A Sky of Fire

The human warriors could not understand the damage they dealt when they set fire to the Winter Maple. Its bare branches at the height of summer appeared dead, and thus excellent kindling, to their naive eyes.

Leo felt the pain first. The growing battle around him as humans maimed and ensnared his fellow elves left his mind the instant he saw the flames encasing the grove of maples. He didn't think their destruction by such normal, primitive means was even possible. The horror left him in a trance, trying to figure what the ramifications would be. They hit him before he found an answer on his own.

The warriors around him thought he'd been struck as he cried out in a sudden, intensified pain. No sword struck through him. No blood fell or bruise formed. Even he could not find the source of his pain. All he felt was the calming strength that had coursed through his veins since his birth suddenly vanish, followed by a burning sensation akin to what the Summer Maple must be suffering.

Every member of the chivalrous warrior families fell to the same fate. The magic that once surrounded the grove of seasonal maples fled as fire consumed all four noble trees. With it, the magical connection between the maples and their elves severed.

The rest of the elves watched in horror as their leaders and warriors, the most powerful members of their community, fell to the ground in their greatest time of need.

The humans didn't make the connection between their setting fire to the tree and the sudden and dramatic defeat of the enemy fighters. It was a victory of pure luck.

Nienna was last to succumb to the pain.

Unlike the rest, she had no point of reference for why her body suddenly felt like it was being seared to the bone. The horse she had been riding—galloping back towards her village in a frantic attempt to warn her people, far too late, of an incoming attack—reared at its riders scream. Nienna fell to the ground, having lost her grip on the reins, and cried out a second time as her side slammed into a large, jagged rock.

Her horse didn't stray far as she writhed on the ground, tears streaking down her face. Any attempts to rise and continue her attempt to warn her people failed as the burning pain spread to every fiber of her being.

She blacked out before a minute could pass.

–

Leo's brother. Nienna's mothers. Their grandmother. The other village leaders and their entire families of Spring, Autumn, Summer, and Winter fell that day. A momentary crippling at a time when a single moment cost them everything.

–

When Nienna came to on the forest floor, she remained dazed, momentarily forgetting the panic and fear from before she passed out. Her eyes locked on to a bizarre event in the night sky above her. Stars were falling—blazing down and across the sea of black.

Leo woke moments later, his hands chained together and attached to a human's horse. As the rider dragged him along, adding to the number of miles between himself and Nienna, he too watched the falling stars. The shared sight sent a peculiar sense of calm over them both, even as their entire world lay broken around them, their bodies still aching with pain.

The two cousins, one Summer and the other Winter, wouldn't find each other for months. But in that moment, they were connected by the sky full of fire.