Burning Four Kingdoms

Chapter 1

Snowflakes slowly floated down from the clear blue sky. There was a thick layer of pure white snow on the ground, without any footprints. That is, until a five-year old girl toppled through it with a gang of giggling kids hot on her heels. The children ended up  laying sprawled on the ground. They were all clothed in brown, little coats with woolen hats. The girl stood up and looked at the sky happily. Then she noticed an older girl rapidly walking towards her with a very, very angry expression on her face.

"Eleira! Come here right now! What were you thinking, running of like that? Mom told you that she or I have to watch you! I swear it looked like she was about to have a heart attack when she noticed that you were gone!" The rant continued while the older sister grabbed Eleira's hand and ran back to a lovely cottage off the side of the village, apart from all of the other homes. There were two tall apple trees standing on either side of the cottage, their bare branches shielding the white cottage. Eleira knew that there would be flowers of every colour at the front of her home, but during winter the ground was bare and cold. Not that she minded, she loved rolling through the snow and her sister would have joined her if it wouldn't have been for the shattered Amulet. It happened when Eleira was a baby, so she has no recollection of how Averin was before the Royal Family was assassinated.

"Oh my, Eleira! My little jewel! Don't you ever run of like that again!" Eleira's mother sighed heavily and sat down on the porch steps. The sister sat down next to her.

"I'm sorry, Mama. The others were having so much fun!", the little girl complained. Then she did her puppy dog eyes. Her sister just groaned and buried her head in her arms to avoid Eleira's eyes.

Eleira's mom sighed once more and hugged the little girl. "I'm just worried that the Burning will start again, no flames have been sighted for three days straight." Eleira just stared at her mom.

Suddenly they heard a scream pierce the silence. The little family snapped their heads in the direction from where the sound came from. More screams followed and then the kids, with which Eleira played earlier ran seemingly for their lives. Right behind them though, a wall of orange-red fire roared across the snow, evaporating it instantly. Smoke rose into the air as several cottages on the other side of the village caught on fire. Their straw-thatched roofs were ablaze and one of them collapsed. Families poured out of the cottages, only to be swallowed up by the raging fire.

Eleira watched as a woman fell to her knees, her shoulders shaking with silent sobs as she held her baby to her chest. The sobs turned into a scream as the mother's hair was burned off and her clothes caught on fire. Almost immediately the woman lay sprawled on the ground, lifeless. The baby never cried. It was one month old.

The girl didn't get a further look at the horror that was spreading before her eyes, because her mother was already carrying her and running away from the village as fast as she could while holding her older daughter's hand. Eleira pressed her small face into her mom's dress. She could feel the soft fabric on her face and the wind rushing past as her mom ran for their lives. The girl could still hear the screams coming from their village, occasionally a high scream would erupt and then end abruptly. Somewhere inside that young head of hers, she knew that her friends were dead along with everyone else in the village. She knew that her little family of three, she knew that they were the only survivors.

Eleira's eyes shot open and she sat up gasping for air. Her clothes were soaked with cold sweat and her heart was hammering fast and hard against her rib cage. Weary, she closed her eyes again. The dreams should have stopped by now, it was already almost 11 years since the village Welance in the Kingdom of Fermos was Burned to the ground. She was 5-years old then, now she was 16. Her birthday was three days ago.