As the pink tinge of sunset descended over the forest, Keenin dropped a pile of wood into the fire pit outside the cave that his new companions Dia and Clide called home. He noticed that his lizard scale pants had been hung over a pole near the fire and Dia was now fussing over her own project at the edge of the clearing. 

He was glad to see the pants were safe. Dia had been nice enough to lend Keenin an oversized pair of shirt and pants after his bath. Or rather, she had stolen the pants and left the new clothes to give him no choice. He supposed he deserved this, given his unwashed days spent cramped into a cart.

Keenin looked closer at Dia’s work, as she stood outlined in the fading light, tipping a bag of what he believed was salt in a circle around the camp. He turned towards Clide who had managed to change himself from a dragon to a boy and was using a long blade to cut up a deer he had killed. He now wore a blue, ribbon-trimmed tunic and grey wool leggings. Keenin had no way of knowing if it was normal for dragons to take on the forms of fully clothed humans and he didn't think he was ready for that particular explanation.

“What is Dia doing?” Keenin questioned the dragon.

The boy Clide looked up. 

“Keeping away ghosts.”

“Ghosts?” Keenin questioned. “You’re joking, right.”

“Are you not going to light the fire?” Dia complained. 

Perhaps she had heard them. 

“Do you have flint?” Keenin asked in return. 

He wasn’t going to admit he had a fire elemental after all the problems it caused. 

She gave him a funny look. “Flint?”

“Yes, flint. A type of stone.”

“You do know, that you have that fire elemental. Right?”

Fire elementals, ghosts. Of course, he would run into these two people. 

“That doesn’t mean I trust it," Keenin said. "What if I ask for a lit fire and get a burnt forest because it misunderstands, or I get distracted? I don’t always think exactly what I want. And I’m sure it wants something.”

Keenin picked up two sticks to rub together to spark a blaze. He could feel the elemental like a weight on his shoulder, ready to judge his next move.

“You should give the elemental a chance. They aren’t stupid and if you don’t try you won’t know how to work together later. Besides, maybe it’s protecting you because it likes where you’re going,” Dia suggested.  

He stopped trying to ignite the sticks.

Maybe. 

“Back home. That’s where I’m going, right after I learn how to kick ass so jerks can’t take advantage of me.”

“We could drop you a mile or so from your home now. As long as Clide flies at night up high it's not a problem,” Dia suggested. 

“I'm afraid the army will look for me. If I go back now these soldiers might destroy my village,” Keenin protested.

“You could scare them off. Even if you don’t want help, you could still do that. Wait, I have a trick.” 

Dia ran into the cave. A minute later she returned with a walking stick. 

“Uh,” Clide said in unease. “I don’t know if you should…

“Take it,” Dia instructed.

There must have been something special about the stick, yet Keenin was tired of her bothering him, so he took it without question. The clearing lit with an orange tint as the flaming elemental materialized in front of him, a burning parody of a human figure floating inches above the ground. Keenin had no choice, but to stare at its heated face, to the place where eyes would normally be. It definitely felt imposing, in a ‘you better be grateful I saved your life’ sort of way. 

Yet Keenin had quite the defense on his side. He was tired -- too much to care -- and having seen the flame ball before in his dreams, Keenin managed to hold his ground.

“All this to light a cooking fire,” Keenin belittled it. 

He handed the staff back to Dia. 

“Here. I get it. I’ll play with fire a bit longer,” Keenin told them. 

 Dia accepted the staff and the flaming figure vanished. Keenin bent down towards the bare logs and blew on them as though fanning flames. The fire roared up, making Keenin feel slightly satisfied at his creativity.

Clide brought over meat on sticks to space out around the fire while Keenin sat and settled on idly holding the end of a twig to burn. He was still upset with the elemental, but the flames brought him a feeling of calm and let him recall nice memories. His thoughts were slightly distracted by the munching of a dragon who had crept away to the devour raw deer. Beside him, Dia held her own stick of deer meat over the fire.

“I forgot to say thank you,” Keenin told her. “I’ve been afraid that my life is going to keep getting worse. I couldn’t have asked for two better people to help.”  

Dia sprinkled salt onto her meat.

“We weren't there for you so you don't own us," Dia said. "I'm actually surprised you didn't run from us. I know how intimidating and strange Clide and I are."

"You handed him a staff that reveals and strengthens an elemental that he wasn't comfortable with. Tell me again who is intimidating," Clide noted. 

"Ah, well. I just hated to see you so closed up. I went through something similar a few years back,” Dia confessed. 

“How long have you been here?” Keenin asked. 

“About three years myself. Clide was here before me. And Melsa was here before that,” Dia said.

Keenin looked back to see her poking at the flames to send sparks scattering upwards.

"Melsa was the first one here,” she continued to explain. “He deserted from the Red Heart army and his brother over a disagreement and wanted to get away from people. Clide told me that he was very small when he came down from the mountains to get better food because he was tired of competing with his siblings. Melsa found him struggling with the new environment. About six years later Clide found me at the side of the road. I was the weird kid that people didn't understand.”

“Ghosts, is it,” Keenin said.  

Dia had never explained that, but if she was so scared of such things then perhaps sensing ghosts was her ability.

“Yes. The term is Esmer,” Dia said. “People like me are rare. Anyways. We were a pretty secret society and that was fun, but Melsa fell ill about a year back. Neither of us knew what we were doing after that, but we remember him complaining about Iscara and the Red Heart army. That’s why we started sabotaging supply carts.”

“What about that staff you handed me?”

“That was Melsa’s. It’s strange. He had a fire elemental like yours. I guess Melsa would be disappointed if he saw us now," Dia said.

"Why?"

"He made me promise that I would go back to the city and Clide wanted to go too. Clide spent all his time trying to look like a human so he could come with me."

"Then why didn’t you go?"

"I couldn't stop thinking that everyone would hate me."

"I know they wouldn't," Keenin said.

“Thanks.”

The stars glinted above them, with the fire casting about long shadows of pines or maple. A nearly invisible dragon snored some feet away. 

“Keenin,” Dia started. “Before you came here, did you know a girl?” 

“Why?” Keenin asked. 

Could Dia be jealous?

“There’s a ghost girl following you.” 

“What?” Keenin looked around the clearing. 

“You can’t see her Keenin,” Dia reminded him. 

“But you…

“Yes. I can see her. I can see ghosts. It was unasked for. That is not why I asked if you knew her,” Dia said. “You should tell her not to stay here. It won’t be good for either of you. She may have been causing some bad fortune.”

“But Tess wouldn’t do that.” 

As guilty as Keenin had felt over her death, Tess herself had told him to save himself. 

“Well, something must have bothered her enough to stay. Even if she wanted to look out for you, it’s not good. Ghosts will always feel lonely and ignored, they will blame you for not taking notice, for keeping them here, and can express frustration with harm.”

Keenin knew that he had missed the funeral, but this was saddening. He felt responsible.

“What is she doing?”

“Waiting. I put a barrier around the clearing. I don’t need any angry ghosts.”

“Did she try to say anything?”

“No,” Dia said simply. “I can’t offer any more advice. The closer I bring you, the more harm I would cause. I care for the living first. Ghosts shouldn't concern themselves with living people. It’s not worth lingering.” 

“I see,” Keenin said.

Dia was trying to be fair. She was doing it for him. 

"I should get some sleep," Dia finally said. “I left you a pile of furs inside. Take what you want.”

Keenin watched her go and was for all purposes left behind with a dead friend whom he could not see. He imagined that Tess must be sitting atop the old log that he saw just past the trees as she would be hoping he would notice.

“Well, this is awkward,” Keenin said for the both of them. “I even missed your funeral. You know I don’t understand these events very well, except I think I messed up. I shouldn’t have thought I could save you.” 

Fire crackled in the silence. He felt a little chilled. 

“I…I want you to be happy too. And I’m sorry.”

Keenin stood feeling that he could do nothing more. Remembering that his good pants must be dry he moved to where they hung beside the fire and grabbed them from the makeshift stand. Keeping in mind a potentially peeping ghost, he moved to a patch of darker shadow to make the switch. 

“I must be the worst,” Keenin muttered. 

Keenin draped the borrowed pair of pants over his shoulder and brushed away soot clinging to the newly reclaimed scale pants. As he did he felt a lump in one of the pockets. Curious, Keenin slipped his hand inside and pulled out a crumpled bit of paper. A message was written there:

I am sure that you will always consider me a man of betrayal and you wouldn’t be wrong, but I have betrayed myself this time. I would have liked to tell you the rest of my stories.

He realized the note was from Bodwin. There were no big apologies. No excuses. No advice. It must have been honest after all. Once read the ink sunk back into the paper in a familiar way that reminded him of his self-scribing map. That treasured item had remained in his travel bag which he had last seen tied to Judial's horse. 

Keenin thought of his village and an arrow rose to the surface of the paper. It really was a piece of the map. Bodwin must have found the map while Keenin was at the river and thought it was normal paper. It was sort of amusing. The merchant could have sold this for a fortune. 

But where would Keenin go from here. There was still his original destination of Behoden. That city was surrounded by a stone wall and was populated enough for a boy to go unnoticed. Heck, it also housed the best library so he could get more information on ghosts and magic. Maybe find other elemental users too.