidded to the safety of my village.