“It’s your turn,” one dragon said to the other, indicating a town below their crag. “Leave none alive. We don’t need a revenge story.”
One girl survived, trapped beneath smoldering rubble.
Twenty years later, she left the crag with her sword, a new necklace of shiny scales, and a grin.
J.J. Jordan crushed writer’s block with a bloody and scarred forehead.
Only my son knew my history, he types, hunt and peck. Now he’s gone.
A sigh. Who will bother to read the products of his aged fingers?
Rap, rap. A girl and her mother at the door. School project, she says. “Tell me about the war?”
He will be remembered.
Hometown boys, grown into husbands and fathers, heroes swallowed up in flames.
If someone had told any of them that they’d be on the news someday, they’d have just smiled and shook their heads no.
Nineteen new, humble firefighters in heaven, their last moments spent in the fires of hell.
Brian Sutherland is married to his writing partner. He has two grown amd married children and spends much of his efforts in trying to keep his wife from buying things for yet to be conceived grandchildren. His artwork and writing are featured on www.sobhanastudio.com.
Editor’s Note: This story is a tribute to the Arizona firefighters who were killed in the line of duty on June 30, 2013.