Warden's Fantasy Shorts

Fight fire with fire

Still another old one, not actually based off of a prompt this time.

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As the storm built, she darted through the small village to the temple protected in the center, the small human child in her arms. Fully human, unlike many left in her forest. Fully human, but fae-kin, touched by magic, abandoned in the forest to die by foolish humans in the lowlands. The temple had been built to protect part-fae and fae-kin children, who grew up to protect the temple or seek their fortune elsewhere, and she– as well as her forest– protected them all.

She left the child on the temple's steps, then made her way back to the trees. Then– "We're sorry."

"We're sorry, so sorry." As the voices continued, she stopped, watching the rain form the shapes of rain sprites.

"You don't–"

"A warning, and apologies we couldn't do more." The willowy sprites around her flickered. "The lowland priests–" The sprites wavered, then were dispersed by a wind whispering apologies.

"Bound storm sprites to weaken us. The hypocrites." She rushed to her tree, the largest in the forest, befitting of a Guardian. The trees moved to make her path easier, and as they shifted out of her way, she saw her own tree, unmoving as she raced toward it and dove in. she felt the Heat of the forest cradled in her roots and her own Heart deep in her trunk. The two Hearts pulsed in time with one another as she screamed through them, warning her forest that–

CRACK

Immediate, searing, burning pain spread through her, masking the feeling of her trunk cleaving and splitting (not down the middle, so her Heart was safe, for now at least) with the feeling of fire. It burns, make it stop burning, breaking, pain, agony, it burns! A vague sense that the rain was now falling harder, the sprites trying to put the fire out– It's not enough, the fire's too hot, too much– hardly registered at all, and the fire was getting bigger, hotter, closer to her Heart, and in a fit of panic, she forced it out, away from her Heart and towards the storm, the rest of the forest. She heard a tree catch through her haze, then another and another, and the Heart in the ground screamed with the agony of the forest, as the blaze she'd forced from herself spread through her forest instead.

She drew the Heart of the forest tighter in her roots and, through the agony her forest felt, hoped that the rain sprites would manage to put out the fire.

She didn't notice the men and women from the temple and village surrounding her until one spoke. "Guardian, you and your forest have been protecting us for centuries. It's time for us to return the favor."

She slipped out of her tree to speak, and the agony doubled, felt in two bodies instead of one. She managed to force out, "How?"

"We can keep you alive, all of you, until we find a way to put out the fire," a different woman said. "Then we will leave. It was our presence that brought this on you, and we won't risk another after all you've done for us."

"Y'don't need to... leave. Knew what we were getting into." She stopped to heave a few breaths, then partially sank into her tree, and the pain eased somewhat. "I'll help find a way to put out..." She gestured to the fire surrounding them, still breathing hard, clearing the air for the villagers. "Fire'll keep the lowlanders away during."

The woman asked, "Are you sure?"

She nodded, unable to speak, and melted back into her tree.

The next day, she limped into the temple for the first time. A young man, fae-kin, met her at the door and took her to the library. She, having no particular care for human and fae types of society, (She was just a sprite, and though she was a higher order than the rest of her forest, she wasn't true fae.) knew little about the workings of the temple beyond what concerned her forest, and much less about written languages. She knew magic though, from her many fae friends throughout her life, so the others who could read would run through spells and she would help them figure out if it would work. She made sure to listen to the forest Heart for any new troubles and focused on keeping the flames on her tree from her own Heart. The rain drummed on, and the lightning sprites kept to the clouds.