From Dust to Flame

1

Magic. The purest word that could exist, the most unpredictable one as well. Something that we all long for, whether it's the power to make everything right and remove all wrongs, or the power to make yourself richer than imaginable. "Just like magic." We would all say, back in our naive little state of "peace".

We all knew that the world would end someday. We just thought that it wouldn't be now. Here, in the remains of a once-great city, I stand, and look at all the destruction that has occurred here. The big apple. That's what they called it.

This gargantuan pile of ashes doesn't resemble an apple at all. Why did they call it that? That makes no sense. Scanning the terrain, I hear a gunshot; I instinctively duck, and ready my defenses.

"It's just me! No- wait, it's just me!" someone in the distance yells, and I turn around for a split second, recognizing the voice.

That was a big mistake.

"Don't you know that we're alone here, little girl? Every man for himself? Nobody, nobody is a friend here. This is pure chaos." The man spits on the ground, his disheveled hair glinting in the last remaining slivers of daylight. His scarred face peers at me.

"And I love it."

I start to sprint, ready to run as far as I can for my life, when I get stopped. I pause moving in mid-air, and I muse on how this can be possible. I grunt, trying to pull myself free of the wrath of whatever this is, when I hear the man behind me laughing.

"You're too much of a threat to stay here, little girl. I am sending you away, to a wasted world where you will die like the piece of trash that you are." I scream out in fury, heat rushing to my face. My brown hair rustles in the wind behind me, which is the first bit of movement that I have felt in over a minute.

Hopeful, I start retaliating even more. My toes start to move, my fingers clenching into a fist.

I roar at the man, and run over to him to inflict as much harm on him as possible.

That doesn't happen.

I get pulled back, into a swirling- thing  that I can't escape, and the last thing I see before I am gone is the man's yellow toothed grin.

I come to in a forest, wildlife that I have never seen before surrounding me. Somehow, I point out the flying mesh of feathers, and identify it as a bird- I have never seen or heard of such a creature. Wood with green mush over it is called a tree, and a forest is a gathering of trees. A wave of heat and anger washes over me, and I remember what had happened before.

I scream in fury, fury at the yellow-toothed man for sending me to this isolated forest, anger at the world for making this be my fate. The tree in front of me bursts into flames, and I will it to burn on. Fire- yes, that is a word that makes sense to me. The flames spread, wreaking havoc on the entire neighborhood of trees. The heat in my face dissipates, revealing a searing headache that I never knew I had.

A woman clad in blue appears out of nowhere, gasping, and puts out my wonderful flames. I snarl at her, feeling one with the fire. It's a part of me, and she dares to blantly put it out like that? The woman looks at me, and laughs.

"Feisty, aren't you? I'm Huelnira. What's your name?" she questions, and I feel my civility returning. I nervously cough, and look at her blankly.

"I don't have one."

Huelnira looks startled, then regains her composure and thinks for a moment.

"Would you like a name?"

Now it's my turn to be startled, as I haven't ever felt the need to have a name. I've survived... since... without one. I don't have a birth date, neither do I have a name. Do I need a name? The word name feels startlingly familiar to me, as if I had one before... But the only thing I remember is this place. There was nothing before.

"My name is."