Flash Fiction Day 2016 - Diary of a Rivulet

Fire. Fire everywhere, brutal and punishing. Destroying everything around her that she knows in its touch.

Run! The only thing she thinks of as the flames are in hot pursuit. She runs, and runs, and runs, with all her might away from the tortured screams and clashes of metal, melted remains of what used to be her home, away from the wall of flame in hot pursuit. The flame then takes on a shape – a form that appears more human, but is just as deadly.

It’s a woman – a figure young and beautiful, but fierce as the fire itself. The one responsible for all this fire, all the destruction, the leader of the tribe that she used to belong. Not anymore. No, not after what they’ve done…after what she’s done. And now the woman will burn her too, with the white hot blade she brings out against her. Its razor edge is lifted up, thrown down upon her, and she braces for it –

It never comes. Why? The same reason it never does every night - her brother. Shielding her from the inferno doom with his large, watery body. He tells her, ‘run, don’t look back.’ And she does.
A scream escapes her mouth as Sabrina wakes from her nightmare. Her head jerks around in search of the flames inside her tent. There is nothing. Just another day after another fitful night. She sighs, rubbing the dried tears away from her weary face. Something feels dry – she observes the cracks and wrinkles in her skin, and stumbles out of the tent to the nearby stream. Like the rest of her Rivulet tribe – what’s left of them, anyway – Sabrina’s life is tied to the water. She can only be separated from it for a few days at a time.

Even though Sabrina is submerged in the stream, she can feel the memory of the fire scorching her skin. Her brother…how she misses him so much. Still, Chief Meadow had been gracious to allow Sabrina and her kind take refuge in her Field tribe’s territory, and Sabrina will forever be grateful for it. Perhaps it was Meadow’s way to give them a proper apology for Field taking part in Rivulet’s destruction. Perhaps the idea of supporting one peace-supporting tribe from another appealed her. Or possibly, the move was motivated more from compassion than logic. Sabrina did not care what the underlying politics were. She was just glad that she could be in a place away from those awful flames.

Sabrina steps out of the water and catches the reflection at the bank. Who is that person? The girl in the water looks so tired and bedraggled. Tiny knots are in her hair and ribs stick out from her body. The hollowness in her stare looks so desperate, so empty.

War is indeed the monster that it’s portrayed to be.

Fenfaria had been in a state of conflict for as long as Sabrina could remember, but never like this. She had no idea that such fierce fighting could bring entire civilizations down to their knees and blow her neighbors to bits, and leave the living skeletons of children on the streets to die.

It is then that Sabrina makes a promise to her brother, to her unborn children. Rivulet and Field will see to it to quench the fire, no matter the cost…and somehow she will tame the wild beast of Fenfaria for the sake of everyone’s future.