Best Birthday Ever

"Can't you feel him, fool? Feel his very teeth on the winter?

The Balker stepped forward and opened his jaws, and even as he did so, it began to snow. "Wolfbane," he snarled exultantly. "Wolfbane has returned at last."

­David Clement-Davies "The Sight"

Raye stood at the center of chaos and sucked in a deep breath; the smell of burnt human flesh stung her sensitive nose and made her stomach lurch. Thick black soot covered the ground and make the afternoon day as dark as night. The buildings and houses around her lay in smoldering ruin; scorch marks visible at the center of large stone slabs showed what had started the fire; blazebalm. Directly in front of her was a massive burning pyre littered with the last remains of her family. A chill shot down her spine as her stomach revolted. A flurry of movement behind her told her that her last remaining sisters had come to pay their respects their fallen kin and nest mates.

"There's nothing we could have done if we had been here." Raye said hoarsely, her throat was dry and a thick lump gathered painfully in the back of her throat. Her oldest sister Setsuna wrapped her arms around Raye's shoulders and held on tightly, it was all she could manage to choke back a sob. Raye glanced over at her oldest sister Serina, tears flowed down her cheek unchecked. 'This shouldn't have happened; the Gods have turned their backs to us.' She thought fiercely. But at the moment she was too drained of any energy to do anything but stand and watch as fire took her home and family, and she knew her sisters felt the same. They stood next to the pyre until the last ash was carried away in to the night

Willow sat bolt-right up with a start, an unvoiced scream instantly died in her throat. She collapsed back down into her makeshift bed made of sleeping bags, blankets, sheets, and pillows, with a sigh. A cool hand gently rested on her from under the blanket. Her best friend Trenity's cool night blue eyes looked up into her own watery ones.

"What was it about this time?" She asked softly.

Willow sat up and sighed, "There was a village, like an old one not a small town and everything was in ruin. I didn't see how it happened but the building were torn down like with a sledgehammer and-"Willow tried to force the lump in her throat to go down. Whenever she would have lucid dreams like these the emotions that the people in her dreams felt or their thoughts would be strong inside her; at some points the emotions would be so thick she couldn't finish the story. In one dream that had affected her deeply was one she had about a great raid in the 16th century. War-like invaders stormed the city, murdering all who got in their way. Men, women, children, old, sick, pregnant, it didn't matter; they were rounded up and slaughtered; all in the name of freedom and religion. Empires were built out of bricks made of dried human flesh and bone mixed with blood sweat and tears. It was not above and knight in shinning armor to lop off the head of an old bent woman, or for men dressed as priests to murder children. She had woken up from this dream throwing up.

"What were the buildings made of?" Trenity asked, guessing that her mind was on more disturbing and morbid thoughts.

"Adobe or mud-bricks."

"Were they like the Indians or like Aladdin?"

"Morel like Aladdin. Anyways, some one set a fire to the buildings. Then they made a huge pyre and piled the villagers on top. But this one family they made them watch everyone else burn before throwing them on the pyre." Willow closed her eyes and fought to control her breathing. "Before the last bit of fire died three girls walked up to the fire. I couldn't hear anything they said but I think they were a part of the village. Only they weren't there when all of this happened."

When the tears came Willow didn't try to hide them. Even thought she know her dreams weren't real she still couldn't help but to feel sorry for the people in them. Trenity scooted closer and wrapped her arms around Willow's shoulders, "Want me to ask the cards about this?"

For a moment Willow was about to agree. Before meeting Trenity she had never believed in tarot cards; any pot head could make up the vague load of crap these so called "divinators" fed to people. Now, after one reading from Trenity she was fixed on them. "Nah, I don't think you'd get a clear reading." Trenity shrugged and turned on the T.V, nothing but static came on.

"Was there a storm?" Willows asked, she hated thunderstorms. Trenity grabbed something behind her and mumbled something incoherent. "The Magic Eight Ball says, 'Maybe later.'" Willow made a sound that could have been mistaken for a snort and changed the T.V to the weather channel. "-again, sever thunderstorm warning. All residents are advised to continue watching and stay on high alert. Again there is a high possibility for a tornado-"

Trenity yawned and shrugged, "Just the usual for October weather."

"Do you think we should worry?" Willow asked.

Trenity stood, trying to get the numbness out of her legs. "Probably not. Besides, I'm too hungry to care at the moment."

"Oh sure, our lives could be in danger but it wouldn't matter as long as you're full." Willow replied sarcastically.

"Exactly. Want some popcorn?"

"Sure. Want to pop in another movie?"

"As long as it's not mushy, I think I ate too much candy last night." Trenity said over the noise of the microwave.

Willow scanned through all of Trenity's old movies trying to find one they haven't seen over a thousand times already. "What about Narnia?"

"We watched that right before we crashed last night." Trenity said while shoving a handful of popcorn in her mouth.

Willow blanched, "You're so gross."

"Pop in The Nightmare Before Christmas, that never gets old."

Willow shrugged and played the movie. Neither of the bothered to watch the movie, both knew it by heart. Towards the end of the movie Trenity pulled out her tarot cards. She always found that being close to her God and Goddess made everything seem less tense, no other religion ever made her feel so peaceful. Willow leaned over and peered over Trenity's shoulder. "What are you thinking about?"

"How incredibly sexy you are." Was the blunt reply.

Willow shrugged, "Well get over it because you can't have me."

"What if I beg?"

"Not going to happen."

Trenity hung her head in mock disappointment. "What were you really thinking about?" Trenity sighed and stretched out on her back, her tattoo of a faerie holding a cresset moon was peeking out over her PJ pant line. She closed her eyes, as if trying to remember an old dream or a long forgotten memory. "Once, when I was little, I read a book about an island controlled by fate. I was sitting by the sandbox alone that day. The book was so good, I remember that it was really descriptive and I could actually feel the sand, you know? So I was imagining what it would look like when Beth called my name."

Willow nodded. She had met Trenity's old nanny once before. A middle aged woman at the time Beth had looked after Trenity until she was fifteen.

"Well when I looked up there were these little lizards in the sand. I thought at first that they just crawled out from under the sand. But when I looked closer they were exactly how I imagined the lizards in the story looked like. I never mentioned it to Beth, but it was just so weird."

"Maybe Beth fed you crack as a kid."

Trenity laughed, "You know I think she was an ex-hippie, so why not?"

Willow yawned and laid down next to Trenity, "You know this was probably our best birthday ever."

"Well it's our sweet 16, it's supposed to be awesome. It would have been better if we got those strippers but hay, we did our best."

"Pervert."

Trenity yawned and closed her eyes, her mind already going blank.

"Hay Willow, what are we going to do next year?"

Willow mumbled something incoherent and rolled over on her side. Trenity fell asleep with a smile on her lips.