Ashes (Flame Ash Burned Backstory)

Chapter 12: First day

2nd January 2003

It had taken over a day to get to the secret school which Blaze, the ex Fire King, had spoken to the two fire children about, and when they had arrived the night before, there was nobody around.

The main school building was a large U shape, with multiple floors --about eight in total-- and a rooftop where some students apparently went to eat their lunch every day, surrounding a large courtyard with a fenced off, dirt-floored area in the middle of it. The two had asked Blaze what it was exactly, and he explained that it was a fighting ring for hand-to-hand combat and for fighting with small weapons such as knives.

Around behind the main building, there was a huge gym hall with a stage at the very back for school plays to be performed upon, shower blocks separated into two according to gender, and a running track.

As well as this, there was a large obstacle course stretching around the perimeter of the school grounds, which looked rather challenging: tall walls to climb over with mud smeared all over them, a thin plank of wood to run across the top of which was suspended ten meters off the ground, and thirty to fifty foot wooden poles to climb up in order to reach a platform which would then be jumped off onto a rope that needed to be climbed up to get onto the final, finishing platform.

It looked pretty intense.

When the two awoke the next morning, on separate sides of the school to each other inside their dorm rooms, it was almost a shock to them to wake up somewhere that cosy and comfortable.

In their exhausted states on the previous night, they had gone to their allocated rooms with no arguments whatsoever and fallen asleep within seconds of climbing inside their fluffy beds. They had been sleeping for nearly a full twelve hours when someone came by all the rooms, knocking loudly on the doors to wake up those who had slept in late, and so the two abruptly awoke from a peaceful sleep.

Flame, her thick fiery hair messier than usual due to sleep, pushed herself out of bed. She stared at her little reflection in the mirror. It stared back at her, and she hated it. The little girl knew she shouldn't care about something like appearance as much as she did, but her own reflection disgusted her.

Her small, thin figure was covered in scars, scratches and bruises from the neck down - most of which she had inflicted upon herself. Even the scars that had healed were still present as fine lines across the skin on her arms. Her hair hair was thick, and it had grown past her elbows as a shaggy, fiery, and incredibly unruly mane. She knew she needed a haircut badly.

And there were small marks on her lips from where her fangs had accidentally punctured them. Even after all the time she had been adapting to her new body, she still hadn't completely gotten the hang of what it meant to have fangs -- unintentional lip-biting resulting in bleeding.

Tiredly, and yawning as she did so, Flame pulled on a small pair of black shorts and a white shirt that was only slightly too big for her, along with a pair of black ankle socks and sneakers. Someone must have dropped off the clothes in her room while she was asleep, but she was grateful for it as she had pretty much been wearing the same clothes for about three years.

Once she had left her room, she was met by Phoenix running down the corridor towards her room, dressed in similarly colored clothing to her. He sped up as soon as he saw her, and practically tackled her with a hug, with a big smile on his face and bright eyes.