Dark gray clouds hung over the usually bright and chipper grassy plain. It was just starting to drizzle, and in a few minutes the field would be drenched in a heavy pounding rain. The sun was just starting to set at the edge of the clouds, turning the grassy field where Amber’s house rested dark glowing shades of purple and pink.

“Mama!!!” Amber cried happily, running out of the forest with the handful of flowers and feathers she collected. Stopping instantly to stare in shock at the place where her house should have been. The beautiful cottage she called home was now smoldering coals and ash. That cottage was only home she had ever known. Tears of shock and horror pricked at the edges of her eyes. Amber ran to the rubble and fell to her knees.

“MAMA!!! Mama where are you?!” She screamed scuffling around the ash, as if expecting to find her hidden somewhere under the black destruction. The rain was falling heavily now, pounding down on the ash, turning it into thick black mud. The setting sun sent rays of blood red-light dripping through the under-belly of the clouds.

She searched desperately for her mother in the burned rubble as the sky changed from red to deep purple and slowly to pitch black. As the darkness grew thicker it became more impossible to see her own hands, let alone her mama if she was still somewhere in there hidden in the blackness. After endlessly searching through the soft ash and burning herself a thousand times on the hot charcoal that still burned in some areas, her fingers finally brushed something cold and solid.

She didn’t need light to know what she was holding. It was her mama’s dragon pendant, the one she never took off. Mama even slept with her pendant on. She carefully traced its silver edges the way mama had always done and let the falling rain wash the ash off of it in her hand. Even while everything in the world was black she could see its silvery glow. She hadn’t noticed when she had stopped crying, but once again tears flooded from her eyes, mixing with the rain that felt as though it would never stop falling.

After another hour of searching, all she had found was a few of mama’s old pots and a few spoons that had been unharmed by the fire. Those were of no use to her. She set in the muddy black ashes. It was now well beyond pitch black, only dark shadows flickered in the overwhelming darkness. She was soaked to the bone, and the rain pounded relentlessly on her small back as her stomach cramped from the gut wrenching tears.