The Fire Inside

11. Puppy Talk

Jimin woke up next to the lake once again. This time she could see the twinkling stars that smiled down on her. She stretched her hand and tried to touch the stars, reminding her of her life before the destruction that took her family. She looked back to the lake. The moon shone bright on the surface of the ripples which were caused by the gentle breeze that swayed the trees. The trees whispered sweet nothings as Jimin tried to close her eyes.

"Hey! Jimin! Over here!"

Jimin opened her eyes slowly. She looked around and saw a small puppy. It had a caramel coat and ears that stuck up like a small fox. It's bottom was a clean white despite the dirt covering it's paws.

"Did you just talk?" Jimin asked, utterly surprised.

The puppy cocked it's head to the side before nodding vigorously. It walked over to Jimin and plopped down next to her.

"Who are you?"

"I'm Isadora! Who else?"

Isadora's face didn't change, but she could feel the judgmental looks given through her eyes.

"You said you were human..."

"I know. And I am in fact 100% human," The pup stuck her nose in the air.

"Um...Sorry to break it to you, but look at yourself," Jimin pointed to all of Isadora.

"Hey! Pointing is rude! And I'm a proud Shiba Inu."

"Shi-what?"

"Shi. Ba. Ee. Nu. Shiba Inu."

Jimin looked at the girl-dog in shock.

"So, how? How did you become like this?"

"Hell. Hell did this to me."

Jimin nodded, pretending to understand what was going on.

"Can you turn into a girl?"

"Yup!"

Jimin shut her eyes as the space in front of her burst into blinding white light. Her eyes burned against the heat, forcing her to cover her face with her now blistering hands. When the heat and light died away, Jimin was left staggering with black spots dotting her line of sight. When her vision finally cleared, she was at a loss of words. A small girl now stood in front of her. She had pale skin that flowed in the moonlight and yellow-brown hair that delicately curled down to her elbows. She had small, but strong baby blue eyes. Jimin watched as she shook herself out and let the fluffy white a blue sweater settle around her upper body. She wore a beige skirt that stopped right above her knees.

"Isadora?"

"Yup! That's me!"

Jimin couldn't help but smile. As a puppy, it was kinda funny to hear a squeaky voice, but after hearing it come from the small girl, she couldn't help but coo.

"So, what next? I met you and clearly you were cursed, but that doesn't really help me understand what's going on."

"Jimin. Listen here. I only know what's going on because I faced Hell straight. I literally fought him and I'm surprised I'm not in a worse condition than this. Hell has something that only you can stop. He has fire. But so do you! You have the flame of life! You were sort of born with it."

"How do you know?"

"I was stuck in a dog's body, but I guess something went wrong with Hell's magic, so I was sent to the next best thing—the flame of life."

"Damn. You make it sound so special and I'm standing here suffering from confusion and pain."

"Oh, c'mon! Don't be so down. I'm here for you, ok? Here, how about this. I promise I'll help you out. I know I've been difficult, but now that you were able to access your inner flame, I can come out. The door out of your mind had to be opened from the outside."