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The sun was glaringly bright on a cloudless summer day, and while its rays drove many people to slather themselves with sunscreen, they merely warmed Pire's skin as he sat on a rock near the lake with Flametongue ((book)) open in his lap, carefully igniting the end of a dry stick.

Pire pressed a claw to the tip of the stick, willing it to burn. The end barely started smoking, so he tried a little harder. Ah!! Too much power! The entire stick disintegrated into small pile of ash and sparks. He frowned, as he brushed the embers from the pages of the book (Luckily, Flametongue seemed to be fireproof.) and started re-reading the passage. Maybe there was something he missed.

Absently, he wondered when Nyoko was going to be here. They were supposed to meet at the lake, right? Pire had already been here for a few hours, but then again, Leon was at rehearsal all today and he'd forgotten the meeting time.

"Nice ta meet'cha!" Pire chimed with a bright smile, hastily hopping off the rock and sticking out one paw to shake while trying to brush the soot off himself and hide the evidence of fireplay. Other kids parents usually didn't let them play with him anymore once they found out, but he was getting better at controlling it. Really, he was! It was all in the book. The foxboy flashed her a cheeky grin and waved at Nyoko. "Hallo again. Are you still skert'a me?"

Pire grasped his hand firmly and shook it once, then stuck out his tongue playfully. "Good, now I can try an' make you skert'a me." Of course, he wasn't serious, and if Nyoko was a water-mage like he said at school, it wasn't a problem anyway, since they were standing right next to a lake. Speaking of which.. "Hay Nyoko, you're a water mage, right? Ken'ya do anything besides make hearts?"

Pire watched closely, entranced by the way the water moved and flowed. Sure, fire was beautiful in it's own way, but he had never seen anything move so gracefully. The catboy had such minute control over his element that it reached out to greet him gently, politely, like a friend. It was..tame, for lack of a better word. Pire had plenty of power behind his fire; so much that the flames seemed to blossom spontaneously into his hands, but after he brought it into existance, he couldn't even hope to control it, much less with the finesse that Nyoko had. Suddenly eager to learn, he questioned inquisitively, "What'dya mean 'get the water to trust you'? And what was that thing you're doing with closing your eyes? Is that supposed to help?"

"Trust.." he said aloud, tilting his head to one side thoughtfully. The water had to trust Nyoko. Was the same true for him? Could he not control fire because it didn't trust him? Glancing quickly around to make sure Kira and any other nearby adults wasn't paying too much attention, Pire turned a paw palm up and ignited the air. Sparks shimmered in the roll of heat seconds before a cool reddish flame appeared. Trust. No, the fire trusted him. All fire trusted him. He'd been able to call fire for as long as he could remember. He could do it in his sleep if he wanted, and had done it in his sleep several times he didn't want it. Fire trusted him, it just wouldn't listen very much. In response to his frustration, the flame in his hand brightened to yellowish white and flared slightly.

"Hay Nyoko," he asked finally. "D'ya think you can teach me mekidation?"

((purposefully misspelled))

Sensing Nyoko's hesitation, Pire's expression soured slightly. "But you're great at taming the water. I'm sure you could teach me." And what did Nyoko have to be afraid of anyway? He was a water mage. He had the elemental advantage, plus they were standing right next to a lake. He couldn't possibly evaporate a whole lake.

More importantly, if Nyoko's mom found out that the foxboy made fire, she wouldn't let them play together anymore. Nobody's parents liked fire. There was Smokey the Bear and the lighting bug and all the other warnings that said fire was dangerous, yet it was just as much a part of Pire as his paws. It was natural to him, but dangerouos, which made him dangerous.

"Nyoko, I's got a secret." he said finally, pulling Flametongue out of hiding and running his paws over the pages of Firesign script. "I found a book that says how to not burn when I don't want to, but I can't do it. Fire doesn't listen to me. I wanna learn so I don't burn people no more."

"It's a deal!"

Pire hopped back up onto his rock and balanced the book on his knee. He patted the space beside him as an invitation to sit down. "Dad doesn't know anything about magic n' stuff, so I hafta learn everything from this book. It's called Flametongue."

As he traced a claw along the lines of foreign text, they seemed to glow with energy for a moment. "I can read it, but it's written in something called 'Firesign'. It's got all sorts of spells and stuff and it tells about how other firefoxes used their power. What d'ya wanna know?"