2017 Stories

Stars

We don't get many stars around here anymore, not since the war anyhow, it's almost like the souls of the all the dead died during the war and slowly one by one their bright lights went out. My home was destroyed during the war, my Mum and Dad gone, the flame consumed them and then destroyed them, leaving nothing behind but ashes, hot angry ashes.

'Biewa Miegyion', Prim and Proper called from down the front of the room, rubbing my eyes I slowly blinked them open and looked around me. All the girls where already out of the stupid flimsy triple decker bunk beds that the flames forced us to sleep in. Prim and Proper was standing at the front of the dormitory her ghastly glasses where perched on top of her long witch like nose, her beauty spot was just to the right.

'Ges Mrs Prrim', I said in a slow voice, purposely using the accent of my people.

'You're not up and it's past 5:30', Prim and Proper replied to me, not even bothering to hide her irritation.

'Sirry Mrs Prrim', I replied and flashed one of my false sweet smiles, something I knew Prim and Proper hated.

'I'm not going to bother with you and your nasty attitude, I want you all up and out by 6 ON THE DOT!', Prim and Proper declared as she stalked out the room, slamming the door the behind her. We all giggled, we couldn't help it.

'Falling Satr that was not very wise you know', Ironbark Kiss said to me giving me a hard stare.

'I know Ironbark kiss, I know', I replied.

'Yet you keep on doing it', Archangel said.

'Yeah that pretty much sums up Falling Satr', Life Huntress replied.

'Oh come on guys she gave old Prim and Proper a hard time, something I say she deserves', Thunder Guardian said defending me.

'I'm not going to bother with you and your attitude', I mimicked Prim and Propers voice as everyone in the dorm collapsed into giggles, I couldn't help but smile. How I love it when the Flame aren't around suffocating us, how I love it when we can call each other by our given names and not the ones the flame gave us to burn away our past.

The complex in which I lived in was pretty straight forward and neat, the large hall where all the classes where held was in the centre, it towered above must of the other buildings and was by far the grandest, with it's stone walls each carved with an ancient story of the flames on it, from there evil monarchy to their bloodthirsty battles, I shuddered when I thought of all my people who where forced to carve this. To the left of the Hall was the girl's dorms, two small wooden buildings, one for the juniors and one for the seniors. To the right of the hall was the boy's dorm, almost a mirror image of the girls dorms, the only difference was the smashed window out the front of the seniors dorms, I shuddered as I remembered how it got their.

The hall was a musty, dry place that smelt of wet dog. Whilst it was a large room it wasn't a very good classroom, in fact the only thing that even resembled a classroom in the hall was the chalkboard, you could hardly see, especially if you had to sit on the iron chairs, if everyone had a choice we would all probably sit on the cold floor then the freezing chairs.

'Right class your work is in front of you get to it, no talking', Quiet called, as we put our heads down and got to work, today we where learning about the Flame army and all the good they where doing and how many new slaves they had taken in, it made my stomach churn thinking of all the innocent people being forced to suffocate in the flames clutches. I looked around me and other girls shared the same look of disgust the boys however appeared to not even reading the reports rather making anagrams of the words, several of them where to ghastly to even think about let alone write down on the paper, I thanked the Crimson Hawks that they where in our language and not the translation to the Flames version, otherwise they would have been in serious trouble.