Ashes

[The Skarzs]

Inspired by this topic: http://redwallabbey.com/forum/index.php?topic=5832.0

    A crow cawed harshly in his raspy call while he sat atop the uppermost branch of a high oak. The day was calm and pleasant; not a dark cloud floated in the summer sky.  All at once, the crow was aware of tree shaking, and he hopped off into the air with a startled squawk. It wasn't just the tree moving, though; it was the entire land. The bird winged off higher into the sky, looking out at the horizon.
    At the edge of sight, he saw the mountain fortress Salamandastron wisped forth a cloud of dark smoke that spread across the sky like mud in clear water. A growling sound like the grumbling of thunder grew in intensity, and the ground below the crow trembled as the noise loudened. Suddenly, like a cork from a bottle, the top of the mighty mountain exploded into fire. Sooty smoke belched out like steam from a pot, while fire and brimstone pounded the ground.
    The sky darkened ash and smoke filled the air surprisingly quickly. The crow choked as his lungs filled with the substance, and he fell to the ground, unable to breath. Ash began falling like thick snow, covering the helpless crow until it finally choked and died.
    Great walls of smoke and fire rolled across the land, and the trees cracked and snapped under the sheer weight of the smoke and the spreading fire it brought with it. The black volcanic smoke mingled with the grayer, lighter smoke from the fire, rising up and darkening the afternoon sky.
    It was not possible for any inhabitants of Salamandastron to have survived. More than a third of the mountain had exploded and now lay scattered in thousands of fragments and chunks; every chamber and crevice now flowed with glowing lava, burning the crops and running sloppily in huge rivers and flows over the side of the mountain. The molten stone hissed out as it reached the water and slowly extinguish. The mountain was no longer a mountain, but an active, living volcano. The earthquake continued, growing again in intensity as another blast of lava spewed far and wide.
    Miles away, stones and ground twisted in Redwall, the legendary sandstone building buckling from the turmoil. They had seen the ashy cloud from far off, thinking it only as a storm cloud. But now, ash fell from it thick and chokingly on the ground and on the walls while trees blazed in the distance, the flaming forest coming ever closer.
    When an earthquake occurs, it commonly disrupts more areas underground than those above the surface would realize. Other volcanically unstable areas are especially susceptible to tremors in the earth, such as the mound that was once the chamber of the Doomwyte.
    The water boiled in roiling action as a fracture in the stone far below the surface leaked lava into the upper dirt and stone. The pressure of the magma forced a crack in the surface, spilling out as the earthquake continued to weaken the entire structure of the earth. The lava was now able to leak easily out, unstopping, the heat catching everything it touched on fire. Ash, steam, and poisonous gases leaked into the air. Acidic water emptied into the river Moss, making the water sulfurous and murky while ash continued to pollute the land.
    Grass was suffocated and withered, and the great sandstone abbey that had withstood the ravages of time and war, crumbled from the great heaving earthquake. Many of the inhabitants of Redwall were killed by the falling masonry, even more coughed and choked on the countless tiny and painful fragments of ash until they could breathe no more, falling down to die in great pain. No vegetation was saved; no life in trouble could be rescued or cured.
    Death rained down in the form of dirty snow as the sun was blotted out by the clouds of ash. Static electricity in the billowing masses caused flashes of lightning to show amidst the black interior of the cloud.
    Trees crackled and fell as the flames licked at them hungrily, spreading unchecked like reaching claws of fiery death. The smoke rose, carrying burnt leaves and bark high to mingle in the hot cloud of death.
    The air was blistering hot, suffocating and close like a blanket forced around one's throat and mouth. The stench of burning feathers clung in the air as birds' plumage hissed and smoldered in the forest fire. An avalanche of smoke and ash spread from the mountain, falling and rolling for miles. It knocked down trees and blistered rock in its dangerous path to merely flow over the walls of Redwall like a wave of the ocean.
    The aftermath was as desolate and dark as the disaster that had made it. A haunting wind hissed through the bare and charred forms of skeletal trees, blowing the thick ash that lay heavily on the ground in swirling flurries. Here and there fires still burned, marking the sky with dark smoke. Trees crashed in the distance, unable to stand any longer from the damage they had taken. The river Moss was beginning to run clear, but a dead shrew by the bank of the water gave testimony to the toxic matter that had once mingled in its rushing depths.
    Steam smelling strongly of rotten eggs, a high content of sulfur, jetted from holes in the area by the Doomwyte mound. One or two geysers shot up suddenly and briefly as heated water turned quickly to steam and were forced upwards by the great pressure.
    Salamandaston was still and quiet, though a steady stream of smoke showed the presence of heat beneath the cooling surface. The skull of a hare sat half in and half out of the hardened lava, the inner half burnt to nearly nothing from the molten stone and a bit of flesh and eyeball stuck from the socket. Some weapons lay about, as well as a warped anvil that sat in all its uselessness, all blackened, melted, and burnt.
    There was not much left of Redwall Abbey besides the northeast corner of the wall and the ash-covered spire with a bent weathervane hanging crookedly off its tip. Crouched in a sad huddle were the shriveled remnants of the bodies of a mouse family. The father still had his arms around his wife and child, all covered in nearly three feet of ash.
    They sat as a symbol of sorrow and loss. Their home had been burnt, their friends: dead. All they knew had been destroyed. Yet, in their last moments, they showed love and compassion toward each other, each other being all they had left. While still heartbreaking and sorrowful, the love for their family showed with every position, the father putting his life down to save his family, his wife holding their child to try and keep it safe, and the infant hugging it's mother in love and fear.
    There they were, in a land of still death, to remain as long as time wish. The land of death, ashy, gray, and endless, held the emotions that would turn the most hardened of hearts.
    If ever the land of Mossflower is travelled again, green and lush with trees and birds, one must contemplate the horrors and truths that had destroyed legends and lives.

The mountain Salamandastron
Grumbled from it's depths,
And let forth a mighty fire ball,
That led to many deaths.
Ash and smoke darkened the sky,
Falling like deadly snow,
While fire rained from mountain far,
To burn the forest below.
Redwall was rent and torn and crushed,
As the earth below gave way,
The earthquake caused by mountain blast,
Killed many in that day.
No beast alive would e'er had thought,
That such a time would come,
When destruction came to Mossflower,
And never more be one.
Ash was all, with fire and smoke,
Choking, sticking, clinging,
Keeping grass and trees from growing,
And stopping birds from singing.
No more to be a happy place, doomed
All to death and woe.
What is left is memories and broken stone,
And cold wind to blow.


Please share your thoughts.

[The Mask]

Ooh Very nice. The poem reminds me of Pompeii. Very good!

[Jetthebinturong]

Wonderfully horrifying 

[Cornflower MM]

Wonderfully horrifying 

I must agree!

[The Skarzs]

Whoa, that's more reviews in a single day than I've had in a week on some of my writings!

I'm glad you all enjoyed; it was certainly very. . . different to write.

[rachel25]

Well if I wasn't miserable earlier, I am certainly now.
It was well writing, and it sort of reminded me of a book I recently reread. The Secrets Of Vesuvius Its part of the Roman Mystery series, I highly suggest you read them, their good books.
Anyway, it would be really cool if you did a follow on to this. Maybe another one shot, or a fanfiction. That would be AWESOME!

[Captain Tammo]

Wow that's pretty sad to read. It reminds me a lot of Pompeii with the burial of an entire civilization. It'll be years and years before greenery returns to Mossflower. So much life ended so quickly and without warning, what a shame!

However it's well written, so good job! It seems you did well enough to make all of us really sad, so... thanks? hahah nice work!

[The Skarzs]

Thank you all for reading, I'm glad you enjoyed it! Yes, it is supposed to be sad, dramatic, and a little disturbing, which is why I found it a little intriguing to write. Anyhow, it got the point across on how quickly it destroyed everything everybeast knew and how helpless they were.
@Captain: Lol, you're welcome.
@Rach: A follow-up on this? Hmm, it might be a little while.