Soot and Ash

"Davie?...Davie Wake up..." Davie opened his eyes. He was staring up at the sun. It was bright. He pulled his hand over his face and tried to adjust his vision to see who was calling to him.

It was a little girl with brown hair and eyes. She looked extremely young. No more than 12. Davie looked up at her figure. She was wearing very similar clothing to himself. She wore a loosely buttoned white shirt and navy blue trousers.

Davie grumbled to himself. He muttered something about life being too short to do anything productive and that they were all going to die anyway. He slowly put his hands over his eyes and closed them.

A fee seconds later. "OWWWWCH! Fuck! Mel You little bitch! Fuck! Owwwwww my ribs my sweet tender little boy ribbssssss" his voice was higher pitched but was still relatively soft spoken when he stopped screaming.

Davie moaned and groaned before angrily looking up at the young girl infront of him. She had her cheeks puffed up and was ready to let out another kick to his ribs.

Davie got up from the floor he was on and made out his surroundings. He was on the end of a small wharf. The sea hit the pillars below making a slight crash before receding back and repeating over and over again. The sounds of seagulls screeching and diving into the water could be heard all around. Near to the land there was a small dock lined with barrels and little fishing boats.

He walked to the edge of the wharf and stared at his reflection. He was younger and some of his defining features were missing. There was no jolly roger above his eyes. His hair was short and spiky. His ears were free of piercings and his face was chubbier.

He wore were shorts and sandals. His chest was bare showing of his prepubescent body for the strange of the world to admire. He was shocked out his stupor by the words of the girl , Mel , who seemed to be getting very impatient with him.

" Davie hurry up! We have to go to the shop!" Davie looked back at her and was still annoyed. He still however stood up and followed her while resting his head in the palms of his hands.

The two walked for a few minutes. They walked into a small fishing Village that began at the end of the wharf. The area reeked of dead fish but the locals were used to it including Davie. He casually looked around the same streets he toured most of his life. His head was down and he looked at the cool imprints the bottom of his sandals made in the mud.

Oddly he never lost track of where he was. He just did his own thing and wandered behind the girl somehow not losing her or his sense or direction.

" Davie. Its getting to that time. One day your going to have to take over father's business." The girl twirled around. He looked at her fancy get up and thought she was patronizing him. She got alot of money from their father and she always spent it on slightly used clothes. She had a thing for these easily stained white shirts and blue trousers. They accentuated her "womanly strength and might".

" Why don't you be like other girls and wear dresses weirdo" Mel didn't take his comments to heart as she knew he didn't mean them. It was just his general attitude to life...sheer apprehension.

" I'm sorry Davie are you sad that No big ships have come to the island. So you can sail off into neverland. I mean grow up! You want to be a sailor and go on adventures so bad but refuse to take up a fishing rod and go fish for food to help the family. Father provides all the money in the house. He's working hard catching cleaning and selling all day and all you do is lay on the docks hoping for something to happen. Well I'm gonna tell you this. Its not gon.."

The had reached the street their shop was on. When a loud boom was heard from the Wharf. The houses obstructed the view of the wharf but people could tell it was bad. Most villagers stopped whatever they were doing to come and look at what was going on. Just a few seconds later smoke bellowed high into the sky.

The reflection of the smoke etched onto his sclera. He ran back to the docks with a fire in his eyes. While running he looked back.

" Tell Pops im gonna check it out! I'll be right back!"

Davie ran as fast as his little legs could. When he arrived at the Wharf he could see the fire had been started because some of the fish oil barrels had been set on fire. The area has already began to become cloudy with smoke. His little lungs squealed at the inhalation of the fine particles but he pushed forward into a clearing.

He looked around for the culprit and it didnt take long. On the beach a few meters away from the warf was a large vessel. It was wooden and on the top of its mast it bore the crest of a skull and cross bones. This jolly roger was rather unique as the skull had another smaller Jolly roger on the top of its brow.

Davie shouted out at the top of his lungs.

" Pirates!"

Villagers who had just arrived back from trips. Ones who had just arrived from their homes all looked at the vessel in fear.

As Davie's shouted out a loud bang echoed across the sand. He felt a small compact breeze whiz by his cheek and behind him the sound of another explosion was heard.

He tured around to see another barrel had been hit spewing burning hot fish oil all over the small wooden dock and Wharf causing the whole thing to go up in flames. Davie was sent flying forwards back onto the small dirt road.It still hadn't dawned on him that his life could have been ended.

Davie laid still on the ground. His ears devoid of any sound other than the high pitched ringing. He looked up and blinked and saw that the docks were now a blazing gate to hell. A thick wall of fire Raged upwards. His hearing slowly faded back in, soon he was shocked out of his stupor by screams.

He looked around him to see bodies burning. It smelt terrible. He got up and slowly waddled around with an thoughtless look in his eyes. The tips of his shorts slightly caught fire but quickly burned away.

He looked down at a young boy who was still smoldering on this floor. The cackling of the flame signaling the burning of all the moisture in his body. He took a closer look at the face in the flames. It was one of his friends , Kee . He was now a charred mess before him. He couldn't even take enough time to process this information when another shot rang out. This time it wasn't close but he could clearly hear it hit someones flesh. He didn't dare to look in the direction.

Instead he ran away from the fire covered in soot and ash.