Someone at the Campfire
The afternoon sky had a pastel purple and blue color, and all the violent noises in the distant was starting to quiet down somehow. A soothing wind blew across the valley — refreshing and cool.
Me and my good friend Renomus had been traveling all day, and we were starting to get quite weary. We had just discovered a new valley that we had never seen before, and we had no idea what was ahead, so we decided to sit down and rest for awhile. Renomus ran over to a nearby tree and broke a few branches of a tree and came back with them. I put the branches on the ground and put a few rocks around it. The branches was quite dry and looked like they would easily catch fire, so I carefully put my hands on them and started concentrating. However, I was so tired I had a hard time focusing. My companion thought I was taking too long and started summoning Ifrit to finish the job.
«Wait, wait,» I said, trying to calm down the impatient taru a few notches. «Calling out Ifrit here would draw too much attention. And what would you do if we started a wildfire,» I asked the little tarutaru. I guess he was just as tired as me.
«Such a hassle,» Renomus told himself.
«What was that,» I cried out to him. I blushed as I didn’t mean to raise my voice, but having Ifrit make some bushes catch fire is just too much.
I closed my eyes and put my hands back on the branches. I started concentrating again, and thanks to Renomus I could finally draw power out of the surroundings and make a flame. It’s such an easy spell, yet so hard to cast when you are tired after a long day.
Renomus wasn’t satisfied, but he too knew that we didn’t want to get any unwanted visitors to our camp. He summoned Carbuncle though, and the two sat down at the little campfire. We had come across a body of water earlier, and we were lucky enough to get some fish there. I usually carry a bag to hold all the little things a girl could ever need when out on an adventure. Like, ingredients for the next meal, supplies to get safely to places and some makeup too I guess. For today’s supper I wanted to grill some Dark Bass topped with Kazham Peppers and Mithran Tomatos and Mhaura Garlic on the side. I had high hopes for today’s dinner, but I know Renomus doesn’t really fancy fish. I wonder why the tarutarus don’t like fish. I for one can’t get enough of the fishie~wishies.
We had plenty of time to talk about recent adventures and future plans while we were eating. I don’t think Renomus liked the peppers, but he tried his best to keep the fact a secret. I could see right through him though, as he very carefully put the peppers on the side of his plate, trying not to make it too obvious.
After the dinner I went to get some more firewood and branches before we fell asleep. While sleeping I had some very strange dreams, including one with a cat~like creature I’ve never seen before.
«Crack!»
My dreams ended quite abrupt because of the noise I heard from somewhere nearby. I got up on my feet and walked over to Renomus, nudging him to awaken him. «There’s something or someone here,» I whispered to him. He looked quite tired, but he was quick to wipe it off. I silently walked over to the campfire, reached toward it with my hand before I concentrated on engulfing the fire in water. I quickly covered up our tracks and we hid ourself behind a nearby rock.
The ground shook as the presence walked closer and closer to me and Renomus, but it didn’t seem as if he knew where we were. The presence paused a little, before taking it’s heavy and slow steps in what sounded like a circle. «I think he has found our camp,» I whispered to my taru companion. «What do we do,» he asked me.
Suddenly, a roar. It looked like the presence had discovered our camp and was enraged. I looked over the rock to get an overview of our situation. An enormous quadav was staring at the campfire I had covered up with dirt just moments before. He suddenly reached for a horn he was carrying on his waist belt. Moments after he made a loud whistling sound. «Rats! We’ve been found,» I told Renomus.
Cut off from the Pashow Marshlands, we had no other choice than to hide further into the valley. We still had no idea about what lied ahead, but we just had to take our chances. With the marshlands being just north east of us, I figured we should seek cover further south. It was almost pitch black outside, but since my eyes were used to the dark jungles outside Kazham I had no problems seeing the surroundings. I found a stick and cast fire on it, then told Renomus to follow me closely, before we rushed off into the unknown. Behind us we could here an three to four parties of quadavs form up. We were out of time, and with no map we had to rely solely on my mithran intuition.
(to be continued…)