Silent Voices (Fate-14 IC Thread)

[combatwombat519]

West Shroud, the night of the Calamity.

 

The sky was raining fire. Toban tried his best to push that realization out of his head as he led his family and their entire village towards Gridania. Above them another huge ball of flame, trailing black smoke, streaked overhead. The forest lit up with a hellish orange glow as it passed over and then out of sight before a low rumble echoed over the surrounding woods. Some of the other villagers cried out, calling to the twelve and the elementals to spare them.

 

 

"We're almost there everyone. Soon Fallgourd will be in sight and then the city." Toban stopped for a moment, ushering several people past himself as he looked over the line of villagers. They all clutched at bags and sacks, the few possessions they all grabbed after it was decided to try and get to the city.  The elementals tugged at Toban's senses. Urgency, fear, haste were all they would tell him.

 

 

Suddenly everyone heard a roar that seemed to shake them from head to toe and the glow in the sky, the moon that had been coming closer and closer lit up the sky with orange light. With a horrid shriek it blew apart, fire hurtling to the ground and throwing huge plumes of smoke and flame into the sky.

 

 

All around Toban, screams filled the night as the fire started to rain down nearby. The elementals as the ground and forest were twisted and blown apart. Toban looked to the head of the line where his wife and children stood. All of them looking back with fear on their faces. He reached up, comforting words on his lips when a sudden explosion threw him to the ground. He watched, almost in slow motion as fire surged out from the impact and something metallic, glinting in the fire spun end over end before striking his wife in the chest and throwing her to the ground.

 

 

"Anna!" Toban struggled to stand back up, to rush to his wife's side when suddenly there was a loud, ominous crack and the ground beneath them all started to shift and bend. The river beside the path kicked up and roiled. With a sudden lurch the ground shifted and dumped about half the people into the water. Toban yelling in horror as he sees his daughter falling towards the suddenly surging waters "Emma!"

 

All around him the elementals screamed in pain and fear as the land that made them cracked, fractured and began to burn. Toban fell to his knees, his ears ringing,  the sounds of fear and pain almost covering up the crack of wood as the great oak next to him broke and began to fall towards him. His last sight before the tree crashed down was fire consuming the western shroud.