Audrey: I wonder what’s going on?
Calliope: She didn’t say much, just wanted to meet us at the campfire.
Audrey bends over, lights the paper they’ve piled under the kindling.
Calliope claps: I love fire.
Audrey, side eyes her: I’m not sure you want to say that out loud!
They were still laughing when Grace and Doris walked up to the crackling flames.
Audrey.…….🦗
Calliope…….🦗
Doris, poking a twig into the fire: I just love playing with fire.
Calliope to Audrey: 😛
Grace floats above everyone a bit, swaying around the fireflies.
Audrey and Calliope exchanged glances. Grace only shapeshifted into her fairy-cat-mother form when something was up.
Doris, sighing: You know I love you guys, right?
Audrey: That never ends well.
Doris looks up: I believe everything will end well, will end perfectly in fact.
Grace: It’s because she loves you that we are putting the story down for a while.
Doris: 🤦♀️ I wasn’t quite ready to say that yet.
Everyone talks at once, staring at the sparks instead of at each other.
Doris: Grace feels like I am not quite ready to write your story with the love and attention you deserve. I have to step back for a bit, apprentice if you will.
Audrey: You found better characters, didn’t you?
Grace: No, love. There is no one better than you to tell your story, but Doris is right —she needs to learn a little more magic first. We will be flying to the Enchanted Dreamweaver Mansion for a while to hone her skills.
Audrey, looking down, scuffing her feet.
Calliope sniffling.
Doris: Come here you guys, group hug.
The three of them fold into the hug.
Grace hovers and wraps her wings around all of them — shimmering, warm, protective.
The hug breaks slowly, like a knot loosening.
No one quite wants to step out of the circle.
The fire crackles, throws a few sparks upward — tiny gold fireflies joining Grace’s orbit.
Doris looks back at the flames.
“Don’t worry,” she murmurs, mostly to the night, a little to them, a little to herself.
“I banked the fire. It’ll keep. Embers hold heat for a long time.”