Twenty five years ago, in a world which wasn't earth.
A burning town. The flames spreading out their tongues like enraged snakes, setting everything they touched on fire. The periphery was already carbonized, only black stumps greeted the eyes, dust and ash aplenty. The ground was charred black, a few orange embers could be seen here and there, providing some light in this ominous darkness.
The wind being slow, the fire was taking its time, burning everything true and through, not leaving anything behind. Smoke billowed out, forming clouds of dust painting the sky grey. Screams of help could be heard, not that anybody present in that raging inferno had any method left other than to pray for salvation.
The fire, covering the town like a ring was moving radially inwards, determined to consume everything, leaving behind not even despair, hope or regrets.
And inside that burning town...
"HURRY UP! EVERYBODY GATHER AT THE TOWN HALL! BE QUICK! WE DON'T HAVE TIME TO HURRY!! EVERY...."
The announcements continued. The sound echoed all over the town. A man's voice. The town may not be as big as cities, but it was a town. A single man's voice spreading throughout the town was an impossible matter. Then how was it happening?
"Haah....haaah...haaaaa....fuuuuu...[Wind Magic]
Panting furiously, the man breathed out these words and once again proceeded to shout out the same announcement for the umpteenth time.
"EVER...ahem...ahem....ugh! AHEM AHEM!"
Just as he started shouting, he couldn't help but collapse into a furious coughing fit. His throat was parched and his voice which was already cracking refused to come out. It was natural since he had been already shouting continuously for half an hour.
The duration may seem to be too less, but considering the situation it was a commendable deed. The even though the fire was not close, the extremely hot winds were striking his face and draining him out of moisture. His body was covered in clothing, but it didn't do anything against the sheer heat despite protecting him from the winds. Wiping the sweat off his face with his cloth covered palm, he couldn't help but grimace in pain.
The white cloth covering his palm was stained black and red. Black from the soot covering his face and red from the blood. His face was covered in injuries. They had already stopped bleeding, but the 'semi-cauterization' offered by the overheated cloth worsened the pain.
"Mac! What do you think you are doing! Why don't you ask for a bit of assistance when you need it? Here! [Water Magic]
It was a woman's voice. Her attractive face too, was smudged with blood and ash. But that was not the time to worry about such petty things.
Holding out her hand, a pattern appeared on her palm and a ball of water formed over it. She waved her other hand and lowered it. The ball of water as if obeying its master's command, obediently moved according to the hand movements and got collected into an earthen pot. She then gave the pot to him.
He didn't raise up his voice in protest. Lifting the pot up and took a big gulp and let out a breath loudly,
"Haaahh..."
His heart seemed to have calmed out. Focusing his eyes on the newcomer, he held out the pot to her.
"Awww... such a gentleman..." she took the pot while sporting a wide grin and downed the rest of the water at once. Rubbing her chin with her sleeve she said,
"Don't push yourself too hard y'know? We are worried here..."
"What's the situation there Lea?" he asked this question without even bothering to respond to the comment earlier.
"Uhhh...why you... I have put secured that area . It's okay for me to spend some time here."
"For how long can you keep up? Your work is a lot harder than mine."
"And your wounds are a lot worse than mine."
"Okay thanks for the help. Now let's resume the task at hand. Please tell if you have formulated any plan."
He pretended not to hear.
"Yes we have. Stop the announcements and come back here. We have a lot to discuss. We will need You, me, Ford and Fiel for the job."
Furrowing his brows Mac voiced out a question, "Everyone has been gathered? Is he alright?"
The look in Lea's eyes turned tender. Looking at him with a warm, loving gaze, she replied in a soft voice, "Ah, what a worrywart you are Mac... Yeah he's in the town hall."
"Don't worry, with such people by our side, we will be able to survive this and will be able to save them"
"We Sure will be... won't we, Lea?"
"Of course we will be."
Both of them smiled while looking at each other and said it together, "We will do it. For this town. We will protect the survivors, no matter how small the amount. We won't fail any more...Let's do this, for our people, for our dear Gruffold."
*******
Back to Mino's home. The room was significantly tidier than before. The curtains were not pulled, allowing the gentle yet vibrant vermilion rays of the setting sun to come in. Inside, a boy was strolling around uncomfortably.
It was very unusual for the said person to do so. In fact, the said person had cleaned the room to distract him from the future event. The event was of course related to the conversation which took place almost one and a half hours ago.
Mino was walking out of the school campus when he was suddenly stopped by a familiar shout from a person he was most unwilling to meet.
"Hey Mino! Wait a bit! Listen to me!"
Maina Nameno, the cutest third year, was waving out to him while running towards him.
[What's wrong with this day huh...]
"Umm... Maina? You wanted to say something? What can it be?"
He found himself cornered by the way she approached him. It was impossible to for him to escape it appeared. So he decided to finish the conversation as fast as possible.
"Uh Mino. I just wanted to thank you for helping me out." She breathed these words out, her voice was much softer than usual.
"Oh... just this much. No need to. I assisted you because I had the leeway to. Haha..."
He replied while laughing awkwardly, trying to disperse his feeling of nervousness. [This damned bubbly girl is speaking with a soft voice. Impossible! Something's really wrong here. Really really wrong! I need to get outta here ASAP.]
"Ah... so modest. I am just saying... come over to my house at 6 okay? I'll tell you the reason for invitation at my home."
"Ah... err... EHH!?"
He couldn't prevent his throat from leaking out a surprised shriek.
[What the hell is this girl talking about?! Go to her house? If any of the boys finds this out, they'll make Mino Salami out of me. If any of the girls finds this out, then I will find myself surrounded by perpetual death glares for a whole week. Even worse, they might egg on the boys to me. Goddammit what am I supposed to do now. Oh Earth mother, I beg for your supreme guidance... oh spirits from the 6th dimension... please rescue me...]
He tried to fill his mind with bullshit thoughts to escape from the cold hard rocks of reality. However he got his thoughts straight and formulated a plan.
[This plan's surely going to work! Yeah! Though the backlash will be hard enough if I fail...]
He replied coolly "Well you see Maina, I have some plans today. If you don't tell me why you desire my presence, then how will I judge that my plans are worth cancelling?" He decided to be straightforward and offered a direct argument.
His prey target took the bait, Hook, Line and Sinker.
"Uhhh..." she hesitated for a bit.
[Ah! If I tell it to him now, then there'll be no surprise or suspense... what should I do...]
after thinking for quite a bit of time, she finally decided to agree to Mino's condition.
"Uhm well you see, it's actually a tea party of sorts... my friends will be coming too! Don't worry, other boys will be there as well!" She replied cheerfully.
[Yes! With this, I no longer need to tell him the other reason!] she thought happily.
Mino thought to himself [Well... isn't it obvious that I will notice that I have been invited to a tea party the moment I go there... there's no need to specify it. So the 'reason' is definitely something else. I should probably refuse...]
"Err... Maina... actually I'm going..."
"Eeh! Maina! What are you doing talking to Mino!"
His refusal was cut short by a high pitched voice from the side. Even though the contents of her words were quite rude, Mino ignored it because it was all the more familiar to him.
"Dora! Actually I was inviting him to my home for a tea party! Though it seems like he won't be accepting..."
Maina's eyes looked sad and her voice dropped. If she had dog ears, they would surely be dropping by now. Even Mino felt somewhat uncomfortable at this sight.
".....!!!!!...."
*Gulp*
An extremely hateful stare made him involuntarily straighten his back and gulp. There was no need to understand, he already knew where it was coming from.
"What? Of course not Maina! Why did you think I'll be rejecting your invitation. Don't worry, I'll go!"
He said these words to escape from the stares. Instantly Maina's face brightened up and she exclaimed happily, "It's a promise then!" and started walking away.
The glare too, disappeared as if it didn't exist in the first place. Taking a sidelong glance, he saw Dora's face, with a look which said [Glad that you took my threa... ahem!... My instruction seriously].
With a sword of Damocles hanging over his head, he headed back to home and started preparing himself for the tea party.
"Haahhhh...."
He finally seated himself.
[It's no use thinking about it. I'll just go there and will be done with it. I have prepared myself and I think I'm quite presentable.]
After coming back from home, he had taken a bath with soap, shampooed his hair, washed his face with some face wash borrowed from his mother ("Finally my son is growing up! Ah... I'm so happy...I was so worried about you Mino, you knowwww!!").
Wearing a denim jeans and a black T-Shirt with printed designs, he looked quite good. His dishevelled, messy hair was now neatly combed, and the hair gel gave his black hair a nice sheen.
After pocketing his wallet and putting on his sneakers, he declared in a loud voice, "Mom! I'm off then!"
*Click*
"Let's hope I will reach there on time..."
Opening the door, he walked away.