"Fire Burns.."

I was in the middle of it wall when my eyes were opened suddenly to the trauma all around me. I do not know where exactly I had gone in that moment, but I knew that I wasn't in the present. I had not realized that I had been burned, nor did I realize that I had ben bleeding. My lungs and eyes burned from the dense clouds of smoke rising upward into a unforgiving sky and everywhere you turned the screams and frantic faces of the Tuchuk tribe were all you could see amidst the burning grass and wagons. We were fighting. Fighting to maintain not only our lives but for our way of life. We were fighting to preserve our home.

What brought me back?

"Tasco!"

The voice struck me like lightning cutting through a stormy sky. It was then that I felt the small hands of children clinging at my calves and thighs. Their grips, individually nothing more than an attention grabber, as a group threatened to cut off the circulation. I had to shift to keep the blood flowing and between frantic twists and turns of my head as I sought out the safest path through the rows, I reassured them despite my own unsurity. The infant in my arms began to wail. I wanted to wipe the tears from its eyes but feared getting anymore soot upon that chubby round face than was already there. I had to find Noni's wagon! These children would undoubtedly be safer with her than with me. But everything looked the same. Charred. Mangled. The children began to cough and so did I. I had to move!

"Tasco!"

There it was again and I turned just in time to sweep the children away from a wagon wheel that went rolling as the whole mass caved in on itself. Above their gasps I clapped my hands and herded them like bosk toward the direction in which I heard to voice call my name.

"This way! Hurry!"

I covered the child in my arms and waded through the middle of the group as we moved as fast as a group of children and one man could move through the burning rows and I used only the voice to guide me. I did not recognize it at first...the more and more it spoke the more I began to realize that it was my father that I heard. I began to worry for him and knew that I would have to seek him out, along with my brother and his mate. She was ripe with child now and would bear her child soon. I said a prayer for her and her child as we passed by a woman who seemed to be sleeping on the steps of her wagon.

"Are we gonna stop, Tasco!"
"She's asleep!"
"You gotta help her, Tasco!"

"No! Keep moving! Now!"

I screamed. I should not have been so short with them, but it was clear that I knew something that they did not. I ask myself if I had to do it again would I have gone back to check on her? Would I have stopped to check for a pulse? I decided that I wouldn't have. I couldn't have. For if I had...

"Tasco!"

It was not my father's voice now, but it was Noni's. She was calling to me from a wagon that had been soaked down and was set to pull out of the harigga and head to safety. I ran to her and pointed the children in the right direction. My brother's face was the next face I saw, and then his woman's. They were alive!

"Where is father?"

I asked Noni directly turning to look at Tarran, my eldest sibling, who was lifting children one by one into the wagon.

"Tarran? Is father with you."

"No. I couldn't get to his wagon in time. You have to find him, Tasco. His wagon is gone, but he was helping the women of his fires that had no man. They aren't far....you can find him if you hurry."

I stared at Noni who reached out and plucked the small child from my arms leaving them empty and suddenly quite achy.

"Go, Tasco. Your responsibility is to your tribe. Your father will find you."

Noni's words were slightly troubling, but she had not seen him. I found myself clinging to Tarran's confirmation rather than adhering to the wisdom of my Noni. I was concerned for father, but there was much that needed to be done and despite my naturally selfish tendencies I put them aside and assisted Tarran get the last of the children into the wagon.

"Take my kaiila, Tasco! It's not safe on foot. When the women and children are safe I will come back!"

I nodded to Tarran and swung up into the saddle of Tarran's tawny beast. It took me a moment to wrestle the female into submission, but when I had I made it a point to head back the same way that I came to both look for stragglers and throw myself into the next task.

"I will bring him back to you, Noni."

She smiled. The smile was weak, but I took it at face value. How could anymore smile during this. I disappeared into the flames and threw myself into the fray offering my strength and leadership in any and everyway I possibly could. It wasn't until early morning that the Tuchuk tribe who remained to fight took control of the flames and by the rising of the sun we had managed to tame the wide-spread inferno into several large contained fires.

Where the herds had been and once grazed the grasses were charred black. Wagon wreckage littered open plains and everywhere the sobs and groans of heartbroken and weary Tuchuk men, women, and children filled the ears. I dipped my chin and wiped the sweat away from my brow further smearing the layers of caked dirt and soot upon my skin. It would be a long while before the herds could once more feed off land that had once upon a time been so lush and fertile. I have heard the hunters are already searching for game and the wagon masters for wood. We as a tribe must rebuild our stores to prepare for the great move that is soon upon us.

My eyes and lungs burn. My wounds are beginning to warm. I haven't slept and cannot sleep for I am consumed. I hear the cries of my tribe and it pains me...more importantly I hear the voice of my father.

I must find him.