Firebrand

Chapter 1: Smoke

Pyro came with me to the graveyard.  He stood by quietly while I paid my respects and left a bouquet of wildflowers.  Only when we had left did he speak. "I'm sorry, Scar."

I looked up to meet his sad, green, eyes, "It's not like you could have done anything.  You were five."

He shook his head, "Maybe if I'd learned how to use this-" he brandished a small flame in an open hand "-sooner, I could have helped."  I shook my head at him, but knew he wouldn't accept anything I had to say.  We carried on in silence until the path split, and we both returned home.  

My mom greeted me inside, looking tired.  "Welcome home dear, I'm sorry I couldn't go with you and Py.  I'll visit Dad with your father later tonight."  

I hugged her closely, "Okay, Ma.", and headed to my room.  I sat on my bed with my knees curled up as the memories flooded back.  

Fire; clawing its way through my home in the dark of night and waking me from my sleep.  Pain;  white hot, searing its memory in to my skin, eating me whole.  The walls; glimmering as the flames devoured them too.  My name; screamed, over and over, yet distant compared to the roar of the flames.  My mom; moving at inhuman speeds through the wall of flames that used to be a door, grabbing me.  And the window; shattering as my mother vaulted through with me in her arms.

I rubbed my scars where the glass had cut my arm and where the fire had burned my leg.  My mom had scars, and my dad too.  Grandpa didn't make it out alive.  I wasn't allowed to see him, so I know it must have been bad.  I remember standing outside our burning home for what felt like forever, while the villagers worked to bring in water from the river to put it out and my father consoled my mother.  

I woke up to a knock on my window.  It was morning, and Pyro was outside.  Right, we were supposed to go out hunting.  I waved at him and grabbed my coat and bow before grabbing some food for the road.  As soon as I got outside, he pointed out my messy hair. "Looks like a whole family of mice slept in your hair last night, Scarlett." he laughed and danced away as I made a jab at him.  

"Good morning to you too.  Do you want this biscuit or not?" I waved the extra one I had brought at him and he straightened himself immediately, snatching it.

"Of course."

We walked the dirt path through the village together, waving at neighbours and eating our biscuits until we reached the edge of the forest.  "If I recall correctly, I'm in the lead by two, aren't I?"  He grinned.

"Only one of those counts, you set a bush on fire!"

"By accident!  I was excited, besides you didn't need to stop to put it out."

"You know I did."  I said quietly, but he had already started to run.  I took off after him, jumping logs and dodging branches on the way to the river.  It was a well-travelled route, but not cleared to minimize our impact on any animal paths, we didn't want them to move farther away.  I could see Pyro just ahead of me, barreling through the most direct route possible.  I was gaining, but we were almost there.  I snapped off a branch and hurled it past his head.  The moments distraction was all I needed to catch up.  The trees parted in front of us as we scrambled for the stone on the bank.  My hand smacked against it just before his.  "Tie?" he asked.

"No way in hell." I answered.  "Payback for the burning bush."

"Fine, but I'm still ahead one."

"Not for long.  Besides, I catch more game."

"We'll see about that.  We're feeding three homes today, right?"  I nodded, and we began our routine; preparing a space for fish and game to be kept while out, laying out our weapons and gear, and searching for signs of animals.  We'd been doing this for over eight years, ever since we could hunt and protect ourselves.  I found some hoofprints and signaled to Pyro that I'd be off.  He nodded and waded in to the river to set our lead that would corral the fish to the pond we'd dug and allow him to select and kill the fattest.