Fire-Dancer

Eirena was banged up by now, from the rough manhandling to the constant tripping onto the ruins he dragged her into. Idly, she rubbed at her head, trying to chase away some of the pain that echoed through her bones.

"... What's going to happen to me?" Was it to the Night Mare at this point or to herself? Who was more likely to even have an answer. Tears flooded her cheeks and sobs began to grow within her chest. All alone. Finally, she had a life outside of her sister and... this is all it was? What a lack of a life... sure to end soon...

At last, words that the Night-Mare wanted to hear.

I'm scared.

It stopped in its tracks and moved a cold, smoky claw to its victim's throat, pulling her closer until it could peer deeply into her terrified eyes. Yes, there was fear there.

This had Wolverine being a little less standoffish and more open to letting the new guy be friendly with him. "Quite the talent you got, I'll have to watch your act when you go on." He said and turned to fully face him, arms crossed but giving the other man his full attention.

He hadn't even considered playing the political game. There was no reason for him to try and climb the ladder or land himself the best spot in the line-up. He knew his skill could speak for itself.

Besides, any Strolling Player knew that it was better to have friends throughout a troupe than to act the loner suck up to the leader. If trouble came, the strong man was exactly who Dustfinger wanted to be closest to.

"I don't care about any of that," he said truthfully. "You're--"

Part of my family, now, he wanted to say. But it was a little early to make such bold assumptions. He didn't know these people and might need to hold some of them at arm's length.

"You're a member of this group, just like anybody else here. That's good enough for me."

"I believe it's meant for communications with deep space probes. Some sort of magnetic anomaly damaged the navigation suite, and we only got it back online when it was too late to stop the crash."

She frowned at the thing, with calculating suspicion. "The problem is that it only affected one satellite."

"Is it...still dangerous?"

"You've got fire for me? My lighter is empty."

"Those things will kill you, you know?"

"Don't be such a downer," Billy protested. He pressed his hands against the cellar door, glaring at the bolt. "If you give me a bit, I can at least try something! I'm not dying today."

Dustfinger stepped back from the door, giving Billy full access.

"Well, go ahead, if you've got tricks."

His offer of a smaller out felt almost a relief. The goddess sighed softly and still looking down, rummaged in her pocket for a wooden rectangle that shouldn't have fit inside. She held it in her open palm. If he looked (and she held it so that he would be able) he would see the bevel of three compasses set one above and to the right of the other. Their needle's all pointed in different directions but only one set of cardinal directions circled them. At the base, where a thumb should rest was a symbol close to but not quite like the Vegvísir (A stave intended to see people safely through storms); Instead of eight points it had nine. And three of the points, headed by runes, were burned (opposed to carved) darker than the other six.

The shift was subtle. A half step to the left before she turned the center-most circle of glass until she found north. Hel lifted only her eyes from the compass(es) to look at Dustfinger, "East."

And yet, it was east.

The dark haired male had take his shirt off to cool off as he took a brief break from settings things up this morning when a new face approached him. He looked over at the blond when he heard the unfamiliar voice, offering a nod but didn't return the smile. The man arched a brow when told this was the new fire dancer.

"Well, I'm not really that kind of fire-dancer," he said with a nervous chuckle.

With a whispered word or two, he toyed briefly with a small flame that appeared on the tip of his thumbnail, then thought better of it and snuffed it against his palm. He would let them all see what kind of fire-dancer he was later. Better not to give away all of his secrets right away.

He caught the resignation in Wolverine's tone. Just the strong man. In his experience, a troupe's strong man was its best defense and nothing to be sniffed at. But he let the comment pass.

"Oh, I won't. Fire doesn't bite when I'm around."

"No. Tell me the truth. What do you know about me?"

“Well, when I looked on a map, this was the only place in the right vicinity where I could minimize damage to structures. There really wasn’t a large radius available, there simply wasn’t enough fuel for large diversions. I simply didn’t think about what would be occupying that space—I am sorry. Are you alright?”

"What is it?"

Having hunkered in for some homework and warmth, the autumn sun was starting to set by the time he left, the cafe sign flipped to close behind him. The eyes behind the glass had unfortunately turned away, by the time the man approached.

The rough press of fingers and his shoulder screamed with pain. Rockland stumbled slightly, instinctually leaning into the grasp in a desperate urge to reduce the discomfort. He had a white knuckle grip on the handle of his cane in his opposite hand.

"Agh! What the fu-" The teen swore, eyes wide in alarm and fear, head whipping towards the assailant. He bucked around best he could without being too hard on his knee, trying to loosen the guy's grip.

A knife appeared at Rockland's throat, pressing hard enough over his Adam's apple to draw blood. The pressure was precise, just enough to cause a bit of fear and pain, but not enough to put him in any actual danger if he stayed still and stopped shouting.

One of Basta's feet shot out to kick at the cane, aiming to throw off the boy's balance and gain even more leverage.

"You'll want to come with me if you'll let me tell you why."

"Where... where should I go?" Eirena questioned, voice quivering with each syllable. What was to become of her in this cavern of darkness and shadows? A prisoner or something far worse...

Eirena had already spoken to it more than even Lazuli ever did, and it was understanding language more and more easily. It shook its head as if brushing off an obnoxious insect, shaking the words that it wanted to reply out of its head.

She wasn't frightened enough for it to benefit from her fear yet. She was only confusing it, making it believe it had once been human.