Ashes of Tomorrow

"The Vermin spread,
Defiling, corrupting, devouring,
Ashes to Ashes"

Smoke rose from the village ahead, embers still smouldering. Weary steps carried her forward down the muddy road. Once it must have looked peaceful, this road. Now the ground was torn and ripped with innumerable footsteps from uncountable masses. She stumbled over something eerily similar to a human ribcage. Rain began to fall. Light faded as the rain drowned the embers, taking away the last remnants of life from the smoking remains of once vibrant homes. Countless memories and lifetimes, families and futures, snuffed out.

The charred wood crumbled beneath her fingers. The roof had given in on the tavern, the iron bolts the last remains of the proud Wanderer's Home. A lonely tear struck the ground. She rose and moved through the ashes. Every broken house, every smoking ruin was another grim reminder of names lost, loves broken and friendships torn by fire. Had she only gotten here sooner...

A lone house rose from the rain and smoke before her. Through the inferno, it had remained, a solitary monument. Slowly she pushed open the door and entered the house. In their pots lay the ashes of once colourful flowers. The kitchen, ones brimming with wonder and joy, lay black and burnt. On the ground, white bones broke the black. Through the house she went, searching, hoping.

The final door loomed before her, the blackened bones propped up against it telling a grim tale of sacrifice. She tenderly opened the door. Another tear joined the one in the streets below. She knelt and carefully lifted the small skull in her hands. "There you are... My final testimony."

She rose and tossed the skull aside, a joyful smile spreading across her lips. "I am ready," she laughed.