Wildfire~The Dark Forest (Book One)

Chapter Eight~Ash, The Flame Cat:

I panted, and looked around frantically. 

Fire. Fire everywhere. 

The trees burst into a new set of flames, swirling in the air with new energy. Ash. Ash was also everywhere. It was from the trees, and the others who hadn't made it. I had made it, I don't remember how, but I did. But it wasn't gonna last long if I couldn't find a shelter soon, I needed to escape this burning fury. 

Suddenly, I saw what looked like the shape of a cat, I ran to the cat-like figure, the flames burning me a little bit. 

I finally got to the cat-like figure. It looked a lot like...

Ash. 

It was Ash. But he was much bigger now, and looked unaffected by the flames. There was something about him that made my stomach turn. And it made me want to literally turn, around. I looked back behind me, fire. In front of me, fire. And everywhere, surrounding us, you guessed it, fire. 

His fur was covered in flames, the ends of his fur, standing up, all flames, his eyes turned a sickly yellow, his teeth glinting in the light of the flames, his mouth burning from the inside.  Ash's ears looked like flaming, furry triangular rocks. 

I was trapped by the fire. The only thing in the world, besides the fire, was me and Ash. He walked over to me, and just the force of the fire around his fur, made me want to back up. I backed up, unable to take anymore. 

He backed me up a whisker away from the wall of fire. "Ash!" I yelped, feeling my fur burn, reaching my flesh. "Ash! Ash, please." 

He grinned evilly, then let out his claws. He held them up, then slashed me across the face, blood trickled down, evaporating as soon as it hit the dry ground.  "Ash!" I yelped, trying not to hit the ground, 'cause he would have easily pushed me in. My tail was tightly wrapped around me. My claws dug into the ground. 

Finally, he said something, "You deserve to burn, Wildfire." He took a short step closer. 

"No! Ash, please! I'm not like that anymore! I'm good now!" 

"You keep saying that, yet you keep letting the ones you love, disappear, like the ash all around us." He says, surprisingly softly. 

"I've changed! I'm not like, like how you are right now! What happened? How did this fire get here, how did all of this happen?!" I yelped. 

"Wildfire, it burns in us all, not just in you. It took me awhile to realize it, but it's been all of us, all this time. But, you. You're the one who started it, the one who played with the flames, like a little kitten with a string, until it all burned down, and turned into this." 

My head was spinning. I was beyond 'too close for comfort'. I needed out of here, my head, trying to think of a clever plan, but... 

Nothing. 

Just, nothing. 

Nothing but the furious fire-scape. 

And of course Ash, there was him too. 

I looked around frantically, "Ash, Ash, Ash, please! Let me go!" 

"It doesn't matter, the clock has ticked it's last tock." None of this was making sense to me. 

Ash took one last step, and I fell back, burning, burning. 

Infinite fury. 

Forever. 

I woke up on the top-or the ceiling-of the tree that me and Pixels were trapped under. My claws released, and I dropped down, on all fours. Pixels was as tired as a kitten that had just played all day. 

I panted, sitting down. I began to lick in between my paws, and a bit of my claws. My tounge gliding through my furry black paws. 

What was that dream? I can't even remember, but it scared me to the point that I was literally scared out of my pelt, I was on the ceiling for whiskers sake! I couldn't remember a single line from my dream. Perhaps something to do with fire? I felt pain, it scared me. Yeah, I remember fire. But no matter how hard I tried to remember the horror that had befallen me in my dream, I couldn't seem to remember it at all.