Firestorm

Chapter 5

Lilith awoke slowly to the hazy morning sunshine, which danced across gentle lapping deep green ocean before her. The gentle breeze, which softly stirred the sand around her, carried with it the briny but not unpleasant smell of the sea. The day was unusually warm for this time of year, the sand upon which she lay burned against her skin, which was rare for even in the height of Summer. The sand was rough against her now deeply sunburned skin and her throat ached with a deep thirst.  She sat up and shielded her eyes from the sun as they adjusted to the morning light. The fire from the previous night, now lay as a pile of smoldering embers as normal as any other fire she'd seen before. But as she watched, if she squinted and looked just the right way, she could almost see flickering remnants of the deep purple hues that the fire had when she had held it in her hand. 

'So, I guess last night wasn't a dream after all', Lilith thought to herself, rubbing sleep from her eyes.

She cast her gaze further afield from her immediate surroundings and soon spotted Flynn a little way off. He sat upon a upon the sand near the shoreline gazing out at the ocean. The glistening water lapped against the sand as Flynn sat cleaning the fish that he must have caught earlier that morning. Water dripped from his deep ebony black hair and ran down his lightly tanned skin.

"Not bad good looking I must admit...", she thought to herself, a blush quickly creeping along her already sun redden cheeks.

"Too bad he's so damn annoying", she murmured.

 Flynn looked up from what he was doing, and looked at her puzzled, as if he'd heard what she had said. Lilith blushed and looked away, hearing him laughing at her reaction. A few moments later, she heard the soft crunching of footsteps upon sand coming towards her.

"Good morning "Chosen One"! Alive and well I see", he said with a scoff, sitting down in front of her. "I don't think the Lady would be happy with me if anything had happened to you, her "Little Favorite", he said grinning with a mocking look in his light green eyes.

At this teasing, Lilith deeply blushed. Lilith quickly stood up, brushed as much sand as she could from her salt crusted, wrinkled clothes. Lilith sulkily stomped off down the beach throwing the rudest gesture she could think of back at Flynn. Of all the people on Eirnmore that could have been the only other person left alive, it had to be this rude jerk.

"Hey! Don't go too far, we have to start training soon!", shouted Flynn as Lilith walked away, ignoring him as she went.

As she walked along the beach. She stared out over the glistening ocean. The many blues and greens of the water rippled and mixed together. It reminded her of a happier time. During her childhood, before the curse had ravaged the land and spread rapidly, destroying everything she had held dear. When tales of giant wolfish monsters who were once men were only stories told to children to keep them in bed at night. Then, they were merely whispered rumors in the dead of night. Tales which only happened in faraway parts of the country, nowhere near the loving, happy home she had once had. Until suddenly, the monsters found them.

The beach she found herself on, was not unlike the one she had walked upon with her family during her earliest memories.  Lilith had walked hand in hand with her mother and father, along the shore on late summer nights with not a care in the world. Watching the sea wash over the cool sand and the setting sun light up the sky. In indescribably beautiful shades of purple, pink and orange. In the time before the wolves had become too numerous and overpowered mankind.

Tears ran down her face as she remembered those days. When her life was simple, filled with happiness and the love of her family. Before it was ripped away from her by the jaws of a vicious beasts. Lilith sat upon the ground and tried to calm herself. There was no time for sadness or grief these days. You had to be strong to survive. She pushed all bittersweet memories deep within her soul, back behind the wall she had created the day she lost her family. Sadness of any kind was wasted energy. All that matter now was survival, that was what she knew in her heart to be true. Lilith sat in her own world watching the sea's movement. Its motion like a lover's touch as it longingly caressed the shore.