moira

four

Bright and early, we started walking again, moving through forests and meadows of tall grasses and flowers of different shapes and sizes. We were starting to get hungry and I have heard howls in the same direction we were going. Beasts standing as tall as some of these trees were huddled together and I pulled out my knife, although Shoto beat me to it, pulling out his sword and a blaze erupted from it. One stab at the beast and the fire travels up the sword, going inside of the beast and cooking it from the inside out. He does it about 3 more times. I go up to them each, one by one, and skin them with my knife. Shoto gets to take a break and I get to carefully cut the fur off and collect the meat.

"I didn't know you could control the flames of your sword." I commented, cutting one of the beasts into smaller pieces and putting them into a spare bottle. This won't keep it fresh for anymore than a couple of days, but between the two of us, we'd be able to eat it before then. I moved onto the next beast and did the same thing.

"I haven't learned much, but I used to only use the ice. I met an adventurer and he told me I need to stop being stupid and just use both so I alternate them now. I was training to do both simultaneously before all of this." He said, looking at his sword and cleaning it. "Why are you good at skinning?"

"I'm a forest person, I help do it when the hunters bring in their catches. We use the whole animal or beast." I said, though I don't think it's a big deal. I move onto the next one and after this, there's one more. Luckily, we can just eat these two. These beasts don't produce as much meat as a beast in our world, probably because fairies don't need to eat much. They're very small. A whole beast could feed one village, if it was made of a thousand fairies.

"So what's it like to be a witch?" Shoto spoke up, sheathing his sword and standing up, though I hear his footsteps behind me as he crouches down at the last beast I skinned. The fur looks as if it's disappearing quickly, like the magic here is sucking it up to re-use it as magical energy.

"Always feeling magic surging through your body like an energy, constantly. We do make spells and potions, but we don't dabble in black magic. That's the evil and only witches that lost their minds and shuts themselves away from the rest of the forest people. Nothing influences them and those are the witches we don't associate ourselves with, the ones that don't deserve second chances." I stopped what I was doing and looked up at him, he looked over at me.

"So... there's good and bad witches? The bad ones lose their minds and become this secluded beings with dark magic, and the good ones remain in the forest and keep everything well maintained?" He asked and I continued my work.

I nodded, "Witches and forest people work together. They're the ones that keep the forest healthy and we help them with our magic when things die unnaturally. They allow us to live on their land. We have jobs. Hunters, gatherers, cooks, healers, anything you could really think of." I stopped what I was doing again and leaned towards him, still crouched by the dead beast. "Your turn." I go back to tending to the beast before standing up and moving to the next. The beast I skinned last, doesn't disappear and sparkle like the other two, just because our intention is to eat. Shoto quickly asks if that was his, to eat and I nod. He sits and begins his meal, waiting for me to continue. "How old are you?"

As of right now, I'm 16, but I'll be 17 come next year." He said in a soft tone of voice, feeling a little embarrassed at the question. He's young, but not much younger than me. We're a year apart. "How old are you?" He finally asked after a moment of silence that passed by, sounding a bit curious too. I guess that makes sense. I finished and sat down to eat, making note to clean my knife afterwards.

"17. I turn older in the spring during the blossoms, I'll be 18 then." I started eating, eyeing Shoto carefully. He nods as he takes another bite. It's not that bad, considering he cooked the meat, basically. No herbs or seasoning, but that doesn't matter. It's juicy and I think I could stand that.

"So can I ask you one thing? Sorry if it's weird or anything." He threw another bite into his mouth. "Do you think, at any point, you could show me some of your magic? Please ignore me if that's too much to ask for though." He said, sounding a bit apologetic, not wanting to be seen as rude or anything.

I thought for a moment, while I ate and ate, and while he did as well. "Maybe when we get back to our own world." I leaned back onto my hands and closed my eyes for a brief moment. "Hey, by the way. Why are you like a completely different person? You were more rude and snarky and mean in our own world." I peaked an eye open and looked at him. He wasn't looking at me, just staring daggers into his meat.

He shrugged, refusing to look at me. "Well, I'm not sure honestly? But I guess it's just because there's no reason to be mean or rude here, you know? There's no one to dislike me or anything. No one to be rude to. This feeling I'm feeling is better than doing my usual mean guy routine."

"I think the fairy dust is getting to you." I opened my eyes completely and tilted my head towards him. "I don't have a problem not getting affected because I'm a witch and magic like this flows through me, 24/7. But for you? You only hold a sword with your elemental magic in it. You don't have magic within you, just the genetics and your swords." I sat up and picked apart at the last few pieces, eating the rest as to not waste.

He nodded, shrugging again. "Maybe." Is all he said before he finished as well, getting up to dust himself off. I got up too, grabbing my knife and cleaning it off. The two beasts we ate off of started the routine of disappearing, turning into little glitters and shimmers. I sighed, putting my knife away and taking a big stretch.

"Let's get walking, shall we? We still have very long to go." I said, looking over at him. He nods again, not saying anything and follows when I start walking. I could see the mountain with the rift atop from here, still a bit of a distance away.