"Will you stop fidgeting? It's going to see us again."
Jax said this while elbowing Aiden from their small leafy hiding spot.
"I'm amazed you're not fidgeting more, considering how many times you have been set on fire this past week."
Aiden replied, trying his best to shuffle over from where he had been crouching.
He and Jax had spent the past week watching the fire ghost things and trying to figure out whatever they could about it.
It seemed simple in theory, with its body made of ashes and a small burning core hidden inside, but as life often proved, it would not be that easy.
From what they had gathered after a week of observations, there were a few things Aiden had found worth noting.
Jax had a really strange way of writing by balancing a pencil between his toes and writing by moving his entire arm. Or would that be considered his leg? Was it ignorant to ask about that, or was it a guess-and-get-corrected kind of thing?The ash ghost's claws were really hot to the touch, as it had set a few trees on fire by holding its hand to them.When actually attacking, its claws heated up more than normal and left behind bits of ash that combusted after a few seconds. The worst part was that they stuck to what was struck, so it was not something someone could easily yank off.It was nearly impossible to see at night, only really revealed when its core slightly flashed behind the swirling ash.There were multiple ash spirits on the mountain. So far, they had counted three.They seemed to be aware of the fires they caused, as they went out of their way to prevent the flames from spreading.
Aiden followed the slowly floating ash ghost as it drifted over to another tree and rested its palms against the bark, the wood began to smoke before catching fire.
Once the flames rose, the ghost rose with them, fanning its arms and actively getting in the way of any fire that could spread to nearby trees.
After a few more trees, it floated off, content to move on to another area. Its ashy aura followed with it, confirming that it had left.
Jax and Aiden crawled out of their hiding spot. Jax shook the dirt off himself. Aiden had to brush as much off as he could, which was not helped by the fact that Jax got half of his dirt on him.
The two walked over to the slightly curved edge made by the burned trees and soot that dropped off the ash spirit like a weird slug trail. It seemed to mark a burn zone, where, almost like a cutoff line, the vegetation past it was either burned and ashy or withering.
"You're sure this has never happened before on the mountain?"
Jax asked, glancing over at Aiden.
"I have never seen fire ghosts before, much less one that is conservation-minded."
Aiden said with a bit of exasperation.
Jax bumped his shoulder into Aiden's leg, chuckling a bit as he walked in front of him. He got up on his back legs, spreading his paws out in what he called his "human stance."
"Me fire ghost. Me teach fire safety and safe forest fires."
Jax said this in a raspy, caveman-like voice.
Jax's humor had started out annoying and grating, but Aiden had to admit it was starting to grow on him.
He held back a chuckle at the joke while Jax dropped back down and began walking toward the burn line.
"Where are you going?"
Aiden asked, turning his head to follow him.
"It seems like a circle. Maybe there is something in the middle of it."
"Fine, but you better not track any ash into my house."
Aiden followed after, the pair making a note to not step on the already struggling vegetation within the burn zone.
Aiden pulled a blinding powder from his bag to be ready, just in case one of the other two spirits were following more closely than usual.
He had already gone through his supply of four tubes and had to make three more because of how many times they had been forced to run away.
This would have normally been fine, if not for the fact he was running low on Ironsplint, and would need to restock before making more.
They walked across the crunchy, decayed plants and ashy wooden trees. With so much charcoal around them, Aiden could not help but be reminded of a barbeque. Though he was mainly thinking of the time his dad had turned an entire hog blackened and charred by accident.
"So you're positive you don't know how to make a potion that makes you immune to fire?"
Jax asked for the seventh time.
Aiden pulled out his recipe notebook and flipped through it again, partially because something that made fire no longer a problem would be extremely useful for fighting the ghosts, but mostly because he was trying to make a point.
As he flipped through his notebook, he mumbled the names aloud.
"Potion of Shadowmeld. That's only useful if it's night or dark outside. Potion of Clarity. Not unless we challenge the ghosts to trivia. Potion of Barkskin. Not unless we want to be even more flammable. Vomit Potion. Self-explanatory and not useful for what we are doing."
Jax paused mid step before shooting Aiden a weird look,
"You just have a potion that makes people puke?"
"Yeah. It uses one part Ferefe, which causes nausea, and one part Vilerge, which can act as a calming agent. It's great when you have that feeling of needing to throw up but end up just sitting there wishing you could get it over with already. I created the recipe myself when I had a nasty stomach bug around when I was 14 or so."
Jax just stared at him as they kept walking, crossing over burned fallen trees.
"Those are just recipes, right? You don't just have a bottle of convenient vomit on you, right?"
Aiden shifted his bag over from his side and flipped open the top.
"The potions I have on me are three Potions of Shadowmeld I made four days ago in case our stakeouts took too long and we got stuck in the dark like that one time. Two Elixirs of Clarity I don't remember making. Actually, they might have gone bad bad."
Aiden pulled out one of the vials, gave it a quick sniff, wrinkled his nose, and dumped it out.
Jax steered a wide berth around it as he scrambled under a low-hanging branch, painting a trail of black down his back fur while Aiden continued to rummage.
"Three convenient vomit potions, as you called them, and one Elixir of Fleetness for when I want to outrun you so you get eaten first."
Jax hip-checked Aiden's leg, causing him to stumble a bit before giving him a grin.
"The day you outrun me is the day I know I am out of shape."
While Jax had a point, Aiden refused to give him the satisfaction.
Before he could keep rummaging, Jax seemed to perk up and pick up his speed, approaching something ahead.
Aiden closed his pouch and followed after him, climbing the small hill and to his surprise being greeted by a smell other than soot.
The smell was like that of cherry as they both paused, surprised as they had found an oddly intact set of buildings in the woods.
They were old for sure, with semi-rotted wooden beams and paint that either faded beyond recognition or peeling so much that only flakes remained. However, they were still standing, surrounded by a small circle of green grass and a large tree that grew up the backside of one of the buildings.
"It's an old rundown house?"
Aiden asked, looking the building over as the pair moved in to get a closer look.
"I think I know what this is. It looks like a traveler's shrine."
"What's a traveler's shrine?"
Jax turned, seeming a bit surprised that Aiden did not know.
"You know how trains, airships, and mecha have made travel much faster and safer, right?"
Aiden nodded along as they stepped from crunchy, dry ash onto oddly fresh grass.
"Well, one of the classes you can get is called a shrine maiden. It's a support class whose main ability is to make a shrine that keeps monsters out. Before people could get from city to city in a few days, travel could take weeks, and people would seek out shrines for the night. In exchange for a bit of money and food, travelers could stay in the shrine and be guaranteed safety. They could also hear stories and rumors from other travelers before them. While the practice is much rarer now, it's still rather common in more dangerous places like Frigund and Tessegog."
Aiden looked around at the rundown building and saw Jax walking up to the large tree.
"Please don't pee on the tree."
"Fine, I'll just use your leg."
Jax made a quick sidestep towards Aiden who quickly stepped away, the two split up to look at different areas.
Aiden walked to the front door of the old building. It had a few holes here and there and the door itself was stuck, probably from age, swelling, and eleven other things Aiden did not know about.
He put his foot on the edge of the door and pulled, hearing the wood whine before it popped open with a sound like breaking wood.
Inside was a dusty room. Bits of what might have once been a carpet stood scattered as small shelves and things lined the walls. The middle of the room stood an ornate magic circle, with subcircles, multiple different kinds of lettering, and more.
It thrummed with a quiet energy, glowing with a very faint and flickering light blue light. A small knot of roots seemed to sit in the circle as if coming through the floorboards.
Aiden wanted to investigate further, but he did not know enough about magic circles for him to be able to do anything more than know if it was on or off.
He turned, and poking his head out the door,
"Hey Jax, do you know anyth-"
He was cut off as Jax sprinted by yelling,
"THEY KNOW WE'RE HERE!"
Aiden could have tried to fact-check him, but he played it safe and broke into a sprint after Jax.
While running, he turned back and saw three of the fire ghosts flying toward them. When he turned forward again, he saw a low-hanging stick too late and ran neck-first into it.
Aiden landed hard on his back as the wind was knocked out of him, leaving him gasping for air.
One of the ghosts dove for him just as his lungs finally seemed to open up again.
He rolled to the side while another swung its claws toward him, but it was pushed back as Jax jumped, planted his paws in its face, and used the ghost as a springboard.
The world was still blurry from trying to catch his breath, the adrenaline, and the heavy exercise, but Aiden followed the blob he assumed was Jax as he guided him through the ashen land that stretched all around.
He could barely stumble, much less run, so he reached into his bag and pulled out one of his potions.
He did not know which one, but his vision was too blurry to see exactly what he had grabbed.
Aiden uncorked the vial and flung the potion's contents at the nearest fire ghost. It was splashed with a light green liquid. The spirit continued forward, seeming to blink a few times as its eyes gained a light green glow compared to their normal orange color.
"What did that do?"
Jax asked, jumping over a downed log.
Aiden's vision refused to clear, but from the color that had been splashed, he thought he had hit it with a night vision potion.
He did not respond to Jax. Instead, he reached into his bag and searched around the area he had been looking through earlier. His fingers closed around the light blue Elixir of Fleetness from before.
Aiden tipped his head back and tried to drink it. Most of the potion got to his mouth, but as he panted, he started to cough, sending a good bit of it back out. The bit that got in still sent a feeling of lightness to his legs.
He ran.
Jax sped up to keep pace while the ghosts behind them slowly lost ground.
They broke away from the burn zone and headed down their path toward the stakeout spot before Aiden stumbled and rolled to a stop. He lay on his back, gasping for air as he coughed from the ash floating around him and the bits of potion going down the wrong pipe.
"They seemed extra mad that time."
Jax said, panting.
"Saw, *gasp*, weird magic, *huff*, circle, *cough*, house."
"In that case, let's- what happened to your glasses?"
Aiden squinted as he forced himself to sit up and turn toward the vaguely Jax-colored blob before his hands shot to his face.
The normal feel of his thick glasses was gone.
Aiden flopped back onto his back again, taking a moment to calm his breathing and get over his coughing fit before he said,
"I think they fell off when I ran into that tree."
He ran both hands down his face, pulling it down slightly in exasperation.
Then a system window appeared, and despite the blurry world around it, the window and its text were crystal clear.
Escape from a deadly situation +250 XP
Level up 3 -> 4
HP 14 -> 16
MP 54 -> 56
Int 21 -> 24
Aiden turned toward the Jax blob and said in a surprised voice,
"I just leveled up."
"First off, dude, I'm over here. Second, congratulations! What level are you?"
"I'm level 4."
"Just one more and you can be a full adventurer when this is over."
Jax said as he stretched and looked his paw over for ash or burns.
"Now hold on. Who said anything about being an adventurer?"
Aiden said, crossing his arms.
"Come on, Aiden. You have to admit you have been having fun, and you have saved my ass just as many times as I have saved yours with your potions and concoctions and whatnot. Well, not as much this time, but you were working blind."
Jax sounded serious at first before adding the small playful jab at the end.
"I'm just here to help with mountain navigation."
Aiden huffed, but a small, betraying part of his mind said,
But you're having fun, and you know it.
Jax swatted Aiden's nose with his tail as he said in an annoyingly sarcastic tone,
"Yeah, sure. My navigational help does stakeouts and runs from fire ghosts half a dozen times. It's just your job."
"Next time you're set on fire, I'm grabbing marshmallows instead of a healing potion."
Aiden grumbled, feeling around himself for a stick or something to help him not run into things.
"Since there was a magic circle, we probably need to find a mage."
Jax said this as he changed the topic and started walking away.
"Hey Jax. I can't see very well right now. Can you guide me back to the house?"
He heard Jax's muffled laughter as he asked in a mocking tone,
"What was that, marshmallow man? For someone hellbent on being a guide and nothing else, you seem to be lacking in your job at the moment."
"Yeah, yeah. Do you want dinner or not?"
Aiden asked in an annoyed tone.
Jax came back, helped him up, and Aiden followed him down the path as a thought passed through his mind.
He does have a point. For someone hellbent on just being a guide, why am I sticking my neck out so far?
The thought seemed to plant itself like a difficult to uproot seed in his mind as they walked back, Aiden could practically see the little angel and devil on both of his shoulders.
Because you are a kind soul who doesn't want a young adventurer to die simply because you sat back and did nothing.
The angel chimed.
Lies. The real reason is that you never gave up on wanting to be an adventurer. Just think of the fun you have been having doing an actual quest. Think of the money. But most importantly, think of the XP.
The devil seemed to say.
Aiden shook his head for a moment.
But the little devil was not wrong.