Unto the Shadow (Completed)

(Ch.31) Game Over

After a rowdy dinner, where Pierce had magically produced some sort of alcohol. Ryder found herself sitting alone at the fire.

Poor Tairin was off in the dark running drills with Eva. Ryder had not been invited, which she didn't mind. They all seemed to be treating her with baby gloves since her power's misbehavior in the alley. Pierce hadn't even offered her a tin cup of his magic elixir. That she had minded.

Of course, the alcohol did what it was supposed to and loosened everyone up, which was fun, then it wasn't. Jade had marched off into the dark meadow after threatening to cut Pierce's tongue off. He too had excused himself from the fire and disappeared into the forest.

Graynin had just vanished at some point before Eva forced Tairin to his feet, insisting he needed to stretch his bad arm. And just like that she was accidently alone it would seem.

With nothing else to do, she gave into her childish instincts and grabbed a stick poking out of the fire. The tip was red hot and smoking, the once fresh wood now crystalized and glowing. As she rotated the stick, the very tip of the embers fell off and landed on her blanket just in front of her crossed legs.

"Damn," she swore, as she tossed the remainder of the stick back in the fire and tried to flick off the now smoking ember burning her blanket. "Oh, shit." She swore again, hoping off her mat to frantically shake her blanket as the smoking threatened to ignite.

"Didn't anyone teach you not to play with fire."

Ryder felt her back stiffen at the voice. She turned to watch Graynin walking into the circle. She stared dumbfounded as he casually, and graceful took a seat on Eva's blanket next to her.

"They tried" She laughed, "boy did they try." She said rolling her eyes at the fire. Still patting out her smoldering blanket, not ready to commit to sitting next to the Greek god that casually reclined very close to her.

"What do you mean by that?" He asked, curious.

"Well, I burned the neighbors barn down when I eight."

"So?" He questioned, "I burned down half the school when I was young and flooded the cafeteria."

"Really?" Ryder forgetting her embarrassment looked to the person who seemed to be a walking natural disaster.

"Really." He confirmed with a crooked smile.

"Well my world isn't accustomed to children destroying property in such grand ways." She chuckled, remembering how the court mandated psychologist was pretty sure she was going to grow up to be an arsonist, or very successful on Wall Street. He made it seem like a toss-up.

"So, what happened?" Graynin pressed. As if this story was actually interesting.

She looked at the genuinely curious man, who looked almost childish, just revealing another layer to a person she had originally thought cold and one dimensional. Somehow the look on his face made her feel more at ease. Including dousing her boiling embarrassment from their encounter earlier, to a bearable simmer.

"Well, my parents practically ripped that poor shrink apart, verbally of course. Physical violence is also very frowned upon in my world. I still played with fire, but in a controlled environment, campouts and what not. My dad seeming to see that my attraction to it would not end with a simple therapy session. To me fire is like a misunderstood animal, sure it has teeth and can bite you, but that doesn't mean it's bad." She shrugged, "I guess my curiosity makes sense now." Her voice trailed off, trying to hold back the tears that pressed behind her eyes.