07-03-2026, 01:14 PM
Inside the granary, the world becomes chaos.
The smoke is immediate and blinding. It burns his eyes and fills his lungs before he can stop it. He drops instinctively into a crouch, knowing smoke rises, but even near the ground the air feels thick and poisonous.
The heat is unbearable.
He feels the edges of his eyebrows singe. His hands begin to blister almost instantly as he pushes through the smoke.
Flames crawl across the wooden support beams overhead, spreading with unnatural speed.
The fire crackles loudly, hungrily.
Almost alive.
For a moment, through the roaring flames, Arjun has the strange and unsettling sensation that the fire is moving with intention.
Then he sees movement.
A shape through the smoke.
A woman collapsed near a stack of grain sacks, coughing violently as she tries to crawl toward the door.
It’s her.
The small woman with the jasmine garland.
The one who looked at him across the square.
He reaches her in three stumbling steps.
“Come on,” he gasps, though the words barely leave his throat.
He hooks his arms beneath her shoulders and lifts.
She is lighter than he expects.
Her body trembles violently as she struggles to breathe.
Together they stagger toward the entrance.
The smoke thickens.
Arjun’s vision begins to darken at the edges.
For a terrifying moment he thinks he has lost the doorway entirely.
Then suddenly,
Cold air.
Gray daylight.
They burst out of the granary and collapse onto the wet ground.
Rain hisses against the flames behind them.
Arjun gulps air desperately, his lungs burning.
Villagers rush forward, pulling the woman away from him, supporting her as she coughs violently.
He barely registers any of it.
Because even as his body screams at him to stop,
He hears another scream from inside.
Without thinking, he turns back.
Several villagers shout at him.
“No!”
“Don’t go back!”
“It will collapse!”
But Arjun is already running.
Back into the smoke.
Back into the heat.
This time the flames are worse.
The fire has spread deeper into the granary, devouring the dry inner thatch and wooden beams. The roof crackles ominously above him.
He forces himself forward.
Another shape appears through the smoke.
A taller woman this time, half-conscious, struggling weakly against the choking air.
She fights him when he grabs her.
Panicking.
“No! The others, !”
“I know!” he shouts hoarsely.
He drags her toward the entrance as burning pieces of thatch rain down from the roof.
Then she realizes what he is doing.
Together they stumble toward the entrance, both coughing…
The smoke is immediate and blinding. It burns his eyes and fills his lungs before he can stop it. He drops instinctively into a crouch, knowing smoke rises, but even near the ground the air feels thick and poisonous.
The heat is unbearable.
He feels the edges of his eyebrows singe. His hands begin to blister almost instantly as he pushes through the smoke.
Flames crawl across the wooden support beams overhead, spreading with unnatural speed.
The fire crackles loudly, hungrily.
Almost alive.
For a moment, through the roaring flames, Arjun has the strange and unsettling sensation that the fire is moving with intention.
Then he sees movement.
A shape through the smoke.
A woman collapsed near a stack of grain sacks, coughing violently as she tries to crawl toward the door.
It’s her.
The small woman with the jasmine garland.
The one who looked at him across the square.
He reaches her in three stumbling steps.
“Come on,” he gasps, though the words barely leave his throat.
He hooks his arms beneath her shoulders and lifts.
She is lighter than he expects.
Her body trembles violently as she struggles to breathe.
Together they stagger toward the entrance.
The smoke thickens.
Arjun’s vision begins to darken at the edges.
For a terrifying moment he thinks he has lost the doorway entirely.
Then suddenly,
Cold air.
Gray daylight.
They burst out of the granary and collapse onto the wet ground.
Rain hisses against the flames behind them.
Arjun gulps air desperately, his lungs burning.
Villagers rush forward, pulling the woman away from him, supporting her as she coughs violently.
He barely registers any of it.
Because even as his body screams at him to stop,
He hears another scream from inside.
Without thinking, he turns back.
Several villagers shout at him.
“No!”
“Don’t go back!”
“It will collapse!”
But Arjun is already running.
Back into the smoke.
Back into the heat.
This time the flames are worse.
The fire has spread deeper into the granary, devouring the dry inner thatch and wooden beams. The roof crackles ominously above him.
He forces himself forward.
Another shape appears through the smoke.
A taller woman this time, half-conscious, struggling weakly against the choking air.
She fights him when he grabs her.
Panicking.
“No! The others, !”
“I know!” he shouts hoarsely.
He drags her toward the entrance as burning pieces of thatch rain down from the roof.
Then she realizes what he is doing.
Together they stumble toward the entrance, both coughing…
![[+]](https://xossipy.com/themes/sharepoint/collapse_collapsed.png)