hnm12318 wrote this chapter! yay for her ;]
Dustfinger stood in the middle of an expectant crowd. He glanced over the sea of faces. The looks on their faces showed impatience. A few kids squirmed and wiggled.
"Fire," Dustfinger suddenly breathed, and a few children jumped, "can be your best friend". He snapped his fingers, whispered a few words and a flower made entirely of flames appeared. Slowly, he walked over to a young girl and presented the lily. She began to reach out, but Dustfinger pulled his hand back.
"Or your worst enemy" he whispered just loud enough for the people to hear. The flower shriveled up and died, suddenly flaring up into a giant bonfire. Dustfinger set the fire on the street, and it waited there for him. He quickly reached out to the side of him, where he kept his few belongings. "But it can be tamed," he said.
He grabbed a fire stick and plunged it into the flames. One end quickly caught, and as he began to twirl the stick around, the other did too. Dustfinger swirled it like a baton, like the searing hot fire would never hurt him. And it wouldn't- the fire was his friend. It obeyed him and could be predicted. So unlike people, Dustfinger thought. It seemed as though only an unloving thing would welcome his company this way.
His eyes searched the crowd. He could see the Black Prince grinning like a young boy and other spectators "ooohing" and "aahing" and comparing him to Sootbird. Children laughed and clapped giddily. Scanning farther to the right, Dustfinger noticed a woman.
And almost dropped his stick.
It was not only a woman, it was Roxane.
Quickly, he recovered from the falter and continued juggling and breathing fire, careful to steal a peek that way again.
But she was there, he thought, standing in the front row, watching you and smiling too!
Oh stop it Dustfinger, he told himself, she was probably mocking your mistake. Now calm your stupid heart and move on.
He plastered a smile on his face and threw the stick in the air.
"Dustfinger," Roxane murmured again. The name tasted red-hot, like the flames he so aptly controlled. It also tasted new and sweet, like a candy you had never eaten before. So much better than the flavor of her sung words. She attempted to inconspicuously study him.
His hair was quite long, falling and curling freely down to the base of his neck, and the color of ginger. It was damp with sweat and tangled around the ends. His face was flushed with the heat and there was an odd strained smile on it. She wondered what could be troubling him. The pressure of the crowd, possibly?
Whatever it was, she didn't like it. A true, warm smile would look wonderful on his face, especially directed at her. Those blue-grey eyes penetrating hers, staring into them for hours.
Roxane snapped out of it, realizing the show was over and she was the only one who wasn't applauding. She quickly started to and tried to rid the former thoughts from her mind. Why would this man want her? She suddenly felt lowly. He probably thinks me a conceited freak with too many men trailing after her, Roxane realized.
But why not prove him wrong? She thought. Why not show him the side of her that wasn't afraid to take charge? She would make him notice her.
And she would do it soon.
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