Ashes

Tarnage

I wake to the feeling of a warm rough tongue cleaning my ear. I open my eyes and they focus on a giant black muzzle. Startled, I sit up suddenly. It's a slender black panther. "Ryu" I exhale in a relieved voice. I recognize those big beautiful yellow eyes anywhere.

I collapse onto the giant cat with a hug. Tears stream down my face. "I thought I lost you too". The big lug replies with a low growl. His velvet like fur soaks up my tears. I wipe my tears and stand up. I look around what use to be my home. The windows are shattered, table is flipped over. Everything is broken.

My eyes stop at my sisters body. "Lela.." The tears start to form again and I bite my lip. I can't cry again, crying won't do anything to help her now. I lean down and kiss her cheek and closed her eyes. "You're safe now Lela." I walk outside and reality sets in.

Dead bodies are strewn all over the camp. The red mixes with the green in the grass. The smell of rusted metal in the air. I can't be the only one left. I search through the huts and cabins around me, hoping to find life. I come across broken rooms and tattered sheets again and again.

I pause when I enter a hut with a crib. Oh please don't tell me... I approach the crib slowly and nearly puke when I find what I dreaded the most. The poor child didn't stand a chance. I cover the baby with the bloodied sheet. I'm used to war. I have seen this before and it won't be the last time I do. I was born a warrior, this doesn't phase me. I remind myself, trying to avoid looking too long at my fallen people when I walk back out. My papa told me that at the shrine.

"Oh god the shrine" I whisper to myself. I hope it's still intact. I half jog down the dirt path leading to the shrine to our ancestors. I should've been able to see the pillars by now. I enter the ancestral grounds and find the wooden carvings slashed and broken on the ground. No no no. The mud plasters that once held the children's hand imprints were shattered. The flowers were trampled and jewels were stolen.

I fall to my knees and claw the dirt with my nails as I begin to cry. My people are gone, my ancestors are shamed. Everything is gone.... I touch my head to the ground and curl up as I realize my fate. I'm alone. I feel heat as Ryu lays on the ground next to me and his wet nose against my face as he nudges me to move. I stay still for a while, trying to get with my senses. I sit up slowly then rise to a stand. What am I going to do now. Where am I going to live?