The Embers Book I: The First Fires Of War

Chapter One: Just Another Day.....If Only That Were True.

It wasn’t until he felt a tug on his arm that his body found the strength to move. It was Jamie. He was shouting at him but Taylor was so lost in his panic that he didn’t hear a thing, except for the constant thumping of his heart in his ears as though a drum was right next to him.

"Taylor. Get the fuck up! We have to run!” shouted Jamie as he yanked Taylor to his feet. Taylor could think of nothing else except putting one foot in front of the other as fast as he possibly could. Jamie was in front of him and kept looking back towards the three men. He looked to see if they had gone but they were there.

They appeared ahead and had materialized from within small vortexes of flame, which enveloped their bodies until they appeared whole, again unscathed by the heat of the flames.

"Now, it’s not very nice to run away from someone when they're trying to talk to you, Taylor," said the man, smiling again. ‘How the hell does he know my name?’ screamed Taylor in his head coming to a halt as the man spoke, feeling his stomach tighten and realizing more and more how bad the situation was becoming. Finally, he swallowed and found the courage to speak in return.

"H… How do you know my name?" Taylor stuttered. The man laughed at the question as if it was a private little joke of his.

"Oh, there are lots of things that I know about you, Taylor Roth. I know where you live, when you go to college and also I know everything about your family too," said the man, still smiling and running his hand through his dark brown hair.

"Is that a threat?" the words spilled from Taylor’s mouth like a fountain of stupidity, looking at the hard features of the man before him. He then realized he'd basically challenged the man. Not a good idea.

"Oh! The boy has some fire in his gut! Good. At least when I kill you, I’ll know that it was worth the effort!" exclaimed the man, positively beaming with excitement from ear to ear.

The man raised his right arm into the air, pointing it straight in Taylor's direction, opening his hand to show his palm as he did. Fire began to build up across its surface into a ball just floating there, twisting and flickering like a live animal trying to break free from its cage. Then, he pulled his arm back and after every single muscle in his arm began bulging with power, he let it loose straight towards Taylor. Everything felt like it had slowed down as Taylor watched in horror at the swirling obsidian black flames rushing closer. Jamie looked on in horror as the swirling black of the flames bore down upon his friend, and knew that in just a short few seconds he'd be next.

‘This is it. I’m going to die,’ thought Taylor. It was true what they said about your whole life flashing before your eyes right before you were about to die. For Taylor, parts came and went so fast that he missed them and so he only caught fragments of his life... the smiling faces of his family. The ones he'd miss.

He closed his eyes and waited for the pain, just anything to get away from that man. He heard a whooshing sound but he still felt no pain. He opened his eyes and saw that another man had appeared in-between him, Jamie and their attackers.

He had broad shoulders, was possibly a bit taller than Taylor but he couldn’t tell as he wasn’t stood by him. His arms lowered from blocking the fiery projectile, they were covered in fire as well but instead of black it was white. Bright white fire and despite the strangeness of it, it didn't scare him. The man wore a plain grey t-shirt with the arms again burned away. The flames not harming is skin in anyway what so ever.  He looked over his shoulder at Taylor smiling, and then spoke.

"Are you hurt?" he asked. Genuine concern was etched deeply into his voice and it even pained the features of his face. He was handsome with soft cheeks and a button nose; the stranger’s eyes were as white as the flames snaking their way over his arms.

"Uh, I think I'm okay," replied Taylor blankly staring at the stranger.

"Good. What about you?" The man looked over at Jamie. All Jamie could do was nod in reply. He was sweating profusely from his forehead, and was shaking uncontrollably.

"So this is how you operate now, Noran? asked the man turning to face Noran with eyes so full of pure anger that they shrank to slits. Attacking defenceless teenagers. What has happened to your sense of honour, brother?"

"Honour? Do not insult me when you would rather coddle the humans than do what must be done," spat Noran, sounding on the verge of disgust.

"So you think genocide is an honourable cause brother? You have been blinded by an irrational hatred” said the man, his voice laced with sadness.

"Tobias, you protect them but you know as well as I that they would cut us open and experiment on us if they ever found out about our people. And If not, they would try to wipe us off the face of this very earth!" shouted Noran, his anger now steadily rising causing a vein to bulge out on the side his neck.

"Enough talk. I have tried to make you see reason for over six hundred years but you have no sense even though I laid it out clearly before you. Noran, it is war that we seek.," replied Tobias, bowing his head in disappointment.

"Farn, Michal... Take Taylor and Jamie to safety and I shall handle these three," he said, turning around to look behind Taylor and Jamie.  

Taylor turned too and saw two men standing silently a few feet behind them. He hadn't even heard them; the two men looked like identical twins. They had light brown hair at shoulder length and wore blue jeans with matching white t-shirts but their arms weren't on fire as the others were, putting him at ease a little

"Taylor, how do we know that we can trust them?" asked Jamie, his eyes wide with terror

"We haven't got any choice. We'll go with them for now and then we'll take it from there," said Taylor surprised at how calm he managed to sound.

Jamie merely nodded in reply as one of the twins took him by the wrist, as did the other, now walking up to Taylor. Just before the white fire swelled up around him, Tobias lifted his arms up in the shape of a crucifix, and then slammed his palms together causing a wave of dazzling white to crash towards the Noran and his companions.

Taylor hoped that they didn't survive, and that his family would be safe and that this whole thing was some kind of horrific nightmare. However, he knew that in his heart of hearts, he wouldn’t wake up. This was real.

first funeral  noran roth ryne taylor thurnar tobias war

AN: Hey guys hope all new readers enjoy this first chapter! I've literally just done the final edit on this chapter and am working on the rest of the book.

Please leave your thoughts and votes if you feel generous!

All The Best FN