FIRE – A sweltering summer’s day
A sweltering summer’s day was wafting harshly on the small town by the country. Drought had brought smoked, brittle, burnt umber grass; that had lost the sense to dance gently against the breeze, now lay still in the abnormal heat. Parched, scorching air had been baking incessant months, and torrid bones lay scattered across the swampy gold hills.
It all started with a flicker.
A flame.
An unstoppable wave.
A garnet flame arose from the ground. A harmless little thing it was, flickering gently. Turning its head with the baking air, it began to lick its surroundings, churning them in itself. It began off with crisp golden leaves and parched grey grass, but grew wilder with each bite. Steadily the ground was alight with a scorching, mahogany river encircling the trees. From a river it rose into a ferocious monster. Crackling louder and louder. Crimson, saffron and amber blaze struck at the tress and grasped them into its teeth, gobbling and tearing them down greedily. The famished flames galloped from tree to tree, branch to branch, leaf to leaf, guzzling everything in their way. The wave of tiger orange, blood-red scarlet and Tuscan yellow could be seen marching through countryside, demolishing its path as it flashed by glazing the countryside, steadily sprinting towards the town. Vexatious screams of terror could be heard with the pitiless crackle of the blazing flames, laughing higher and higher, cruller and cruller, stretching its hands towards the sun.
Large crowds were scurrying like tiny ants, hand in hand with children, dashing towards their cars zooming far, far, away; their heirlooms left behind in disgrace. The smell of terror and cruelty seared in the air, mixing with irrepressible blaze.
The wine red monster began to gnaw at the town’s outskirts, slowly beginning to wolf down the remains of the acres. Wails of red snakes could be heard as they approached the demon. Men in yellow hats jumped off, poking the uncontrollable blaze with slate colored water. The leviathan giggled for a fraction of a second, then began to launch itself again like a coiled snake, spitting venom on the alight ground.
Helicopters hovered on top of the behemoth, guarding the pale sky, protecting it from the blaze’s wrath. Immense amounts of azure ocean water fell from the helicopter directly on to the monster. It spitted and hissed in rage as the sizzling racket of the water took over, but it fought back. A ferocious battle took place over the next 2 days. The sky was filled with fossil colored ash and smoke, almost turning pitch black. Though outnumbered, the ferocious blaze fought back, shades of lapis, garnet, saffron and fossil grey filled the landscape until finally the graceful, purifying water banished the flame from this world. Exasperated and exhausted cheers echoed across the town, but once the stoke, warm, golden ball cooled inside, sorrow took over.
Memories, ancestry and love lay in the black current, coaled ashes. Irretrievable. Heads bowed against the heat as silence stretched on, trying to recall what one was. Logs of standing homes now fell from their roots, hopeless and broken. All that was once, had gone.
A flicker.
A flame.
An unstoppable wave.
A flame. A flicker. An unstoppable wave.
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