Firestarter
Chapter 1:
Today the afternoon stretched ahead like a desert. The area around the asura gate connecting Lion's Arch with Hoelbrak was nearly abandoned, which wasn't unusual for a Sunday morning and Gatekeeper Zexx was stuck waiting, whiling away the hours.
As a gatekeeper he was not only in charge of repairs and maintenance, it was also his job to provide directions, so newcomers would get to their destination safely. But it seemed like no one was coming and today would be just like any other day: silent, gray and uneventful. The wind was brisk, and smelled of fresh snow.
'For such a large city, it's been very quiet lately,' he thought despondently. The latest visitors had been two pitiful humans, shivering in spite of their coats and scarves. He always hated it when folks casually strolled into town unprepared, without proper attire. How visitors, mainly humans, would visit the Shiverpeak Mountains and immediately complain of the cold was beyond him.
The breeze kicked again, harder, and he pulled up the collar of his lab coat. Zexx took another swig from the bottle stashed under his chair and picked up his crossword puzzle. Nothing quite like some mental exercise to keep the body warm. The pure whiskey helps with that too, he supposed.
A loud snap coming from the gate filled the air, and a sudden flash indicating a new arrival woke him up from his trance. The smoke cleared away, revealing a female charr standing on the teleporter's platform.
She was a pretty lynx charr with snow white fur, large violet eyes and matching dyed hair. She was wearing a short purple sun dress, flowers in her hair and not much else.
Zexx was taken aback momentarily when he spotted the latest newcomer. Charr weren't an uncommon sight in the Shiverpeaks, but there weren't very many of them either. Most charr around here worked as merchants and traders, and nothing about her appearance suggested she might be one. What was she doing here? Did it matter? He didn't get paid enough to deal with the oddballs.
The charr jumped off the teleporter's platform and approached him with an excited smile.
"Hi, I'm Melia!" She paused for a moment to take in the new surroundings, so different from the humid jungle she called home.
"Cold out, isn't it?"
Zexx let out an undignified snort at the understatement and readied a witty remark. He really looked at her closely when he suddenly felt the immediate temperature rise several degrees. Even from a distance he could feel the heat emanating from her body, like a sudden summer heat wave in the middle of the frozen winter landscape.
Confident she'd find her way to the closest tavern herself, she waved him goodbye and walked away, leaving deep, smoldering footprints in the snow.
'A fire master? You don't see those very often.' The asura glanced up one more time to watch her go before returning his full attention to his crossword puzzle.
At 2 o'clock on a Sunday afternoon, Al's Steak and Grill was as close to deserted as it ever got. Two old geezers sat near the front with supersized mugs of ale and a chessboard between them.
The steakhouse smelled, not unpleasantly of beer and frying meat. The specials (which weren't very) were posted behind the counter. Melia decided to leave the charrburger for what it was and ordered a drink and a salad, which consisted mostly of tomatoes and arugula.
The only waitress was staring fixedly at a small TV over the counter, where an infomercial was playing, and didn't pay Melia or the chess players any mind, and that was just fine and dandy. For the first time since starting her Northward expedition, Melia felt she could really breathe, take a load off in this dusty, dispirited place. She was so far from home now, they'd never find her. Not until she was ready to return.
Melia closed her eyes and sipped her iced tea. She sat there for quite a while, listening to the jukebox in the corner playing the Beach Boys, and eating salted peanuts from one of those small round bowls. She tried not to obsess over the series of events that led her to leave her home town, but as these things go, her mind went right on thinking about it.
She knew she'd have to go back and face the music eventually, but for now she was safe.
Or so she thought.
Outside, an old woman leaning heavily on a cane, was smoking a cigar. She bellowed a greeting at each passer-by, but they just turned away, disgusted. The fact that she smelled like a distillery and could hardly walk probably had something to do with that.
Aunt Sonya, the city's oldest resident leaned against the steakhouse's wall, watching the people go by. Something evil was coming and she felt she had to warn someone, if only they'd listen.
She grabbed hold of the next passer-by, a young boy going for a burger. She tried to tell him about what she saw, but she could tell from the incredulous look on his face he didn't believe her.
"Is that so, aunt Sonya?"
"What?"
"IS THAT SO AUNT SONYA?" The boy pretty much screamed. To Sonya, hearing loss apparently meant the entire world had gone deaf in sympathy and she had you shouting right along with her.
"Oh, yeah. I seen 'em. Flame charr and steel creatures are attacking our homes over in the mountains. We need to get help," Aunt Sonya said, but she was hollering into the empty air, the boy had made his escape.
The old woman sighed. She had seen a lot of death in her life, and would probably follow soon herself, she reckoned. In her younger years Sonya used to have something of a gift, and she was always the one to accurately predict the weather, or accidents.
But she couldn't speak about the threat she felt looming somewhere over the horizon. The others didn't believe her and considered her a senile old hag, but despite her age, she still had all four wheels firmly on the road.
She exhaled and paused on the threshold of Al's and looked up to the sky, still pure and pastel blue. For now. But she sensed it coming alright, something otherworldly and foul. She lowered her head in defeat. 'May the Spirits help us all...'
A week later:
For the next few days rumors about the 'Molten Alliance' were the talk of the town. Apparently, the charr Flame Legion allied themselves with local troublemakers and started attacking cities, towns and even people. Refugees poured in continuously from all over the place, some reporting back abductions and even murders. Why is this happening all of a sudden? It was almost as if they felt compelled to attack people, seemingly for no particular reason.
The whole situation worried Melia a great deal, but she had her own skin to think of. With all this talk of evil Flame charr stirring up trouble, how long would it be before the terrified townsfolk lumped all pyrokinetic charr together? She reckoned she should probably skip town before the proverbial heat got too much. The person she was looking for wasn't here and it was time to move on.
She planned to slip out quietly before the afternoon rush. She got dressed quickly, threw her things together, shouldered her backpack and left the hotel just as someone was walking towards her. In her rush, she wasn't paying attention and nearly ran into him. He was a tall black guy with red hair, and he looked royally pissed off.
Braham was pissed off, all right. He should have known better asking his good for nothing mother for help. His village and people were under attack and those who hadn't fled or died by now, needed help to stand a chance against the charr's assault.
His first stop had been the local police department but of course they were too busy trying to control the refugee situation to send any troops to Cragstead. To Braham, that was just a stupid cop-out, they probably considered his village a lost cause already and had to keep focusing on protecting the capital and largest city of the Shiverpeaks region. As if Cragstead didn't matter!
He never even wanted to see or talk to his estranged mother but time was of the essence and she was supposed to be this big shot adventurer anyway. But of course it didn't go down the way it was supposed to. In fact, it downright sucked. Their fight had been an explosive one, at least a ten on the Richter scale.
She made up some lame excuse about protecting the refugees in town and flat out refused to come with him.
He could have known she was just going to let him down again when excrement hit the cooling device. She had tried to reason with him and make him stay in Cragstead, but she and her useless police force could keep on bullshitting the universe and themselves. They didn't give a fuck about anyone but themselves. He didn't care if he had to go save his people by himself. As of now, he was going out of spite. He hurried out of the Great Lodge quickly, and ran into Melia.
"Shit, I'm sorry. Are you alright?" He moved over to help her up.
"Yeah, I think so," Melia said, brushing off the powdery snow that was clinging to her skirt.
"How about yourself?"
He looked confused for a moment, not quite understanding what she meant.
"Well I don't mean to pry, but you look upset." Understatement of the year. Melia didn't have to be a mind reader to sense his despair, it was written all over his face.
He sighed deeply. "It's a long story. Bottom line is, I came here to ask for help against the Flame Legion. They invaded my hometown. Fuck knows what they're doing – what they already did. Needless to say, no one came." He gestured to the empty space next to him.
"So I guess it's all up to me."
"Hold on, "said Melia without much enthusiasm, "I'll help you out."
The words flew out before she knew it. All she wanted was to keep a low profile and she never meant to be involved, but there was no taking it back now.
He smiled then, and his smile was kind and genuine.
"Really? You mean it? That'd be great!"
He gently took her delicate hand in his much larger one, careful not to squeeze too hard.
"I'm Braham."
"Melia. Nice to meet you. I can use fire magic as well, but I'm not like those flame charr."
"Oh, I know. Call it a hunch."
The charr girl looked out of place, a little lost perhaps, but not evil. Not evil at all. Odd, though.
"Fire huh, I guess that's why you're not cold." He glanced at her bare paws again and wondered if she really wasn't freezing. "You're not from around here, are you?"
Melia shook her head. "I actually live in the Caledon forest. This is my first time seeing real snow!"
"You've never...?"
His tone was that of a curious anthropologist observing a member from some native tribe in the Amazon forest. He went on smiling for a moment, and then felt the urgency of the situation pulling at him again. Melia tried to say something else, but he interrupted her.
"I'd love to stay and chat," said Braham, looking serious again. "But we're running out of time. You better keep up, my friend is making her way up there as well."
They made their way up the mountain with great effort, like salmons fighting their way upstream. It was eerily quiet, and the only sound was the howling wind. 'Don't worry', Braham told himself, but he was starting to. The season had changed, and most of the summer tourists were now gone, a fact that should have pleased Braham, but it didn't. It was almost too quiet.
His friend Rox was already waiting for him at the city gates. A wave of relief washed over her when she saw her friend back safe and sound, but the fact that he returned alone (and the irritated look in his eyes) told her enough to keep any potential stupid remarks to herself.
Melia, who'd never seen another charr up close, studied her with almost scientific amazement.
Rox was a tall, bulky charr with tawny fur and big green eyes. Her large horns and visible canines made her look fearsome but her eyes were kind. When she spotted Melia half-hiding behind the much taller norn, her concerned smile turned into one of amusement. Rox greeted the newcomer warmly, happy to have another ally.
The massive wooden gates providing entrance to the city, once impressive and adorned with oaken reliefs depicting the animal spirits, were now splintered and charred. They appeared to have been bulldozed open and burned. Rox thought they'd be quite stuck, but there was no resistance when she rammed her shoulder against the gates and pushed them open.
They set foot in Cragstead and the initial silence was awful and immense. Rox wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand, peering myopically through the smoke and fog. There was no one there, as if the entire fucking population of Cragstead had suddenly moved to Bermuda.
"Where is everyone?" said Melia out loud, looking at the empty open space stretching ahead. She couldn't quite place it, but something felt wrong.
"They may be hiding in one of the houses. We'll have to check them all, okay?" Braham said, when a voice caught him off guard.
"'Bout time the cavalry showed up." An old man stepped out from behind one of the few intact houses. He was looking at the destroyed houses around him with various degrees of disgust and amusement. The geezer looked like he was enjoying (more or less) his 60th summer. Actually, this particular guy didn't seem like he enjoyed very much in life, judging from his facial expression.
They walked up to him and were so distracted they never even saw the drone following them from a safe distance.
They were sitting in the remains of Bill's Tavern (there appeared to be taverns, bars and steakhouses everywhere in these parts) listening to the only survivor's tale. The old joint was comfortable enough for a place that didn't have a roof anymore, and it felt like a relief to sit down.
"You know, a beer would go down great just about now", he said."Talkin's real dusty work."
The old man rummaged through the few unbroken bottles on the shelf until he found what he was looking for. A fine brew, none of that cheap stuff. He didn't have money falling out of his asshole and five bucks a bottle was practically highway robbery. The owners (who had been cheap pricks) were gone or dead so he wasn't paying. Down the hatch it went.
"Pick yer poison, kids."
Rox and Braham politely declined, and so did Melia. It didn't feel like the right time, and she really only liked sweet drinks.
"How bad was it?" Braham asked without much hope.
The oldtimer cleared his throat.
"Son, keep your pants on, I'm getting to it. It was pretty bad from the start and it got worse in a hurry. For all of y'all who didn't know, the name's Evan Parker. Call me Ev."
Rox and Melia offered their names and Ev smiled amicably enough, revealing yellow stumps of teeth. He nodded to each charr in turn, took another sip of his beer and continued.
"They came early in the morning. Busted right through them gates in armored vehicles. They call themselves the 'Flame Legion', but there were only a pack of 'em. No big deal huh? Well think again. They were carrying weapons I've never seen in my 65 years on this earth. Looked like something out of a sci-fi movie. A shitty one."
Melia's intuition told her that the flame charr weren't acting alone. She didn't know much about charr culture, but it was common knowledge that charr weren't the most technologically advanced race. They simply didn't possess the technical know-how to produce 'sci-fi' blaster guns. She didn't want to share her thoughts with the group just yet, not until she could piece together some more evidence. For all they knew Ev could be exaggerating. Or he could've been drunk when it all went down.
Still, there must be someone else behind the abduction of the villagers, but who, and why?
Suddenly the feeling of wrongness returned. All was still as it was, but things were getting ready to change. Melia didn't mean to be caught up in this, and wished she was someplace else, anyplace else, man. But she was invested now, partly because she actually liked Braham and Rox, so there was no going back.
"So you're saying they came in and started killing for no reason?"
Rox's voice snapped her back to reality just in time to hear the end of Ev's profanity sprinkled rambling. He was still ranting about the shitters trashing his goddamn car when Rox finally managed to change the subject. Thank god.
"They didn't. That's the strange part. They damn near wrecked the entire village, but didn't kill anyone. They took them away." He cocked a thumb over in the general direction the charr went off to.
"Ain't nothing out there but old mines."
"We can't let them get away with this." Braham jumped up suddenly, ready to go.
"I have to save my people! Those vehicle tracks lead further down the mountain, where the mines are. If we hurry, we might still catch them."
Melia gave him a sad look and tried to keep her voice calm when she said "We'll all go first thing tomorrow. I promise we'll get your people but we have to rest for now."
It had gotten later than he realized. Time really flies when you're having fun. The daylight was fading fast and the wind kicked it up a notch. Braham didn't want to rest. He wanted to pursue them while the tracks were still visible but something made him hesitate. The others were getting tired and he knew better than to underestimate the charr. They were near perfect hunters in the dark.
He reluctantly grunted something that may have been "Alright."
"Got a couple spare rooms over at my place. Y'all should stay the night. It gets mighty cold up here after sunset," Ev said matter-of-factly, looking at Melia's short summer dress and bare feet. Not that he gave a shit.
When no one objected, tired as they were, they followed him past a row of neat houses with carefully maintained lawns, the only convenience store, fallen trees and burned sheds, to a lawn in desperate need of mowing and a lawn chair in its last stage of life.
The lawn was in a pretty bad shape which had nothing to do with the recent destructions, and the house behind the lawn didn't look much better. The gray paint was peeling, and part of the roof was in shambles; the latest hail storm had knocked several of the roof tiles down that the owner hadn't bothered to replace. The shutters hung sadly and the chimney was lopsided, looking at the sky like a drunk trying to stand upright.
A single snow worm popped up as if to inspect the intruders, then burrowed back to do whatever snow worms did underground.
"That's just old Mr. Steele, he won't bite. "
They finally arrived at the house where Ev shrugged his shoulders and invited them in.
"It ain't the Taj Mahal, but who gives a shit?"
It wasn't, and no one did.
In a remote place, Scarlett observed the recent events from what was probably the most advanced workshop in the world.
She was watching today's footage on the computer, a gadget she built entirely from spare parts and a circuit board from an old radio. Lately she felt very capable of inventing and improving things.
Lately, she'd been getting a lot of good ideas and they all came to her in her dreams. The man with the silver dollar eyes who wasn't a man, told her how to make something, and she did.
In her dream, the concept would always be crystal clear, but the meaning behind it usually evaporated in time. Scarlett didn't actually understand the inner workings of her gadgets, but it didn't bother her too much. She was an inventor, a truth seeker and not a scientist.
She'd been scared of the entity haunting her dreams before, almost too scared to fall asleep. But eventually, she found it better to stop resisting its pull and just allow herself to…become.
Her eyes went back to the frozen image of two charr and a young man standing side by side. Scarlett didn't like the look in the white charr's eyes, it was too defiant.
She and her merry band of assholes could very well spell trouble, but they would either get with the program and become (part of the team) or be eliminated.
Thick red light pulsed through the computer's cables at steady intervals, illuminating her pale, feverish face. She was getting closer to finding it. She could feel it.
Everything would go according to plan.
Author's Note:
Hi everyone :) This is my first time writing a story, (and actually following through with it) so please go easy on me! This is set in an alternate universe, kind of, I decided not to go the high fantasy route and I'm not gonna include dragons or too much magic. Also, there may be lore breaking.
Having said that, please read and review, it would mean so much to me!
xxx Amaria