Darkness laid heavily on the forest by the river. In the shadows loomed monsters, both real and imaginary. One of those monsters (though she'll claim otherwise) strode confidently through the crime-ridden place, seemingly shining with her own dull orange glow. Trailing behind like a complacent dog was a form of a rough human shape, though it looked as if whoever had created it had only the vaguest glimpse of a human once and tried to make one from a clouded memory some years later. It's arms reached down to its knees, ending with over sized and spindly hands like large, black spiders. It's head was elongated, the back of it forming a tip with no hair on it and a portion looking as if someone had dealt it a swift blow and knocked in a hole from which issued steady stream of smoke and the occasional flame.
A mouth brimming with pointed teeth that stretched from ear to ear took up most of its face, and its eyes were pale, glowing flecks of fire. It's legs were misshapen, bending back much the same way a dog's would and ending in a amputated fashion. The feet were nothing more than over sized pads that looked like rough-hewn logs. It trod heavily, staring left and right in search of anything, any life it may consume other than that of it's master. No intelligence shown from behind it's eyes, only the most basic of thoughts flitted across it's charred mind, "Hunt...serve...die..."
It seemed unlikely that such a horrid looking creature would be welcome in the presence of the pale-skinned woman, looking so fair in the moonlight with her raven hair and softly glowing eyes. She looked benevolent to those who were manipulated into seeing only her face and missing the bloody color of her eyes and the waves of heat that came from her small body. In reality, she was all bright burning fire and pure hatred rolled into a package of her choosing. Her true form would be nothing but a pillar of all-consuming orange flames.
She wore a dress of deep blood red that covered her whole body, and on top of that a cloak of deepest black lined with more blood red material. Her staff was made of an obsidian-hematite looking stone was tipped with a large red jewel on one end and a sharp point at the other.
Once upon the riverbank, the woman spoke quietly to the creature, who unblinkingly began to gather dry wood, leaves and kindling. "Kanman..." she whispered, and the being dumped the impossibly large load of wood which it carried and knelt at her side. "Kanman, you have served me...how long? Very long, and very well, considering I freed you from a small cooking fire in a time of desperation. Though you have not made for the best of company in my years of hiding, you have been a friend, a faithful servant-dog. Now the time has come for me to give you peace, give you rest.
"I have need of a spirit more powerful than you, one who I can help me overtake my sister in her frozen realm of the North. You would not make it through even the most temperate of tundra, would you Kanman? No matter, I will give your life to create a new one, and you shall find peace in sweet oblivion." "Kitaaya..." the creature said in response, though it's voice was like dry sticks rubbing in the wind, soft and rasping. Kitaaya didn't reply, knowing this was the only word her fire-spirit servant knew. It would build it's own funeral pyre without batting...well, since it didn't have eyelids much less eyelashes...oh, forget it...
A soft wind picked up, uncharacteristically cold for the season. It wound it's way through their make-shift camp and pressed against Kanman, the icy-cold air draining some of the flame sending's already waining strength. "Kitakaze!" Kitaaya screeched into the darkness. "You cannot stop me, where Kanman came from I can bring legions more!" Abruptly the wind stopped and Kanman resumed his wood gathering.
Soon enough a fire was blazing, illuminating the shores and nearby forest, stirring the vagrants and other beings that slumbered there to move. A small, shivering group of men approached, hopeful that the kind-looking woman and her fire-spirit sending would share the warmth. No sooner had they entered the glowing orange circle did Kanman snarl his dry-wood snarl and Kitaaya waved her staff across the flames. They leapt up and reached out, ensnaring the helpless men and dragging them deep within it's flames and consuming them. Their screams were drowned out by the upsurging fire and the roaring of the flames.
Not one flicker of remorse crossed Kitaaya's face; she had murdered countless others, mostly fire mages to glean their magic and assimilate it into herself, but many innocents simply caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. Only the stench of burning flesh made her wince, and that was soon lost in the smoke and light. "This will be a strong spirit indeed...one who has consumed many lives in creation will surely take more in it's own life. Go Kanman, find me more victims to feed this beast. More vagrants if possible, I definitely wouldn't say no to unlucky children and stray animals..." The fire-spirit rose and thudded out into the forest to the nearest hold for more blood to quench the throbbing blaze.
Even now, in it's infancy, Kitaaya felt the spirit call to her. "Food...air..." She fed and coddled it lovingly, like a mother with a newborn babe. It's every desire was fulfilled the instant it was known, and the spirit grew gluttonous and confident. This was what she wanted, of course. The more the spirit depended on her as she created it, the closer to the brink of being extinguished she allowed it to reach before freeing it, the more loyal it would be to her once given form.
Screams came from the forest, announcing Kanman's return from hunting. Out ran a woman and her two children, a handful of vagrants and, lo and behold, one fire mage. The woman and children Kitaaya told to leave, the vagrants she threw into the fire, all while gazing hungrily at the fire mage. She trembled with obvious fear as she watched Kitaaya and Kanman, who had knelt next to the fire and was scooping out handfuls of hot ash to eat. "Well well, what have we here? I never expected a mage to be hiding in this podunk little town. Come now, tell me who you've been hiding from."
The woman trembled even more, her eyes darting from side to side in search of an escape route and knowing she would never find one. "Y-y-you...y-you're...you're..." she stammered, hands wringing her traditional mage cloak of red and white. "I'm what?" Aya hissed, her eyes glowing even more vibrantly, nostrils dilating as she smelled the fear coming in waves off of the woman. "The Igniter." the mage finished in a small voice. An unusually deep chuckle came from Aya as she swooped closer. "Why yes..." In one swift movement, she lifted her staff and plunged the pointed end through the young fire-mage's heart. Blood splattered the ground and began to boil instantly. Eyes now glowing brilliant red, Aya felt the woman's magic and strength flow into her as she whispered,
"I am..."