Chapter 1
Honeyfeather adjusted her seat and checked the path for her victim. The brightly colored young man with ice white hair and golden skin strode along looking self important, his fledgling firebird resting easily on his shoulder. Honeyfeather moved her bowl of bright pink dye so it was resting easily on her lap. She was going to be in so much trouble for this!
When he was just below her she emitted a piercing whistle that startled his bond bird into flight.
He didn't have a chance to say anything before she tipped the contents of her bowl and it splashed down upon his perfectly groomed hair and over his ornate clothing.
"Honeyfeather!" He roared.
She scrambled to her feet and ran across the thick branch and out of striking range. She could hear him crashing through the brushes below her and she only laughed more. The perfectly groomed Firesong was shouting curses no child of Honeyfeather's ten years should hear.
She leaped to another branch with all the grace of a hunting cat onto its prey and ducked into a hole where the branch met the rest of the tree. As far as she knew no one else was aware of its presence.
"Honeyfeather, get down here!" Firesong yelled as she circled below trying to find her.
She ignored him and pulled out a book from its hiding spot.
Just wait until he discovered the dye was permanent and designed to resist magical bleaching.
A whistling cry alerted her that he had sent Aya up to search for her.
"Mother is going have your hide!" Firesong threatened.
She ducked farther into her sanctuary and ignored him.
That would teach him for calling her featherhead.
~*~
"Father, she died my hair pink! Not to mention ruining some of my favorite clothing!" Firesong jabbed an accusing finger at her.
Honeyfeather sat on the chair swinging her legs back and forth waiting to hear what her punishment was to be. Her father would probably dismiss it as a childish high spirits but her mother was going to have a canary.
It was worth it. Firesong had changed his clothing but even his eyebrows were the incredibly garish pink, his least favorite color.
"Feather, care to explain?" Her mother asked.
"He said I was a featherhead with less wit than an eyas and that I would never be as good as he is." Honeyfeather admitted.
"Did you?" Their mother turned her glare on her son.
"But she was making fun of me!" Firesong protested.
Honeyfeather slipped to the ground, stuck her nose in the air and started strutting around giving orders to invisible hertasi in a falsetto voice, asking advice about her latest imaginary robe, more specifically; if the purple clashed with the green.
Her father lost the battle and started to laugh. Even her voice sounded like Firesong's.
Their mother leveled a glare at her mate.
Honey continued her mimicry and Firesong quickly became a shade of red that clashed horribly with his hair.
Honeyfeather paused and examined her brother. "Fussysong, you are starting to clash, perhaps you should apply a cold compress too your face.
Her mother snickered and quickly turned her back so he wouldn't see her laugh even though she could be heard.
Firesong gaped and his face started to approach a shade of purple and he stormed from the ekele.
"Feather, that was not nice." Her mother said as seriously as she could.
"He is just like that though!" Honeyfeather protested.
Her father swooped her up and set her on a table. "Firesong has become something of any arrogant prig, dear. And I know he has been rather overbearing to Feather."
"That is no excuse to dye his hair pink." She stifled another laugh. "She should have come to us."
"Some things children have to settle on their own." Her father said wisely and ruffled Honeyfeather's black and white streaked hair. "When they are adults they will probably look back and laugh at this."
"If they don't kill each other first. Honeyfeather, I want you to apologize."
"But I'm not sorry!" She insisted. "He has been mean to me all week and he keeps calling me names."
"Perhaps he should be the one to start her rudimentary teaching." Her father suggested, his blue eyes twinkling. "Punish them both at once."
~*~
Honeyfeather stuck her tongue out at her brother's back as he paced the small room.
"How could they do this to me?" He ranted.
"Cause you're a dope." She insisted. "With all the brains of a basilisk."
Firesong fixed her with a glare. "This is all your fault."
"It's your fault cause you kept 'egging me on'." She countered.
"Just be quiet." Firesong snapped.
Honeyfeather wondered what he would look like with green streaks in his hair.
"Well, I have to teach you something." Firesong said with the air of a martyr. "May as well start with something simple." He placed a candle before her. "Firestarting is the simplest spell so we will start there."
Honeyfeather's brow furrowed. Weren't they supposed to start with theory? She was only ten so her mage potential probably wasn't even active. Obviously Firesong was setting her up to fail.
Well, she'd show him.
"Now, focus on the wick, it lights easily so this shouldn't be too hard." Firesong sat beside her.
Honeyfeather focused on it with her entire being, blocking out his voice completely. She pictured it bursting into flame and suddenly the world went black.
~*~
A charred Firesong staggered out of the smoldering ekele, a small form in his arms.
"What happened?" His mother was the first to reach him and took his sisters body from his arms. "Oh, Feather!"
Firesong coughed so hard he fell to knees, unable to speak. His father quickly knelt at his side as their mother fought to revive the unconscious Honeyfeather.
"Slowly now, what happened?" His father urged.
"She made a fireball." Firesong choked out.
"She what?" Their parent's chorused.
"She's a firestarter." Firesong wiped his mouth on a charred sleeve. "I was trying to show her how to light a candle and suddenly I was flung against the wall and everything was on fire, I grabbed her and ran." He collapsed in another coughing fit.
"Oh, my poor baby." Their mother brushed the singed ends of Honeyfeather's hair out of her eyes. The rest of the clan gathered, a mage put out the fire with a thought and a healer shoved his way to Honeyfeather's side.
Finally she started to cough and blinked owlishly up at the crowd around her. "I showed you." She said in a raspy voice.
Firesong stared at her.
"Showed him what?" Her mother asked, helping her sit up.
Honeyfeather's face was coated in soot and her hair around her face burned into a mane around her face giving her a comical look. "That I can light candles too."
The crowd laughed and Firesong rolled his eyes. "I would hardly call lighting a candle, smoky."
She stuck her tongue out at him. "Look whose talking. You look like you tried to pull Aya's tail feathers."
"Enough you two." Their father ordered. "Can't you stop fighting for a moment, this is serious."
Both looked guilty.
"Back to the ekele, now." He ordered and both staggered to their feet.
"Peacock." Honeyfeather hissed.
"Mudpie." Firesong countered.
"Pinksong!" She growled and took off running.
"Smokyfeather!" Firesong yelled after her then looked back at his parents guiltily.
"I wonder if they will laugh this will be one of those incidents they will laugh about when they are adults." Their mother commented dryly. "If they do not kill each other first."
~*~
Honeyfeather wiggled frantically as she struggled with her many, cloying mage robes her mother actually expected her to wear while she was taught by one of the scouts who was also a firestarter.
"Now what are you doing?" Firesong said in that condescending tone of voice that was guaranteed to make her hackles rise.
She turned, her arms trapped above her head by her robes. "I am trying to take it off."
"And here I thought you were imitating a tree." Firesong gave a sigh of long suffering and moved to help her remove the robes. "Why on earth are you wearing these?"
"Mom says I should look like a mage for my classes." Honeyfeather grumbled as she finally won free of the fabric. Her hair had been cut short around her face to match the singed ends. "And it's all your fault!"
Firesong stared down at his much younger sibling. "How so?"
"You made me a Firestarter." She placed her fists on her hips and glared up at him.
"All I did was pull you out of a fire you caused by trying to show me up." Firesong countered.
"But you wanted me to light the idiot candle so now I have to get trained." She stuck out her chin.
"It would have happened in the next few years anyway so I don't know what you are complaining about." Firesong said with a confused shrug. "Don't you want to be a mage?"
"Cause I want to be with my friends!" She said with obvious disgust for his intelligence.
"What friends? You play alone." Firesong pointed out.
Her bottom lip started to quiver. She spun and ran off the path into the tick greenery surrounding them, leaving him staring after her.
Now what had he said? Firesong grumbled as he followed her, hoping she was going to try something foolish.
Honeyfeather ran to her small sanctuary and curled up in the shadows. She hated it when her brother is right. She wiped her nose on the sleeve of her shirt and sniffed. She didn't play with the other children very often. Normally she had more fun on her own exploring. But they were still her friends, right?
"Feather? Where are you?" Firesong called below. "I am sorry, I didn't mean you had no friends. You are just more independent than most children."
Feather leaned out and saw him wandering the paths below looking up.
Firesong stopped and ran his hands through his pink hair. He was starting to look worried.
Honeyfeather scrambled down the far side of the tree and shimmied to the ground. Firesong jumped when she appeared in front of him.
"Are you really sorry or are you just saying that?" She asked, refusing to let him know she was crying.
Firesong noted her bloodshot eyes and runny nose and felt like a cad for making her cry. "I am really sorry."
"Good." Honeyfeather said in a tone that mimicked their mother's.
"You better go, your teacher is probably waiting." Firesong urged.
Honeyfeather still looked mutinous as she followed the path to the learning grounds.
Firesong waited until she was out of sight before heading in the opposite direction.
~*~
Honeyfeather was silent at supper that night, practically falling asleep in her supper. A distinct difference from normal; Firesong and Honeyfeather bickering.
Honeyfeather didn't even have the energy to be annoyed with his self-satisfied attitude.
"I'm going to bed." She said, leaving most of her supper uneaten.
"If you don't eat you are going to just as tired tomorrow." Firesong warned.
She stuck her tongue out at him and reluctantly had some more fish.
"So, what did you learn today?" Their father asked.
"How to light a candle without blowing up an ekele hopefully." Firesong teased.
Seconds later the food he was about to bite down on to flared up and then crumbled into ashes.
"By the Lady!" He cursed, jumping to his feet.
"I learned to put out fires." She said and took another bite of food.
"Honeyfeather, that was dangerous." Her mother said firmly.
Honeyfeather looked down at her plate and wondered if 'it seemed like a good idea at the time' was a good excuse. "Sorry." She mumbled.
"You have come far for one day." Her father commented, not wanting her to become afraid of her own powers. "What else did you learn?"
"How to light lint." She shrugged. "Can I go now?"
"Actually I have something to show you before you go to bed." Firesong recovered his composure.
Honeyfeather looked up at him warily.
"Trust me, it's a good thing." Firesong gave her his best 'elder brother knows best' look.
She still wasn't convinced he wasn't plotting revenge for the pink hair incident, which had proved impossible to die over.
Aya flew to his shoulder as Firesong led her from the ekele and down the stairs to the ground.
"Where are we going?" She asked as she ran to catch up.
"It's a surprise." He promised.
"A good surprise, right?" She asked shrewdly.
"A good surprise. Trust me." He sighed and led her down a little used path that led away from the ekeles housing the clan.
She was surprised to hear the squawking cries of baby bondbirds.
"Firesong?" She asked hesitantly.
"Just a moment." He seemed to be talking to someone.
She waited impatiently.
Finally he moved again, this time he led her to a tall tree. On one of the lower branches a pair of owls watched her intently. They were large, with dark eyes that held much more intelligence than their wild cousins. They had both been created from barn owls with rust and cream feathering and were half again the size of their wild brethren.
Honeyfeather looked up at her brother as he spoke to the owls, apparently introducing her.
"Feather, this is Durri and Ustil." Firesong said finally.
"How do you do?" She said formally. She knew Durri was bonded to one of the scouts and she had some nestlings of age to find bond mates.
Durri hopped down to Firesong's outstretched arm and examined her closer. :Good girl. Smart.: She observed. :Good mate for Currin.:
Honeyfeather could barely stand still she was so excited.
A smaller barn owl that was half fuzz swooped down to join her father, nearly overshooting the branch. It seemed only her face was free of the baby down giving her a strange look.
Firesong cocked one glowing pink eyebrow at Honeyfeather and waited for her to move.
She held out her arm and the little owl swooped towards her, she barely managed to catch her before she hit her chest. "Hi Curin, I am Honeyfeather." She said as the bird settled on her arm.
:I like mice.: Curin cocked her head to the side. :You have no feathers.:
Honeyfeather laughed. :You've got no hair.:
Curin twisted her head about to examine herself. :Right, no hair. Got fluff.:
Firesong let his little sister lead the way back to the ekele where a pair of surprised parents greeted the new edition to the family.
"Maybe you aren't such a basilisk face." Honeyfeather said as she yawned and made her way to her room.
Firesong started to protest but decided she meant it as a compliment. He rolled his eyes dramatically and gave his parent's a long suffering look. "Why am I stuck with a little sister like that?"
His father laughed. "To keep your ego in check is my bet."