Enar's Vacation - Open Beta

Chapter 46

Enar blushed, adjust his stool so that he could sit facing Amanda, but still with a good view of the hatch - so he could see when she made the fire. "No, nothing else. All good to go."

Amanda nodded, once, and turned towards the stove. Breathing in deep, she closed her eyes and sat completely still. Enar barely dared to breathe.

She opened her eyes, rolled up the sleeves of her sweater, and leaned forward. She grabbed the lower edge of the hatch with her left hand and rested her right wrist on top of it as she pushed her arm through the hole.

Enar craned his neck to try and see better. His gaze flicked back and forth between Amanda's face and her hand inside the stove. He didn't want to miss the magic, but he also didn't want to lean close enough to be a bother - and, of course, he couldn't let her fall. His heart beat like a drum.

Nothing happened.

The old house creaked, battered by the wind and rain outside, but in the tasting room nothing moved and not a sound was made.

Enar held his breath.

The lantern on the table cast a steady light across the walls. On the hooks above the counter, named cups waited for a day their owners would need them, and on the walkway outside the door, wet clothes had stopped dripping, but were still far from dry.

In the corner, inside the iron stove, in the open palm of the woman with the red hair, magic happened.

A faint light flickered and faded, flared up, and faded again. Enar gasped. His eyes flicked to Amanda to see if he'd disturbed her, but she made no move to show she'd noticed. The light inside the oven steadied and grew. A point of brightest white appeared in the air above her palm, no larger than a speck of dust, but as bright as any flame. The light grew in size, took on the shape of a pearl, and turned pink. It wobbled, steadied, and shifted from pink, to red, to yellow.

Enar tore his eyes away to check on Amanda. He couldn't let himself forget about her. Beads of sweat ran down the side of her face, and her lips moved, forming words he couldn't hear. She still sat upright; chanting under her breath, steady and unwavering - still strong.

The air inside the stove shimmered with heat, and small tongues of flame shot up from the pearl of light. Amanda's breathing became heavier, and she wheezed through clenched teeth. Her arm twitched, and she adjust her left hand to grip around her wrist instead of around the edge of the hatch, holding her arm still.

The pearlflame wobbled, turned pink, and started to drip. Amanda hissed as a tiny drop of liquid fire hit her hand and went out, but she kept her arm steady, and no more drops fell. The pearl regained it's shape and color, and the flames around it grew.

Enar's heart pounded in his chest. His throat tight and his mouth dry, he reached out to pull Amanda away from the stove.

"No!"

He froze, and pulled his arms back. Her face glistened with sweat, and she stared, wide eyed, at the pearl of fire. With a grimace she adjusted the grip on her wrist and then tilted her palm down. The pearlflame began to move, slowly gliding down towards a stick of firewood inside the stove.

As soon as it connected, the wood around the pearl began to smoke and blacken. The pearl clung to the stick like honey, and its flames licked the wood. Amanda snatched her arm away, gasped and fell backwards.

Without thinking, Enar lunged forward, got his arms around her, struggled for balance and crashed into the floor with Amanda on top of him.

The fall knocked the breath out of him and his head cracked against the floorboards. Stars spun around each other up in the ceiling above.