Ancient of Dunáya Chapter 4: Fire

Would that I could die after a life of so many years. Move on to the next adventure. Something new, at least. Something beyond this forest, this little village. What am I supposed to be doing differently?---Wesley of Dunáya

The pain woke her before she choked on smoke. So this was fire. Kareth lay in her bed watching flames dance up the walls in oranges and whites against a black sky outside. They licked her fingers and caught her quilt. New smells and intensified sensations engulfed her as she jumped to her feet. Burning flesh, brilliant pain. Flesh bubbling. Char. She would have screamed if she’d had air to breath that wasn’t flame.

She stepped to the door and collapsed at the bookshelf. Twenty-six volumes of her predecessors flashed and popped and crumbled to embers. She grabbed a volume, clung to it though it caused more pain to touch it, and with her last focus, fought her way through the front room to the door and clean, cool air of the forest.

Kareth fell on her face in the grass, then rolled to her back. Her house, a radiant conflagration, burned to nothing. Her skin was black, and she had no energy to cough. Her vision died. Her breathing stopped. A blessed numbness overcame her.

Image courtesy of mirrorspectrum

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This is chapter 4 of 7 chapters that have been submitted to the ghostwriter project thus far by the original author.
Here are the previous chapters in case you're just coming to this project now and weren't following before.
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3