As if the greatest challenge was upon itself, the little hands of the soul-fire clenched into Allan's clothes. They caught on fire, before turning to ashes. No harm was ever visible on Allan's body. Even more so, the fire was always extinguished as it moved. The ashes were the cause.
Leg, hand, and so on. It moved from Allan's legs, lower body, and up.
Watching Allan's face for a bit, soul-fire was beginning to climb his face. It wanted to go up, towards the waves that are beyond.
Putting its feet on his nose, it grabbed into the cloth around Allan's eyes.
As it was just a piece of fabric, it blazed and fell apart. Almost falling down, soul-fire once again panicked and tried to get hold of something.
Putting its hands into Allan's eye sockets, it calmed down. Although it wondered where these holes came from.
Nothing no longer obscuring its path. Limbs of the soul-fire landed on the head of sleeping Allan.
The summit of the climb was brief, but it felt challenging. It was as if the climb was finally over as it bend its knees in a tired expression.
At last, it looked from the bigger perspective around. Seeing further and deeper into the world, the soul-fire noticed a lot of things. Familiar things.
Forging equipment was most noticeable and led to particular memories. They reappeared in small flashes which made it more confusing. Clayton's face was visible in most of them, but there was no hatred, nothing strange or out of place. This forgetting feeling felt different. Right. The soul-fire forgot something.
It felt a weird sense of freedom amidst the sight and those flashes of memories. The soul-fire even forgot the reason for its climb. It stared and glanced around once more. Seeking something familiar, or different. Unfortunately, there were few things that could spark its memories. The only one being the general view of the forgery.
In the past, this soul-fire could remember brief moments of excitement and sight of the particular stern face. Yet, there was also a sudden jolt of meaning within its mind.
The ball that makes its core, flamed up in emotion. It understood something bad... A bad memory to be exact. One, that it felt in the past, as it disappeared in pain, grief, and shock from the crimson enemy that almost ate it apart. There was also a flash of sight of what seemed as a strike of the heavens.
Soul-fire felt a strange sensation from that attack. Understanding that now... it wanted to comprehend it for some reason. However, it wasn't meant to aim toward it. That attack and strike was seeking the person below at that time, or the force that almost ate it.
All of a sudden, it remembered a crucial thing that was left untouched for a long period. It could see the familiar face of Allan, who looked familiar to his father.
Glancing down, Allan's face was kind of like that. It was him. He was attacked by that heavenly retribution.
Apart from it, there was very little to think about.
Looking up from before, the waves that it had now seen were coming to its revelation. Fascinating stuff that was wanted. Those waves were coming from the furnace since very little time passed since Allan's collapse. The flame inside was still hot, but the waves weren't coming from the furnace.
They were within the mind of the soul-fire, as no one else could see them. The waves were flickering around the residual coal, charred wood, and escaped from the furnace.
Now, it saw the waves that represent the law of heat. A thing it loved the most.
The mouth of the soul-fire was shocked, and with excitement, it jumped from Allan's head.
In the sky, or to be precise, a meter and half to the air, it grabbed those waves with small limbs. Starting to absorb this law, soul-fire was beaming with excitement that was apparent. The flaming from his core made it quite easy to spot.
Like a stream of lakes that flowed in a black hole, the waves disappeared fast, in a direction of its core. It grinned wildly as it ate every shred of the law of heat. It resembles the contentment, or a grinning face of a child, which ate something delicious.
Colorful red and orange flames danced around its body and in a blink of an eye, the furnace was empty of all flames. Warmth and heat within the furnace disappeared so suddenly that the remaining pieces of charcoal and wood turned to ashes.
With the flow which ended all of a sudden, soul-fire felt a bit of satisfaction from so little. It remembered many abundant laws from its life... Although at the moment, this was still very good for it.
Sitting on the spot in the furnace, its back faced the room. It pondered over the current situation. Considering its intelligence and the number of memories it had, there were times when it remembered nothing else but the dull emptiness of loneliness.
Unfortunately for it, the soul-fire knew it was its path and destiny. Soul-fires could be kind, fierce, hot, strange, evil, brutal, violent, and all the others.
Yet this one felt different. It never felt like being brutal or strange. It only wanted to cultivate and go by the call of the universe. Its purpose was, after all, very simple. To flow... to live... Making its own fate.
This one particular soul-fire was emotional. Throughout the years, it yearned for the end of the void. That wasn't to wait for the end of its life, to be exact.
All living beings have some sense of self. Be it from the soul, appearance, surroundings in which they grew up, and so on. As for the soul-fire which was currently on top of the furnace, it was like a fledgling. The one that looked at the world around it for the first time in confusion.
That wasn't wrong, but its memories of the past showed some other things. Now, it wasn't its life... There was a different home. It wasn't like this in the past when the small fledgling of a soul-fire lived in the core of the volcano.
In truth, it was very far away from that point, nor the point where it was a weak soul-fire. There was some change to its structure, or soul, as it was hit and escaped from the hammer emblem. It still remembered the last time when it saw Clayton.
That was a flash of memory where it saw his face, but it had the helpless expression that time around. The kind, which seemed unwilling, but forceful. He stored it away in the storage type of treasure.
No soul-fire would want to end like this one, yet the content it felt was also something that most of its kind wouldn't want.
It now felt the freedom it wanted, but something else as well. The soul-fire had a small void in its memories and heart. It either went missing or there was something strange going on.
Looking down at the furnace, it moved down on top of Allan's head. Crouching down, it patted Allan's head. Satisfied and in a great mood, it started to condense the laws of heat, which were still swirling around it. They represented the waves until every speck of them was within its body at last.
This was a play of light, flames, and heat. It resembled nothing destructive, as it was very gentle instead. If it would be destructive, perhaps the whole building would be turned into ashes a long time ago. Even the cottage, surrounding trees, and river would be gone as well if it would be too forceful.
The forge was returned to the previous calm, but no lantern or flame was no longer lit. Every point of heat was gone, while the only light came from the windows and the soul-fire.
There was calm and peace, which was interrupted by someone or something. The soul-fire flashes, as there was a sudden movement.
A shadow moved not that fast, as it was already been here for quite a long time.
Unnoticed by soul-fire, the hidden figure was crouching by Allan's side. Not necessary to observe him, as there was nothing new apart from his sleeping face.
It was more clear to say it was watching the soul-fire, than anything else. Since the ball was so bad at watching its surroundings, being unnoticed was easy.
“Hello. How are you doing?” Sarey's voice echoed into the mind of the soul-fire, which shook to the core. Once again, it recognized this voice... Its soul flickered in the surprise of colors.
It did not panic this time. Instead, it froze on the spot.
Its mouth gaping in embarrassment and shock. It jumped in panic while swirling hands leads to an obvious panic attack. It wanted to flee, but a movement of hands soon stopped its panics.
Any human would find the literal wielding of the soul-fire to be impossible. It was as if the sun itself was within soul fire's core. Sarey was no different, so she was careful about it.
Although the heat wasn't that bad as the heat was more contained within it because of the previous eating of the waves. The self-method of preservation, while reducing the heat, was something it willingly did. For a more stealthy approach, and a memory it knew.
It still failed to go unnoticed, and the figure of someone already familiar was in front of it.
“I told you before, I won't hurt you.”
Sarey's image was enveloped in the waves of moonlight. It was coming from the open window, while her face was very close to the shocked soul-fire.
Sweating and strained, Sarey did her best to preserve her senses. This time around, her hair did not change for some reason. Whatever that meant.
Holding her hands up as a form of peace and stability, she shakes her hands in the motion of giving up. A smiling and calm face was always on her face to remain as friendly as possible.
Soul-fire was grimacing at her with unknown intentions. It froze again with any ability to think about what to do. This was a strange turn of events. It wanted to glance into the outside world with no intention of making it obvious to others. It was a different kind of view, but also not that bad.
Like this, the pair of soul-fire and Sarey stared at each other for a few minutes, before the soul-fire's flickering flames calmed down. As if in a frenzy of apology, it wanted to get back to its home. Unfortunately, the only place of return was Allan's chest. Sitting on his head, soul-fire was considering its chances.
Seeing it calming down, Sarey did the same as she sat down a meter before Allan.
“You are quite a pretty being, aren't you?” She muttered and leaned her head forward to see a bit closer.
The appearance of the ball with a split mouth on its surface with two arms and legs entered her view. Flames, heat, and a strange feeling of warmth accompanied all of this, from its proximity. It was still hot, but it was very manageable for the moment.
Soul-fire watched with alerted posture if Sarey meant danger or not. Right now, it ate its fill. Although little, it still felt it wanted to be away from any dangers. Soul-fires had some limitations.
After all, they were living beings that came from nature itself. They originate from the universe, and throughout vast history, their worth was a subject for many ages. It was deeply engraved in their heart, that where one was weak, or a fledgling, carefulness was due.
Some more primitive nations even thought of them as godly beings. Making drawings of weird round objects with sometimes sinister or kind faces. The flame was a birth, death, and new beginning in many religions across the planets of the universe.
Its laws were the same everywhere. In a sense, this was a rule, what came within the very beginning of the universe. Heat, light, space, time, and many more things were necessary for the beginning. No one could understand what sort of sight it could be to see the very beginning of a soul-fire's origin or birth.
Sarey was staring at it, not knowing what she wanted with it as well. It was her curiosity and care for Allan's safety that lead to her decision to head outside to see what he was up to.
In truth, she was watching this play for almost an hour already. Watching the full creation of the last third peace, she waited and saw him collapse to the ground. Before she knew it, the familiar sight of the ball of fire entered her eye. It wasn't that dark as the light and heat of the soul-fire made it quite obvious.
It shined and flickered with light and seemed much more lovely than before. Perhaps it is the cause of its growth.
“Do you understand me? My words?” She asked after some time. Soul-fire had no answer or change in its expression, although its back flickered in thin flames. It could be something like a human when they have shivers on their back in certain situations. It was nervous.
“I guess not.” She sighed and moved closer again.
The nervousness intensified, but it could also hear no malice from the human before itself. People were a threat to it, yet it knew that the previous master was gone. The flashes of memories made it quite adamant and even the aspect of the impact on its being.
Res and getting stronger were the things it wanted the most right now.
The temperature of the surroundings increased considerably. Heat blew into Sarey's face as the appearance of the soul-fire changed in its little try to see the changes in this being.
“Huh? No, that is an involuntary effect of yours. No need to worry.” Sarey concluded.
Seeing her approach getting closer and closer, soul-fire got up in an apprehensive manner. It made a fake hideous pose as if it was the biggest villain it knew. It was intimidating the being in the front with no intention of backing away.
“I want to check you up, as well as the boy you stand on. Is something wrong with you? Being so nervous is not good for your health.” Sarey's voice talked sweetly and with crystal clear reasons.
Yet, it fell on the deaf ears. Soul-fire was not retreating but awaiting what this being wanted. After all, there was no malice, but curiosity.
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