“Scout, what does the situation look like.” She recognized the voice of the man who landed on her. Another man answered.

“We lost all our gear. We are in a cave. We can’t go back the way we came from. We are currently blind down here, walking further in will be difficult. The weather is not going to become better so no moonlight. We are wet, cold and hungry. We have nothing to start a fire with. And we have an unknown person with us.” The witch snorted.

“How rude.” She was also wet, cold and trying to figure out how to get out from this cave. In addition to that, she was trying to figure out how she was going to explain how a monster died because she yelled at it. Maybe they would forget about it if she didn’t mention it. She looked at each of the persons in turn. None of them looked like they were blessed by a god, that meant she had a better chance at brushing it off. However, one of them, not the scout or the other man, looked odd. He was sitting down on the ground hugging himself and shivering. Moths of light was hovering around him. She didn’t know what that meant, perhaps he was mentally vulnerable.

“We have nothing to burn? Nothing at all?”

“Ask the witch, she’s the only one with a backpack left.” The heard scout said. She sighed in her head, there went the chance of trying to cover it up. She guessed she couldn’t brush it off even if she tried, being alone several days into a forest did look suspicious if one didn’t have any weapons. She had one knife. But she was curious why they didn’t want to stone her to death at first chance. None showed any fear or disgust.

She put her bag on the ground and inspected it. Her water charms were still active, and the inside of the bag was dry. She dug through it, looking for anything that could burn and wouldn’t be missed too much. The first thing she got her hands around was her necklace which she immediately hanged around her neck. The second object was the compass to check which way it pointed, but it was too dark to see. She picked up a small bottle of flammable liquid. She put it down on the side and started searching again. The liquid was a quick burn and was only suitable to start a fire.

“Nothing to make a sustainable fire. I have some spare clothes to make a torch so we can keep going but I need a shaft.” She rested her hand on her knees. To keep moving would be the best, there wasn’t much they could do here other than to freeze until the sun rose in the sky and that was several hours away. One person protested at the suggestion to keep moving but the man, whom she now guessed was the leader, said:

“We keep moving. It will be cold but if we stay we’ll freeze to death. Scout, you got any arrows to spare?”

“Three will do.” The witch chipped in. She heard rustling and she guessed the scout checked his quiver. He walked up to her and handed her three arrows, feathers first. She thanked him and bound them together with to strings, one in the middle and one at the feathered end. She used the arm from her spare shirt to make one long strip of cloth. As she worked she came up with an idea. She rummaged through her bag once more looking for her coil of metal thread.

She uncurled about a foot of metal, grabbed the bottle and carefully unplugged the cork. With one hand supporting the other she dropped one drop on the string close to the coil. In her vision, a single glowing moth sat and flapped its wings on the drop, waiting for an opportunity. She plugged the bottle shut and made sure there wasn’t any lights in the flask before she asked it to break. She was attacked by a wave of surprise when the liquid flashed and a bang resounded.

“What the hell are you doing!?” The scout screamed, closer to the water than he was to her. She looked up when she felt the wariness of those around her.

“Of course I’m making the torch last longer.” Then it sunk in that they weren’t witches, they didn’t see things like this usually.

“Yeah, but, don’t you usually hide your craft?”

“Ah, you know I’m a witch. What is the point in hiding something you already know?” She paused.

“You don’t want me to use witchcraft on your arrows?”

“No, no, please continue. Just tell us next time. I almost jumped into the water.”

“If you are lucky the arrows themselves won’t catch fire, they would be a bit burnt but still usable.” Having gotten permission, she continued on with making the torch. She put the coil back in her backpack and placed the loose bit on parallel with the end of the cloth strap. She rolled in the metal into the cloth, leaving about three fourths without metal.

She grabbed the metal end and wrapped it tight around the arrowheads. She rolled the remaining strap out on the stone floor, making sure it wasn’t wet anywhere. She grabbed the bottle for the last time, with two steady hands she dropped six drops in a row in the middle of the straps.

As she carefully dripped the drops onto the cloth, she started to hear insect wings buzzing and saw the liquid in the bottle filled with bright white moths moving around. She frowned, she had to be careful with her intentions. Things dense with opportunity only needed a whisper to set off, and she held the bottle of explosive liquid right next to her face. She cleared her head and focused on placement of the droplets instead of the danger to her face.

She carefully rolled the cloth around the arrowheads creating a fist size ball. She made sure the end was fastened so it wouldn’t suddenly fall apart. She held it with both hands, closed her eyes and listened. If one wanted a fire, one shouldn’t try to look at it. After a few minutes one in the team couldn’t contain himself.

“What are you waiting for?”

“The wings of opportunity.” He was about to open his mouth again when the leader shushed him quiet. It didn’t mean anything to her if they talked or not, the wings weren’t heard with the naked hear. She waited some more but they didn’t come. Using the liquid on the outside would destroy it and kill the design. With closed eyes she looked towards the hunched man she had taken note of earlier. The moths were still there hovering, but he had calmed down somewhat even though he was still freezing.

She rose to her feet. She knew where her bag was and stepped around it. Nothing should be between her and that man. She felt his nervousness rise as she came closer, the necklace blocked the waves and she remained calm. Standing right beside him, she waved the torch slowly and caught a moth on the top. She brought the torch closer to her face, hoping it wouldn’t blow her face up and whispered.

“Slow fire.” The cloth sizzled as the drops ignited. The torch worked as she hoped, the torch caught fire, but the outmost layer of cloth was untouched. She liked the look of it. It gave a more even glow than a normal torch. She hadn’t lost her touch, so the compass was most likely working as it should.

“Wow, you’re pretty.” Someone said, she didn’t catch who, but she pulled the torch away from her face anyway. She felt a bit awkward about it, they had just met and he was already throwing a compliment at her. She returned to her bag and placed the remaining materials back into her bag. The others started moving too, everyone got ready to leave.

After she hoisted the bag up on her back she turned around to see if they were ready to go. Everyone were wet and some were still dripping water. She turned around and headed into the depth of the cave.