[23] Flickering Flames

There was a grotesque figure that begged, "Please...kill me..."

He had been eaten alive. His legs were missing, his hands gone, and his stomach opened to reveal missing organs, tissues, and intestines. He was a tortured soul, yet, there must have been something keeping him alive.

"As long as my heart isn't broken....I can't die..." He laughed, his face was hallowed and left bare nose up, there was only a moving mouth.

Fieth solemnly unsheathed his blade and walked towards the man,

"Thank you." A solitary voice fell.

Fieth nodded and stabbed down. What couldn't even be termed a body jittered once before finally stopping for good. There was a smile on the man's face.

The Hero of Heart turned around, swinging the blood off his weapon, sheathing it, and stepping back out of the crude wooden house. This one had just been like the others, grotesque figures filling it, a place of blood and gore.

"I'll go scout ahead for a bit, make sure we can be safe for the night, and come back...you can all settle for the camp, Aura should everything you need." With those words, he departed from the area.

Claire sighed, nodding and made her way back.

"Where's Fieth?" Aura asked, pouring water into cups and laying salted meat onto leaves.

Claire shook her head, "He went out to scout the area...you carried all that with you?"

The bag had been opened. There were two small leather tents already set up, a pile of small chips of wood in the middle surrounded by what appeared to be three flat logs.

Aura nodded matter-of-factly, before turning back to preparing.

'The heck is that bag made out of? Does it have its own dimension inside or something?' Claire pondered speechlessly.

"Let me nap on your lap!" Alicia rushed towards her with a smile, her fangs showing.

Claire frowned, looking at the bloodied girl, "All right, but only after I freeze the blood away from your body."

Aura thought the two were strange.

"Oh flames of the goddess Ishtar, grant me your powers and burn my enemies away, <Fire Ball>." She whispered silently to herself, although shaking slightly.

A small ball of flames shot out from her palm before igniting the piles of wood. Aura carefully maneuvered around the campfire and sat on one of the farther logs.

Claire watched all this with interest.

"You know magic?"

"I taught Fieth most things that I know..." Aura dodged further questioning, her ears twitched, "...but I try not to use it."

------

Claire gently stroked Alicia's hair with a small smile, the gentle flames before her flickered, dancing in shallow winds.

"You're afraid of fire aren't you?" She suddenly spoke out.

Aura shuddered and she hastily spoke, stammering, "N-no, I'm not."

Her ears twitched.

"Don't lie to me." A sharp voice caught her off, water jittered from the cup in her hand.

Claire continued.

"You shook when he summoned the <Fire Orb> and he had to pacify you. Not only that, you're still shuddering quite a bit, surrounded by these flames and the campfire. Even just starting a fire of your own caused you to jitter."

Aura was silent, there was a small gulp.

Claire sighed, "I saw you crying that night."

Aura produced an awkward smile, "It was too warm and I was feeling pangs across my body."

"That wasn't just any cry...I should know..." Claire scoffed at that excuse, "That was a cry for parents, and I used to do the same when I was younger."

There was a momentary silence, both parties stared at the swaying campfire in the distance. One was fearful of it and the other wouldn't mind sticking her hand through it.

"What would you know?" A bitter voice fell between them, "How can you act so smug? Is it because I'm weak? Can you not stand it? Do you pity me because I can't fight?"

Claire shook her head.

"I was an orphan, unwanted thanks to my crimson eyes. Even as a baby, I had always held this aura that makes people fearful." Claire slowly, and calmly enunciated, "Where I come from, crimson eyes are an extreme rarity, to the point where it's unnatural. My original parents were devoutly religious and they believed me the spawn of the devil. They couldn't stand my presence."

She smiled, gently stroking Alicia's hair with shaking fingers, "I was lucky I didn't die to their hands, lucky that they loved me enough to put me up for adoption."

Alicia grabbed her hand, her crimson eyes staring into Claire's own, "They were stupid."

"They were," Claire nodded, "but I'm thankful for my newfound parents. My mother had been unable to give birth, and through me, she found someone similar to herself. Not once was I not treated like their child."

"And," She added, staring at Alicia's crimson eyes, "I too found someone similar to myself."

There was a lingering silence save for the happy squirms of Alicia. Aura bit down at the salted meat in her hand. She chewed, slowly, before swallowing it whole.

"Since I could remember, I've only had my father." She shook the cup in her hand, watching the water swirl around within.

"My father wanted to become a noble above all and he chose to go the path of buying his way through. He was a merchant, a greedy merchant, but also a miser. He abhorred paying unnecessary expenses...even protection." She took a sip of water, her eyes unwavering as she continued to stare at the flickering campfire.

Claire did the same, waiting for the girl.

There was a deep breath.

"We were transporting some Lithium ores to the Kingdom of Traut...passing through one of the forests which name I still do not know...my father bought some low-grade beast repellent and was sure we could pass safely without the use of escorts."

Try as the girl could to hide it, she could hear the shaking.

"He was wrong." There was bitterness to that voice.

"It had been a day since we stepped in, it was the middle of the night, and we sat around a campfire much like this one. I still remember the full moon when the roar shook us...we quickly tried to escape without care but it was too late...it must have sneaked up on us."

The campfire seemed to dance as a hallow wind passed through. It jumped and sizzled. There was a small spark.

"We must have accidentally entered the territory of the Hazard Flame Wolf. The place was overflowing with a high concentration of mana and, feeding on it, it was in the midst of evolving and had become angered at the thought of being disturbed."

Aura stopped for a moment, taking a sip of water to parch her drying throat.

"I was twelve when I awakened as a hero."

She took another sip.

"There were rising flames, the entirety of the area we resided in begun to burn with fire. The carriage my father valued so much? Returned to ash. It grabbed his legs with its sharp teeth, fire spreading upon my father's body as his scream rang. He reached out to me and I did the same...I still have the burn marks from that moment hidden beneath this clothing of mine."

She finally turned her face, staring at Claire's.

"I still remember the crunches of breaking bones...I still remember his screams...and I still remember that sensation I felt when I awakened. I tried to fight it..."

Tears fell.

"At the last moment, before I passed out, I saw him appear. Far from someone like me who couldn't even protect her father till the end...he seemed like a hero."

There was a bright smile on that tanned face of hers, and her eyes had become wet.

"And he told me to smile, smile and he'll shoulder the weight for me."

Claire sighed to herself, her heart clutched, her expression was frozen but it only hid.

'Half of me is logical, the other half is emotional. I keep them at a terrible balance.' It was a bittersweet truth, one she rarely liked to acknowledge herself.

"Do you love him?" She asked, bringing voice to the disconnect that had narrowed into her mind.

There was silence. The girl had finally drained the cup of water clean, there didn't seem to be a single drop left.

"I don't know," She replied, "But I do not hate him."