Amanda wasn’t sure how long it had been since she’d closed her eyes. She felt like she’d been drifting in and out of sleep for awhile and she wasn’t sure if she’d actually managed to get any or if she’d just been teetering on the edge of it.

She sat up quietly and had to bite her lip to keep from yelping when she accidentally moved her injured leg. It wasn’t so bad when it was still, she could barely feel it, it throbbed a little but beyond that there was no pain. But if she shifted it or put any weight on it at all then it hurt like a bitch. She’d put her fire out before she slept. She could have kept it going but even with her control it was risky. Besides she wasn’t a hundred percent certain how good the air flow was in here. Even firestarter created fires weren’t always safe in enclosed spaces given the consumption of oxygen and occasional production of unpleasant byproducts. It depended a lot on how the firestarter created the fire though and how slowly the combustion reactions took place. On the flip side good air flow also made firestarting easier, at a the cost of a reduction in control. Amanda didn’t completely understand how it all worked. She just knew she had to be careful with flames in enclosed spaces. She found over time she could get a feel for the composition of the air and adjust what she did accordingly and she sort of knew when it was safe. It was always more of an intuitive process than a logical one though.

Amanda lit another small fire, this one more for light than for heat. She could control that balance too although she couldn’t have told you exactly how. She kept it no brighter than a match, not wanting to wake her sleeping friend.

She glanced over at Indi, who seemed to have found a comfortable enough spot to lie. Her glasses lay on a rock nearby along with her head lamp. Indi had still been awake when Amanda had laid down to rest. She wondered what time it was, if it was early morning or the middle of the night.

She heard a ripple out in the water and she pushed a small floating flame out from the shore. The dragon was back. Once more it’s head peeked out from the water. It leaned toward the light, tilting it’s head in curiosity. Amanda paused the light half way between them and the dragon moved a little closer.

Amanda pulled herself down nearer the water’s edge, wondering if she dare entice the dragon in further. She watched it with fascination as it blinked it’s dark eyes. She reached the edge and pulled her light back a little more. The dragon swam ever so slightly closer. It seemed to sway beneath the water in a gentle snake like movement.

It wasn’t the largest dragon Amanda had ever seen. She wouldn’t be surprised if this one were a juvenile. She pulled the fire closer, almost back to an outstretched hand. It was dangerous she knew. But that was part of the fascination. If she could just get it to come closer. If she could just touch it, feel it existed, how wondrous would that be, to have it come to her. Dragons were reasonably intelligent creatures, and although you’d never want to get near a fire dragon like this, water dragons could be approached and even touched if done carefully enough.

The dragon seemed to be considering it. Large eyes remained fixed on the flame. It would move a little closer and pause then move a little again.

Amanda remained as still as she could. Arm outstretched. She barely breathed.

The dragon made a soft kind of purring clicking sound, like the sound that dolphins make when they speak but softer, or like that of a curious rat when it grinds it’s teeth in nervous energy.

Further up the beach, perhaps disturbed from her light sleep Indi turned over, and in the process of waking, knocked small pebbles against one another. The sudden interruption to the almost silence frightened the water dragon and it dove down under the water, once again disappearing into the depths.

Amanda dropped her hand in disappointment.

Indi sat up sleepily and put her glasses back on. “What are you doing down there?” she asked once she got her bearings.

“Nothing,” Amanda replied still watching the surface ripples fade for a moment longer. “I was just getting a drink.” Eventually, after taking a real drink from the water, she turned and pulled her way back up the beach.

Indi watched her with a worried look on her face. “How’s your leg?” she asked as Amanda reached her.

Amanda managed a small smile. “It’s fine, just a bit swollen.” Then to lighten the mood she added, “The water dragon came back while you were asleep.”

Indi’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “What! It did?”

Amanda nodded.

“Wow! What did it do?”

“Just kind of watched, I think it was curious.”

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Amanda smiled at the stunned expression on Indi’s face. It reflected how she felt herself. “Almost as good as a phoenix yeah?”

Indi nodded. “Yeah,” she breathed softly. She sat and stared out across the water for awhile.

Eventually she turned and seeing Amanda’s little floating flame she asked, “How do you do that? Just have it float like that?”

“How do you shield?” Amanda asked in reply.

Indi shrugged and laughed. “I have no idea. I think it...” Indi trailed off thinking then sighed, “I really have no idea. It’s just I’ve never seen a firestarter just light the air before.”

“What about a photokinetic?” Amanda asked.

“Yeah but don’t they usually apply the light to something, or from something? Or, I don’t know, I don’t know many photokinetics either, they’re a lot rarer than firestarters.”

Amanda shrugged then rummaged through the bag, looking for the last remaining muesli bar.

“It’s just I thought firestarter’s needed something to burn.”

“As far as I know the air is something.” Amanda replied. “I don’t think I could light a fire in a vacuum.”

“That’s true,” Indi agreed, “but air’s still not a very flammable.”

Amanda shrugged. “Burning wood is a lot easier, I barely have to think about it, but air’s still possible. If you really want to know you should should ask a sorcerer, they’re the ones who study that stuff.”

“Mmm, I’m not sure even they know, that’s the point though I suppose, they’re trying to find out. I always hated that about sorcery though. Most of what we know is just through experimentation, the rules often feel so arbitrary and then there’s a new discovery and suddenly all the rules go out the window. That’s why I like programming, it’s designed by people so it’s intelligently crafted and it makes sense.”

“Really?” Amanda replied, voice layered with amusement “Explain C++ then?”

Indi froze, mouth open, then she shut it and burst into laughter that echoed though the cavern.

Amanda grinned.

“Okay, I can’t explain that one, and I suppose every language has it’s weird idiosyncrasies,” Indi replied once she’d calmed down. “Maybe you’re right, people are just as chaotic as nature. And I do find new discoveries exciting. It’s just it can be frustrating too when you think it’s one way and it’s turns out we got it completely wrong. That and not knowing, when you think of all the things that could be, what we could create if we just knew a little more.”

“Technically people are nature,” Amanda pointed out.

“Yeah, but you know what I mean.”

Amanda nodded.

“Anyway, speaking of nature, I’m going to go find a rock to pee behind, or on. You face that way.” Indi pointed one end of the beach. Then she stood up and headed off the other way, torch in one hand.

Amanda obediently faced the other way and considered what people knew of science and of magic and of the science of magic, or what most people called sorcery. None of that had ever really been her domain. Although she had quite the collection of grimoires, most of which she’d read, some many times over, she’d always been more interested in making magic work than in understanding why it worked. In the same way that chemistry class had been a million times more interesting when they were dealing with explosive chemicals or learning about how sugar and yeast could ferment into alcohol.

When she was young Amanda had never really considered much of what she was going to become later in life. She’d only considered the now and then. It had worked out fine in the long run though. When she looked back she didn’t have much in the way of regrets. Sure there was the odd night out drinking that she wished she’d skipped, and not just back in high school. But overall life had turned out pretty good. She had a loving husband and five great kids, at least one of whom did show some interest in sorcery when she wasn’t distracted by boys. Not that Amanda cared where her children ended up in life as long as they were happy, but it would be nice to know they might end up financially secure too. That was the one thing Amanda hadn’t always had. Still, they got by and occasionally the farm would have a good year, or Sirius would get lucky with his shipments. It wasn’t the life of cocktails and shopping that Indi led but it was enough for her.

She thought about what Indi had said about wanting to create things almost as if that were the end goal more than understanding. Amanda found herself identifying with that a lot but she wasn’t sure it was as true for Indi even if she had been the one to say it. Or perhaps it was just that Indi found everything interesting, not just the stuff you could drink or blow up. Indi was continually fascinated by everything but mostly the future. Perhaps it was her optimism that made her focus in on the how instead of the why. One of the many things she talked about was how one day they might land on the moon, apparently the humans in the old world had already done that. Indi always lamented how they were lacking on the technology front compared to the humans of old. She was often the first to bring the group the latest thing a worldjumper had brought back. Indi would talk about how they could use magic to help build better spaceships but as much as Amanda loved watching Indi talk because of her enthusiasm, she cared little for the details. She noticed Sirius always perked up at the mention of space but she doubted it was because of the technology, he just loved the stars.

The more Amanda considered it though the more she realised it wasn’t really the details that thrilled Indi either. Indi had the attention span of a squirrel on caffeine but she also had a really good memory and some powerful mental processing capabilities. Details weren’t interesting to her, they were easy and useful. Well maybe they were interesting, some of them at least, but not in the same way as they were interesting for the likes of Kass for example, who could pour over a boring document for hours on end to find one tiny thing of importance. Amanda wasn’t sure Kass found much of that exciting though. Kass was hard to read and to be honest never seemed to find too much of anything exciting, well except for music. Perhaps much like Indi, focusing on the details was just something she did because she was good at it.

Amanda stretched her arms out behind her. She frowned. It was quiet. Too quiet and Indi had been down the other end of the beach a while now. Surely she wouldn’t go wandering off? It hadn’t looked like there was anywhere to wander off to anyway. She was probably just taking her time.

Amanda gave her a few minutes longer before she started to worry.

“Indi?” she called out into the darkness.

There was no reply.