Open The Taming Of WildFire

[Sempre]

　

72nd of Spring, 515AV
Late At Night

❝The Fiery Hearts of The Drykas Burn Wild And Fierce...Quite Literally!❞

　　The faint rustle of the Sea of Grass as it danced in the gentle night's breeze and the rythmic chirp of insects in the distance, was a calming effect. One that brought the comfort of familiar sounds of home, as Ethynia drifted off into a peaceful slumber. It was a crisp dry night, Leth's moon shining brightly in a sky so clear, the blanket of twinkling stars above was breathtaking. It was a warm night for Spring, though foretold of the Summer season not far away, with but the odd cloud drifting on the spring breeze.
　　Such a tranquil scene was not to last for long however. Jolted from sleep by the terrified and painful cries and screams of animals and people alike caused Ethynia to roll from her sleeping mat. Swiftly dressing, though accidentally foregoing shoes in her haste, Ethynia raced through the flap of her tent. Her almond-chocolate gaze was suddenly met by a horrifying orange glow sprouting from pavilions on the edge of Endrykas, not a hundred or so feet away. Fierce flames licked the horizon, reaching to the stars as it blazed and fed upon the homes of her kin.
　　Heart racing at the sight, Ethynia's gaze glistened as her thoughts turned to her bonded strider Alban. Her chest ceased as the very thought of him being trapped and terrified as the roaring waves of fire encroached upon The Guilded Horse. Ethynia's fear for her beloved companion was enough to spur her from frozen fear. Her bare feet carrying her into a pounding sprint towards the burning scattering of tents.

oOcFeel free to jump in everyone!

[Akilah Windsong]

72 Spring, 515 AV

It was warm, unusually warm for spring. Akilah stirred, sweating beneath the hot furs that covered her. With a grunt, she shoved the topmost layer off her and tried to fall asleep again.

It was still too hot. Opening her eyes a crack, she stared grumpily down at the layers on top of her. It was dark and hard to see, the soft candles only giving the dimmest of light. She pulled off another layer, and then another, almost stripping them all of entirely.

There. Much better.

Closing her eyes, she turned and started to drift off. It was--she heard barking, loud and insistent. Barking and mewling and the wild braying of horses.

How she slept through all that noise, she had no idea. Bewildered, Akilah leaped out of bed, only for her legs to catch in the furs surrounding her.

"Oof," she groaned as the air knocked out of her body. She lay there a few minutes, catching her breath, before untangling herself and properly leaving the pavilion. "Father? Grandma?" she called as she moved toward the exit.

Odd. There was no way everyone else was sleeping through this. When she finally went through the flap, she stopped and stared.

"Oh."

In the distance, the sky glowed red and orange, the colours of sunrise. But the sun wasn't rising and those black clouds didn't mean rain.

"Fire." Around her, people were trying to calm her family's animals, hunting animals and striders alike. The scent of ash, thick on her throat, only encouraged the chaos.

A dog pushed against her feet, scared, and she knelt down instinctively to pet him. "Isra," she cooed, trying to calm the scared dog. She was lucky he didn't run away into another pavilion's area. She pulled him into her arms, trying to still his trembling. "It's okay."

But it wasn't. He shook terribly, pawing at her arms in an attempt to get away. She could understand. Every instinct in her was screaming to run, to get as far away as possible.

With Adámas, she could--

"No." She let go of Isra, standing and staring in the direction the fire was growing. Adámas was in that direction--she had left him there to get his hooves checked and--

"No," she repeated, before taking off in a sprint. Zulrav and Semele would never let this happen to a strider. Never.

Maybe he wasn't close to the fire, maybe he was being led back here by someone else.

She prayed softly as she ran.

.
.
.

[Dravite]

The horizon danced in the ripples of rising air. There was a roar of flames, screams all around, a stampede of animals large and small, and the low cracking of grass and timber as fire consumed everything in its path. Water was precious in Endrykas so men and women fought the flames with earth, throwing down shovel loads of soil to stay the flames. The long orange fingers of fire crumbled, spurted and flared up again wherever they got hold of a nice dry tussock or pleated end of rope.

Dravite had awoken to the sound of quick moving hooves and his son coughing. He sat up on his bedroll swiftly to see the neighbouring pavilion’s herd race by the camp and beyond that the fire that rapidly followed in their wake. “Get up!” He yelled at the top of his lungs to wake his Windborne kin, “Fire!”

Belkaia awoke with a fright and reached for Kyanite. “What’s going on?” She cried and looked over her shoulder to see a wall of flames take down a tent next door.

Dravite took his wife’s arm and pulled her to her feet, “Take our bags and get to Cree,” he told her.
“But!”
“Belkaia go now! There’s no time!”

Belkaia scratched their things together and carried what she could under her left arm while holding Kyanite in the other. They didn’t have much to their name, a tent and a few bedrolls was a small sacrifice to make in comparison to what they could have lost had they remained asleep when the fire reached camp. Dravite followed close behind but only long enough to see that they got on the horse okay. “Dravite please don’t stay here!”
“I love you, go!”

The strider joined the throng of cattle, mounts, woman, children, and the elderly who were too weak to fight the flames. Dravite watched to see them off before racing back to the campsite. He ran as fast as his feet would carry him, light-footed, he traversed the maze of abandoned gear and pegs that kept their tents upright. “Get up! Go!” He called again to those who sat startled in their beds, too scared to make a move.

He assisted one of the Windborne women in gathering up her children and untied all of the tethered horses to point them away from the fire before he went back through the camp. Dravite checked every tent in the pavilion to make sure their people had gotten out in time. Most of the Windborne warriors were already helping to try and stop the fire from spreading further away from the string of campsites that had been set up outside of Endrykas’ boundary. Those who liked the convenience of the city but preferred to live on the outskirts were not alone as groups from Endrykas raced out from the city on horseback to help.

His tent was the first in their pavilion to be swallowed by flames and as Dravite helped turned up earth and cut away grass to contain the spread, he couldn’t help but feel relieved that they had managed to out in time; not everyone would be that lucky.

NoteThis is a one off post, unless you want me to write Dravite interacting with one of your characters. • LedgerRemoving four person tent and bedroll from my items list as they were ruined in the fire.

.
.
.

[Naiya]

It looked like sunrise in the distance. Arriving far too soon, and from the wrong side of the sky. The red orange glow was fire, rising in the west to overwhelm the city.

Burning heat enveloped the girl, even from the distance between her and the fire. She had to move quickly, but panic shook her hands and stole at her breath even as the trailing black smoke did the same. Beside her, her husband and wife both working to make their family safe even as Naiya did.

The foreboding glow on the horizon had not reached them, so their preparations were quick and geared towards being able to leave quickly. Here, they gathered the Zibri and the horses, there was Khida making her own way in the preparations, safe for the moment.

Naiya finished the task at hand, signaling to Wildfire - her Wildfire a name, she realized, chosen in poor taste - to stay and watch for the moment, turning then to waking the others, helping to shake them from sleep's grasp.

With everyone wakened, Naiya turned back to the shared tent, finding it taken down and stowed, the action done hastily, but that was not a point to argue. The hunting cats were next on her list, Banti sat on the edge of the camp, looking as nervous as the others, watching the growing glow of fire in the distance. Tuka tended to her Drykas, following Shahar whether for comfort of protection, Naiya could not tell, but it soothed her nerves to know there were so many watchful eyes on her husband.

They were nearly done, packed away and safe when the first sounds of the fire could be heard, it roared forward, towards the tent city at a pace that frightened the Drykas woman. They needed to warn people, to waken the tent city as surely as they had wakened their own family.


Khida, she sought the woman again, fearing only for a moment when she could not find the woman on the ground. Her eyes turned to the sky then, searching for the white feathers of her bird. There, she had taken to the sky, watching, and lending herself to the advantage of vision. Her sharp calls spoke words Naiya could not translate.

"Fire." Her first spoken word since waking, rough with sleep and fear. "Fire!" She called, louder this time, but still pitched with the panic she could not shake. Banti trotted to her side, comforting her Drykas, but it did not still the woman's fear. The cat would be safer in camp, staying with the Zibri and the goat who's bleating was a constant under the growing sounds of both fire and action.

The cat though, would not be persuaded, and Naiya could not waste time trying. Instead she called to her family, she would ride into the city, raise an alarm. Their position on the outskirts of the city gave them advanced notice, they in turn needed to take that and share it with the city.

She mounted Wildfire and started off towards the city, Banti running beside them, "Fire in the west," she called as she rode, the sound of her voice and the trampling hoof beats surely enough to wake the people, but she knew that for some the warning came too late.

She rode to the hub of the city, calling, warning of the fire her mantra as she galloped between pavilions. Then, the sound she had been waiting for, horns, trumpeting a warning across the grass.

Together they turned, a rearing pivot that nearly lost her her seat without a yvas to grasp onto, and raced back towards the flames, heading towards the screams of both horses and humans.