Of Love and Valor

6: Fire

The city's layout and the plume of smoke wafting towards the sky make it easy for me to find the burning house. Other Orenzhanim are forming bucket brigades leading from water storage centers to the fire. I think about joining them, but my feet won't stop carrying me to the source of the smoke.

When I arrive, three bucket brigades are already pouring water on the flames. It's a one-story house. Almost the entire roof is ablaze. Someone is screaming inside, loud enough to be heard over the fire's crackling and roaring. There's burning debris in the front doorway. Damaging a window could further wreck the structure, and there's not much time as things are. I use my katana to cut and scatter the debris in the doorway and plunge into the house. Immediately I drop to the floor; the smoke is too thick to stand upright. Flashes of my family's house in Kennakara try to distract me, but I shove them away. Focus on the task at hand. Find the people. Get them out of here.

I crawl down a hallway, dodging flaming debris that falls from the roof. We don't have much time. The screaming is coming from a room on the left. Two children, huddled in a corner. Both girls. The younger one is unconscious, the older one is wailing. Her hair is on fire. I dart in and take one in each arm, grabbing a somehow not burning pillow to smash out the flames on the older girl's head. Out of the room in a crouching run, back down the hall to the front door. More debris in the doorway, but not enough to stop me; I kick it out of the way and burst into the comparatively cool air outside.

Instantly other Orenzhanim are there. I hand off the children to them and go back into the inferno. Surely the parents are around. I have to save as many as I can. Someone is still screaming. I follow the screams to what might have been the kitchen once. A young woman, perhaps Krethzirae's age, is there, holding a baby.

"Take my baby!" she demands, thrusting the crying child at me. I take it from her, trying not to choke on the smoke.

"You come, too. The house will collapse any second," I tell her.

"My husband is here, trapped! I have to get him out!" Now that her hands are free, she's started pulling ineffectually on a large beam that's fallen on her husband, pinning his legs. One end of the beam is on fire, and the ceiling looks more precarious with each passing moment.

"I'll be right back." I can't help them while I'm holding the baby. Back to the front door, kicking more debris out of the way. Hand the baby to whoever meets me at the door and then back in, shaking off the hands that try to hold me back. They're yelling something at me, but it's just noise. Back to the young mother, who is now crying hysterically, still pulling ineffectually on the beam. Her husband isn't moving. We have to try anyway. She won't leave without him.

"Stand back," I tell her. One of my larger knives quickly cuts through the already damaged wood of the beam over his legs, creating a section I can toss to the side, with some difficulty. It's getting harder and harder to breathe.

"You're an angel!" the woman weeps.

"Help me lift him." Each of us takes one of his arms and drapes it across our shoulders. She's much weaker than I am, and the doorways are too narrow to move back to the door like this. "Shift him onto me. I can handle it. This way." She's still helping support him, but behind me, holding his likely broken legs off the ground as we move back through the house.

"My daughters..." she cries.

"Already found two girls. They're outside, safe, with the baby," I tell her between coughs. "Was anyone else in the house?" Part of the ceiling behind us collapses. I try force my legs to move faster, but it doesn't matter; we're moving as fast as the woman can, anyway.

"No...Thank Heaven...."

The door is in sight. More debris falls just in front of us. I kick it aside. I think my shoes are on fire but I can't see them. I can barely see the daylight ahead. Just a little further, Azerai.

The outside air embraces us, as do other Orenzhanim. We've made it. The man is lifted off me and I fall to the ground, completely spent. Someone drags me away from the house. I can't stop coughing.

Then, a thunderous roar behind me, loud enough to drown out my own choking coughs. A rush of heat and darkness. Kennakara is all I see, overrun with Erivim and fire. Not again. It can't happen again. Not here. Not anywhere.