Young Writers Society

Jo and Kyle exchanged a look. They weren't good at starting fires without anything, but they did know how to keep fires going.

"It's green wood," Jo realized. Kyle nodded in agreement. Jo grinned as she looked back at Estella Fay and Heliodor Everett. "Green wood is something we both know how to avoid. It doesn't burn as well because it still has the moisture in it. Once it dies, it's usually not as damp."

Jo and Kyle started looking around the area they were in for older pieces of wood. When they had enough thick branches, they returned to the makeshift campsite.

Estella Fay nodded in satisfaction, carrying her own older branches. “Fantastic! Now, we need to carefully stack them, like so.” She began to stack the wood vertically around the kindling, careful to put small spaces between the logs, so that the tips would meet in the middle above the dry leaves and twigs.

Heliodor Everett dropped his pile of branches and walked off. He returned with a few large stones. “Shouldn’t we control the fire with these?”

Estella Fay looked up from her work. “Oh, yes! I’ve completely forgotten about that.”

Hev settled on the floor beside Estella Fay and placed the stones in a circle around the pile of wood.

Jo stared at the soon-to-be-campfire.

"...So now what?" she said. "Do you need like...a flame to start it? Or can you just bring it into being now that you have the materials?"

Kyle studied the pile. "If we need a fire first, Jo could probably start one by making their skin like a flint-and-steel."

"That's not how my-" Jo paused. "Wait, I can do that. There's a mutant with skin just like that on Mutopia. She goes to the garden sometimes when I'm visiting Kyle."

Estella Fay gasped. "You can do that? I want to see."

She sat down beside the campfire, grinning up at Jo.

Heliodor Everett awkwardly settled beside her, looking so uncomfortable that it was almost contagious.

Estella Fay smiled at him before returning to her intent stare at Jo.

At Estella Fay's request, Jo's form shifted to the mutant's with a glimmer. They crouched in front of the pile of leaves and twigs. Striking one arm against the other, they sent a flurry of sparks flying onto the kindling below. After a few more strikes, she had successfully gotten an ember going.

When Jo stood back up, she was back to her actual form.

"There you go," Jo said with a grin. "One fire started."

Estella Fay applauded, her grin impossibly wider. "That is amazing! I've never seen anything like that before in my life. So how exactly does your power work, then? Can you turn into anything you've seen before? Oh, and Heliodor Everett, you should stick your hand in the fire. Anyways, how do you control it?"

Heliodor Everett gestured for Estella Fay to stop. "I'm sorry, you want me to do what now?"

Estella Fay turned to him. "Put your hands in the fire."

"Why would I do that?"

"Maybe it's like some weird kind of firebending," Jo guessed, changing gears just as quickly as Estella Fay did. She made a mental note to explain more about her powers later. "Where the fire can't hurt you because you can control it."

Kyle stared at Jo. "Zuko was burned by fire."

"Yeah, but not his," Jo argued.

Kyle stared at them for another moment, then sighed. He didn't know enough about ATLA to argue with her right now.

Estella Fay patted him on the shoulder. "Come on. I'm having you do everything I had to do."

"You're a light alis, and light isn't known for setting you on fire."

Estella Fay laughed. "It'll be fine! First, though, you should take your coat off."

Heliodor Everett tensed. "My coat?"

"I cannot guarantee the coat won't catch fire."

He sighed and slipped it off, his wings going through long slits in the back. He looked a lot less professional in just a white button-up, but once he rolled up the sleeves to his elbows, he almost looked casual. Yellow and green bruises littered the inside of his forearm, with a shocking smear of black near his wrist. "Why am I putting my hands inside the fire?"

Estella Fay didn't say anything, her eyes tracing all of the bruises now on display.

Jo and Kyle's banter faded when they both saw the bruises littering Heliodor Everett's arms and wrists. Neither one of them knew how to react to something like that. They knew he was forced to do bad things to avoid getting hurt, but neither had ever considered that he had already been hurt. Jo wished her power was something other than shapeshifting, then, and Kyle wished he could do more with his.

"Are you..." Jo started to say, and then didn't know how to finish the thought.

“Am I..?” He looked down at his own arms, eyes widening ever so slightly, as if he were seeing the injuries in a new light. “Don’t worry, they’re old.” He held his hand over the fire, letting the flame flicker against his hand. “That’s odd. It doesn’t hurt.”

Estella Fay smiled. “It’s not supposed to! Now, try to pull out some out and hold it.”

Heliodor Everett dipped his hand in, as if he was trying to scoop out water from a lake. He pulled out a flame that continued to burn in his hand. “Wow.” Heliodor Everett drew the flame closer to his face, staring deeply into the fire. “What a beautiful thing they stole from us.”

Jo and Kyle still felt uneasy about Heliodor Everett's bruises, but both gave small smiles when they saw his reaction to the flames. Jo wasn't sure if Kyle felt the same way about his power as she did hers, but Jo had felt like she had reclaimed some missing part of herself when she finally used her own.

"It's freeing, isn't it?" Jo said, their grin growing even larger. "Finally using your abilities?"

Heliodor Everett nodded, the numb melting from his face. He looked almost in awe. “What do I do next?”

Estella Fay grinned. “Do what feels naturally. Test yourself.”

Heliodor Everett settled the fire into just one hand again, and smoothed it with his other hand. The flame followed his command, shaping itself into a sphere. “Can I throw it?”

Estella Fay nodded. “You can do almost anything with it. You can even make fire once you learn how.”

“Tell me how, please.”

Unable to offer much help with Heliodor Everett's specific kind of ability, Jo settled for watching Estella Fay as she taught him how to use his powers.

"I vote you throw it at that tree," Jo said, pointing to one across the clearing. It was an older tree, but still had some leaves to it. It probably wouldn't start a forest fire.

"He should throw it at the ground," Kyle said. "In case it catches."

Jo frowned. "But that doesn't look as impressive."

“Whatever you do, just throw it like you would a stone.” Estella Fay looked excited enough to launch int to the sky herself. Her wings were already poised for flight.

Heliodor Everett fixed his eyes to the sky and threw it upwards. It remained a perfect sphere and landed square in the palm of his hand. He laughed. It was a strange sound, slightly mad and a little broken at the edges, but it was triumphant. And it was the happiest sound he had ever made.

Estella Fay clapped. “You did it!”

Jo grinned. Even Kyle gave a smile when he saw and heard Heliodor Everett's joy.

"It's like you're juggling it," Jo noted.