That was the question, wasn't it? Most of the time, the fire whispered simple things. Hunger. Growth. More wood, girl. But tonight, the flames were restless. They leaned east. They hissed a name I hadn't heard in ten years.
Ashborne.
A laugh escaped me, low and smoky. He wasn't wrong. Fire owed me everything. Last winter, when the blizzard had buried the passes and the other scouts were losing toes to frostbite, it was my heat that kept us alive. Not a blanket. Not a spell from the soft-handed mages in their towers. Just me, Lily Starfire, pulling a core of warmth from a single damp twig until it roared loud enough to scare the wolves away. lily starfire pov
I grabbed my satchel, the leather still warm from where I’d been sitting. The journey ahead would be long. But I was Lily Starfire. I didn't need a torch, a lantern, or the sun. That was the question, wasn't it
The embers of the campfire weren’t just light. They were mine . Growth