Chapter One

The fire - raisers

Capricorn stood at the edge of the forest and watched the small farm like a predator watching its prey.
The farmer had again refused his daughter to him, even though he had made it obvious that his men would burn his farm to the ground if he did. The fool was as stubborn as an old mule and now he would face the consequences."Everything's ready, sir," Basta said, approaching Capricorn.
He turned to the skinny fifteen year-old and nodded. "Be sure to start the fire on the side of the house farthest from the girl's room," He said, turning his attention back to the house. "I still plan on making her one of my maids."

"Yes sir," Basta ran back to the house, hardly making a sound. The black jackets were already beginning to light the first few torches. Firefox, Capricorn's deputy, distributed the torches to the men. Capricorn gave the signal and the men began throwing the torches on top of the roof, and one man even managed to get his torch to break through one of the windows. The men laughed maliciously as screams of shock and fear came from inside the house. Flatnose, who was responsible for getting the girl out, took the screams as his cue to run in. It didn't take long for the miniature giant to run in and get the girl. He soon came out with the sobbing and screaming girl slung over his broad shoulder. Flatnose carried her over to where Capricorn stood and set her down on the ground in front of his feet.

"You monster! You fire raiser!" The girl screamed at Capricorn. "How! How could you do this!" Capricorn studied the girl. She hadn't been harmed by the fire at all. She was of course very beautiful; she had an hourglass figure with long blonde hair framing her green eyes.
"I could have done worse, my dear," Capricorn finally answered her. "I could have had the Shadow kill your family."

The girl shivered at the mention of Capricorn's monster and was about to reply when an agonized scream came from the house. Capricorn turned his head in the direction of the scream. He saw that one of his men had gotten both of his arms caught on fire and was now rolling around on the ground, desperately trying to put it out. Two other black jackets ran over to the man and tried to help put out the fire. He soon recognized the man as Basta because of his snow white shirt. Basta managed to put out the flames burning his arms with the help of the other two men.

"We need to clear out of here now," Capricorn said, turning his attention back to Flatnose. "This fire is getting out of hand." Flatnose bellowed the message that it was time to go, which the men gladly did because the fire had begun to spread to everything surrounding the house. When the fire raisers were a safe distance from the fire, they stopped to rest for a while. It was during this time that Capricorn tried to see how exactly the fire had gotten out of hand and if there was any way to prevent it from happening again.

"It was just too much for us to control, sir." That was the answer Firefox had given him when asked.

"Well, is there any way you can keep it under control in the future?"

Firefox thought for a moment before answering. "Well, we can't, but there is someone who can."

Capricorn frowned skeptically. "Oh really? Who?"

"A fire eater. Some people call him the fire-dancer. They say he can talk to it and make it do whatever he wants. He's almost never gotten burned."

Capricorn considered it for a moment. It sounded pretty far-fetched to him but he couldn't risk anything like this happening again. He decided to send a few of his men after the fire eater. "What is this fire eater's name?"

"Dustfinger."