Page 14 of Fire Dancing For Icey Dragons

"Ah, but mess is part of the fun."

I take a seat on the blanket and stretch out my legs, enjoying the warmth of the fire. Blaze sits down beside me, the firelight illuminating his face. He puts the marshmallows down betweenus and picks up a couple of sticks, peeling off the bark so we can use them to toast the marshmallows.

"I have to admit, I don't think I expected you to do anything as messy as this," Blaze says as he shoves one of the marshmallows onto a stick.

I shrug. "I do know how to have fun." I hold my marshmallow out into the flames.

"You're going to set it on fire, aren't you?" he asks.

"Of course. I'm a dragon." As if planned, my marshmallow bursts into flames. I hold it for a moment and then pull it back from the fire, watching as the outside of it chars and blackens. "And it creates the perfect gooeyness of marshmallow inside. Would you hold it for a moment?" I hand it over when he nods.

I undo the top of the digestive packet and pull out two of the biscuits, balancing them on his knee before taking two more for myself. I take back my marshmallow and place it at the centre of the biscuit. I squish it down with the other digestive and pull the stick out. My mouth waters at the sight of the chocolate melting and the hot gooey mess within.

I take a bite and let out a small moan of enjoyment. It's been so long since I've had somethingthisgood, especially because it breaks from my strict competition diet. But it's worth it.

Blaze looks at me with an amused smile on his face. "Good?"

"You know it. This is the best part of being at a campfire. When I was small, my parents used to have them all the time in the back garden. Dad would always want to make s'mores with me, while Mum would want to make baked bananas."

"I don't think I've ever had one."

"Oh, it's a banana with chocolate inside it. You wrap it up in foil and throw it into the fire. It's really tasty." Maybe I should have brought some bananas with me to do, but I thought that might be too much.

"It sounds it."

"Though my favourite is cake in an orange. You make the mix, put it in a hollowed-out orange," I say.

"I hope it's chocolate cake."

"Oh, yes. Absolutely." I take another bite of my s'more. It's cooled down a little bit, but it's still a sticky mess.

"My brother used to try and bake bread on a fire," Blaze says. "But he was never patient enough so it almost always ended up too crispy on the outside but still raw."

I laugh. "Why didn't he just use his own breath to cook it?"

"That's why it was always charred on the outside but raw inside," Blaze responds. "Do you still have fires with your family?"

"Once a year," I respond, a hint of pain starting to grow within me.

"Christmas? Or your birthday?"

I swallow hard. "The anniversary of Mum's death." Tears prick at the corners of my eyes.

"Oh, Zara, I'm so sorry."

I sniff and wipe away the threat of tears. "No need to be sorry. You didn't even know she was dead."

"I can still be sorry."

"It was hard at first," I say. "But I think that's one of the reasons that I'm so determined to win the cheer competition. It makes me feel close to her to be able to compete, especially as the captain."

"And that's why you're going to," he says softly.

"I hope so." I look into the fire and sigh. "I'm sorry, this got very serious very fast."

"S'mores have a tendency of doing that," Blaze says. "You think that it's all going to be fun and sweetness, but really, it's just a gateway to talking about your feelings."

I laugh. "Or apparently, it is for me, you're not the one who is spilling their guts."

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