Firewing Read Online Free

this amazing thing he’d done. This amazing,
dangerous
thing. He grimaced.
My father better be impressed by this
, he thought.
    He dragged himself closer, until the fire’s heat lapped angrily against his face.
    He watched the flames doing their hot jittery dance down amongst the glowing sticks and rocks, and he felt as if they were urging him onward, closer, closer. Deep in the fire something popped, and Griffin flinched, nearly taking flight. Luna should’ve done this. He’d tried to fake it, but he wasn’t fearless. He was
all
fear, heart blasting, mouth dry, a terrible weakness seeping through his limbs. His wings felt mushy. But he thought of Luna watching—thought of his father—and knew he couldn’t quit now.
    Crouched right up against one of the big rocks, he felt a bit of relief from the heat. Griffin took the end of the stalk in histeeth. He knew he’d have to be quick—the longer he took, the more chance there was of being seen. With his thumb claws, he pulled himself up onto the stone. Scalding heat poured over him, wilting his fur, making water stream from his eyes. Squinting, he tried to swing the stalk into the flames, but it deflected off a big block of wood at the fire’s edge. The stalk of grass was unwieldy, and he managed to pull it back a bit with his claw, so less was protruding from his jaws.
    With a forward thrust of his shoulders, he drove the stalk deep into the embers, saw the tip flare, and pulled back. At first he thought he’d lost the fire, but then saw a glint from the tip and a ghost of smoke curl up from it.
    Got it!
    Carefully he transferred the stalk to his rear claws. Wings churning, he took flight, climbing away from the ground, the Humans, and their fire, up towards the pine where he knew Luna was waiting. He took a quick backwards glance. If the Humans even noticed, they weren’t doing anything about it. They were still sitting there like mountainous blobs, staring at the fire and grunting their slow, low words to one another.
    “You did it!” Luna cried out, swirling around him in amazement.
    “Is it still lit?” he asked. It was awkward holding the fire stick, and he had to fly carefully, afraid his downstrokes might accidentally blow out the flame, or even knock the stalk right out of his claws.
    “Yeah, it’s fine!” said Luna. “Griffin, I can’t believe you did it!”
    “I did it,” he said, feeling her excitement fuel his own. “Yeah, I did it!”
    “Fire!” she said. “You’ve got fire! Come on, let’s get it to the nest!”
    They talked giddily as they flew, Luna swirling around him and underneath him to check on the flame and make sure it was still burning. She was giggling. Griffin was giggling. It was contagious, and almost impossible to stop. This was amazing! He wanted his father to see him, right now, bearing stolen fire from witless Humans. Sitting right there at the campfire, and they didn’t even know it was gone. And he’d done it.
Him.
He’d had this great idea, and he’d seen it through!
    Through the forest they flew, back towards Tree Haven and the stone nest the others were building. Griffin ducked his head down to look, and was surprised at how quickly the flame was eating up the stalk, the intense bead of liquid light sliding towards his claws.
    “Almost there,” said Luna, seeing his frown. “You’ll make it, Griff.”
    He flapped harder, but saw the flame gutter with too much wind against it. He slowed down. Still the flame continued its hungry advance. He could feel its heat now, along his left flank, in his foot. His mind began to dance with worry. He couldn’t help it. He wished he hadn’t done this. He wanted to get rid of the stalk, but he couldn’t just drop it. What if it started a fire, and the fire spread and got out of control and burned down Tree Haven all over again? What a
stupid
idea this was.
    “Luna,” he said, “it’s burning too fast!”
    “No, we’re almost there, don’t worry, you’ll make