Cursed Flames: Chapter one

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Not even a piece of cheese. So please don't sue me, as all you'd get is… well… nothing.

"Rei!"

Rei looked up, her raven black hair falling slightly into her five year old face, beads of sweat trickling down her cheeks as she quickly fought to extinguish the flame she'd created. Finally, after a few seconds, all that was left were a few tendrils of smoke, and the little girl sat back, exhausted and drained.

"Rei, where are you?" The voice came again, louder this time, and the five year old hastened to her feet, brushing twigs and dirt quickly from her skirt, desperately trying to hide the last vestiges of her power.

"Ah, I'm over here, mama!" Rei called.

After a few moments, the sound of crunching leaves could be heard, and a woman with long black hair and vivid blue eyes looked down at her, smiling.

"Rei, have you been here all this time?" Avelyn asked.

Rei nodded her head fervently, smiling up at the woman in front of her. "I've been working on my powers, mama, just like you told me to." Pride shown in the little girls violet eyes, and Avelyn could do nothing but smile and pull the child close to her chest.

"Aye, my little one. You keep practicing your magic, and some day, you'll be the best fire keeper of the Hino's yet."

Rei smiled and held her mother close with chubby hands, sweat drying on her face.

"You really think so, mama?" She asked, her voice slightly muffled.

"I know so, child," her mother replied. "Now, let's get home, alright? Your father tells me he brought you something back from the city."

Rei's eyes lit up with delight.

"Papa's home!" She squealed.

Avelyn grinned slightly, pleased with her daughter's enthusiasm, and nodded once.

"That's why I came to find you. But remember, child." Here, her voice grew serious, and her eyes shimmered with hidden emotions. "Do not let him know that you've been practicing with fire. Not everybody in the world understands that magic can be used for good, and would try to kill you if they knew you could call fire to your use."

Rei nodded her head solemnly, her violet eyes unwavering.

Soon, Avelyn smiled once more and took her daughter's hand, leading her through the woods and back towards the small cottage in which they lived.

As they drew nearer, Avelyn frowned and slowed the pace down, before coming to a complete halt.

"Rei," she whispered. "I need you to stay here. Something doesn't feel right."

Rei's eyes shimmered slightly, and then went dull.

"Rei?" Avelyn looked down when her daughter didn't respond. "Rei!"

"If you go in there, you will die. You will die as father died." The sound that came out of Rei's mouth had the ringing quality of a prophecy, and for a moment Avelyn hesitated to move.

"Rei… are you saying your father is dead?" Avelyn's gaze hardened and she shook her head.

'Rei is merely a child. She can't be having visions yet, much less be giving out prophecies.' That settled, at least in her mind, she pushed the child into the cover of a bush, and headed off slowly to the cottage once more, leaving her child behind.

After awhile, Rei slowly sat up, her head spinning, a faint sense of unease growing within her.

"Mama?" She called softly. Standing up, she once more brushed dirt and leaves off of her. "Mama?" She called again. "Papa, are you there?"

As she looked in the direction of the cottage, Rei's sense of unease grew, and the five year old stopped, hesitating, before plunging on.

As she came to the door of the cottage, the eerie silence struck her, and she trembled slightly. Reaching for the handle of the door with a small, chubby hand, she paused, taking a moment to gather her thoughts on one tiny spark of flame in her mind. When it was firmly placed, she proceeded to push the door open and take a step in.

Glancing around, the image of a small flame still firmly caught in her mind, she looked around the room, taking in small details: the front hall, with a set of stairs running along one wall to the upper part of the house, the hall way leading to the kitchen, branching off along the way and leading to the family room and living room, where a great fireplace was. Slowly, she walked up the stairs, looking around once, before stepping into one of the upstairs rooms. Instantly, red assaulted her senses, and she smiled slightly. This was her bedroom, and she loved it.

Stepping out of her bedroom, she walked the few steps across the hall, the soft carpet squishing under her toes as she walked.

As she stepped into her parents' bedroom, she paused, her eyes scanning the walls of the room, strung up with pictures of the three of them. Her tiny face scrunched up with tears, and she scrubbed them away angrily.

"They're fine," she assured herself out loud. "They just forgot to come out and get me is all." Nodding her head she stepped out of her parents' room and rushed back down the stairs.

"Mama! Papa!" She called out, ignoring her instincts to remain quiet and stealthy. "Mama, papa, where are you?"

Entering the kitchen, she looked around. Nothing seemed to be out of place; the pots and pans hung from drying racks, towels from the handles of drawers. Sun shone in through a small window directly above the sink, hitting a small crystal and reflecting brilliant rainbows all around the room. Frowning, Rei left the kitchen and moved down towards the living room.

Stepping into the small, albeit cozy, room, she looked around. Quilts hung from the walls, hand made by her mother, and upon seeing them, the five year old couldn't help but smiling slightly. She remembered sitting in her mothers lap while she'd sewn each individual square, before piecing them all together to form the masterpieces now hanging before her.

Immediately she turned and fled the room, running across the hall and into the family room, where she stopped dead, pushing one chubby fist against her mouth to keep from crying out.

Avelyn and Teijo Hino lay on the floor, eyes wide and unseeing. Alex's throat had been slashed open, and drying blood was congealed around the open wound and on the floor surrounding him. Avelyn's throat had been slit as well, but her skirts were bunched up around her waist, and even in her young age, Rei knew what had happened.

Tears coursing down her face, she dragged her beloved parents' bodies outside. Standing back, she pictured the flame in her mind once more, determined to give her parents due respect. The flame fully in her mind, she envisioned sending it to her parents' bodies, waiting for a spark to catch in their clothing. When it finally did, she sat back, sweat pouring down her face once more.

"Good bye, mama… Good bye, papa," she murmured quietly, tears coursing down her cheeks, dropping to the ground and turning the dirt beneath her feet a darker brown.

Suddenly, a rustling behind her caused the girl to spin around, black hair flying into her face.

"Witch!" Came a voice, low and dark. "Abomination!"

"Magic user!" Came another voice, feminine this time.

"She probably caused the deaths in the first place."

Shaking her head in denial, her eyes wide open with fear, Rei took a step back, her little beet making small marks on the ground where she'd stood.

"That's right, you little witch!" One of the people in the surrounding bushes called out. "Run away like the little coward you are!"

"No one needs your kind, anyways!" Came another voice.

"Begone with you now, witch child!"

Turning, Rei fled into the woods, tears streaming down her face, shaking her tiny body as she moved, denials coming quickly to her tongue, but leaving before she had a chance to say them.

'After all, who would believe a witch child?' she asked herself scornfully. 'Mama was right. People don't understand.'

Stopping where she was, she scrubbed tears from her face with chubby little hands.

"Maybe they're right," she said aloud. "Maybe magic really is bad."

She thought back to all the times she'd used it in the past: the very first time, she'd nearly burned down the house, as she'd been nearly three years old, and unable to control the power. Then there were the next few times, when she'd nearly downed a tree, burned down the forest, and then almost roasted a deer alive, in that order.

With a frown, she considered the words of her three accusers.

Were they right? Was she really a witch child?

Again she shook her head stubbornly, and continued on through the woods, heedless of the eyes that watched.

Thirteen years later…

Eighteen year old Rei Hino sat bolt upright on the pallet she'd been sleeping on, her long ebony colored hair hanging in clumps down her body.

'The same dream,' she thought to herself with a shudder. 'Will I ever be free of what happened all that long ago…?'

Yawning once, she stood up on shaky legs, moving over to the looking glass that hung on the wall. Sitting on the small chair in front of it, she picked up a brush and began work on combing through her hair, her mind trailing back to the last parts of what had happened.

After she'd run through the woods, she'd ended up in the middle of a dirt road, dazed and confused. Soon after, a traveling party had come upon her and picked her up, and unwittingly, she'd gone with them, answering their questions.

Once they heard her parents were dead, they immediately set about looking for the rest of her family. Seeing as both her parents had been only children, her rescuers soon realized that she had only one living relative left: Her grandfather from her mother's side. So, after letting Rei rest for a few days, they'd sent the child off to an unknown fate with her grandfather at the shrine.

Reflecting on it now, Rei realized it hadn't been all that bad growing up. A wry smile spread across her face as she recalled the first time she'd met the man she called "Grandfather."

A short, balding man with a wrinkled face, her first child like impression had been that he was one of the five dwarves in one of the fairy tales her mother used to tell her. And once he'd opened his mouth to greet her, the picture in her five year old head was complete.

He'd been such a kind man to her as she'd grown up through the years, teaching and encouraging her in all the ways of becoming a priestess. And through the thirteen years she'd been at the shrine, the power inside of her had laid dormant.

Well, there you have it. This is my first attempt at writing a Rei story, so… it's not great. And don't worry, Jaedite will enter soon enough. So. Review, please!