"Run…" They said. "Just run…"
Those are the only words that I recall, as the lives around me withered and singed, all of the memories nothing but a black blur to me as the sky turned pale above my head. The force is to dark, demonic, possessed…too wrong to even recall. And, to this day, I still have flashbacks to the moment the Great Blaze scorched through our lands, burning the fur off of my family's…my pack's…my whole life's pelts. As their souls departed from their deformed, seared bodies and into the depths of the underworld, which is all we knew at the time, I stood in horror, no more than the age of four moons, as the winds blew the flames at me...hurting me...eventually cutting my life into pieces. Pain is all the others had beaten into our already tortured, distroyed minds. "There is nothing but hurt and pain…" They would whisper, taunting us and the forces that are unspeakable…unsalable...to me and the entire world around us. And this is my tale, the "Spirit's Tale", as she once said, and the story of the hell my life had become…
It wasn't until I had truly given up on life that I found out the reality of it all…all the lies and the incipient truths that lie beyond the secret of the past. I was only four or five moons old…so young for such horrible terror. Tamika, my mother, was born an unadulterated soul; a silvery white pup, with blazing blue eyes and the downy pelt that was softer than the clouds above our heads. I seemed to resemble her greatest, as I was born with the same white pelt as her and the pure black nose that not many of our she-wolves had; it was a turn down to me, having that black nose. Most of the other females had a pink, peach-colored nose. It seemed, at the time, so intimidating to be near another she-wolf that had the cherry-pink nose that I dearly longed for. But in the end, I learned to love what I had, as I soon realized that I must cherish every last part of my mother I had left: my reflection. But, as much as the spitting image I was of her, there was one thing that set me apart from the other wolves. She had mesmerizingly blue eyes, clearer then the water that lapped at our paws and the ice that lay on the trees in the midst of winter. My eyes, in fact, are purple; a shallow purple, just like the aura that would burn off a deeply setting sun. One eye only, that is. That was my biggest difference: I had one eye that was purple, and one that was as green as the grass and the trees and the undergrowth that I was once so used to.
"Nariko…" I heard Shota, my younger brother, say as he bounded up to me, his paws smeared with blood as he shook with impatience. His dark blue eyes flickered over me, and I noticed that his muzzle had the salty substance on it as well. He smiled as a warm breeze blew by, smelling of the sweet lavender and cherry blossoms that I so longed to bury my nose deep into again. The sun was up high, burning brightly in the sky, and my sister and I had just laid down in the shade to shield us of the violent rays of the summer sun that had threatened to make us lay in the lake just to cool off. "I caught my first piece of prey!" His expression lit up as he turned; I watched his brown fur ruffle as he padded off towards the large lump of battered feathers, his paws just itching with pride and joy in showing us his first catch. As he dragged the massive snow owl over to us, it almost seemed a bit sad to see such a beautiful creature dead, nothing now but a bleeding corpse with no life looming around in its once majestic body that had swooped and dived with such elegance and grace among the forest treetops. The feathers were pure white, and just as soft as the fur upon my mother's underbelly, with eyes as black as the night sky and talons sharper then stone. As I stared at the stunning animal, little did I know that this snow owl wasn't just your typical piece of prey for me, it was the omen that changed my destiny.
At first, I thought nothing of a piercing scream that aechoed effortlessly through the forest, as the others hadn't seemed to hear the cry. I shushed them, soon hearing it again, louder this time against my ears then before. They strained to hear what I did, claiming that all the heard were mere whispers of the wind howling through the trees, but they soon panicked as they heard it for themselves, their ears flattening and their hearts racing. Pounding of paws echoed, and we heard the hoarse panting of our mother, out of breath from a long run.
She stared at us with an expression, which was a jumble of apprehension, worry, and uneasiness. "I…heard a scream…are you three alright?" Her breath was fast, and she gave us a look of hesitation as she sniffed the air, soon staring out at the fields beyond us. The heat was burning our backs even under the shade of the great oak that towered above our heads. Her eyes glossed over as the most vibrant, looming…light…flooded over the hills, engulfing and sweltering every tree and limb in its path. Smoke filled the air, and I began to feel, oddly enough,…happy. It was so bright, so jubilant, so tempting… Something was dragging me towards the fire as I sat there, emotionless, the flames ahead reflecting in my eyes and twinkling in the distance.
But it was only when I felt the heat truly touch my face did I realize that fire was not something to mess with. Animals ran past us as the firestorm blazed closer and closer with every breath I took. The rest of our pack ran, yelling and screaming at the top of their lungs as their pups and their home…their lives…burned to the ground right in front them, with them knowing that they cannot deal with the force of nature…with them knowing that they cannot save their children's lives as the fire burned their bodies to ashes, killing the mother and father in their desperate attempt to save their lives. The elders stood, facing the fire, knowing that they would be unable to escape their fate. My mother was frozen to the ground as the fire began surrounding the trees that encircled us.
"Mother…!" I begged, pushing her legs, my eyes burning with smoke and tears. "We have to go now…" I choked out the words, but all she done was sit there in a daze, watching her mother and father and the rest of the elders head nose-first into the buring flames, in hopes of finding a young life to save as they knew their time was over. I cried even more as the flames began swirling around our paws, burning us until we bled. My brother and sister began trembling and coughing up blood and dust as the smoke became too heavy to see through and the fire was scorching through their pelts. Mother's snow white pelt, soon turned to ashes, and she collapsed onto the ground.
"Run…" She whispered into my ear, and with her last dying breath, she muttered in a voice so low, "With every life taken, a new life is given. But…it is not your time, young Nariko. I love you…" Her voice faded as her whole body engulfed in flames, and her flesh burning away, more and more with every passing second. I stood, stunned, choking on my own tears and the thick smog around me, until I finally ran. I ran away from the fire, the lives and spirits of my family and pack, away from the life I used to know, away from death and ashes that loomed in the flames of the Great Blaze.
I was blinded by my tears, too scared to stop running no matter how bad the pain. I screamed as I heard a crack, sending a burning limb crashing down in front of me. Now I truly was trapped, no way out, and all I could do now was sit there and cry…cry for my mother, my sister, and my brother. For the life I used to know, and the land that had been my home for such a long time. As the flames drew near, I held my breath, not caring if I live or die, thinking to myself how I would be better off dead and in a better place than here and alive in this burning abyss of torture and the pain that I would suffer in return for my foolishness for turning my back on my life and running, leaving the weak to burn to ashes while I just ran like a coward.
As I felt the fire on my tail, my ears perked up. Steam. And when there's steam, there's…water! My vision suddenly went black and, in sheer terror and a flurry of apprehension, I leaped as far into the flames as I could. I began sobbing in relief as I felt water under my paws, slowly relieving the pain as I went limp and allowed the current to carry me upstream and away from the burning forest behind me. I know I had landed in a river, and for a split second, I thought I was dead. My senses faded, the sound of screeches died, the smell of smoke faded, and I could no longer feel the water that pulled me downstream. Only when I opened my eyes did I realize that I was bleeding so bad that the water around me turned a deep scarlet. I felt…sick…
Time, as what seemed to be, began flowing once again, and all I could do was float away from the torture and anguish that crept up on me once again. I was blinded to it all. All that I could see was my mother's body burning to the ground in the corner of my eye, my brother and sister unwilling to leave their mother's side, even if it means dying by her side, all three of their bodies burning to nothing but bones and ashes and seared blood…
A crack louder than thunder snapped me out of my hallucination and I noticed just how bad of a situation I was in. The fire was once again burning the trees and grass around me, and the ground shook as a tree ripped from the earth, sending dirt and roots everywhere, eventually crashing no more than a hair-length from my nose. I almost instantly ducked under, my paw catching on several strands of ivy tendrils from the big tree trunk that had slammed its way into the river in front of me. The rest of my body crashed into the bark as flames lapped at my nose, and I bit down as hard as I could, knowing that if I make one mistake, my life would be over.
What is the point in living now...when all that you had to live for is gone? The air escaped out of my lungs. "This is for the life that my mother had given up!" Fury surged through me, and I snapped at the ivy, soon releasing me into the current. It immediately sucked me under the tree-trunk, and with every passing moment, the current got stronger and stronger until I could no longer see where I was. The last thing I felt before I went black was my head hitting metal and the feeling of the water lifting off my pelt as I was dragged out of the water and into the air, gasping once more before my body went numb…