Cold. That was the first thing he felt.

  Not the sharp bite of Emberfall’s snow he had grown up to love, but a damp, heavy cold that clung to his bones like wet cloth.

  Tomas opened his eyes, weakly. A flicker of firelight blurred into focus above him. The ceiling wasn’t the thatched roof of the home he used to know, but rough canvas— from memory he knew it to be a trader’s tent. His ribs ached with every breath he took, wrapped tight in linen that smelled of herbs and something foul.

  He groaned as he tried to sit up from the wool covered bed.

  “Easy there, lad.” A gruff voice came from the shadows. A man with a scarred jaw and fur-lined cloak leaned forward, pressing a steaming cup into Tomas’s trembling hands. “Drink. You’ve been out for two days. We thought you’d gone to the frost. But fortunately you survived.”

  Tomas looked at the man, he was kind looking, had brown hair and a warm smile. He stayed there motionless holding the cup in hand and watching the steam rise from it and dance in spirals. The warmth managed to persuade his already freezing body to take a sip.

  Tomas swallowed bitter liquid, the heat burning down his throat as it slid down. His stomach lurched, but the warmth anchored him to life. His senses returned back to him, he could feel every part of him stretching out. For a few seconds there was nothing but warmth...

  Then it hit him.

  Loud screams pierced through his ears, a cacophony of endless cries. In an attempt to block out the noise, he cupped his hands over his ears and let the cup fall to the ground. It exploded in hundreds of fragments. Tomas' eyes went wild as the image of a raging fire contoured up itself in his mind. Then he silver-masked raiders.

  He groaned in pain, the man that had given him the cup took a step back. His face a mixture of confusion and fear. Tomas remembered Ash—standing in the inferno, his chest glowing like a living ember. He was in pain, he was dying. Or he was already dead.

  Tomas squeezed his eyes shut causing tears to stream down the sides, his body trembling vigorously. “Ash…”

  The trader frowned at him. “That name again. Whoever he is, boy, he’s not here. You were the only soul breathing when we found you.”

  Tomas’s grip tightened in on itself. He remembered the blaze, the way a strange young woman had appeared like a shadow and he remembered falling, the world turning white— then nothing.

  Ash was alive. He had to be. He tried to tell himself that but his head hurt, and whatever he was about to think about escaped him.

  The trader noticed his newfound depression and leaned in closer till he could examine Tomas closer. "Are you okay boy?" He could see Tomas looking very thin, and white. "A highlander would have frozen to death from the inside out but you and one of us ice Landers, we can handle the snow. I am not going to ask you what happened but I am going to ask you to eat something."

  Tomas opened his mouth slowly to speak, but no word came out. He paused, shut his mouth and tried to speak but nothing came out again. The trader bent down to pick up the fragments of the broken glass, while lamenting on the growing unease in the area since the fall of Emberfall. His ranting was cut short by the sound of Tomas's voice once more, this time low, almost imperceptible. "Why can I gather my thoughts? I want to remember what happened but I can't. Why can't I remember any thing?"

  The trader looked up at him with a sorry expression on his face speaking with compassion. "Boy, I'll go get you a bold of my stew meat. It ain't famous or anything but it's kept me alive till now." Saying that he walked away to a corner of the room to find something. Then another voice interrupted the silence, calling from outside the room. "That the boy you talking to or have you run mad?" The voice was a young male, and it carried a peculiar accent or an imitation of one.

  "Aye, he's awake. He don't look too good though." The trader yelled back.

  The man outside the room spoke back. "That's what'll happen to you if you been sleeping for days ain't it?"

  The trader boomed back. "Shut your mouth hole and keep this thing steady. You're making enough racket as it is Turnip!"

  The man outside hissed. "You're the one should you old fool."

  The trader started to mumble.

  It was then Tomas started to notice something. Perhaps because his body had been half dead till of recent he had failed to notice that the room was rocking slightly, the room was moving. His heart almost jumped out of him. His hearing was much better now, so he could hear the sound of hooves and wooden tyres crunching on snow. He then realised that he was not in a moving room but a moving carriage and the man outside was the rider, it explained why the inside of the carriage was filled with produce in crates.

  Tomas tried to think, he wanted to remember bits of himself that was gone but his memories only fizzled and his head hurt more. The warm aroma of meat and stew drew his attention from his thoughts and pulled him to the bowl coming to him in the hands of the trader.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  "Here eat up to recover your strength boy." The trader said with a bright smile as he handed the bowl over to him with a wooden spoon . "I won't take know for an answer.

  Tomas's might have been disoriented but his stomach was not, it went feral— singing songs of the wild. One second his insides were a bottomless pit, the next they were being filled with the warmth of nutrients and juices. Tomas wolfed down the food in very huge bites, he wasn't being cared how he ate. He was driven by his hunger to survive.

  The trader watched him wolf down the plate like a mountain beast, he had been so entranced by the boy's behaviour that he was taken more by surprise when he saw him hand the bowl back to him empty asking for seconds. "So that's what'll happen to you if you been sleeping for days ain't it?" He echoed in disbelief.

  Tomas was just about finishing the second bowl when the trader returned with something tucked under his arms. He waited tills Tomas had finished his meal before he handed him the substance. "I don't know if this is for you but I found it next to you when your village caught fire. What's been bugging me is that it was lying right next to you, and there is not even the slightest sign it caught on fire. It's a bit strange if you ask me."

  Tomas looked up at the book held before him, it was a book with a cover, thick, brown and hard. The first glance he had with the book caused his head to sting again. He winced.

  The trader pulled the book back, "I think I should keep this for now, you best recover your health for now."

  But Tomas shook his head as he reached out and grabbed the book before the man could tuck it away, he locked eyes with him and spoke in a deep masculine voice. "No, leave it here. Please."

  The trader paused, staring down at him with confused eyes. He had never seen a child as determined as Tomas was, his eyes burned bright with conviction. He left the book in his care and turned to leave. "I'll be up front with Turnip, call if you need anything." He started to walk away, not wanting to bother the troubled child any further.

  Tomas waited till the man was gone before he let his eyes fall down on the book. He gripped it tightly by the edges with both hands, tears welled in his eyes as he stared at it. He opened it slowly, pushing the heavy cover open, and just as the trader had said the page was unburnt. His heart thumped hard in his chest at the images in the book, images of hand drawn dragons.

  His eyes started to water. "Ash..."

  His head ached and with it memories started to flood his mind. His mind went back to the day of the attack, strange people had attacked their peaceful home. Ash was feeling unwell, he had tried to help but there was a loud explosion and flames that incinerated everyone.

  The images that were once shadows started to become more clearer, he watched Ash his brother be set ablaze, his clothes being turned to ash on his very body. It was the strangest thing he had ever seen, the fire around Ash that day had seemed like it was alive, it coiled and swam around him in waves.

  Tomas had tried to help him but the raiders moved like inhuman creatures. Like phantoms they emerged from the smoke— tall and wearing bone-white masks etched with strange runes. They each held curved glaives that burned with a flame that was neither red nor orange— a black flame. He knew they were not people from that moment, they tried to kill Ash.

  Tomas groaned and held his head that throbbed. He tried desperately to remember everything that happened that day even if it would tear him apart he would force the answers out.

  More images started to flood in too fast for him to make it out, he strained himself. Veins popped at the sides of his head, his breathing became unsteady. The images started to become clearer and piece by piece he started to remember it clearly. Everyone tried to run, some tried to fight, but they all fell one at a time to the glaives of the masked monstrosities, cut down till the black flame devoured them.

  Tomas stood in between a burning Ash and the strange people, his mind divided between his duty as a brother and his responsibility to protect him. He chose to hold up his spear against the intruders but the screams of his brother caused him to hesitate.

  "Ash, I'm coming." On the last second, he panicked. He turned his back to the intruders to help his brother, a mistake he regretted almost immediately. His eyes widened as he looked at Ash who was naked, the flames still burning, they grew more ferocious by the second. "Great blizzard! Ash..."

  Amidst the rising crackling and compounding explosion there was another sound. A long steel blade pierced through his heart, the sound sharp and loud. He could hear his flesh shearing open, the blade running deeper, his heart deflated then the blade cut through his ribs like butter till it came out in front of him. Before he could react the blade ignited it's black flame inside him, he froze, his body grew heavy and hands twitched.

  "Ash—", he barely mouthed before his mouth got filled with the metallic taste of blood.

  He could feel the flame eating away at his flesh, his bones, his heart. It devoured him like a never ending void. The masked person who struck him simply pulled out it's blade from him, Tomas groaned as he staggered forward. The flames continued to burn him, filling him in never ending agony as he was being eaten alive from the inside out.

  Growing up in Emberfall he had one dream to serve his home, with honour just like how his father the chief had done. To be a great leader, he took it upon himself to follow his father and learn from him, never once choosing to have a simple childhood as the other children his age. That was simply his only role in Emberfall, till his father adopted a young boy with questionable origins.

  A boy that looked innocent and tiny, child that always kept quiet. A child that always cried over the littlest things, always slow to act, always vulnerable. Tomas hated the little boy who stole all his father's love, he was going to be the next chief after him— he should have been the center of focus. But everywhere he went everyone thought different. "Where is he...?" They would say.

  Tomas could not understand what they say in that vulnerable little boy, he wanted him out of his life at all cost and he got his wish. Then came the incident, the boy nearly died. Tomas hated himself for it, he felt ashamed and wanted to give up on his dream. It had only taken him one moment to know why everyone found the little boy so lovable.

  The boy was a warm flame in their cold world, he was tiny and proved that innocence could be the warmest and happiest thing to behold. A boy who had yet to understand people, had become the small spark of change that made everyone happy.

  "Ash, you are my brother. My best friend. You made me hope for more than just my selfish dreams, losing you is likened to losing the sun." Tears flowed reflecting the bright burning embers before him, his eyes slowly lost its glow. "I'm sorry I couldn't save you, I'm sorry I couldn't help you or protect you. I'm... Sorry!"

  He watched the masked men march closer to the burning boy, the embers of flame continued to grow larger and larger till they cast a vast shadow above Emberfall.

  As Tomas felt his light dimming a bright radiance bathed him and woke him to the most beautiful sight he had ever seen. In his eyes was the image of a young boy naked in a world of flame, his eyes bleeding magma that rolled down like tears. His face in an indescribable pain, his body rippling like scales. The sight was inhuman, it was otherworldly, it sas— divine.

  The flames that had once danced around with no purpose now converged and grew, knitting together like threads of a holy needle till there was a bright burning image of a winged figure standing on all fours over the burning boy.

  Tomas jaw dropped like an anvil, words escaped his mouth in a bare whisper. "A... dragon." He had seen dozens of them in Ash's drawings to dismiss one. "They're real."

  That day the fabric of reality, of what was possible shattered into nonexistence. The dragon looked regal, made of flames, it opened its mouth and let out a pillar of flames so hot they melted even steel. The masked men all burnt to ash, the remaining survivors of Emberfall fell with them, the fire torches Tomas himself. Instead of the evisceration of his body he felt the warmth reaching into his body, he felt his wound closing up and a strange feeling that his brother was speaking to him. The he lost the ability to stand, he collapsed on the dirt and blacked out.

  Tomas gnashed his teeth, he hugged Ash's book tight to his heart. Tears overflowed from his face as he wept for hours, the trader and his horseman chose not to bother him. For the rest of the journey he could not eat, he could only think the same words over and over again. "Ash, you died to save your foolish brother." He had failed to protect him, and ended up being the one protected himself.

  The only reason he chose not to kill himself out of shame was because that would make fun of the sacrifice Ash made. His new life was now a curse to live out his remaining days suffering for his failure.

  After he had passed out in the ruins of Emberfall, a shadow had entered the ruins. It was a female elf wearing a bright silver breast plate. She had seen everything but was too overwhelmed to move, "The heir of the last flame, the great dragon, the stories are all true." She said under her breath.

  She walked past Tomas who was passed out on the ground and examined him. "H-- how is he alive?" She turned her sights to Ash who was now passed out on the ground, his hand outstretched in Tomas's direction.

  She walked over to him and pulled him away from the fumes of smoke coming of his back, not noticing the book left unburnt on the ground.