Alpha’s Comments (group member since Nov 03, 2018)

Alpha’s comments from the Signal Fires group.

The flames are hypnotic, stoking excitement in my soul and causing my pulse and breathing to quicken. The scent of smoke in the air, the distant roar and crackle as the fire burns away remnants of the old and clears a scorched path for the future...

But there is no time to bask in what I've created. There is much to do. And little time in which to do it.

I walk. I walk through the brambles and streams. I walk through pools of moonlight and shadow. I walk along paths and when there is no path, I make my own.

I come to a grove of pines and spot a girl, lying beneath the boughs, curled into a tight ball. The King in me says she is none of my concern, that I must attend to the task the Fates have seen fit for me to undertake. But that deeper something, that something that bows to no monarch, even if that ruler is myself, approaches her.

Her eyes are closed and I reach out, touch her cold cheek with my hand.

"Arise." I say. "The new world is upon us and you must gaze upon it as you would the rising sun. It is my world...but it can be yours, too."

Her eyes open and I feel constellations burning overhead, spiraling into the shadowy halls of infinity.

And then...she speaks.

I sat on the hilltop and watched the crumbling city burn. Embers rose on hot drafts like demons spewing from the gates of hell as dark smoke billowed into the night sky. The horizon flickered with an orange-red glow and flames danced to a music that was available to all, but few could comprehend.

My hands reeked of gasoline and the box of matches pressed against my pelvis from their hip-pocket home as I smiled.

I am King Salamander and the fire would be visible in this darkened world for miles. They would come. They would all come, drawn like moths to the proverbial flame.

And I would be waiting.

I am King Salamander...and this ruined world is my kingdom.