Down In Flames

Seeing the green light of the Moon of Carus, I knew the exit of the lake was finally close and soon I would reunite with the fox and Jeffrey on the surface. Excited to show them my victory against the goddess, I took the bottle out of my shoulder bag... The ice that made the bottle was hard and it hadn't melted, not even a little, during my trip back... It was probably a work of Water that did not allow the ice to melt or it was a special kind of ice.

"You did it... Does this goddess really exists?", Jeffrey said upon seeing me arrive and I just extended my arm with the bottle, showing it right at this face... He could only stare at it in deep disbelief. I smiled at him and nodded, confirming to him that this was real, no illusion at all.

Happy and celebrating my victory, the fox started to jump and climb up my body, though it stopped when it touched my wound on my shoulder and it immediately jumped to the ground in realization. Its touch made my pain worse for a single second and I groaned in pain.

Quickly, I put my hand over the wound while I moved the other to return the bottle to the bag and get a part of healing bread. The fox climbed me up again, but stopped on the other shoulder this time. Both of them now seemed a little bit worried, but I thankfully didn't ruin the whole happy and celebratory mood with my reaction to the pain.

"Well, we still have a long way to go, but we have already managed to get one of the things we need. We should stop and celebrate this a little, of course, but not for too long, okay", I said to them while, slowly, I was feeling better, the pain of my shoulder fading away... Very, very slowly, but still fading away, thankfully.

Still, the mood I was glad to not have ruined had been ruined either way by the sight of a very far away trail of black smoke... It was dark, so I first mistook it for clouds, but they had a strange shape and seemed to be coming from nearby.

"Are you seeing that?", I asked the others while staring at it. Soon I realized it was coming from an orange light in the distance... Something was on fire and it wasn't just a small little firepit or something similar, it seemed like the whole area was burning. Was it a forest on fire? No... That direction... That was the direction of the town... It could only mean one thing.

"Oh, damn, we need to do something!", I shouted and, without thinking twice, I ran to the town, through the shortest way by the forest between us instead of the regular path.

I stopped in front of the wall of the city, some of the parts of it were falling and a building had already fallen, creating a hole that one could use to enter if it wasn't for the fire close to it.

I didn't have much time to consider what to do... If I could save someone that was inside there, every second was precious. That's why as soon as I got there, I let the fox climb down to the ground, and I tossed my sword and bag to Jeffrey who was right behind us.

"I'm going inside. You two stay here!", I said.

"But-"

"No 'but's, I am going inside okay?", I said and examined the hole on the wall... Carefully to not get too close to the fire, I jumped through it. After that, I tried to leave the destroyed structure of the building that had fallen.

Covering my mouth and nose from the smoke, I looked around on the streets... The fire was intense and it didn't look like it was just one fire that started... Whoever did this probably had friends and acted simultaneously.

Luckily, I didn't see anyone inside... It seemed like everyone was safe... But I couldn't surely say that just by looking over the streets, I needed to check inside and the other streets as well.

The more the time passed, the harder it was getting to breathe and the hotter it was getting inside my armor... I felt like I could melt. My hope came in the form of a well with a water bucket, thrown to the ground probably because of the despair the fire caused. Ripping a part of my clothing, I wet it with water that it still had inside and continued my search. That's when I finally heard someone... There was someone who needed help.

Following the scream, I went to a single floor building... The conditions of it were already bad, the walls could fall at any moment and the ceiling on fire would make it worse for anyone inside there. If there was someone to save, however, there was no time to lose and I headed inside...

Looking around, I could only see fire at every direction... This place... It was the blacksmith and the wizard shop... But it couldn't be then who were in danger, it was a female voice I heard screaming and begging for help.. Suddenly it hit me, it was the daughter of the blacksmith!

"Hold on... I am coming!", I shouted to reassure her, and looked around... The door from where she came last time seemed locked, I had to kick it open. Behind a curtain of flames, a girl holding a bunny was... Tears of despair on her eyes, marks of burns of the fire and coughs caused by the smoke. Dumbly, I charged against the flames, who left me marked with the fire a little, and my armor was now scorching hot.

"Ah, dammit...", I said and then tried to take my armor out as fast as I could. I really liked it, but there was no point in using it if it would only lead to my death. "Here, breath with this on your mouth, I will take us from out of here...", I gave her the piece of cloth that I had and then looked around. There was no other way out, only the window, and so I jumped through it.

The fire was getting worse, many buildings had collapsed and some of the streets were blocked... It was already hard to see a way out and it was also getting harder to think for some motive... As though my consciousness was fading away.

The girl had lost hers already... And soon... I lost mine too...