A Golden Flame

“The boy stood alone nothing but an old sword in his hand; his hulking opponent towered before him. Uncertain of his fate and desperately yearning to be back with his family, the boy trembled with terror, but he knew he had to face this beast, his fears; for if not him then who? What would become of his family if he didn’t stand his ground? He took a timid step forward, tightening his grip on the hilt. The hairy beast threw its awful head back against the light of the full moon and let out a bloodcurdling howl; this was his moment. He readied his weapon and charged! Just as he closed in and prepared to strike, the beast lunged, throwing open its powerful jaws to reveal rows of razor sharp teeth aimed straight for the boys throat. For a moment they were both suspended, graceful even, like dancers in midair and then…

CRUNCH. The boy hero was gone in one bite and his village was subsequently attacked because he had angered the wretched monster from beyond the wall. The End.” 

The sound of faint applause, pages turning, and book covers being slammed shut saturated the stillness that had settled over the students.

“There you have it class; another great story outlining the consequences of brave and/or heroic actions.” The teacher, her face just beginning to show signs of age, languidly shook her head, letting her cool, gray stare linger on the faces of each young teen. 

“Pity. Now, can anyone tell me the proper route of action our ‘boy hero’ should have taken when faced with a being from the Outlands?” Ms. Rono calmly paced in front of the small sea of desks, scanning the earnest pupils like a shark selecting its prey.

Out of her twenty- three students, twenty-two eager hands shot up around the room ready to sound off an answer their teacher would be proud to hear, and yet,

“Hmm, yes, how about Zipporah. What do you believe our antagonist should have done, dear?” 

Zipporah lowered the open book that had been shielding her face and surveyed the room with remarkably golden eyes before fixing them ardently on the smiling woman a few rows ahead.

“Well,” she cleared her throat before continuing, “I’m not certain that I’m the best one to answer this, Ms. Rono. Why don’t you ask Aasir, he’s probably much more prepared to tell the class how one should behave. If you don’t mind.” She gave a curt nod and again buried her nose back in the book. For a moment it felt like all the air had been sucked from the room. 

“I’m sure that he is. However,” Ms. Rono nimbly maneuvered the tightly lined desks to Zipporah’s side, clasped the book with a viselike grip, and hissed through yellowing, clenched teeth, “I am asking for your thoughts on the matter right now, young lady.” 

She yanked the book from the girls hands and laid it face down on her students desk. Zipporah glowered up at her teacher; golden eyes now set ablaze in anger.

“I suppose the boy should have stayed cowering in his home like the rest of his family, and village for that matter. All of them praying to God that the nightmare creature is satiated by the meat from their unprotected livestock; that he won’t find his way inside their poorly blockaded homes. Yes, that’s it, he should have been weak like everyone else.” 

Gasps aired out the tense room; the teachers imperious face twisted in disgust; her voice now shrill and shaking with animousity.

“Get out of my classroom!” Ms. Rono erupted. “I want you out, now!” The woman stamped her foot down hard against the tile, punctuating her fury. Zipporah wasted no time, happy to have an easy exit; she threw her bag over her shoulder, grabbed the jacket hanging from the back of her chair, and strode from the classroom down the fluorescent flooded hallways; Ms. Rono’s inaudible shouts fading from earshot with every step forward. Unfortunately, this incident wasn’t anything she wasn’t already used to. 

Her tight, black curls bounced, shoulder length - tendrils gently grazing the soft features of her face - resembling a type of beautiful, undulating storm cloud. She glanced from the white tiles ahead of her feet to the poster lined walls of the white washed hallway:

“Attention: Beware of the Outland Beasts!”

“Attention: All Students to Remain in Groups for Safety Measures!”

“WARNING: In Case of Emergency, Seek Shelter Immediately. DO NOT FIGHT BACK!”

Zipporah returned her gaze to the floor, quickening her pace. All she wanted was to get out of this building and into some fresh air. She rounded the final corner, breezed passed the administrative offices, and pushed open the front doors to her school: freedom. Immediately a cool wind met her, prompting the girl to slip on the light jacket her mother had, thankfully, urged her to wear to school that morning. She zipped up the garment, situated her bag back on her shoulders, and stepped out in the uncharacteristically glum, summer day. 

Zipporah made it only a few steps off school property before a sudden movement in the trees just off to her left grabbed at her attention. She stopped and carefully studied the lush foliage rhythmically swaying with the wind, but could make out nothing of immediate interest. Just her overactive imagination, she thought and continued on her way, trying desperately to push down the growing sense of unease needlessly building in her stomach. 

Zipporah had had it with her teacher, Ms. Rono; her parents were not much better and neither were her classmates anymore. All of them seemed to pride themselves on their inaction, their weakness. How did anyone expect anything to change around here if no one was willing to stand up and fight? Surely her people wouldn’t just hide in the event that one of these creatures somehow did make their way inside the wall. She really wanted to believe better of them. Another flash of movement accompanied by rustling in the trees pulled Zipporah from her swirling thoughts. She again whipped her head over her left shoulder, still expecting to see nothing, but this time there was no mistaking the looming giant in a shroud of dense, green leaves; its crimson eyes fixed hard on the small girl whose frame shook against the spike of adrenaline now coursing through her body. A beast from the Outlands.

Her knees buckled, preparing her body to run, to ‘seek shelter’, but she couldn’t move. She was frozen where she stood; too many signals firing in her brain at once that it paralyzed her. Zipporah had only ever read about these terrible beings - her ancestors, the ones that were capable of killing these creatures - had built this wall around their settlement when they realized the monsters were only growing stronger; that their peoples only chance of survival would be to hide and hope no one ever had to face these fearsome things ever again. All she knew was run, and she couldn’t even do that.

The giant stepped out of the trees revealing an anatomy much more human-like than she’d expected. In fact, aside from the blue hue of its skin and considerably greater stature, there really weren’t many other obvious differences. Though her curiosity was indeed heightened, this did nothing in the way of helping to ease her racing heartbeat, especially not after noticing the barbaric looking scythe that it drug behind it. This was not good.

The giant made another advance towards her; she knew she needed to get out of the way and fast. Zipporah took a deep breath in, turned on her heel, and bolted away as quickly as her feet could carry her from the looming giant - she needed to make it to the town center. She knew that if she just made it there, she could ring the town bell and someone would come help her. At least she hoped as much.

Zipporah ran faster than she’d ever run in her entire life; her lungs ached, but she made it to the bell and tugged on the rough, weathered rope as hard as she could. RIIINNG. RIIINNG. Pulling again, and again, Zipporah wailed for her family, for anyone to come help her. The behemoth figure coming nearer, dragging along its makeshift weapon. Tears welled up in her eyes and spilled down her cheeks as the reality of her situation began to settle in; they were all a bunch of cowards after all, just like the stories from class.

That’s it! She thought. The story! Zipporah pulled the bag off her shoulders and hurriedly searched it for the box of matches her brother had given her to hide from his teacher weeks earlier. Gotcha! She fished the box out along with every book she had, and quickly began ripping out all of the pages; before no time she had a large pile of flammable material in front of her - if there was any truth at all to the stories she’d grown up reading, then this beast would hate what she was about to do next. 

The girl rose from the ground, struck up a single match and threw it on the pile at her feet. The paper went up in flames instantly. Knowing the paper fire wouldn’t burn long enough to help her, Zipporah quickly got to work adding in anything she could find that would keep the flames alive. It had to be big if she had any hope of surviving this. 

Meanwhile, the Outland Beast, seeing all the commotion, had stopped its approach and began curiously watching the pocket-sized girl in her frenzy. It recalled her golden eyes; eyes it had only seen once, long ago. Those same eyes would go on to lead the revolt against the Outland Beasts, killing off hundreds of its kind. It could never forgot those eyes. Now it was the beast who shuddered.

Zipporah, satisfied with the size of her bonfire, picked up one last stick that she had saved for this moment. She removed her jacket, tied the material around itself to the end of the stick, and set it on fire. The girl, torch in hand, fixed her golden glare on the giant - her mouth spread into a wild, toothy grin - and she did what she knew best: she ran. Zipporah charged full speed in the direction of the Outland Beast, who spared no time in its escape. The monster bounded to the trees, running for its life from the savage girl with her burning eyes.

Once the creature had cleared from sight, Zipporah collapsed to the ground and began sobbing. She had done it; what no one else dared to do. She was brave.