L [o/i] ve is a journey

Departure

Departure

„Corsa!" Nerivie yelled, and the water affiliation magician reacted quickly. The three of them have been going back and fourth on the trade routes, eliminating all kinds of washed up threats: Purple Poison Dryads, that developed from seed pods the flood brought, large numbers of Sand Scorpions that came down from their safe positions and feasted on what had died during the flush, all kinds of animals and monsters. So Corsa knew exactly what Nerivie meant with her yell.

The Giant Sand Wyrm, a normal inhabitant of the desert that only wakes up when the sand is still moist, suddenly froze over. The hard and durable scales it covered its whole body with became encased in ice, except one part on the body: it's neck, around the forth or fifth vertebra, where one of the scale offered an easy target when it held the head in a specific position.

And Corsa had frozen the ten meter giant exactly in a way like that. He watched how Nerivie pulled her small sword from her side, and also saw, how quickly Lunaris blessed her with a multitude of spells, before he, too, pulled a sword.

Nerivie's attack fixed the „faulty" scale even more to an angle, where a sword, even by an untrained hand, could disconnect the spinal cord at this point very easily. It was a one two punch, and so, the Giant Sand Wyrm went down.

Corsa allowed himself falling back to his butt and breathing heavy. „Damn! Why are these always so annoying? Everytime you aim at them, they just vanish underground! This took so long until I was able to hit it!"

„Fights like this are often about who loses attention first due to exhaustion." Nerivie said, also sitting in the sand, hugging the still frozen Wyrm.

„So, this thing was done the moment it forgot I was here, too?" there was a sign of disbelief in his voice.

„These are animals, Corsa. They hunt like that. And this desert hunts them. Of course you are food the moment you forget that." Nerivie answered, and Lunaris nodded strongly in approval.

„Damn, I never thought I have to mentally outmaneuver a fricking scaled sand worm!"

Ah,worms should be easy for you, even if your light bulb is a small one! Lunaris thought and chuckled. Despite his initial frustration over Corsa, Lunaris thought of him in a more friendly manner, and had learnt a lot about magic from him. The routines of when a spell was best to be used, when to use a blessing, and when a curse. Sure, it's not bad to use everything, but sometimes, it's just overkill.

And Lunaris, who started out as somebody who was not really able to judge the strenght of an opponent, and thus just threw out every curse and blessing he knew onto the monster and his friends, got really good at it. Not only got the fights easier for him, but he also felt more likely to feel the physical exhaustion kicking in before the mental one became an issue.

But that was no wonder, with all the muscles and strenght he had build, additonally to his agility and reflexes. The young man Nerivie bought on an auction nearly two years ago, who was once mal-nourished and shy had become a well standing, and quite good magician of the light element. Sure, he still had to learn a lot, but by now he had gained the confidence of somebody who knew it was a doable task.

More than that, Lunaris had deepened his knowledge in herbal lore, medicine, and general alchemy. And he was still a great cook.

The way he carried himself, the way he looked into the world, had changed nearly completly, and some people teached him the local sign language, just so he can talk with them.

„This was the last, right?" Corsa asked, while Lunaris measured the pieces he wanted to turn into tonight's dinner.

„I hope so." Nerivie said.

„Too bad. I really enjoyed fighting along side with you."

Lunaris stopped trying to figure out, how he best set the cut, without scraping the scales. True, he thought sad, it was a lot of fun, and I really wanted to get a little more of these with the small braincase candle. He looked at Corsa, trying to come up with something he could say in a short word, maybe two, but his head was empty.

„Yeah, that is sad." Nerivie said with the same undertone of melancholy.

„I am gonna make a feast from that. Not sure if the pickled dryads are done, but this is gonna be some great grilled steaks." Lunaris spoke his thoughts out loud, in Viriyasci.

„That's a great idea!" Nerivie shouted happy, „Lunaris said he's gonna turn this one in a feast."

„I swear, I never thought I would ever say this, but these scorpions, and wyrms, and snakes and all have been the best meals I had for my whole travel so far. I don't know how I could ever go back to the old firecamp grilled whatevers." Corsa sighed and Lunaris chuckled.

Yeah, I belong to my lady! And I just cook for her. But for this evening, Lunaris had found the perfect entry point, and blessed his blade with extra sharpness, lifted the sword he had found back in the dragon's slime hoard, I, just for this once, will cook also for you! He ended his thoughts with a clean, swift cut, and took out the best pieces to be thrown on an epic fire.

A fire, and steaks worthy of a night before departure.