Red Roses - (FCRAs 2016 Winner)

Trial by Fire

She followed the smoke that billowed overhead like some sort of monster. All around her, animals of the forest raced past, heading in the opposite direction as fast as they could, rabbits, deer and natural wolves alike escaping, any natural fear for each other supressed by the greater fear of the fire. Birds were shrieking and crying out as they led the way above, the woods emptying out around her as she sped onwards.

Until she spotted something off to her right and pulled on the horse's reins, dragging him to a stop before turning him off the path and into the foliage, swinging off before he even stopped once she was close enough and dropping to her knees beside the huge wolf that lay against the ground, wheezing in pain.

"What is it? What happened?" she shouted. She didn't know this wolf – not well at least – she'd only seen him once when she had seen Roth's pack.

The wolf continued to struggle to breath, his breathing fast and shallow with panic.

"Were you hurt? Let me see."

"The... the tree," the wolf gasped, coughing violently, the hacking shaking his entire body.

"The tree?" Lorelie said, confused.

"The Grave!" he cried, "We... we're burning. I can't... breath."

"The Grave?" Lorelie copied before her eyes widened and she slowly sat back, looking up above them. "They set the tree on fire."

"We're dying," the wolf choked, water streaming from his eyes as he looked at her, "If our bodies die, we die. We can't... we'll die!"

Lorelie got to her feet and ran to her horse, throwing herself onto his back and pulling him around, riding away without another word, following the smoke and horrible realisation settled in her stomach. She had seen that smoke before.

She had seen it hovering over the forests and she hadn't know what it was. Even Beldon had seen it but neither of them had been able to identify it... until now. When she thought about where that strange smoke had hovered over the forests each time, it had been over The Grave.

Only realising that now could be too late.

Why had they set The Grave on fire? What would that accomplish? What had her grandmother told them?

She felt the heat before she even saw the flames and by the time she burst through the trees that surround The Grave, the base of the huge tree was completely engulfed, Sullivan's men standing around it, the raging reds across their skin and flashing in their eyes making them look like demons, while Nana May stood further back by the horses, her expression cold and unmoved – until she spotted Lorelie as her granddaughter let out a scream of terror.

Everyone looked around as she fell from her horse, running straight for the opening in the trunk but one of the men grabbed her before she could dive through.

"Are you insane?" he snarled.

"How did you get here?" Sullivan asked, frowning.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Lorelie screamed back at him. "Why are you burning The Grave?!"

Sullivan just smiled at her and looked back at the destruction he was clearly so proud of.

"Why!?"

He suddenly flung his finger out to point at her, a rage that she didn't deserve directed at her through his eyes. "Do you know what it's like?" he asked, his voice like ice, "To lose your family? The ones you love more then anything in the world? Do you know what it is like to be plagued by that which is not known? To have nothing to live for other than to discover the truth?"