Fresh Starts: A Flaming Flicker

Prologue

The faintest noise of a waterfall could be heard from afar..
The thump of waterdrops slammed in their head.

Drip Drip
Drip Drip

They clutched their head, trying to cancel out the noise.
But what they felt wasn't their paw.

They jolted up, startled, and looked at themselves.

To their horror, all they saw was fire. Fire that triggered something for Hypnus to remember.

The piercing screams of his fellow comrades. The bright rising flames, eating away at the wooden toys. The burning sensation on their fur, bristling onto their skin. Their own tears that fell down evaporating with the unbearable heat.

Hypnus staggered back, their fiery eyes widening. "No.. No no.. This couldn't have happened" they gasped staring blankly to the ground, being blind of their surroundings.

"N-no..." they repeated, breathing in and out. They were striken by such a strong emotion, that they couldn't help but clutch their flaming chest. At least- they grabbed on to whatever chest they used to have.

The only thing that snapped them out of it was a loud thump.

The fire creature looked up, to see a torch base that would have fallen to the ground. Hypnus slightly narrowed their eyes. 'How peculiar?-' they thought, before looking around. The torches around danced in a fiery light, in the shape of lynx and leopards. They stopped once Hypnus looked up, and stared.

Not only that, but the cave looked.. Like it had never burned down at all.
The carpets were clean, and the small wooden toys were not burned in any way.

The fire lynx looked around more, studying the alive-like flames. They froze in place under their gaze, almost every single one of them. Yet- once remained burning and dancing along. The fire that danced looked vaguely familiar- with its curves and pattern, until Hypnus put the pieces together in their mind.

"What have you done, Aarush" Hypnus growled, walking up to the flame.
As soon as the fire lynx said that, the flame grew vaguely larger, growing more visible as a leopard.
"Oh, you think I did something?" Said the slick sounding flame, raising its voice when it said "I".
"Why would you think I would not be suspicious of you doing this? You have been nothing but trouble these last few years. You even wished death upon these cats once" said the fire lynx, sounding enraged.

Aarush looked sarcastically hurt, and Hypnus couldn't help to roll their eyes.
"Just because I've been trouble, doesn't mean I have or will do anything bad that happens in your life, or, old-life. I guess I can't really say 'life' anymore, since you're dead" echoed the flame, sounding cold, but with a slightly joyful tone that made his speech all the more eerie.

"Besides, it's all in the past nowww. You have no reason to be mad at me for something that already happened." Said Aarush.
Hypnus opened and closed their mouth, as trying to talk back, but couldn't find the words.

The fire lynx huffed, and waved away the flame of the torch with their paw, or whatever used to be their paw.
Surprisingly, the fire wasn't hot at all.

Hypnus walked away from the angry ranting of Aarush, and started down the corridors, watched the repetitive image of torches, toy horses, and carpets, pass by them. They almost felt dizzy seeing this over and over again, until they got to a large room.

The room was filled with candles and herbs, potions and crushed dried plants. This was the healing room.

The thing Hypnus was walking to was the large healing spring in the middle.
They stared in the water, looking at their own reflection. It felt so wrong to look at, their whole body covered in a thick coat of red and orange, and in the core that they could see, was a bright yellow.

Hypnus stared deep at their own reflection, and the torches around, before they began to speak to the pond.
"I'm sorry I failed you... Mother"

Is what they said, before they heard another thumping noise nearby.

The fire lynx stood up from their mourning, to see what the noise was again. They walked out of the room, and kept walking along a few corridors, until they saw a small snow leopard cub, with small wings, and an aroura borealis pattern along them, looking around at other flaming spirits practically flying around him.

The thing that thumped the ground seemed to be two torch based that fell.

Hypnus stared in astonishment, because both of the cub, and the moving flames.

"I've never seen anything like this creature!" said a voice which was almost recognizable. "It looks so strange.. But cool at the same time!" said another voice. Both of the voices seemed to be coming from the flickering flames.

The cub seemed to be slightly uncomfortable, but curious nonetheless.
"Hey! Stop overwhelming the small leopard!" commanded the large flaming cat.

And just like that, the flames scattered around, and went behind Hypnus. "Sorry commander!" they said in unison, seeming like a large ball of fire commanding other smaller balls of fire was absolutely normal. Hypnus narrowed their eyes in confusion, but they decided to deal with this later.

They slowly walked up to the cub, who seemed to be getting straighter and taller.
"What is your name, child?"
They asked in a whispy voice.

The leopard shook out their fur. "Phantom" they replied, almost instantly.

Hypnus smiled. "Hello.. My name is Hypnus"

(Wooooo
918 words for the prologue- haha)