Page 3 of Fire Dancing For Icey Dragons

The music starts and I find myself fixated on him as he swings a cord with a fireball on the end of it around, doing some amazingly intricate acrobatic tricks while being very close to an open flame. It's not easy to get me to admit it, but I'm impressed by the control he possesses.

He's replaced by some of the other dancers, but thankfully returns soon enough, and every time he's on stage, my gaze is drawn to him, I'm not even sure why. Maybe it's just me recognising someone else's talent. I've always been good at that.

Yuri still hasn't reappeared by the time the performance is over, so I lean against the fence, holding my empty paper cup and searching the crowd for where she's gotten to. No doubt she'll turn up at some point.

The performers head back onto the stage and I find myself watching the same guy as before. He seems to notice me looking and smiles over in my direction. Rather than back down, I holdmy head up high. He's a performer, he knows what it's like to be watched like this.

To my surprise, he takes it as an invitation to come over.

"Enjoy the show?" he asks, leaning on the other side of the fence.

"I did," I respond.

"Blaze," he says, holding out his hand.

I raise an eyebrow.

"My name," he responds.

"Oh, Zara." I take his hand and give it a shake, feeling the calluses that are no doubt formed by the amount of practice he likely does with the fire sticks.

"So, thinking about joining the Fire Tumblers?" he asks.

"Is that the name of your troupe?"

He nods. "Not very original, but I'm not the one who came up with it."

"And being a fire dancer while your name is Blazeisoriginal?"

He chuckles. "You've got bite."

"So I've been told."

"So, interested?"

I shake my head. "I'm impressed, but it's not for me."

He looks me up and down as if trying to assess me. I resist the urge to strike some kind of pose that will make it clear that I'm an athlete and have the body for that. It doesn't matter what some random guy thinks of my appearance.

"I'd guess you're a gymnast," he says once he's done.

"Close," I respond. "Cheerleader."

"Ah. So I'm guessing you're in the Sapphire Sparks?"

"What? How do you know?"

"Your student ID is attached to your bag," he responds, nodding to where it's hanging.

I stuff it back inside. "I'm the captain."

"Impressive. I only managed to get co-captain of the Fire Tumblers, and considering I'm going to be graduating at the end of the year, there's no chance to be in charge on my own."

So I was right about him being a student. I can't help but be impressed with myself over that. "I didn't realise the academy had a fire dancing team."

"It's fairly new." One of his teammates comes over and gives him a bottle of water without saying anything. Blaze twists off the cap and takes a drink. "It's about six years old."

"Oh."

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