Flarevent Sprite

For a minute it helped. The Sprite rose out of a furnace sneeze, a child-sized shape of sparks with orange ash trailing behind. It warmed stiff hands through gloves and touched cold tools until their edges glowed. Then it found the wounded Sentinel. Under its delighted attention the vents opened, rivets tightened, and shields reheated. The guardian stood again.

We tried to catch the Sprite. A screen of sparks hid it while it led us toward a gas pocket.

It wants things working and moving, with enough heat to keep them so. It doesn't understand when enough has become too much. A worker's hammering may look purposeful to it. So may a construct defending a doorway or a predator in flight. Bright tethers feed the chosen process. Spark screens misdirect attacks and pursuit is drawn toward vents.

Its curiosity can be redirected with a tended flame or an elegant machine. Sudden vacuum and sealed cold surfaces distress it. Trapping it makes a dangerous compressed pressure bead, not a willing extinction.