A short story by Willow Beaudet The First Night When Dolicker sat by the fire with me and dropped a burning twig into the ceremonial plate, the air grew lush with spice. The whole trip he had been telling stories, he and his pikemen retelling fables up even the steepest climbs. It had been four whole days of tales and gossip, Dolicker himself identifying plants and pointing out cloud formations, this man or that telling the stories of their scars. I had seen the passion in th