My Little Fire
My submission to Forest and Fawn's Faerie Writing Challenge.
Submitted for Forest and Fawn’s Faerie Writing Challenge.
The theme for the challenge was faeries. Each challenge entrant has 10 days, must stay under 2,000 words, tell a complete story, and incorporate three prompts delivered at the start of the challenge.
For this challenge, the prompts were:
The first and last sentence must be "Nothing is/was as it seems/seemed."
A character notorious for breaking things.
A message in a bottle.
I did not win but it was a fun challenge! It has been my lifelong dream to be a writer and I had definitely fallen out of the habit—this helped remind me of how fun writing can be.
My Little Fire
Nothing is quite as it seems, for man only sees outward appearances, but the unburning flame reveals the heart.
Nordfjellby was a town on a small island in the icy north and Ildri was the fire sprite born to it. The townsfolk could not explain it, but as soon as you passed through their wooden walls, the frigid winter suddenly thawed. Though they could not see her, their lives were intertwined with the fire sprite’s, and she cherished them—keeping their babes warm and the firelight dancing in their festivals. She was proud of her role—even if they never knew her.
That was until Maja, the baker’s daughter, caught her making the firelight dance with the shadows. “Mamma, is there a lady who lives in the fire?” Maja’s mom laughed heartily, “Of course not, skatten min.” While it did not seem as though Maja could see Ildri, somehow Maja knew Ildri was there. From then on Maja would throw little pieces of her food into the fire, “Make the dancing lights, lille ilden min!” Maja’s name for her, my little fire.
Time passed and Maja grew, becoming the town baker. “If I give you a treat, when I bake, will you watch over my fire for me, lille ilden min?” Of course, Ildri could not resist, not when Maja asked. The townsfolk adored Maja’s bread and praised her for her perfectly baked loaves, but Maja always praised Ildri instead, “It’s because lille ilden min so diligently tends my oven.”
Knowing Maja and being known by her had changed something inside Ildri. Her fire blazed with a new light. She was Maja’s lille ilden min and Maja was hers—Ildri felt as if she had become sunlight.
All would not stay as it was. One sunny morning, when the air was crisp and summer on the cusp of unfurling, a darkness swept over Nordfjellby. A roar rolled across the island and the earth shook. Towering far above the town’s homes was an enormous beast with giant bat-like wings spread across the sky, scales so black they shimmered blue, with chilling red eyes.
“Insolent mortals! You dare steal from me?” The beast roared.
Ildri shook. Had the townsfolk summoned a dragon?
Every spring the raiders went out, bringing back chickens, sheep, goats—sometimes weapons. Never had they brought back treasures that would interest a dragon.
“Did you not know the name of whose lair you raided? I am Breaker! Beneath my talons I break the spirits of mortals.”
Ildri pleaded, “They will return it!”
Breaker’s nostrils flared. “A fire sprite pleads on their behalf?”
His fire burned her. Trapped her—she whose essence was flame. The pain blinded her and the smoke choked her. His fire was not her fire. It was not gentle or warm. Her fire was life giving! His devoured everything. First the boats, then their homes, and finally her people. The fire came for her too and darkness consumed her.
She awoke staring at the sky, smoke drifted towards the cold gray morning. The buildings were ash. Bodies incinerated. Where she once tended hearths were now graves of the unburied and un-mourned. She wept but no tears could come—tears were not part of her essence.
Despair came like an ocean to drown her. She wished to lay on its bottom and never return to the light—what remained of her soul was broken in two.
Never had she ventured close to the ocean. She was a fire sprite and water would quench her. With unblinking eyes she watched the waves roll in, nearly touching her feet. As she dipped her toe in the lapping waves, the pain undid her—like being split in two. She collapsed, exhausted.
It seemed death would not come for her easily. She could not face the ocean; it was too excruciating. She decided to make her grave in the ashes of Maja’s oven, but memories flooded back to her, swallowing her with grief anew. She could not stay in this grave; she had to leave. This pain was as unbearable as the ocean’s.
She trudged back to the ocean. There were many uses of fire. It did not have to destroy; fire could forge new things. Her vessel would be a glass bottle. Like a message in a bottle, she would send herself. If she did not overcome the waves, then she could finally rest. If she did, then she would carry the last memory of Nordfjellby.
She guided her fire through the sand, shaping her glass vessel. She closed herself inside the glass and rolled out to sea.
It seemed fate would not let the sea swallow her whole. After many long days and nights in her glass vessel, she reached land and searched for shelter away from the dark ocean.
She found a dark cave near where she had beached. As she entered, she set out to start a fire and make some light until she could recover her strength. Sensing a nearby hearth, likely from former travelers, she snapped her fingers to light it ablaze.
When the light shone, she was astounded: surrounding her was a sea of glittering gold, treasures of every shape and size filled the large cavern. This could be no accident—it was a horde. She shivered, a dragon’s horde.
Frantically, she searched for the dragon. She had just barely survived her last dragon encounter; she had no desire to try again.
Were those nostrils poking out above the gold? The coins began to move. She found him. He yawned and stretched, streams of gold gliding down his body. She was paralyzed as his red eyes met hers, gold glinting off scales so dark they shimmered blue—this was Breaker.
“Why does a little fire sprite dare to disturb me?”
Terror gripped her. The screams of Maja rung in her ears.
Breaker cocked his head, using a claw to pick at his teeth. “You were that little fire sprite, from that foolish town who stole my mirror. Come for revenge?” He chuckled.
She paused. All that destruction for a mere mirror? The words escaped her mouth, surprising herself, “A mirror?”
Lording over her, Breaker smiled, showing his impossibly sharp teeth. It would take nothing to crush her. He gestured to a dais in the center of the lair. “It is no ordinary mirror, sprite. It is my most prized possession.”
Her eyes followed his gesture and there it lay: a handheld mirror atop a silk pillow. Though ornate, it seemed rather small for a dragon. She took in the incalculable worth of all the treasure around her, “What makes this your most prized possession?”
The beast gushed with glee, eager to tell, “This mirror foretells one’s true glory.” He grabbed the mirror, “Bow before my glorious future!”
She looked at the beast in the mirror and saw no glory. In the glass she saw him: dripping in bloodied mud, slithering like a worm, profanities scratched into a black crown atop his head. There was no glory in this image.
“What do you see?”
He preened. “Is your mind too small to see it, sprite? I have scales of gold! I am the ruler over all that is and is to come! All the treasure of the world will be mine! They will call me king!”
Anger bubbled in her belly. This mirror is why he destroyed Nordfjellby? This mirror was worth all the lives of her people? This profane image. This mirror which seemed only to deceive him.
“You destroyed Nordfjellby for this mirror?”
“They took what was mine! Was it not deserved?”
“Nordfjellby did not deserve to be consumed by fire for the sins of a few.”
The dragon bent down so she could smell the hot stench of his breath. “As the future King, I decide what is deserved.”
Ildri spat, anger fueled her courage. “Then you have been deceived. For when I look into the mirror, I see a worm playacting as a king.”
“How little you know of real power. Let us see your form, sprite.”
He thrust the mirror into her hand, and she entered the dim world of the mirror. She saw herself: small, defeated, and caged in a prison of bones and ash. Her flame flickering out, eternal darkness waited for her. This was her future glory, this was her heart’s desire.
She gasped at the horror of this vision, dropping the mirror on its silk pillow. She shook her head. “Who would want this?”
It was wrong. What she wanted she could never have again. Maja was gone.
“Now do you understand, you are nothing compared to who I am, who I am to be! For your blasphemy, I will end you.”
Breaker opened his mouth—
Images filled her. Her first firelight festival, the laughter of the town washing over the night. Maja’s first laugh at her dancing lights. Lille ilden min.
—As he unleashed his fire, realization hit her. Fire did not have to destroy; fire could forge new things. His fire brought death, but hers gave life. Ildri closed her eyes and felt warmth spread over her. From her head down to the tips of her toes, she shined her light as bright as the sun within her. The love she held for her little island, her little town, and for her Maja. Ildri shone and it could not be contained.
“What have you done?” Breaker screeched. “It burns! How does it burn?”
“Behold,” shining with light, Ildri locked eyes with Breaker, “This is the legacy of Nordfjellby—of all those whom I loved.”
Breaker’s screaming ceased as the light burned him through. Ildri sank to her knees—it was done.
She glanced back at the mirror, the cursed thing, and had a mind to break it, but dimly lit, she saw a small blue flame.
She rose and turned towards the flame, not noticing it before, hidden in the back on a pedestal.
“Come to me, little fire.”
Shakily Ildri approached. Kneeling at the pedestal, she cast her gaze downward, afraid to gaze upon the flame for this fire seemed to have no source.
“Little fire, thank you for answering my call. Have you learned what your heart desires?”
She wrung her hands. “Blue Flame, I know not who you are, and I did not answer your call. I failed to protect the people I loved. I came desiring my own end—defeating Breaker was accidental.”
“I am the unburning flame. I sang the song of creation and brought the world into existence. Only I can judge the deeds of my creation. Despite great suffering, you answered my call, even though you could not hear me. In facing the darkness, you brought light.”
“I am but a fire sprite, unseen and unknown by all those whom I love.”
“Is that all you are, little fire?”
From the Great Flame, a blinding light shone…
She heard the chirping first. Rising from her knees, her hand touched the ground, feeling not stone, but grass. Startled, she opened her eyes.
It was her island but as it had never been before.
In every direction she looked there was deep green grass, flowers of every color, and trees’ branches weighing heavy with fruits. Birds speckled her blue sky, beasts feasted on the grass in her fields, and in the distance, she saw a long boat with men, women, and children disembarking.
“You are light. Go forth and shine.”
Nordfjellby was a small town on an uncharacteristically warm island in the frigid north. There its light was tended to by a little light sprite named Ildri, a beloved fixture in the town. She watched diligently over the generations of the townspeople, and they loved her.
Visitors were baffled by the way the light shone on this little island, as if the town itself radiated sunlight. Nothing was quite as it seemed in the small town of Nordfjellby, for man only saw its outward appearance, but the unburning flame revealed Ildri’s heart.