Eric Keen (fireburst) wrote in thecaldera, @ 2018-05-24 19:40:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | ! log, eric keen, fawn reynolds |
Who: Fawn and Eric
What: Chilling and putting out a fire
When: Sometime this month
Where: Fawn's place
Warnings: Nah
Fawn Reynolds wasn’t antisocial, quite the opposite in fact, but she was attached to her home, and home was a tiny homestead cabin that was aged approximately 120 years that was still very similar to what it had been in the beginning. The dirt floor had been replaced with concrete and the fireplace had been replaced with a cast iron one in the middle of the structure. There was no bathroom and the closest running water was a spigot outside of Fawn’s front door that attached that a well that she’d paid more than she’d like to admit to have dug.
It wasn’t the sort of living situation that everyone could even tolerate, but she thrived there, completely in her element. The mountains rose up around her and the creek roared past her in the spring before settling to a steady burble in the deep summer and the wind whipped through her willows with the fluttering whisper of leaves. It was paradise for her, and now and again she would make a friend that felt the same way. Eric Keen was one of those friends, and today, much like most of the other days they saw each other, they had settled into a routine of lounging and drinking as a thunderstorm rolled dark over the horizon to the west, flashes of lightning distracting them from whatever conversation they’d been engaged in and the low rumble of thunder causing Fawn’s blood to rise pleasantly.
Eric was at ease as he comfortably sat on a log, sipping from a tumblr. He loved the outdoors and he sorely missed it after switching jobs within Temperance. He didn’t regret the move but he’d be a liar if he didn’t admit that he’d loved camping in Yellowstone on the regular. It was part of the reason why he chose to spend time at Fawn’s place when she gave him the option between it and somewhere else. Most of the time, he preferred being outside rather than stuck in a stuffy room.
He glanced over to watch the thunderstorm as he lazily brought the glass to his lips. He watched the random lightning strikes for who knows how long when he eventually noticed smoke. Eric squinted and sat up. He wasn’t drunk enough to be seeing things, not yet. “You see smoke too right,” he double checked with Fawn.
There was no pressure for them to converse and interrupt the actual focal point of the evening, but when Eric spoke, Fawn sighed and dropped her glass from her lips. “No,” she said, determined, followed by a deflation of her posture. “Yeah,” she admitted. The last thing she wanted to do was drag her ass out of her hammock and go check on a lightning fire, but here she was. “I guess we should probably go check it out.”
“Yeah, probably,” Eric agreed as he tossed back the last of his whiskey. It was also probably better if they were completely sober but when he stood up and didn’t sway on his feet, he counted it as good enough.
“I don’t have a lot of my camping supplies on me but I think I have a small fire extinguisher in my truck.” It likely wouldn’t be enough even if he did have it if the smoke was anything to go by but it was better than nothing since the only fire he could control was one he made.
Fawn nodded as she rolled carefully out of her hammock to set her drink on her outdoor table, too distracted to really latch on to his comment and the implications of it due to making a mental checklist for who to call if this fire was something she was concerned would take off -- unlikely with the current state of rainfall in the area, but it was always good to be prepared.
“Good call,” she said distractedly. “We can take the four-wheeler, but it’s down by the lower barn, so it might be faster to just take a horse,” she pondered before glancing at Eric. “Wait, can you ride? Maybe the four-wheeler is better.”
Eric made a beeline to his truck and grabbed the bag he kept in the back out of habit. It wasn’t nearly as big as it used to be but he wasn’t entirely bereft of supplies. He found the extinguisher easily enough and grabbed it along with a fire blanket he had tucked inside.
He raised his hand and moved it in a so-so gesture. “I’ve ridden before but it's been a few years. Your call, if you want to go with the horses I’m not saying no.”
Fawn eyed him suspiciously. Ordinarily when people said it had ‘been a few years’ since they’d ridden what they meant was ‘I rode a horse for an hour once when I was twelve’ and she just didn’t have time to get into that with him. They’d just take the big horse so he could ride behind her. “We’ll just take Zues,” she said finally then turned and walked swiftly toward the nearby barn.
Zues was a huge, drafty, grey horse who was, by fawn’s recollection, ‘so big the day he was born he couldn’t even walk under his mother’. He’d been blue, then before he’d turned grey, and was gentle as a lamb- if a bit of a lightning rod to ride. He was plenty big enough to carry two adults in a hurry without bouncing the lesser experienced right off the back of him. He also conveniently lived in the same pasture as Fawn’s house, though it wasn’t convenient when he ripped her flowers out of her window boxes for fun.
Fawn grabbed a halter off the hook, and slipped it over Zues’ head then slung the halter rope over his neck to tie it back to itself in a makeshift roping rein before sidepassing him up to the fence and using it as a booster to climb up onto his back. She pivoted him to face the other direction then reached a hand down to Eric. “Hop on,” she directed, gesturing to use the fence as an aid.
Eric followed behind Fawn but gave her space so she could back up without slamming into him. It’d been awhile since he was around horses but large animals were in his wheelhouse so he wasn’t put out by the size of Zues. Though his gaze turned a little dubious when he noticed Fawn skipped putting on a saddle. When he’d ridden in the past, he had never gone without. He was pretty attached to not having his balls smushed.
Not about to bitch when he said he was game for it, he used his free hand and the fence to boost himself up on the horse behind Fawn. Took a few seconds but he was able to find a mostly fine position before he wrapped an arm around her waist. “Ready when you are.” He better be because he was not about to fall in front of her, he’d never hear the end of it.
“Cool,” she said and she asked Zues for a gentle jog to the gate where the horse expertly allowed her to open and close from his back before she glanced back at Eric. “Hang on tight,” she warned and allowed Eric to adjust before she kissed at Zues who gathered his back end under himself and launched into a smooth but ground-covering canter toward where the smoke billowed up in a tendril over the hill, his large strides casually putting ground between them and Fawn’s cabin as though he didn’t even notice the two insignificant humans on his back- and maybe he didn’t.
Though the horse rode coiled tight as a spring, always feeling as if he was about to kick the afterburners on and tear across the prairie at a breakneck gallop, he never did, instead he remained at his swift but gentlemanly canter until he was blowing loudly from his nose and Fawn allowed him to slow to a stop at the crest of the hill.
The fire’s source was immediately apparent and it now all made sense that it had actually caught. Rather than hitting the damp surrounding foliage, the lightning had struck an old outbuilding that was adjacent to the property’s original home ranch.
“Fuck me,” Fawn muttered irritably as they looked down on the blaze. “There’s a whole mountain to hit and it had to hit 100 year old rotting wood,” she continued, and though Eric couldn’t see her, her eyeroll was unmistakable in her voice. She kissed at Zues again, launching him back into a slow lope down the hillside then back to a jog as they approached the fire until she stopped him completely where they would park him while they decided how to handle the fire.
Eric did his best to keep from tensing up during the ride and was grateful for the bit of liquor he’d drank beforehand. When he’d been on horses before, it was usually for a slow ride on a well worn trail but despite Zues’ fast pace, it wasn’t nearly as uncomfortable as he’d imagined and his worries about falling quickly faded.
“Seems par for the course,” Eric muttered as he watched the flames slowly burn the old building. Not like Vigil had been having any kind of good luck lately. At least it wasn’t out of control.
He got a better look when Fawn moved them closer and slid off the horse once they came to a stop. Unless some flaming debris fell down, the blanket was useless. “It’s not too bad yet.” It would have been so much easier if he could smother it out with his powers but he knew that wasn’t something he could do. “Any chance of finding an abandoned ladder near here?”
“Not one you’re going to want to use,” Fawn admitted as she dismounted and ground tied Zues (an unnecessary action judging from how enthusiastically he was cropping the new grass that was fundamentally better than his grass back in the pasture).
She took a few numb steps toward the fire as she pondered it. It wasn’t raging, but it was big enough to give her pause. Her work with the fire department over the years told her that the little fire extinguisher that Eric had brought wasn’t quite enough to put it out, but it was also slow to burn and not much threat to the surrounding (very wet) vegetation. She also wasn’t going to put it out just by sitting there staring at it, but it was good she’d brought someone with magical fire abilities with her to simplify things. She glanced over at Eric. “This shouldn’t be too hard for you, right?”
Eric arched an eyebrow at Fawn when she mentioned using his powers. “You would think so but no,” he said and lifted the fire extinguisher. “Kinda why I brought this along. The fire won’t burn me but I can only control flames I make.” He ran his hand through his loose hair and glanced over at the old building. “We gotta work on a plan B.”
Fawn turned to look at him, her expression unreadable as her eyes drifted from the fire extinguisher to Eric and back. Logically, no, he wouldn’t have brought the fire extinguisher along had he not intended to use it, but she’d been too distracted by getting them to the fire to really give it that much thought.
“You can’t put that out,” she said in the tone of a statement, but it was very clearly an incredulous question.
“No, I can. I’m ignoring the fire for fun,” he said and set her with a look. Eric folded his arms over his chest and glanced back over to the flames It wasn’t going to turn into a wildfire anytime soon so he wasn’t all that concerned that they were just standing there for the time being.
As she processed the information, Fawn gestured to it half-heartedly with her hand and then again with more vehemence. “Well of the two of us you’re a little more qualified than I am! What am I going to do? Run away it out?”
“Well stomping on flames can be effective sometimes,” he pointed out, “especially when doing this,” he said as he held out a hand like he normally did when using his powers, “won’t do anything except maybe make me look a lot more drunk than I really am.” The gesture was far more impressive when flames were shooting out of his palm or he was manipulating them, without that key part he just looked like a moron.
Fawn continued to stare at him, incredulous that this was even possible. Certainly if he could control his own flames he should be able to control dumb lightning flames, but the incredulous look was more in regards to his suggestion that they stomp on it as if it was a burning pile of leaves.
“Eric it’s a fucking building,” she said eventually.
“Which is why I asked about a ladder earlier,” he pointed out as if that made it reasonable for suggesting, if slightly, stomping was an option. “I would have put the flames out by now if I could have instead of just standing here and getting wet.” The rain was light but the longer they stayed, the more their clothes got soaked.
“You cannot stomp on the roof of a 100 year old building either,” she said gesturing emphatically. “You would probably die. Oh my god,” she crossed her arm over her torso and brought one of her hands to sink her fingers into her hair. “What am I supposed to do? Spit on it? I don’t think your fire extinguisher is going to do much.”
“I didn’t say we should do it, I just said it was an option.” Eric let out a quiet breath and tried to give the situation a little more thought. “What about you turning into a pronghorn, wait, just hear me out,” he said before she shot him down. “You said it yourself, the wood is rotting and it’s old so it probably won’t hold up for much longer. You could try to make it collapse with a few kicks. It’d be easier to use the fire extinguisher and we could use the fire blanket then.” He’d blame the whiskey later for his hairbrained scheme.
Though Fawn did hear him out, her expression grew more and more alarmed by the word and she shook her head. “I can’t kick down a building. Have you seen my legs? They’re like twigs! I need to take care of those things. I only get one set-- well two sets, but I don’t know what would happen to my human body if I broke my pronghorn legs.” The statement led to a pause and a brief shadow of concern across her face as she clearly considered this for the first time.
His face took on a considering look when she brought up what would happen to her if she was hurt in pronghorn form. Huh. “Probably broken human legs?” Despite liking to push limits to find out how things worked, he wasn’t willing to find out if he was right or wrong about Fawn. “So we know what not to do… What if I burned down the rest of the building with my fire? It’d be a controlled burning.” Since his mind clearly wasn’t firing on all cylinders at the moment, Eric figured it was better to say what was going through his head rather than just do it.
“OH!” Fawn’s expression lit up immediately and she tapped his arm enthusiastically. “That’s a great idea! Well, sort of, but you could smother this fire with your own fire and then put that out, right?”
“... Maybe, worth a shot.” He tossed the fire extinguisher and blanket down at the ground as he shifted his focus back to the building. Eric aimed for the roof and flames shot out of his hands, immediately taking to the wood. It took more concentration than he was used to to keep it from spreading while simultaneously making it move over the lightning fire.
The flames quickly grew in height but it didn’t crawl down the roof as he worked on overtaking and smothering what the lightning had done like Fawn suggested. It took some doing and time but eventually the plan worked and Eric put out what was left of the fire, leaving behind a smoking ruin.
Fawn watched Eric as he worked with something akin to awe as fire poured out of him and against the existing flames. Enthralled, she stepped back until she was able to sit on the ground on the discarded fire blanket and watch his powers overtake the lightning fire and eventually be snuffed out. She continued to stare at the smoking wood for some time, not even seeming to notice the rain, before finally looking back to Eric.
“That was… amazing,” she said earnestly, her eyes bright with fascination. “Really.”
Eric lowered his hands and doubled checked to make sure not even a small spark had survived before he turned to Fawn. He was surprised but pleased when she praised his abilities. “Thanks.” His lips spread into a small smile. He’d shown off for her before but it was always little tricks, he hadn’t put on such a large display until now.
“Makes up for the other suggestions, right?” His smile turned to a grin. He’d kick himself once he was fully sober again.
The comment prompted Fawn’s own smile and she shook her head at him. “What other suggestions?” she teased before pushing herself up from the ground. “I just can’t remember them after the badass fire demonstration,” she added as she leaned down to pick up the fire blanket from the ground and shook it out. The rain was increasing now, sending small rivers of water from her hair, down her neck, to drip under the collar of her shirt.
She reached out and wrapped the fire blanket around Eric’s shoulders. “You’re getting drenched,” she said, laughing as she reached up to tousle his hair, sending water droplets in every direction. “Let’s get out of here.”
Eric let out a small laugh, not minding the rain so much. “That’s why you’re my favorite.” His laughter grew a little louder as Fawn messed with his hair but he nodded all the same. “I’ll be okay, but your hair will get drenched.”
He lifted the fire blanket from his shoulders and held it up and over them both so they wouldn’t get as wet as they walked over to Zues. “I got a good trick for getting dry.”
“God forbid I might even have to brush it,” Fawn said through a laugh as she squeezed the ends of her hair uselessly before grasping the base of Zues’ mane and with a couple of small bounces first managed to swing herself onto his back and scooted herself forward.
“Oh yeah? What’s that?” she asked as she reached down to offer her hand to Eric to help him do the same. The art of swinging onto a horse from the ground was actually quite easy and all a matter of physics, but it was always much simpler to just have an assist from above.
Eric gladly took Fawn’s hand and hopped up on Zues’ back. “I take off my clothes and go full human torch. Wet to dry in just a few seconds.” He’d done it often enough after showering, it was just a matter of learning how not to burn anything else around him.
A surprised laugh escaped Fawn as she asked Zues for an easy jog, not wanting to risk him slipping down the hill on the now increasingly wet grass. “Well, lucky me,” she said, shooting a grin at him over her shoulder briefly before she returned her attention to “driving”.
Eric raised his brows at her, lips quirked up into a smirk. “Thinking of a free show? I might be too shy for that,” he said without bothering to even try lying.
Fawn’s shoulders raised in a shrug though only one of her hands left the reins to support it. “It sounded like you were offering,” she said, able to suppress a laugh but unable to keep it from her voice completely.
Maybe Fawn was able to keep herself from laughing, but Eric wasn’t. “Mmm, might still be a little drunk then.” He was pretty sober now, the nice tipsy edge he had going all but completely gone.
It was raining in earnest now and if not for Eric behind her and the horse beneath her, Fawn would have probably been cold. It was strange to travel so slowly back to her house when she had the ability to move so quickly, but there was also something nice about enjoying the rain. She chuckled at Eric’s statement, but relented and shook her head. “I suppose a girl can only ask for one performance in a day,” she admitted. “But I don’t know if I would have pegged you for the shy type.”
“Not that shy,” he admitted. “I did say free show. Might be up to it after some hot chocolate.” He grinned at the back of Fawn’s head. Theirs was a fast friendship but also a surprisingly comfortable one. Eric hadn’t really used his powers around other people, still getting used to having outed himself at work, but around her he hadn’t really thought twice about it.
A sharp laugh of surprise left Fawn and she shifted a little to the side so she could shoot him a look over her shoulder more effectively, her eyes bright. “All of that for the low, low price of a hot chocolate?” she asked, incredulous, before turning back to the ears of her horse. “You’re a cheap date, Eric Keen.”
Eric caught her gaze and shamelessly smirked at Fawn. “Cheap but good,” he said, amusement lacing his tone. “Haven’t heard any complaints yet.” He gave her a small nudge. “Besides, weather like this is perfect for hot chocolate.”
“Promises, promises,” she said, amused. “It’s not snowing, but I guess it’s pretty good,” she relented. “You have yourself a deal.”