Blinding bright light and heat enveloped the whole room. Sora could barely breathe from the massive pungent smoke that clogged his throat and lungs. He could only cough. And even though he knew he should escape from where he was, he just couldn't. He froze as he looked at the two bodies lying before him, charred in the flames.
He just knelt there, not knowing what to do. It was all too much for him. Too fast. It was never his forte to quickly and clearly assess the obstacles and opportunities around him.
There were only two things in his mind that simply wouldn't let him think of anything sane. Like a drowning fish in the sea.
One was the pounding of his heartbeat, which was simply accelerating. He knew no bounds and was slowly afraid he would jump out of his chest and run away on his own, growing legs of his own. And leaving its former master behind to simply burst into flames, leaving nothing behind.
The other thing was the mind-bogglingly loud crackling-crackling of wood crackling under the fire. It must have been very tasty to the fire, because it crackled as if it tasted good. And with each bite, he would only want more and more and more.
Sora just prayed that the fire would learn to eat with its mouth closed like humans, because the noise was getting to be a bit much. In her mind, the wood, accompanied by the creaks that the structure of the house gave out as a last cry for help, was almost screaming.
His whole body shook and he just sobbed in the chaos. He just wanted to get back to his peaceful daily life with his family and friends. He never thought something like this could happen. He thought it was impossible. No. Not impossible. Maybe it was stupid or crazy. But perhaps even those words didn't fully reflect the truth. No human words could reflect it all.
---
"Sora! Hey! Are you even listening to what I'm saying? Hello!"
Sora shook his head to clear his racing thoughts and glanced at the boy sitting next to him. Milky blond hair, golden eyes and marble smooth, slightly tanned skin. As if he were a fairy-tale prince who had stumbled into the fields by chance. Perhaps his only disadvantage compared to a noble knight. He was thin as a reed and quite short for his age. Not exactly a noble build, but that couldn't be helped. In the village where they lived, conditions were harsh.
The harvest they managed to gather before the last leaves fell was barely enough to get them through the cold season.
"Sorry Dain. I got a bit carried away. What were you saying?"
Sora was not such a conspicuous phenomenon compared to his friend. His slightly wavy light brown hair was somewhat pointed towards the sky and his willow green eyes were slightly unlit. It was as if the sun had sucked the colour from his eyes along with his hair. He pushed his slightly pinned hair into his eyes so that it didn't hang all the way down, blinding him. It was time for a haircut.
"It's no longer important. You postponed it."
The blonde man puffed up her face a little in annoyance and continued to swing his legs on the bench where he and Sora were sitting. It was good to have some shade cast by the old tree in front of his friend's house.
The sun shone on seven branches. Both young faces were dripping with water. It was too hot even for the end of the warm season. Not a drop of rain had fallen for three weeks. And that had worried everyone in the village. Even the small local stream was running dry, bringing fresh, clean water straight down from the mountains.
Both boys were more used to cooler weather. And if there wasn't enough rainfall, they wouldn't even be able to harvest the small amount of crops they usually did each year. They face a bitter year if that happens and the situation doesn't improve one bit.
"What can I put off, Dain? Nothing interesting is happening here. Never."
Sora laughed and pushed his friend to the side. They had been together since they were little. As it was, of course, everyone in the village knew each other. They stuck together. They helped each other. Otherwise they wouldn't have stood a chance against nature. With nothing to spare, they had no chance to trade. But even if they had any leftovers, the traders avoided the area in large numbers. If there was no chance of a decent income, why would they try, right? And the next nearest village was two days' walk away. True, if it was really urgent, they would go there, but that was a very rare event. Most of the time it wasn't worth the time. And it was a dangerous journey to get there, let alone back. Anything could happen. Whatever they absolutely needed, they could find it in the area or produce it themselves.
"You really have no sense for girls, Sora!"
He gestured in the air to Sora, who was rather trying to avoid the whip-like hands before they accidentally hit him. He didn't miss such an encounter.
"You and the girls..."
Sora murmured under his breath, smiling. He was simply a lost cause in his eyes. He tried with all his might, but somehow he never got there. Maybe it was his height, but that never bothered Dain. He had a confidence that was unmatched in the village, which often made Sora smile, adding a little light to their average monotonous days.
And it was only then that Sora noticed a huge thump on the back of her neck, almost sending her diving forward off the bench.
"Hey! What did I get that for?"
Sora looked at his friend quite indignantly as he tried to massage the pain out of his red numbing member.
"I heard that"
That was all the answer Sora got as they stared at each other with serious looks and then both burst out laughing hugely.
"You know, that really hurt."
"You deserved it. Believe me."
Dain smiled at him and plucked a long iron blade of grass from beside him and, putting it in his mouth, closed his eyes and leaned back on the bench. Such was their relationship. They teased each other constantly, but neither of them minded it. When they were together, nothing could go wrong.
Perseverance above all. They used to tell each other what the old man of their village used to tell them. He was an old man of great knowledge, though he was a little short of wheels. So of course most people avoided his house. But Sora and Dain liked to visit him whenever they had some free time. It's a shame it's been a few years since he's been out in the cold. He was old, and he had no family left. Many people wondered what had happened to them, but the elder always had a different answer. But everyone was sure that he had once had a family of his own. Children, a wife.
"Shall we visit the old man's grave?"
Dain asked once, glancing at Sora with half an eye after a few seconds had passed and Sora was still stroking his neck. The green-eyed one just shook his head nonchalantly.
"I'm busy."
"What? What?"
Dain watched as Sora slowly got up from the bench and pushed down the back of his pants.
"Mum asked me to bring a rabbit or something from the forest for dinner."
Dain furrowed his brows slightly and looked at his friend suspiciously.
"Then why did you come over to our house?"
Sora simply shrugged with a smile and without a word moved towards their own little cabin. He didn't have to go far, as he was just passing next door. As he reached it he glanced up at their house for a moment. Its roof was completely overgrown with moss from years of use. Although now, in this dry weather, the clear green roof seemed to have turned a little grey. Perhaps it, too, was tired of the warmth of everyday life.
Quietly, he opened the front door and picked up his bow from the wall along with the quiver as he looked around the room. It wasn't exactly large and it was a living room, kitchen, hall and dining room all in one. However, the house still had two smaller rooms. One for his and one for his parents. Simple carved wooden furniture everywhere, inherited from his father from his father, and maybe more. In fact, the house had everything they needed.
No one was home at the time. His father toiled in the fields. Somehow he was trying to save the crops with the other villagers. And his mother went down to the stream to wash. If it hadn't been for the hunt, Sora might have joined one of them to help.
Sora heaved a sigh. He loved his family. He never thought he would ever say that, but he loved them - and he didn't know where that strange cold feeling that sometimes crept into his heart when he thought about it came from. He didn't understand why he sometimes had these little prickly thoughts about his family. It was as if he could only sniff danger around every corner, and had to be ready to pounce at any moment to draw some impenetrable wall around him. Most of the time, he simply shut them out. He'd bury it in his mind and lock it up under seven padlocks. It made no sense, so he could stay, not even the thought of it in his mind.
He loved their little lives. Their everyday life. True, sometimes he wanted a little more, but who wouldn't?
"Okay... I think I have everything... Well, let's go!"
Sora encouraged himself loudly and adjusted the gun on his shoulder. He was going to bring back some meat anyway. They'd make a big dinner, everyone would thaw out from their hard days, and everything would be fine. He nodded as he thought about it then turned on his heel and walked out into the sunshine, heading straight for the woods that lay not far behind their house.
The village didn't have an official hunter, but when the predators became overpopulated the whole community would band together to keep their numbers down and not cause too much trouble for the people. This has happened very rarely in recent years, fortunately, since Sora has only been able to use his brain.
There weren't many predators, and what predators there were, kept their territories mostly in the forest. For some reason they didn't venture very close to the settlement. Even a few years ago, people were curious about this and took it as a bad omen. That maybe it was a portent of something worse. That wasn't the case in the old days. Many wild animals would attack the village from time to time. They burst out of the forest in almost endless lines, and there were always dead and injured. So everyone was almost on tiptoe. It was the last time the village had an official hunter.
'I think he's dead... Or moved away from the village' Sora thought as he walked further into the trees. He liked the cool shade.
The Old Man had explained the change when they had held a meeting about it, that a few years ago a pharmacist had come to the village and taken care of the problem. He had planted some grasses in the area, which he had brought with him, which had been quite effective in keeping the pests away.
Based on this information, Sora calculated that the changes in the village had started about the time he was born. But that was not the important thing at the moment. He had to find food for his family. And with no predators, there was plenty of prey, and he had little to fear.
He'd been walking for some time when suddenly he heard a strange noise from one of the bushes. He quickly drew his bow and aimed it at the bush and waited. But nothing happened. 'Was it my imagination? No. I'm sure I heard something...'
Slowly, cautiously, he ventured closer. But he stopped about a metre away from the bush and looked around and found what he was looking for. A small stone. He picked it up and threw it up a few times, testing its weight. 'Good. That'll do.' He thought, and then simply threw it into the bush and immediately drew his weapon again. But nothing happened.
"What?"
He walked even closer to the bush. He lowered the gun and, slapping it on the back, slowly parted the branches. But there was nothing behind him. Puzzled, he straightened up and scratched the base of his ears slightly.
"And I was sure of it. How could I have been so wrong?"
He sighed and looked around, a little perplexed. 'Maybe it just managed to get away from me.' He laughed a little bitterly. But of course he knew that everything couldn't go from one to two so quickly. He'd barely started the hunt and already he thought he could finish it today, and all that would be left was to clean the meat, which was rather the part of the process that would take the longest. And if he doesn't do it right, even the meat can taste bad.
He pursed his lips as he thought back to the bitter taste he had tasted when he and his parents had messed up. It was a good learning curve. He'd remembered it for a lifetime.
In fact, you've experimented the whole thing yourself. Because there wasn't really anyone to teach him. He'd only seen it a couple of times, but he was pretty persistent. And now he was finally the unofficial meat supplier for the village. It wasn't such a bad job. When asked, he went. It was as simple as that.
As he thought about it, he heard the crack of a branch right next to him. He got his head down, but it was too late. The whole world just went black before him.