51Ok, second chapter(obviously). Hope you enjoy, and thank you for the review. I have also wanted to read a story like this but I never found one so I wrote one on my own.
Chapter 2 The Fire-Dancer
The crowd stood back in awe and fear of the fire-eater's tricks. He blew fire from his hands, causing the crowd to cheer and back up even further. Then he began juggling torches, slowly at first, but then he sped up until you couldn't even tell the torches apart. For his final trick he caused fiery flowers to bloom and made them grow bigger. They grew so big that they finally exploded and sparks rained down from the sky. The fire-dancer, as everyone called him, bowed while people cheered and threw coins. He was only fifteen and already a master of his craft. The young man, Dustfinger, collected his earnings and made his way out of Ombra, back to the Strolling Player's camp.
The sun had already sunken low in the sky when Dustfinger came upon the brightly colored tents. His best friend, the Black Prince, king of the Strolling Players, was already there sitting beside a small fire. They had been friends ever since they were orphaned at the age of five. The Black Prince was possibly one of the best knife throwers on either side of the forest. He used these skills to protect the people he cared about the most, his three sisters and, of course, Dustfinger.
"Hello Dustfinger," the Black Prince said as he joined him by the fire. "How did your performances go?" he asked.
"Pretty good and yours? Did the bear behave alright?" His bear, which he had freed from a very abusive master tended to growl and lash out at people in the past. The Black Prince simply chuckled though, and said "Well he didn't scare everyone off, if that's what you mean."
Dustfinger laughed along with his friend.
"That's exactly what I mean; I'll never forget the time he almost charged
Cloud-Dancer when he accidentally hit him with that pole."
At that particular moment, Cloud-Dancer and the Strong Man walked up
to the fire and sat down. "Well speak of the devil! The Prince and I were just talking
about the time his bear almost charged you. I'm sure you remember?"
"That's not something I'll be forgetting in a hurry," he said, glancing
over at the bear.
"Alright, alright, enough with picking on my bear," the Prince said, a note
of irritation in his voice. "Tell me how your time in Argenta was. The Adderhead's
men didn't give you any trouble did he?"
Cloud-Dancer and the Strong Man, along with a number of other strolling
players, had just recently returned from Argenta on the other side of the forest. The
ruler of Argent, the Adderhead, or as some call him, the silver prince, despised the Motley
Folk because his wife was rumored to have cheated on him with a minstrel. He would often hang them
and stick the heads of minstrels on the pikes of his castle.
"No," the Strong Man answered, "we only went to towns close to the forest, so it wasn't very eventful other than the usual, but we did happen to hear some interesting things about the fire-raisers." Dustfinger and the Prince exchanged a curious look at this, the fire-raiser were feared by people on both sides of the forest, but it was the Motley Folk who feared them the most because they were their own masters and not protected by the law. If any of them were attacked the person responsible would go unpunished, this made them very easy targets. The fire-raisers were fully aware of this.
"We heard that they were burning a farm house near the Wayless wood and that it got completely out of control, one of their own men burnt both arms right up to the shoulder," the Strong Man paused for effect before continuing, "they also say this isn't the first time one of their fires has gotten out of control, three of Capricorn's men have died already."
"Maybe if we're lucky they'll all just die off," said Dustfinger.
Cloud-Dancer snorted. "As if we could be that lucky."
"Well, you never know," the Black Prince.
The Black Prince reached for his cup of mead while gazing into the fire, this proved to be a mistake. Instead of picking up the cup he knocked it over into the fire making it go out with a hiss of smoke. "Oops, sorry, um… Dustfinger?" the Prince looked expectantly at Dustfinger. He immediately spoke a few words in fire and snapped his fingers, the flames didn't come up instantly like they usually did, instead waiting a few seconds before coming to life. I'll have to go into the Wayless woods tomorrow to get more fire-elf honey, thought Dustfinger. Though nobody else seemed to notice the extra few seconds it took the flames to pop up.
Dustfinger departed early the next morning, he had already said farewell to the Black Prince. "Be careful," he said to him, "I know you can get around the woods well, but the fire-raisers like to lurk around in there, too, and they would just love to get their hands on a Strolling Player to torture." Dustfinger just nodded and said he would be careful.
His ears could hear the movements of predators and other dangerous creatures. Why shouldn't he be able to hear one of Capricorn's blood hounds creeping up behind him?
After traveling the entire day he came upon the clearing a few hours before night. Everything was calm and tranquil, which was why he liked being in the woods. It was just so peaceful. Spring had come, so all the leaves and flowers were green and colorful. The pool was in the center of the small clearing, with a stream breaking off from it and heading north, the fire-elf nest was hanging from a tree a few feet away from it. Dustfinger silently approached the pool and knelt down over it like he had done so many times before. One by one the nymphs appeared, their rainbow scales glistening in the fading daylight. They already knew what to do, having done it so many times before. Dustfinger was soon covered in the same cool slime that coated their scales.
He slowly made his way to the fire-elves nest, humming quietly to make them drowsy. The fire-elves buzzed around him angrily until one by one they fell asleep, dropping to the forest floor. Dustfinger only took a small piece of their fire honey, no bigger than his thumbnail, and walked away carefully to the edge of the clearing where he finally stopped humming.
Dustfinger gathered all the dry firewood he could find and put the small piece of fire honey in his mouth only burning his mouth slightly. Just as he was about to speak the few needed words in fire when he heard a twig snap close behind him and spun around. Dustfinger stared at the trees behind him in fear, the only weapons he had were fire and a knife he kept in his pack, if whatever made that noise was a wild cat neither of those would hold it off for long.
He relaxed when he saw it was only a snake making its way up a tree. Satisfied, he turned back to the wood and spoke the needed words in fire and snapped his fingers just like in the Strolling Players camp, this time however, the flames came up and greeted him instantly.
"Well, well, well, and just who do we have here?" Dustfinger stood up in surprise and jerked his head in the direction of the voice. What he saw made his body freeze in absolute terror-there were three black jackets only a few feet away from him.
The one in the front was about average height with dark red hair; the black jacket to his right had dark hair and a goatee. The one to his left was looked like he could be the size of a miniature giant, he also had a very flat nose that hardly stuck out at all and, of course, they all carried swords at their belts.
Dustfinger cursed himself for being so careless as they moved closer. The red haired one drew his sword and pressed it to Dustfinger's neck. "What's your name?" he asked.
He swallowed hard before answering, "Dustfinger." He was confused by the looks of satisfaction on their faces.
"Well Dustfinger, your coming with us," the goateed one said with a thick accent in his voice.
"Why?"
"Because, Capricorn has been just dying to meet you," the flat nosed one answered.
Me!, he thought increduously. Up until now he had never had the misfortune to meet any of the black jackets. What could there leader possibly want with him?
The one with the accent pulled out a piece of rope and tied it around Dustfinger's hands.
I should have been more careful, he thought, as the three men led him away to Capricorn
Thank you for reading, I hoped you enjoyed it. If there is anything you think needs improving let me know. :)