Sparking two pieces of rock together in order to create friction, the soft tapping could be heard throughout the surrounding area, bouncing as an echo between the trees of the pink forest. Feeling like using his magic to start a fire was a lazy abuse of his abilities, Solmar kept increasing the pace until sparks started bouncing off of them. Doing his best to aim them into a small nest of twigs, thick tufts of animal hair and some dried reeds, the ancient method of making fire paid off as one of the sparks managed to set it alight. Starting as a small flicker, it eventually grew up into a full fledged campfire. Tossing the rocks into the fire as he had no need for them anymore, the young mage took it upon himself to put some more branches and carved up logs onto it to keep it going strong for at least another hour. Having eaten the leftovers they brought back with them from their trip to Hargeon to get his passport, Fellis had already fallen asleep in the abandoned bear den behind him.
Due to the strategic placement of the den entrance being underneath a cliff that stuck out about two meters and acted as a make-shift roof when he sat outside, Solmar knew that any predators would have a hard time sneaking up on him while at the same time keeping him mostly dry if he did not feel like going inside and sleeping just yet. Tonight was one of those nights where Solmar just started a fire so that he could just peer into the bright flame, hear the flickering as the wood was being eaten away by it while just pondering on what was to happen next.
Lately, Solmar and Fellis' lives had become very eventful to say the least. Despite being wanderers, they had managed to find this place where they were now staying in the middle of the woods and saw it as a place they could call home, even though it might not last for that long. Being amidst a great abundance of food and a great many learning opportunities, one of the main reasons why they settled here was because it was so far removed from most human cities, villages and townships. Though there were some roads connecting places leading throughout the forest, they had been far enough removed from them to not run into them if they did not want to do so, which had probably been the exact same reason why the bear who had originally made the den they now used as well. Just as most wild animals did not care for the company of humans, so did Solmar not really care much for them, though this was not so much a reason of survival as it was for the earlier stated animals.
No, he was quite aware of what had been done to people by the thing that had attached itself to his body, the demonic parasite called Vetis. Though his mind had repressed a lot of the things he had seen happening before his own eyes as a child, one would never forget the feeling of being able to feel everything and see everything that happened, yet not be able to do a damn thing about it as their own body was being used to murder those closest to him. The first to fall before him had been his own parents, who had nearly cried their eyes out when they saw what the demon had done to their son. Encasing their body in an ivory white chitinous armor, they knew at that moment that they should probably have gotten rid of him as the town elder had told them to.
Having been born a child of the eclipse, Solmar was born at the time of the sun being darkened, blocked out by the moon and casting a temporary shadow over their world. The people from his town believed that those born during such an event were cursed as their birth also brought a demon from another realm into being. Being an incredibly superstitious kind of people, the men and women of his home town believed in a great deal of outlandish stories that were even harder to believe than the one that came before it. As such, his parents at the time had chosen to keep the child as he had been born healthy. For several years, they treated their son as your average human child, showing no signs of being possessed or in any way being threatening at all. At the same time, Solmar showed no signs of being a mage either, which was in and of itself quite odd considering how many people were born with innate magical properties at the time. No one realized that all that time, the demon was just siphoning his magic in order to take control for however long it could manage.
When it did in fact manage to do so, his parents were the first to die, followed by the neighbors and their daughters, people he literally ran into on the streets and more. Though not all were killed, plenty had just been maimed horribly and left for dead as the demon did not kill to feed or out of necessity, just for sport and fun. Even now, over ten years after this had happened, he still got shivers when he thought about it, remembering the look of utter dread in his parents' eyes when they were torn to ribbons and beaten to a bloody pulp with his own two hands. It went without saying that he had spent the better part of an hour afterwards just violently scrubbing his hands and washing his body clean of all of the blood. Truth be told, he never truly felt clean after that day ever again.
Often finding himself dreaming of how things had gone and waking up in a cold sweat, not a day goes by that he does not think about how things could have gone differently, or how he could have made the world a better place by killing himself and the demon Vetis along with him. Thankfully, the demon slayer magic he had obtained had more or less burned the creature out of him, at least for the most part as Solmar could no longer feel him, but remained mindful of the fact that the demon was a trickster who might not just give up on trying to obtain his body for itself.
Looking back into the bear den, he watched as Fellis was laying on Solmar's thick fur coat, which he coincidentally started using as a blanket as well. Before he met Fellis, all he had really wanted to do was either to find a way to rid himself of the demon, or to kill himself. Being too much of a coward to do the latter, he just started living as someone who had no concern for his own life, which was arguably what had allowed him to survive this long in the first place. Had it not been for the Exceed, there was no telling where he might have ended up. The way he saw it, when he was alone, his life was just his. He could do whatever he wanted with it and use it however he pleased. He could wear himself out or get cut to ribbons and it wouldn't matter to anyone, as he inconsequential due to being just that, alone. But these days, fighting like death did not concern him had become a thing of the past, seeing as it was no longer just him who would have to deal with the consequences of his actions.
Turning his head back to the fire, he gazed into it as his pondering continued. Thinking of how he had mostly abandoned that old way of life, he had even stopped wandering so much, instead settling down in this bear den for an undetermined amount of time. From there, he had spent some time and effort teaching Fellis how to fish and take notes from place to place, as long as it wasn't too far for him. In Solmar's attempt to make Fellis less reliant on him to survive, the young mage had even started making contact with people again. Starting out small, doing things like buying groceries instead of just eating whatever he could catch or forage, things had gradually changed to the point where he started to care enough to help people out with chores. Though that did not mean that he had changed, the fact that he had actively tried to keep a tribe of Kappa on the brink of extinction from dying out entirely or started a feud with the people of Cedar was.
In a way, he had seen the Kappa, the people of Cedar, Hosenka and the Beanstalk and Hunting villages as replacements. They were to act as the people he had killed and hurt when he was not in control of his body, or at least serve to easy his guilt. Having worked his ass off to keep the fishermen of Cedar from going out of work, he had nearly died trying to keep the Kappa from dying out. Teaching them the same things he had learned that allowed him to survive in the wilderness, things such as hunting and fishing, he taught them how to take care of themselves without clashing with the people of Cedar. Perhaps more importantly, he had put an end to an undead creature that had been stalking the main route from the smaller villages to Hosenka and Cedar, killing well over forty merchants, hunters and other travelers before it finally got put back to rest. The thanks he had received from that, though not overly abundant, had still given him a really good feeling about himself, and that was something he had not experienced for several years.
When he thought about it more, he figured that he did not really care much for feeling good, though he cared about not feeling bad or depressed over things that were entirely out of his control. Getting up and putting out the fire with one snap of his fingers, he took one more look around before heading into the bear den. Carefully lifting the fur coat and hopping under it for some much needed warmth and comfort, he tried his damndest not to wake up Fellis. While carelessly snoring away, the cat still somehow sensed that Solmar had gone down for the night, moving ever so slightly towards him and curling up on his chest. Placing his hands under his head, he just looked outside throughout the den and pondered on what was to come tomorrow. One thing was certain, if he was to maintain a steady line of positivity in his life, he should at the very least try and stay on his present course of action and not leave things to chance. Throughout Fiore, he figured there were plenty of people who might need his help, and monsters such as the zombie wolf in need of slaying.
As a demon slayer, he figured that that meant that it was a task specifically meant for him, as his still untrained magic was meant for such things. Deciding at that point that if he wanted to help others and slay dark beings in the process, that he would first need to better understand and control the magic he possessed, tomorrow would be the first of many days he'd spend training in a terrain that was far from ideal to a fire mage such as himself. The mountains to the south called the Phoenix Mountains should do the trick, or so he hoped. With that thought in mind, Solmar followed Fellis' example and quietly dozed off to sleep. And for the first time in weeks or even months, he was allowed to sleep soundly without being plagued by any of the recurring nightmares raving in the back of his mind.
-End of Thread-
(2008)
Due to the strategic placement of the den entrance being underneath a cliff that stuck out about two meters and acted as a make-shift roof when he sat outside, Solmar knew that any predators would have a hard time sneaking up on him while at the same time keeping him mostly dry if he did not feel like going inside and sleeping just yet. Tonight was one of those nights where Solmar just started a fire so that he could just peer into the bright flame, hear the flickering as the wood was being eaten away by it while just pondering on what was to happen next.
Lately, Solmar and Fellis' lives had become very eventful to say the least. Despite being wanderers, they had managed to find this place where they were now staying in the middle of the woods and saw it as a place they could call home, even though it might not last for that long. Being amidst a great abundance of food and a great many learning opportunities, one of the main reasons why they settled here was because it was so far removed from most human cities, villages and townships. Though there were some roads connecting places leading throughout the forest, they had been far enough removed from them to not run into them if they did not want to do so, which had probably been the exact same reason why the bear who had originally made the den they now used as well. Just as most wild animals did not care for the company of humans, so did Solmar not really care much for them, though this was not so much a reason of survival as it was for the earlier stated animals.
No, he was quite aware of what had been done to people by the thing that had attached itself to his body, the demonic parasite called Vetis. Though his mind had repressed a lot of the things he had seen happening before his own eyes as a child, one would never forget the feeling of being able to feel everything and see everything that happened, yet not be able to do a damn thing about it as their own body was being used to murder those closest to him. The first to fall before him had been his own parents, who had nearly cried their eyes out when they saw what the demon had done to their son. Encasing their body in an ivory white chitinous armor, they knew at that moment that they should probably have gotten rid of him as the town elder had told them to.
Having been born a child of the eclipse, Solmar was born at the time of the sun being darkened, blocked out by the moon and casting a temporary shadow over their world. The people from his town believed that those born during such an event were cursed as their birth also brought a demon from another realm into being. Being an incredibly superstitious kind of people, the men and women of his home town believed in a great deal of outlandish stories that were even harder to believe than the one that came before it. As such, his parents at the time had chosen to keep the child as he had been born healthy. For several years, they treated their son as your average human child, showing no signs of being possessed or in any way being threatening at all. At the same time, Solmar showed no signs of being a mage either, which was in and of itself quite odd considering how many people were born with innate magical properties at the time. No one realized that all that time, the demon was just siphoning his magic in order to take control for however long it could manage.
When it did in fact manage to do so, his parents were the first to die, followed by the neighbors and their daughters, people he literally ran into on the streets and more. Though not all were killed, plenty had just been maimed horribly and left for dead as the demon did not kill to feed or out of necessity, just for sport and fun. Even now, over ten years after this had happened, he still got shivers when he thought about it, remembering the look of utter dread in his parents' eyes when they were torn to ribbons and beaten to a bloody pulp with his own two hands. It went without saying that he had spent the better part of an hour afterwards just violently scrubbing his hands and washing his body clean of all of the blood. Truth be told, he never truly felt clean after that day ever again.
Often finding himself dreaming of how things had gone and waking up in a cold sweat, not a day goes by that he does not think about how things could have gone differently, or how he could have made the world a better place by killing himself and the demon Vetis along with him. Thankfully, the demon slayer magic he had obtained had more or less burned the creature out of him, at least for the most part as Solmar could no longer feel him, but remained mindful of the fact that the demon was a trickster who might not just give up on trying to obtain his body for itself.
Looking back into the bear den, he watched as Fellis was laying on Solmar's thick fur coat, which he coincidentally started using as a blanket as well. Before he met Fellis, all he had really wanted to do was either to find a way to rid himself of the demon, or to kill himself. Being too much of a coward to do the latter, he just started living as someone who had no concern for his own life, which was arguably what had allowed him to survive this long in the first place. Had it not been for the Exceed, there was no telling where he might have ended up. The way he saw it, when he was alone, his life was just his. He could do whatever he wanted with it and use it however he pleased. He could wear himself out or get cut to ribbons and it wouldn't matter to anyone, as he inconsequential due to being just that, alone. But these days, fighting like death did not concern him had become a thing of the past, seeing as it was no longer just him who would have to deal with the consequences of his actions.
Turning his head back to the fire, he gazed into it as his pondering continued. Thinking of how he had mostly abandoned that old way of life, he had even stopped wandering so much, instead settling down in this bear den for an undetermined amount of time. From there, he had spent some time and effort teaching Fellis how to fish and take notes from place to place, as long as it wasn't too far for him. In Solmar's attempt to make Fellis less reliant on him to survive, the young mage had even started making contact with people again. Starting out small, doing things like buying groceries instead of just eating whatever he could catch or forage, things had gradually changed to the point where he started to care enough to help people out with chores. Though that did not mean that he had changed, the fact that he had actively tried to keep a tribe of Kappa on the brink of extinction from dying out entirely or started a feud with the people of Cedar was.
In a way, he had seen the Kappa, the people of Cedar, Hosenka and the Beanstalk and Hunting villages as replacements. They were to act as the people he had killed and hurt when he was not in control of his body, or at least serve to easy his guilt. Having worked his ass off to keep the fishermen of Cedar from going out of work, he had nearly died trying to keep the Kappa from dying out. Teaching them the same things he had learned that allowed him to survive in the wilderness, things such as hunting and fishing, he taught them how to take care of themselves without clashing with the people of Cedar. Perhaps more importantly, he had put an end to an undead creature that had been stalking the main route from the smaller villages to Hosenka and Cedar, killing well over forty merchants, hunters and other travelers before it finally got put back to rest. The thanks he had received from that, though not overly abundant, had still given him a really good feeling about himself, and that was something he had not experienced for several years.
When he thought about it more, he figured that he did not really care much for feeling good, though he cared about not feeling bad or depressed over things that were entirely out of his control. Getting up and putting out the fire with one snap of his fingers, he took one more look around before heading into the bear den. Carefully lifting the fur coat and hopping under it for some much needed warmth and comfort, he tried his damndest not to wake up Fellis. While carelessly snoring away, the cat still somehow sensed that Solmar had gone down for the night, moving ever so slightly towards him and curling up on his chest. Placing his hands under his head, he just looked outside throughout the den and pondered on what was to come tomorrow. One thing was certain, if he was to maintain a steady line of positivity in his life, he should at the very least try and stay on his present course of action and not leave things to chance. Throughout Fiore, he figured there were plenty of people who might need his help, and monsters such as the zombie wolf in need of slaying.
As a demon slayer, he figured that that meant that it was a task specifically meant for him, as his still untrained magic was meant for such things. Deciding at that point that if he wanted to help others and slay dark beings in the process, that he would first need to better understand and control the magic he possessed, tomorrow would be the first of many days he'd spend training in a terrain that was far from ideal to a fire mage such as himself. The mountains to the south called the Phoenix Mountains should do the trick, or so he hoped. With that thought in mind, Solmar followed Fellis' example and quietly dozed off to sleep. And for the first time in weeks or even months, he was allowed to sleep soundly without being plagued by any of the recurring nightmares raving in the back of his mind.
-End of Thread-
(2008)
