Fury

A Fury's Fire

"What's going on?" War growled as he rushed into the medical tent.

Bellowing smoke engulfed him as he tried to make out the scene, men and women ran around him as shouts for more water were heard in the distance. Broken furniture and smoking debris spanned out in a circle like the aftershock of an imploded bomb. In its epicentre stood the girl, her eyes wild and her skin blazing. A vortex of fire swarmed around her, twisting up her body before meeting an invisible barrier and spreading outwards like and umbrella.

Maria - the hodou priestess, stood in front of her. Her hands raised and her face tight with concentration, she chanted in her foreign tongue.

"War." Ami cried, appearing from the blackened clouds. Limping at her side was Lues - her trembling hand covering her face, as she held on to Ami.

"What happened?" War snapped as he saw the true damage, Lues failed to hide. Her flawless cheek had been marred -burned, the skin twisted in on itself, boiling under extreme heat.

"Lues says she freaked out when she woke up, screaming something about how Lues had the same eye as him. She attacked before Lues knew what was happening."

Lues sad eyes met his as she begged him silently not to hurt her patient.

"Don't, she did this to you." War spat.

Lues grabbed his arm, stopping him. "She thought I was a sanguisuges. She's scared, confused and broken. Don't hurt her."

Shaking free from his sister, he kissed her on the head. "I won't make promises, I can't keep. I'll do what I have too."

He watched as Ami dragged Lues out into the clean air, before returning his focus on the girl. Maria's chanting was more frantic, her brow broken in sweat.

"I can't hold her much longer." She yelled, as he came up beside her. The flame's hot breath growled angrily in their faces.

"Let me into the circle. I'll take care of the rest." War ordered.

"You can't go in there! I'm holding back the fire, tethering it to her. If I break the spell, all hell will break loose, you'll burn to death."

War laughed, "I was born of fire."

Maria eyed him warily. Though she trusted his judgement, she didn't know how long she could keep the spell up, it was draining her quicker than anything she'd ever faced before.

"Do it, now!"

With a nod, Maria released her hold. No longer caged, the fire ripped free, War charged, it licked his skin rolling around him like a stampede of frightened horses. Yet he felt a kinship to it, he understood the pain, the hatred and anger which fuelled it.

The screams of his people pierced the roaring flames. He pushed harder.

"I was born of this!" He cried angrily. "The cries of a mother as her son laid slain birthed me." The fire rose in agitation, he was not the master here. "The battlefield was my womb!"

"Blood soaked earth was my nourishment."  He continued. On the edge of the flame's breathe, he could hear the prayers of man, to bring justice to the injustice seen. Worship offered to a god long forgotten, a wrathful and vengeful God who brought plagues and flooded cities.

He fought on breaching the wall of heat until he drew it back like a curtain. Revealing the girl - her eyes glowing, her hair fanned out like a living flame. An old ancient power peered out from behind her eyes, watching him, judging his worth. He grabbed her, holding her firm as she struggled against him.

"The fire of sacked cites is my blood, steel striking steel is my voice. You can not hurt me, little fury." He snapped, the power merged in her eyes receded.

She looked up to him, her eyes wide and fearful. "Make them stop." She sobbed.

"Make what stop?" He urged, holding her to him.

"The voices."

Gripping her face, he forced her to look at him. To see him, did the fire burn a pit in her stomach too? Did it want to take over, to bring chaos? To declare his namesake?

"The voices do they feed the fire?" He asked slowly, were they the same as prayers he heard? Of men and women spilling blood in his name?

"Yes." She cried.

"Then starve it!"

"How?"

"They are the fuel, by listening to them you are the oxygen they need, push them to the back of your mind, take their voice, ignore them and focus on me. Listen only to my voice." He cooed softly in her ear. If he could banish them from his mind, so could she, he would teach her how.

He spoke a thousand words as he held her, calming her with each breath. He watched as the flames slowly receded, curling in on themselves and sinking into her flesh.

Falling to her knees, he caught her as she sobbed. "It's hurts, they need me to go to them."

Stroking her hair, he spoke softly "then I'll go with you. The fire knows me now, it will accept my passage."

"I don't know how."

"Just will it and it will be." He answered, looking towards his sisters - who watched from the door. They begged him silently from the distance not to go, he didn't know for certain what the transportation would do. A demon's rift was personal and wilful, it could tear him apart on whim. It took eons for a demon to learn how to tame it, bring it to heel.

Yet when his eyes fell on the girl again, he knew it was a risk he'd have to take. He'd been just like her, born of death and war raged. He knew the darkness she carried. How lonely and terrifying it could be, not knowing which feelings were your own and which were those forced upon you. Living in a constant rage not of your own making.

Her fire rose to met his, he felt it's invading presence, questioning, not the same but similar? He closed his eyes and world vanished.