Fierra looked about herself from where she stood, at the edge of the Aroan forest. Her deep red hair fell to just below her shoulder in very slight ringlets, framing her pale creamy face. Her vibrant indigo eyes surveyed the gently rolling hills in the distance, heralding the end of her journey and greeting her back to the place of her childhood. Héran, the capital of Kelward.
Fierra looked at the sky, it had been dreary and cold for the greater part of her journey, which was usual, she supposed, for this time of year. However, she couldn't help but wish that it had been more enjoyable weather for traveling.
She was traveling with her guardian, Aroon Tayne, a man in his thirties who had been a good friend of her father's. Fierra sighed as her thoughts strayed towards those of her father. Seran Rouke had slowly died of a sickness that the physician had called 'pneumonia' and had apparently caused him to drown from the inside. It had been two years since he passed away, leaving Fierra alone as her mother Siere had died before Fierra could remember.
She forced these memories out of her head and stroked her pale grey mare, Ena. The mare flicked her ear contentedly and pawed the ground with a feathered hoof.
“I think we should set up camp,” Fierra said, looking over her shoulder at Aroon.
“Yes, I think you're right,” he said, his grey eyes looking over the spot where they currently stood on a small hill, “The rain is getting heavier and at least we'll be in partial shelter. We'd better begin to set up now.” he dismounted from his old gelding and put a hand to his head to look at the sky, “We'd best light a fire, Fierra, could you -”
“Gather the fire wood?” she said, knowing what he was going to say. She dismounted and handed Aroon Ena's reins, “Of course, hold these.”
She walked off into the deciduous forest in search of a log. She found a few large ones, but they were simply too large and wet. The hardest thing, she decided, would be to find kindling that would light. To her this task seemed impossible, it had been raining for weeks.
How on earth is this going to burn? She asked herself as she discarded yet another dripping stick. Finally she had a pile of moist kindling she had found under shelter, it would still be smoky, but at least it would burn. She dumped the small pile in front of the circle of stones he'd placed in a circle to make a fire bed, “Here,” she said, sitting down, “So, what now?” she asked, her eyes watching Ena and Inde, Aroon's horse as they grazed on the moist grass that grew around the tree they were tethered to.
Aroon struck the flint, “Now, I light this fire...” he said. He had to strike it several times before a small smoky flame sprang to life and began to devour the kindling before working it's way up to the larger sticks and eventually the heavy log. Fierra unlaced her boots and stuck them before the fire in an attempt to dry them out. She rested one of her feet on a warm stone as Aroon tended the fire.
*
When Fierra woke she realised that she had slept dangerously close to the fire and that the only thing that had stopped her rolling into the hot ashes was the ring of stones. The canvas sheet that she and Aroon had spread to make a shelter had worked well enough, however the storm had been bad, and when Fierra sat up, sh noticed quite a few trees had been blown over.
She rubbed the sleep from the corners of her eyes and pulled on her now dry boots before tying her hair back.
“Ready to go?” Aroon asked from where he had been tending the horses.
“Yes, is there any food left?” she asked, standing up.
“Yes, here.” he said and passed her some rather stale bread and a portion of dried and salted meat.
