Forgotten Ash

It comes slowly. First is the bitter chill. Then the familiar sound of embers. And finally faded light coming from somewhere.

I don't move for a long moment as my weary mind pulls itself together. I have slept for so long, why wake now?

Because something calls us.

I tilt my head up and feel the armor on my body shift. Where … am I? The first thought that comes to my mind as I stare down at an all too familiar sight. Some dark cavern surrounds me as an old coiled blade stands in a smoldering fire that beats back the darkness.

Fire? I ended the fire, how? I stare for a moment and hold out an armored hoof like so many times before. I feel something shift in me, the endless pit that rests in my soul calls to it. But unlike so many other times the flames do not come, no, they bend to the ring of fire in my soul.

I pull back. I feel it, the First Fire rests in my very soul. But ... it does not ... hurt? Why? The question seems to have no answer.

I remember my actions clearly. I took the First Fire and Dark Soul with me into death. And yet, I am here? Did death not take me? Even now? I look down at the accursed campfire, the source of an endless cycle. How many times have I fallen only to wake up here?

I can feel the last embers in this campfire calling me, they want to be taken back to where they came from. This should not be here, the Fire is within ME, and that is where it WILL stay. I reach out and rend that flame back to me with a will that the gods themselves could not match.

The flickering flame shifted and rose to wind up my limb, it climbed higher before sinking into the gaps of my blackened armor. I braced for the inevitable pain that comes from the First Fame... But, it does not come. It melds into the ring around my soul and feels... Whole again?

The campfire dies after a moment leaving me in the comforting dark. My resolve fades for a while. Why did I wake? I was at rest ... was it this little remnant of flame that woke me?

No.

The call I heard was more... Desperate. But why? No being should call upon something like me, I am nothing but a smoldering ember of an age now long past... I think, my rest calls to me again. But that call, it was so... Young.

Nothing that young should cry so.

I abruptly stare up at the wall of rock in front of me, the small round passageway of a cave leading somewhere. And, once again I hear that call. Now it was... Afraid... And alone... I know such things far too well.

Rest can wait.

I reach out with my hood and grab coiled blade's handle. The twisted metal starts to glow and smolder at my touch, welcoming the very flame that it was forged in. My rest may come later, something calls, and I promised to answer all those in need long ago.

I rend the blade from the stone and ash as embers with shadowy smoke start to flicker off of my body. I use the light and walk towards the passageway. It ascends, slowly step by step I walk higher and higher.

All the while that cry keeps calling, almost as if it knows I am listening.

Eventually, the dark is broken by more than just my blade and armor. Sunlight? At first, I almost didn't believe it. It's been so long since I saw it… The sun… But it was an illusion then, so what is this then? I stand on a cliff edge, above a seemingly endless plain of snow.

But even with the snow falling around me I can feel it, the sun is there. But, it is not the sun I know... It's... Different. As I stare up I again feel the call, the snowstorm parts a little from the wind and for a moment I see it. A city gleaming in the light.

The call comes from there.

Then that is where I will go. It is time to once again greet a new age.

Do not worry little one, this smoldering ash comes to answer your call.