kaede

Kaede Coal-Tail was immediately wary of the two strangers that had come to their village.

Both of them were human, but neither looked as though they belonged. Though they were dressed for the part, they smelled wrong, her nose twitching as she picked up the scent of what she would later recognize as another world. The man held himself low and submissively, following behind the large woman who seemed to have a glare for every Nezumi she passed. She would hiss to her companion words of absolute disgust, easily heard to Kaede's keen rat ears.

Still, for the moment, this was none of her business and her attention lay elsewhere. She and her gang were gathered around their recent findings, pilfered from a nearby human settlement. At the time, she'd been so proud of that little pile of food and trinkets, knowing that her own claws had been the ones who'd done most of the work. She was a young upstart that was fresh from her parents' arms, carving a place in her gang, eager to impress.

She at least had a few minutes to enjoy it.

She turned her head up as the sounds of a scuffle came from one of the huts. Some of her gang members were already starting to slink closer, knowing that the two strangers were inside. They chattered excitedly to each other of what loot they might get from them. Kaede kept her distance, and it turned out to be the right decision.

The huts barely had time to crackle before they burst into flame, and towering above the village was an enormous beast made entirely of fire. Everywhere around her Nezumi shrieked and fled, some fleeing into the marshes where the water would protect them. Most, though, including her friends that had moved closer, didnt get the chance. Their fur ignited, their screams quickly silenced.

Kaede tried to scream herself, but inhaling at all only brought a torrent of smoke into her lungs that threatened to choke the life out of her. Her muscles locked, even as she tried to run. Every one off her senses overloaded, the acrid scent of smoke and burning flesh, the crushing heat, the cacophony of screams and burning straw and wood.

The beast dropped the ashes of what used to be a Nezumi and turned its sights on her.

She looked away. Saw the two humans fleeing the scene.

She couldn't understand what she was doing at the time, but somehow, she followed them. Away from the burning and death. Away from Kamigawa.

For a few seconds, everything stopped. The nothingness cooled her overheated body, the silence of the void jarring. She moved forward, aimlessly and helplessly as if she'd been thrown into the sky.

When she landed, it was still quiet, but the heat started to creep in quickly. The ground underneath her was warm, alive with flowing, molten rock just below the surface. Inhaling brought the scent of ash and sulfur. The sky above was gray, colored by the massive volcano that lay in the distance.

More fire. The last thing she'd wanted to see. Wherever she'd ended up, she found herself desperately missing fresh air already. With nothing to hold onto, her supports gone, she spent longer than she wanted to admit laying there on the ash bed, curled into herself and wondering, desperately, what she would do now.

Moments ago she'd been so proud of herself, so happy that she was making a name for herself. And in those moments everything'd been torn away.

She only looked up when she felt something prod at her. A group of humans dressed in loose, flowing robes were kneeled down beside her, asking themselves just what the hell they were looking at. She sat up with a start, and without thinking too hard about it started speaking to them in return.

Even if she was completely lost, she thought, this was a good a start as any to get some control back.