Rise

Calore

I see sorrowing mothers standing on their porches, watching as they say goodbye to their sons and daughters. They weep, holding onto their kin tightly. Brothers and sisters stand by, tears stinging their eyes, they want to cry, but for everyone else's sake, they won't. Next to the mothers, fathers say nothing, only glaring at the royal guards. A shadow follows, haunting after the children on terrible dark wings. The world spins around me and then I'm falling. I land a years later, my feet squelching mud beneath fresh green grass. My mom holds onto my baby sister as she stares blankly at my father's coffin, baby Adara cries for her father, barely even a few months old. I see myself, just as silent at my mother, the only difference between us is her tears, they stream down her face and drip off her chin. The shadow returns, this time swirling around me, blotting out the sun and sky. I squeeze my eyes shut as a blinding headache seeps into my head. When I open my eyes Adara is crying, she looks to be about fifteen.

"gods she does really lose it cal. She shouldn't have hit you like this. I'll send for Kira okay... " this time I feel the shadow before I see it, it takes the place of my sister. Before I can do anything a new world forms around me, a shaded landscape of smoke and ash. The pugna. The land is flat, pocked with craters from a thousand hits from the elements and weapons. Soldiers stained with red; coward in trenches, like blood filling a wound. I float through all of them, looking at the faces of the soldiers ready to accept their fate. A man appears first, fighting a soldier with a white-clad shiver uniform in a mud puddle. I start to float away, watching until the man is out of sight. Next am a woman, hovering over a wounded soldier trying to stop the bleeding from his chest. Her gentle features and her auburn hair so similar to my sister it makes me choke. The shrill screams of frustration coming from the wounded woman inextricably mixed with the screams of dreadful agony of the dying boy is something I will never forget. Another woman stands at the front lines, behind even the bravest of soldiers. She stands on top of a small muddy hill without regards for the guns and swords or even the battle of elements going on, on the other side. She even does the gull to laugh at them. I can only watch as a blade of ice stabs her in the chest, her collapsing and the army stomping her like she's nothing. Once the wave of new soldiers come to take her away, her dead broken body forms into the shadow. It engulfs me in darkness until a wave of memories overtakes me yet again. The children's conscription. My father's death. My mother's beatings. They all mush together in a swirl that hurts my head. I see a bright flash then nothing at all.

"Cal wake up or I'll do it" Fin's voice am shaky and I can feel the slight drops of moisture rolling off his hands and onto my arms, I sigh.

"fine. I'm up okay, what do you want?" I snap and look at him. Standing up from my bed, I cross my arms over my chest. I watch as Fin makes his way to the door, opening it to show what am going on next door.

"yeah, you are. I couldn't get one minute of sleep because of your snoring!" Adara and Nix are face to face arguing with one another.

"Yeah well, at least I don't steal all the blankets in the middle of the night. You're a burner. The future queen of flames, aren't you always warm?" I go to walk in between the two girls, they're yelling am adding on to my already forming headache. Fin grabs me by the forearm and he shakes his head back and forth.

"shouldn't you be used to the cold by now Nix? You would think since your heart is frozen you wouldn't have a problem with it. "

"that's it." Nix goes to lunge at Adara and that's when I break free from Fin's grasp.

"what the hell is going on?" my voice is low and filled with annoyance. I watch Nix and Adara, waiting for an answer. Nix opens her mouth quickly, barely giving herself time to think.

"Adara does been a pain in my ass all night."

"Nix is just acting like a child." Adara's voice is strident and also full of annoyance, she crosses her arms over her chest and pouts like a child.