Fire Starter

The woman in this story is Amanda Jurs, she is a woman in her 20's and is a kind-hearted woman.
It’s a normal afternoon, I am walking to my home in the woods carrying groceries from my recent shopping trip. My dog Arkas by my side, he is such a loyal dog.

I found him in these very woods bloody and near death, I know he has an owner because he had a tag with the name ‘Arkas’ on it. He is a big dog, almost four feet tall on all fours. If he stands up on his hind legs he is almost 7 feet tall. He looks just like a wolf, but with bigger teeth. I feel lucky to have found him, but as soon as his owner shows up I know I will have to say goodbye.

There are a few homes on my way to my house. As I walk by I wave and say hi to the occupants and continue on my way. When I get home, I set a few of my bags down, unlocking and opening the door. Arkas runs ahead and picks up the bags I put down setting them inside on the table. I say a thanks and set down the bags I am carrying as well.

After a few minutes of putting the groceries up I am finally finished. I walk into my living room and sit down on my couch. It’s an average sized room, nice wooden walls, a couch facing the TV and a loveseat perpendicular to it, both red. The carpet is a nice dark grey and feels perfect on my tired feet.

Arkas follows and lays down letting me use him as a foot stool. I pet his back with my foot as I turn on the TV with the remote and start flipping through the channels. I swear there is never anything on when you want to watch TV. I flip right past a news channel and immediately turn back. They are reporting on a forest fire happening live.

I sit up watching and listening intently as fire fighters, both on ground and in helicopters, are trying to subdue the blaze. The fire isn’t going down, not weakening even a little. I feel sorry for all the animals and people who are nearby the fire. Then I see something, and not even two seconds after I spot it, the camera man zooms in on it. ///It’s a man, the reporter is stunned as she starts trying to describe him even though I could see him perfectly. He wore a trench-coat that was a light grey and a scarf with a white black and grey stripe pattern, which was covering his mouth; both articles of clothing were waving in the wind. He had dark grey hair, pale skin, and he turned to look at the camera and I could see his eyes. They were black, I thought he looked stunning. Arkas had seemed to be watching the man intently.

Then I realize after the reporter hasn’t stopped stating it, he is standing within some of the flames. He was standing to where there was fire on every side of him, licking at his body. He and his clothes did not catch though, they were unaffected, and as he looked back towards the fire fighters the fire seemed to blaze stronger and glow brighter. Then, as he waved his hand, the fire lunged out at the people fighting against it.

I grabbed the remote and turned off the TV. A little unnerved from what I just saw. Arkas came up and nuzzled my hand trying to comfort me. I pet his head and scratched behind his ear, he always made me feel better. I stood up to fix dinner for the two of us. Trying to get the image out of my mind of the fire /attacking/ the people.

It is about three days after I saw that report, and half the city is talking about it. The biggest topic from the report is who the man was, and what he was doing. I am on my way to my work, I work at a pet shop about an hour away from my house, by foot. I don’t own a car, and I don’t really want to either.

Arkas is by my side as always. I reach the store around 8:00 a.m. as usual and walk in and say hi to my boss. I walk behind the counter as Arkas takes his place by the door, laying down waiting to greet customers. I start to organize the things behind the counter and around the store. After I am finished it is 9:00, time to open. I go up to the door and turn the ‘open/closed’ sign to where ‘open’ was facing outside and take my place behind the counter, waiting for the jingle of the bell to signal a customer.

A lot of people came in today, some were new so Arkas scared them when they walked in and saw him. Product was moved and animals were sold or adopted, which made me feel glad that the animals finally found good homes.

As I was packing up and finishing the last few things I had to do, my boss called me to the back to talk with her. I went to the back room, also known as her office, and she gave me a two week vacation, with pay! My day has gone perfectly.

I was walking home when Arkas stopped, he looked around ears perked. I asked what was wrong and he looked at me before looking out towards the trees. I followed his gaze and saw something, it was about 6’4 or so, according to its position on the tree it was next to. I blinked and it was gone, I looked back at Arkas and he looked at me. We kept walking.

Later that night I kept feeling like something bad was going to happen, Arkas was acting like he felt the same. I kept checking the window, the news, and then the time. I kept doing that until I looked out the window and saw the same thing I saw earlier. Except this time I could see it for longer and could drink in a few details.

It was the man that was on the news, standing in the fire. He looked at me and realized he had been spotted. He looked down for a few seconds, then looked back at me. I saw then, what he was holding. It was a fire poker, red hot like it was just pulled from a furnace. Then he was gone again, Arkas then started whimpering by the door. I stood shakily and opened the door slowly.

The man was about 20 feet away and Arkas ran out to meet him, the man leaned down and pet Arkas in between the ears on the top of the head. Arkas seemed over joyed to see the man, his tail wagging a mile a minute, Arkas then looked back at me and whined slightly.

The man then looked at me and bowed his head in a silent thanks, for what I guess to be caring for his dog. He then looked me in my eyes and I heard him say these few words ‘leave the woods, or you will burn.’

Just like that he was gone, I instantly went inside and headed his warning. I called my friend /telling/ her that I was coming over. I grabbed a few things I would need for a few nights stay as fast as I could without missing what I needed. Then I left, and I basically ran/jogged to her house in the city.

She made me some hot cocoa, and we watched some TV to calm my nerves. The next morning, she then turned the TV to the news. The woods near my house was on fire. The reporter was talking about how it had to be arson since it wasn’t the dry season. Then I saw something in the shot, a dog. It was Arkas, he walked towards a man. The man stabbed something into a dead tree, and it set fire nearly instantly. He looked towards the camera, and he and Arkas vanished.

I then moved in with my friend and have been living there for weeks, I just don’t feel safe without Arkas. I couldn’t stop thinking about the man and where he could be, and why he was doing what he was. Lighting fires, I just don’t understand it.

I see him on different news channels. If there is news about wild fires, I can tell if it is him or not. It seems like he does not want any people to get hurt, but he will if they try to stop the fire. I looked up information on wild fires, and it turns out they help the environment more than hurt it. So I am guessing he is just trying to make the forests healthier.

If you see him, don’t panic. He will give you about 12 hours to leave the area once he lets you know he is there. Just leave the area, he does not want to hurt you. He just wishes to start the healing fire. He and his hell hound.

I never learned his name, but I call him, the Fire Starter.