Sparrow found his two companions laughing over twin bowls of steaming caigan rice. Even from three stalls over he could smell the sweet scent of chilli, turnip and soy.

He rushed over to his friends.

'My Grandma loved caigan rice! How did you know?!' He said as he approached, nearly tripping over a three-legged lion-hound in his excitement.

'Sparrow!' Zoe's eyebrows looked like roof arches, 'Where have you been, we looked everywhere.'

'I was just…' Sparrow started, trying to locate where he had been talking to the Tinker - the corners of his mind felt heavy with fog, all he could remember was the directions he'd been given, 'I think I've found another adventure for us.'

'So have we,' Zan said, smiling at Zoe, 'We've been offered a place to stay for the next month at a musician camp just out of town.'

Zoe was smiling too, but it didn't quite reach her eyes, 'Are you okay with that Sparrow? It's just a month.'

'A month…' Sparrow repeated, suddenly the rice didn't smell as good.

'Yeah. It'll be fun,' Zan said, sticking a ball of rice into his mouth and chewing noisily, 'There are some really creative people there, it'll be good for Zoe's songwriting to be around them.'

Sparrow wiped the top of one of the dust-covered stools next to them, 'That sounds fine… I mean great… the more learning you can do the better I guess.'

Zoe hugged him, 'I'm glad you're okay with that, because we already kind-of said yes. We figured you'd be okay with it'

'Yeah… yeah definitely,' Sparrow said, 'I mean it'd be good to get back on the road, adventure-wise this town's pretty small and there was this tinker who told me about a coin that…' Sparrow drifted off as he caught Zoe's expression, '... and I'm just glad you've found a place to grow yourself. That's not always easy in this world of ours.'

And so, Sparrow and Zoe and Zan went back to the musician's camp. It was a tattered place on the outskirts of town, a sandy, rocky field with tents made from a rainbow of different cloths. At the center was the large fire and around the fire were stones.

Sparrow's feet crunched on the sandy ground as he moved closer, in the middle was a man with only one hand, his other hand was a wooden stump. With a bolt running through it.

Using his remaining hand, the man was screwing a small bow-like contraption onto his wooden hand. When the bow wouldn't screw anymore. He gave it two quick tugs, and then pulled up a violin.

The wooden hand jostled back and forth, finding a rhythm across the strings of the violin. The music was folky, a dancing beat and around the fire musicians beat their feet.

A man was drumming beside him, Zan waved at the drummer and the drummer grinned, then got to his feet.

'Zan the man!' the drummer said.

'Domino!' Zan clasped the tall man's hand, 'it's been too long.' Around the campfire, heads turned their way. There were a few smiles and waves, Zan winked back at them.

'Listen, Domino this is Zoe, a very talented player, and this is Sparrow, our groupie-security I'm gonna need you to look after Sparrow for a couple of days - we're going to be doing a heap of musician stuff and I don't want him getting bored.'

'Oh, I thought I'd come hang out with you…' Sparrow said, '...learn to play something, find my rhythm-'

'That sounds good,' Zoe said, 'That way we're all together.'

A frown shot like lightning over Zan's face, Domino was the only one who caught it, he turned to the right, hiding his arm from Sparrow and made a sign to Zan. Zan instantly relaxed, 'Yeah. My thinking exactly.'

He turned to Sparrow, 'Just give me a couple of days to get Zoe settled in - it's hard enough introducing one new musician to a place like this. After that, I'll get you started on something - maybe the tambourine.'

He put a hand on Zoe's back, 'Come on, let's go check out the place.'

'Just a moment,' Zoe stepped away from his hand turned, grabbed Sparrow and kissed him on the lips.

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'Be good,' she whispered, 'I'll see you tonight.'

Sparrow just shook his head, 'Show them what you're made of.'

And then she and Zan walked towards a large tent which singing resonated from.

A skinny man walked by Sparrow carrying a bag full to the brim with root vegetables, another had half a pig tossed over one shoulder. The pig ended up on a long spear suspended above the fire, while the potatoes were rolled in leaves and tossed amongst the embers.

Sparrow was so entranced by the smell and the sight of these people that he didn't notice Domino standing next to him. 'It's really something to see, isn't it buddy?' Domino said.

'Sure is,' Sparrow said, ‘You know something? I'm glad we're here, it might be good to sit down for a while.'

Domino patted him on the back, 'I'm not sure settle down is the right word to use in this place.'

Night fell, the food was some of the best Sparrow had ever eaten. Good honest road food, no special dressings or hours long preparation, just the taste of smoke and wild herbs.

Still Zoe and Zan did not return.

Out came the bottles, flasks of mulled wine and rice liquor with strange symbols on them that blurred before Sparrow's eyes as he passed the burning liquid down his throat. The violin screamed at him louder and louder and was that a drum? Or was it just the beating of his head? He was dancing, twirling all by himself.

Zan And Zoe were on the other side of the fire, their hands were linked as they twisted in circles.

Sparrow tried to stumble over to them but the fire was in the way. Why was the fire in the way?

He tried to send roots down to ground himself, but someone had spilt wine in the soil and the roots ended up all silly. He tried again to reach his friends and ended up crawling along the sandy ground as it swayed from side to side and some drummer kicked sand in his face to laughs from the other musicians.

'I-I wanna stop,' Sparrow said, and someone put another bottle in his hand.

'I wanna stop,' he said again and the bottle was tilted up for him. It flowed down his throat hot, and sweet and made him want to burp. 'I wanna stop,' he started to cry as the smoke blew in his eyes.

'Oh what's the matter little groupie?' said the drummer who'd kicked sand in his eyes. The women either side of him let out loud laughs that hurt Sparrow's ears. They got on their knees either side of him and pushed the bottle towards his lips.

'No, no.' Sparrow said, 'No, I've had enough.'

'What if I give you a kiss?' said the one on his left, who was missing two teeth and had strands of red woven through her hair.

'What if I give you more than a kiss?' said the one on his right, shifting her hand up his leg, 'Would that entice you baby Sparrow?'

She forced the bottle against his lips and tilted it straight up, the burning juice flowed into Sparrow's lungs. He shook away the bottle and coughed as burning liquid clogged his airways.

'I think he wants me to give him a kiss,' said the drummer who was still on his feet, 'Don't you naughty little weasel?'

'Don't want to be here,' Sparrow said, 'don't want to be here anymore.

He tried to get to his feet but the drummer pushed him onto his back.

'Are you insulting these good women's hospitality?' the drummer said, 'Didn't you hear her? She wants to give you a great big kiss.'

Sparrow struggled to stand up. The women were holding an arm each, pulling him back towards the ground. Sparrow shook them off and stood up. His legs buckled. The guy threw Sparrow straight back down, 'Do you think you're better than us?' The man said.

'I wanna go.' Sparrow said, he tried to peer across the fire at Zoe and Zan, where had they gone? Why had they left him alone?

'I wanna see my friends.'

'Well they don't want to see you,' said the drummer, 'You're drunk. You drank too much.'

'LET ME SEE THEM,' Sparrow shouted, 'I want to see them. I want to see them. I want to get out of here. ZOE WE HAVE TO GO.'

Fire sprung from his hands, twisted itself into a sword, and he lashed out at the drummer and the women. They started screaming. A rock hit his head, bounced off and left Sparrow lying on his back.

'Freak!' Domino was yelling, bouncing on the balls of his feet as he waited for Sparrow to get up, 'You think you can come here and try your magic on us? Do ya?' He kicked Sparrow in the ribs, 'We ain't scared of you.'

Sparrow moaned, and curled into a ball as the kicks kept coming. There were more musicians running over, some of them kicked or hurled bottles at him, others tried to get the rest to stop.

Sparrow peered out at the scene through his fingers and wished he could just disappear.

His shaking hands reached for his belt. Pulled the buckle a notch tighter, there were gasps around him, but the kicks kept coming.

'He's still down there!' someone shouted, 'The little bugger's just hiding.'

The kicking circle grew crowded as more and more musicians took their turns, guitars, drumsticks, burning branches landed on Sparrow's head.

He shot upward using his power to propel him towards the sky, someone was clinging to his leg, he shook at them and they fell back into the crowd.

'Zoe!' he called, 'Zoe, we've got to get out of here.'

Sparrow's lines were all wonky as he aimed for the moon. He just wanted to be up there sitting on it, away from all the hate and wine the world had to offer.

Eventually, he started to hyperventilate, he was breathing out blocks of ice and his head was spinning.

His body dipped, and he was no longer flying upwards, he was headed towards the earth. A meteor that crash-landed into a lone rocky field outside the camp.

He was too tired to move, to sore to sleep, so he just lay on his back, all cuts and bruises as he stared and howled at the moon.