Control

Prologue

And one Day it will chase you down, destroy everything in its wake and you'll be left alone.

The wind was a mere breeze as it carried over the fields of flowers. The flowers moved with the air and all their rich colors together created an image of peacefulness.

But that was all it was; an image, an illusion, distracting one from the harshness of reality.

One might look at all these colors, getting carried away by long forgotten memories and then the next moment something strikes.

The child could be barely seen in the long grass. Only her dark raven hair was visible through the stark green.

She looked content, looking at the sky. No cloud tainted its pure blueness. That's what she saw at least. And endless sea, adventures, dreams.

Her mother had warned her:

"Don't get distracted by the beauty of our forest, you never know what might be waiting for you on your path. How would you defend yourself alone out there? There won't be anybody to protect you..."

Her daughter had looked at her with wide eyes, the color of the midnight sky, surrounded by thick, long lashes.

She had looked thoughtful for a moment and then she replied with sincerity in her voice: "I don't need anybody to protect me. The forest won't harm me, for after all it is my home."

The mother didn't reply to her daughter's naivety.

With time she would learn what it meant to live with caution. For now, she was just a little girl of the mere age of three summers. Leave her the dreams as long as she still has them; the cloud will come to darken her bright blue sky.

And it came.

She smelled it before her gaze landed on it. The smell was familiar and it burnt in her sensitive nose. The cloud looked nothing like the ones she was used to seeing. This one was frightening. One could not point out figures; create stories with the creatures in the sky.

It was darker and summoned everything.

The girl could only stare as the cloud moved towards the field. Slowly the colors faded.

The wind had died down; all that was left was dry, hot air. Her throat started to hurt and breathing got harder. She was a smallspot in front of the giant wall of smoke.

It took a moment until she was able to hear her mother's voice. The worry in it made her heart beat faster for she thought she had done something wrong.

But as her mother met her on the darkened field, she was swept into her arms. Her mother kept running. All the girl could remember was the feeling of the familiar embrace, the heat sinking into her skin.

The forest that she thought would never hurt her, turned into a force, destroying everything in its path.

It was the first time she encountered reality. She was saved that day, but her mother couldn't protect her from all of it.

The fire took her home. It took the colors of the field.

And it took her dreams.