04 - The Fire

At the time that Ataz had lived before, there was no electricity. So to warm up their food or even to light the places, the people of that time needed to use magic, or for those who did not venture into the magical world, fire.

Even with the ability to use magic, he was enchanted by fire, and it had caused him to study much about how it worked. Ataz knew that even an extinguished fire, without any spark, could only be rekindled with smoke due to the energy of the gases contained in it.

Knowing this, Ataz remembered that small trail of smoke that came between the cracks out of the old wood of the floor of the house. He ran away from the mirror, as soon as he noticed several magic balls were flying quickly towards him in the reflection. The cat started looking everywhere for some candle or at least something that could produce fire, and it was then that he realized that the old woman's magic balls were of some kind of fire, and even though it wasn't the usual thing used to start a flame, it still produced enough heat to be able to rekindle that flame.

The old woman was once again throwing the energy balls at the cat while running running among the books and baskets scattered on the floor. Her house was almost collapsing, but if he simply left without ending it, she would go after him without any effort, and it would probably be more difficult to defeat her someplace else.

Ataz stopped running and began searching for the smoke he had spotted. His plan was to get the old woman to hit something at least close to the flame. He saw her replenishing her mana and began to accelerate his pace towards the smoke. Every time the balls were thrown, it was possible to hear a loud noise as if lightning had struck.

He saw the old woman was about to launch her next energy ball, and with that, Ataz jumped into the smoke and stood his ground, staring at the old woman. He knew he could end up dying if he didn't get out of the way in time for the magic energy ball to arrive and not touch it.

He stared at her. It was possible to see a small smile in the corner of the old woman's mouth. Then, she released 3 more balls and they seemed to have joined into a bigger one along the way since Ataz had not moved. They traveled directly toward Ataz, who was still waiting for the right time to jump, without the balls having time change trajectory.

The glow almost blinded him. During that moment, Ataz did not hear the noise of anything else around him; it was as if the whole world had stopped. He flexed his hind legs against the floor and pushed forcefully against it. At that moment, he felt his skin heating up, felt blind for a few seconds and managed to feel a slight scorching noise.

He went off balance when he hit the ground, but it was too late and he could only see a huge glow behind him indicating that his plan had worked; the house had started to burn. The old woman was still throwing her mana balls, but the fire was spreading too fast. She flew into a blind rage; she could only think of killing Ataz, so she didn't notice what was going on across the room from her.

Ataz tried to climb some shelves to try to escape the fire that dominated the entire floor. He stretched his little paws and tried to jump, but he felt that he was very weak, and beginning to feel his adrenaline spike was starting to wear off, he realized that one of the first balls of fire had ended up grazing him. He felt immense pain in his front left limb, as if it were still burning.

He looked at the old woman and realized that the fire was almost at her feet. It was only a matter of time before she started to have natural instincts to protect herself. A small flame of fire began to rise at the end of the old woman's skirt. She, who all the time did not stop smiling and looking at Ataz, now broke her smile, her face taking on a frightened expression as she finally began to realize what was happening to the house.

She opened her mouth with a bizarrely large gape, indicating her despair. She was trapped between the bookshelves and the fire; she wouldn't be able to just walk out the door. She desperately kicked the table in front of her in the hope of having more space to protect herself, but to no avail; it just made the fire spread further.

She started to gasp in despair as she looked at the house. Ataz on top of some bookshelves looked at the old woman. "A witch who is afraid of fire? This is new."

One could almost see a small smile in the corner of Ataz's face, but that was soon over. It was to be expected that the bookcase would also start to catch fire. The wood under it started to deteriorate and he realized that soon it would fall on top of all the fire, and could end up burning him.

There was another bookcase near the old one. Ataz had the idea to climb on top of it and help push it over on top of the old woman. Maybe if he put weight on the end of the bookcase, because of the weak wood on the floor, it could tip over to the side that Ataz was on.

As the bookcase he tried to climb was close to the one he wanted to jump, Ataz risked jumping from the one that was straight to the other. He had the idea to do this from the top of the closet. Then, even with his injured limb, he started to crawl upward, trying to jump each shelf of the bookcase without falling, while the old woman continued to scream and try to get rid of the fire. Ataz, while trying to climb, accidentally dropped a book on the floor. The old woman stopped screaming and turned directly toward him.

It was possible to see the anger that came out of her eyes even though they were white due to her blindness. She took the necklace in her hand and held it tightly. The necklace started to shine brighter and she started to whisper a few words. Ataz tried to move faster, without even trying to pay attention to the words she was speaking; he knew they were too weak of spells for what he knew how to do. There was no point in wasting time listening to her.

Her mana was apparently charging faster this time; her hair started to stand up as if it were weightless; one could see her feet almost coming off the floor. Ataz then, already at the top of the bookshelf, was getting ready to jump. Bruised, he flexed his paws back. The old woman started creating the first fireballs that were bigger and even brighter. Ataz jumped, and while he jumped, she released three even stronger fireballs than those she had used before. But before they could even touch Ataz, he reached the end of the bookshelf, hanging from the edge and, due to the fire, he broke its support feet and the entire thing fell on top of the old woman.

Everything went dark. The moment the old woman died, because the fire was not 'natural', it instantly disappeared. Only the destruction it had left behind remained in place.

Ataz opened his eyes. There was a fog covering the entire house. He tried to get up, but his body was extremely weak and even though the fire was gone, he still felt his skin burn. Before, he was not weak and he knew that he would have been able to tolerate any pain, however, being in the body of a cat, he did not have the strength to get up.

He looked around, hoping to find the book he wanted so badly, but the book was now completely destroyed by the fire. However, Ataz saw that the window glass had exploded due to the heat of the fire. He started to crawl to the window, because he knew that even with the remaining smoke coming out of the window, he could still die from smoke inhalation. With great effort, stumbling all the time, he finally managed to climb on top of the window shelf.

Ataz jumped out the window; his weak legs shook as he landed on the floor of the ground outside. He looked up and realized that the rain had recently started to fall. He started walking down the path he had taken to get there, and incredibly it seemed shorter than the other time. The cat walked through the wet soil that ended up dirtying all his hair, leaving him grimy. The stones on the ground did not even bother his paws because the wounds on his body were more painful, however, the cold rain helped to soothe the small burns spread across his little body.

He could no longer hear the voices he had heard there before, just a few birds and the sound of rain rising and falling between the leaves of the trees. Everything seemed to be much calmer than before, but Ataz did not seem to worry or realize the difference.

A short time later, Ataz was able to see the exit he made at Frenezzi Park. He walked through the wet grass, barely seeing what was in front of him because of the rain. He felt how very weak his body was and realized that he should stop somewhere before he passed out. He spotted one of the park benches with something on top which prevented too much water from falling below. Ataz crawled over beneath it.

Under the awning of sorts that he had discovered, he just threw his body down and passed out from fatigue. Before he was completely knocked out, he heard someone say, "Finally one of my bags. I thought it had been stolen." He couldn't see who it was; his vision was very tired, but he recognized the voice.

"…Little friend?"