95. The Burning Tree

Continued...

And I was still waiting when suddenly all the sounds from around me, the noise of crunching leaves under his feet, the gushes of air rustling the leaves as he rushed past all stopped.

It became so quiet one would hear even a pin drop right now. It was unnatural and very unsettling.

Nothing, no place especially as open and as wild as this should be this quiet.

Did I die already?

Steeling my self in preparation to see the carnage of my own being I opened my eyes.

It was still dark. 

So dark now I could barely see anything past my own hands. Perhaps the moon also hid behind the clouds, refusing to witness the vain loss of it's long time admirer.

I wish it wasn't so dark. "I wish I could see, right now." before I could hold myself back I accidentally whispered that part out.

The breath got caught in my throat for a second as the blunder I made but then it was gone. 

What was I hiding from now? I was dead anyway. And it's not like he couldn't see me if I made no noise before.

And then I screamed. All thoughts of pros and cons of remaining quiet or not just flew out as a big gush of air was engulfed by me and I paused. 

I couldn't move, couldn't even scream anymore at the sight before me when the tree before me suddenly came ablaze. 

The fire burning high and mighty as if it was alight for decades, engulfing the tall tree completely from the roots to it's highest branch, every tip and every leaf in between.

I watched in horror and my mouth gaping while the whole vicinity became visible from the bright flames rising so high in the sky it could be seen from the moon.

In a matter of seconds the leaves adoring the old tree turned ashen and fell to the ground whilst the tree and it's branches remained burning like a skeleton stripped of it's flesh down it's bones.

And from behind the fiery flames of the burning timber slowly walked out the lone figure. 

He stood beside the flames yet he did not burn along the tree. He stood so close yet he was still shrouded entirely in shadows. His tall and lean stature burning in my vision far worse then the flames itself as I watched him stand there watching me. 

He seemed almost -for the lack of better term- lax. A complete anomaly to the absolute chaos ensuing around him. 

I for one was a mixture of panic and terror and bloody out of my mind right now.

Against my expectation, the figure of the dark, the man who seemed as if a void with a shape of a man that was simply absorbing all of the light from around instead of reflecting back even a single ray. Not even minimal enough for me to see anything but the silhouette and the hood where his head should be.

As if my wishes could also see the utter pinch I was in and was courteous enough to come true one after the other like for when it is granted when you are about to die. 

First the darkness was replaced by light from the burning fire allowing me to see my bearings and now I could begin to see something of this figure who seemed to be one with the night.

Behind the dark void of the hood what became visible was only a pair of eyes. Sheer golden like molten gold as they watched me in silence.