One morning, waking in his sleeping roll with his current group of fellow travelers, Ham looked around and realized that Martin was gone.
He asked the others, but none had seen or heard a thing.
Ham went to where Martin had been sleeping, and found a small stone with a small image carved into its face. Other than that image, the stone was completely smooth, and slightly smaller than the palm of his hand. Looking carefully, Ham could see that the image was a small flame, dancing and swaying. While it was not really dancing and swaying, there was something about it that gave him the feeling of its being alive in a fire kind of way.
Ham didn’t say anything to any of the others. He just put the stone in his pouch. And from time to time, as he traveled through the land of Dank, he would reach into his pouch and hold and feel the stone that was all he had of Martin.
