Trappings (part 3)

Night came and the air grew cold. Gracie curled up and surrounded herself with leaves for insulation, but they didn't help. She eyed the lighter hopelessly and began to cry - eventually falling asleep.
She woke up again disoriented, no sense of time except that it was still night. A constant breeze blew through the pipe, biting Gracie with freezing air. She took the lighter in her numb fingers and tried to light it again. "It's no use," said an ambiguous voice in her head. She tried again. Nothing. "So cold out there. You're already freezing," the voice said. "Let it be a peaceful death." It was like being mocked by her own brain. Another try. It lit! But was instantly snuffed in the constant breeze. Gracie sat bolt upright in disbelief. Her heart raced. She struck the wheel again, and again came a brief flame. She turned her back to the wind and lit the flame again. It held. A single, minuscule, mesmerizing flame. It flickered and danced in a strange way she'd never seen fire do. Bringing it closer to her face for inspection, what she saw was unmistakable. It was a tiny person made of fire.
"Hello there, little big one!" the flame called, waving a wispy arm with delight. "I'd like you to know there's not much fuel in this tankard. I hope you don't want me to die."
Gracie could not speak or breathe or look away.
"I spy a handsome lot of dry leaves. If you could set me down right there I think we could help each other out," the wispy little person said.
Gracie blinked twice, eyes flicked toward the leaves on the ground.
"That's it. Set me down," the flame said.
Gracie set the lighter down onto a soft pile of leaves, and the flame jumped into them, instantly doubling in size.
"Ah yes! I have not had leaves in a very long while."
Gracie watched it curiously for a minute or so until becoming impatient. "Do you have a name or what?"
The flame put a hand on its chest and asked, "Are you addressing me?"
"Yeah, no one else is here."
"There is no need for rudeness, little big one. I am Gibilkrsnik Vondevan Ignipyros." He bowed very low. "If you find it too longwinded, you may call me Gibnik."
"Gibnik," Gracie said with a smile.
"I am."
"So, are you like a ghost?"
"I am unlike a ghost. Don't you see I am fire?" He waved a hand dismissively. "Please do keep the leaves coming. I have not had a meal in ages."
Gracie pushed leaves closer, keeping the bundle large as it burned away. "I haven't eaten either. I'm so hungry."
"Then go find something to eat. I think there might be squirrels in those trees," Gibnik said.
"I can't eat a squirrel. I want human food."
"Then have a human."
"That's not what I mean. I want to go home and eat dinner."
"Then go home and have your dinner. Just don't keep pouring your sorrows on me, or I'll have to snuff myself."
"You're rude."
"And you're impulsive."
Gracie grabbed her stomach and groaned. "I'm lost."
"All right. I will help you find food," Gibnik said.
"You will?"
"Yes. However, in order for me to move about, I need more fuel. Perhaps if you laid out a nice, thick path of leaves."
"Leading where?"
"A shop, deli, cafe, anywhere you might find food."
"I don't know where any are."
Gibnik put his hands on his hips and raised an eyebrow. "Well then, you truly are lost." Suddenly, the whole pile of leaves burst into flame, causing Gibnik to double, triple in size until he was big enough to reach the branches of nearby trees, and set them on fire.
"No! No! No! Gibnik, you're burning everything!" Gracie screamed and ran out of the woods, onto the road, and into the neighborhood. At one end of the street was a squad car parked at the curb. Before Gracie could react, the car roared to life, sirens wailing. It fishtailed and sped toward the fire, which had grown out of control. Gracie ran away in a panic. More sirens echoed through the streets, red and blue lights flashed on the walls of buildings. Only moments had passed; Gracie was deep in the neighborhood, surrounded by houses. She could no longer see the wooded area, but columns of smoke and glow of fire were only too easy to spot.
Guilt-ridden, she kept moving through the neighborhood, trying to get as far away from the fire and everyone as possible.
Out of the horizon came a glowing ember, swirling and swaying in the wind. Gracie's heart began to race as she strafed out of the ember's path; but it twisted and turned toward her like a consciousness. She batted at it, but the ember swung around her feeble arms and landed gracefully on her shirt. It began to burn at once. Gracie patted it in a panic, but the tip of her shirt caught flame.
"Thought you could run from me, little big one?" the small, steady flame spoke.
"Get away from me! You're crazy!" Gracie screamed.
"Is that so? Am I the one who could not control my urges? Am I the one who stole, and lied, and ran, and set the woods aflame?"
"Yes! The trees are still burning! Can't you hear the fire engines?"
"Certainly, little big one. I am looking down on them as we speak."
"Stop it! You have to stop the fire!"
"I don't have to do anything. Besides, that old spark is out of my hands now."
"What!? I thought you could control fire!"
"Dear me. Why would you make such an assumption?"
"LEAVE ME ALONE!"
Gibnik tripled in size, a torso of flame jutting out of Gracie's shirt. He loomed over her and spoke fiercely. "No more commands out of you. I've been nothing but polite, and you give me this grief. Now it is my turn to have you do my bidding."
Gracie fell on her back, and trembled in fear. Tears streamed down her cheeks.
Gibnik brisked her tears with a wispy finger, drying them away. "There there, little big one. I promise, if you take me with you, I won't destroy your whole town."
"How am I supposed to take you anywhere?" Gracie asked, a huge lump of dread in her throat.
"The lighter. You've still got it."
"What?"
"In your pocket! I can smell it. I would not easily forget the aura of my prison of decades."
Gracie had completely forgotten that she had but it back in her pocket. She drew it now, holding it up to Gibnik. "What do I do?"
"Ignite it."
Gracie struck the wheel, but it shot only sparks.
"Your shirt won't last much longer. Ignite it!"
She tried again, and it worked. Gibnik touched the tiny flame, shrinking into it, leaving Gracie's shirt hot and charred.
"Very good, Gracelynn. Now shut the lid, and put me in your pocket."