Fireborne: Rashen Rising

CHAPTER 1: RED FLAMES

They townsfolk were in a frenzy today and as usual, he was at the very center of it. Grown men and women, the elderly and even the little children who play around,they gathered around him at the very heart of the local market agitated and enraged hurling the usual insults and curses,

"DIE YOU FREAK!!!"

"MONSTER!!!"

"DEMON!!!"

Of course he didn't seem to care though, nothing he hadn't heard before. Someone from the crowd sent a stone flying in his direction knocking him down with a direct hit to his forehead,he didn't even let out a cry of pain and he didn't bother to get back up,he knew no one was going to save him,no one wanted him and that's how it's always been ever since he was just an infant.

It all started seven years ago,the Goldenfire family,the oldest and one of the most influential families in the history of Ephyre due to their level of control over the what is considered the wildest of all the primal forces, Fire. Their power and level of control over fire has granted them favors throughout the country and has saw them becoming one of the richest and most powerful families. The family had always practised a sort of selective marriage system where children are bethroned to children of other influential families and as such child birth in the family is celebrated like a festival in their home town and origin place Nottenam. Work stops, children get a free day from school and even important national figures would leave their offices to attend the important affair and it was finally time for the fourth child and last daughter of the Head Mother of the family,Emile Goldenfire to give birth to another that would shine brightly in the country of Ephyre.

As per tradition in the family the Head Mother and the rest of the family would attend to the important guests like politicians, military heads and even well known practitioners of the theatre arts while the servants would tend to the commoners who came to celebrate the birth of the new child. Within the Goldenfire estate's infirmary, the child will be born and as per tradition the first pair of faces it sees will be it's father and mother and later on will be introduced to the rest of the townfolk as the 8th child of the Goldenfire family and the 13th member of the main family. He would be the second Goldenfire birth that same years just a few months after Lumins Goldenfire. This was their age-old tradition and everything was going according to plan, unfortunately fate had other plans.

Screams of terror echoed round the Goldenfire estate as people rushed towards the infirmary where the screams were coming from. The matriarch of the Goldenfire family pushed through the crowds with the help of her sons. The midwives that had been placed responsible for delivering the baby ran out of the building with looks of terror in their eyes,one of them tripped and fell as she approached the Head Mother,she burst into tears,

"Th- Th- The baby..."

But before she could finish the statement the entire infirmary was quickly engulfed in a blaze unlike anything they'd ever seen before

"Oh my God" the Head Mother said to herself as she was completely bewildered by what stood before,fire as red as blood itself lightning up the night sky. At the sight of the blood red flames the crowds scattered in fear. The family members who were pretty much experts in fire were at a loss for words at what they witnessed.

The Head Mother snapped out of her trance like state and ran towards the engulfed building, her daughter and her son-in-law were still in there and so was the baby, thoughts began to fill up in her head as she braved through the fire,the rest of the family followed right behind her. She could hear the cries of a baby coming from the delivery room

As she approached the room where her daughter was she stopped in her tracks at what was right before her. It looked liked something that could only be described as occultic.

The baby engulfed in flames as red as blood cried as it laid in the open stomach of it's mother who had already been burnt to a crisp. It was an overwhelming sight,so much so that even stoic and firm Head Mother fell to her knees as he bursts out in tears. That night the blood red fire lit up the skies of Ephyre.

The morning following the incident every man,woman and child belonging to the Goldenfire family had been accounted for, luckily there were no casualties and very few injuries recorded,all except the woman that died that night giving birth to what was already considered a demon spawn by the townsfolk and as for her son-in-law,not even his bones remained. The baby was indeed alive and healthy but the Head Mother had as well as the rest of the family already made the conscious decision that they would never allow such a child into their family blood related or not.

Seven years later and there he was,the boy who was raised by servants and treated as one in his own home laying on the floor bleeding all over as he was being stoned to death by the townsfolk who considered him a curse,a blight in the history of their town. He already accepted this death,there was nothing or no one he had to live for,he closed his eyes as he awaited the final blow that would grant him the sweet relief of death. He was just seven years old and he was already willing to die.

"STOP!!!" He heard a voice screaming out to the crowd.