From the Ashes. [Open]

[Siola]

Siola walked down the streets slowly, her feet scuffing on the slightly grimy street, she had just left home, her parents, her brothers, safely. She already felt as if she was alone in the world, although that was impossible, there were hundreds of people around her, milling around, going around their daily business without a care for anyone else. Why would they? Each had their own troubles, dreams and wishes, they didn’t care about others. To be honest, Siola felt the same way, she didn’t really wish to know about such things unless it was different, exciting. She really only liked to know the facts, then cut out everything else, for example battles or trading markets nearby. News like that meant the possibility of more money. Something with couldn’t be ruled out lightly.

She strolled into the main area, near the shipbuilder’s docks, she had used to work here, a few years ago. She had helped tie the ropes to the right places on the masts, scampering up the poles to tie the various knots and loops that were needed. It was her height that had gotten her a job in the first place, it had allowed her to climb with ease, helping her to slip into smaller gaps than the other sailors could. How Siola longed to be on the seas on one of the boats, sailing in all their grandeur. Ever since she was a child she had wanted to travel to to other places, but it could be helpful if she found someone she could buy her way with, but before that she needed a job, she needed money.

Siola unconsciously shut her eyes as she walked past a location on the dock front that still scared her to this day. Her old home, the hotel, a place which had been passed down through her families for generations, a place to rest, a place to have a decent meal. Siola could still remember the familiar feel of walking down the familiar wooden steps, her child like feet slipping every now and then on the surface her parents had cared for so much. She could even hear the fire in the heath, roaring in her mind. Bringing such warmth in the winter, warming her heart as she played old card games with her brothers whilst her mother prepared meals in the kitchen for everyone at their hotel. Siola loved these aspects of her childhood, the happy parts.

At the time of sitting near that fire, it seemed to be the heart of the hotel. But in the end, it was the destroyer of the place she called home. Even to this day, many years later, she could still remember that fateful night. Lying in bed, asleep, dreaming peaceful dreams of lands she had never been to, dreams she wished were real. Not tainted with the hate of the world. Life so simple it could be told backwards. ‘Siola, get up. We need to go now.’ The voice of her panicked mother struck through her thoughts like a knife through butter. Siola remembered her small self getting up slowly, smelling for the first time the sharp smell of smoke. Acrid, burning. ‘The hotel’s on fire. We need to go.’ Siola’s mother shook the small girl to her senses, trying to wake her daughter up. They had gotten up just in time, before it was too late, Siola could remember clinging to her fathers trousers whilst they watched all they worked for burn to the ground into the rubble. Into the cracks of the street.

Siola snapped back to reality all of a sudden as she accidentally walked into someone. ‘Sorry.’ She whispered, almost inaudible. She wasn’t known to talk much, she usually kept to herself. Not many friends, not many people she actually spoke to, or trusted for that matter. People never seemed to understand each other all that well. It was like love, something complicated that didn’t really make sense. Siola didn’t know about the other species all too much. She had read about them sure, but that was about it.

Her footsteps stopped as she slowed and rested against the wall of her old home. People were building there now, the debris cleared that had been left. They were pulling it onto carts etc, to be taken away. Siola wondered if anything had been found. Any of the metal work. Probably not. At least something new would be built on the location where you could see much of the mountains. A phoenix rising from the ashes so to speak. Some beautiful coming out of something burnt. Siola loved life like that, how such things could happen. Her mind wandered a little further, what if they were real, phoenixes, and could only be found in far off reaches of the land. It would be amazing, brilliant. Siola’s mind wondered happily, stumbling over new thoughts, fuelled by her love of story telling. Her love of the new lands which had been discovered.