The Fire Within (Pt. 1).
Please read this combined with chapters 4 and 5 🙏
DO NOT LEAVE YOUR HANDS IN FIRE. I AM NOT ADVERTISING THIS BEHAVIOR. Even though it's actually safe to put your hand in a flame for a moment, before it gets too hot. And I do this all the time.
DO NOT.
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The fire crackled low, its orange glow pushing back the dark just enough to make the world feel smaller and safer. Beyond it, the night stretched endlessly, quiet and watchful.
My dad sat on a worn log close to the fire, sleeves rolled up, facing his palms towards the heat source. Across from him, Olivia crouched closer to the flames, her eyes reflecting the firelight and flickering embers, emphasising her wine red hair.
She leaned forward, "Watch this."
In a rapid motion, she extended her hand through the fire, cutting through the top of the flame.
Dad noticed.
"What are you doing?" He asked, though there was no urgency in his voice.
She didn't look at him. Instead, she slowed down her hand, just by a margin longer, letting the flames curl around her skin as if they belonged there.
"It doesn't hurt."
Dad studied her for a moment, a grin on his face as he chuckled, "hehe. Child's play."
He does it really slowly.
Looking at Olivia the whole way through, in an attempt to provoke her.
"You're cheating." Olivia repremends.
Dad gives her another smile, this time, leaving his hand in the fire.
Olivia exclaims again, "YOU ARE CHEATING?!?"
A faint glow seeps through the fabric at his waist behind his back, just out of Olivia's view. As he provokes her again.
"Sure, whatever you say."
Olivia's eyebrows twitched, pupils narrowed. She was appalled by Dad's behaviour.
She scoffed in dismay, not willing to meet Dad's eyes. leaning back from the fire, her gaze drifted past. Solyn followed her gaze, drawn to the faint sound of water running.
The river.
Tiny shapes flickered beneath its surface, darting in speedy bursts. There were so many of them, an amount unsuitable for this deadly time period.
My eyes leaned forward slightly, watching fish weave around each other, never still, never alone.
Olivia seemed to notice it too, her curiosity quiet but present.
The question didn't need to be asked, it hung in the air. 'Why were there so many?'
Dad broke the silence, his tone turning more serious as he spoke about the laws of nature. How those at the bottom of the food chain could only survive by constantly reproducing.
The water rippled suddenly, scattering the fish before they could gather again.
Something tightened in my chest as I watched them.
I repeated my dad's words in my mind, "reproduce to survive."
My eyes draw to Caster and Sean.
"WHAT THE HELL, no, that's my brother", I mutter inwardly to myself, slapping my cheeks with my hands, covering my face now full of an ecstatic blush of disappointment and bewilderment.
I thwartle my fingers in the grass to help my stomach deal with embarrassment, drawing shapes in the dirt.
I drew something simple, tracing a spiral wave between my feet.
Then I drew some stick figures of my family, my dad, all tough and brave, then I drew my mom holding my cute little brother.
Then Olivia an-...
"tch," I scoffed at my thoughts.
"Let's draw something else." I skimmed through parts of the beast manual.
Threat level 2, sheep demon. Fluffy. I etch a circle with bumps on the ridge, changing its depiction by putting an innocent smile on its face.
"hmm." I gaze at my works of art, my artistic talent on full display.
Pages blur and flick past in a thick, rapid succession, slipping beneath my thumb. The paper whispers, pushing out air from between the pages. My other finger rests along the edge, trailing the top right corner, brushing down the sharp edge to split the pages before repeating in a satisfying fidget.
Until... The bunny.
Its tiny nose and soft fur made it look like it was too gentle for this world. It was impossibly cute.
Glancing once again at Caster, I repeat softly under my breath, "Unlike my brother."
My finger rummaged through the dirt as a small vibration ran through.
Olivia and Dad were still entertained, playing their little games, their laughter acting like white noise.
Uncle Mayim was showing Caster and Sean how to tie a handcuff, proving just how all boys are interested in learning how to.
The surrounding air froze in time, becoming stale.
Silence permeated the forest, pressing in, centring around us.
But something wasn't right.
The light from the fire reflected a limestone pigment in the hanging baubles among the trees, causing them to radiate like emeralds. They weren't baubles, they weren't pine cones, they moved slightly, shifting the focus of light, as if looking as if analysing us. Piercing gazes cut through the darkness, looking at us through the openness of the tree top canopy. Everyone still unconscious of it, as I look around again, this time with a hint of seriousness. I meet my dad's gaze, he notices it too.
A smile appears from the darkness, hanging from a face emerging through the dense clearing of trees. A body follows, floating mid-air, glasses still on head. Its face flushed with a sudden soulless smile as its mouth opens wide, a vine tears through the oral cavity of the body, piercing the mouth. Strong crimson spews from the corpse, painting the alabaster grass in a inky velvet.Â
The smell, rich in sweetness, emanates through the volatile compounds of hemoglobin and lipids. A sharp metallic iron scent cuts through, turning the sweetness into a more pungent, repulsive taste in the air.Â
It was Blood. The blood of the hunted.
A Fenrir.Â
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IMPORTANT:
SOLYN DOES NOT LIKE HER BROTHER I JUST THOUGHT IT WAS FUNNY.
Lol, chapter 3 was too long.
So I actually wrote chapter 4 before chapter 3 and split them into parts.
Finished chapter 4, now writing chapter 3, but chapter 3 was too long, so chapter 3 is now also chapter 4 and chapter 4 is chapter 5.
GG
Also, read chapter 4/5 with this one, please.