Hearth and Home

The voices outside her hiding place kept talking. She curled further into a ball and whimpered. She was never coming out, never, never, never!

She didn't know what was going on. She didn't remember anything. There had been a black nothing, and a brief, comforting fire. Then the screaming and the shouting started, loud! Panicked! And she was scared, scared, scared! There were people, they were allbigand scaryand screaming! Shouting at her!

She had screamed and cried, and then they tried to grab her, grab her arm, and she wanted it all to stop, stop! She was scared!

They had screamed more as she burned them, but it made them let go. And then she ran, she hid, hid away from the big scary people! There was a little square-shaped hole in the wall, and inside it a tunnel with metal walls that banged and echoed as she crawled inside. At the end of the tunnel there was a grid, and she had tried to push it away, break it and hide further, away from the big scary people but she couldn't! Couldn't!

So she had curled into a ball and put her hands over her ears as they tried to lure her out, reaching at her with their hands, too big to come after her. She closed her eyes and wished, wished they'd go away, go away and leave her alone!

Eventually, they stopped trying to get her. They talked among themselves, mumbled words she blocked out. Eventually some of them left, or at least she couldn't hear them anymore.

And after a long, long time there was the sound of the door opening and closing, and talking, and steps.

Then it was quiet.

All quiet, except for a soft hum and crackle.

She peeked from behind her hands. There was someone looking into her tunnel. Someone new, orange and yellow flames softly flickering.

"Ahem. Hello", he said. His voice was calm and steady and not at all screaming. It crackled a bit, like he crackled.

Like she crackled.

"...Won't you come out of the ventilation shaft?"

"No!" She curled back into her ball. Out was scary! Here she was safe, here nobody would grab her and scream at her!

"...Okay then."

He disappeared from the mouth of the tunnel.

...Where did he go?

After a while, she got too curious. She unfurled, and began to slowly crawl towards the mouth of the ventilation shaft, trying not to bang the metal, it made a lot of sound.

She peeked into the room, still hidden in the safety of the ventilation shaft.

There were the circles and complex symbols of white chalk on the floor, and soot and charring too. Knocked over chairs, stray bottles, some boxes. Hewas sitting cross-legged, leaning against a wall, hands resting in his lap. He was holding something white, idly turning the clutch of fabric in his fingers.

He was big, like the others were. But he was quiet. He wasn't as scary.

He turned to look at her, and she flinched, backing into the tunnel.

He didn't move. He didn't come to try to grab her and drag her out of her hiding place.

"...You can stay there, if you want." He turned his face away, looking off somewhere in front of him. "But it looks a bit uncomfortable."

She listened.

"You must have been pretty spooked by your summoning. Not that I'm surprised, a summoning can be pretty scary. You didn't burn anyone badly, though. If you were worried. So, you're not in trouble, or anything."