Chapter 4: A Pathetic Fire.

“Pray tell, just what are you doing?”

Ash knelt in front of a circle of stones she had spent ten minutes gathering, and in that stone circle were branches and dead shrubs. Ash ground two stones together over the twigs, and the clicking was incredibly annoying.

“I thought the Demon Queen knew everything.” Ash’s back was to me.

I sat on a large rock, one that was made somewhat comfortable thanks to my battle dress. “That does not extend to stupidity.”

Ash shook her head, and the gesture was dismissive. “It’s just a fire, obviously.”

“What do you mean?”

The clicking stopped. Ash turned her head, one of her blue eyes finding me. “A fire?” Her tone was strange, and I did not like it.

“How are you creating a flame with stones, you fool girl?” It was hard to believe I had to explain something so basic, but Heroes had ever been thickheaded.

Ash’s face twisted. She turned away, and when she laughed, it sounded strained. “Right. I forgot. You Demons can’t do anything without [Spells], can you?”

“Answer me before I cut you.”

Ash sighed deeply. “Just watch if you’re that curious. If you’re not, then stop bothering me.”

I huffed, folded my arms, and looked away. We hadn’t moved far from the dead Divine Beast -just far enough to put it out of sight. The river still flowed behind me, and its breeze brushed against my skin.

I lasted a minute. Two minutes. My curiosity burned brighter than whatever madness this Hero was attempting. Finally, I rose and walked over.

She was smacking the two stones together. No, that wasn’t quite it -it was more like she was striking one stone with the other. She kept at it, her eyes focused and arms steady.

“This is supposed to start a fire?” I said.

The Hero did not answer. The sky rumbled above, and it was already starting to grow dim. Was it going to rain soon too? The wind had been slowly picking up for a while now.

“I asked you a question.”

There was a spark and light from between the two stones. “Getting it,” Ash mumbled to herself.

My irritation grew within me like thorns, but it was accompanied by something else. I watched as she struck the stones again and made more sparks. She struck again and there were more sparks. Finally, a spark caught and fell onto the dead leaves below. There really was smoke.

Ash smiled, reached forward, and bunched the dead leaves tighter. She blew into the smoke, slow and steady. Then, even I saw it -a flame, the tiniest ember. It started to spread. Ash continued to blow, gently adding more twigs to the tiny flame.

The fire grew until it gave off heat.

“It is a flame,” I murmured.

“Did you think I was doing this for no reason?” Ash stood, letting the stones drop. She glanced around, staring at our surroundings.

“Your kind are weak to the elements.”

“What?” Ash glanced at me, then the sky, then back. “Ah, that’s a bonus. I made the fire for cooking.”

“Cooking? That pointless thing you humans waste your short lives on?” I closed my eyes and shook my head. “I knew Heroes were fools, but this is-“

Footsteps moved away from me. I paused, opened my eyes, and saw that Ash was walking towards the nearest line of trees.

“Halt. Where are you going?” I demanded.

“I’m catching something,” Ash called back. “Throw a twig on the fire now and then.”

I stared at her back. “A Demon Queen does not tend pathetic fires.”

She was past the treeline before I’d finished. I glared at the forest, then at the flame.

“Damn it.”

The flame stared back at me.

It had grown. What had started as scattered pops and a yellow glow had settled into a steady crackling, the flame deepening to orange. It gave off more heat. The cold pushed me closer, and I leaned toward it. The heat warmed the armor, and the armor in turn warmed me. The feeling was not unpleasant.

I stared at the dancing flames. A spark leapt out and landed on my arm. It didn’t burn, and I didn’t brush it away.

“Pathetic,” I said to myself. The wind blew and the fire fizzled. Something inside me shuddered. There was a stack of twigs nearby, and I threw them at the flame. It barely helped. If anything, the meager flame only dimmed further.

“What is wrong with you?” I questioned the flame. “This is what she told me, isn’t it?” The orange had faded to a low yellow now, and the crackling was even softer.

“Damn you.”

I leaned forward and blew into the flames the way Ash had, feeding it twigs between breaths. I felt like one of the Ten Fools. I -the Demon Queen- was on my hands and knees trying to kindle this pathetic flame.

The fire caught again, and the crackling returned as yellow warmed back to orange. The cold had deepened, and I drew closer. I smiled before I even realized the expression had taken hold over me.

“I half expected to have to light it again.”

I jerked back as if I’d touched the flames without mana. Ash stood to my right, carrying some manner of longeared vermin.

“What?” Ash looked at me.

“Nothing.” I stood quickly. “You are lucky that one such as I lowered herself to this petty task.”

The girl stared at me, then she sighed but didn’t reply as she moved closer to the flame.

“What beast is that?”

“It’s a rabbit.” Ash pulled some of the thinner reed and began to tie them around this “rabbit.”

“And you intend to eat this ‘rabbit’?”

“Yes.” She didn’t look up at me.

“Why are its ears so big?”

Ash paused. “I don’t know. To hear better, maybe.”

She returned to her task. Soon the rabbit was bound to a branch and held over the flames. I watched her. The chill in the air found me now that I had moved away from the flame. I slowly moved to its opposite side.

“And this is cooking?”

Ash didn’t look up. Her eyes were bored as she answered: “The barest fraction of it, maybe. I don’t exactly have much to work with. Forgive me, Your Majesty, if the food is not up to par.”

I ignored the mocking in her tone. “Why didn’t you cook the beast we felled?”

Ash went still. “The Divine Beast?”

“It’s not far. It would have more meat. It makes little sense to go hunting for smaller prey.”

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Her eyes hardened. “You do not eat a Divine Beast.”

My own irritation rose. “That was no Divine Beast. Perhaps the reincarnation robbed you of your sight?”

Ash turned the rabbit over the flames. “It was close enough.” Her voice had gone quiet, as if she were explaining something to a child or an idiot.

I let it go, since petty provocations were beneath me. I sat across from her. The sky rumbled again, louder this time. “If it rains, your pathetic fire will be put out in an instant.”

“It won’t rain, and if it does, it’ll be light.”

I stared at her through the flames. “You claim to know the workings of nature without your [System]?” It was the kind of stupid boast other Heroes had made, before I’d cut them down.

“It’s not difficult,” Ash said. “You just need experience. I had my share, in my journey with-” She stopped.

We sat in silence, with only the flame to fill it. I had found the sound strange at first, but now it was almost pleasant.

“This [Skill] is not one I recognize from the [System]. Is it a racial ability specific to you Humans, then?” I finally asked.

“No, that’s silly. Why would you-” Ash tilted her head and seemed to consider. “There was a skill like that, but you didn’t need it just to start a fire.”

I stared at her. “You expect me to believe that anyone, regardless of Class, could simply learn to do this?”

Ash stared back at me. Her blue eyes bored into my red ones. “Yes, I do. Are you going to argue about the sky being red next?”

“It was red, in my realm.”

She frowned and slowly nodded. “I suppose it was.”

I leaned back slightly and let the fire lick at my feet. The [Darkness Binding] wasn’t keeping me warm the way it should. Every scrap of my own mana I spent would need to be replaced by this world’s weaker supply.

“You mentioned something before,” Ash said. “Roles. What did you mean?”

“I meant that which you should know well, given that you were a Hero.”

“Then explain it.”

“Your [Class],” I said. “Hero. That was not just a title, was it? You felt it -the pull of it, the way it shaped what you could and could not do.”

Something shifted on Ash’s face. She didn’t deny it. “It pulled me forward,” she said carefully. “But I chose to follow it.”

“Did you?”

Her jaw tightened. “Yes.”