#nathan truefire

[starswordartblog]

Late for @oc-growth-and-development‘s OCtober prompts day 8: Sugar.

This was supposed to be just a doodle to give me more time to catch up to the event, but turns out i have no chill. You know who else has no chill? Nathan. Nathan was taught that food needs to be cooked to be safe, and he took it to extreme levels. He won’t eat anything that isn’t warm. He will roast a lettuce. He will boil juice. These things all taste better to him like that because of his fire magic so he doesn’t see what the big deal is.

He is baffled and disgusted at the existence of ice cream.

[claire-starsword]

it’s been only a moment since I reblogged that post about the struggles of writing original stories as you have to introduce everything to the reader

and then i immediately went to work on an OCtober piece and am dying for while the plot itself is pure fluff i have to quickly and casually introduce the following facts:

One of the characters lives in a cave in the depths of the forest because he was raised by a magical creature and has only come to know civilization a few months ago

One day a fish boy showed up in his cave and after a little push from a friend he decided that was his little brother now

said fish boy looked emotionless to a creepy extent, but began learning to feel and act mostly by copying his brother

said fish boy has fins instead of feet, and thus cannot walk, and instead flies by magic, which exhausts him with time ‘cause he’s just a kid

so yeah, love them

really do

but uh

I’m suffering right now

[starswordartblog]

[Late for @oc-growth-and-development‘s OCtober prompts, day 27: Anniversary. Will likely be my last piece for the event]

[Content warning for grief/mourning, and some hints of codependency.]

How had it been an year since that? It couldn't have been an year. It felt like it hadn't been nearly enough time to be a whole year, and it also felt like it had been an eternity.

And yet they had been reminded of the date several times, so there was no denying it.

It had been one year since Moira left their lives.

One year since they stumbled into a most somber gathering on Aceno Town, Mr. Olden turning to them with watery eyes as he told them Moira had been killed by an errant beast that very morning. One year since they saw Mirian —strong, rebellious, coolest-girl-around Mirian— as a broken mess at the center of all that, silent and frozen whenever the sobs let up from shaking her more violently than she could have ever been.

One year since there had been no funeral, per Mirian's request, and only Nathan and Uni knew how she would like to be celebrated. One year since they flew a last time to the top of the tallest tree on their side of the forest, the same place where she gave Uni flying lessons, and hung their crude drawings there amidst copies of her grimoire pages, the ones for animals and magical creatures she had mourned in secret along the years. One year since Uni too had almost broken down by a pain so new and unknown, if not for his brother to hold him tight through the sobs, standing strong even as the tears ran through him also.

One year since Nathan had last said her name, because he promised to move forward. Because they were the ones still alive and they had to make that life worth it and there was nothing worth to find in that misery so they had to go on and chase their happiness elsewhere. They would hardly stay around town for long since then, jumping from one adventure to another, chasing any small thing that got their attention. They grew a reputation around the country in that time, prodigious mages causing a ruckus everywhere.

And before they realized, a whole year went by, and the dates creeped on them. First her birthday, then the death anniversary. Uni's heart would still sink every time he thought about how there were mere weeks between the two. Moira's birthday parties were always a blast, her sister would go out all out in planning them after all. Maybe it was for the best that everyone got to make such happy memories with her right before she left?

That didn't convince Uni much, but it was a thought that crossed his mind at times. He told Mirian a week after the birthday, and she crushed him in a tearful hug while saying he was just like Moira at times. That happened often in their newfound friendship, as he learned of a caring side of Mirian she never showed anyone but her little sister before. Though it took him a while to get used to it, he found that he liked reminding people of Moira. She always went on about memories being precious after all, and now all of her was just a memory. He had to carry it on with care.

And Nathan was making that hard.

Nathan couldn't stand any mention of her. He would flinch and leave immediately whenever he heard anyone talk about her. He had planned their longest string of quests yet in advance to make sure they'd be away during the birthday and days surrounding it. Probably would have made it longer if the had realized the death anniversary was that soon, but he had never been good with dates. He got quiet the whole day he was reminded of it, and the very next already had plans to travel to basically the other side of the country.

"Can't we check it out some other time, Nathan?" Uni whined, "We've been working a lot these days, I'm tired."

"Just this one more, okay," Nathan answered averting his gaze, a hand scratching the back of his head. "We're kinda out of money after all."

"We're out of money exactly because we've been traveling so much. Not like treasure always pops up whenever we go. And you're not even following a clue here," he shook the map Nathan had given him, "you picked this place just because it's far away."

"And so what?" Nathan shouted back with more anger than necessary for a sibling fight, "It's been great so far, right?"

Uni lowered his head down against the stare, because that was the problem wasn't it? Nathan's attitude was bothering him now, but it had been his crutch when the pain was fresh. If Nathan hadn't pushed forward against that sorrow, Uni had no clue how he would have gotten over it. Wasn't it ungrateful to complain about him now?

Besides, what would he do if Nathan did quiet down? If he broke down like Mirian, who would hardly leave her home outside of work, who could still be found sobbing at random places all the time, who had lost and her pride and joy. Nathan was the one always protecting Uni, always giving him hope. If after a whole year they went back to the same misery, Uni wouldn't ever believe again that they could escape it.

He wanted to slow down and mourn Moira, but he wanted much more for Nathan to not do that. So he would have to suck it up.

"Okay. Guess we're leaving right away then."

[starswordartblog]

“...and so the dude was like, ‘I’ll give my precious gem only to one who can eat a whole jar of my special peppers!’ and I have no clue what the big deal was but it was nice of him to give out all that free food, and now we also have a cool rock I guess!”

Moira laughed and laughed as Nathan told her of their latest adventure. “Honestly, how do you guys find these weirdos?”

Uni chimed in, “we got really popular there, there’s like three guys saying we should join a circus or something.”

“I’m, not sure that’s a compliment...”

Late for @oc-growth-and-development‘s OCtober prompts day 9: Spice. We continue our misadventures with Nathan’s weird as hell food habits. No food is too hot for him, though eating that much of the stuff at once still can’t be healthy.

(Uni is smiling now but he absolutely took the challenge too and almost died, don’t be fooled)

[starswordartblog]

[Late for @oc-growth-and-development‘s OCtober prompts, day 22: Discovery. Uni and Nathan continue to find materials for magical clothing in weird ways. btw please don’t attempt to eat cotton.]

It had been a terrible adventure. Neither of the brothers wanted to talk about it, dragging their feet across town, hoping to get home as soon as possible. Uni's eyes turned lazily from side to side of the street, hoping to find something to talk about and distract themselves with, because their collective bad mood was really a bummer right now.

His gaze fell on the familiar building of Charming Taylor's, the best place in town for enchanted clothing and charms, and the only dude who would take Nathan's ridiculous tailoring requests —hey can you make me a coat that only covers half my body?— seriously, probably because a dude called Charming can't really complain on others being weird. That was an old joke already though, so Uni didn't feel like bringing it up again. His eyes turned to the poster pinned at the building's wall. Uni had seen a few times, a painting of some super rare cotton Taylor would pay a fortune for...

"Ah!" Uni screamed as everything finally clicked together on his head, grabbing Nathan by the shoulders and shaking him. "Nathan, I remember now, why those plants we picked up were so familiar!"

"What the hell?" Nathan shouted, pushing Uni's arms away. Uni just floated over him to the poster, pointing at it, his brother slowly coming over, grumbling as he readjusted his backpack that Uni had messed up with the whole shaking thing.

"What's it, wasn't that always here?" he glanced at the writing under the painting. "Labyrinth Cotton, very rare and powerful for enchantment, will buy any amount for good price... Wait, you think it's the same plant we found on those crates?"

"Looks like it, doesn't it? I think I still have some with me!" Uni opened the pouch on his waist and quickly took out a lump of light green cotton with shiny crimson leaves, a bit torn at various points, probably because he had shoved it on his bottomless pouch without any care.

"Why did you take so much of it?"

"Soft," was all the reasoning Uni needed. Nathan had the same habit of hoarding random trinkets from adventures so who was he to argue. "And guess I was right," he puffed his chest, "we might get some good money from Taylor with this thing!"

"Yeah sure, why not," Nathan shrugged, and they went inside.

The store was small, with wooden walls of a rich brown color, and one window at each side, which helped to make it less dark. Two mannequins stood at each side of the door, sporting a variety of outfit styles, and further on to the right were a few necklaces and brooches displayed under glass, with shiny plaques describing their magical effects.

To the left were the counter, and behind it, Charming Taylor himself, a young man with short and neat brown hair and fine clothes that displayed his skills as much as any mannequin. Because there seemed to be no customers around, he quickly stopped Nathan and Uni entering and greeted them with a wave and a big smile.

"Oh, Truefire brothers! It has been a while hasn't it, how can I help-" and then he jumped back with a gasp upon spotting the plant in Uni's hands.

"Hi, Mr. Taylor, we found some of this cotton you're looking for!" said Uni, extending his arms to show him the precious item up close while resisting the urge to laugh at his dramatic antics, for he was a very good business boy about to conduct some very good business and get some very good business money.

"That's, that's fantastic! May I appraise it?" he asked with his hands already on the lump, a slip of manners that Uni would kindly overlook for now, handing him the plant. "It's not fresh, and a bit damaged, but definitely still usable, and it's been so long since I could find it.” He laughed. “Ironically, while it's fantastic for defensive enchantments now, the plant is very delicate before fully maturing. It needs a controlled environment that's sadly beyond my skills."

"Sounds like a lot of work."

"And to think it tasted that bad," grumbled Nathan.

Taylor froze in place, blinking a few times, eyes wide and mouth making some confused noises. Yeah sure, Uni knew that must have sounded weird, but it hadn't been him starving on the worse dungeon of their lives which by the way Uni did not want to think about! "So," he tried to get the conversation back in track, "you can make enchanted clothing out of this then?"

"Of course!" Taylor snapped back to a smile, perhaps a bit too tense and loud to be genuine. "A resistant fiber well conductive to almost every enchantment, making it more versatile to work with than most armors, and light enough to be worn comfortably by pretty much anyone! To most people, it's the ultimate equipment!"

'So please stop cooking it', Uni could imagine the silent pleading on his eyes, which was so unnecessary. They had tried a bite in desperation, not a whole buffet. But it was funnier when people thought they were that stupid, so Uni made zero attempts to undo that misunderstanding.

"Wait," Nathan said, "if you made clothing with this, would it be green or red?"

"Oh? Well the natural color of the fiber is light green as you see," Taylor explained, tracing a finger over the cotton, "it should get a little darker after processing, but it can be easily enchanted to be of any color once ready."

"That's great, we can make something for Moira then!"

"Moira?" Uni tilted his head, but then it clicked. "Ah, yeah! Because she's always complaining her clothes are all red and pink with Mirian's enchantments! She won't need that if we give something just as strong!"

They both turned back to Taylor, grinning. "Can you make something then?" Nathan asked.

"Most certainly." Taylor seemed to have relaxed a little, back to his polite mannerisms and a gentle smile. "This isn't enough material for a full piece, but I'm sure I can manage it with the rest of my supplies, and for providing even this much I can give you a great discount. To confirm, it will be a gift to Moira Owen, sister of Mirian Owen, right?" They nodded. "I have made custom orders for both before, so that should make things easier. Any ideas on the design?"

"On the what?"

"What it will look like, Nathan," Uni replied. Of course he had jumped at the opportunity of making a gift without knowing a thing about it. Uni never figured out why people were against being a third wheel, lovestruck dorks are so funny to watch. "I guess Mr. Taylor can help if he already knows Moira."

"I surely can."

"Cool, I mean, you're the clothing expert so I guess that's better. Moira's gonna look pretty in anything anyway," Nathan shrugged, somehow saying the smoothest thing without a trace of embarrassment. Uni knew that would change immediately if anyone pointed out, and was tempted to do so, but decided to play the long game. It would be much better to tell Moira all about it later.

It would take these dorks like, thirty years to make her his official sister-in-law at their rate, but they were already family in every way that mattered so it was all great.

[starswordartblog]

For @oc-growth-and-development‘s OCtober day 3: Youth. Here’s Nathan, Moira and Uni as kids.

Uni hasn’t showed in any story here yet, he’s a weird fish-like kid Nathan found and kind of adopted as a little brother. As expected of a fish creature, he can breathe underwater. As unexpected of a fish creature, he can also fly! And fast.

It makes tag or hide-and-seek quite frustrating.

[starswordartblog]

Short and late thing for @oc-growth-and-development‘s OCtober day 17: Shelter. There’s no plot, it’s just Moira loving hours, because this ship had to sail at some point.

Warning for some eye-rolling heteronormativity since in case it wasn’t clear yet Nathan is surrounded by trash adults unfortunately.

Nathan knew he was a hotheaded, aggressive mage. He wanted to be strong, you must have power to achieve anything after all, and he'd constantly pick fights with others to prove himself, obsessing over the ones he couldn't beat so he could plan for a rematch.

Anyone would be surprised then, to know that none of those strong mages were the one he admired the most. The mage he admired the most was Moira.

Moira wasn't strong. She could handle herself in a fight, he'd seen it at times, but it wasn't her forte, or even her interest. Moira's magic was everything. A peaceful night of sleep, the rush of a waterfall, a funny prank, everything in the world that she loved she could keep with her. She had once in the road summoned a copy of Nathan's cave for them to take cover from the rain. She said she could do it because his place felt like a second home to her. That made his heart jump with such strength it was scary, and scarier was the fact he didn't dislike it.

He had been made well aware by every adult who set their eyes on them that Moira was "a great catch" and that a boy and girl hanging out at that age couldn't be just friends. It was a lot of teasing that made his head even more of a mess and he hated it, that wasn't anyone else's business. It wasn't about her being a girl, he still hadn't figured out why their beauty was supposed to make men go stupid and call it love.

It was about Moira and only Moira, and if he were to talk about catches, she caught him first. Her magic was shelter, home, laughter, a peace that did not suit him but was extended to him anyway. There was no one he understood less than Moira and no one he wanted to understand more, and he knew she'd do the same for him. She made his head spin and his heart race in a panic, but whenever they met in the middle the world looked twice as bright, so he wanted to keep reaching out to her. Could he make her happy? Could he protect her? Did she want another kind of love from him? Could he give it?

He did not know what power could answer these questions and so she remained the flustering enigma of his life. But away from prying eyes they were home to each other, and that's what mattered the most.

[starswordartblog]

Two hours late but given how college is going I’m surprised I wrote it at all. For @oc-growth-and-development​‘s OCtober prompts, day 30: Flight.

This was not meant as a sequel to day 13 and happens years after day 13′s piece, but it kinda works as a sequel to that.

"U.F.O.?" Moira asked, looking at the newspaper Uni had come to show her.

"Yeah, isn't it funny?" he said, "They say here it stands for 'Unidentified Flying Object', because that city has this big observatory to take pictures of the sky, and they got a pic of me and Nathan flying over!"

Moira looked down at the picture he pointed on the page. It was nothing but a blur of red and blue across the sky. Moira didn't know how Picture Magic worked, but she knew how fast Uni had become from training his magic for years. It wasn't surprising that the image didn't get them well, but why even report such a thing then?

"I guess that city doesn't see mages very often," she mused.

"Yeah, there were a lot of weirdos there too," Nathan joined in the conversation, "we stopped by and a bunch were running to the woods to chase the mystery or something. Uni was floating right there! I tried to explain it was him!"

"Well, I was out of power so I couldn't prove I can be that fast," Uni said, lightly tapping his brother's shoulder to calm him down. Because Uni had barely grown since childhood, he had to float a bit higher to do that. "I don't get why they were convinced it had to be a big ship though. How would a ship fly in the sky?"

Moira raised an eyebrow at him. "You are a fish and fly in the sky, don't you?"

"Exactly, and that's just me!" He made a pretentious pose in the air with a hand on his puffed out chest. "I'm a Unique Fish Object."

Her eyebrow twitched. "You're okay being an object then?"

"I'll allow it," he waved his other hand, nose still upwards in the goofiest image of pride. Then he broke the pose to float closer to her with an excited smile. "That's what I wanted to talk to you about! You name your spells, right?"

"Oh? Yeah, everyone does it, right?" Her sister had encouraged her to do it to make it easier to learn and remember them, and also to keep her knowledge organized. But never the studious one, Moira cared most about finding fun or pretty names.

"Yeah, but a lot of people pick names from their tutor, or family, or whoever they studied it from. Nathan got most of his from his dad, but they don't really work for me."

"Hey, I already said they do," Nathan interrupted, "Ultimate Fire Magic has a U and a F, we just gotta find an O to put on it!"

"Yeah, but a lot of your spells have 'Elemental' or something like that on them, I can't do that, mine can't have an E!"

"Fine," Nathan crossed his arms. "You think Olemental is a name?"

"You can't just shove O's into any word..." Uni frowned.

"Of course I can, we need them, don't we?"

"See, that's why I knew we would need Moira's help."

"Wait, wait, waiiiiit," Moira finally jumped in the conversation again, shaking her arms to get the boys' attention. "I, I got totally lost on this! I can help you think names for your spells, but why do you need O's and E's and all this letter stuff? I didn't get it."

"The U.F.O. thing," Nathan explained. "We thought it was funny so we want all his spells to have these letters too. It's gonna be like, U.F.O Magic."

"It can be Unique Fish Object, Ultimate Flying Object, and a bunch of other things!" Uni added, "Isn't it nice to have a name that means a lot?"

"In all of those you're still an object," Moira sighed, but with a smile. "But you're right, it's a great name for you. It's gonna be hard to find words for all spells though, shouldn't you guys ask someone smarter?"

"No way, it has to be you!" said Nathan, holding her tight by the shoulders, "You're our best friend, and you're smart, you taught Uni to talk more than me, right?"

"I..." She couldn't help but blush at his sudden touch and how intensely he stared her right in the eye. Normally that's where she would tease him about being "totally into her", but she was the one flustered this time so it wouldn't be fair to make fun of him for that, right? "A, alright, I'll do my best then!"

"That's the spirit!" he grinned and squeezed her harder before letting go. It hurt in the way a bone breaking hug does.

"Uh, by the way, how many spells do you even have, Uni?" Moira asked as they sat in the park, after borrowing the biggest dictionary Nathan could find in the library. "You usually just fly, or make Nathan fly."

"Oh, there's a new one but we should save it for the end," he said, and Nathan's face lightened up immediately, but he didn't say anything. "Everyone also says swimming is a different thing, but to me they're the same."

"Yeah, I think that's just how your magic is," Nathan added, "that's the fun of the Flying-Fish F. But it isn't a spell I think, you don't cast anything on yourself. It's like how my magic makes me immune to fire without me having to do anything. It just counts as a spell if you decide to manipulate your magical power in some way." He lit his hand on fire. "Like this, or this," he continued on, lightning a tiny fireball and then other and others and making them dance around in the air.

"You always know a lot about this," Moira praised. "So Uni flies naturally and breathes in water naturally... well, he's part fish, maybe it would be weirder if he didn't. I guess I never thought about it because I don't have anything like that."

"Is that so? Usually there's always something, that's why it's dangerous for a mage to lose their magic," Nathan said. "Never mind that, though! Uni still has spells," he hastily changed subjects as he always did after talking about dangerous things, "giving other people flight is a spell for you, right?"

Uni nodded, "Yeah, that takes way more effort than flying, and I can't do it if the person doesn't want to," he started pointing at random strangers, and Moira could feel a weak flow of magic from him, "it's a pain, I really wanted to prank people."

Nathan ruffled his hair. "Don't worry man, I'm sure one day we'll do it."

"No, please don't," Moira said, "the townspeople here are used to magic but that doesn't mean they'll be okay with getting hit by one. Let's save that for our fellow mages I guess, that would be funny."

"That's exactly what Nathan wanted, yeah," Uni said, and his brother's grin did confirm it.

"Okay, we'll be here all day if we keep getting distracted,” she said. “We need to name your spell. The F part is easy, you have ideas for the rest?"

They stood in silence for a moment. Uni then flicked a finger in Nathan's direction and he began to fly around.

"Got something?" Uni asked him.

"Not yet, but I knew you were gonna do that before you did. Your magic really connects people, huh."

"Connect has a C, Nathan, we can't have that."

"I'm trying okay, there has to be a similar word! Connection, link, bond... Union! There, see, I found one!"

"Oh, you really did it!" Uni celebrated throwing his arms up in the air. Union Flying Object... that still doesn't make sense though."

"The, the spells are objects too...?" Moira questioned. "But, United by Flight sounds nice, doesn't it? We'd just need an O now."

"Oh, nice one, Moira!" Nathan said. "Couldn't we do something with 'over'? Since we go over stuff when flying. And there's a bunch of words that start with over, overflow, overwhelm, over..."

"Overdid it, it's what you say when I make you go too fast."

"Yeah, let's not talk abou- AAAAAAAAaaaaaaa...!" with a flick of Uni's fingers he was sent upwards at great speed.

"You're so mean," Moira said, but she was smiling.

"Oh, he'll live." Uni shrugged. "My magic lets me raise speed the more someone trusts me. Only Nathan can go that fast, so he's okay with it. He'll just have to get back at me later."

"Ah, brothers..." She wouldn't say it out loud, but she did relate to wanting to have some fun with your overpowered, prideful older sibling.

The overpowered, prideful older sibling landed back hot with fury, a phrase more literal than usual with Nathan. "I'll kill you," he growled.

"None of those start with O's, Nathan, let's stay focused," Moira joked, hoping they wouldn't indeed waste too much time fighting. And Nathan did calm down, if the air temperature going back to normal was any indication.

"Alright. United in Flight Operation, how about that? Operation is like acting out a plan, right? We make a lot of plans when we work together."

"Oh. That doesn't sound bad, actually," Uni said.

"It's kinda tough sounding, I guess it suits you two when you get serious," Moira added. "Also I really don't have any ideas."

"I guess the air up there really cleared your head, should I do it again?" Uni grinned, raising a finger at Nathan's direction.

"Shut up, I'll fry you for dinner, you jerk!"

"Boys!" Moira warned, putting up a finger in each of their faces. "Focus! Otherwise none of us will even be home for dinner!"

"Alright, alright!" Nathan backed down. "So, I was thinking the U could be for Underwater when you let me breathe underwater instead, but United in Fish Operation works just fine, right? Like, I bet fishes do all their plans underwater."

"Yeah, that makes sense to me," Uni nodded.

"What do fish even plan about?"

"We don't have time to think about that, Moira, we have to focus," Nathan warned, face hidden in the dictionary.

"Oh." she said, staring at him, hands in her hips wondering if he'd get the sarcasm. He slowly turned back to her, meeting her serious gaze head on for a few seconds before breaking in laughter.

"You deserved it, you're always complaining," he pointed at her. "Also, we have only one spell left to name and we haven't shown it to you yet."

"Really? That didn't take so long then," she commented, pretending to not see Nathan's smug smile at that. "Let me see then! I'm curious that you learned something new." Uni's magic was very straightforward. He could always fly, and had learned the extra spell they just named more than three years ago. Since then he had only improved on control and speed. What could have happened for him to work on something new all of a sudden?

"Alright, let's do it then!" Nathan jumped in excitement, and reached a hand to Uni. "You sure you can do it?"

"Yeah, I got enough magic left, and we're syncing just fine I think," Uni answered, grabbing his brother's hand.

As he did, he began to... fade? Moira wasn't sure of what she was seeing, he seemed to be getting transparent enough that she could see through him, but there was also a circular pattern shimmering within him, like bubbles wavering and shining slowly. He then went through Nathan, and the pattern spread through the other kid, the bubbles getting faster and more numerous until they obscured the boys' forms completely

When the effect ended Uni was gone, but the person floating there wasn't quite just Nathan. Of course, the first thing off she noticed was Uni's green horn in his forehead. His hair was long as Uni's too, and a mix of their colors, blond like Nathan up to the size of his short cut and then blue in the lower part. The eyes were also a mix, one green and one blue. His skin was full of brown spots, and his feet had been replaced by bright blue fins. Moira could also feel the spell coursing through his whole body.

"It's... No way, that’s, both of you?" she gasped.

"Yeah, awesome, right?" They said, two voices in unison. They grinned, circling around her. "Like I said, Uni's magic connects him with other people, the more we flew together, the more we could feel each other's thoughts, kind of. It made it easier to coordinate together, since Uni has to control the speed even when Nathan is the one flying. Last time we just synced so much that this happened somehow!" They finished, spreading their arms wide and summoning a lot of flames to circle around them. Looking closely, Moira noticed their were slightly fish-shaped. "Ultimate Fire-Fish Onslaught! Oh, that's good! Onslaught really is a Nathan word!"

They kept grinning but their eyes twitched for a moment and with a loud popping noise the fused shape burst and faded, the original boys falling to the ground where it stood. Nathan jolted up, pointing to his brother with an angry face.

"I heard that thought!"

Uni quickly got up too, scowling at Nathan with his hands balled into fists. "And I was right! You really are too hotheaded to keep up with out of battle!"

"You liked the name! I felt that you liked the name, you couldn't stay five seconds without making fun of it?"

"We joke about everything, you make fun of everyone else too! You want me to just sing praises inside your brain? Geez, that's another level of self-obsession, your ego is so high I bet even I can't reach it!"

"Fine, see if I ever use this dumb spell with you ever again!"

"Like I care, you're the one always asking for support."

They turned away from each other, suddenly quiet enough to hear Moira's snickering.

"Oh goodness, boys, wait, wait," she walked up to them, "it was funny but you're actually mad at each other. C'mon, it was a great day, guys, let's not end like this."

"It wasn't me," they protested in unison, sounding a lot like when fused.

"See? Still in sync," she giggled, then pulled both of them by the hand until she could pass an arm behind each of their necks in a wide hug. "You are literally such perfect partners you made a whole new spell that way. Of course you don't think the same way all the time, that's why you complete each other. Maybe it’s not a spell to use all the time. And Uni is right, you two are always joking around so you have to know how to make up when you go too far."

"It's worse when it's in your brain," Nathan mumbled, "I spent the last two days working on this name stuff."

Moira felt Uni shake at that, and then once more as he sniffled. "Sorry. I liked it. I was having fun."

"Yeah it was fun," Nathan said, reaching a hand out to pull the smaller kid closer, "sorry I blew up on you."

Moira let go of them, and Uni wiped a few tears, Nathan's arm still over him, though the older kid still averted his eyes.

"Anyway, you're happy with the names, right?" he asked loudly once Uni stopped sniffling. "I'm definitely never coming up with this stuff again, we should write them down somewhere."

"It's okay, I'm not gonna forget them," Uni said, but Nathan had already left him and was marching towards the bench he left the dictionary in.

"Nope, no way, I'm not risking, we're writing it down right now!" he said, opening the book and lighting up a spark on his finger. Moira rushed and grabbed him.

"What are you doing that's a library book!" She shook him until he dropped it. Hopefully that hard cover was enough protection. "Geez, be careful with people's stuff. I'll just lend you a page from my grimoire, but no fire, what were you even planning with that?"

"Wait, seriously? But that's like, your most precious thing or something!"

"You guys are too," she said, carefully taking out a blank page of the mentioned book, "and these are some great memories to record. I do want something in return, though."

"Alright, I'll do anything!" he replied immediately. It stunned her a bit, was he that grateful? He took the page from her with unusual gentleness, she didn't realize he cared about her grimoire so much. Or, more likely, cared about how important it was to her.

"Anything, huh?" she leaned forward, eyeing him like a playful cat, a finger under his chin. Normally this was where she'd tease him about kissing her or something, but the whole day had been a lesson on joking too much with people's feelings. Nathan was an awkward mess of a teen and she loved him exactly like that. The kind of love was up for debate, which is why she waited for him to make a move or not, so maybe it wasn't fair to joke around when she was actually counting on him.

The moment really wasn't about her disastrous love sense, she should get back on track.

She straightened her posture again and held her finger up in a lecturing way. "It's been way too long since we had a fun adventure together. You guys work too much, and train too much too. Let's go on a flight this weekend, just explore stuff and have fun! I have a flying spell too after all!"

"Yay!" Uni flung himself into a hug with her. "It's really been so long since we flew together, we used to train all the time!"

"Yeah, you did, that's how you learned to fly really well," Nathan added, looking away, "and I, I kinda used to be jealous of you two." He turned to stare his brother down with a warm smile. "Good thing you're strong enough to carry me around this time, huh?"

"Yup!" And as usual, they had identical smiles.

[starswordartblog]

Late entry for @oc-growth-and-development OCtober day 8: Festival

The festival had been fun. The town of Aceno was alight with magical lanterns and full of color with the flags and decorations placed everywhere. There were plenty of food stands too, to Nathan's joy, and also to his frustration once his money was gone. Because he still preferred to live in the wilderness, he wasn't used to the fact food could be in his reach yet forbidden to get if you couldn't buy. Moira had to dissuade him from stealing a few times, and also spend her own money to appease him a bit. She was kinda angry about it, but well, it was her own decision, and it's not like he didn't share the food, with both her and Uni.

As the sun began to set they had to slow down with the fun, for Uni had become tired and couldn't fly anymore. He couldn't walk with the fish fins he had instead of feet, and while Nathan had been insisting he could carry him around for the rest of the day, Moira wasn't buying it, and convinced them to just sit in the park and relax for a while.

"There, there, you tough boys," she sighed, one hand on her hips and the other handing out some cupcakes, "that was the last of my money, so enjoy it, okay? Don't eat too fast."

"Alright, alright," Nathan mumbled, taking a cupcake, "you're tired to walk but not tired of complaining I guess."

Her eyebrow twitched as she bit back the remarks that he was way sweatier, and breathing way more heavily, and she only pretended to be exhausted so he'd stop being stubborn. Saying all that would just rile him back up, it was easier if he thought he was helping her.

Instead she turned to Uni, who had just taken a small bite of his cupcake too. "Hey, Uni, it is good?" she asked, pointing to the sweet.

"Good!" Despite seeming to be around Nathan's age, Uni wasn't too good with words yet, so it was hard to know if that was an actual answer or just him echoing her word back at her as he tended to do. But he was smiling, so that was good enough for her.

"So, what do we say when someone gives us something good?"

"Thanks!" he answered. She had been teaching him that the whole day, and it seemed to have stuck at last, as he didn't even pause to remember it.

"Yes, yes, you're a nice boy now, Uni," she said, puffing her chest and side-eyeing Nathan. "Someone has to be a good example here."

Uni followed her gaze. "Good example here..." he pointed at Nathan's cupcake, or well, the small part left of it. "Good? Thanks?"

Nathan threw his hands in the air. "Alright I get it! Thank you." He pretty much growled the words at Moira, not meeting her eyes. "For the cupcakes, and all the other food before. For dealing with the money stuff. That I guess was important to you." he added, the words getting softer as he started curling up. But then he snapped back, getting back up to be face to face with her. "I'll get better, okay? I'll get better with it and next time I'll get all the food for you, and that toy you wanted from that shop too! I'll get you anything you want!"

Moira blinked a few times in surprise, having instinctively leaned back a bit from the outburst. Then she giggled, "Geez, you're so intense, it's kinda cute." She then put a hand on his shoulders as he made an indignant noise at that remark. "You don't have to give me anything back, I helped you 'cause I wanted to. You do that all the time too, we're friends. Saying thanks is just so your friends know they did good for you. Then everyone feels nice."

"Everyone feels nice. Was nice today!" Uni added.

Nathan sat back down and slid to his brother's side, ruffling his hair with one hand. "Sure was, buddy!"

Moira smiled fondly at the two kids, before finally sitting down next to her to relax. They were so weird, but being friends with them made her feel free as well. She had never been happier, she would never need any other payment.

[starswordartblog]

For @oc-growth-and-development​‘s OCtober day 13: Grow. Boy did this one grew out of my control, but I swear it gets to the prompt in the end.

Nathan lived in a cave. Well, it could barely be considered a cave actually, it was more of a room-sized hole within the rockier parts of Fortune Forest. But it had enough space for Nathan to sleep and store his stuff in, and was also conveniently in front of a river, so he settled there. His father had taught him the basics of living in the wild, and his magic was enough to drive away any creature that could harm him.

Close by were the taller cliffs and a waterfall too, good for baths and washing things. It was during those chores that he found Uni, little more than a month after settling in.

Nathan loved baths, or at least he loved being in the water, swimming and splashing around. It had been peaceful there every day so far, so he felt okay to let his guard down and relax for a while.

So he was really not prepared for when a body fell on him.

He fell into the water and swam away from the thing in a panicked reaction, but quickly had to get back to surface to gasp for air and cough up the water he had accidentally breathed in. To worsen his terror, he realized the creature had come right to his side.

He kicked away, scrambling to get to the river's margin, his terrified scream coming out as just a raspy noise. In that time, he finally got a good look at the thing, or at least its head, which was the only part of its body above water, much like Nathan himself.

Oddly, its hair was also much like Nathan's, the same short and spiky cut currently hanging down due to being wet, but in a sky blue color in contrast to Nathan's blond. There was a big horn on its forehead, with a rounded tip, and both that and the rest of its skin, that looked scaly like a fish, were a greyish green color, full of brown spots. Its dark eyes were wide open staring back at Nathan with a blank expression.

Since the creature didn't attack, Nathan's fear lowered, which meant there was plenty of space for anger now.

"Hey! You scared the hell outta me you creepy fish! Why did you fall on me!" He screamed while shaking the thing by its shoulders, stopping when it let out a small squeak, its mouth a little open now, gaze still fixed on Nathan.

Nathan let go, having felt something weird under his hands. Over the kid's shoulders were small, delicate brown fins, contrasting against the blue and white fuzzy mark that covered it neck to shoulders, like a puffy cloud.

"Did, did that hurt?" He asked, realizing he must have squeezed those little fins. The thing didn't fight back and looked like a lost kid, so he started to feel bad. "Sorry. Geez, just don't sneak on people like that again."

No answer.

"...You're creepy, you know that?"

"...at?"

"Hey, so you can speak!" he pointed accusingly. "Just say why you fell on me then! I've never seen anyone else here!"

The thing finally turned its gaze away from Nathan's face. It slowly raised its own hand (it had those apparently, regular human hands) from the water, and began looking from hand to hand, slowly stretching some fingers and closing the others, until they were both in the same shape. Then it stretched its arm towards Nathan to complete the gesture.

"Are you copying me?"

"...me?"

"You are! Man, I don't get this! Fish don't copy people! What are you after all?" He asked, shaking his arm in frustration.

The kid didn't answer, only shaking its arm the same way. Then it did it with more strength, splashing more and more water.

Was it playing? Nathan wouldn't mind that. Weirdness aside he thought having company here could be pretty fun. Better than the other kids in town telling him he should stop living like an animal. Although this kid was a fish, or some magical creature, maybe that's why it was okay with this. Nathan loved magical creatures since his father was one, so he was determined to figure out what this one was, and maybe be friends?

He did want a friend. It was lonely there, without his dad.

He grinned, and splashed some water on its face. It didn't even flinch, but stopped moving. Then it copied Nathan again, splashing some droplets on him.

"Stop just copying me, I'm always gonna come up with something stronger!" he scooped a handful of water to throw on its face, then dove, wanting to do a surprise attack next.

They frolicked like that for a long time. Nathan's surprises didn't work well because the fish kid was good at following him, but it also seemed too confused to do anything but that, so as far as Nathan was concerned he was winning.

He didn't realize when, but at some point its face had finally changed too.

"See? That's way less creepy, you're smiling now," he said, pointing at its face. Fish kid stared at his hand for a moment before bumping his own index finger into his. It reminded Nathan of something he'd seen the men in town do sometimes, so he turn his hand into a fist, and sure enough fish kid did the same so they could bump them, laughing.

"Man, that was fun. I still got no clue what you are though. Do you know? Are you human?"

"...uman?"

"Nope, still just copying. Maybe that's your magic? Is there magic to copy things? Maybe I should ask the old men in town, they might know."

He got out of the water, looking for his clothes, and hoping the other kid wouldn't complain about him being naked. His father always told him to have his clothes on around other humans, though he didn't understand why, but fish kid wasn't human so it was fine, right? Also, it was its own fault for sneaking in when he was taking a bath!

He still scrambled as fast as he could to get dressed. Thankfully, they had played for so long that his clothes were already dry from his washing earlier, he didn't even have to use his magic like he usually did.

He turned to call his new friend, "Alright, let's- Whaaaat?"

Behind him, fish kid was now floating. Just a little above the ground, and Nathan realized that, while most of his body was humanoid and the same size as his, it didn't have feet, just two bright blue fins in their place.

"You can fly?"

"..fly?"

"Yeah, fly!" Remembering the kid liked to copy him, he jumped a few times to see if it would get the point, and it did. Its fins kicked up the air behind them and propelled the kid a little higher in the air, almost as if it was still swimming. Nathan was overjoyed, and the kid's smile eventually grew as large as his.

"Guys I found a flying fish!" Nathan screamed as soon as Olden's bar came into view, immediately getting looks from plenty of the dudes drinking there.

Of the mage elders that watched over Fortune Forest, Olden was the one responsible for the mage children. People said that it made no sense then that he managed a bar at the same time, not that Nathan knew what that meant. He did dislike the place and the smells and had even been forbidden from getting a lot of their drinks, but all of civilization was weird to him, so he wasn't sure what it all meant. What actually mattered is that Olden was a great mage and knew lots of things.

"Hey, who the hell is that, kid?" Said one of the dudes around, pointing at the fish kid. "You made some weirdo friend in the woods?"

"Yeah!" he said cheerfully at first, then his eyebrows twitched once he realized the insult. "It's not a weirdo! It's a flying fish!"

"It's, very clearly not a fish," another dude pointed out. "I mean, he's dead-eyed like a fish, sure," he snickered, "but it's just a kid wearing your coat.

"Oh yeah," Nathan said, remembering he had lent the kid his coat since it didn't have any clothes. He pulled the upper part open to expose its shoulders and fins. "See? It's got them on the feet too!" he pointed them out.

The men blinked a few times, looking up and down at the creature, until the first one that had talked rolled his eyes. "Oh, I get it, you're just pulling another prank on us. You shoved some poor kid on a costume because we didn't believe your father was a bird-dog that time."

Nathan grit his teeth, face burning with anger. "He wasn't a bird dog, his wings had scales, not feathers! His feathers were on his tail, that’s what I said!"

"Alright, everyone stop shouting," said Olden, beating his staff on the ground and coming out from the counter. "So Nathan, who is this?"

"Don't know, it fell on me from the waterfall, I thought you would know what it is," he scowled, crossing his arms, clearly in an awful mood after what the other men has said.

The man scratched his long beard, his eyes narrowed. "Well I'm afraid I'm not sure, the forest has never transformed children like this. He can clearly fly, so perhaps he was already changed and got lost from somewhere far away. But strangely enough, I can't feel much power from him. Even though physical changes like this are sign of an overflow..."

Nathan stared agape at the old man for a moment as it clicked.

"Wait, you think this is a mage? A human mage?"

"Human enough. Magic changes people in unique ways, you must get over that if you want to make it as a mage, boy. I've never seen a race of flying fish in the forest in all my years here, so it's more likely that this one is special. We should get a better check on him, to be safe."

Aceno's hospital was one of the few in the country specialized in magical issues, a perk of being next to a legendary forest full of mages. Olden took Nathan and the fish kid there, hoping to get more information on his condition. Even the staff was baffled at his existence though, and could only say that his vitals and magical power seemed stable, so it was likely that he had transformed by someone else's spell instead of his own power running out of control, and thus should be safe.

They apologized for not knowing how to reverse the spell, Nathan didn't know why though. He looked cool that way. But no one cared when he said that.

They had just left the exam room when the room next to it opened, and from it came two mages Nathan already knew.

"Old man Old, whatcha doing here?" Mirian greeted the elder mage with a cheeky smile, but was interrupted by her sister shouting.

"Unicorn boy?"

Moira stared with eyes and mouth wide at the fish kid's horn.

"Wait what?" Nathan had only talked to Moira a few times, even though she was actually his favorite mage of those he had met so far (at least before fish kid). To his despair her sister was a jerk and they were always together, so it was hard to approach her. But he did know she loved unicorns, some kind of magical creature that was, actually just a horse with a horn, and sparkly? He didn't see what the big deal was. "What do you mean, he's not an unicorn, he's a fish!"

"Unicorn fish boy?" She was still in shock, and maybe also in awe? It was kinda fun to watch. He finally understood it was because of the kid's horn.

"God, what have you done?" said Mirian, hiding her face in her hands, "I can't believe this is how today ends."

"What do you mean, mean girl?" he scowled.

"How do you think genius here broke her leg, idiot?"

He blinked, and finally took a good look at Moira. Her hair and clothes were dirty and she had a few scrapes on her arms, but more importantly, said arms were holding crutches, and one of her legs was enveloped in a big white thing.

"That's a broken leg?"

Moira gave a small laugh, her cheeks red. "I went a bit too far in the forest. Thought I'd seen a real one this time."

"Geez, if you were going to climb the cliffs you should have called me, I wanna see what's up there too," Nathan pouted on their way home. Olden had returned to the town, but all the kids were from the forest itself so they could walk together for a while, slowly due to Moira’s current state.

"Aren't you seeing how it ended up," Moira retorted, "and I didn't plan it, it was in the spur of the moment. I saw something shine atop them, and saw something going deep in the forest with a clopping noise, so I thought I should chase them. It was probably just a beast though."

"That sucks."

"Oh, it wasn't that bad, I did make a magical friend," she said, pointing her head upwards. Ever since they left the hospital, a white bird had been flying over them. The few times it had come down, Nathan saw it had a red forehead.

"That bird is magical?"

"Yup, it's a siren pigeon, they follow injured people. Their touch calms you down, and their cries frighten the animals around. This one protected me back then."

Mirian bent down to stare straight at Nathan with a sinister smile. "Actually they just want to be safe to drink the person's blood," she added.

"Whaat?"

Moira giggled. "They're just birds, it’s not like they drink enough to hurt you. Also the blood was already outside me anyway, I’d rather it helped someone."

"I, I see," he said, watching the bird above them in a whole new way. "There sure are a lot of creatures out there, huh."

"It's fun, isn't it?" She smiled. "It's your time to tell your story now, though. Who's your new friend?"

"Oh, right." The fish kid had been quietly behind him all this time, hands on his shoulders. "I don't know much, he fell on me by the waterfall and we became friends. He doesn't talk but he likes copying me, and follows me anywhere. I thought it was some creature from the forest but the old man think it's a mage who turned half fish? I don’t really get it."

Moira bent her neck back as much as she could while on crutches to look at the kid. "Really? Did you get lost in the forest too, boy?"

The kid didn't answer, but slowly slid his arms down against Nathan's body, fully leaning on his back now.

"Huh?" Nathan turned his head to try to look at him. The boy rubbed his cheek against him.

Moira laughed, "that's a weird hug, but it seems he likes you. You're taking him back with you?"

"Yeah, I like him. And the old man said it's better to keep him close to where he was in case someone's looking for him. He's gonna look around the towns to see if anyone's missing a kid too."

"Don't think a transformed kid just 'went missing'", Mirian muttered.

"Huh?"

"Well," Moira interjected loudly, "I'm sure he's gonna fit right in with the rest of us anyway. It's, bad that he can't say his own name though, we can't just call him 'boy' forever. Maybe we should give him a nickname."

"That's true, huh." Nathan took another look at the boy happily slumped against him. His horn stuck out a lot from that angle. "Oh! How about Uni? You called him an unicorn boy, and the old man said he's unique."

Moira gasped, "that's a great name!" She turned to the other boy. "You like it, Uni?”

He didn't answer. Nathan poked his cheek.

"C'mon, copy her, why do you only do that to me? It's your name she's saying, Uni! Uni!"

"...uni! Uni!" He replied, with less hesitation the second time around, rubbing his cheek on Nathan's finger. "Uni! Uni!"

"I think he likes it!" Nathan grinned, and noticed Uni immediately copied the grin.

"Yeah!" Moira had a big smile too. She stared at them a little more before giggling. "You two look like brothers already."

"Brothers?"

"Yeah, I mean, you're going to live together even."

"I don't get it, what's a brother?"

"Uh? Oh, I guess you didn't know what sisters were last time too. It's the same thing, girls are sisters, and boys are brothers. It's when you have the same parents, and grow up together."

Nathan remembered her words, from weeks ago when she had introduced him to Mirian. "We don't have the same parents though." He was adopted though, would his dad also adopt Uni if he asked? He didn't like fish that much, at least as food, but maybe that meant he'd be okay raising one as a son? He couldn’t tell. "But I guess we will grow up together, huh."

At least if they didn't find his parents, and Nathan knew how hard that was. Lots of kids around the forest, including Moira and Mirian, didn't have parents either, though Nathan didn't know the reasons. The elder had once said that the world was harsh, and that's why the mages of Fortune Forest should treat each other as family and help one another. They didn't feel like family though, always calling him a liar and laughing at things he didn't know. The kids were fun to play and fight with, but not nearly as much as his dad, who could make a lesson and a game out of anything and enjoy it so much his laughter shook the forest.

Uni was different though, right? He liked Nathan, and was learning everything from him. That was a lot of responsibility, he was too young to be a dad! But Moira said something about that too, didn't she? An older sister was not a parent, she didn't know as much as the adults, but because of that, she also understood better how the younger one felt. That made them closer as they learned and worked on things. That's what it meant to grow up together.

He thought of him and Uni with identical grins on their faces.

"That would be nice."

[starswordartblog]

For @oc-growth-and-development‘s OCtober day 10: Silence.

A burning joy burst out in a flash So intense and yet it left No matter what it always leaves

And an enduring feeling of triumph was born So quiet yet still not gone No matter what it never goes away

Nathan couldn't remember well the day his father went missing. Actually his memory was terrible in general. How did he get to Fortune Forest after that? Did a kind woman reach out to help him? Did one of the mage elders decide to take him in? Or did he wander off on his own, through many and many places, even though it hadn't been that long? All of those memories felt right and wrong for him.

It was all messy and noisy in his head so he preferred to not think about it too much. But in the rare times it gave him some quiet, a single memory would become clear.

It was a tiny, precious moment of silence.

He laid terrified and hopeless under the night sky, not knowing where to go or what was happening, missing his father's warmth, his fire.

Then fire, though not of his father, shone in the sky.

The brilliant orange embers bloomed in the sky, yet made no sound as would be expected of such blasts. The impossible fireworks filled the sky, boundless light in complete silence. It was not peaceful, and it was not eerie. For a minute, everything in that night simply existed, under the ephemeral moment. Once it faded away everything was still there, just the same, yet not the same, for them had been through it and the contrast between moments made everything look anew.

The silence had echoed his sadness; the fire, his restlessness. Then both were gone, and only warmth was left. In its comfort, he slept peacefully through the terrible night.

Fifty-nine seconds past midnight, the new day had come. The tiny spirit of victory didn't look back as she flew away. The Elemental Spirits —her friends—were gone, had sealed themselves away to delay a curse they could not longer resist. For years they'd suffer, and their children would too suffer, for the sake of their messy plan to fix it all.

She had no part on it. Her kind was powerless against the violence of the human world, and the carnage the final battle would be. But she had to come here at least, in this night, a night that should be hers.

Did her feelings come across to his child at least? Victory would come, even if at the last second. That was her unyielding, enduring existence.

As you lay down picking at your scars When your hope's burned out, Remember every second counts, Remember it all leaves somehow

All the accomplishments you've got And your well-earned pride They still remain right by your side No matter what, I'm never gone

[starswordartblog]

Quick author’s note: this is for @oc-growth-and-development​‘s OCtober prompts, day 4: Nature. I’m glad to be finally writing Moira having speaking lines.

It hadn't been long since Moira and her sister Mirian had come to Fortune Forest. Mirian had already perfectly integrated with the mage community there, which basically meant she was showing off her strength and competing with them over any little thing. Mages had no interest in self control, it seemed.

Moira wasn't much into all that rowdiness, and was content for now to stay in the sidelines as Mirian's cute little sister to anyone who cared to look. That didn't mean she wasn't enjoying magic though. She loved all the different kinds of powers that were there, how they all seemed like a part of who the user was. Mirian, always so bossy and rebellious, could animate anything around her to be a servant or a weapon. The graceful and dignified Rita could control gravity to fly and twirl weightless. The easygoing Evelyn could manipulate luck and always had some random fun thing going on for her.

Moira wanted to have something like that, too. To express herself so freely in her own way. Not to pick fights or scare others when angry or nothing hurtful, just to make her happy memories and feelings shine. That's why she had started her little grimoire. She would fill it with happiness, page by page. She strolled through the usual road between the forest and the nearest town, humming a cheerful tune, intending to pick up some groceries. 

She was distracted by the smell of smoke coming from somewhere off the road. Had there been an incident in some nearby farm? She became worried and rushed to look.

Thankfully, it was nothing so terrible. Like most things in Fortune Forest, it was just a mage doing their thing. A boy who looked around Moira's age was shooting fireball after fireball on the trees and rocks nearby. Both things had papers stuck on them with target marks. Target practice then, but, even when he didn't hit the targets with the balls themselves, some of the sparks that flew from them would, and the paper would quickly burn anyway. Not a well thought exercise...

"You're not gonna burn down the fields, are you?" Was what she decided to comment on instead, for it was a much more pressing issue. Sure, this region was rocky and the trees sparse, but not very far from there were patches of lush grass and then the town's farms. If he was powerful and careless enough (and he looked like it) he could do some serious damage.

"Hey, I said I'd stay from-" he started angrily, then cut himself as he got a better look on her. "Oh. You're not that farmer. Wait, so there's more than one? I can't stay here hearing complaints all day!" The anger was immediately back. His personality was already very obvious: a hotheaded fire mage.

Moira smiled. "I guess I'm not the first to warn you then." She came closer. "I'm no farmer though, I just live around here. My name is Moira. What about yours?"

"I'm Nathan," he said, then scowled. "So, you think I'm gonna burn your house down? I know where I'm shooting at, geez. Also I didn't even see any houses around here."

"Sorry, I wasn't insulting your aim or anything," she clarified. Last thing she wanted was an offended fiery mage trying to prove himself. "I was just worried about how far the fire can spread, that's all. Though come to think of it, does magical fire spread the same way normal fire does? I'm not sure." Her sister was the one who devoured magical books for breakfast, Moira had learned only tidbits from her and other mages she'd befriended.

"Well, it can, when you use magic it's always easier to work with nature than against it," he explained naturally, lighting a finger on fire, "so if you use fire it's gonna want to do what fire does. But if you're a great enough mage," he grinned, "you can get it to burn wherever you want." To make his point, he pressed his finger on the tip of a leaf of the tree above them. Instead of burning the whole leaf, the ember crossed in a straight line only in the middle, burning it until it split into two halves and fell. The original ember remained at the final spot, flickering.

"'Course, if you're a great mage you can also make a lot of it." The remaining ember then exploded into way more flames, burning down almost the whole tree. Moira couldn't help letting out a little squeak at the destruction. But as she stared at the aftermath, she realized that whatever else had caught fire by the sparks didn't burn for long.

"Well, that sure was impressive," she said, only a bit shaken. Living with her sister had prepared her for such displays of power. "It must be really useful to control it that way, you can go on the offense but you can also protect people from it!"

His smile had gone from cocky from just plain gleeful. "Awesome, isn't it? Though I haven't really protected people so far, I think, I just have to know how to not burn down a forest every training, or else I wouldn't have anywhere to live." He crossed his arms and looked away. "I'm not saying I don't, I, I could protect anyone if I had to, okay? I'm gonna learn how to do all the other fire things one day, I'm, I'm just better at burning."

"I'm sure you will, since you seem to be working hard at it," Moira said, patting his shoulder lightly, even if she didn't quite get why he got so upset. "What are the other fire things though?"

"Well, the other fire things are, uh," he hesitated at first, then started listing them as naturally as his last explanation. "It light up places, it warms you up, it keeps you safe, because it keeps the beasts away, so fire is peace too. Fire is home."

"Home?"

"Yeah, home. It's your food and your warmth and your sleep."

"Oh!" something lit up in Moira's mind. "That's right! I knew I had something like that in my grimoire, let me show you!" she took out the thin book from her backpack and started flipping pages. Nathan, eyes wide as soon as she mentioned a grimoire, stared at it over her shoulder.

"That's a grimoire? I've never seen one so full of pictures." he commented. Moira's grimoire was nothing but drawings she had made of memories precious to her.

She stopped at a page that was mostly painted black. Some brown tree branches stuck out from the sides, with an owl perched on each of them. In the center were two stick figures huddled together, covered with a blanket, in front of a campfire.

It was a scene from Moira and Mirian's travels before getting to Fortune Forest. Moira had loved all the places they'd been, getting to enjoy the wonders of the wilderness, her sister always there to protect her.

"See, here it is! Memory Spell: Owl Campfire."

The spell draw forth Moira's feelings. The illusion of a dark night, the hooting of the owls, the feeling of someone's fingers running through your hair, the crackling of the fire and its shapes, getting blurrier and softer as the sleepiness grew. Moira looked at it lovingly, just like she once did at the real thing.

"So, this is what you meant, ri-" she turned to Nathan, but the boy wasn't there. He was sprawled in the floor, completely knocked out.

Moira turned off the spell, silently covering her mouth. She poked him, and he didn't react, looking so peaceful and so out of the world. What would she do? She would feel bad waking him up, and even worse leaving him all alone there...

She sighed and sat down next to him. Her groceries wouldn't get done that day, it seemed.