After thwarting the attempts of his birth mother's soldiers to recapture him with the help of Fionna the Human, Ignatius Flint Morkai finds a peaceful life of solitude for himself, spending most of his time studying the world around him. However, such a lonesome existence leaves him plenty of time to daydream about his past, which is the last thing he wants.

A deep, soothing growl rumbled against Ignatius Flint Morkai's ear and he smiled softly as he began to waken. "Mother…" he murmured, opening his dark eyes only to recoil in horror at the sight of a huge bear standing over him. The beast jumped back, pawing its snout as it had burned itself touching the Prince of Fire. It roared and swiped out at the terrified prince, only to burn its paw. It ran, realizing it couldn't hurt the young man, and Flint was left to stare after it with wide eyes. For just a second, he'd thought he was home in his pride's cave, being woken to go out hunting by his loving mother. Not the Flame Queen, but the Fire Lioness known as Asha. She had been so wonderful… he missed her terribly, especially since learning she had indeed been killed by his birth mother, the Queen of the Fire Kingdom. As he remembered seeing his lion-mother's pelt in the hall of his real mother's castle, his chest felt like it was about to implode, and his flames grew brighter.

No… No, calm down… you'll burn everything… Miss Fionna wouldn't like that, he reminded himself silently. He'd met with her a few times since she'd rescued the Candy Kingdom from his unintended mass fire, even receiving her help once or twice in escaping from fire soldiers. She'd sufficiently driven them off and it seemed they weren't going to chase him anymore, so he'd taken up residence in a cavern not too far from a forest on the edge of the grasslands, but not too close to the trees to cause another fire. He spent his days studying the world around him. He'd never known anything but the fire savannas, and this world beyond his home was so intriguing, especially considering how careful he had to be. His birth mother's cruelty and the years of his imprisonment had made him distrustful and quick-tempered, but his lion-mother's gentle yet firm ways made him want to pause and calm down when he was enraged, and consider what his actions might do to those he cared about. Thus far, the only people he really cared about were Fionna and Cake, being his only real friends and the only two concerned with his well-being, so he tried to keep himself from causing fires and trouble that they might have to come and investigate. He visited their home every so often, as he sometimes became lonely between his studies, but he kept far from the tree as Cake had asked.

He decided he needed some company to recover from his sadness and anger, so he rose from his cave home and made his way out to the grasslands. Even though he left a wilting trail, he kept his fire low enough that he didn't burn the ground and grass beneath his feet. Fionna wouldn't enjoy a grass fire near her home. He made his way to their tree and paused paces away. They'd worked out a system for him to let them know he was there. He looked down and there lay a pile of pebbles. He picked one up and cast it up at the living room window. With a tick it bounced off. He threw three more before he figured they weren't home. Sighing, he went to sit at the peak of the hill before their home. He examined the grass and the flowers, but knew by now not to touch or he'd kill the pretty things. He enjoyed experimenting with his fire powers, but he had a deep appreciation for greenery and tried not to destroy it.

He waited nearly an hour, thinking about his last meeting with Fionna and how she'd started calling him Flint instead of Ignatius despite his aversion to his middle name, before a familiar vampiric youth appeared above flying toward the treehouse. He watched as Marshall Lee knocked on the door, secretly wishing he could be a normal person and do the same, and he watched as Marshall checked the windows before sighing and turning to fly away. He noticed the fiery prince and paused a few feet above him.

"What're you doing here?" Marshall Lee asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Waiting," Flint answered simply. He didn't care much for the Vampire King, but also had no problem with him as of yet.

"For what?" Marshall Lee landed near him, but not too close as he didn't enjoy the heat.

"For Miss Fionna and Miss Cake to return. I was feeling a little bit lonely, and they are my friends, so I thought I'd come visit."

"Friends?" Marshall Lee snorted. He wasn't sure what drove him to doubt the fact. He knew they were friends, but he didn't like it.

"Yes," Flint told him firmly, his eyes narrowing. "Miss Fionna has been a very good friend to me and has always lent a helping hand when I can't make it on my own."

"Dude, she's a hero. That's her job. She's not your friend."

"What's your problem, Marcus?" Flint growled as he rose to his feet. Marshall Lee hissed angrily at him in warning.

"It's Marshall. Marshall Lee."

"I apologize," Flint told him sincerely despite his anger. "But why are you acting like this? You talk as if you're trying to keep me away from her."

"Maybe I am."

"And why is that?"

"Because you're freakin' fire, man! You're gonna hurt her. You burn her all the time!" Normally Marshall Lee wouldn't care about such a thing, but he knew Fionna was too careless around Flint and Flint kept forgetting that she wasn't a fire-being like himself. Marshall Lee had seen the latest burn the night before on her arm and she'd explained that Flint had caught her to stop her from tripping.

"It's not my intention to hurt Miss Fionna! Even you know that!"

"Listen, Ignatius," Marshall Lee faced him with a deadly serious expression that gave Flint pause in surprise. "Fionna's too nice to people, even if they hurt her. Why d'you think she's friends with me, after I always get her hurt in our little adventures at night? She doesn't care if you burn her, but I do, because I don't like it when she gets hurt."

"So then why do you remain near her?" Flint asked quietly, feeling a deep pain in his chest as he knew that both he and Marshall Lee were the most common cause of Fionna's injuries.

"… I guess it's because she wants to stay near me. If I don't go to her, she comes to me… She's already got one guy who gets her hurt all the time, she doesn't need another. So… just stay away from her, okay?"

"I-… Alright…" Flint murmured softly.

"Thanks… Um… I'm sorry, okay? You're a nice guy and everything, but… y'know… fire." Marshall Lee then took off into the sky to avoid any more of the sudden awkward guilt he felt at banishing one of Fionna's friends from her side for doing something that Marshall did all the time. Marshall didn't like to think about it, but it seemed like every time he went to hang with Fionna, she was scratched up or bruised by the end of their time together. He quietly thought to himself, maybe I should stay away too… He didn't like how he felt. He didn't like feeling empathy for 'lesser' beings, and he hated having friends because it always caused him pain in the end.

Flint watched Marshall Lee go and glanced quietly back at the treehouse. He's right… Miss Fionna does have a habit of spending time with those who can only hurt her… So, he resigned himself to never returning to the treehouse, and he made his way back to the cave. He left a scorched trail, but tried to keep himself in check for the sake of the greenery. It was nearly midnight when he returned, and he sat down in the dark cavern with a sad sigh. He was simply left to his own thoughts, and he hated it.

"Ignatius," the soft voice cooed in the language of the fire lions. "Come along, my sweet cub, it's time to get up."

"But mother…"

"I know you're tired, dear little one, but you must be hungry after such a long time without a meal."

"… I am." Slowly young Ignatius rose to face his mother, her fiery body glowing warmly as her expression at the sight of her youngest child. He was not of her kind, but she loved him dearly as she loved her other two cubs, and she was his greatest supporter as he grew and tried to be a proper member of the pride. He was not as fast, strong, or nimble as the others, but he was bright and inquisitive. Hunts that would normally fail saw great success when he took the helm as a strategist. He couldn't take down prey without a spear he'd made for himself, but he could certainly help the others using his brilliant tactical skills. It was only after he'd shown such traits that the pride had accepted him, but he was often still teased, and his adoptive siblings refused to call him brother except for when he accomplished a great hunt.

Asha loved him so, and he loved her wholly and completely and believed he was just her odd, furless cub, not a fire-person like those in the Fire Capital. She knew different, having taken him in after a servant of the Fire Queen laid him at her feet as an infant. It had been fourteen years since then, and he'd grown into a handsome young man.

The whole pride made its way out to the savanna beyond their large cavern home, led by Asha with young Ignatius riding on her back. Ignatius looked out ahead to see the fire-gazelles in a large herd, and he called out to his fellow pride members for them to get into position here and there, secretly hidden among the sparse trees and flamegrass. He told them to focus on the part of the herd closest to Asha, and she hid herself, letting Ignatius climb up in a tree so he could give hand signals to the others and call out orders.

"Ready…" he whispered down to his mother. At the twitch of her tail as an affirmative sign, he roared out to the rest of the pride and they all converged on the herd. Two gazelles were trapped as the rest fled, and Ignatius watched with proud glee as they were taken down, securing the first meal in days for his hungry pride.

"Haha! Nate! Nate! Nate!" The pride chanted his name and he felt a warmth greater than fire fill his chest. It was moments like these when they accepted and praised him that he truly felt he belonged. Even his siblings went around boasting how their weird brother was smarter than anyone else in the pride. A few challengers always tried to outwit Ignatius, or 'Nate' as they called him for short, but he had never beaten yet. The only one he considered smarter than himself was his mother, and he made that clear to them all when they asked how he had become such a hunting genius. Asha simply told them he was born special and that she couldn't ask for more. His siblings would even tease him good-naturedly about how he'd traded fur for extra brains, and though he hated looking different, he'd always accepted that idea.

This hunt resulted in a great celebration among the pride, since food had not been so hard to come by in years, and Ignatius had saved not only the hunters, but the older and weaker members of the pride from starvation, including the new cubs whose mothers needed the nourishment. He was treated like a king that night, and he loved it, but he tried not to let it go to his head at his mother's advice.

As the pride slept, full and happy after celebrating well into the night, Ignatius made his way out to the boulder before the cavern, perching on it with a smile as he looked up at the moon. He felt content, more so than ever before. He examined the skies as he did every night, until he noticed something strange in the distance. It was a shape he'd never seen before. Summoning his courage, he made his way out to investigate, sneaking across the savanna with the stealth that came of being much smaller than the other fire lions. He poked his head up out of the flamegrass as he drew near the strange metal contraption, and found it was some sort of cage on wheels. He'd seen them before when fire people came to kidnap members of his pride to take to the circus for the entertainment of royalty. He felt deep anger rise in his chest, but he kept a calm head, remembering his mother's words from when he was young. "Don't be upset, be precise and calm. That is how you will overcome what angers you." Taking her advice to heart, he made his way around the cage, finding there was a camp built near it where some poachers, armed with spears and whips, lay sleeping.

Ignatius knew what to do, and he set about chaining them silently with their own shackles that had been reserved for capturing a beast. He smirked to himself as he finished, admiring his handiwork, until a hand grabbed his arm and he was turned to face a giant flame being with a crown who seemed not to have a body, she was so engulfed in the fires. He let out a screech of surprise, waking the two poachers.

"Fools! You let him chain you?!" The royal flame roared.

"Aaagh! Grawwwwr! Raaaaarrr!" Ignatius snarled in his native tongue, ordering her to release him, but she lifted up a spear and struck him across the back of the head with the butt end.

"Flint?"

With a gasp, Flint sat forward out of his daydream to come face-to-face with a bunny-eared blonde. Not realizing who she was at first, he exploded in flames and jumped to his feet, backing up quickly. She yelped at the heat and surprise and fell on her butt, staring up at him with a mixture of fear and shock. "It's me, Fionna!" She said quickly, and when he began to visibly calm, she pushed herself up to a crouch. She had to stop herself from bolting forward to catch him as he fell to his knees, covering his face as tears of flames filled his eyes and his own fire burned low.

Fionna watched helplessly as sobs wracked her dear friend's body, and she felt tears fill her own eyes with empathy for him. What had upset him so?

"Mama…" he whispered into his hands, and Fionna felt the tears slip down her cheeks.

Oh… his mother…

After long minutes of trying to contain his grief, Flint finally wrapped his arms around himself and sat back on his knees, sniffling as he stared at the stone floor of the cavern. "Y-You… you shouldn't have come, Miss Fionna…" he muttered, feeling both gladness at her presence and embarrassment that she'd seen him break down.

"Why wouldn't I?" Fionna came to her knees before him, wiping away her own tears. He looked up to see this, and he was left confused, forgetting her question.

"Wh-Why are you crying…?"

"Because you are."

"But… you have nothing to be sad about."

"I do if you're hurting." She lifted her hand, wanting so badly just to reach out and give him a comforting touch, but the heat radiating from his body alone made her pause inches away and pull back.

"You should worry more for yourself, Miss Fionna…"

"And why should I do that?"

"You're the one who always gets hurt because of me… I burn you constantly, just like Marshall Lee said…"

"Marshall Lee's just a big meanie, don't listen to him. You never burnt me on purpose. It's okay, really. I heal fast," Fionna offered with a smile, and was glad to see him give her an, albeit weak, smile back.

"So… you aren't going to stay away…? Even if you should?"

"Nope. You're too interesting to give up on just 'cause you're made of fire."

"… Thank you, Miss Fionna…"

Asha has quickly become one of my most favorite minor characters. Too bad she'll never make a real appearance, as Flint's memory is just that; a memory. Still, her influence will stick with him. As for Marshall Lee, however, he's got some serious issues coming to the surface after Flint reminded him that he too always hurts Fionna. Because you know Fionna, she only hangs out with people who can get her into trouble. That includes PG since he's always sending her on dangerous missions. I hope you guys enjoy, leave me a review with your thoughts while I go cuddle the stuffing out of a pillow to soothe my aching heart.

-Taiylor Wallace

P.S. I promise there's something more happy coming up.