It’d been about a week since The Chief's visit to The Cradle. Rusty ‘as his fellow imps called him, he hadn't been named,’ walked down with a few imps sent by Mama. The speed at which these children had grown was staggering. Plans had gone completely down the drain as the mana was soaked through their pores. The imps hands ached. They’d had to work double time to get these little brats everything they need. Entire sections of what they planned to do had to be pared down and skinned like a green boar. He smiled wickedly as he remembered the plan he’d heard.

Shoji had seen to it that this next sorting would be more… Proactive.

He almost felt bad for the brats.

Rusty and crew walked up to see the new and updated cradle. Rubbing his neck, he had phantom pains as he remembered the slam Shoji gave him after he had viewed the spectacle. It made him a little peeved, but he couldn’t blame the oni. Something odd had happened, way too quickly.

The mana in the air had slightly calmed down, but the mana was still far thicker than normal.

He punched in his code and opened the door.

To find the problem, sitting on the rocks.

The troublemaker's long, red horns twirled in a ram-like fashion and he was characterized by dark red skin and bright orange eyes. The flame symbol that had appeared on his neck during the strange mana incident had only gotten bigger as he'd gotten older, standing out as a huge splotch of black on his red canvas of a body. The rounded base of the flames took up almost of his neck. The tendrils of the flame crawled up the side of his face, almost licking the sides of his eyeball and spreading out on his lips, yet it remained still as if it was caught in the act of consuming of the boy's face. It made the edge to about a quarter of his lips incredibly black.

He sat on a rock made for him by someone with earth affinity and talked with a group of four of the bigger imps he had plucked from the group. Then, broke into a shit eating grin as he saw Rusty walking through the door.

God, of all the possible children, why was he the one who got to be loved by fire?

—---------

Flame caught the little imp walking through the door.

“Ah! It’s the help!” He called out cheekily. Rusty swore the kid was running out of lines.

“It’s Rusty, kid, Ru-sty.” Rusty walked through the camp, and began handing out fists sized globs of meat to everyone. Freshly cooked as they were, they had no flavor. Though, most didn’t care and simply nodded to the meat man as he handed out food. “Tell me, on the outside you’re some big shot right?” The child asked the question in a way that he knew the answer. He just wanted to get a rise out of Rusty.

The man’s tiny frame and brownish red color had told the tiny monster everything he needed to know. Flame was already almost the weak servant's size and only about two weeks old. Granted, he already knew he was special. He didn't really need to compare himself with the feeder. His sheer size and... tattoo? That was the word, right. It was a sign that told him that someone up there was looking out for him.

Feeding him.

And this small man didn’t have the aura to make the small imp respect him.

“I’m a bigger shot than you, pipsqueak.” gritted out the servant through his bared teeth. Probably lying his butt off in an attempt to make a quick rebuttal. Though... the little firecracker grinned. He liked how this one would at least fight back in a battle of words. The rest would just take it and it was sooo boring.

Probably because he already sensed the child already matched him evenly. It at least made him at least fun to be around. Flame chuckled, “You? I bet the adults are already talking about me! I already know I'm going to be the next Chief.”

“Yeah, you tell him boss,” Another imp with a pointed nose and two tiny cones on his head said.

“Y-yeah…” One of the meeker members of his group said. The aspiring chieftain didn’t really like the meek one that much. He always found a way to bog down the mood. Often chiming in in an awkward way that made Flame want to hit him. But aside from the fact that he almost matched the chieftain in sheer size, he had something special that made him want to keep him around. A thin red tail wagged in the air. It had a spike at the end of it that looked like it would be nasty to get hit by.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

And no horns.

Rusty laughed at the four of them. Loudly. Flame was surprised. He had never seen the man laugh this much. And he continued to pass the little clumps of meat to the others in The Cradle…

“What’s so funny,” Flame asked.

Rusty Ignored him, continued to laugh to himself dry and raspy. Like he knew something they didn’t. Like he was smart or something.

Flame was quickly tired of it.

He pulled from the fire deep within himself and around him and,

Whoosh!

An orange, teetering on, yellow ball of flame glowed in his hand. It only slightly burned as Flame had gotten used to the pain. And he stared down the brownish red imp.

“I said; What’s. So. Funny.” He wasn’t joking anymore. And the imps nonchalant eyes as he looked to Flame and back to him was only making him more angry. “I can see why they gave you that nickname in here, you are good at that.”

“Just tell me!” The ball got slightly larger, flickering as it grew slightly unstable. Rusty gently put his basket on the ground and raised his hands in non threatening fashion. “I’m laughing because you’re not the one they’re talking about.” Rusty said. Rusty had that sly look on his face that he wasn’t saying everything, but that wasn’t what was on the young imp's mind.

“What? But the lady had said I was–”

“Special?” Rusty said, completing Flames sentence. “Sorry kid, in another life you would’ve been. But unfortunately there are others causing more buzz than you. If only for the reason of shifting the status quo.”

Status quo? The little imp didn’t like what half these words meant, but got the message. He had the most affinities though. But, he had the blessing of flames, no one else here had–

He immediately remembered. His head clicked over to see them in their little corner. Laughing to themselves as they watched The Crawler attempt to get back up.

He never quite knew when to quit huh?

“Them?” He spat.

Rusty shrugged, turning his back on them without another word, before walking over to the pink imps to feed them himself.

The others were reluctant most of the time.

Flame felt his head become a little bit hotter.

—-------------

“Go Rhodney!” Smokey yelled as Rhodney got back onto his feet. His legs were scuffed to hell, and the imp silently thanked the tree for providing all this mana. It was doing wonders for his regeneration. The four imps sat against the wall, watching him struggle to stand. His right foot pulsated under all the weight he was putting on it. “Level out, level out!” Misty had said for the thirtieth time this week. Rhodney swore those were her first words.

“Not helpful!” He said trying his best to walk. From his perspective, the tree and moss had just spawned in after his slumber. He’d sort of connected the thoughts realizing that he was probably responsible. Since the tree only came in after the blast. But the tree had been harmless, thank god.

He attempted to “level out” as his friend said, holding his arms out and trying his best to keep himself up.

“Hey kids.”

“Rusty!!” All of them besides Navy ran past Rhodney with the one with the big eyes, ‘Yet to be coined’ bumping into him as she ran past. He cursed as he took a really bad fall.

The other three laughed talking to him with excitement. He was the only adult who had actually talked to them Unlike the other people who came in here to feed them.

Damnit, Rusty.

Why couldn’t it just have been random Imp number three?

Navy was sitting down in his meditative stance, keeping his eyes closed. Focusing on his magic. A small shield of blue mana befitting his name formed as he focused. “If you want to laugh you can, I know you can see.”

Snicker.

Terrible.

“Where did you even learn to do that?” Rhodney asked. The idea of seeing without your eyes being an insane idea in his head.

“The night you almost burned our heads off.” Navy replied. The wit on his friend was insane. Rhodney was sure the man had a snake for a tongue. Rhodney’s face paled as he remembered the explosion. "I think your outburst gave me some new tools to mess around with, I was never this good at mana." Rhodney didn't point out that they were barely a month old. He got up and did some kind of chicken dance of a walk over to his companion. They’d both grown fast.

Rhodney’s horns had grown in large. It was honestly annoying. The amount of weight on his head hurt his neck. He’d missed when they were so infinitesimal that it didn’t matter, but now they were so big that he was going to have to get a nail filer, ax, something! He needed to trim this tree down.

He rubbed his right horn. The bastard was sturdy. He was at least happy it made him almost a head bigger.

“That was an accident,” He laughed. Navy smiled. After a second of sitting by each other, Navy got up and put out his hand. “Fine, I’ll show you how… If… you get it right this time. Get up..” Navy said. Rhodney almost didn’t want to try again.

He had fallen, and gotten up, and fallen. At least sixty times by now. But Navy kept his hand held up to him. “We’re getting to the size where we can hunt,” He said. “They won't like you not being able to walk, Rhod-ney. You’re the only one left.” Navy was the only one who had struggled with the name he had told them to call him. But the Imp wasn’t going to correct him, he’d get it with time..

He was surprised their names even worked with the language. It was odd and stuck out compared to their clicks and accents. So far, besides him and Navy the only one who had even had the thought to make their own name was...

Hm?