The ground was dry, dryer than ash. The trees were bare, long dead, withering away under the intense heat of the relentless sun. The ground was a wasteland, no birds flying in the sky or small animals running around the debris. Not so much as a few bugs running across the dust. Nothing.
But one single teenage boy, laying amongst the ash eyes closed, he looked peaceful. His arms were spread out on either side, the jacket he was wearing ripped along the sleeves leaving his pale arms vulnerable to the midday sun. He looked to be dead but the subtle rise and fall of his chest told otherwise, he was alive, weak but alive.
oooo
A mile from the unconscious boy was a small village; the village had patches of luscious green grass surrounding the village border, looking almost like a protective barrier.
The buildings inside the grass boundary were made of mud and coated with the debris from the wasteland. People in homemade clothes passed from one door-less home to the next, long gowns covered them reaching down to their mid-shins. Many of them were carrying objects in homemade baskets looking to be woven from straws and hair.
A small circular mound of mud was in the centre of the small mud huts. It looked hollow and people could be seen gathered around the circle. What looked to be clay pots were taken from the hole and were brought to the people's lips. The hole was a simple well.
One of the many people was an old woman, her hair down to her waist and streaked with grey. She looked no more than fifty but was clearly decades older than the other citizens who looked to be in their teens or early twenties. The elder had fine wrinkles on her face around her mouth and eyes, and her skin told of the many hours she had spent under the harsh sun.
Running her hands through her hair she looked down at the people who were scooping the water out of the well. The water inside the well was running low and from the look of the sky there wouldn't be any rain any time soon.
"Everyone! Everyone!" She called out to the village all eyes turning to her immediately, taking a deep breath to allow her to project her voice "the water is running low, there won't be any natural rain for a while it seems. I shall leave the village to call the rain gods and plead for some rain, till I return please drink sparsely."
The village gave her an acknowledging cheer as she turned to leave the village, to face the harsh conditions.
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The sun was harsher than it had been for a long time, and every second she spent away from the village the more time the unrelenting conditions had to chip away at the small amount of water filling the base of the well.
Raising a wrinkled hand she wiped away the sweat forming on her forehead. It didn't seem very logical to place the settlement so far from the sacred ground where she could call the gods.
Looking across the flat land to see how far from the land she was, she squinted against the heat waves, a look of confusion crossing her face. Was that a raise in the land? This was supposed to be flat?
Her curiosity grabbed she started towards the raise in ground level. The well could wait for a little while; the gods weren't going anywhere anytime soon.
oooo
The young boy laying on the ashen ground was still, his face was slightly tanned from the intense heat. He hadn't stirred once and his breathes were beginning to space out more than before.
A shadow was cast over his placid face, greying hair falling just short of his tanning skin.
"Strange I did not know of another settlement around these parts" she mused to herself crouching down beside the boy, "especially one wearing such strange garments" brushing a strand of raven black hair from before his face she looked at his fair face. He wasn't young, but he wasn't old too, he seemed to be fifteen though he looked a lot better than most of the fifteen year olds in the village.
Looking over his face she saw only subtle signs of life, the boy was weak she needed to get him back to the village, if not he would die. This wasn't going to be very dignified.
Cupping her hands under his arms she lifted him from the ash ground dragging him in the direction of the village. The village would be a little bitter, but they could be dealt with, a little thirst was nothing when compared to a youth's life.
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