Kaen, The Heart of Flame

Life in the Great Forest is easier for some than it is for others. The natural cycle is paramount to our way of life, a circle everflowing and never ending. All races have been harbored in the forest under the protection of the Druids. Life under the Tenders of the Forest is easy, grow the plants and tend to the animals. Keep the status quo.

The Guardians of the Forest make sure all things remain in balance, no over hunting. No mass deforestation, no unfair treatment. They keep the laws of the realm. While the Druidic Tribes meet in their council there are many representatives of the 2 major factions, but there is a third less loved faction. Only one member in the forest not looking to maintain the current status quo, but to push the circle of life forward. Wildfire.

The Druids have a long standing tradition of finding someone in tune with the forest and raising them in its ways. The Wildfires are no different. Though from what I have seen in my time among the tribes we are raised under a different type of tutelage. The others are taught to care for every person and to take action if someone hurts the Forest or its inhabitants. Strictly a reactionary people, but to keep the circle of life moving forward you must be proactive. That is the ideal I was raised on, don’t wait for disaster, act in preparation for it.

I don’t recall my earliest years. I remember the heat. Screams. The flames that burned that day were warm and calming. A peaceful center to the chaos that flowed around me. Before the flames licked my face, life was peaceful. Men descended on my home, still a young boy I hid in the house. I heard metal on metal outside and some glass shatter. Soon after the glass broke a bright orange and red spread across the house. I was terrified, a boy barely 5 and I would be cooked alive. As the fire spread and I backed into my corner it slowed its rushing pace. The searing heat turned to pleasant warmth as a flame brushed against my face, a tender hand lovingly caressing.

Soon the warmth lulled me to sleep and the next thing I knew I was surrounded by trees scratching the clouds. That was the last time I saw the exterior of the Great Forest until I left for the Academy. Though my time in the forest was not uneventful.

I spent a few days alone and scared, I scarcely knew how to build a fire or hunt game. The first time I built on it took me hours, spinning a stick across a log hoping an ember would spark the tinder. Cold hands shaking as the warm ember sparked the shaving and a warmth filled my hands, a real chance at surviving the strange place I found myself. 

While I got some stick into the fire watching it grow I heard the crunch of the fallen leaves behind me. I spun around to look upon whatever viscous creature had descended upon my camp to face my death. I stumbled backward when I saw a person and not an animal, a woman with long red hair and pale green eyes looking down at me.

“Well hello there young one. You’re awfully far into the woods for someone of your age. Are you alone?” I didn’t answer, just looked away from her and started to back away.

“There’s no reason to be scared. I won’t hurt you.” She gestures at the fire. “Did you build that? It’s well made for someone’s first attempt.” I nodded at her and sat down still not daring to speak. Nothing good came out of the last time I met strangers.

“Well, I am Cara. I’m one of the protectors of this forest. What’s your name?”

I thought for a moment, worried about sharing anything with her but eventually daring to share my name, “Kaen”.

“Ooo that’s a wonderful name, Kaen. Well I see you don’t feel like speaking much to me, but if you’re hungry.” She holds out some cooked meat. I take it swiftly and hastily eat it, I feel as though I haven’t eaten in days. “My, you must be hungry. How long have you been out here for?” I shrug. Hours, Days. I’m not sure how long it’s been since the fire.

“Come with me. You can stay with me until we find your home. I’m sure your parents must be worried sick.” She offers me a hand and I take it. She leads me away from my camp, the fire extinguishing as we leave.

Cara led me to a cabin she has in the forest, small fires burning around it. She led me inside and gave me a place to stay. “Stay here, if you don’t cross the fires while I’m gone no animals will harm you. Stay here while I search for your family.” I nodded grateful for her hospitality. For a few days I was alone in her cabin, the fires around the place never extinguishing. Though I did feel something calling to me past them, a force pulling on my very soul beckoning me to come to it. I was able to resist the pressure building for 2 days. On the third I crossed the burning barrier to venture into the forest.

My eyes shut and walked feeling a string of heat pulling me deeper into the woods. After hours of walking I came upon the still standing charcoal remains of a gargantuan tree. Black and sooty, the size of a Red Oak. What looked like an orange glow passing through a passageway into the tree. A staircase leading down its trunk to its enormous roots. In the roots was a hot burning orange orb large enough to swallow a man whole. That is what was calling me, bringing me here. I wanted to feel it touch it. Jump in.

As I was about to, I was pulled back by the collar. “What are you doing!” Shouted a familiar voice at me. Cara had returned from her search. “I was worried sick when I couldn’t find you at the cabin, I thought a bear had gotten to you.”

“Sorry,” I told her, after being scolded.

She smiled down at me. “So now he speaks. Maybe I should be scolding you more often. What are you doing down here?”

“I don’t know.” The pulling sensation had faded since she had arrived here.

“Fine, don’t tell me. But be careful. The ‘Flame’ would burn you whole and leave nothing left. Not even ashes.”

“What is it?” I asked while staring longingly into the center of the orb.

“So it’s curiosity that got you not scolding then?” I looked up at her pleadingly. “Fine, fine. It’s the Heart of Flame. Where I and all previous and future Bringers of Flame get their best Magics.” I was happy that she answered my question, the burning desire it gave me to find it now completely gone.

“Did you find my family?” She crouched down to me, and on one knee with an apologetic look on her face said.

“I’m sorry, your parents are gone.” Tears welled up in my eyes as I began to cry. Cara reached forward and held me, a warm sensation radiating out from her skin. The sorrow didn’t fade but she made sure I wasn’t alone.

Later I awoke in her cabin, Cara cooking breakfast. “Goodmorning Young One. Did you sleep well?”

I didn’t respond to her, only sitting down to eat my food.

“Well you can stay here with me for as long as you like. I can even show you how to use some of my magic.”

“Magic?” I asked rather quickly.

“Yes, Magic.” she said with a warm smile. “You felt the call of The Heart. So it stands to reason that you could use it.”

After breakfast she took me outside to see if I could use any of her spells. To my surprise after a long while of trying I was able to succeed in casting. I was over the moon in elation.

“It’s not much but if you like you can stay here with me. I’ll keep teaching you about your magic.”

“Really! So I can do more?”

“Lots more, if you’re like me then you might even be able to access The Heart some day.” She chuckled. I took her up on her offer. I didn’t have a family to go back to. 

This started the first real chapter in my life. Cara taught me to harness the flames and what we use them for.

“We are a part of the natural order, Kaen. Have you heard of Celia and the Dark. We much like the dark bring and end to things. Though that isn’t something to be scared of. We also help in starting something new like Celia does. When something ends something new will always begin. That’s my role in the Great Forest. Clear the underbrush to allow new grass to grow. Burn the largest trees to allow sun to reach the forest floor. Nothing ever truly ends, it just starts something new.”

Lessons like these would come frequently. Less frequent was meeting the other Druids. They didn’t seem to like Cara very much from what I could tell. I don’t think they liked the idea of any life being harmed or destroyed. While Cara’s job was to do exactly that. Bring an end, and start a beginning. So our time with the others was limited. 

Cara also had another ideal that seemed antithetical to the Druids in the Great Forest. They stayed here away from the outside world, while she would frequently leave to nearby towns and cities. She believed that while the Druids were based in the Forest, their duty extended all over the world.

As I was about to turn into my 20s and Cara her 40s she spoke to me before she left for one of her usual trips outside the Grove.

“Kaen, stay safe in the Grove. I’m heading near Aekariel this time. There are some people out there who need my help. I know that it’s dangerous out there but my contact assured me that I will be safe. I’ll see you when I return.” 

She was gone for around 2 months, not unusually at this point, not that I was old enough to care for myself. This got strange when I felt a familiar presence. The tugging on my soul to the Charcoal Tree. I asked why I never felt it when I was a child. It calls to its next wielder. That time was to name me apprentice, I wouldn’t ever call again until.

Until it was Cara’s time to become something new. I walked into the woods, to the tree I hadn’t seen in over a decade. The long stairway down to a burning orb. I reached a hand out and the searing heat faded to a nice warmth as I entered the burning sphere. Suddenly it got hotter, too hot to stand. Like jumping into magma. The fire was consuming me. 

“Keep Calm Kaen. Feel the heat, don’t recoil at its touch. Don’t try to control it and don’t let it control you. Work with it, be one with it. You and It are the same. 2 halves of a whole.”

As I heard Cara’s voice, the heat faded andI regained my focus. When I opened my eyes I was no longer in The Heart of Flame. I was standing outside of a large walled city. A small fire burned nearby where I was standing. In the fire was an insignia, the Kings. I don’t know what The Heart was trying to tell me. Be wary, stay away, trust, get close. Just the insignia, no hint. Luckily today was conscription day.