Disclaimer: Anything you recognise from Tolkien isn't mine.
Chapter 10: Pain
They stared dumbly at the flames for a long moment before bursting into motion. They did not have any buckets; there was nothing to hold water to douse it. Still, they dashed to the sea, trying to catch up armfuls of water, even handfuls, but always it drained away before they managed to get halfway up the beach. With the pained wails of the trees echoing in their minds, they both panicked. Separately. Differently. Erestor plunged into the sea, determined to get water to the forest, somehow. He let in saturate his clothing and filled his mouth with bitter, briny saltwater. The brackish liquid burned his revolting tastebuds until he spewed over a burgeoning flame on a border tree branch.
That was useless. So useless.
He ripped his tunic over his head and wrung every drop from it before donning it again, doing the same with his trouser.
Still it did nothing.
Their screams bounced off the walls of his head, the pitiful pain of the dead and the dying reverberating around his thoughts. Suppressing them. Replacing them.
Not enough. Not enough.
Lindir was trying to toss sand to little effect. That, too—
Not enough. Not enough.
Pain, pain, pain.
Buds shrivelled and died.
Pain, pain, pain.
Leaves curled and twist sickeningly, blackening with a glowing rim of embers.
Pain, pain, pain.
Underbrush went up like a candle, burning trees from the bottom up.
Pain, pain, pain.
The charred flesh of seared squirrels and birds was nauseous.
Pain, pain, pain.
Fire crept up thick bark, slipping through any cracks and sending the tree exploding out from the inside.
Pain, pain, pain.
Crackling flame, threatening flame, encroaching from every side.
Pain, pain, pain.
Human cries, tortured as skin hardened and turned black.
Pain, pain, pain.
Singed hair and human bodies burned down to the bone.
Pain, pain, pain.
Families, possessions, homes—left behind.
Pain, pain, pain.
Hope deserted.
Pain, pain, pain.
Fleeing, fleeing, muscles cramping.
Pain, pain, pain.
Too far in.
Pain, pain, pain.
It burned better than kindling.
Pain, pain, pain.
The forest cried.
Pain, pain, pain.
So too did its inhabitants.
Pain, pain, pain.
The forest howled its anguish and its peoples'.
Pain, pain, pain.
It did not know elves.
Pain, pain, pain.
It let them hear it all.
Pain, pain, pain.
Feel it all.
Pain pain pain.
For it did not know it should not let them.
Painpainpain.
Nor how to stop them.
Painpainpain!
So they felt it all.
PAINPAINPAIN.
All was dying.
PAINPAINPAIN!
All was dead.
AN: It takes up a lot of space, but not many words. See, there are people! Thanks for reading! There haven't been any reviews in the last hours, so...special thanks to everybody! And to my Internet for going out and robbing me even of the opportunity to do math homework. I'm gonna go the that now that I can...