LJ Idol 10: Week 14: Campfire stories
When I sat down to write this week my Camp NaNoWriMo characters for this session decided to get involved take over.[Optional Quickie Backstory---]This part is told from the POV of a tiny shape shifting magical being named Sparkie but who has just been referred to as "the imp" by Claudius, his Master's rich (possibly nefarious) benefactor.
Sparkie's Story
He doesn’t mind being called Imp. Even though that’s technically not what he is.
He was brought forth from a wisp of smoke and evolved over his journey’s with Tremaine. Though he insists he was made from flame and this led the man to dub him Sparkie. Spark, Sparkle, and sometimes Firestarter.
Names are what you make them, Tremaine tells him.
That was one of his first lessons. They will identify you as what you mean to them.
Good morning sunshine.
Rise and shine super star.
Get some rest now little friend.
Tremaine needed a companion and Sparkie learned that meant growing up quickly; becoming curious about the world around him. Figuring out the important things.
With Tremaine it was easy. He was exuberant in the life he was leading. The great treasure hunter. Notorious.
Their first time aboard an aether ship together made Sparkie understand completely.
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Sparkie loved Ree from the first. She was the young ward of Tremaine’s benefactor, a man named Claudius, who mostly sent Tremaine to exotic lands searching for rare books.
Ree was the one who taught Sparkie about love and how the heart could ache.
They had tea parties.
He taught her how to play pirates.
She always wanted to wear a cape.
She read out loud to him from great leather bound tomes.
A is for abalone.
B is for bishop.
Their visits were always too short and by the time they returned it was, dancing at balls, curating the library, needlepoint, baking apple pies, card games and chess games.
And then one day during a round of Beggar My Neighbor,
Do you think fairies are real Sparkie?
I am real.
Yes, but you are a dragon.
So dragons exist but not fairies Ree?
Can you truly become fire? Like Trem says.
He wishes to please her. To make her laugh. To be that which she enjoys.
He sighs and feels alight. He com-busts in all directions. Summoning fire hurts, consumes.
He has known he is Wisp. He is soft scents on gentle breezes.
But he had become an actual pirate by then. He had learned to wield.
He was also Weapon.
He was steel and stone. He was pure magic. Born of smoke. Summoned by a lonely man on moonless night in the forest of Everglen.
_____________
Tremaine chooses each piece of wood and lays down incense and herbs. He says words of significance and then tosses a match dipped in sulfur onto the pile.
Nothing happened for a long time,Tremaine would say when telling this story. He went about and made camp. Heated a bit of food and coffee along the edge of the fire. Just as he was about to doze off, a bit of smoke swirled about his shoulder and then hovered before him and dissipated into the air leaving behind the daydream of a cloud of fine particles, an entire life lived in but a single breath.
Sparkie doesn’t call his master by his surname, like most, when they are alone. He is teacher, he is summoner, spell caster…demon catcher.
You are not a demon Sparkie, Tremaine insists but Sparkie is not so sure.
He doesn't mind being called Imp because he secretly wishes it was closer to the truth.