Grisha was pouting, but he would call it anything but if he had been asked; in his mind, pouting was for babies, even if he indulged in the practice quite often. And to be perfectly clear, Grisha was still a rather young Fenroo… The sort that still lived with his parents. He simply believed that he was a lot older than his age, as Fenroo his age oft believed, blissfully aware that the world was so much vaster than they could ever anticipate. They were the ones that had pissed him off this time, prompting him to run away to cool off - and maybe make them worry that he might not come back, just a little bit. 

For that, he had made his way into the wilderness near the smog barrier, smack in an area where it sometimes covered the ground and prevented light from reaching it. As a result, the vegetation wasn’t as rich as it was in the heart of the Range; the soil was pale and dusty, poor in the nutriments which would allow the tall trees to grow. But he could still hide if anyone came looking for him by crouching among the cacti and bushes, and he intended to do just that if he spotted anyone he knew. 

It had been a few hours already, or at least he thought it had been a few hours; this meant that he was fully prepared to encounter a member of his extended family at any point, someone sent out to find and negotiate his return. So committed he was to their appearance - and the imaginary conversations that played out in his head - that he didn’t expect he didn’t know to show up. 

And the stranger wasn’t even looking for him. She seemed to be looking for something, walking slowly and stopping sometimes, but it wasn’t Grisha. That intrigued him; like with a cat, there was nothing more compelling than someone who didn’t approach them. 

He followed the stranger from afar. She wore a dusty yellow coat that seemed well-suited for rain and little else; she was brightly visible amid the brown and golden shades which surrounded her. She also carried a stick, which she planted in the ground at regular intervals to help her dig. What was she looking for? 

But what got him to approach her for real was the sight of her pet, a brilliantly coloured, orange Feesh which seemed to follow her around; it would even stop to sniff at the holes she left behind curiously. Grisha loved Feeshes; he wanted one for himself, after all, as he heard that they were loyal friends who followed you around for life. 

So, with the assurance of someone who could only be his age, he walked right up to the stranger and stood before her so that she would notice him. But she didn’t seem to, at least not at first, too focused on… whatever she was doing. 

“Hey?” he said. He snapped his fingers. 

She raised her eyes, but only for the briefest of moments. Her gaze was electric pink, wide, and intense, but her face didn’t have much expression. She quickly looked away as if his gaze burned her. She didn’t say a word. 

“Can I pet it?” he asked. 

She glanced at him again, so he pointed at the Feesh. The little creature’s fur bristled as he stood with his little feet wide apart. His tail was even swinging from right to left. He was very cute. 

“You want to pet Bug?” asked the stranger. “Uh, you can try.” 

She didn’t elaborate. Instead, she literally turned her back to him and walked away some distance, seemingly back at her search. But she had given permission, so Grisha did try to pet Bug. But Bug’s fur grew puffier and he hissed, so that was when Grisha understood that the creature was hostile towards him. 

“Okay, okay, you don’t want that…” said Grisha. He still tried to present a single hand at the creature, but he also hissed at that. And that hurt Grisha’s feelings, at least a little bit, but he was too prideful to let it show. 

That was when the stranger turned to him one more time. 

“What are you called?” she asked. 

“Huh?” He was taken aback by the question. “I’m Grisha.” 

“Grisha. Hmm. Come and see, come and see over here.” 

Grisha walked around Bug, who turned around to always face him on his arched little legs, and approached the stranger. She turned her attention to something on the ground, but more than her avoiding his gaze she seemed to be showing him something. 

A flower. 

Grisha stopped himself from scoffing. Why on earth did this stranger think that he would be interested in looking at a dumb flower? But the stranger was not his parents, and he realised that he couldn’t address someone else so rudely. He stared at the flower quietly, waiting for what came next. 

“I was not looking for that,” said the stranger. “I was looking for food. But I think that’s a flower lily.” 

“And?” 

“That means I need a flower pot, because we’re going to go show this to Johno.” Beat. “I think he is going to want to see this. I think.” 

“Ah.” 

“Do you have a flower pot?” 

Grisha hesitated. On one hand, he didn’t really want to help, because helping meant work and he didn’t like work. On the other, this… seemed important. Somehow. The flower lily was unlike anything he had seen before, with its wavy red petals and its yellow centre and all that. And if they were calling Johno… he was the sage, or at least Grisha thought of him as the sage of the Range. He knew almost everything, so they called upon him in emergencies. 

“It’s incredibly rare, I think,” said Ten. “Actually, they said that it was extinct. I never saw it before, so I think it is important. Do you have a flower pot?” 

“I don’t,” said Grisha. “But I can go get Johno out here so he can look at it.” 

The stranger looked back at him. She seemed to be staring at his face for some reason, as if she was looking for something in it. Then she nodded, seemingly having found what she was looking for. 

“My name is Ten, by the way,” she said. “Tell it to Johno. He won’t be mad at you after that, not too much at least.” 

“Wait, why…” 

Grisha shifted from one leg to the other, suddenly reminded that he had run away from home and had been hiding from all contact for hours. He wanted to back away, but it felt chicken of him to do so now that he had agreed to some sort of solution. Hopefully, the name of that stranger would protect him… 

“Grisha!” said Johno. “Where were you? Your parents are looking for you!” 

Grisha pretended to be strong, and by that it meant that he pretended to not have heard that. He had had the time, on his way from the outskirts to John’s home, to compose himself, so it wasn’t to disintegrate now. 

“Ten wants to talk to you?”

“Ten?” Johno seemed baffled. “You were with Ten? What were you doing with her?” 

“She said she wants to talk to you now, or something,” said Grisha. “She found something, she called it a fire lily, and she wants to show it to you.” 

“A fire lily?” Johno laughed. “She can’t have found a fire lily—“ He seemed like he was about to laugh at Grisha, but then he stopped himself, as if he just remembered something. “Actually— Ten would know what a fire lily looks like. She would. And she’s always out there looking at everything to see what’s edible…”

That is when Grisha knew that this whole deal was really important, and not just a whim from a strange Fenroo he had just met in the outskirts. If Johno was alarmed, then that probably meant that it was of capital importance.

“All right, I’ll go see her, but you need to go back to your parents. They are worried, you know?” 

“But I got to show you the way.” 

“Just tell me where she is at.”

Grisha shook his head adamantly.

“Grisha.”

“I can’t tell you where she is, I don’t know,” said Grisha. “So I need to come with you.” 

“Grisha, just go tell your parents you’re fine.” 

“But then they will ground me and I can’t come back with you to see what’s the big deal with this fire lily!” 

Johno opened his mouth, paused, sighed, then shook his head. “Incredible,” he said. “The youth nowadays… fine. Show me the way. But afterwards, we’re going to your parents together, and there will be no ifs and buts about it. Understood?” 

Grisha nodded. He was starting to care less and less about the punishment he was due to receive for having escaped once more; this was the most exciting thing which had happened all month. 

Ten waved them down from afar, then crouched in the bushes once more when Johno waved back. Grisha couldn’t shake the feeling that she really was a little strange, and he wondered if she lived out there like some sort of witch from children’s books. She didn’t look like a witch otherwise, nor did she seem dangerous in any sort of way. 

But then, he saw something which immediately made him reevaluate this assertion: the flower, the fire lily, was actually on fire now, burning orange and blue, but not burning to crisps. There were flames in its centre! 

“Skies and sea,” said Johno. “What even— it’s… it’s a fire lily!” 

“It’s a fire lily,” said Ten in a monotone voice. 

“It wasn’t burning like that before,” said Grisha. 

“It lit itself on fire at some point,” said Ten. “I didn’t do anything.” 

“It really is a fire lily,” said Johno. “I can’t believe it. It’s a burning fire lily.” He looked around. “Out here? What even is that? Out here.” 

“The ground is weak,” said Ten, patting said ground, “but the will to grow and heal is strong.” 

“What… what is happening?” asked Grisha. 

Johno turned to him with a grave look on his face, seemed to search for the right words before he started explaining. “Grisha, you don’t happen to believe in magic, do you?”

Grisha’s eyes darted from Johno to the flower, then back at Johno. Surely, this was some sort of trick question. Surely there was some… natural explanation as to why it burned, and it wasn’t magic. Magic? 

“Magic doesn’t exist.” 

“It does,” said Johno. 

“No it doesn’t.” Beat. “It does?” 

“It used to. And we used to call it Aspects.” Johno’s gaze became distant. “But we stopped teaching those sorts of things to the youth a long time ago, because all signs were pointing to the Aspects having vanished with the Great Fire…” 

“What, so magic does exist?” Grisha asked. “The flower is magic?” 

“It’s complicated,” said Johno. “Maybe we’re just deluding ourselves, maybe this one just grew here and now over a… remnant or some sort of fossil pocket…” 

“I think it’s okay to have a little hope,” said Ten. 

Johno nodded. Grisha looked between the two. Ten was watching Bug, who was trying to sniff the flower, but the little feesh kept backing away every time its tiny nose caught a whiff of the flame’s heat.

“All right, Grisha,” said Johno after a while. “You’ve seen the fire lily and you know what it is. Time to go back home to your parents.” 

“But I got so many questions!”

“And so do your parents about where you’ve been! Shoo, now, get going, or I’ll be the one making you run.” 

Grisha knew there was no point in trying to pout his way out of this one. He started walking away when Ten called out to him one last time.

“If there are any developments,” she said, “you can ask me and I’ll tell you, if you’re curious.” 

He looked back at Ten. He didn’t know if he wanted to talk to her again, she was a little weird - in an uncool way - and he didn’t want to compromise his reputation as a cool kid. But if it was about magic…

He shrugged and continued his way home. He didn’t have to think about that today.