DISCLAIMER: All characters and settings recognizable from Inkheart, Inkspell, and/or Inkdeath belong totally and completely to the absolutely genius Cornelia Funke. I only own the plot/ the events that I make up.

NOTE: This story is meant to be set at the beginning of Inkspell, when Meggie, Dustfinger, and Farid have entered the Inkworld.

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Book 1, Chapter 1

EMBER

The torches whirled, a flaming Ferris wheel in the sky, before tumbling back to earth, where they landed in dark hands that acted as if it were second nature to snatch burning objects from the sky with ease and grace. An admiring gasp sounded near the edge of the clearing in which the young fire-eater stood. Farid turned, and flashed a smile toward Meggie through the flames now pinwheeling around his head and chest, eyes gleaming in the firelight. He let the torches drop onto the ground, crouching over them, whispering, coaxing, pleading, until at last they blossomed into the shape of roses, lilies, tulips,, flowers of every imaginable kind. He plucked up a rose and presented it to Meggie.

"Farid," she whispered. "It's beautiful."

"Be careful," he warned with a faint smile playing around his lips, still holding the rose. "It bites."

"I will," she promised, also smiling faintly, as she stepped in to kiss him gently.

Fire required the utmost concentration to control, and the girl Farid believed himself to be in love with kissing him with so much love was considered one of the best moments of his life, let alone a mere distraction. As his emotions raged, so did his control and concentration, until at last the young lovers were trapped in a blazing ring of fire, crackling and hissing greedily. When they broke apart seconds later, the harsh smoke filled their lungs and stung their eyes.

"Farid," she gasped, and her trembling voice brought him to her senses. He shouted at the fire to calm itself, so that he could tame it and make it docile once more, but he could not. The flames that had blossomed moments before now rose up against their former nurturer, snarling like an angry beast that has been let put of a cage in which it has been kept too long. Perhaps if Dustfinger had been there, he could have soothed the fiery inferno, and it would have obeyed his every command like a well-trained dog, but this was only Farid, and never did he even have the potential to work with fire with the mastery of the great Dustfinger.

"Meggie, come on!" Farid shouted desperately as he ran toward the end of the clearing, but the fire knew it had them, and inched closer, ever closer, crackling evilly. They scrambled toward the end of the clearing, where the flames were just reaching their fingers toward the last trees, their last hopes of escape. Farid clambered up with ease- he had certainly had enough practice in his time as a thief, and Meggie followed, though slow and unsteady.

When the flames finally started licking around the trunk of the tree, they didn't even notice. Farid was a few branches above Meggie when the tree's base disintegrated into ashes, and the tree swayed, trembled, and fell to earth with a whoosh and a thud. Their screams echoed through the night air, which so few minutes ago had been tranquil and still. Farid leaped from the branch, pushing off with his feet and landing just outside the circle of fire that now leaped high into the night, wispy pillars of smoke wafting lazily up into the clouds. He ran, ran for his life, with bare feet pounding the cool earth, not knowing, not thinking, not caring, just running to live, running with the most basic instinct of humanity- survival.

When he at last stopped, gasping for breath, a knife seemingly stabbing his side with every breath he managed to take in, he finally took stock of his surroundings, regained a spark of some emotion other than fear or panic.

"Meggie," he sobbed, sinking to the ground and punishing it with his fist as if it were its fault that he had made it, that Meggie had not, howling ferally at the unfairness of the world like a man who has just lost everything he holds dear. His tears soaked the earth and his sobs slowly faded away before his now-limp form slumped slowly toward the ground, unconscious in a blissful, numb sleep.

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A/N

So did you like it? If you did, please, please, PLEASE review and look out for more chapters to come…. I have the whole plot planned out, but my stories go places that surprise even me, so who knows if this one will follow the plan? I am not totally satisfied with the writing in this chapter, so it will probably be revised in the not-so-distant future. And sorry for any OOC this may have. Oh, and this is definitely not a Farid/Meggie story, despite the impressions the first chapter might give… Soon they both will be… but can't give anything awat now can I? I actually like Roxane/Dustfinger best, but that I am saving for later . Again, if you like please review, but if you don't like it, please no hate stuff. If you hated the story, then don't bother reading it, honestly. Thanks!