Fire Realm

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

I watched as everyone in the hall paused to mentally say goodbye to their home.  As they began to file out after Rowan, I realized that all of these people, all that they had ever been or known or called home was now broken.  It was broken and shattered into millions of pieces like a crystal wine glass fallen to the floor.  The worst part of this was that I had once unknowingly held that glass, and just as blindly and recklessly dashed it to the floor.  Mekka put one strong hand on my shoulder and gently guided me into the glittering shards of broken people who filed out.  I sighed as their sadness overwhelmed me.  But this place, though for a short time, had been my home too, and I paused for a moment to pay my own homage to the place.  I ran my hands along the dust coated walls, listening and feeling for the stories of the people who built the place and carved it out of the rock.  

I heard the whispers of the workers as they hacked away lobs of stone, carving a secret exit and preparing it for situations like this one.  I was so absorbed in my thoughts  that I didn't notice the people ahead of me move around some obstacle as we walked, and I stepped into it.  The crunch of glass beneath my feet was startling, but it wasn't so much the fact that I had stepped in glass or the fact that someone had been clumsy enough to have dropped a jar that sent shivers down my spine.  It was yet another event which proved me to be Destruction, and Destruction brought havoc in her wake, whether intentional or not.

As I stopped dead in my tracks and continued standing there, blocking the exit for everyone else, an annoyed din rose up behind me. Mekka saw that I was clearly not going to move on my own, for I was too stunned and dulled by this point to even move. After prying my bow case from my hands and strapping it to the satchel He scooped me up into his strong arms, carrying me forward. I slowly became more aware of my surroundings and buried my face in the warm blanket around his shoulders. His heart beat out steadily beneath my own sporadic pulse. As a cold wind drafted into the tunnel from the exit up ahead, I shivered and pulled my arms across my chest, enveloping myself in the big blanket, and allowing a slow, cold tear to trickle down my face.

When we reached the outside of the mountain, I realized we were at the very base, surrounded by the tall splotches of grass that grew less frequently on this side of the mountain. The noises of the explosives bombarding the upper portion of the mountain had now stopped, replaced by the eerie quiet of the cold breeze. I raised my head slowly from my little cocoon and looked around for my favorite meadow. Instead of the empty lush valley, there were tents, fires, horses and warmachines filling the meadow and stretching far into the trees. More sadness pierced my heart and I hid my face in warmth, determined to never have to face the horrors of this world again. Mekka's voices roused me from my self-pity.

"Hey, I don't think I can carry you clear into the other Realm. Do you think you can walk now?" he asked.

But I wasn't listening to the words he was saying, I was listening to the hum of his voice I could hear in his chest. It was a gentle rumble, like that of a far off thunderstorm growling as it built up more force.

"Callie?" he asked again, "Can you walk now?"

"Yeah, sorry," I said, pulling myself away from him and letting my legs fall to the ground. Despite how clingy he could be, I knew he genuinely cared.  I couldn’t forget that.