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My godfather got me signed up for girl scouts.  It all started when the little girl I met from school invited me to join, she was one of the kids who called me "J.R."  I've been pretty "by myself" at school.  Those other kids are so different from anything I'm used to, or anything I am right now. But she has been really a good friend.  From that day we were playing after school a little and she didn't freak out at the weirdness, we've been able to eat lunch together and play a little together after school everyday before heading home to do homework and babysit.

Then she invited me to join the girl scouts.  I didn't know what to say.  I was still kind of in a dither when I got home.  My godfather was in his study as I walked in and he noticed I was a little off.  Before long I was talking about school, and friends and girl scouts and the next thing I knew instead of chewing me out or telling me I was out of line or anything, he just said "that sounds great, I'll take care of it" and I was in the program.

It was lots and lots and lots of fun, but then one day they mentioned a camping trip.  Outside of the city.

I'm part of the City Spirit's place and hrythgr.  I can't leave the city, just like it can't.  That is what I thought.  When I got home I was still trying to think about what to do, what to say when my godfather called over to me and said he had heard about the camping trip and was taking care of it.

I'm starting to love the man, even if I'm afraid of my godparents too.  But how could he "take care of it?"  Its like a law of nature or something.

But, the next week, when I came home the Friday night of the camp out, I had camping gear all set out, a back pack and he was waiting for me.

"Child, don't worry.  You may be part of the City Spirit, but you are also mine."

Light wrapped out from him and touched me.  I admit it, I flinched inside.  I'm still not over his being a lightwalker or thinking that the touch of that kind of light will destroy me.  I know, I'm now some sort of humanoid earth spirit thingy (none of us are really sure what we've been turned into, though my godmother muttered something about us being the unlikeliest group of off-brand Oreos or Oreads or Ohos or something she had ever seen) but I still have that fear deep in my bones (and I've got bones now!).  It felt so warm and so good.  Like love.

"You can go anywhere I say you can go.  And you have my permission to go camping with the girl scouts."

I really haven't had parents since mine were destroyed.  There used to be a lot more of us before our Sept was riven and driven by those who turned to the dark.  I may be only twelve, but I've known a lot of hiding and fear and fleeing and disaster and substitute parents.  Just about everything that could go wrong has happened to our people.  The end really seemed near when we ended up in this world and the hunger was so bad that we were about to be pushed over the edge or destroyed.

This is the first time I really felt safe and really felt loved.

And I got to go camping.

I wasn't sure how I felt, then suddenly my ride was there and the next thing I know, I'm on a bus to the campground.

It was a long trip.  We went to a campground near a mountain, St. Helens or something like that, in the states.

But it was beautiful.  I've never seen such greens and trees, miles and miles and miles of them.  I didn't know there were that many trees.  The campground was great, we had a fun dinner and then I got to share a tent with the little girl.  She had her falcon with her.  That bird seems to follow her wherever she goes.  No one else noticed it, flying up in the clouds, but I could feel the cold magic of it.  Friendly, but aloof.

Then she woke me up in the middle of the night.

"We've got to run, something terrible is coming."

The fear went through me like a knife.  Too many memories of running.  I'd gotten so relaxed that the terror washed over me stronger than anything I've felt -- and I felt the strangest echo of a feeling too.

What I didn't know was that my godfather could feel what I felt.  When the light wrapped around me, he left some of it to link us, so he could watch over me, just in case.  My emotions jolted him right out of his reading and he was coming when my godmother told him to take a seat, she would be dealing with the problem.  Before he could respond she was in the air and with a clap of thunder had taken the hidden fires from our house to the campground.

I had gotten myself together as we ran.  The little girl was giving me a running commentary on the fire creatures that were coming towards the camp.  Whatever had sent the fire elemental  before had decided it would take care of the problem personally, that it was hungry and had decided to start with us.  Well, the girl scouts, but our running and something she had done had it chasing us in particular and leaving them alone. Then she gasped.  "Its hopeless" she said and pointed to the sky "there is another one."  It was my godmother, in full ruk form with enough fire to melt a mountain.  She didn't seem pleased and I was just sure she was angry with me for something.  She had that baleful look in her eye, but it meant things weren't hopeless at all.

The renegade fire mages (she told me that is what they were) focused on her immediately and a halcyon wave swept the camp so that everyone went back to sleep except for the mages, my godmother and us.  Turns out that was a gift from my godfather, part of a necklace he gave her a long time ago.  Works a lot better than the kind of fire magic she would have used.

She really doesn't like tainted magic of any kind, and tainted fire magic is a personal affront to her.  I should have guessed.

The fire mages had decided to move on the city, to establish themselves in some sort of pattern and as a part of that they intended to eat first, and then, who knows, there isn't enough left of them to know.

They gave it everything they had and she responded with fire much, much hotter, burning them into purified ash and then into nothingness.  It was fast, but very bright.

Then she landed to earth next to us in her human form.

"Daughter, are you ok?"  She was worried for me.  She called me daughter.  Then she hugged me. "Your father and I were concerned."  Then she seemed flustered, embarrassed for interrupting my campout.  "Remember, we will always be there for you."  Then she was airborne and gone.

"Wow, I didn't know she was your mother" the little girl said, and I didn't know what to say, I didn't know either until just now.  I really was theirs and they really were mine.  This camping trip was even more of a miracle than I thought.  I was walking on air, but we had to sneak back into our tent and I was surprised at just how fast I fell asleep.  Surprises like that can really take it out of you.

I'm still not sure what I really am, but I do know I am part of a family now, I have a good friend, and I'm loved.  That's enough.