My fortieth fanfic on the site! (Man, the word "fortieth" is weird.)

Ninetales-centric now! Ninetales used to be my top fave pokemon, but it was replaced by Absol. Well, I still love it, and I decided to write one!

This is pretty much the most scary, or angstic, story I've ever written before. It's not exactly dark, just that it fits the true definition of "angst", which is actually tension and anxiety. So enjoy it (I don't think it's the kind of story you'd enjoy, anyway).

Queen of Fire

It is too much!

The Ninetales gazed upon the place where the forest had been before. Now, it was only a scarred piece of land, every hint of tree growth torn out of the ground, leaving deep black holes in the scattered brown earth. Her home was gone, the trees that had housed her from her birth had vanished. It was all dead, gone.

The humans had attacked herforest.

Selfish, heartless creatures. Destroying nature! The very thing that gave them their wood, their clothes, their food—killing it off, so that the world may be left to suffer. It is too much!

Anger raged in her throat, burning like coals in a furnace. They don't deserve what they have, these killers!

It was really too much for her to stand seeing.

She would wait. And when the time was right, she would get her revenge.

-

The humans had soon built a town over the remnants of the forest in less than a year, as if trying to cover up the damage that they had done before. Still, the Ninetales watched, taking refuge in the mountains beyond the town, Glaring in rage at the wooden houses and watchtowers. That wood, the very wood from the trees that they killed.

Over the months, she waited. She watched as one by one, the men and women moved in with their families, and the number of citizens grew.

Then there came a day in summer. The sun burned through the late afternoon air; down below, the land was like a flaming furnace. The Ninetales looked up from the mountaintop, then down at the town upon the earth below. And she knew that it was time, time for her to take revenge. The sun told her so.

Down the mountainside she leapt, fury and hate blazing in her agile footsteps as she raced past the shrubs and stones. They'll pay! They'll pay for all the deaths they caused, with their own souls!

The town stood tall before her, buildings higher than she had expected. Die, die!

She gave a roar. The flames poured from her throat, from her body, upon the first building. Billows of thick grey smoke, pillow-like, bloomed over the fire as it spread its rage to the next house. Yes, she thought with savage anger. Yes, burn, burn! Kill them all! They shall know that I am the queen of fire!

The sun flashed as it sank in the reddening sky, bidding her to go on. Another roar, and a tower went up in waves of fire, blackened, and collapsed. It was like a hungry animal, eating eagerly away at the town.

The Ninetales stood in the midst of the flames as she darted across the street to the house opposite, totally untouched. Fire swelled in her throat, and she let it pour out upon the building.

You'll pay, all of you!

-

A young boy glanced up at the sky. He smelt smoke. Is the family opposite having another barbecue dinner? He mused, racing out of the house to check.

Red flames met him, face to face. The other side of the street was on fire, and so was his next-door neighbour's house.

Screaming in terror, he ran to the backyard, in the hope that he could find his parents and run away in time to escape.

As he crashed through the doorway, he saw a hand extended out of the fire in a corner of the garden. The watch on the wrists told him that it was his father's hand.

Dad!

He ran forth towards the body, hoping that this was just a feverish nightmare from which he would wake.

And suddenly, there was the roar of flames around him, and a blazing, scouring pain on his skin as fire enwrapped his body, rising like a monster around him.

He screamed, but it was to no avail. No one came to save him.

Oh, but he did see someone. Somewhere beyond the flames, he saw it. The graceful white body and limbs, the burning red eyes, and the beautiful nine tails of the fox from the legends, moments before his world became a world of fire, and he burnt away, alive.

How was it? You can suggest ways to improve it!