Tooth and Tail: Silent Flame - Prologue (Pilot)
Story by The Colored Silent on SoFurry
To this, I would proclaim, a probability, to a game that was released. Sudden change, but nonetheless something in my mind that I cannot ignore. A choice, if maybe, if I shall continue or not, but any those who find it interest or loathe upon it, submit your views and speak with a cruel honesty. Thank you...and good night.
Trevor violently woke with a gasp of breath, feeling the overwhelming fear and panic rushing against his face. The terrible nightmare from his dream long thought to be forgotten resurfaced into reality as the man screeched and wailed in terrible agony. There was a lot of things in his mind that needed to be answered, but nothing could be more dreadful to the aftermath that the Order had unleash.
It would take more than a minute to take control of his emotion when he realize that he was covered in heavy snow, burying him alive like it was his personal grave. He then reemerge from death to find himself to be in a thick of the forest, and a battlefield, littered with corpses not of his own kind, but of humanoid animals, wearing colored garment that belonged to their sided faction.
Most who did not serve in the theatre of war would be traumatize of the excessive violence and gore that was perform in the event. Luckily for him, he wasn't inflicted at the least for he too shared the known brutalities of war.
It was a bright day of morning or afternoon to be said. Trevor couldn't tell what time it was so he presumed it was the early afternoon. He could still hear the prolong battle from the far distant, hearing the sound of artillery fire booming with a heavy force. He knew he wasn't safe, and needed to escape before he too shared the same fate as these odd creatures.
As he gotten up to his feet to inspect the state of his condition, Trevor heard something that was outright close to him. It was a woman's voice, crying in an opaque sound for help. It didn't take long for him to follow the sound and when he reached to the source, he saw a fox with a red hood, leaning back at the tree while pressing her fragile paws against the wound on the stomach.
Trevor remained at the distant as the two stared each other in awkward silent. He could tell that the wound was lethal and that the fox had only minutes left to spare to live in this hopeless existent. The two remained silent for awhile longer as the fox broke the silence with a small giggle, coughing up a trace of blood in the process. She spoke in a strange dialect that Trevor could never understand, expressing what have been some odd remarks of his unusual appearance.
Trevor could speak the same for the fox as well, finding herself as queer and overall odd in a respective sense. He had no otherwise the skill or some medicine to ease her pain yet the idea of rescuing was the least of his worry. There was no logical reason to gain in saving her life other than to waste such fruitless effort. Also, even if he did somehow save her life, how would he be sure that she wouldn't ratted him out in the process.
While it was quite simple to abandon the fox to her fate like the rest of the beasts that lied buried in the cold and the frost, why did he struggle to commit to the task. Why must he remain to forever bound to risk his life for a meatbag of a furcoat? What idea of process must he extend the suffering of his self-preservation? It would be as simple as snapping a twig to just let it go, but tragically, the Fire around his neck simply didn't want to let her to expire just yet.
He took his eyes of the fox off from the moment and pulled something out around his neck. In his very own hand was a circular pendant made of common brass, but in the center of it all was a small ruby, a peculiar stone that glowed in a gentle red light. It hummed to him. A voiceless song that command him to do as such in the will of the Scarlet. It spoke to him of a demand and a demand that find Trevor in a state of disbelief.
An emotion of rage rushed against his face, eyes glaring madly at the stone for such an outrageous order. Trevor find no words to describe what the stone had wanted him to do and commit. He focus his eyes at the fox then back to the gem then turned away in a moment of silence. In the end, however, he could only accept the inevitable and trust the will of its Fire.
“If that is what you desire then may the Fire burn bright." Trevor said, turning around to face the fox once more. He couldn't help but to laugh at the predicament. “Funny, it seems fortune favors you...beast…"
Trevor removed his pendant and approached to the beast that was close to her face. “May you serve the Fire till end of days."
The fox didn't offer any resistance or simply fell into unconscious as Trevor placed the pendant around her neck. With sadden look upon his face, he utter the words that was passed down from generation to generation:
“To this, I invoke, the rite to part,
Fire shall rise from your grace.
And pass, shall I, to ash, from heart,
My mind and soul shall erase.
To this, I fade, my deed is done,
May you shall burn to ash and none."
The gemstone glowed in a strong bright light that completely engulf Trevor and the near departed beast. In a brief and sudden moment, the warm light dissipated and all that was left in the forest was the gemstone that glowed soothingly around the fox's neck.
Forever.