Call of Fire

           In the darkest of days, one hero rose from the ashes of her once-beautiful kingdom. She looked around, tears welling in her soft, amber eyes. Everything she had ever known had been burnt to a crisp. As her gaze took in her burned home, the sorrow slowly turned into anger. “The beast who did this has to pay,” she thought to herself.
           She scoured the wreckage, going from house to house, looking for anything that survived the attack. At the edge of the city, she piled together what she had foraged – a length of rope, a silver dagger, two canteens half-full of water, and a spyglass. Looking at the small pile, she felt discouraged. “How can I possibly get revenge for my people if this is all I’ve got?” She thought to herself.
           Just then, a strange wind whipped past her, and she thought she heard someone calling to her. She felt a pull in her gut telling her to go East. She looped the rope across her chest diagonally, stashed the dagger away, collapsed the spyglass and put it in her pocket, and tied the canteens to her belt before she set off in the direction of the rising sun.
           As she crossed the land, she came to village after village, each burned down to the foundation, nothing but ashes remained. With each village she passed, her resolve and determination grew. She was not going to let the evil beast get away with so much destruction. She continued to follow the pulling in her gut, not knowing exactly where it was taking her, but her instincts told her it was the only way to get her revenge.
           Soon, she came to a large cavern and felt prompted to go inside. Slipping her dagger out just in case, she walked inside. She looked around and found some strange hieroglyphics. She could not make any sense of them, but she could tell that they were important. She went deeper into the cave and noticed a light up ahead.
           Cautiously moving towards the light, she noticed a pillar sticking out of the ground; it was holding a strange white flame. Curious, she came closer and examined it. She could feel the warmth of it on her alabaster skin. The flame seemed to react to her presence. Without realizing it, her hand lifted closer to the flame; but just before she touched it, she realized what she was doing and pulled away, not wanting to get burned.
           Looking into the flame, she could hear it calling to her, “Scarlet, come closer; embrace me!” She suddenly felt hypnotized, and before she knew, she had cupped her own hands around the white flame and took it down from its pedestal. The white flame surrounded her thin figure. Scarlet’s mouth opened wide in awe as she watched the white flame dance around her.
           The flame continued to circle around Scarlet, getting closer and closer. Then, it was as if they were connected as one – the flame and Scarlet merged together into one being. Scarlet closed her eyes and opened her arms as if welcoming the flame and let it combine with her soul. When Scarlet opened her eyes again, the flame was gone from her sight, but she could still feel its presence.
           She realized that the flame was a part of her, strengthening her, imbuing her with power. Her once-plain amber eyes now had a glint of a spark in them. Her fair skin had darkened to a beautiful honey shade. Her hair became even more strikingly red, seeming to scintillate not unlike fire itself.
           Scarlet noticed the tug in her gut was gone, replaced by the warmth reassuring of the flame inside her. She felt its power radiating through her veins. Suddenly, a spark lit up in the palm of her hand and turned into a steady, warm flame. She stared at her hand wonderingly. She let the fire dance through her fingers, closed her fist, and the flame went out. “Woah,” she said quietly, almost reverently.
           She looked at her hands, wondering what else she could do. She thought about two balls of fire in her upturned hands, and they appeared above them. “Bigger,” she thought, and the flames grew larger. Instinctively, she moved her hands apart. The fire danced in the palms of her hands, mesmerizing. She then thought about the fire going out toward the cave wall and the flame in her hands complied. Closing her hands again, the flames extinguished.
           Scarlet’s mouth turned up into a grin. She would not go into this battle defenseless! As if agreeing with her thoughts, the warmth in her bosom became more intense; it was as if the flame, having a mind of its own, wanted the monster destroyed just as much as Scarlet did. Suddenly exhausted, Scarlet slumped to the floor, barely able to keep her eyes open. Soon, she could not fight sliding into unconsciousness and her eyes rolled back into her head.
           When she came to, Scarlet felt so much more rested than she had ever been before. She felt the warmth of the flame within her and the strength it gave her, and smiled. She then remembered why she was in this cave to begin with. She had to stop the beast that had burned all the villages down.
           As she stepped out of the cave, she wondered which way she should go. She looked across the horizon and saw a trail of smoke rising to the sky in the distance. Looking through her spyglass to get a closer look, she saw a dark shadow-like being. She narrowed her eyes in hatred as she felt the evil emanating from the being that was causing the awful smoke.
           In order to catch the monster responsible, she would have to leave the smoldering city behind and meet the beast at the next vulnerable village. She instinctively knew that she would travel faster if she used the fire to propel herself across the valley. Once she had thought it, it happened, and she flew from the cave entrance and headed toward the next city in peril.
           She landed herself outside the gates and waited there for the evil to come to her. After resting through the night, Scarlet awoke to an awful, acrid smell. She could feel the evil presence coming toward the village. The sun had just crested the eastern mountains. Scarlet rose from her resting place and went to meet the monster before it could reach the city wall.
           A dark form approached her, and she could feel the hatred emanating from the evil being. Angry orange flames leapt from the villain’s fingertips, and he hurtled a flaming ball toward Scarlet. Without having to think, Scarlet dissipated the large ball of fire. “It’s going to take more than that to get rid of me!” She shouted across the distance between them.
           She shot a stream of white-hot fire toward the black figure, but it soared right through it. Scarlet’s mouth dropped open in shock. “How was she supposed to defeat a foe she couldn’t physically touch?” She thought to herself. Before she could think any more, the beast sent several fireballs towards the city. Scarlet ran to block them, but she was only able to stop two; the rest crashed into the city wall.
           Scarlet gasped, but then her body reacted on its own; her arms stretched out and she felt a pull. Suddenly, the flames on the wall flowed towards her and seemed to disappear into her body. “Okay, I might not be able to hit the monster with my fire, but at least I can save the city from being burned to a crisp,” She thought to herself.
           As the dark entity noticed its flames no longer doing damage to the city, it let out an angry shout. In its anger, it shot a large stream of fire at Scarlet. She could feel that it was too much for her to absorb, but she got the idea to redirect the fire and send it hurtling back to the dark beast. It soared up into the sky to avoid the searing blast.
           As if whispering from inside her, the white flame within Scarlet gave her the idea to defeat the dark monster. It seemed to be able to let small projectiles through, but not a large burst. If she could encircle it with fire, she would be able to destroy it once and for all.
           The beast eyed Scarlet, trying to think of a new strategy to defeat her so he could burn the village to the ground. It paced back and forth, looking for an opening. Realizing that fire was not going to defeat her, the monster rushed at her with supernatural speed. It lifted Scarlet up off the ground. Struggling to get loose, Scarlet noticed the villain’s evil grin just before it threw her against the city wall.
           Scarlet crashed into the wall, her breath was knocked out of her, and her vision went fuzzy. She crumbled to her knees and took some stabilizing breaths. As she looked up, she could see the beast’s fist coming at her face and she was barely able to duck and roll out of the way. Its fist hit into the city wall and a chunk of stone came crumbling to the ground.
           The monster rushed at her again, but Scarlet was ready this time. She used a blast of fire to soar out of the way. She then sent a column of fire swirling around the dark figure below. She closed the top and started to shrink the column, trapping the beast inside. She could see the villain trying to burst his way out of the dome of fire, but it was not strong enough. As the white fire continued to close in around the evil being, it fell to the ground.
           As the fire reached the ground on all sides, it smothered out. Scarlet gently floated to the ground. She was relieved to see that there was no sign of the monster anywhere.