Daughter of the Fire
By Adaia Swordmaiden
Disclaimer: It's all Jenny Nimmo's.
Chapter 2: Fire in the hand
Charlie came back at lunchtime, followed by a small, pale-faced boy with hair like wet hay and a large dog with hair the same colour as the small boy. Adaia was in the kitchen when they came in and the small boy stared at her for a moment. The dog, however, bounded forward and began trying to lick the girl to pieces. She laughed and knelt on the ground, rubbing the dog's tummy.
"Adaia, this is Benjamin Brown," Charlie said. "Benjamin, this is Adaia. And this is Runner Bean."
"Hi," Adaia said, standing up and offering her hand to shake with Benjamin. He grinned and shook hands.
"Where're my mum and Maisie?" Charlie asked. Adaia shrugged.
"I don't know," she said. "Do you want to fix up lunch?" Charlie nodded.
"If you want," he said. "I'll help." Soon later, the three children were all eating sandwiches and baked beans. "I'll be going back to Bloor's after next week," Charlie said glumly.
"What's Bloor's?"
"It's my school."
"Ok." There was silence for a bit.
"Where do you go to school?" Benjamin asked.
"I don't know," Adaia replied flatly. "I don't remember anything except my name." Benjamin stared at him, his mouth open.
"Wow. Poor you," he said. She shrugged.
"It's ok. If I had a bad life, at least I don't know about it," she said, playing with her baked beans. "Did you tell him how you and Paton found me, Charlie?" Charlie nodded.
"Did you make Paton's coat catch on fire?" Charlie suddenly asked after Benjamin. She shrugged.
"Yeah. I thought that you guys were dangerous and I knew how to protect myself so I did," she said. She looked up. "Why?"
"I think you're endowed," Charlie said.
"What's that?"
"If you're endowed, then you have a special power. I'm endowed as well. I think your endowment is that you can do stuff with fire."
"What's your endowment?"
"I can hear the words and thoughts of people in photographs and paintings. Sometimes I can even go into the photos or paintings." Adaia was silent for a moment. Then she raised her head and lifted her hand and stared at it. A flame suddenly was held clasped in her hand. Charlie stared at it, amazed and then it went out. Adaia shook her head.
"I can't hold it for too long. It's really tiring." She caught glimpse of someone standing in the kitchen doorway and looked to see Grandma Bone, staring at her with a very strange look on her face. Charlie turned to see her and Grandma Bone recovered herself.
"Has that horrible dog and his owner been here?" she asked, sniffing.
"Yes, Benjamin and Runner Bean have been here," Charlie said. The old woman then turned and left. Charlie turned back to Adaia. "I think she saw you," he said. Adaia nodded slowly, slightly confused.
"What's so bad about that?" she asked. Charlie then began to tell her how his endowment had been discovered and all the adventures he had had while at Bloor's, from saving Emma Tolly to saving Ollie Sparks. By the time the tale was finished, Adaia was wide-eyed in amazement. "Wow…" was all she could say at the end. "What happened to the boa?"
"I don't know. Mr Onimous must still have it at the Pet's Café." A little while later, Charlie's mum returned. She had been grocery shopping and had also bought Adaia a new set of clothes. Dinner was spaghetti with bolognaise sauce. After dinner, Maisie set up a make-shift bed for Adaia on the couch. Soon it was time for bed and, after a thousand 'thank you's for everything from Adaia, she snuggled down on the couch. But she couldn't get to sleep. All the questions she had wanted to ask that day were flooding her mind and keeping her wide awake. After about an hour of restless tossing, she went outside, walking down the road. She came to a small park and sat down on the bench. After a quick glance around to check that no-one was around, she stared at her hand until a small flame arose, flickering and dancing. She frowned in concentration and the flame rose up into the air. She kept it there for a moment and then extinguished it. Then she tried again. She didn't know why she was practicing. It just seemed as if she needed to, needed to master it, to be able to control the fire. After quite a few tries she managed to hold it in the air without much effort. She tried to make it grow but it wouldn't obey. She was too tired. She began to walk back down the street to Charlie's house. As she was climbing up the front steps, the glass from a nearby streetlight fell to the ground and shattered. Adaia turned and stared at the light and looked all around but she didn't notice the shadowed figure that stood underneath a tree by the streetlight, his black coat, burnt away at the hem slightly, blending perfectly with the dark wood. Adaia shrugged and crept back inside the house, snuggling back down on her couch-bed and falling quickly to sleep.
A/N: many thankies to Lyra Parry and Chaos-Fyre-Elf31 who are my first reviewers for this ficcy! hands cookies thankies to both of you. as for the rest of you - dum dee dum, R & R!