fire

Roaring fire burning bright,

Dancing merry through the night.

Speech and song run sweet and long,

Everbathed in glowing light.

Gentle fire under star,

Warming trav’lers from lands afar.

Crystal clear ring cries of cheer‿

While flames flick’ring play on logs smoke-charred.

Raging fire blazing bold,

Greedy tongues lick red and gold.

-Clang- -Clang- -Clang- The hammer fell down rhythmically, at regular intervals. -Clang- Jonn stood before an anvil, with multiple forges glowing in the background. -Clang- In his right hand he held the hammer, while his left held a pair of long-handled tongs gripping a piece of red-hot metal. -Clang- With every strike of the hammer, the metal slowly took shape. -Clang- He rotated the tongs, and the glowing metal became rounded. -Clang- The crude form of a helmet became apparent. -Clang- Out of the crest, the head and front legs of a horse rose, giving evidence of Rohirric design.

Time seemed to slow down and speed up at the same time. The urgency of the moment had now increased ten-fold as the half-naked man's most fearsome foe was no longer the fire passively devouring everything it happened to touch, but rather an armed brute intent on one thing, killing the man in front of him. Yet, as the heartbeat in his ears overpowered the roar of the flames, Jonn became aware of every muscle in his body, everything he could and could not do at this moment.

Awoken from an uneasy sleep, Jonn blinked an eye open to look blearily around the room. Light from the flames danced upon the far wall. Old, wooden timbers held up the second story above his head. A couple of small rooms led off from the common room where he lied. He idly stroked his fingers through the course fur of the bear-skin rug upon which he slept.

The pillars of black smoke funneled together into the sky like a cluster of spears jutting into the earth. As Jonn reached the top of the last rocky hill, he saw where those “spears” converged: the small village where he had stayed peacefully for the past week. At the point where the spears of smoke ended, the fires began, flowing out like blood from a deep wound. Grass, straw, wood, and clay were the primary materials used to build the small group of crude huts making up the village. Everything burned or crumbled under the blazing heat.

-No, no, no!