2 Fire

"No..."

Brightise wasn't sure if she'd spoken the words or thought them. All she knew was that she refused to believe what she was seeing. Her whole house was on fire.

"Water!" she yelled at Gren as soon as she came to her senses. "Get some water!"

Gren rushed off to find some as Brightise stared at the wooden cottage in shock.

Her sisters! Where were her sisters?

"Morral! Clober!"

She was going crazy. She knew were Clober was. She went to school every morning and stayed there till late afternoon. Morral didn't even have to walk her there anymore. It was close enough for a five-year-old to walk there safely.

"Morral!"

Her older sister was always at home at this time of the day, preparing dinner for Brightise, who was always starving after a full day's work.

"Morral!"

Maybe she had gone to fetch water from the well. Oh, god, let her be at the well.

Brightise circled her house anxiously, trying to look through the burning windows. The flames made it almost impossible for her to see inside. Surely, there was no one there. If there had been any movement inside the cottage, she would have noticed it.

Unless whoever was inside was already dead.

"Brightise!"

For one fleeting moment, Brightise thought it was Morral shouting her name. When she turned around though, she saw that it was only Gren, who had come back with two buckets of water.

"Did you see Morral at the well?" Brightise asked him right away.

"What? No! Is she..." Gren froze in place when he realized why she was asking. "She's not... She can't be..."

While he stuttered, Brightise grabbed the two buckets out of his hands and rushed up to the front of the house.

"Wait!" Gren yelled at her.

Brightise emptied the buckets on the front door and then pushed it open.

"Morral!" she shouted loudly, trying to be heard through the crackling noise of the fire.

When she got no answer, she turned to Gren. "Go search for her in town! Hurry!"

Gren nodded and left.

Brightise started running back and forth between the well and the house. On her way there, people noticed her struggle and joined her in putting out the fire.

Tons of water were poured on the burning cottage as more villagers came to help.

"Where are the girls?" Paula asked her when Brightise slowed down to take a breath.

"Clober is at school. Gren is looking for Morral in town."

Paula's face darkened, but she didn't say a word.

Suddenly, Brightise saw Gren push his way through the crowd. Everyone turned in his direction hopefully. Unfortunately, he wasn't the bearer of good news.

"The school is on fire!" he yelled. Then he turned to Brightise. "Morral is helping put it out!"

Brightise didn't have to be told twice. She turned her back to their cottage and followed the rest of the villagers into town.

Who cared about their house if her younger sister was in a burning building and her older sister was fighting to extinguish the flames?