Tisis

The grand fire of Block D (N)

Fire.
So much fire.
The smoke! It burns in my eyes! I-I can't see!
Where is this?

No...I...I don't know how I even got here! These trees...have I ever been to this area of the Garden?

"Ataue!"

A...little girls voice? She...she is crying for her mommy.
But...I can't see her! So much smoke, everywhere.
The humans are scurrying around, trying to flee.
I...I need to flee too. If the fire gets to me, I too will...

Ouch! A...a root? My feet...they are so small.
Why are they so small?!

The voice of the girl from before shouts out again, her desperate pleas for help getting interrupted by sobs.

A shadow breaks through the flames.
Who...who is it? How...how are they picking me up so easily?
So...so warm...and comfortable...I feel...safe?

I hear coughing, as the shadow races through the blazing inferno surrounding us.
I hear crying and feel the wetness of tears on my cheek.

"Stara tero par, Nympromedonalas. Stara tero par...hey, Charlie!"
"M-mistress Lushomagans! W...why are you still in here?! Hey! The mistress is still in here! Make way!"

"No, Charlie! T...take my little girl outside! I've seen a few more children on my way out, we need to save them!"
"...I'll guard her with my life, Mistress. Hey, Thomas! Steffen! The mistress says there are some children still in there!"
"What?! Lead the way, mistress!" one of the men immediately shouts.

I feel a pull and the comfortable warmth disappears and gets replaced by a smelly and rough texture.
And just for the blink of an eye I can see her face.
It is badly burnt, and already on the verge of dissolving, but yet there is a wide smile on it, as she says, "Stara tero par, Nympromedonalas."

She then turns around and disappears back into the flames, two human men following closely after her.

"Ataue!!!" I hear the girl yell out from the top of her lungs and only now I realize, that I am the little girl...and the woman who had just saved me was my mother, who chose to sacrifice herself in order to save as many children as she could.

The next thing I remember is the sluice doors closing behind us...and the gut-wrenching sound of all oxygen getting drained from the Gardens in order to extinguish all the fires within it...and all life that was left behind.

Then there's the voice of my father, yelling the names of his wife and his daughter with tears in his eyes.
I hear the man called Charlie shout, "Lady Nympromedonalasis is here!" and shortly after I feel that I get lifted away again and to the shoulders of my father, who holds me tightly as if he never wanted to let go of me ever again.

"And...my wife? Did...did you see...no...no, please tell me it isn't true! She cannot be..."
"She...went back into the flames to save some children that got left behind."

But...this isn't right...the...the Gardens are gone. Long gone. A victim to the flames. To the destruction the humans wreaked. This...this is Tisis.

My eyes shoot open and I along with them, my lungs burning from the smoke still wafting through the air.

I look over the sea of flames that engulfed our precious new home, my mind quickly fading back to the terrifying memory I had managed to suppress for all those years.

"...feeling better, princess?" I hear a familiar voice asking from behind me.
I startle at the sudden noise interrupting the monotonous crackling of the flames surrounding us.

I turn around and see Sirus sitting near our materials shelf.
He has a piece of leaf wrapped around each of his ankles.

It takes me a moment to realize that he's hurt and I quickly stumble to his side and shout, "Garkla be merciful! What happened?!"
Sirus merely points to the sea of flames and says, "The sky decided it might be fun to rain fire down on us, that's what happened."