Short Stories and Oneshots

Blazing Glory (contest entry)

My entry for MCSMFanClub's March writing contest!

I ALMOST wrote something about the Ocelots, but then this idea struck and I decided I HAD to do something with it

Enjoy!!

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The scent of smoke really isn't too bad once you get used to it.

She watches the flakes of ash rising up on the columns of smoke, being carried away by the buffeting wind. Ash that was once homes, businesses, and everything in between.

The city in front of her is now charred beyond all recognition, but she knows what it is. Or what it was, at least.

It was a home, to herself and so many others. It was more than just where she'd resided- this town had become a part of her.

It was a three-dimensional scrapbook, a holder of memories of all shapes and sizes. Marvelous ones, the kind that bring a smile to your face when you think of them. Dreadful ones, the kind that you try your hardest to block out and shudder when you fail.

It was a metropolis, a center for all sorts of wonderful things. It had been a place for legends to take root, heroes to rise to glory.

Now, it's nothing more than a grave. 

Not a grave in the typical sense, for no physical bodies lie smoldering in the ruins.

But it is a tomb for the past. The person she used to be, and everything it took to bring her here. It is a grave that holds down her youthful self, all her hopes and achievements and long-broken promises.

The town had already been abandoned for days before the burning. It was impossible enough to miss when she had stood on the tower and shouted down for everyone to leave. Her dramatic announcement had been that the town was to be destroyed, and if people didn't want to be burned with it, they had to pack up their belongings and go. Rumors had spread quickly, and most people had not hesitated to take leave of the place.

There were those who had tried to resist, the ones who had known her back before her world fell. They tried to reason with her, tried to convince her she was making a mistake, tried to tell her this wasn't the answer.

She had not listened to a word of it.

All she had done was brandished her sword, and ordered them to get out. Told them that they, and the town, were nothing to her, and she didn't care if they fell to ashes because of their own stupid choice. Reminded them that this place was already such a ruin, so different from what it had originally been meant to be, so what was the point of it standing any longer?

She'd already taken so many lives, whether intentionally or indirectly. She would not have cared if she'd had to take theirs too.

But she didn't. They'd left on their own, shaking their heads and muttering sadly about how far she'd fallen. 

Fire is a hypnotizing thing. All the light and colours and sparks dancing through the air can make you stare for hours before you've even begun to realize where you are. This is how it is now, with the cold-hearted woman watching the fiery blaze. She stares blankly at the rising inferno, lost in her own elaborate maze of a mind without really registering the sight in front of her.

She wastes no more tears or emotion on the fallen town. When the whole place was really, truly abandoned, she'd spent several hours roaming the empty streets, weeping as she recounted the things she'd loved and lost. So many things had happened here, things that brought her immeasurable joy and unspeakable sadness. She'd sat alone in the center of the lonely town, sobbing into the silence as she grieved the things she'd lost.