I See Fire

I sit at my dinner table in my log shack out in the woods. About two miles from a small valley village. The meat sits warmly on my dinner plate, its fragrance one I love. But I have no appetite. I get to my feet and walk out the front door to look at the mountain before me. It rises high above the clouds and is shrouded in mist. And smoke.

At the bottom of the mountain a large fire consumes anything withint reach and is rapidly spreading away from the mountain outwards leaving burnt destruction in its wake. Looking away from the mountain to the North and to the village of the East I know few of them could ever make it away. Some may survive if they begin to run upon their steeds now with no provisions. But not I.

To the South stretches miles and miles of trees inside the valley, as for the West there looms a great valley-wall of mountain.

I look out back upon the fire just as its tips are reaching the first few buildings that live miles away from the village as I do. I spot a flaming horse with a black knight sitting upon its back. A black knight that swings its burning sword back and forth demolishing walls of the house in seconds which are quickly overrun by fire. Worse than I had anticipated. For this fire spreads as quickly as a horse can run, for it is the horse and its master that is spreading it. There must be tens of them, for it to be spreading in such direction and ferocity.

As I watch one of the now-many horsemen catches up with a farmer and his daughter. I must turn away and sit back down at my dinner table. My steed is sick and could never make if farther than a few steps with me upon its back. I sit down and begin to eat with uninterest. I eat to eat. It will be of no use to me but I eat because I will never eat again. Yet even with its fine smoked cooking and expensive seasonings it is flavorless and bland. Oh how a dead-man tastes! For that is what I am! A dead-man! I do nothing to prevent myself from the eventual doom that falls upon all of us.

I know my people live inside that village and know few will survive, so if my people will fall then surely I must do the same.

I finish my dinner and grab a bottle of wine. I walk back outside and look upon the village. The first few riders have arrived and have begun to slice their swords of destruction to-and-fro amongst the buildings. Fire erupts instantaniously and blood is spilled from those that did not leave. The sun is lowering steadily and the flames become brighter and brighter. For light is strongest in darkness.

But the day is darker than it should be and when I look from curiosity I see the smoke cloud has moved to cover our portion of the valley. The fire is getting close. The riders are coming.

I close my eyes for fear of my brothers in that village. I ask that old mountain to protect them. The old misty mountain. My brothers who have not yet fallen to the swords of fire.

Yet even through my prayers I can hear the hallowing of souls and my people screaming out. I can almost feel the blood in the breeze that carries the smoke through the valley like a funnel.

I raise my glass of wine to the mountain in hopes that it may save some of my few brothers. Or at least allow us all a quick death at the same time. To feel a slight feeling of together-ness. I take a swig and feel the first tendrils of the heat coming closer.

In front of me rises three horsemen and their steeds. Their flaming bodies an awesome sight. They smell of blood and smoke. As they get closer the first horseman swings his sword for one blow at me and I see the mountainside. The great mountainside burning auburn. I feel the heat upon my skin...

I See Fire; Ed Sheeran