A young salamander, hunting through the heart of the fire kingdom, stumbled upon a large lump covered with a thick film of ash. The little creature was hopeful. It could see the outline of a ragged wing under the dust - a dragon's wing, maybe, or a phoenix's if it was lucky. The fiery creature had not eaten for two days.

Just as it started to scuttle closer, the lump stirred. A rush of wind from the powerful wings swept the salamander away behind the nearest charred bush, and a faery shook herself of the ash as she rose slowly to her feet, coughing. She looked around through red-rimmed eyes, taking in the burnt landscape. She was at the base of a smoking volcano, which seemed to be the only landmark as far as she could see.

"W-what?" she croaked to herself as she recognised her surroundings. "Why... Why am I in the fire kingdom?"

Just at that moment the little salamander poked its head out from its hiding place and attempted to scurry off.

"Hey!" the faery called. "You there! Where am I?"

The salamander was swiftly picked up round the middle and, try as it might, it couldn't get at the faery's hand.

"You're in the fire kingdom," it snapped moodily, but there was an edge of fear to its voice.

The faery rolled her eyes. "I know that. But where in the fire kingdom?"

"The centre."

"Can you elaborate?"

"You're facing north-west."

The faery put the red-scaled creature down and turned her back on it. "Thanks. I guess."

The salamander shook itself with an offended air and walked away in a dignified manner.

"Lizards," the faery muttered. "Even more annoying than wood sprites." She walked a little way up the volcano, and the choking smoke soon had her eyes streaming. "You're so stupid, Willow," the faery said crossly to herself as she surveyed the landscape. "How could you have let yourself end up here?!"

She tried to use her wings, but they flapped weakly and she soon found that one of them was torn. She cursed loudly. Could her situation get any worse?

***

As Willow trudged on through the monotonous landscape, putting the volcano directly behind her, she decided that it could. She had since discovered that the little satchel she usually carried was gone and, at dusk, she found herself facing a deep rift in the ground that was too far to jump across and too long to go around. She couldn't see the other side in the gloom.

"I wish I could use my wings," she grumbled as she sat down moodily at the edge of the chasm. "Or my magic." The little crystal talisman that all young faeries needed to cast spells had been inside the satchel.

Suddenly Willow was engulfed by a wave of despair. "What am I going to do?" she wailed. She was still exceptionally young for a faery, only fifteen, and was not suitably equipped to face the world outside her home forest.

As the real darkness came, she used her natural magic to create a tiny moonglow flower, which was similar to a snowdrop but glowed softly.

"At least I still have some magic," Willow mumbled. Since all faeries were originally from the Great Forest, their primary magic was Earth magic. This meant they could use Earth magic without the use of a talisman. A talisman was used to lend the faeries whichever type of magic was needed to cast a water, air or fire spell. Only the young ones needed them - with enough practice, they could master the spells of the other elements and no longer need borrowed magic.

With difficulty, Willow managed to create a mesh of branches as a sort of rigid cover that she could sleep under. Because she was still young, her Earth magic was not developed enough for her to be able to cast large spells - some of the oldest and most experienced faeries could create a whole forest in a few minutes if they so wished.

As Willow conjured a ring of protective thorns around her and settled down to sleep, a tiny light appeared in the distance. She became immediately alert and crawled out of her branch shelter.

The light grew rapidly, and soon she found herself facing the most adorable creature she had ever seen.

It was a fire sprite, a little creature made entirely of flame. It had no distinct hands or feet - its arms and legs simply rounded at the ends. Two black eyes, like dark coals, were the only feature in its round face and they stared up at her in a way that reminded her of a friendly wolf pup.

Willow relaxed. Sprites of any kind were well-known for showing kindness to weary travellers.

The little creature suddenly extinguished itself in a shower of sparks as a call rang out from the darkness.

Willow covered the moonglow flower she had created so that its light didn't give away her position and curled up tightly as she heard footsteps close by.

"Ember! Where are you? Come on, I don't want to play your game tonight! I'm far too tired!"

Suddenly the little fire sprite - Ember, presumably - appeared next to Willow and put a 'hand' against her cheek, somehow not burning her.

"What have you found, Ember?" the voice said and the creature flared its light. Presently a tall boy stepped into view and Willow gasped. It was a fire-elf. The worst creature someone in the fire realm could encounter.

The elf grinned. "Well, well. What have we here, then?" He crouched down in front of the terrified faery and gave a small amused smile as she shut her eyes tight.

"Now, what is a woodland faery doing around these parts?"

He sure asks a lot of questions, Willow thought. She didn't answer.

"Not much of a talker, huh," the elf said, half to himself. "Well, I need to stop somewhere and here is as good a place as any. If you're not going to speak, faery, then that's just too bad. It means you can't object to us staying here." With that, he promptly settled down in front of Ember, who acted like a small fire.

They spent half the night in silence, with the elf occasionally murmuring to Ember as if he could sense the sprite's thoughts in some way. He was clearly very fond of the little creature.

Eventually, Willow couldn't stand the silence any more. "I'll excuse myself for a moment. All this excitement might be too much for me," she said drily.

"Hey look, the faery does have a voice!" the fire-elf chuckled, but Willow had already stalked off.

"Oh Willow, what are you going to do now?" she groaned to herself once she was out of earshot. "It had to be a fire-elf, didn't it! He'll probably use me for target practice. Or kill me and wear my wings as a cloak!" She was pacing by this point and didn't realise that the elf was listening intently nearby.

"You have to repair your wing somehow," she continued. "But how? Oh, I should have payed more attention during the medicine classes back home!"

"You know, talking to yourself is supposedly the first sign of madness," the fire-elf pointed out as he stepped out in front of her. She jumped, then folded her arms. She might be scared of fire-elves, but this one was more annoying than frightening. "Were you listening?" she accused darkly.

"I heard every word," the elf said proudly, as if he had achieved something great. "Willow," he added.

The faery's temper flared, but she forced herself to keep it in check and coolly returned his stare. "You know my name," she deadpanned. "Well done."

The elf's playful demeanour vanished and was replaced with one of cold anger. "You're quite uppity, faery," he hissed. "You know, I could burn you to a crisp right now if I wanted to."

Willow's heart was jumping up and down like a rabbit on the run, but she swallowed her fear. "And I could impale you on a six-foot long thorn but I honestly shouldn't bother wasting magic on the likes of you." It was a risky move. An enraged fire-elf was something no one wanted to encounter.

But, to Willow's surprise, the elf's face broke into a wide grin. "I like your courage," he laughed. "It takes some guts to stand up to my kind."

Willow was surprised by his reaction, but was simply happy that she wasn't dead where she stood.

"My name is Trick," the elf continued. "Well, it's my nickname. Everyone's forgotten my real one, to be honest." He extended his olive-skinned hand and Willow shook it hesitantly, a little overwhelmed by the pace of their conversation.

Throughout the exchange, Ember had been secretly assessing the faery. He inspected her height - about average for the age he estimated her to be, her width and build - slim and athletic, and, most of all, her facial expressions. Ember could tell a lot from those.

"I think we could all use some sleep," Trick said finally as he sauntered back to the edge of the rift and lay down. "Oh, and Willow - you don't need your little branch cage to sleep under or your thorn circle, Ember will be protection enough."

And so Willow's first night in the fire kingdom went surprisingly well. At least, she wasn't dead or severely injured, which was something.

When morning came at last, the three figures stirred sleepily. Trick woke with a yawn and a good stretch. Ember unfurled himself and blinked at the light. Willow sat up groggily and shook her brown curls, which had escaped the loose braid she usually wore.

"Well, I guess we'll be going our separate ways," Trick announced. He turned to Willow, with Ember perched on his shoulder. "It was nice meeting you, Willow."

"You too," Willow answered automatically before she realised what she was even saying. "Do you know what's over the other side of this crack?"

"The Lesser Rift can hardly be called a crack," Trick chuckled. "But yes, once you reach the other side you'll come to the desert and then the savannah, if you keep going north. Go west from there over the troll moors and you'll find yourself in your fancy forest."

He turned to leave.

"Wait!" Willow cried. "How do I get over the Rift?"

Trick half-turned. "Well, with your damaged wing and - since I don't see a talisman on you - limited magic... Uh, you can't."

"And I don't suppose you'll help me."

Willow's half-question was so quiet that the elf had to strain his pointed ears to their maximum to hear her. He thought for a moment. "Hmm. I can't get over it any more that you can, but I suppose I could lead you to the alternative," he said finally. "I have nothing else to do, and nowhere else to go. Why not?"

"Thank you!" Willow said wholeheartedly, and the overwhelming amount of hope and gratitude in her eyes made Trick take a step back.

"Whoa there," he said, raising his hands. "It's not exactly going to be an exciting journey, and once you get out of the fire kingdom you'll need to cross the Shards."

Willow had heard of those. The Shards were great chunks of metal sticking out of the ground on giant plates of volcanic rock. The plates went vertically, horizontally and every other direction imaginable. Some said that the Shards were the result of a war between the fire kingdom and the sky kingdom, and they had been thrown there by the air elementals with such force that they had shattered the ground. Such a war had existed between the two elements, but it was unlikely that it had caused such a broken landscape.

Willow sighed. She certainly wasn't looking forward to her long journey home.

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Hi readers! I hope you're enjoying the story so far. I attached a picture of a fire sprite which I think looks a lot like Ember. It does have a watermark (sorry!) but it's the closest picture I could get to Ember. He's so cute!

Until next time!

~ Chloe