Burn!

Helmy was the Purifier, a creature of fire.

Somewhere inside the small Purifier, hidden under her fluffy, red, vulpine exterior, the small conflagration burned with the desire to put this accursed world to the torch for offending the Master she adored.

She hated the world.

Her Master did as well.

Helmy remembered how she had been welcomed to it by the hail of arrows.

She didn’t have her name back then.

What she had, however, was the sense of identity, and her purpose - to protect her Master and to bring death to all his enemies.

Helmy never faltered in her mission.

It didn’t matter if she was pierced, stabbed or cut, she went down with a laugh, knowing that as long as her Master existed, she would come back with a vengeance.

With the Master, there was no death.

For her, Master was the beginning, and he was the end.

Then, one of those wretched, disgusting humans wounded her Master.

How dare they?

She would kill every single one of them!

Scratch out their eyes with her own claws!

Burn them to ashes with the power that boiled within her!

Cut them with the weapons she took from them!

Until none of those abominable monsters remained, so they wouldn’t hurt her Master ever again.

It was after that battle when her Master called her Helmy.

She knew it was a silly name, but she loved it.

With the damaged suit of armour taken from the human she killed, with the helmet which gave her the name, she swore to herself to become a steadfast protector of her Master.

Her Master, however, didn’t always need just her protection.

Thanks to him, their numbers grew quickly and steadily, along with the variety of powers as more of her cousins came into existence, and sometimes, the exhaustion was threatening their Master as much as the humans would.

Right now, she was resting in the arms of her Master, giving him her love and her warmth to ease his agitation, the support she would gladly, even eagerly, give. His scent was so alluring, his skin and touch so soft. Being there with him, being there for him, it was so right.

The decision of her Alpha to hush her away from this privileged position near the Master annoyed Helmy a little, though. None of her sisters truly minded that, as long as the Master was happy, the constant dribble of Purifier voices reverberating through the back of her mind confirmed as much.

Her Alpha shouldn’t have teased the Master with jealousy. There was no need for it.

Helmy withdrew, letting Alphas cuddle her Master. Despite her flames, all that fire raging within, she still desired to bring her Master the happiness, to make him safe, and comfortable.

She didn’t need the subtle, wordless mental push from her Alpha to know what to do next.

Once the Master fell asleep, she put on her ill-fitting armour and helmet, took the sword she claimed from one of those accursed humans, and slipped out of the hut to perform her most important duty - to be the protector she was as their male she adored rested within the safety of the warm embrace.

He needed to be protected and cared for.

Purifiers couldn’t be without him, and he couldn’t be without his Purifiers, for they were one, bound at the very soul, inseparable, destined to stay together forever.

Even as the night fell, many of her cousins couldn't rest, and the camp was still in a flurry of activity, just as was the cacophony of whispers in the back of Purifier's mind.

Hundred voices joined, they all had their mission, their tasks.

This place, this den, this dwelling wasn’t completely safe. They were still dangers that lurked beyond this forest, conspiring to harm them, and more importantly, their Master. It was a hostile, alien land they struggled to understand.

This would not stand.

They would make it safe.

Together, they would bring this world to heel.

Burn!

It would be a better world for the Master, where he would be properly cared for, with no humans that could defy and endanger him.

They all strove together.

Helmy, however, wanted to do a little more for her maker, and wanted to do it now rather than later. Patience wasn’t her strongest side, or her sisters’. Purifiers were creatures of passion and fire, and couldn’t sit idly when their enemies still plagued the land while their maker and their cousins lacked what they needed.

She and seven of her sisters slipped out into the night to catch up with the Eviscerator-cousins that scouted the path ahead.

The Corruptor and Defiler cousins were reluctant to go with them, though. They had their tasks back in the camp, in the great work their Master had planned. A few of them still came forward, and together they departed to face the dangers that might approach from the direction of the hills, to establish a forward post in case enemies try to approach from the other side.

The forest was dark, devoid of any light other than the full moon on the clear, starry skies.

Darkness was no obstacle for Helmy, for her sister or her cousins. They could see in the dim light without issue.

The wildlife fled as they dashed through the woods along the road, and her sisters resisted the urge to fling the fire after the prey ran away from them.

Burn!

Eventually, catching up to the Eviscerator scouts feasting on the downed buck, they stopped and rested. Their stamina was great, but it wasn’t endless.

Their cousins shared their catch with them so they could replenish their strength quickly.

It wasn’t ideal, but she was grateful for the convenience. Helmy, just as any other Purifier, could eat the meat raw with no adverse effects, yet they preferred to use the fire gifted to them to cook it first. It improved the taste greatly, and dancing flames were very pleasant to watch, not to mention the warmth it radiated. Only the closeness of their Master felt better than all the blaze they could make.

Burn!

The symphony of voices at the back of her mind, a wordless, or rather soundless connection to her kin, agreed they wouldn’t make the campfire here, to not alert humans to their presence, fully using the advantage their sharper senses gave to them over their enemies.

There, however, weren’t any humans nearby, and the animals soon retreated to the safer distance, leaving them alone.

So they rested, and once the sun rose, they set out once again.

They still didn’t find any humans.

Far in the distance, the beautiful, warm, pulsing beacon of her Master's presence, the light guiding and teaching them.

Then there was the echo of her sisters’ minds, and ones of her cousins too, which would always guide her back.

Humans, however, were too different, too alien, too treacherous for this. Maybe it was why they didn’t understand them.

As sharp as her sight was, it was just trees, and grass, and bushes, and a single, cobbled road snaking towards the mountains. A smell of the woods, or puny animals scuffling around away and away from them, her keen hearing registering the rustling in the leaves as the breeze played with them, but no sign of human presence.

Just the road.

If they followed that route, they would find the humans who built it.

There was nothing for a few more hours.

Back in the camp, her Master futilely tried to learn the way to communicate with the one they held captive. She sensed it through the link she shared with her Alpha and all the sisters.

Her Master was too kind. He still tried to talk even with such a despicable creature as a human. Although Alpha and her sisters would keep their beloved Master safe and shower him with the attention he deserved, Helmy regretted not being there to protect him.

He was safe; she assured herself.

No threat could have slipped past Helmy, and her sisters, and her cousins. They were better prepared now than they were back then when she almost gave into desperation when their Master had been wounded.

Then she noticed it, a smell, faint and distant, but familiar, brought in by the soft wind coming from the hills. Smoke and a fire. It wasn’t theirs.

They all followed it immediately.

It was still distant, but it was, unmistakably, there. Helmy’s group spread to further the search. The whispers of her kin at the back of her mind kept her close to them perfectly well, as did their sharp senses.

And then, movement up ahead, scuffling of leaves.

Helmy noticed the human before he noticed her. A human man in simple clothes, bleak and washed out. A hunter, armed with a bow and arrow, stood in the middle of the forest, surely able to hear the movement of her kind through the forest around, yet still failing to discover them quickly enough.

It made Helmy’s blood boil. She had no fear for herself, but she had plenty of anger at those disgusting monsters that shoot arrows at her Master. And here it was, another one of them, sneaking through the woods, a living proof that sending the party to sweep the woods was the right call.

Human raised his bow, preparing to draw the string once he located the target, but froze in apparent shock once he noticed the slight form of Helmy. Obviously, she wasn’t the prey he expected. It did not matter. He wouldn’t have the chance to sneak closer to fire at Helmy’s Master.

For all the fire she had, she didn’t use her power. Instead, she grabbed the blade and leaped forward.

“For Master!”

Weighted by the armour she wore, she couldn’t jump as far, or as high, but it was enough for her to reach her enemy, knocking the human backward. Helmy hit the man with the hilt and then slashed with the blade itself. A warm blood splashed around.

“For Master! For Master! For Master!

Helmy kept hacking, filled with rage, even after the target stopped moving. Disgusting monsters that tried to harm her Master - she would kill every one of them!

She would bring Master their heads as the proof of her undying love. She giggled inadvertently.

The outburst quickly quelled her emotions, and the voices of her sisters murmuring at the back of her brain told her they took down the other ones. It wasn’t the last of them; they were certain of it. Neither of those made the fire. It was further away.

From the back of their dwelling, the Alpha relayed the orders. The Master, as caring as he always was, wished to have the plants to feed her sister and her cousins, and tools and outfits for all of them. No humans should be killed. No further humans.

Her kind Master was forgiving. Helmy was not. She would never forgive those monsters, repaying the pain they had caused him a thousand times over.

Yet the direction would be obeyed. The Purifiers’ love was as pure and hot as were their fires.

She left the body behind and ran, guided by the whispers of their kin, as they congregated in the single spot where they would hide under the lush greenery, observing their target before they would approach.

On the slope of the mountain, behind the terraced fields, was another village, and in it, dozens more of those humans, still unaware her kin were around, despite the noise.

The cobbled road, however, continued further. Human infestation didn’t end there.

Their maker would deal with it in due time. Didn’t matter, Helmy would bring the Master what he desired, one way or another.

Burn!

“For Master!”