A Spark of Strength: Firefly's Hurt Too

Friends and Family

1. Firefly: my older sparktressling. She's organized and practical, but still fun (most of the time). She's 16 years old.

2. Flare: my twin sparktressling. She's wild and crazy and bold. She doesn't like dancing very much. We're both 15 years old.

3. Flicker: fellow kachina. She's small and blonde and quiet. She gets on my nerves. She's 13 years old.

4. Comet: fellow kachina. Comet is fun, but can be a little manipulative and sullen. She's 14 years old.

5. Sparkle: fellow kachina. She's crazy. Very energetic and talkative. She's 13 years old.

6. Coal: he's the Fire Lord's most trusted spy. He's almost like a sparkerling (brother) to us. We've known him all our lives. He's 17 years old.

7. Star Dancer: a palace maid. She loves gossip and is fun, but be careful with your secrets around her. She's 15 years old.

8. Flame: chief guard. I can't stand him. He's mean and stuck-up. And I'm also a little afraid of him. He's 19 years old.

9. Blaze: Coal's best friend and fellow spy. He's 17 years old.

10. Asher: a wussy spy that no one likes. He's 16 years old.

Words and Terms To Learn

1. Furier: the city where I live. The Fire Lord rules from Furier. Furier's villagers are mostly fire faires. Furier is also know as the Fire City.

2. Furierite: something from Furier, the culture of Furier, or having to do with fire fairies

3. Kachina: the Furierite word for entertainer

4. Sparktress: a female fire fairy

5. Sparker: a male fire fairy

6. Sparktressling: sister (fire fairy)

7. Sparkerling: brother (fire fairy)

8. Sparkling: sibling (fire fairy)

9. Sparklet: child or offspring (fire fairy)

10. Sparkerlet: son (fire fairy)

11. Sparktresslet: daughter (fire fairy)

*These words may look confusing, but they're actually very intuitive and easy to get used to. "Sparktress" is the female indicator, "sparker" is the male indicator. The suffix "let" means "child" or "offspring", and the suffix "ling" means sibling.

Monday, November 30, 2009

Firefly's Hurt Too

If the situation weren't so unfortunate, this might be humorous.

This is Flare, Ember's twin sparktressling. Firefly would be posting, but...Well, may I tell you a short story?

Ember is a very good kachina. I'm sure she's bragged about it before on here. She's really quite arrogant about it, you know. (Sorry, Em, just being honest.) She is talented, though. The Fire Lord always watches her more than any of us. So lately, he's been missing her. You can tell he doesn't get as much entertainment out of us. Today he snapped. Flicker accidentally hit Sparkle in the eye, and Sparkle fell into me, and I tripped and brought Firefly down. The Fire Lord was unbelievably angry and shouted that Ember wouldn't have fallen. He stood up and started throwing fireballs at Firefly. She's the oldest and supposed to be the lead kachina (although Ember's quite bossy so it's really more like her), so whenever we do something wrong she gets blamed. I felt terrible and tried to help her, but Comet and Sparkle told me not to move. The Fire Lord was going to beat Firefly anyway, it would make no sense to get beaten myself. I didn't want to listen to them, but I was very upset and afraid and so I did.

Firefly is in a pretty bad way and she's upset with Ember, seeing how this is all sort of her fault. If she had just followed the rules she wouldn't be lying in bed with a raw back. And if she weren't such a bossy peacock all the time, it'd be easier to feel sorry for her.

I do feel sorry for her though. She's in a lot of pain and I do love her. I feel worse for Firefly though. This wasn't Firefly's fault and she's still being blamed.

The worst part is that now we don't have a lead kachina. Firefly counts beats and decides what routine we'll do. I guess, being the oldest of us four left, it'll be me now, but I've never been confident about all this. I hate our costumes, they make me feel...exposed. I'm not comfortably with the whole thing. I don't know what we'll do.

Keep Ember and Firefly in your thoughts.