Pouring a little bit of oil on the tinder goes a long way. Using my knife to cut slender shavings from the branches, I quickly made a pile around the oil. One of the basic rules of alchemy, is that if you are mixing it, or creating it, you can control it. Which was easier said than done, all things considered. Explaining the mental strain that always came from keeping a reaction from doing what it should do naturally, was almost impossible. We were also limited to dusts, powders, and other liquids. The requirements for getting alchemical magic going, weren't as simple as touching something. No, we had to mix, file, cut, boil, or burn.

It wasn't as flashy as some elementalist throwing a ball of fire in the middle of the night. Nor was it as practical as a healer mending broken bones. Still it was infinitely better than being one of the very few unable to do any kind of magic. Plus as an Alchemist, we had much higher control over everything we do. A fire started by anyone else would spread uncontrolled after a certain time. We could control everything we've ever made for decades. Which is exactly why we aren't allowed to do sensitive building work.

Letting out a small sigh, I poured some of the fine powder onto the oil. A practical exercise in learning how to control one's magic. Creating fire was easy enough, controlling it was a tad bit harder. Rubbing my hands along a static cloth, I got the charge needed to ignite the powder and oil. Pointing my finger to the top of the tinder, I briefly wondered if this was how a god might feel. With a small smirk, I murmured under my breath, "Let there be light." The charge traveled from my fingertip, onto the pile with a small spark. I could feel my magic spreading from the energy.

A small smoulder started to glimmer, as every bit of my attention focused on it. The world around me falling away, until there was nothing but the fire and me. I could feel what it needed in order to grow. I could feel it's heat spreading, combusting the flammable oil. With a slight bit of pain, I slowed it's spread. My stomach grumbling in protest at being denied food faster. There would be time to cook later, but this hunger was a distraction. The old man told me that if I wanted to be a great alchemist, I must never lose my concentration. In a way, this was training. I was out in the forest, freely able to practice my magic, my safety assured by the bug mistress. I shouldn't need to watch my back, I could just focus on honing my magic.

Letting out a small breath, I softly blew, to stoke the slowly growing embers. Trying to control the smoke so that it burned cleanly. There was so much to watch over, so much to feel and pay attention to. It amazed me how the old man was able to control so much fire under different beakers at once. The things that people made look easy. With a small laugh, I shook these stray thoughts from my head. My smoke had grown dark, and the fire was spreading faster. My head was starting to throb from trying to contain it.

An ebony hand gripped my shoulder, causing me to jump and the fire to flare up. "Gah!?" Letting out a rather embarrassing sound, I turned to see the bug mistress looking at me. She seemed a bit concerned for some reason or another.

She gestured to the fire, "Fire?"

Quickly nodding, I smiled at her association. The fire itself was growing quickly, no thanks to the pride welling in my chest. "Yep! Fire!" Gesturing to it, I made it flare up again. This seemed to spook her a bit as she took a step back. Did she not know what an alchemist was? The fire was practically roaring as I turned back to it. If she thought that was impressive, she'd be more impressed by a common trick. Grabbing one of the burning branches, I pulled it from the pile, I held it like a torch. She moved back, seemingly debating something or another. Worry written on her face.

I started to point it towards her, before quickly realizing that would have been a terrible idea. I caught the subtle twitch of one of her fingers as I quickly did a twirl. "This is fire." Pointing back at the burning mound, "Campfire." I might be able to teach her a few words, so that we could actually communicate. With a smile I twirled my homemade torch, making certain not to point it at her. It was strange that she was so nervous around fire. Some kind of trauma perhaps? Hopefully some cooked food might change that. Though I don't recall dark elves not using fire.

Bringing the torch to a stop, I raised an eyebrow at her. She was watching my every move, her eyes softly glowing in the night. She made no move towards me, or away. Though she still seemed tense for some reason. "For my next trick, I'll show you something few alchemists can do." She naturally didn't understand, but her eyes went wide as I held the torch out horizontally. Placing my free hand on the branch, I slowly inched it closer towards the fire. I shifted my focus to the small fire on the torch, rather than the entire campfire. I moved the flames away from my hand as it approached. Making it seem like the fire was afraid of me.

She seemed to move closer, as if unsure what was happening. It was a crowd favorite for alchemists to play this trick on children. There was something innocent about this bug mistress, despite her savagry earlier. She was watching my every move, with undivided attention. Even back in Eclipse, I was just another alchemist that showed promise. A half breed that couldn't even grow a damn beard. Letting out a small sigh, I focused more on the fire. Dimming it down, and making it start from it's lowest point before having it coil after my hand like a snake. I wasn't good enough to really make it look like one, but it was impressive enough for the bug mistress to kneel to get a closer look.

I felt the world falling away as my focus was once more lost to controlling the fire. If this bug mistress really didn't know much of the world outside her cave, I would show it to her. At least that way, I could properly thank her for saving me. I felt a hand over mine, as I snapped my focus from the fire back to her. She was reaching to try and copy me, to probably scare the fire away or something. Though the loss of focus caused the torch to flare, the flames licking her fingers as she jerked away. I'd look to her with concern, "Are you okay?"

She cradled her slightly smoking hand as she moved back from me. Making sure that she wasn't actually on fire, I was at least relieved to find that much. Still a flare like that probably did some damage. I took a step towards her, throwing the torch back into the campfire. Both hands raised, "I didn't mean to." She looked up as I did so, seemingly about to hiss, before turning away. I managed another step towards her, before she leapt to the mouth of the cave. She looked at me once more, before disappearing into the darkness.

Moving past the FW, I saw it had gathered branches and other wooden oddities. Briefly, the thought of it's kind being like birds, and that it was making a nest, crossed my mind. Seeing that it focused on making the wood smaller, and pouring a black liquid onto it. I understood that it might be preparing to eat the wood instead. That should make it surprisingly easy to care for. It was probably too hungry to complete the task of carrying the prizes from the hunt. Still, it was good bait, and had attracted the pack creatures. Moving through the hunting grounds, I was quite pleased with the amount we had found. It seemed that the rotation hunting method was working wonders on letting the creatures move back in.

The season was beginning to change, and with the cooler air, others became less active. We had learned well from the other hives that made combs. Some creatures slumbered for a long time as the air grew colder still. It was unfortunate when the ground grew white, since that meant I had to hunt alone. Hopefully gathering all this flesh would keep the hive well off if I couldn't find anything. It was never a fun experience to have my kin devour each other, nor myself partaking in their flesh.

Arriving at the scene with the remaining two bodies, I grabbed them by their legs. The workers were hard at work, carving everything edible and carrying it back in groups. Even the warriors were starting to grab some of the fallen leaves to try and carry back more faster. Inspiration had struck me, when I saw the FW and it's dead flesh. It seemed that it was far more practical than I had thought it might be. Soon the kin were carrying amounts of flesh that I never imagined they could. If nothing else, it would make moving territories much easier if the FW's hive decides to approach. I still didn't understand why they had such large workers compared to my own. Though I was also much larger than all of my kin. Perhaps the FW was from a hive that was around much longer than myself? I always knew I wasn't the only one of my kind.

Buzz Buzz |"Fire!"| Buzz Buzz |"Smoke!"|

Reports started to trickle in from the cave. It was far too close to the hive for comfort. Though it was small, I quickly rushed back with my haul. I found the FW sitting in front of it's wood meal. It seemed to be blowing on the fire in an attempt to extinguish it. Truly unfortunate luck that it's meal somehow combusted! I had learned that fire grew from wood, and anything else that could burn. Blowing only made it angrier, the best thing to do was throw sand or water at it. Such a pathetic worker to not even know that much.

As I approached, I realized the creature wasn't trying to stop the fire, but instead was stoking it. It seemed to want the fire to grow. To have it spread, for some reason. Making sure that it was on the sand where it wouldn't spread to the forest, I touched the creature's shoulder. It jumped in surprise, letting out a mildly entertaining sound. I recalled what it had uttered earlier, looking at him then the fire I repeated the sounds. "Fire?"

The creature seemed delighted by this for some reason, and displayed affirmative movements. These sounds were how it communicated, which I found inefficient. Perhaps they lacked the ability to simply transmit thoughts due to their lack of antenna. Still it should be beneficial if I could actually communicate with it's hive. The FW uttered more noises, that I set about memorizing with the inner voice. The fire growing behind it very quickly. Perhaps it could eat fire? It was such a strange concept, but I suppose what one might eat varied widely between hives. I moved away from the heat.

The FW grabbed one of the burning sticks, beginning to point it towards me. Moving back slightly, I was tempted to tear off it's wrist. I wasn't sure if it wanted to attack me, because of some perceived upper hand. I retaliated in kind, but the FW seemed to do a strange motion where it spun with it's flaming branch. The creature spun the branch with it's fingers, seemingly in control over the fire. Uttering more noises despite there not being any real difference I could tell. Perhaps fire was simply the flame, while a campfire was something one could control? It made less sense to me, the more the creature moved.

The creature bellowed out more noises, before holding the burning stick towards me. Did it want me to take it? Was it trying to show me something that those sounds meant? The FW ran it's hand along the base of the branch towards the fire. The fire actually moved away from it! From everything I knew about fire, it licked and burned anything it could touch. Wind might blow it one way or another, but here it was moving away from the FW. Was it actually afraid of the creature!? Was this something all of it's fellow workers could do!? There were so many questions, as everything I knew about fire was shattered with it's hand movements!

I needed to learn how this was done! Moving closer, I knelt as the fire seemed to dim to near nothing. Then the creature circled it's hand from a point as the fire crept along after it. It was making a trail of some kind with small lips here and there. I saw for the briefest moment, the head of a slither, and wondered if this was where they came from. Could their hive make slithers? Why would they? Realizing how silly that line of thought was, I attempted the same motions it was doing. My hand over its' own. This seemed to anger the fire, as it lashed out towards my hand.

Pulling back, smoke on my fingers and a dull, but familiar pain. It did not really hurt, but the FW seemed concerned. It had surprised me, but my fingers were already healing. Moving away, mostly from frustration, I saw the creature was worried about me. Did it really think I was so weak as to be crippled from touching fire once? It could have been worse if my wings caught fire, but even then it was not something that could not be dealt with. Leaping to the cave to display my strength, I entered it. Looking back at the creature, I saw it still looking at me with concern. I crept into the darkness, allowing a protective eyelid to slide over my eyes. To hide their glow as I watched from inside the cave. If the creature chose to attack me with fire, I would end it. My combat form ready, so that it could not see me.

The FW seemed upset for some reason, reaching out in a way that made me wonder if it could see me. Though that was clearly not the case as I moved in the dark. It stood there before seeing the two bodies I had left. It moved towards one, and dragged it towards the fire. Feeling a bit of anger as I thought it was going to burn all that flesh. I was surprised when it produced a kind of shiny stinger or claw? It was a small sharp thing that it used to separate the skin from the meat. I sent some kin to collect the blood on the leaves to be eaten later. The creature started to cut into the leg of the body, before pulling out a smaller portion than what I had offered it earlier. I watched as it began to place the leg over the fire.

Frustrated, I sent warriors to stop it from cutting off more flesh to feed the fire. To my surprise it seemed to look at the warriors and ignored them. Though that was fine, since the creature wasn't feeding the flesh to the fire. It was instead using the heat to warm the meat? It was a strange concept, and stranger still as the leg was rotated. Despite the complete and utter lack of sense in it's methods. I could not ignore the enticing smell coming from the leg that was starting to smoke.

Feeling rather frustrated with myself, I reached for her. Wanting to ask her to come back, to apologize for hurting her. She was already gone, probably somewhere in the tunnels to lick her wounds. Uttering a cuss, I turned to find she had left two fresh corpses. A thought playing across my mind. Any alchemist could be a good cook, provided they started their own fire and could control it. I moved towards one of the bodies and dragged them back to the campfire. Unsure if the bug mistress needed the pelts, I set about cutting it apart. Bloody work to be sure, but not much different from skinning rats.

While working, I noticed the strange wasps using some of the dried leaves to collect blood. It was strange to see them up close for the first time. The smallest held one dread stinger and was about 3 cm in size. The biggest I saw was about 6 cm, with glistening black wings and strange barbs on it's back. Clearly a soldier type, with three dread stingers. They weren't like wasps or bees at all, but something else entirely. The old man would probably want a few to study in his spare time. I noticed the soldier types moving over the gaping wound from where I cut the leg off. Probably to start breaking it down or something. Holding the meat over the fire, I controlled the fire to slowly cook the meat. Using the smoke to hit it just right. I could feel the heat cooking it.

Oddly enough, as I rotated the meat, I could feel my magic starting to affect it as well. It was strange at first, but made sense. As I cooked the meat, it became more and more a product that I was making. There were a few alchemical chefs out there, and they were highly prized for their skills. Though I had thought that had more to do with the unique spices, and consistency for which they could control the fire. I never thought that I could use alchemy to actually change the quality of my ingredients while cooking. Turning the leg over the fire, slowly and carefully guiding it. I felt the fat and juices starting to mingle. Moving the heat deeper inside so that it wouldn't char more than I wanted.

My vision blurred as I lost myself in focus once more. Head throbbing as the smell of cooking meat made my stomach growl more readily. I had to convince myself that this was still practice. Squeezing my eyes shut, I could 'feel' with my magic. Feeling the fire licking the meat, charring it where I hesitated. The heat rising from the fire and going around the meat instead of inside it. The ambient energy slowly seeping to the bone. I felt a slight epiphany as I relied on my other senses beyond sight. I didn't need to see the fire to guide it, I didn't need to guess at what I was doing. My magic was telling me everything about the product that I was creating. The reactions going on inside. It was almost too much information to process, so many things going on at once.

Then I felt a slight shift, something approaching cautiously from behind. The slightly charred chitin all I could tell from it. My mood grew somber, as I pulled the meat away from the fire. I had hurt her, but alchemy should only be practiced on living things by true masters. Thankfully it seemed that she was already healing. Focusing on that, I soon realized that she was healing a bit too fast. The charred chitin already seeming like a scab about to fall off. Opening my eyes, I saw her standing before me once again. She seemed curious about my meat, pointing at it with her usual passive look. I looked at it, pinching off a piece to taste it.

Surprisingly it turned out much better than expected! It was right on the cusp of being all off the bone, and with all the juices still inside, it practically melted in my mouth. A rich smokey flavor giving it no need for extra seasoning. I offered it to her. She took the entire leg from me, and took a small bite. Seemingly impressed, I got to see her look of astonishment. It became clear by the excited motions of her ears, that elves displayed their emotions through such. It was cute how they flicked up and down in circles as she ate.

I started to reach for the leg to take it back, but realized that would be a bad idea half way through. Letting out a slightly defeated sigh, I cut off another leg. Sadly this leg didn't turn out quite as good. Though I partly blame the bug mistress for that. Halfway through cooking, I heard the sound of bone being crunched. Breaking me from my trance, I saw her happily sucking on the marrow. It wouldn't have been so bad, but after she finished her meal. She loudly tore off another leg, and tried to copy me. Occasionally bumping her leg against mine. Finally she settled for using my shoulders as arm rests for her admittedly sharp elbows. Likely deciding the best place to cook was right where I was sitting. Feeling the weight of her bust on my head was just the icing on the focus killing cake.

Giving up, and settling for charring some of my meat to make sure it was done, I focused where I could on making sure her leg tuned out decent enough. At the very least, I knew she didn't resent me from what happened earlier. If I am to bring her back to Eclipse, I'd have to at least make sure she knew the concept of personal space. There were also basic words she'd have to learn. I had no idea how long she had been out here, but it was clearly far too long if she acted like this. Though, dark elves were a weirdly clingy bunch from what I understood.