Fire Summoner

Chapter Four: Second Encounter

It was a warm afternoon in early May. Alice and Nick sat amongst the other graduates at the University of Georgia; their families sat in the crowd of on-lookers, applauding as each graduate walked across the stage.

Nick had pursued a degree in botany, his love for plants had -sprouted- when Alice had given him the mushroom field guide. Plus, all of their camping trips together had led to a love of foraging that the two shared. Nick wanted to use his degree to become a field botanist. He hadn't traveled around too much as a kid. Apart from his camping trips and archery tournaments, Nick had seen very little of the world. The desire to travel, paired with the desire to spend as little time behind a desk as he could, Nick knew that botany was the perfect fit for him.

Alice had seen even less of the world than Nick. Growing up, she and her parents did not have a lot of money. Almost every spare cent was saved so Alice could go to college without having to worry too much about student loans. She still had them of course, but combined with the money that her parents had saved and the educational scholarships that she had earned; Alice was not looking at too heavy of a burden. She counted herself lucky for this. Alice had been right alongside Nick at the beginning of their freshman year. Botany just seemed like the perfect fit for the both of them. But, Alice had fallen in love with ecology after taking an intro class during her second semester of freshman year and the two bid farewell to their identical schedules.

Even though the two of them were thicker than thieves, they didn't have to spend every waking moment together to justify their friendship. Nick was often busy with his course load and the archery club that he was a part of. Alice had her own classes to worry about, and the job that she had gotten at the local kickboxing gym didn't exactly offer her a lot of freetime. Alice and Nick still found time for each other nonetheless. Their junior year had them moving out of the dorms and into a small house with two of their other friends, Emily and Connor.

Emily had dated Nick on and off throughout their time at the university. She was a sunkissed girl with curly blonde hair and light brown eyes that shone in the sunlight. Nick had met her on the archery team during their freshman year, where they instantly clicked. After introducing her to Alice, the two girls struck up a strong friendship. Neither girl felt threatened by the other's relationship to Nick. It was Emily who had gotten Alice the job at the kickboxing gym after hearing her concerns about money one girls night over a bottle of wine. Alice had tried to return the favor with some discounted kickboxing lessons, but quickly came to learn that Emily was already highly skilled in kickboxing. Not too far into their junior year together, Emily and Nick had broken up. After moving in together, they found that they preferred their original friendship over their romantic relationship and mutually decided to go back to being friends.

Alice had met Connor in one of her ecology classes her sophomore year. He was a fun loving kid, with dark brown hair and light brown eyes. Alice couldn't help but notice that both Emily and Connor had the same shade of brown as her own eyes. All three of their eyes seemed to hold the same ability of "lighting up" in the light of the sunset and sunrise. Nick had playfully pointed out that all three of them could be long lost family members, after witnessing the familiar warm glow that came from all of their eyes during a sunset that they had all watched together on a beach trip. Alice and Nick had not seen the glance that Emily and Connor had thrown to each other at this, as Alice was crouched down over some wood trying to discreetly help Nick get a fire going.

After three years of friendship between the four of them, they would be saying goodbye to each other after commencement ended. Emily and Connor would be flying out to the East coast to begin their internships. Emily was an architecture major, and had secured an internship with a company out in New York, whereas Connor had been accepted into a graduate program at a smaller university in Connecticut. Alice and Nick had tried to pry the name of the university out of him multiple times, but for some reason, Connor was adamant that the location remain a secret.