The crimson red flames burned with a fiery glow, yet no smoke rose.
And as the enormous flames danced around, the tribe sages sang the hymns with a serious expression.
The adults stood a bit far away observing the ritual quietly, the previous chatter had long since ceased.
The hymns were accompanied by the melodic sound of the instruments that were being played by some of the people of the tribe,
'If I am not wrong, it is called a veena.'
Sundrin thought to himself as he observed the beautiful women play the veenas with splendour, there were also men but compared to the women they were very few in number.
He recalled that the veena was made with a special type of wood found in the forests, while its strings were made by melting some kind of ore and making a sharp, thin wire out of it,
'If I have the time, I should learn how to play it.'
Thinking this his gaze returned to the Altar where the flames were burning even more brightly.
The priest who was standing closest to the fire pit kept on pouring liquids into it, they seemed to be oil, purified melted ores, and the blood of some beasts.
Along with it, he also threw some meat of beasts in it.
This was kind of an offering that was made to the divine flame every three years during the awakening ceremony.
Dusk was approaching, and the sun would soon hide itself beneath the horizon. The ritual had been going on for hours, but no one complained as it was a sacred thing to them.
Finally, after a while, priest Solvhar stopped pouring things into the Altar and opened his mouth to speak,
"All of you, close your eyes and sit straight in lotus position."
All the children quickly followed the orders, straightening their backs and closing their eyes,
"Now listen carefully, concentrate on the darkness, and try imagining a spark, the kind you get when you smash one rock against another."
Sundrin like the others squinted his closed eyes as he tried to do as Solvhar said. He focused on the darkness in front of him which seemed like a never-ending abyss, trying to imagine the first sparks of a flame.
….
'There!'
He exclaimed in his mind as he saw the light of specks of a spark for a while, but as soon as he lost his focus, the light disappeared.
Sundrin didn't panic, he quickly concentrated once again and soon could see the sparks again,
"Now imagine the sparks are lighting a small flame."
After a while, priest Solvhar spoke once again to guide the children.
Sundrin's mind, as calm as the tranquil surface of a water body, imagined the process of the fire lighting up just like how he lit fires with two stones in his house.
The sparks started becoming more frequent, before they only appeared once every twenty or thirty seconds but now they started appearing every second.
Soon, it became even more frequent and the sparks seemed to intensify as a small fire the size of a baby's pinky finger suddenly lit up.
Even though its size was really small, it still managed to illuminate the dark space.
But the flame was dwindling, like it would blow out any second, it was as if the black space rejected the presence of the flame in it.
A frown appeared on Sundrin's face which was covered in sweat as he pushed harder to keep the fire lit and burning.
It was very taxing for his mind, yet he pushed and pushed not willing to give up.
After a while, the flame seemed to settle down, and the dark space seemed to accept the flame as a part of itself.
But Sundrin felt like it was still incomplete, like it could be more.
He suddenly had an idea and started focusing once again, but this time, he imagined the fire growing bigger.
Sweat rolled down his forehead and onto his cheek before finally slipping from his face and falling onto his white beast skin pants.
Suddenly the fire seemed to grow a little, and this made Sundrin quite excited. Soon, the next words of Solvhar entered his ears,
"Ok in the last stages there is only one thing left to do, grow the fire, the divine flame will help you so try to make it as large as possible."
Without any further delay, Sundrin focused and started to grow the fire. It felt like he was pumping some kind of energy into the fire to make it grow, and the more the fire grew, the more powerful he felt.
However, sustaining this continued state of focus had started to exhaust him, by now the fire had grown to the size of half an arm.
If he wanted, he could stop here but he felt very reluctant to do so.
As he was contemplating what to do suddenly he felt energy returning in his body, surprising him,
'Is this what old man Solvhar meant when he said the divine fire would help?'
This thought only entered his mind for a few seconds before he quickly got back to work and started feeding the flame with even more energy.
The size of the flame kept on increasing.
The size of one adult human arm.
The size of an adult's body without arms, head, or legs.
The size of an adult's body with arms and a head
Finally, it settled down and hit a bottleneck when it grew to the size of an adult human's body.
An exhausted sigh escaped Sundrin's mouth as he was about to stop.
But then suddenly the flame inside his soul flared up, it's size didn't grow but it's colour grew into a fiercer shade of red.
Soon, it started twisting and turning as if it were alive, it started taking an irregular shape,
'Wait… is that what I think it is?'
Sundrin thought with shock as the flame took on the shape of a human, and although its features were unclear he could feel that it was a hunched old man with a stick in his hands.
He didn't know how he knew, but he knew for sure, it was like he was familiar with the old man even though he didn't know him.
Suddenly, the flames changed color from a shade of fiery red to an elegant purple, surprising Sundrin even further.
Then, it turned into a tranquil shade of green.
And finally, after a while it changed into frosty blue before it went back to the fiery red colour.
To say Sundrin was confused would be an understatement, but before he could even do anything or talk, the old man seemed to be returning back into the shape of the original flame.
The old man seemed to smile, and soon the flame went back to normal.
Sundrin, not being able to focus anymore, opened his eyes, his breathing grew ragged, and red veins started popping in his eyes.
It was not until a little later that he noticed the sounds of the music and the hymns of the sages had stopped at some point.
He looked up and saw that Torvyn was looking up towards the fire Altar with his eyes wide open in shock….no….
He wasn't the only one…. Everyone was staring at the altar.
Sundrin gulped a mouthful of saliva as his head turned slowly in the direction of the altar.
…there he saw it again….
The old man was there, the divine fire had taken his shape.
Silence enveloped the place as the moon shone up above in the sky.
No one spoke, yet everyone could see the shock in all of the people's eyes. Nothing like this had happened before during the ritual.
Suddenly, the flame giant made a move, and everyone flinched. The figure of the old man looked at the sky and slowly raised his hand, pointing towards something in the distance with his index finger.
Everyone was confused, yet no one moved their bodies.
Suddenly, the fire started to lose shape, and the old man disappeared.
Even after a while, no one spoke, silence reigned supreme in this place, and the only sounds that could be heard were that of the chilly winds and the cries of some beasts far away somewhere in the forest.