Fye blinked open her eyes to the stench of burning wood.
'That… doesn't smell good…' Fye grunted, displeased, and rubbed her eyes. Actually, it did smell good: in terms of smell, burning wood was one of Fye's favorite fragrances. Its implications however… 'Can't a woman enjoy her beauty sleep?!'
Begrudgingly, she disarmed herself of her blanket and swung her legs over the bed. The good news was that her small one room "house" (hut) wasn't immediately on fire. The bad news was that by the smell of the fire alone it was obvious to Fye this was a lot more serious than someone leaving their kitchen window open to cook.
'It's way too early in the morning for this crap!' Fye grumpily got up, but hurriedly put on her shoes as she heard a couple panicked voices from outside. She quickly tied her hair back with some loose string on her nightstand, then hesitated before snatching a couple of shimmering rocks off of her table. She threw on a winter coat hanging by her door, and flung open said door to peer outside.
Fye lived on the outskirts of her village, far closer to the dreaded maple forest than any other villager would be comfortable living. Given that context, it was quite unusual to see about a fifth of the village's population crowded around her neighbors house about 80 paces down the dirt road from her own. They were all nervously gazing at the aforementioned maple forest, which…
'Good riddance! HAH!' Fye smiled contentedly as her eyes took in the sight of a massive wildfire tearing through the infamous sprawling woodland. The forest covered the entire western half of the valley her village was nestled in, but had been steadily encroaching on the village's outskirts for as long as anyone could remember. Fye's eyes narrowed as she tried to trace the source of the fire, but already the gears were turning in her head and questions were piling up.
Closer to the mountain on the far far eastern edge of the valley the wildfire roared the strongest, with great plumes of smoke trailing off into the sky above the flames. It was difficult to make out more details because of the great canopy of leaves blocking out a direct line of sight, and even Fye's remarkable vision had its limits. Fye shook her head as a dreadful sense of foreboding washed over her body. Knowing the nature of the picturesque forest personally, she immediately doubted whether the fire could at all possibly be a mere "wildfire".
Determining the mysteriously-caused-fire at the very least wasn't an immediate danger to her or to the village, Fye emerged from the under frame of her door and glanced back at her fellow villagers crowded around Hinal and Merigan's house.
On the dirt road overgrown with grass approaching her house, only one person had dared to tread any closer. It was Jeryll.
'Of course it is.'
As Fye's head cautiously poked out from under her front door, Jeryll spotted her, smiling and waving. Fye studied him while flashing a quick smile of her own. Jeryll's smile betrayed how nervous he was, fear and confusion poorly hidden behind his green eyes. Jeryll was hardly the most prideful man overly obsessed with presenting a fearless impression, but it was just as rare to see him genuinely scared. It didn't suit him.
'If even he is worried,' Fye imagined the rest of the villagers would be close to a state of outright panic.
"Hey Fyefye." Jeryll awkwardly came to a stop about 2 paces down the road from Fye and held eye contact with her, though nervously stealing glances at the far-off raging fire. Fye became increasingly aware of the fact that she wasn't wearing anything other than her winter coat and a nightgown.
Fye uncharacteristically ignored his usage of her much-resented childhood nickname, and turned to face him and away from the fire. "Good morning, Jeryll. Looks like someone decided to gallantly save your village, eh?"
Jeryll's expression didn't change much, and, if anything, he frowned a bit deeper. "We'll have to see who that "someone" is… You alright?"
Fye nodded her head yes and glanced at the fire before replying aloud. "Sure."
"Ah, I'm glad you were able to wake up on your own…" Jeryll paused, intending to continue.
Fye smiled faintly, but ultimately couldn't help herself "–What? It wouldn't be the first time you've thrown rocks at my door." Fye's head turned back to catch Jeryll's expression, unable to resist the promise of his reaction.
Rewarding Fye's greed, Jeryll slightly blushed and stopped right before saying whatever it was he intended to say, his mouth hanging open while his pupils dilated.
Fye's smile widened at his discomfort. Now at least he didn't look so worried.
Jeryll blinked himself out of his surprised stupor and answered cordially. "Well, I would've just called your name loudly probably, actually…"
Jeryll then, having at least a morsel of tact, earnestly pressed forward in the conversation. "Listen, I'd really appreciate it if you led the firewatch team until the fire subsides, yeah?"
Fye was no longer smiling, but was quick to voice the additional implicit request "–and deal with any big scary arsonists that might decide to pay the village a visit?"
Jeryll visibly swallowed, looking guilty. "Well, …yeah that'd be great too"
Fye took a quiet moment to check the far-off-fire before giving Jeryll her solemn answer "If anything makes it out of that forest alive, I don't think I could do anything but annoy it."
Jeryll's face dropped–but not as much as Fye had expected it too–which annoyed her somehow. "Oh, well hopefully of course it doesn't come to that-"
Fye finished Jeryll's sentence yet again "-but if it does," she offered him a somewhat reassuring smile "I'll try to be as annoying as possible."
It didn't take long for Fye to get properly dressed and dawn her armor. "Armor" was a funny word to use. It usually made one think of the Lord's Knights and their gleaming Kathiyr metal chest pieces and shields. What Fye wore was a sorry excuse for armor, at least compared to a Knight. The hardened woven chest piece and some padded pants weren't even meant to stop direct blows, only helping her avoid bruising and skid marks.
And yet, this Armor was her own. She'd crafted both pieces for herself, tuning and placing the few select Iyds she knew on them with great care. Fye wore it with pride and confidence, leaving her house to stand in the middle of the street, gazing at the huddle of villagers that had once been… larger.
'Good, the more time they use now the less time we'll need to last against the… whatever it may be.' "Whatever it may be" heading towards their village was of course the worst outcome, with any luck the thing that started the fire would go in literally any other direction, or, alternatively, it might just die to the cursed forest.
'How… how in Iy's name did I end up rooting for those horrible trees?' Fye laughed in disbelief, but it truly was the best outcome she could foresee. The forest would suffer, perhaps even stalling its advance towards the village for a decade or so, and whatever it was that could take on a vast hive mind of murderous trees and live for this long would perish, without Fye ever needing to see its ugly face. Speaking of ugly faces…
The crowd of Villagers Fye had been observing now split into two distinct groups shortly after Fye exited her house. A smaller group of about a dozen mostly middle aged men began making their way down the road to Fye, while the other villagers hurried off to their houses–presumably to hide or pack their belongings. As for the apparent "village guard" that was making its way to her position…
Fye grimaced inwardly, swallowing her pride. This was her home too, and today was an opportunity to remind everyone of that.
"Hail O'Garth!" Fye's greeting was met by an ensemble of friendly to emotionless faces, with Tahmer's being the one exception. He had rolled his eyes, but in all fairness such a greeting was far tamer than what Fye might've expected him to do.
A chorus of identical "Hail O'Garth!"s came from the group, and a couple of additional greetings including her name followed.
Fye accepted them all with a nod and stood as tall as she could, which was, thankfully, taller than any of those assembled. "On Jeryll's orders I'll be leading the town guard today, which, if we're all unlucky, may include potentially fatal violence. Do we all understand that?" Fye looked at each member of the hastily assembled guard in the eyes, scanning for doubt and fear. There was not a man present not visibly overflowing with either, and yet-
"Aye! Ain't no one or nothin puttin their grubby little hands on anyone in our village!" It was Kard'll, a younger man who Fye was pretty sure was a father with a newborn. She kinda felt bad she didn't know for certain, and promised she'd ask later, if the village didn't…
In response to this promise, a couple men jeered their support and shook the spears or rusty swords they were holding.
'Good. Morale is important too!' Fye waited for the slight clamor to settle down, and then got to work detailing her rudimentary defense plan to the rest of the guard.
"Of course," Fye concluded, "While this fancy battle plan is important, our first responsibility is still to keep the fire away from the village. If the fire spreads far enough in this direction before… if it becomes clear the fire will reach our village, we'll light a controlled fire of our own and guide it towards the approaching fire." A couple of confused visages reminded Fye that not everyone present was necessarily as sharp as their weapons. Or maybe… they were. "Ehem, that is, we'll light a counter-fire to destroy the grass the approaching fire would need to burn in order to jump from the forest to the village." A couple more faces flashed in understanding. "We destroy the approaching fire's fuel before it can use it." Fye wasn't going to make it any more obvious than that. Opening her mouth to continue, Tahmer finally cut her off instead.
"What makes you so confident a fire that can burn in that forest couldn't cross any obstacle we'd be capable of making?"
Fye breathed in. It was, admittedly, a good question. "I'm not certain but-"
"-Know something we don't Witch?" Naturally, Tahmer wasn't going to say anything on his mind without saying everything on his mind.
Luckily the group of guards seemed to take Fye's side, and one of them must've dug an elbow into Tahmer's rib as he didn't continue. Tahmer could always continue.
Sensing she'd lost some gravitas, Fye waved away the petty accusation by pointing out that her house was closer than anyones to any fight or fire that arrived in O'Garth. She then hurriedly disbanded the impromptu strategy meeting by reminding the guards: "Above all else, do NOT light the counter-fire until I give the signal. The last thing we want is that forest turning its attention on O'Garth. Got it?" The guards all signaled some sort of acknowledgement, even Tahmer, and Fye let the huddle of guards split off into the 5 groups of 3-2 people they'd agreed on earlier. They all had their parts to play, now they just had to not muck it up.
It took about half an hour before everything went south. Everything but the fire–the fire spread east. Directly towards O'Garth. What's worse is that the fire didn't really spread, it moved. Sure, the forest at the base of the mountain was charred and smoldering, but the fire hadn't spread out from that initial point. In the center of the vast scarlet woodland an ugly black scar had been burnt into the mass of evil trees, but not a single flame was burning on the perimeter of that circle. As the fire moved at a breathtaking pace, the only trail it left behind was a black dead line of ash and embers.
By the time the sun was close to reaching its highest in the sky there was no more denying even to those that didn't possess Fye's superior vision that the direction of the hurricane of fire was ostensibly west, on a direct collision course with the southernmost patch of O'Garth. As the minutes passed the fire still ate through the forest with no apparent resistance, horrifically fast and efficiently, leaving a trail of devastation in its wake. Fye was certainly not the only one imagining what sort of devastation it would reap in the village if it arrived.
They had at most another 30 minutes before the mysterious-fire reached them. But was it so "mysterious" anymore? What could it be other than what they thought it was–some great big terrible ugly monster?
At this point Fye desperately wished she did in fact know something everyone else didn't. Thinking rationally, Fye repeatedly wracked her brain for any possible reason why the fire would be heading directly towards their village. O'Garth was merely one dot of civilization in the whole vast valley they were in, yet the moving hurricane of fire and destruction was heading straight towards them. Was there any explanation that did not include the source of the fire being sentient, deliberate, and probably hungry? Why else would it steer itself directly towards a village with a bunch of tasty humans in it?
For the second time that day, Fye found herself passionately and completely cheering on the horrible wicked forest which every decent person would ordinarily loathe. She had to begrudgingly admit that, yes, the cursed forest was why their village was on the whole relatively safe. The only path out of the valley on foot was in fact through the forest, which made coming and going rather tricky. No doubt there were many dangerous creatures out there in The Iyd, but the ugly forest had till this point been fairly successful at warding off most would-be predators.
'Most…' Fye shut that thought down quickly, her focus unwilling to waver from completing her current task for Jeryll. That thought itself, however, made her stumble.
'"For" Jerryl? No… no I mean as in I am completing a task he assigned to me as the Governor, and so I am doing it on his behalf. Not for him. Right.' Fye wasn't sure if she'd convinced herself, but thankfully a status update from one of the guards drew her attention out back into the real world.
'Iyger? I think it was Iyger?' Probably-Iyger came to a stop about 3 paces away from Fye's perch on the top of a grassy knoll.
He cleared his throat, evidently unaware that Fye had long-since known of his approach. "Ehem… Miss Fye, the evacuation is just about ready. Shall we join the rest of the village and retreat to high ground?" The last sentence was eager, indicating probably-Iyger didn't want to be anywhere near the hurricane of moving fire once it reached the village.
'Who can blame him?' Fye thought sullenly, sighing audibly in frustration. She turned to face probably-Iyger "No, that's the last thing we should do. If that fire is intentionally heading in the direction of O'Garth, then it can certainly head in the direction of a large visible group of fleeing villagers. At the very least we guards need to remain and defend in whatever way we can to stall for time."
Fye sensed she would have to make a decision here and now, and that the entire village's survival rested on it. Gulping, she unsuccessfully tried to steady her breathing. 'This is Jeryll's job, not mine!'
Probably-Iyger sounded just as pale as he looked when he responded with a counter offer, trying to poke holes in Fye's pessimism. "Th-the mountain path, we'll have to use the path a ways north of the village then. Is there maybe some way to carry-"
Fye mercilessly cut him off, his pathetic solution only fueling her anger and resentment "There's no way to carry all the women and children up that path in 30 minutes. It's a miracle if we even get everyone to that path in 30 minutes." Fye's smile was crazed and bitter, happy at least that she could destroy someone else's hope other than her own. "And then, then there's no way to transport that many women and children up that steep, narrow, and dangerous of a path! Most of the men and women can't climb that path, let alone while carrying a child, and if children attempted to climb it they'd fall and crack their head open." Fye vigorously stuck a hand out to point at the approaching fire, and scowled at Iyger. "In the time I've had to explain this to you, that fire has gotten closer and doomed another 10 people."
Fye would usually maintain some calm demeanor despite any and all internal emotions, giving only the best command possible even in the worst situation. But the responsibility, the unfairness, and the sheer hopelessness of this situation had cracked the mask holding back her true thoughts. Only a knight riding in on full Kathiyr plate armor and a wonderfully powerful steed could salvage her hope. And even that was a mercy which Fye knew the reality of all too well. This world just wasn't made for weak and powerless humans like herself.
'What good will civility do me now?'
Probably-Iyger's expression was, all things considered, very impressive. He still looked just as pale as he had before, and his knuckles were white from gripping his spear, but he hadn't… cracked. Not yet. Not like Fye. Call it the advantage in age, or perhaps the fact that the village's doom mattered far more to someone who was far more a part of it, but probably-Iyger refused to take that small step further into nihilistic hopelessness that Fye had already resigned herself towards embracing.
This man clinging onto hope for dear life looked up at Fye, and frowned in disappointment at her words. "Fye… We can't save everyone, maybe, but we can save many! We must, above all else, try."
'Who was he trying to convince, himself?' Fye disdainfully chuckled and glanced back at the fire to assure herself of the hopelessness of their situation.
Probably-Iyger's frown, on the other hand, deepend and twisted in annoyance. Like he was dealing with his daughter's petulant wailing. In one smooth motion he firmly gripped Fye's shoulders and shook them, making her look into his eyes.
"Girl, get a grip! My family is on the line here, not just us volunteers! Jeryll trusted you with this!" These words, their sincerity and the honesty with which Iyger communicated them… and maybe something having to do with Jeryll, were somehow enough to shake Fye out of her dogmatic trance, and she blinked at probably-Iyger a couple times in confusion. He… was right.
'For no other reason than because Jeryll personally entrusted me with protecting his village, I have to at least try.' They were doomed, no doubt. But if part of the village could survive, Jeryll would certainly be able to rebuild.
Fye paused, and breathed in and out a few times to steady her breathing. Probably-Iyger awkwardly, yet dutifully, patted her shoulder while she collected herself. She mumbled out an apology and sent him off with orders to evacuate everyone to the mountain path, tying ropes around the children and hauling them up if necessary.
'It would be… good… to do something meaningful with this blood of mine.'
Half way down from the knoll, probably-Iyger suddenly turned around and caught Fye's attention once more. She gazed back at him with a silent question. He tentatively smiled, before making a poignant promise "And once that dreadful fire's gone, we'll immediately stop and come back down, yeah?"
Fye's bitter smile was back, and she still considered herself doomed, but this time her resolve remained unfettered. She laughed, genuinely at his audacity, and offered a silent thumbs up in reply.
Probably-Iyger had a look of understanding flash across his face, and for whatever reason opened his mouth to talk again. "It's Iyger by the way, Fye! Don't be scared to ask next time!"
Fye scrunched her face in total embarrassment and quickly shouted a reply "I knew your name! That it was Iyger, I mean!"
Iyger had fully turned around to walk towards town at that point, and instead of shouting some barely-audible reply he merely raised his hand over his head in acknowledgment that he'd heard Fye.
'Well… I'll be thinking about that one in bed for the rest of my life…'
The good news was that the rest of her life was likely going to be fairly short.
It didn't take long for the hurricane of moving fire to reach the outermost edge of the forest. Fye had assembled the "firewatch" in position, planning an ambush where, of course, Fye would be the bait. She was the least likely to immediately die, anyways.
That sound logic was probably not why Tahmer had so enthusiastically been among the first who accepted the plan, but it just couldn't be helped:
The role of bait also allowed her to dish out the most initial damage to whatever the source of the fire was, so there was no reason for her to suggest something else. Not that she wanted to put anyone else in this position, either–It was better when she was the one everything ultimately hinged upon, so she'd have no else to blame but herself if things went sideways.
All this didn't help her nerves, though, standing in high grass between O'Garth and the village. The obscured sight of devouring flames, explosions and massive thuds, and worst of all the oppressive heat grew in intensity slowly but surely as her fate arrived. In those moments, she doubted whether she'd cracked at all earlier, when talking with Iyger, considering that perhaps that had been her first lucid moment this entire day–that it was only crazy to be normal in a crazy world.
But, much like her eyebrows were close to catching fire, eventually even the thoughts in her head were seared away by the scorching heat.
She shook her head to give the signal to the other guards, and grasped one of the shining gems once laying on her table tightly. The stone dulled, and as Fye commanded "Azep"–Heat aloud, the grass in front of her momentarily singed and then burst into flame. She heard and saw indications that her other guards had succeeded, and so breathed her second command. "Seh Eweh"–Go Forth.
Some guards could not sustain two words, actually, most couldn't. But it didn't matter. The ground behind them had been meticulously burnt by Fye herself so that the counter-fire had only one direction to burn. Forward. Soon, but perhaps not soon enough, the whole field in front of them was a roaring wildfire, steadily approaching the tree line of the cursed scarlet forest.
Somehow, the flames still looked saturated against the leaves of the dreadful trees. But Fye didn't quite have the luxury of contemplating colors while choking on the smoke from their counter fire, and the moment of truth was upon them anyways. The other fire was now close. It had arrived far faster than Fye had planned for.
There was… one small problem.
Fye, and all the other guards undoubtedly, gasped and their soon-to-be-eyebrowless-eyes shot open in shock as something obvious became inescapable in front of their eyes. The trees… moved. No, the trees… ran.
Their great giant roots exploded from the ground, and pulled their trunks, branches, leaves and all, forward and away. Away and primarily out of the way from the giant roaring devouring flame, of course. There was only one way to run: Towards a place not crowded with forest and other running trees. Towards O'Garthe. Towards mercifully mortal and tolerable mundane flames.
Towards Fye and the village guard who'd likely all soiled their pants.
Fye would've reacted with sheer panic, no doubt. Everyone in O'Garth knew and had unfortunately likely seen once or twice the lumbering trees ruthlessly effortlessly kill some creature or human. One of them running at full speed was unimaginable.
Fye, in her immense hidden power, knew she could likely handle even 5 of these trees at once if they were slumbering during winter. But not 10 or 20, all running at her. 'Trees aren't supposed to run!!!'
Fortunately, but very likely unfortunately, the fire was faster than the trees. Much faster. Like a falling star it rocketed past the fleeing murderous cursed trees, incinerating them to ash with its mere presence. Fye possessed better vision than anyone else in their village, by a factor of 10, and yet even she had to look away from the sheer blinding light the center of the fire emitted.
As the star entered the field between O'Garth and the scarlet forest, it came to an abrupt stop at an impossible rate of deceleration. A delayed shockwave blew across the field, and Fye desperately fought to remain standing. Out of the entire village guard, only she succeeded in doing so.
The heat was utterly, completely, unbearable. Somehow, Fye felt pity for the trees only a couple meters from the heart of that terrible star. Any soiled pants were certainly, unquestionably, magically dry.
In that moment, Fye knew of only one other entity which possessed such monstrous power. Despite the totally nonsensical nature of her logic, the conclusion filled her with a hate, and an accusation shot up from her heart that was inescapably real.
'It's… him!' What Fye wanted most of all erupted in her soul with rivers of hate and spite, as she desperately thought of any way to end his horrible existence.
Imperceptible at first, and then quite obviously all at once, the temperature receded. Back, out of Fye's lungs. Back, off of her skin and clothes, and everything she touched. The fire in the field stopped burning, and suddenly the veritable sun merely 50 paces away stopped emitting scalding-hot heat. In less than 3 seconds after it burst from the forest, the mini-sun's heat utterly dissipated and it itself entirely stopped shining.
The rage-filled accusation from only a split second prior melted into nothingness and was forgotten. Fye was dumbfounded in a seemingly timeless and eternal daze, as she gazed upon the epicenter of what was once her certain death.
There, standing precisely where the source of the miserable heat had been making dirt boil not a moment prior, stood the most breathtaking, divine, world-ending-ly alluring man Fye had ever seen. Which, admittedly, and with all due respect to Jeryll, was a very uncompetitive title to win.
The entire world seemed to exist relative to this man, as if all shapes bent towards his mythical aura. Most harrowing of all, it was gazing right back at Fye, and its mouth was moving.
"-I am First Visionary Hera...and who do I have the pleasure of meeting?"
His question ended with a reassuring smile that could make a cursed scarlet murderous tree blush, but Fye couldn't remember what he had said before that. Immediately afterwards, she promptly lost her battle to remain standing. Before she even hit the ground she was completely unconscious from exertion, pain, exhaustion, shock, and relief, and so fell into a deep dreamless sleep.