We get a little bit of Dustfinger and Basta's history in this chapter. It's my own take on it. So it should be interesting. Review and tell me what you think!

Basta went back to camp while I explained. I guess he didn't want to be around when I did. Kat and I filled Dustfinger in on what had happened. When we had finished he was silent, his hands clasped in front of his mouth. His eyes were clouded in thought.

"You are a strange girl Callypso" he finally said. "And foolish. But you are a loyal friend aren't you? A good one to have."

I flushed "Thanks I guess."

Dustfinger half smiled. "So, you want to lead a vendetta against Capricorn, and bring him down."

"Yes" I nodded. "I'm tired of hiding and waiting."

"You want my help?"

"I do" I nodded. "I need all the help I can get. Capricorn as a lot of men. We have the advantage that most of them are stupid."

"Yes" Dustfinger nodded. "I want to see Capricorn go down as much as you, so I will help." His face darkened. "But don't expect Basta and I to get along. We have our own grudges." He touched the scars on his face, lightly.

"Right, just don't kill each other and I don't care how much you two fight." I nodded.

"I do!" Kat exclaimed. "My ears will bleed out if they fight too much!"

I rolled my eyes "Then hit them with pine cones. I don't care."

"My pleasure" Kat grinned.

Dustfinger sighed and smiled absently.

"What?" I asked.

"Nothing." He said. "You've come a very long way from that scared little writer I once knew Callypso. A very long way."

I looked down at my hands "Yeah… I would hope so."

Basta was leaned against a tree when we came back to camp. Dustfinger was sure to stand as far away from him as possible in the clearing.

Basta's lip curled when he saw Dustfinger but he said nothing to the man. Instead he looked at me. "Hey, Sweetheart, come here."

I growled at the nickname but walked over to him "What?"

"So, he is coming with us?" by his voice I could tell he wasn't pleased with the idea.

"We need all the help we can get" I said slowly. "I know you two hate each other but… it isn't the time to be picky. Everyone we're getting in touch with hates you."

Basta gave no reply.

I sighed "I don't even know why you two hate each other. I never read the book. I never got the chance."

"If you want to know you might as well ask him." Basta growled.

"Fine, I will." I turned and started to leave.

"Your hand is burnt." Basta said out of the blue.

I stopped and looked at my palm. "Oh… yeah, it's nothing. Dustfinger's hands were just really hot when I stepped in the middle of that argument. I grabbed his hand. I got a little burnt."

"I'd put something on that" Basta closed his eyes. "Burns scar easily."

"Uh… right…" I nodded before walking away. Kat and Dustfinger were talking on the other side of the fire. I bent down to sit with them. "Do you have anything for burns Dustfinger?" I asked, showing him my hand.

"When did that happen?" Dustfinger asked.

"When I grabbed your hand during that argument. They were hot. I got burned a little." I shrugged.

"Sorry about that." Dustfinger took a bottle of ointment from his pack. "Give me your hand."

I did. He coated his fingers in the ointment and gently dabbed his fingers over the burned. I winced. Dustfinger sighed "I know burns hurt. I used to get them quite frequently before I learned to master fire." He took a bandage from his pack and wrapped it around my hand. "There it should be fine."

"Thank you" I withdrew my hand. "Dustfinger… do you mind if I ask… why you and Basta hate each other so much? I know he gave you those marks on your face but it had to have started before that."

Dustfinger stared into the fire for a moment "Yes… yes it did."

I waited for him to tell me. After a pause he began.

"I first met Basta through the fire raisers. I was useful to Capricorn because of my skill with fire. When I was still young I was enlisted to join them. I didn't have a family. I was young and naïve. I agreed to join Capricorn. Basta was among new recruits then. We were both eleven at the time."

"Eleven?" my eyes widened. "Just… just that old?"

"Yes."

That was even younger than Meggie when I first met her. It was hard to picture someone that young becoming so blood thirsty.

Dustfinger continued "Actually, though I hate to admit it, we did become friends then. He mostly kept to himself. He would rather sit in the corner and play with his knife then be anywhere near the other fire raisers. Quite frankly I was the same way. I was a young boy then and the older tyrants that served Capricorn terrified me" he smiled bitterly. "It was an awful place to live. You had to keep your head down if you wanted to survive. We both did just that."

"Neither Basta or I wanted to discuss our pasts, nor did either of us ask the other, for fear of having to volunteer our own story in return. We became friends as people with clean slates."

"I didn't know you were a fire raiser." Kat said.

"I was…" Dustfinger's face darkened. "But as we grew older and survived to begin to advance in the ranks of the fire raisers, greater tasks were asked of us. We began going on raids. We began being ordered to… burn down houses. Kill people who did not bow to Capricorn's will. He was becoming stronger. At the time neither of us liked what we were doing, but we did it anyway, for fear of punishment. But one of us was bound to crack eventually."

"I was the one who cracked. I couldn't burn one more house. I was beaten within an inch of my life and left for dead. Basta had thought I'd died. I think that terrified him into ever stepping out of line himself. It was lucky that the Strolling Players found me and took me in. I was forgiven for my deeds because the house I refused to burn down belonged to a family that was very dear to the strolling players. I started a new life there."

"It was several years before I met Basta again. I was nineteen, and so was he. We were friends again… but something had changed in him… I couldn't tell at first but there was a sinister edge to him now. That is what years of being under Capricorn does to you." Dustfinger shook his head. "We were different now. Our rivalry started because we both liked the same girl. It grew with intensity as time went on. But that was not the only reason."

"From the beginning Basta always carried a hatred that I did not. There was something in him that was vengeful, something that was nurtured by Capricorn like kindle to a fire. I confronted him about this. We argued. In the end he left, saying that we were different people now, and that we should both continue with our lives how we saw fit."

Dustfinger closed his eyes "I'd hoped that would be the end of it. But fate inevitably crossed our paths again. He led a party sent to burn the house of a strolling player. A strolling player I was visiting at the time. When I looked at Basta through the kindling fire, I barely knew him. It was like there was nothing of him left. He was lost in blood lust and rage. I turned the flames back on him. He was burned up to his shoulders on both arms."

"That's why he is afraid of fire" I murmured.

"Yes, because of me." Dustfinger nodded. "Ever since he's only ever watched the fires be set. Of course he was quick to seek revenge for the scars I gave him" He touched the scars on his face. "By giving me some of my own. He made sure to make the marks deep so that I would always remember." He shook his head. "He did not kill me. That was when the last bit of our old friendship was used up. From then on we hated each other. We still do, as you know" Dustfinger sighed and ran his fingers through his hair.

I was silent as his story finished. I was trying to put it all together. It was a lot to grasp. It was no wonder Basta wouldn't want to talk about it. If he did he wouldn't give me the full story. I looked over at Basta. He was far away, I could barely make him out in the firelight. He was staring straight ahead, his face bitter. I saw the hatred Dustfinger referred to. I had experienced the hatred first hand.

"You should sleep" Dustfinger told me.

My gaze snapped away from Basta and I nodded "Good idea. I have a long drive tomorrow."

I lay down on the ground but it was a long time before I could finally get to sleep. Dustfinger said that the friend he once knew was completely gone. That every shred of sympathy and mercy was gone. That now he could only hate. That was what drove him. I would believe it if not for one thing.

When he saved Kat's life that night I saw sympathy as I begged him to help. He could have taken me with him without helping her. He didn't.

Maybe there was something left of that old person that Dustfinger knew.

I think it's a differen't take on what happened. You'll get more about Basta later in the story. REVIEW!