A/N: This is just a small experiment. I'm not sure how far I'll go with this and I've only gotten a little of it plotted out at this point. All Things End still takes priority, but I've had this idea for awhile now and I've gotten a very strong urge to write it lately. As per usual, I can never think of a decent name to give my stories, so we're stuck with this.

A Trail Of Ashes

By Couragefan09

Summary: Four years ago Courage's life went up in flames. Four years ago he lost Muriel to an evil that still lingers over him. Now he travels the world, leaving a trail of ashes whenever he and his only companion are unfortunate enough to make a mistake. There is little chance that he can change his fate, but he has no choice but to continue onward or else others will pay the price.

Chapter 1: Rain

"You know I don't handle rain well."

Courage dug his fingers deeper into the car seat beneath him. He was glaring up at the bright screen of a laptop that was currently attached to a metal arm stand sticking out of the dashboard.

"We've been over this a million times, dog! Rain and snow! I don't do well in either of them! It messes up the cameras, and if I can't see through the cameras, I may as well be someone's dear, old grandma driving down the road without her glasses on!"

Courage did not reply, he simply looked away and let out a, "Hmph!"

Rain was pouring down onto the car, and even though it did not benefit Courage, the windshield wipers were at full speed. The pattering of the rain was nearly loud enough to drown out the annoyed voice coming from the laptop. It was nearly pitch black outside, aside from a few reoccurring flashes of lightning and the car's own headlights. There was nothing but thick forest on either side of the winding road that the car was driving down.

"It's not my fault that you're in a bad mood, you twit! Are you really going to risk us crashing just because you can't control your temper?"

Courage could have laughed. As if he hadn't had to endure the Computer's own testy attitude a million times!

"I don't care if things went badly today! It's no reason to take risks!"

Courage had to fight the urge to roll his eyes. They were in the middle of an uninhabited forest! This was one of the only times they could afford taking a few risks! That cat was long behind them after all. She had nothing to worry about.

He laid back in his seat, letting himself relax, even though he really wasn't all that tired, or stressed out.

"We're running out of time..." The annoyed Computer said in a much quieter voice.

Courage placed his paws behind his head. "We'll be out of the area long before it can happen."

"Not if I crash." His huffy companion grumbled back.

Courage closed his eyes, ignoring what the Computer was saying. He knew fully well that he was perfectly capable of driving the car himself right now, but he was so angry with just...just everything at the moment that he felt like this was his only way of, well, inflicting some kind of retribution. Not on Computer in particular, but perhaps on life itself. It felt like this was his one and only way of spiting it. He knew how petty it was to think that risking a car crash might spite life itself, but it was all he had. He had long since given up on trying to keep his anger and frustration bottled up.

Letting his thoughts drift to the sound of the rain drumming on the car, he found himself reflecting on today's failed adventure. In his mind's eye, he could see that old, decrepit hermit of a cat and her large, cloudy eyes. She had been garbed in mere rags and walked upright like a human. She had needed a staff just to hobble out of her chair, and half of her tail had been missing.

Their meeting with the hermit had been a long time coming. She was the new lead that they had been chasing in their ever growing desperation to find some meager amount of hope to cling to. Courage had walked for hours through that forest, with no path to follow and only a few easy to miss signs carved into things like rocks and toadstool. When he had come across her quaint, little hut, he almost hadn't been able to believe it. She had been expecting him though, right from the start, and they had ended up talking for quite a long while before she...

Courage's eyelids snapped open and he found himself staring up at the car's ceiling. He allowed his face to drop into a heavy frown.

After discussing his predicament with the old hermit, she had giving him that same pitying shake of her head that he had gotten so many times before from so many people, and then she had given him the same answer that he had also gotten so many times before.

So, given that he was not going to find a solution that he so desperately needed, he had left the old cat and her hut before the worst could happen. He was certain that she was safe and that there was no chance any harm could befall her.

It wasn't all bad though. They had another lead they were pursuing and this one was far more likely to produce results. It wouldn't be long before they'd reach their destination and then it would be a race against the clock to find out the truth.

Courage sat forward in his seat again, feeling restless. Out of habit, he looked up at the glowing screen of the laptop, which currently had their GPS position on display. There were also a few other, much smaller windows open on the screen that were showing what the cameras attached to the outside of the car were seeing.

Courage smiled to himself in rather grim amusement. He never would have thought that he'd one day build himself what amounted to his own self driving car. Well, perhaps he was giving himself too much credit. It was more that he had simply modified an existing car instead, and with a lot of help from Computer along the way. He considered himself something of a tech guru nowadays, although Computer would heartily disagree with him if he were to ever say such a thing out loud. It had only happened out of necessity, of course. One simply had no choice but to become more closely acquainted with technology when your only companion was a machine, one who would mock you relentlessly for any technological deficiency that you might have.

Well, it was not Computer alone who had caused him to get to this point. It'd been necessary that he figure out a way to cover large distances in a short amount of time, and to be able to do so even when he needed sleep. The weaknesses of his own body had become his worst enemy, and to have a companion who did not tire in the same way he did, it left him with no other choice but to get creative. He had figured at the time that he needed a way for Computer to take over driving whenever he became too tired to do so himself. Computer was more than capable of making up for Courage's weaknesses when needed, but he too had weaknesses of his own. Having to rely upon cameras to see properly was one of them, given that they could become obscured or fail at inopportune moments. The other was his constant need of a power source. It wasn't so bad when he was hooked up to the car battery, but they were not always in the car, and the other tech that he often inhabited tended to run out of battery charge obnoxiously fast and usually at the worst possible moments.

Still looking up at the laptop screen, Courage got the distinct impression that he was being glared at. For a machine lacking in any facial expressions, Computer was surprisingly good at conveying his annoyance without saying a single word. It did not particularly trouble Courage though. In all of the four years that they had been working so closely together, a day rarely went by where they didn't get into at least several heated arguments. It was daily life for them at this point. Of course, Courage had known Computer for even longer than just the last four years. He used to go to him for help all of the time back before...everything went wrong.

Looking away from his fuming friend, he closed his eyes and tried to keep his mind from wandering back to that place, back to where it was always drawn to. It did not matter how many times he thought about it or how many times he let it play out in his mind. He never would have been able to change what happened, nor would he find any new answers by recalling that memory over and over again.

Trying to fight it was useless though. His thoughts always returned to those burnt out ashes soon or later, and then he would be forced to live through that hell all over again. It was merely a single part of the torture that his life had become.

Outside of the car, the storm was picking up in intensity. The rain was now coming down in heavy sheets and lightning danced continuously through the sky. What worried him most was the wind. He could see the dark silhouettes of the trees swaying ominously with every lightning flash, and the car was being battered so hard that it kept swerving to the left and to the right. The incredible howl of the gale was so great that it was like a monster given life.

Computer still had said not a word. He was apparently determined to keep going even in spite of the mounting danger. Perhaps he was simply being vengeful and trying to teach Courage a lesson, but it wasn't like him to be so risky. Maybe a few years ago he would have pulled something like this, but not anymore, not after several thoughtless actions on his part had caused utter disaster for more than just Courage.

"We...we should pull over." Courage finally spoke up as a particularly heavy blast of wind almost sent the car swerving off the road.

"Oh, so you've finally decided that it's time for us to stop being a pair of risk taking idiots, hmm?" Computer bitterly quipped. "Although, it's hardly my fault that I've been forced into the same category as you! I've been infected by all of the second hand stupidity that you carry around with you!"

"Just pull over!" Courage yelled, reaching for the steering wheel.

It all happened so fast.

Before his paws so much as touched the steering wheel, he saw, illuminated in the headlights, a huge tree trunk fall right there in front of the car. He heard the screech of tires as Computer desperately put on the breaks, but it was too late. The car smashed into the fallen tree at near full speed. Courage, given only a fraction of a second to regret having not put on his seat-belt, was sent flying through the windshield. Of course, the pain of being smashed through the already cracked glass was nothing compared to when his body hit the pavement at full speed. He seemed to tumble endlessly before...

….He opened his eyes to fire. It was everywhere. The entire living room was bathed in flames. Pictures of his beloved Muriel were all turning to ash in their very frames and Eustace's dearly held chair was being eaten alive to fuel the inferno.

Courage ran, he ran with all of his might toward the staircase. It too was now covered in flames, flames that would soon devour it completely. He could not wait a moment longer or else there would be no staircase left to use. He tore his way up the steps, and it was only then that he realized that he wasn't being burned. Somehow he was passing through the flames without being harmed. He did not understand it, especially when only moments before...

There was no time to think, no time to dwell on what he did not want to acknowledge. He leaped over the last step and into the burning hallway of the second floor of the house. Not a single inch of his home was being spared from the all consuming hellfire. And it was as he stood there, consumed by disbelief, that he saw it...

At the other end of the hall, in window, it was looking at him.

Not another day of his life would go by where he would not have that image burnt in his mind. Not another day would pass where he would not have that feeling of all consuming terror lingering in the back of his mind.

Then, without warning, he was on fire. Not on the outside, but deep inside of himself. It was like someone had replaced his blood with a stream of lava and the searing, fiery pain was spreading throughout every inch of his body. He wanted to scream, but when he tried to inhale, his airways filled with ash. He began to cough and sputter. He couldn't breathe! But then, as he continued to struggle for air, he suddenly felt heavy raindrops beating down on his face. His fur was soaked, even if he still felt like he was burning up.

As the worst of the pain slowly passed, he stopped coughing and sputtering as his airways cleared up. Trying not to think about what had just happened, he stood up. The storm was still raging out of control all around him. To his left, the fallen tree and crashed car remained undisturbed.

"Back then, are you?" Came Computer's voice from within the car. "Took you long enough! The car is totaled and we're out of time! We can't cover enough distance on foot!"

Courage lightly clutched a paw to his still burning chest. "We have to try." He weakly uttered out.

Now he felt so incredibly stupid for giving Computer a hard time and letting his temper get the better of him. Moving fast, he climbed over the tree trunk and landed on the other side where the wreck of his car lay. The entire front end of the car had collapsed into itself from the impact, but the rest of it remained relatively intact. He quickly got inside, knowing that he didn't have much time. First, he grabbed his backpack from the backseat, which already held most of what he needed to take with him. As a precaution, he always kept it packed in case of emergencies like this.

"Alright, dog. I've transferred myself." Computer announced, unable to completely mask the urgency in his voice.

Courage climbed back into the front seat, backpack in paw. He quickly pulled out a flashlight from one of its pockets and set everything down just long enough to finish what he needed to get done. His laptop was still attached to the metal stand, but the impact of the crash had caused the arm to move out of place. The laptop's screen had gone dark and in its place a cellphone that was sitting in its charging dock was now alive and active.

Courage deftly disconnected the laptop from all of the wires that connected it to the car before shoving it into his backpack. Zipping the backpack up, he threw it on and grabbed the cellphone. With both cellphone and flashlight in paw, he jumped out of the car and back onto the road. Much to his dismay though, the storm only seemed to be getting worse.

"Don't just stand there! Get moving!" Computer yelled. Obviously he was speaking through the cellphone now.

Courage didn't need to be told twice. Storm or no storm, he couldn't stay here. Flashlight pointed in front of him, he began running down the road as fast as his short legs could take him. He knew that it wouldn't be enough, but he had to try. If he could just stay ahead, even a little bit, there might be a chance...

End Of Chapter