The Unknown Fire

Thin curls of smoke rose in the air to fade away and gave rise to more, like a dragon lapping at the wind. The dome engulfed in flames, each glowing ember caught fire as the instants passed. A face stared down flat against the glass window with eyes that pleaded help. The face struck as an odd embellishment in the whirlwind of smoke, fire and death. A woman on the ground pointed the face to the nearby men, “Look!”, she exclaimed, “there are people there!”

The crowed acted like one big organism and took a sharp in-breath. “There’s a kid up there”

“The peacekeepers are on the way” the woman shouted.

“The fire is raging” a young boy in an explorer jacket screamed.

“That’s the Parson’s kid. Somebody help him.” A man next to the woman said.

Mr. Parson tugged and shoved and came rushing forward. His wife fell on his knees and began to sob. Mr. Parson gazed from side to side.

“The peacekeepers will get them out quicker with their hooks than we would. No use trying to get in” said the man in the front dropping a hard hand on the shoulder of Mr. Parson. The kid at the window had disappeared.

There was an explosion. The roof of the concrete dome flew twenty feet into the air and crashed on the neighbor's lawn. The crowd gasped. A monstrous fire lapped from inside the rubble.

A teen stretched his hand, pointed a lone finger at the window and screamed, “there’s a man in the apartment. Look!”

Everyone turned their heads. The silhouette of a thin humanoid with pointy ears was visible for an instant. The teen looked around hoping to find the hero but didn't.

Mrs. Parson stood up in hope and Mr. Parson joined his hands in prayer. The sirens of the peacekeepers vehicle wailed in the distance. Before the truck hit the curb, the kid trapped inside came running to his mother. His face all covered in soot and a lone burn mark on his forehead.

The earthlings gathered round the kid and asked him about the mysterious savior. But the kid saw nothing, knew nothing.

Miracles happened. And the earthlings did not ask questions.

Half an hour later, the Parsons sat around a medical van pestered by the peacekeepers. The diamond rain was due in twenty minutes.

“Mr. Parson, let me ask this again! Nobody saw anything suspicious or strange? No strangers hanging around?”

Mr. Parson bit his lip but said “No”

“A certain Mr. Lasak seems to think he saw a stranger. A thin dwarf inside with your kid”

“I don’t know, I saw it too. But my slave abandoned us months ago”

“Where is your servant now?”

“He joined the rebels”

“You are an earthling, Mr. Parson?”

“Yes, but my wife here is an ancient”

“And where was your daughter tonight?”

Mr. Parson jerked his head up. The mention of her daughter always made him nervous.

“She doesn’t live with us anymore”

“Doesn’t like humans does she?” Said the peacekeeper with a grin, “Yeah we have heard what she’s like Mr. Parson. Do you in any way suspect her to be a reason for arson?”

Mr. Parson had a sudden image of her daughter moving around with a Rail gun blasting away their home.

“No she wouldn’t!” he screeched and bumped his fist on the top of the medical van with a thud, “She is not a murderer.”

“That’ll do!” The peacekeeper walked away. A minute later, one of his subordinates came around to talk.

“What do you think Jeff?”

‘This fellow Parson lives in his wife’s an old house —an old concrete dome with a two levels. Mr. Lasak- the nearest neighbor, 10 yards or so to the east—saw a glare in the sky from his bedroom window. The Parson’s were out at work and their five year old kid was alone inside. By the time they got there, there wasn’t enough of the house left to bother about. Lasak’s teenage son was the first of the neighbors to get to the house, and the roof had already fallen in then. Then, a couple of them swear they saw a thin figure, a dwarf, moving around in the rubble. Its this stranger who rescued his son out”

“No signs of arson?”

“None”

“Strange. Its the eighth such incident this month.”

***

Mordant always knew Alfred was eccentric.

Ever since Mordant found out of his existence, he had found Alfred to be the most bizarre personality. His eccentric middle eastern fashion, his boxtree home indicated a very odd being. Hard to predict.

When the sun reflected over the window, a shadow of a four feet being, lean and thin with pointy ears appeared. Mordant stood up and faced the door. The door swung and Alfred entered. He stood there a moment staring at the ugly brute. Then slowly he sat on an ornate chair by the hearth.

“Hello Goblin” he said in a voice that was sweet, sugary but glib.

“You are an odd dwarf, sire” said Mordant, “I saw you saving that kid from fire. I never understood why does it matter to you”

“It’s not in the nature of Goblins to have empathy” He threw away a fireball into the grate and a fire roared in the middle.

The Goblin nodded. Alfred gestured Mordant to sit opposite him.

“Did you find the chest?” Asked Mordant.

“It wasn’t there"

“Haven’t I given you all the information you need?” Mordant asked.

“We failed. Accept your failures Goblin, you’ll fare better” Alfred said.

“This is the eighth time we have failed sire, it’s you who should worry about faring better”

Alfred raised his beautiful black eyebrow and said, “You do want me to find it, don’t you?”

“That’s the plan, yes. For your freedom, for your folks”

“I’m free and my folks are dead”

“But you are the last of them.” Mordant said in a whisper. Raising his voice he continued, “In your veins runs the blood of the Great Aethelwulf, King of the Ancients. The demiliens have brutalized your kind for too long. Not anymore Sire. The dwarf’s rebel all throughout Annicet. But they cannot win unless their ancient powers revoked. Only the chest holds the secret to ultimate power. I failed to locate it. I was never destined to find it. You have to get it Sire, for your folks, for your fellow Dwarfs.”

Mordant has played it out brilliantly. He paused at the right moments and appealed to the King in Alfred.

“I still don’t get it! Why have you come to me now? I was happy spending my days in oblivion”

“You flatter me, Sire but It was hard tracking you down. The demiliens have eradicated most of dwarf history.”

It was Alfred’s turn to nod.

Mordant grinned.