Flames lit upon her hand, flowing down her wrists to each fingertip. 

As she carelessly wrapped her arm around the tree trunk, shuttering pain further ignited her adrenaline.

July wasn’t immune to the roaring blaze of her own fire. She hadn’t tamed her aura as the others had with theirs. What fueled her in this moment was unfiltered determination.

Like a scorned sun, in the height of middle day, she burned with her own ability.

The very lethality of her power was also her personal burden.

Clambering, slowly to her feet, July rose to face the oncoming pursuer. 

The lightning bolt perpetrator would become her killer,

or her first victim.

As July’s eyes became clear, adapting to the billowing smokestack surrounding her, she finally caught sight of what lay in wake.

Before her stood a twisted, grotesque monstrosity. Gnarled, splintering material, that she could only imagine was dying skin, hung dangling, peeling in sections of the hideous figure. Exposed mashed teeth, presented from a warped mouth, sat beneath a ridge of no other defining facial features other than a brow-line.

Rotting with decay, the figure appeared as though it were dying, yet when July gave a pulse to her flames, the burst of crackling fire triggered the beast to dart into the woods.

“Scared of fire?” July remarked.

Her senses were hindered, but anticipation became her crutch.

“I’ve never seen anything like you before? What are you exactly?” She asked in a raised tone, all aware that the thing was still in earshot.

“Not a talker, huh?” She continued. “That’s fine, neither was I when I was growing up.”

An onslaught of rattling branches and snapping twigs began to percuss around where July stood.

This thing brought friends.

She was surrounded.

It was now or never.

Just as she and the other two Summer souls had practiced in their cells for the last couple years, July began to radiate the same rays of dense heat that got them out of their prison.

Solidifying her balance, July squeezed her eyes shut, sealing the dancing sparks that coated her opulent dark irises.

Drawing all the heat concealed within her body, from every essence of natural physical temperature, to the boiling energy of emotions, she collected all possible aura within her and flung the weighted sensation to her arms.

Crackling, like thunder, a burst of molten fire spat into the  forest, engulfing all the natural foliage.

Within an instant, the quaint woodlands lit up and combusted in the vivid orange fires that burned in July’s heart.

Heat waves ate at the green shrubs and fallen leafs. Trees set ablaze and torched the canopy in flaming walls of destruction.

Sounds of the chittering, distorted figures cried out in pain.

Even though the noises that the disturbing creatures made were of utter nonsense to human ears, July could understand that they were squelching in agony.

Bodies of the charred monsters began dropping from the tree tops, hitting the forest floor with heavy thumps.

As she opened her eyes to witness the chaos, a satisfied menacing grin splintered across July’s freckled face.

- - - 

The fire consumed the forest in a rapid pace. Nearly clearing out the trees and brush within seconds.

A few miles behind, the scene alerted August, as he glanced to the hazy cloud of ashy smoke building in the sky.

“Jules…”

Turning to a hunched over June, he knelt down to meet her sea-salt eyes.

“It’s Jules.” He said in a concerned tone. Turning to June, he asked, “Are you okay to go on?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay… let’s go.”

The two rushed through the segments of forest that still remained naturally flourished. 

“Do you think she’s alright?” June shouted.

“Hard to say, but this is definitely her doing.” August replied.

“How can we stop it?”

“I’m not sure.” August blankly admitted. “If we’re lucky, maybe April will catch sight of it and grant us some rain.”

“If this forest burns down, there will be nothing left for the animals and farmers of the Inner-Eastlands.” June said with sorrow.

August grunted and drove onward, into the sight of billowing smoke.

“Keep low.” He said to his sister.

Proceeding deeper into the woods, as June and August ventured further to find their sister, the topology of the land soon shifted into the petrified wastelands that crumbled from the vitality of July’s fire.

Sweat dropped in beads from August’s forehead, cascading down his furrowed brow; however, even with the tumultuous amounts of oaky smoke floating in the air, his eyes transfixed on every inch of the burnt landscape, scanning for any whereabouts of July.

All seemed hopeless; for all that remained was dirt and smoke.

- - - 

The rising cloud of smoke appeared as an ashy eye-sore, visible in the far-off distance. 

. 

On-lookers from the small town, where April’s rainbow arched over, stood in awe, still admiring the beautiful array of colors, while some of the residents turned an alert eye to the fiery spec in the forest that bordered their territory.

March and April were not able to catch sight of the forest fire, as they found themselves nestled inside one of the merchants buildings, stuck in a bartering transaction.

. .

Occupied with her sorcery, Miss Fortune remained set on locating her escaped children by means of dark magic, binding herself to the lonely candle and casting chants over the recovered diary of September.

. . .

Descending deeper in the Eastern Woodlands, that opened into great mountain ranges and bottomless quarries, the other escaped children continued onward into the night; too far and too focused to notice the fire behind them at that time.

. . . .

The only one who seemingly noticed the catastrophe was the single girl, who stood solemnly within a shallow pond in an empty clearing, not too far from the Northern Hemlock.

The crystalline water, that reached her knees and sharp golden hair, slowly blended into a mixture of red, as the girl elegantly washed the bloody residue off of her body.

Staring up in anticipation, to catch the first sight of a new moon that evening, her unnaturally purple eyes dilated with the faint image of the burning forest.

Moving to her own rhythm, she slickly moved out from the waters and placed on a set of new, warm garments that she had fashioned from the furs and hides of slain animals she hunted along the way.

Strapped with beige and black skins that distorted her physique, October gathered the satchel full of meats and her old rags and began wistfully walking towards the faintly rising flames that burned miles ahead.

October walked calmly into the night, without a care for what lay waiting for her upon the uncharted territory.

She didn’t know the feeling of fear

- nor did she comprehend it.

How could she,

for she was fear itself,

and everything that crossed paths with her,

soon faced peril,

for death always followed October.

- - - 

Finally reaching the open clearing to the fiery tree-line, August could see a pack of bodies, shriveled up on the ground.

The burnt bodies lay scattered upon the outer edge of the clearing; their physical features now unidentifiable.

“Get behind me.” He alerted June.

She quietly hunkered behind the lumbering frame of August.

Scratching fallen ash from his short, maize-colored hair, he turned his eye to the laboring figure that straddled a fallen tree.

‘That couldn’t be July.’ He thought. ‘Summer souls don’t burn with the fire.’

Muting his footsteps, August gestured June to follow suit. He snuck closer to the staggering figure, using the burning wreckage as cover.

As August approached, another creature surfaced next to the first one. Stumbling with a limp, the two were aware of one another, seemingly sending signals, but not fully communicating in any formalistic manner. Their clicking and haphazard shrieking gurgles formed patterns akin to insect-like birds. Jutting their heads and moving in ways that neglected any intention of concealing their presence it was made clear to August that they were simple drones, following a singular purpose.

“She already sent for us.” August speculated, as he whispered his observations to June.

“Those things are from her?” June responded, in a repulsed disgust.

“Golems- if I remember correctly.” August continued. “I think Feb and March told me about them a long time ago.”

August turned to face June.

“We need to be careful. Stay close and ignite your aura. We might need to feed the fire.”

It was sudden and subtle, when a glimmer of orange dashed across August and June’s eyes. A shimmer of heat wavered the air around their bodies and the ground beneath their feet began to char.

The two creatures tilted their heads toward August and June.

“Are you ready Juney?!” August shouted.

“Ready!”

“Okay, I’m going to burn them!”

Crackles of flame sprung from August, as his body bursted into a roaring fire. Focusing his fire in the direction of the two creatures, he shot a wide range of molten fire that spread through a majority of the space before him.

The creatures were instantly rendered to ash and dusty remains whisked across the ground. 

The fire set the forest into further entropy, searing the surface layer of the soil.

Controlled with timing, but not directional focus, the fire stoked shortly after. 

June had used her Summer aura to shield herself from the jolt of heat. Cocooning her body within her own flames, she slowly released the blanket of bluish embers surrounding her.

“So they were after July?” She contemplated aloud. “Then where is she?”