Campfire Magic - or - Crunch Gets A Letter
Crunch had to say that working with fire was one of their least favorite parts of magic. Sure, he would construct a flame thrower every once in a while, mostly to help out lons similarly unblessed by a flamedancer affinity, but Crunch was far more interested in rocks. While this may have seemed narrow minded for a vespire with access to anything they wish, to stay interested in the most stereotypical element of vespires, but Crunch liked the solid beauty of geologic structures as well as the treasure hunt aspect of finding new rocks. Anyway, fire. He wasn’t saying that it was bad, necessarily, just… not what he was interested in. Which brings him to the letter on the counter in front of him. Trout had brought it in along with other letters from their friends across the continent, but this one was specifically addressed to Crunch with the seal of the mage council holding the envelope closed. The letter, which was asking very politely for Crunch to go to a campsite just outside of Firsden, and thus quite close to their town. Trout leaned against their partner as they flipped through some of their letters. “Oh, look! You have a letter from Vespilet! We should write them back, oh wait, we should have Charmie send a letter back with us, if we’re gonna make Zheyna fly that far to begin with.” He paused to sniff the letter. “Well, I’m glad that Latte is so comfortable with Zheyna now.” Crunch gave him a curious glance before sniffing his own letter. Sure enough, there was a sweet, but definite, smell of caramel and coffee on the paper. Trout laughed briefly before tilting his head in interest. “What’s that letter about then? Got your next level of magehood yet?” “Not quite,” Crunch grinned back, Trout was always so supportive. “Say, do you wanna go camping?”
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It ended up with a whole group going along with Crunch to the camp. First of all, there was no way that he was going to leave his loupine pack behind, so there was a whole bunch of other paws that were coming. Then Zheyna learned that they were going to a camp meeting, which is apparently very exciting, so Zheyna and her pippets also had to come along. If Zheyna was to come with them, well of course she told her brother, and there is no way that Charmie would come without offering the trip to his boyfriends, so there was three more ursuki that were also making the trip. Once they reached the campsite, other lons that had come to get the camp up and running were in a flurry of work and movement. While they had arrived towards the end of the getting ready process, Crunch and his extended family had been there for only a few minutes before most of them had inserted themselves into the work flow to help out. Crunch took the sudden dispersion to head over to the campfire pit and look at what to do with it, their loupines padding alongside, all very excited for the night’s entertainment. The campfire ring had some wood in it already, but it clearly had not been one of the priorities for the workers so far. Crunch turned to Crusader, their largest loupine, and directed them to take the rest of the loupine pack out into the surrounding woods and find a variety of more wood. Crunch heard the excited snapping of sticks and rustling of leaves as the pack bounded away looking for the perfect sticks for Crunch. In the meantime, Crunch started getting ready by pulling out various chemicals and additives to change the color of the flames, each one got drawn into an individual bubble made out of their penumbir for later in the show. Then he drew a solid circle about a foot inside the charcoal part of the ring to use to create shadows later on. This ring got infused with Crunch’s penumbir to flare up with his magic later. As the loupines came back with their offerings of branches, Crunch joined them in setting up a large cone shape in the center of the fire ring, the inside made out of thick long burning logs, then starter kindling and easy to burn twigs, then the outer shell made out of medium sized long branches to give the shape. From the edges of the cone they placed straight increasingly small sticks out to the edge of the previously delineated charcoal edge so that the fire would be large enough, not just tall. Once completed, Crunch and his loupines turned away to help with the finishing touches in the camp, Crunch’s show wouldn’t be until the day turned to a nice dark night, which gave them plenty of time to do other things.
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The first day of camp was full of Crunch joining the masses of blooms, sprouts, geodes, and the rare plume running around in the newly fallen leaves and fun activities. The hay ride had been great fun, as well as the various hill activities that resulted in quite a few babies needing to be physically restrained once it got too dark to keep a close eye on them all. Now that the daylight celebrations were long done, lons of all ages now ring the firepit, the bonfire a respectable size by now with the hot dogs and s’mores already made and consumed, it was time. Crunch stepped forward from the dark edges of the woods surrounding the bonfire clearing, his penumbir trailing along the ground in an almost sinister manner, though in reality it was so that the hidden pockets of chemicals and the fire ring were connected to Crunch’s magic source. Glancing around slowly, both to heighten the suspense and double check that the soft green glow couldn’t be easily seen through the flames, Crunch took his place on the storyteller’s rock, a raised patch of earth and stone that had been used by mages since the tradition of fire magic had been added to the camp. Slowly in a hushed voice Crunch began his tale, depicting a horror mystery that surrounded the very camp they were in, talking about mysterious disappearances and unrealistically dangerous wildlife, his solid penumbir made opaque for the story rose up through the flames casting shadows of the events he tells of shimmering across his audience’s faces. As the tension heightened, some of the younger lons faces scrunching up in distress, Crunch diverts from the story’s original horrible ending to end with a triumphant hero, their form flickering between the main four species of Bellacoste. He had never specified what species the hero had been, and knew from raising his own cross species family that it was good to be able to see one’s self in a depiction. Once the story was done, the musically inclined lons in the camp began to start up a good, easy to dance to, song. Crunch released one of his previously established pockets of harmless chemicals, turning the fire a bright purple, while his penumbir took the form of fluid dancing figures. For long into the night, far past the kids being sent to sleep in the cabins (though a few of them did protest out of fear of the woodcrawlers that would definitely get them in their sleep, at least until Crunch’s loupines promised to sleep with the more afraid ones) the various lons around the fire danced to the flames and the music, Crunch even getting into the swing of things to have a twirl with Trout a couple times when people’s attention wasn’t on the fire as much and the remaining chemical based color changes had been completed. Finally, the party started winding down, the fire being put out as Zheyna used her light affinity to guide some of the more impaired lons back to their cabins when Trout came up to Crunch right before bed. “Well? Was it do bad being an entertainer mage-on-demand?” He asked with a grin. “Oh, I suppose it was better than I thought it would be.” Crunch sighed to avoid letting on how much fun he had had that night. The way Trout looked at him, he probably saw right through the feigned indifference, but Crunch couldn’t care after such a fun and tiring day. Crunch leaned over to give Trout a little kiss before they went to their own cabins trailed by Crunch’s final loupine, their way lit by the last little flame from the fire cradled in a lantern made from Crunch’s magic.