Fire Summoner

Chapter Nine: Resting Period

Once again, Alice found herself sitting at the kitchen table with a drink in front of her and the smell of food wafting in the air. Only this time, the drink in front of her was tea, not wine. And her parents weren't cooking chicken; on the stove was turkey bacon and pancakes.

Their small kitchen was now overcrowded with the two extra people. Connor kept peeking out of the window above the sink, moving aside for her mother every time she needed to get water or wash something off. Every once in a while his hands would dance over the hilt of his sword where it hung at his waist. Alice guessed that this was a bit of a nervous habit, as the tree line that he was studying showed no movement.

Emily had just come back inside from gathering the arrows that she could. She was sitting on the floor in a secluded corner of the kitchen working on cleaning the black substance off, and making repairs when needed. Every once in a while she and Connor would make eye contact from across the room, seeming to have a silent conversation.

Nick was sitting across the table from Alice with his head in his hands. Her dad had given him a replacement mug of coffee, but it sat in front of him untouched. Usually Nick wasn't as animated in the mornings as he usually was during the rest of the day, but this level of quietness was strange and almost unwelcome in the kitchen.

Alice's parents bustled around the kitchen, trying to make light conversation where they could. Charlotte handed a mug of tea and an old hand towel to Emily, who accepted both with a smile, before she went back to cleaning up the mess that the monsters had left on her weapon. Harold kept making fleeting eye contact with Alice from beside the stove where he was on breakfast duty. Alice could read the worry in his expression. He had just seen his only child nearly carried off by the biggest bird, or animal, he had ever seen. And then, she had breathed fire at it! He was more or less used to her summoning fire when she wanted to, he was the one who had tried to teach her to control her powers in that clearing all those years ago after all. But in all of their years together, neither he nor Charlotte had ever seen Alice shoot fire out of her throat.

Missy had taken a while to calm down, she paced back and forth in front of the porch with the fur on her neck standing on end. She only came inside when Alice whistled for her. Now she was laying down with one shoulder wedged between the legs of Alice's chair again. Currently, Missy was licking black fluid from between her paw pads, hacking every once in a while and pulling faces at the taste.

Alice couldn't wrap her head around the events of the early morning. Her life had been relatively normal, aside from the whole controlling fire business and the random attacks from strange creatures. It was now, when the adrenaline began to leave her system, that the gravity of the previous situation sunk in. Her chest was shaking. Her heart seemed like it was rattling around her torso, taking a dip down by her stomach before looping back up into her throat. She could have died! That bird would have carried her off and done who knows what with her!

She was young, only twenty-two. She had just barely started to live her life and it was almost taken away from her in an instant. She almost scolded herself for jumping in front of that bird. But, she argued with herself, she had done it to save her parents, who were defenseless and most certainly would have been killed by that monstrous bird. And she would do it again in a heartbeat.

Speaking of heartbeats, hers was beginning to slow down to a normal rate. Thinking things through always helped calm herself down. Alice focused on her breathing. Throwing herself into a panic wouldn't help anyone.

"Soups on!" Harold called from the stove as he loaded pancakes and turkey bacon onto a serving plate. He left the food on the counter, otherwise the table would be too crowded. Connor left his spot at the window and got in line to make a plate for himself. Emily left her weapon propped in the corner where she sat and took Connors place at the window.