Ashes (Flame Ash Burned Backstory)

Chapter 11: Young Assassins

31st December 2002

The two fire children had set out walking in search of a new place to rest and set up a home of some sort, and only a day after they had began walking, the weather had turned completely against them.

It rained and hailed practically non-stop throughout the day, and during the night, the temperatures plummeted way below zero. But the two got through it together: they snuggled up together for warmth during the night, and held hands as they walked through the day so that neither of them would fall behind.

The city was a dark spot in the distance, and on that late afternoon, the sky finally calmed down and was a beautiful wintry mixture of blue, orange, pink and purple. A thin layer of snow and frost had covered the grass which the two walked upon, their footprints being the only ones to cut through it.

"Flame, what was the thing you took from that drunk dude a couple days ago?" Phoenix asked, remembering seeing his friend crouch by the man's dead body and take some sort of book from his coat pocket.

It was like she had completely zoned out then, as she had stared at it and inspected it before tucking it away inside her own pocket.

"All it said on the front was 'Property of Magma, Queen of the Fire Kingdom.' I haven't looked inside it yet, but it's splattered with blood. It's old, though. The blood, I mean. The pages look well-kept, but they're tinted. So my guess is that the book itself is over a year old. Way over a year old." Flame replied, adjusting the strap on her backpack. "However, if we're talking about the blood, it might not be related to the owner of the book - it could be related to that man or someone else."

"You're really smart." Phoenix complimented with a smile. "You could be a detective or something. What do you want to be when you're older?"

"Alive, preferably." Flame smiled back at Phoenix. In his head, Phoenix wished Flame would smile more often. He thought she was beautiful anyway, but when she smiled... Wow...

If Phoenix had ended up on his own instead of having Flame by his side, he wouldn't have been able to cope. He wouldn't have know what to do. He wouldn't have known where to go, or how to survive until his next birthday. With everything he had gone through until he died, Phoenix knew he probably would have committed suicide. But he hadn't, because he had Flame...

He snapped himself out of his train of thought, brushing his bangs out of his red eyes and taking the backpack off Flame's back, putting it onto his own.

"I'll carry it." Phoenix told her. Then he scanned the horizon.

There was about a mile downhill from where they were, 200 feet above sea level, before they reached a long stretch of beach with a thick forest behind it.

"Let's stay at that beach for tonight. We can probably sleep up a tree or something." Phoenix said, holding Flame's hand and beginning to walk.

"Alright. Then let's read that book." Flame responded, walking happily by her best friend's side.