The King with Six Friends

Kindle

As the three trekked on through the country, the sky grew overcast. Dark clouds rained down on them and the road became slick and muddy. Fierce whirlwinds made them anxious to find shelter.

"I see an overhang up there." Zar pointed out a cave in the downpour. "We could climb up there and get out of this." He started up the rocky slope.

"Um, I don't know," worried Agus, "Looks pretty high."

"You're welcome to stay down here and get caught by wolves," said Edge, rather passive-aggressively.

Agus weighed his options. "Wait for me!"

Halfway up the slope, Zar spotted a dim flickering down the road. A fire. There was a small campfire a short distance away. In this rain, it would die out soon.

"I'll be right back," Zar called over his shoulder before sliding down the ridge.

Zar raced to where he saw the fire from the hill. It sputtering in and out, hissing with each drop. It almost sounded like it was coughing. A few belongings and a small stack of sticks were scattered next to the fire. If he could preserve the fire, he could carry a branch back up the cave so they could stay warm for the night.

Zar removed his cloak and held it over the flames with a forked branch to shield the embers from the rain. He threw some of the twigs into it to restart the fire. It gradually grew and came back to life. After a few minutes, he thought he heard a sigh coming from it.

Glancing underneath the cloak, Zar found a fiery-haired, freckle-faced man lounging comfortably in the ashes.

"Hey!"

"'Hey' back. Thanks for the cover!" the man replied with a chipper accent.

"Are you another one of those Morphs?" asked Zar.

"Sure am!" The man put his arms behind his head. "The twigs were much obliged. I thought I was going to die. Though, it couldn't have hurt to use some dry ones."

Zar removed the cloak from the branch and tied it around his own shoulders.

The man put his hands up to block the rain from his face. "Blah! Fine, I'll get up."

"Why didn't you turn into a man? You could have saved yourself," asked Zar, wondering how many other Morphs there were.

"Well-" The man stood up and pulled a stick out of his curly red hair- "It was getting dark, so I gathered up some food- er, kindling -and built my own little shelter. I think I fell asleep on the embers, and the wind blew away my cover! It started raining, and I just couldn't breathe. I don't know if you know this, but it's a wee bit hard to do anything if you can't breathe."

"Well, now you can. There's a cave my travel companions and I are using for shelter tonight." Zar pointed up the ridge. "You're welcome to come."

The man beamed. "Many thanks, stranger. I'm Kindle."

Kindle was from a farming village two days' walk away. He'd left home with his mother's blessing to find a livelihood. The only problem was, Morph folk weren't well-liked in some parts of the land.