We are wanderers. The way a fire spreads quickly, moving from place to place is how we live our lives. We move, never resting more than a season in one territory. The only place we consider home is during the Festival of Eruption, when we make our way back to our ancestral homelands. During this festival is the time when those old enough leave behind their familial bands and undertake their day of reckoning. The day of reckoning tests the mettle of those who wish to be the true sons and daughters of Fire.
For our names are not like the other Elements. We don't separate ourselves into different families and have different names. No, we are the Firesons, and we are the Firedaughters. A familial band is put together for those who wish to seek out adventures together, and when those adventures are done, the band is split and a new band is formed once again. This cycle continues over and over, for like how fire starts with the spark and the fuel; which create the flame, and after the fuel is gone, the flame ends.
Zane Fireson celebrated along with his familial band. They were celebrating their safe arrival to the foot of the volcano Hellfire, and the fact that Zane was to have his day of reckoning this year at the Festival. While everyone else laughed, danced, and had a generally good time, Zane felt a pang of sadness. This familial band, although not his birth parents -for not many kids in the clan of Fire were raised by their natural parents- had taken care of him for the past 18 years.
This celebration was the last time Zane would travel together with them all in the same band, the band of twelve people. The familial band mother and father, his mother and father, of course would stay together and probably pick up a new kid to raise until their day of reckoning. They weren't getting any younger though, and they might decide to also bring along two new declared everlasting hearth mates who wish to become familial parents. It was a great honor among the clan of Fire to be one who raised children, but most of the clan of Fire did not care to stay together longer than a season. It was the very nature of the clan to be ever changing of bands, and it was quite possible that the only time you saw friends from previous bands was during the Festival.
Zane managed to chase away the sad thoughts, as he went and joined in the dancing around the fire, as Mother Py started telling some of the tales of the great heros of Fire. Of He who stood against the tyranny of Water, and She, dancer of Wind and Flame, the hero who ended the barring of the Fire clan from the cities of Air. Father Jal made the fire dance, and bend, and twirl until all who looked upon it could see the very story that Mother Py was speaking brought to life. Zane always loved listening and watching these, and he hoped that he would be able to listen and watch once more before the familial band ended.
They celebrated from the begining of dusk until the first of dawn, when fire would appear the brightest, and then as the sun rose, the watcher of Flames took his watch to make sure that their fire would not go out, as the remaining band members went to sleep. The next few days would be of celebration, and waiting for all the members of Fire to gather. They would party at night, and rest in the mornings, and sing praises to Hellfire for granting the people of Fire the blessings of Fire.
No one knew the exact reason why, but for two weeks only, volcano Hellfire would stop spewing out its lava, stop chocking the sky with its smog. The winds would pick up just enough for the air to be fresh while the people of Fire celebrated the Festival of Eruption. Then after the day of Reckoning, Hellfire would burst forth with more smog, and the winds would die, signifying that it was time to leave once more.
Once the first part of dawn began to shine, the watcher of Flames declared it his time to watch the fire, and that the others should rest. Zane headed to sleep with the others, a dog pile of people, sleeping near the fire. Mother Py and Father Jal had the positions of being the closest to the fire, as was their right as leaders of the familial band. Zane as the youngest of this band slept farthest from the fire, but still warmed by the rising sun, and the bodies that he pressed up against to sleep. Typically speaking, usually wintry days or summer nights were when they slept like this as summer days were to warm, but with the ever presence of the wind, the type that made things seem as cold as winter, sleeping together helped still the chill.
The next few days passed by rather quickly for Zane. They weren't the first familial band here, nor were they the last, but his days were filled with greeting other members of other familial bands, especially those who were also celebrating their day of reckoning this year. For those people were the ones Zane would most likely band with for his first year of adulthood. His days also were of trying to figure out as much as what the day of reckoning would hold for him, but every member of his familial band was hush-lipped about it. They told him that for every person it was different. A different journey, one personal, and one that was only shared with a everlasting hearth mate.
Soon enough, the Watcher of Flames from every familial band gathered, and declared the day of reckoning to begin. The Watcher of Flames weren't just those who tended to the flames while the rest of the familial slept, they were the great shamans of the clan of Fire. Their purpose was to judge those who wished to become sons and daughters of Fire. Today, from the setting of dusk to the setting of the next dusk, someone else would watch the familial flames.
Zane was lead by his Watcher of Flames, Zeke, to where the rest of the people undertaking the day of reckoning. They were gather around a massive bonfire, bigger than any of the familial bands would build. Zane saw about forty others, some younger and some older than him. The day of reckoning for those of Fire was not set by birth, but by the signs of fire at birth. It told how long the child would have until their reckoning was upon them. Zane's attention was pulled from the people around him to the Watcher of Flames who was tending to the bonfire. He was pushing the fire with a stick, making it swirl up and swoosh, causing a loud sound and for everyone gathered to feel the heat of fire upon their skin.
"I am Tak, Watcher of Flames, chosen Observer for today's reckoning. You are all here to see if Fire accepts you into the family. I am here to tell you that not all of you well be chosen as children of Fire. Fire has its own wants and needs, and some of you aren't within the scope of things."
Tak turned back towards the fire behind him, and stirred it with his stick. Zane noticed that even though the stick Tak had was made out of wood, the stick wasn't on fire whenever Tak moved it out of the fire. He didn't have time to answer that, as another Watcher stepped forward, and threw something into the fire. Green smoked whooshed out of the fire, spreading to cover everyone surrounding the fire. Zane heard Tak's voice one last time, before everything went dark.
"This i s your journey. This is much more than a test, this will show you who you are, and who you can become."
