The Girl Born of Smoke

by Jessica Billings

  The pine needle covering abruptly ended beneath her and she glanced up. The terribly tall green-needled trees were gone, leaving a bleak scene in their place. A forest of spindly white-barked trees spanned out in front of the group, their withered branches whiter even than the cloudy sky above them.

  Here and there, there were also dark black trees, their wood almost shiny in the hazy daylight. Aurora reached out and touched one of the dark trees, then drew her hand back, rubbing her fingers together. It had left a dusty black residue, which brushed off easily.

  A soft breeze drifted through the empty forest. “What is this place?” someone asked.

  “Just a part of the forest a fire swept through,” Jonah answered. “Nothing to worry about.”

  Djerr fell into step next to Aurora. “This place is weird,” he said quietly.

  “Yeah, kind of creepy.” The group fell silent. The only sound was of the flies circling the group and clicking bugs jumping from tree to tree. It began drizzling slightly as they walked, but there were only a few grumbled complaints.

  “This isn't a recent fire, is it?” one man spoke up suddenly.

  Jonah shrugged. “Not that recent. Why?”

  The man sniffed the air, wide nostrils flaring. “I think I smell smoke.”

  Jonah flipped a hand at him, dismissively. “Probably just some travelers' campfire. We're not the only ones out here.” As they continued to walk, Aurora soon began to smell the smoke as well. The smell grew stronger until everyone began mumbling to each other about it. They all agreed it was much too strong to be a campfire.

  The rain came down incessantly, until it lightened into a soft mist around them. Trudging across the muddy ground, she saw something white flutter down in front of her, then another. Narrowing her eyes, she reached out a hand when she saw another and caught it in her fist. She opened her hand and looked at what she had caught. With a cold shock, she recognized it as a piece of ash as it blew from her hand. Looking around in the haze, she realized as well that it wasn't mist that thickened the air, but smoke.

  The group began to walk faster and Aurora hurried forward to catch up with Kirian. Looking at him anxiously, she noticed that he was staring ahead, into the smoke. She turned her gaze to where he looked and saw something lying on the cold, wet ground. It looked tattered and gray against the mud and she darted forward to see what it was. She heard Kirian yell her name, but ignored him.

  Reaching the object, she knelt down and realized it was a person, face-down. Her heart beating in her ears, she touched the person's shoulder just as Kirian grabbed her arm and tore her away. She could still feel the unnatural cold on her fingertips where she had touched the body.

  “What do you think you're doing?” Kirian hissed in her ear as he dragged her back into the group. “Stay in the back, out of the way.” He let go of her and hurried back toward Jonah's side. The group passed by the dead body in the mud, no one looking in its direction except Aurora.

  People shifted nervously as the ash began falling thicker, their swords clinking against their armor. There was a sharp intake of breath as they entered the town tucked away inside the forest. The forest around the town was untouched by fire and Aurora realized that Jonah had been telling the truth; the forest fire was much older.

  Several more corpses littered the ground and the town was deathly silent, except for a strange wailing noise. Her stomach lurching, Aurora realized it was a woman. She saw the woman crouched over a small figure that couldn't be more than five years old. Many of the houses were still smoldering and several of the survivors wandered through the street, looking confused. When they saw Jonah and the others, swords at their sides, the townspeople all either fled or stared at them in horror, except for the wailing woman, who didn't even glance up at them.

  Jonah held up his hands, empty and bare. “We're here to help!” he announced loudly. “We're with the Citizens’ Army. Am I right in assuming the Wizard's Army has been through here recently?” One man nodded slowly, still staring wide-eyed at the group. “Please,” Jonah continued, “I understand you are all upset, but you cannot stay here. Come with us and fight back against the ones who did this to you. You can stay with us for as long as you like and we can provide free food and shelter.”

  The man who had nodded simply looked stonily at Jonah for a moment. “Everyone,” he said finally, “everyone I have ever known and loved just died here today. My entire family is gone and you're asking me to pick up a sword and help kill the ones who did this to them.”

  Bobbing his head encouragingly, Jonah held out his hand. “Exactly. You don't have to stand by and let this happen. Come with us.”

  “But it's already happened,” the man said, his voice emotionless. “The worst has already happened. Will killing more people bring my family back?” Jonah opened his mouth, but the man continued, “No. I have seen enough killing. I don't care who you're killing. It's all the same.” He trudged away.

  “But you could help prevent this tragedy from happening to another family!” Jonah called after him. “Don't you want to help turn all this into something positive?”

  The man turned back toward them. “No,” he sounded angry. “I don't. I couldn’t care less about some other family right now.” Without another word, he walked around the corner of a building, out of sight.

  Jonah shrugged and turned toward the group. “Well, you know the drill,” he said. “Go see if we can at least find a couple people who will join us. Talk to everyone you see. Explain we're trying to help them.” The group began to disperse and Aurora looked around helplessly at the sad scene. She had lost track of Djerr after entering the town. Frowning, she noticed that no one was approaching the woman mourning the child. No one even looked at her. They seemed to go out of their way not to look at her.

  Breaking away from the group, Aurora slowly walked up to the woman and crouched down in front of her, on the other side of the child. She looked at the body. It was a boy, his curly brown hair matted with blood. Part of his skull had been crushed inward and his face was twisted into an expression of pain, both eyes still slightly open. One arm was flung out to the side, the smooth palm facing upwards. Aurora touched the boy's hand and found it was clammy and unnaturally stiff. The woman had stopped wailing and instead rocked silently back and forth on her heels.

  “What happened?” Aurora asked, swallowing.

  The woman showed no sign that she was even aware of Aurora's presence.

  Aurora put a hand out and laid it on the woman's shoulder. “Are you okay?”

  The woman snapped her hand up and grabbed Aurora's wrist tightly. “What have you done?” she asked sharply, finally meeting Aurora's eyes as she stopped rocking.

  Eyes wide, Aurora shook her head violently. “I didn't do this!” she protested.

  The woman slowly let go of her wrist. “What have you done?” she whispered, looking horrified.

  Aurora stumbled backwards. “I didn't-” As she watched, the woman suddenly went back to rocking and sobbing loudly, paying no attention to Aurora. Shaking slightly, Aurora turned and walked away, back to where the forest lined the town. She sat at the base of one of the trees and drew her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around them. Watching her fellow soldiers wander around the town, often in small groups, following after the townspeople, she felt embarrassed that she was even part of the group.

  “Hey!” Jonah had noticed her sitting by herself. He walked over and looked at her sternly. “What are you doing over here? There are still lots of people to talk to in this town. Everyone's working hard except you.”

  Aurora shook her head. “I don't want to.”

  Jonah sighed loudly. “You're Kirian's kid, aren't you?”

  “I guess?” She wasn’t sure how to answer.

  “Well, how would he feel about your refusal to participate?” Jonah asked her. “I mean, here we are, providing you with a place to go after your home was destroyed and you don't want to do anything for us in return.”


  Aurora didn't reply and set her head down on her knees. Jonah simply shrugged and walked away, back into the town, advertising the glories of the Citizens’ Army to any of the townspeople who glanced his way. As it turned out, no one in the town wanted to join their group and Jonah was forced to count it as a loss.

  They left that evening, heading back into the remote forest. Only ten days later, they came to another town in the same state of recent destruction. After a lecture from Kirian, Aurora reluctantly participated. That time, they managed to recruit three new members for the army. Two of them were recruited by Aurora. Both were young women who had lost their daughters in the attack.

  Djerr dutifully performed his duties as well, attempting to recruit the townspeople, although he had much less success. He never again asked Aurora if she wanted to leave the army. They fell into the routine of the army quickly and grew accustomed to walking for long periods of the day. Soon, they left the forest and came across another town, destroyed as well. They picked up several more survivors.

  Aurora began to worry that the Wizard's Army had swept across the entire world as they lagged behind. After nearly half a year in the Citizens’ Army, she counted a total of sixteen towns that had been destroyed, several without a single survivor. Those were the worst, where the fires had blazed out of control until they spread to engulf the entire town and the surrounding area. They were often still burning when the Citizens’ Army arrived. Jonah labeled those towns “lost causes,” although they still spent a day each time, searching the outskirts of the fire for survivors. They never found any.

  Even after so long in the army, Aurora had yet to draw her sword.

  She often wished they would hurry their pace, especially after she heard how nearly they had missed the Wizard's Army. They were often only a day or two behind them. Sometimes less. But no matter how much she pleaded with Jonah to walk just a little longer each day, he refused each time, claiming that not everyone in the group was as young or fit as she was.

  A few others were not content to accept this explanation or they couldn’t stand the destruction and death they encountered so very often and left the army, often during the night. It was not unusual to wake up and find a spare set of armor lying where a person had lay down to sleep the night before. However, even with the deserters, the army steadily grew in size.

  They meandered slowly across the land, never heading in a single direction and sometimes nearly doubling back on the direction from which they had come. One time, Aurora recognized the landscape and realized they were nearing one of the towns she had stayed at with Roxanne and Kirian, during their trip to Kain. At the same moment, she also realized that had been well over a year ago and felt startled that so much time had slipped by.

  That town turned out to be one of the “lost causes.” She could never explain to Djerr why she broke down crying that night as they fell asleep. She didn't know herself. More than ever, she felt like she had lost something that could never be reclaimed.

  Many days later, in the dusty hour between afternoon and evening, the group crested a hill that looked down upon a wide valley. A river twisted through the center, glimmering in the sun. Buildings and farming fields were scattered on the near side of the river and after a moment, Aurora realized she could just make out little dots of people moving throughout the village. With a rush of relief, she realized that they had actually arrived in time. The people below moved about in no great hurry. All was peaceful. Aurora paused to smile at Djerr, then started down the tall hill.

  “Wait,” Jonah called to her.

  Impatiently, she paused and turned.

  “We camp here tonight,” he continued. “It's getting late and the Wizard's Army is nowhere in sight. Those people will be fine for today.”

  Aurora stared in shock. “What are you talking about? It's not getting late. We could easily make it down there before dark.”

  Crossing his arms, Jonah shook his head firmly. “I think you're forgetting who's in charge here, kid.”

  Aurora opened her mouth, but caught sight of Kirian glaring at her, and reluctantly stayed silent. Stalking away, she sat down on the bluff and looked down at the villagers obliviously going on with their lives. She caught sight of one little dot, running frantically between the houses, then spotted several others, following close behind. She squinted worriedly at them, but noticed none of the other dots seemed alarmed and continued on their way. Smiling slightly, she realized they must be children, playing chase.

  “Hey,” Kirian sat down beside her. “What's gotten into you?”

  Aurora pulled at a strand of her hair and continued to watch the people below. “It's just that we always seem to arrive less than a day late to every town we come across. It's the same horrid scene over and over again, yet we never seem to hurry to our next destination. Finally, we get somewhere in time, just in time to warn all those poor people, and I'm afraid we're going to miss that chance.” She leaned back and looked up at the sky. “Jonah promised us the chance to prevent what happened in Kain from happening to other people, but I feel like all we've done is sit back and watch the exact same thing happen over and over.” Biting her lip, she looked over at Kirian. “Doesn't it get to you?”

  He shrugged. “We do what we can to help the survivors.”

  “Yeah, we recruit them into our little army.” Aurora picked at the long grass beside her. “I just feel so useless.”

  Kirian patted her shoulder as he stood up. “You're a sweet girl, Aurora, but you need to learn to listen to the ones in charge. Jonah knows what he’s doing.”

  She glared crossly at him as she lay down in the cool grass on the side of the hill, half-napping until night fell. When she propped herself up on her shoulder, she could look down on the town, illuminated by the cool moonlight which slid down the hill and enveloped the town.

  Continuing to prop herself up every few moments to check on it, Djerr finally grumbled sleepily at her to stop. Breathing a long sigh of hope, she flipped over onto her back and finally closed her eyes, her mind slipping away on the soft night breeze.

  When she awoke the next morning, she judged that the sun had not been up for long. No one else was awake yet and the morning was quietly calm. A pale yellow butterfly flitted by overhead. Feeling relieved, she sat up and looked down at the town, rubbing the grogginess from her eyes.

  She saw a small plume of smoke rising from one of the houses. Squinting, she tried to determine if it was simply coming from the chimney or something more. Her heart beating quickly, she caught a gasp in her throat when she saw a flash of fire from the house and then noticed another small trail of smoke rise from another house. With a cry, she wasted no time tearing her blanket off and stuffing it in her backpack. As a few of her fellow soldiers groaned and sat up, looking around, Aurora threw her armor and sword on. Djerr opened his eyes, looking confused, but Aurora had already jumped to her feet and started down the hill, toward the town.

  She hurtled down the long hill, stumbling and skidding through the thick grass. She managed to keep her footing until the hill leveled out and her momentum carried her over her feet. Sprawling face first onto the ground, she lay there for a moment, trying to catch her breath.

  Sucking in the sharp smell of grass and dirt, she pushed herself to her feet. Over the sound of her pounding heart, she heard someone yell her name from behind, but fearing to wait a moment longer, she dashed into the smoldering town. The smoke arched over the town and had already formed a layer of haze across the sky.

  Her skin prickled from the heat of the fires. Smoke billowed out of the open window of a house next to her. Running to the front door, she threw it open and staggered back as more smoke poured out. “Is anyone in here?” she yelled. Listening closely, she thought she heard a cry. As she glanced around, she saw a soldier of the Wizard's Army round the corner of the street.

  Hoping he had not spotted her, she quickly slipped into the house. Coughing, she looked around. Through the thick smoke, she saw t
he chairs and curtains were engulfed in crackling flames. Dropping to her hands and knees where the smoke seemed thinner, she crawled deeper into the house, through a door. The fire had not yet reached the room and the smoke seemed less dense. She saw a bed in front of her with a small lump lying on it. Her eyes feeling dry and painful, she squinted and crawled closer. Kneeling up, she saw a small face on the bed looking over at her. The girl had bright blue eyes and her long dark hair sprawled out on the bed where she lay.

  The girl frowned over at Aurora. “Why did you do this to me?”

  “I-” Aurora bent over coughing, hands pressed to the floor. When she had recovered, she continued, “I'm not with the army who attacked your town, I'm here to help. Come on.”

  “I know who you are.” The girl glared at Aurora, her voice resounding clearly over the crackle of the fire.

  “Come on, we need to go.” Aurora glanced behind her, realizing the smoke was getting thicker. Her eyes streamed with tears as she reached out to grab the girl's arm. “Come on.” Aurora's hand went through the girl's arm and she drew back her hand in alarm. As she blinked, the girl vanished. Clutching desperately at the blankets piled up on the bed, she finally tumbled backward so that she was sitting on the floor.

  She heard a whimper and wondered if it was her own. She caught sight of something shift underneath the bed and she hurriedly scampered forward for a closer look. A slightly pudgy boy with shaggy black hair was curled up in the corner under the bed, his eyes squeezed shut. Sliding herself partway under the bed, she grabbed hold of his shirt sleeve and slid him out from under the bed. As he felt her tug, the boy began frantically thrashing about, his eyes still closed tight.