I stood there, motionless, gaping forward, ensnared in the chaos. The air was thick with the heat of smoldering cottages, their towering tongues licking at the heart of our clan's sacred tree, devouring everything in its path. The snowy ground was marred with splatters of blood, a tableau of lifeless forms, both young and old. The anguished cries reverberated in the caverns of my ears, harmonizing with the thunderous roars of nocturnal beasts running rampant.
The fiery tendrils seemed to flout the winter's bite, much like the berserker onslaught of the night creatures that laid siege to our haven.
There, mere steps away, I beheld my young self, terror-stricken, locked in the gaze of a night creature that had sunk its fangs into my flesh. It crumpled upon the snowy ground, its pallid form
