Unfriendly Creatures

Penny Rose awoke feeling damp and still a little chilled. The fire that was the basket still, burned demurely on one side, and Lucif lay, awake motionless as a statue on her other side. She didn't want to wake up, but go back to the soft velvet of sleep. But she knew it was time, and curiosity was eating away at her...
"Lucif," she said, and the mirror eyes turned toward her, from the point they had been fixed upon deep in the trees behind them.
"Ah, you've awoken," said Lucif, not moving. Penny Rose struggled to sit up, feeling strangely sore around her body.
"Who was that woman?" Penny Rose asked, still a little angry from the blaze that had brought her to shore.
"That, my dear, is a rare creature of this world. She only appears when she feels she should; and her gifts are sometimes not just dangerous, but fatal. Your choice was good, however."
"Good? But she pushed me into the river and I couldn't swim!"
"Yes, but your basket saved you. Sometimes they are not so kind. Your choice likes you, and as such, is extremely useful. See how it burns?"
Penny Rose watched it, merrily crackling away, yet staying whole nonetheless.
"It does a great deal more than that, when needed."
Penny Rose looked at it in wonder and concern. She remembered the moments in the river, the way it bore her down first, then up. "But not always."
"No, it is a somewhat mercurial gift."
"Perhaps it depends on me," querulously, Penny Rose reached for the basket, whose flames strove toward her hand like a pet.
"Yes, and it likes you, so all is well. It has burned there to keep you warm for some time now, and that is no easy feat. However, I'm afraid we'll be asking it to do much more before the end of our journeys."
Penny Rose looked at it, and smiled.
"Are you hungry?" Asked Lucif, glancing at Penny Rose's bedraggled form.
"No," said Penny Rose, realizing it for the first time, "I'm not."
"Yes, it is the way of this place - food and drink are not necessary, but sometimes they are very pleasant. What would you like, my dear?"
Penny Rose looked at her feet. "Milk and biscuits."
The basket stopped burning for a moment, and closed itself into a little ball. Then, with what looked like a small effort, it opened up like a flower in the sun, and in the curve of its belly was a mug of milk and a small plate of buttery biscuits.
Penny Rose smiled, and giving the basket a little pat, she gratefully took the plate and the mug of milk. "Would you like one?" She asked Lucif.
It looked at the biscuits strangely. "No... what I enjoy to eat is quite different."
Penny Rose ate the biscuits with great appreciation, the sugary blandness of them giving her a moment of homesickness and strengthening her resolve. There was something sinful about eating a whole plate of biscuits, but Penny Rose did it, in part, to keep the basket happy - she would hate to offend so strange a thing.
Lucif rose and stretched, it's long, graceful body seeming longer and more strange as its paws brushed the earth, its head arching up. Penny Rose's feeling of dissonance grew, as she munched the last crumbs of the biscuits. The basket rolled on its side nearer her, and the flames died to a contented set of embers. She put her hand close to keep it warm, for the afternoon was drawing to a close.
"It will be time to go soon," remarked Lucif, off-handedly, as it looked around solemnly at the darkening forest around them.
"But it's getting dark," replied Penny Rose, "can we travel in the night."
"For our next journey, we must," replied Lucif, its eyes shining light and brighter in the gloaming.
Penny Rose nodded. "Where do we go?"
"We go to the sea, but we must get through the marshes to get there. And in the day they are swept with the gaze of unfriendly creatures."
"Unfriendly creatures?"