The flames roar high. The heat blazes and spreads uncontrollably. Roof by roof, wall by wall, the fire licks and swallows each without mercy.
"Get them out of there!" a male voice, already cracked from too much shouting, yells.
"What's going on!?" another, lower male voice asks, still unrecognizable.
Silence. They don't know how to answer that question, but they know that, right in front of them, a massive pillar of flame is spinning and threatening to ascend to the sky.
Sol cannot move his body. His eyes wander to the sides, where people are raking as much snow as they can from wherever they can gather it: the roofs, the buckets, the dagzan pen. Some are running toward the well, trying their best to take as much water as they possibly can.
This is... Elm? He tries his best to push his body up. His bodily functions start to return. He doesn't remember how he got here.
It looks different. With utmost effort, he manages to straighten his back and sit, knees still weak, his breath a bit shallow.
Dozens and dozens of people start to gather at one place, and that place is unrecognizable to him.
It is a two-story house, engulfed in a massive amount of spinning flames, like a tornado of fire reaching up to the black clouds above him. The house is solid, with a balcony on the second story, windows of big depleted lunoxene crystals, well-crafted walls made from Dalmas clay, frames of Steelpine wood, and a roof insulated with lots and lots of Longrass hay. A typical home from Elm.
The flames spin, the heat they spread ignites the other houses' roofs and wooden foundations. Some crystalline windows crack from the heat. The snow surrounding the burning house is gone, thawed into wet puddles of water on top of the cold dirt.
"I can't find anybody!!" A lower male voice. Sol recognizes this voice, but he can't really put a face to it...
People surrounding the house start to douse the man with buckets of water. He is getting ready to go inside the house once again.
"How did the house catch fire? What happened? Is it a bad glowbrick?" a female voice shouts from the side. Multiple voices ignore her completely and focus on grabbing more snow and water.
"Naama!" the lower voice shouts. It is the same person who dumped buckets of water on himself, getting ready to dive inside the house once again. Right in front of him, standing near the rear part of the crowd, is a woman, his wife.
Sol tries to focus his eyes. He feels like he recognizes the name, but he can't quite put it to words. Both of them are obscured by the great amount of light from the flame. Sol can only see silhouettes.
He inhales and exhales fast, tries his best to clench his fists together, and stands.
"Dear, save them, you have to save them!" The woman's voice is desperate, almost panicked.
"I know, Naama. I got here as fast as I could. Rahzmir will get here shortly." The lower voice is full of surety and determination.
Sol tries to move his legs. He manages to take a step, but it feels like he's walking in a quagmire.
"What happened out there? Why did all the Hunters go out of the village?"
"It's the Rimelord, he rampaged through the mountains. A massive blizzard is going to hit us very, very soon if he isn't stopped. The other hunters are currently trying to fight it."
"Rimelord? Zyneios?"
The male voice doesn't answer. Sol can see him nod.
"Yes, it's Zyneios. It... sensed something. I'm not sure. Old Chief Rahzgir told us that this never happened before. He went with everybody toward the Stake to subdue the Rimelord." The lower male voice takes another smaller bucket, dumps water on himself again, and starts to walk toward the burning pillar of flame. "I'm going to try my best, Naama."
The woman opens her mouth. She's unsure what response she should give. She closes her mouth in her indecision and just nods.
The man breaks the line of people pouring snow and water on the house and goes inside without a sound.
"Gazmir just went inside!!" a male voice shouts from the side.
Gazmir? That was Gazmir?
"Again?? He's crazy!! Somebody help him!!" another responds near the wells.
"I will get him out!!" Sol recognizes this voice, but again, he can't really pinpoint who. A parent of one of the younglings, perhaps?
That man douses himself with water and jumps inside the house to get Gazmir out.
With much effort, Sol finally finds himself standing right next to the woman. He can finally look at her face with clarity. The bright orange hue of the flames shines on her determined expression, hoping that nothing bad will befall the people she loves.
Naama.
Sol looks at her for a bit before turning his head toward the flaming house.
This... is this fifteen years ago?
A massive cracking sound can be heard from the house. The flames are eating through its posts and sill beams. It's going to collapse soon.
This is... the past? A memory? No? I shouldn't have this memory. I wasn't born yet when the flames happened.
Gazmir blows the door open with a massive kick. The flaming splinters fly through the air like some weird orange-hued fireflies and go out. In his arms are two Geherrim, one a kid, the second a grown woman. He walks out for a couple of steps before collapsing. The two people he saved are let go the moment he loses his strength to stand up.
"It's Gazmir!!!"
"Somebody!! A bucket of water!!"
The chaos surges. No matter how uncoordinated they are, Sol can see that they still try their best to do whatever they can to stop this disaster from spreading.
Some holes are dug near the house so the flame won't spread through the grass. Some roofs are already burning, but people are quick to douse the fire with buckets of snow and water, and those same people are currently standing by on the roofs of the neighboring buildings, ready for another wave of heat from the pillar of flame, now already reaching the clouds.
Sol looks up. He can see that the clouds themselves are starting to change color. They shine with red, orange, and a yellowish hue.
Even the clouds are burning.
"Is that, is that Laoun? It's Laoun and her son!! Somebody!! A doctor!!"
"Wait, where is Dobzim? Dobzim went inside, right? Where is he!?"
Dobzim. So it was Dobsy's father.
Sol walks toward the front, trying to make his way through the crowd. He reaches the front line rather quickly, as the crowd itself feels like they are busy with something else and ignore him completely.
Gazmir lies face down on the ground, unconscious. Next to him are the woman lying upright and the child, who cannot be older than five or six, already passed out from inhaling the smoke. The woman's white dress is red at the stomach area. She is already pale, but Sol knows that she's still breathing, albeit very weakly.
"Chief Rahzmir is at the gates!! I will open the gates for them!!" Sol looks toward his right. It's Dazun, not as mature and seasoned as he is now, still wearing the attire of the guards.
He runs as fast as he can toward the gates. Sol can't see him anymore. The crowd closes as soon as he goes.
Some of the men start to drag Gazmir, the woman, and the child away from the flames. Their effort is thwarted for a second by a flametongue licking out from the front door, but they manage to get the three to safety.
The child coughs heavily. He's still alive.
"No. No!! Laoun!! Somebody fetch the doctor!! Laoun's stomach is bleeding!!" It's Naama. She tries her best to put pressure on the woman's stomach.
"The doctor... went with Chief Rahzmir, Naama."
"No... Please, somebody, she's already cold..." Naama's knees buckle, tears start flowing from her eyes. "Gazmir... please, somebody help Gazmir..."
Dobzim crashes outside. His body is terribly burned. He looks at the people trying to help him and shakes his head. "I... have to go out. Inside, the flames were too big..."
Multiple men drag him away from the house and douse him with buckets of water.
"I... cannot save them... I cannot..." Dobzim's voice is hoarse from the amount of smoke he inhaled. "...the baby... in the middle of the flames... I cannot..." He loses consciousness shortly after.
So that's why Dobsy's father sounds so hoarse all the time...
A dull pain starts to emanate inside his head. But Sol tries not to let it bother him.
I have to help, somehow! He tries to turn his body around. He can't. An unseen force is forcing him to face the now crumbling house, the tornado of flame still spinning with rage, a fervor he has never seen before from a fire.
Something is forcing him to witness all of this, and he cannot refuse.
Sol watches as the massive pillar of flame suddenly changes its color to a more golden hue and roars with an anger he never thought was possible.