Love That Brings Danger

While not particularly in any kind of hurry, a dark and hooded figure made his way through the forest region. Chasing down individuals known for their affiliation with a group known as Blighters Vine, the dark guild who had tried taking over part of Tolgalen while clearly having no idea of the resistance they would be meeting there. As various mages had fended off their assault, they seemed to belong to a group of their own which did not condone acts such as killing, which seemed incredibly peculiar to the young mage. After all, when something was sick or twisted beyond return, the kind thing to do was to root it out so no others might suffer because of them. Often, an idea could be compared to a sickness as it grew in potency, spread to other people who would be susceptible to it and grow out either into something great or something dangerous. In the case of these Blighters Vine folk, the latter was clearly the case as they had grossly overestimated their own capabilities and underestimated that of their adversaries.

Now, they were decimated as two of them had been killed, many had been injured and taken to prison or willingly surrendered and got sent to prison as well, though still others had chosen to run away. With regards to the killing, the only reason why but two of them had been murdered was because Solmar had not been allowed to do so to the rest, which really did not sit well with him. Still, as he was in a foreign land he knew little to nothing about, he had chosen to comply with these demands, even though just that had almost pushed him into conflict with the local protectors for thinking themselves above him. If anything, they were equals in most rights, at least until a real fight were to break out where he would be able to prove that he was no underdog. Luckily for everyone, it never came down to that and the siege was broken relatively easily. While the others did not much care for the stragglers, Solmar merely kept his peace before making his way out and hunting them down on his own.

After all, no one would be any the wiser if he were to dispatch them on his own. That said, to him, this seemed like the wise thing to do for the simplest of reasons. If they were to regroup, no one would stop them from trying something like it again. This time though, they could make an attempt on a smaller location like a town or village while planning their attack a lot better than they had before. As proven, these people shared the same illness, the idea that they could take over a place that was not theirs and make it their own. Progressing deeper and deeper into the woods, he found himself enjoying it very little. Normally, he would love being in a place such as this, but having to hunt down filth made it so that he could not revel in nature the way he normally would. At this point, he was just getting angry about having to be angry, and that was never a good thing. So when his nose picked up on something entirely out of the ordinary, at least for a forest, he decided to follow it.

From what he could tell, one the other side of these trees, someone was cooking dinner. Due to the time of day and the possibility that the men and women he chased might not have been aware of them being followed by a bloodhound like Solmar, they might have taken the time to camp out and prepare dinner. Regardless of being right or wrong about his assessment, he wandered through the foliage and gradually made his way out on the other side, which was where the cook would be located if he was to believe his nose and ears. As soon as he popped on out, he would not even bother assessing the situation or how many people he was to be dealing with, knowing that there was not a single mage in Blighters Vine he could not take on. Stating the only question worth asking, he burst out of the treeline and into the open.

"You, what guild do you belong to?"


(738)

While he could clearly tell that something was going on around here, namely with this person, it did not seem like he was making himself appear as a threat. There was something about his voice that made Solmar believe that something here was out of the ordinary, not how it was supposed to be. However, since he sensed no clear signs of hostility or killing intent from this person, there was really no purpose in treating the guy like a threat. That said though, he still would treat him with a bit of distrust, at least until he could fully rule out the possibility of him being a spy for the dark mages or being a dark mage himself. Since he called himself a member of the trading company, the young black haired magus was put at easy a bit more as the members of Blighters Vine were not all that aware of the guild being present in Tolgalen at the time of their attack, meaning the guy had either overheard it in town or was actually a member of it. Right now though, that did not matter a whole lot.

What did matter was that he was invited to have a seat and have something to eat. Given his own nearly insatiable appetite that allowed him to eat pretty much whenever and wherever, part of him wanted to see what this guy’s cooking skills were like, though it wasn’t as simple as that for him. As he pondered further on what to do, the singing had stopped as the strange creature looked him over, apparently being called “Wind”. Though the name itself seemed quite simplistic in nature, there was a chance that it was hiding something more powerful underneath the simplicity. Deciding to leave it at that as it didn’t really impress him all that much at this point, he coalesced a bit of his magic into the palm of his hand. Though it might have given one the impression that he was up to something assertive, he instead pointing his arm straight up into the air and firing the compressed ball of fire into it. Once it reached a certain height, he snapped his fingers and caused the ball to explode like a flare. Though it might have been a long shot, there was a chance that it would pull some stragglers to him.

“Hmm… if your cooking is any good, I’ll consider staying around for a bit, though I’ve still got more to do before the day ends. With a bit of luck, my query will come to me.”

Making it very clear that there was a very realistic chance that he wouldn’t be staying due to the fact that he was quite busy, it was also no surprise to many that Solmar wasn’t much of a vegetarian. He enjoyed meat, believing that everything else was merely a side dish unless there was no meat to be found, rather than eating vegetables and the like because he enjoyed them so much. That said, if this strange person who seemed to talk to his food before preparing it was any good as a cook, that just might change. The past couple of years had taught him to be open to things and be less dismissing before actually giving things a shot, so that would be exactly what he’d do, even though that did not make the situation any less odd. Though Solmar could also communicate with nature, he had never bothered conversing with a vegetable for obvious reasons. It was, after all, but a portion of a larger whole, so it would be like talking to someone’s finger when they could be talking to the actual person. For now though, he’d keep his cool and just go along with things as they came at him.

“If you’re truly with the company, I’ll have some of whatever is ready for now. I’ve been chasing some loons for a while now and its left my stomach rumbling for the past hour, so make it snappy!”


(676 // 1414)

“Guess you’re not one of those vermin, they wouldn’t have had the guts to speak up in fear of dying like some of their fellow bottom-feeders. That said, they were aware of some of the things I could do, whereas you… probably don’t. So I’ll excuse the rudeness, this time at least.”

Entirely blocking out the thought of his own rudeness, he wasn’t so much used to asking things of people. Solmar was used to ordering people around as the ones he dealt with up until now were tavern or store owners who did not mind him being to the point since he was paying for it with actual money. Knowing what they were capable of, he never really had a whole lot of respect for people as they in turn had no respect for things such as nature or animals. Most of them behaved like the only things that mattered in this world were the things they personally owned, which was why so many of them put up requests for jobs from capable mages. At this point in time, he couldn’t even tell how many requests had passed through his fingers, or how many of them he had passed up because they were entirely self-serving and came at the expense of someone or something else. Killing animals, rooting out plants or routing a monster that was being a bother to people. When he looked into things, they always had more going on than one might realize at first.

As such, most of the run of the mill mages would go in head first, ignorantly cutting down creatures, monsters and portions of natural life so they could earn themselves a bit of extra status within specific social circles while lining their pockets with a few more jewels. No one thought about how someone building a home near the monsterlands and away from society might attract animals or monsters that had been traveling through that area for years might not be the fault of the creature, but of the selfish idiot that just had to go and live there. No one thought about how that person that built a summer home in the forests that was ravaged by a bear attack might have been at fault, instead of the bear that called that part of the woods home, part of its territory. No, all people cared about was their own self, their wealth and their status. As such, he really could not care a whole lot about being rude to them at times, especially if it meant flushing out potential stragglers of the dark mage guild he was chasing. When the strange cook showed a guild emblem that at least looked similar to the ones he had seen, there was no longer any doubt about the man being a dark mage.

“For what it’s worth, I never claimed you were my servant. But if you’re going to serve up food, I reckon you should make it snappy before certain… vermin, makes its way over here and ruins your little cooking session… and you asked if I had to sit down and eat, so… there’s that.”

While it all sounded quite cocky and at times even sarcastic, that was not the intention. His earlier flare was, after all, meant to draw dark mages to him as he hoped that they would consider it a place where they might regroup. With the scent of food and the low visibility from the tree line, they might see it as if a camp had already been made with people waiting for them to make their return, as could be expected from fellow guild members. Even if it was in fact a dark guild, he imagined members of the same guild shared a similar mindset and therefore considered themselves friends… or at the very least useful allies. People were funny like that. Still, something about this guy made Solmar think that he didn’t like him very much. While it didn’t really matter a whole lot to him what this guy thought about him, or about anything else for that matter, the young black haired mage thought it only fair to warn the guy about what might be coming sooner or later. Though they were of little to no consequence to him and his magic, which had blasted two of them out of existence before they could even bat an eye, or before any of the local mages could stop him from doing it as “killing was not allowed here”, it was still too early to know if this guy might be able to handle himself against them or not.

“While they might be a lot hungrier than I am, I imagine they’ll be a lot less nice, especially to people like you. After all, they did come here to conquer the very soil beneath your feet. So… how about that food?”


(816 // 2230)

“Solmar.”

Speaking his name rather plainly, he figured he could at least do that much to meet the guy halfway. He had been asking for it repeatedly after all, and there was really no harm in the guy knowing who he was anyway. At least, he didn’t think there was. Having heard all of the things the guy had said, there were a few things about it that stood out more than the rest, or maybe they just stood out because he had personally decided that those were the things he wanted to focus his attention on. One of these things was the fact that this guy claimed to have lived for a thousand years, which was in itself quite hard to believe by someone who hadn’t even been alive for twenty years yet. Knowing that this guy was at the very least capable of using magic, it made him wonder if he had learned any potent forms of magic during that period of time. Given the magical properties of his own that had been uncovered over the course of a few months, it made sense to him that this guy had a lot more of it than he had.

At least, that was what he chose to believe. If someone like him were to live for a thousand years, chances were that there wouldn’t be a single soul in the world strong enough to beat him in a straight up battle, which would make the world a rather boring place, especially since he’d most likely had seen every form of magic being used at least once. As seeing new magic was more or less something he truly enjoyed, perhaps the only thing he enjoyed more was getting to pick it apart in his head and figure out how it worked and how it would best be utilized. Another remotely interesting thing was the spirit he had seen before, but had not been paying a whole lot of attention to yet. He had met quite a few different fae during the time he spent in the Greenscape. That, and since he was himself a sort of fae made it so that seeing other kinds of lesser fae or even others such as himself wasn’t as much of a shock anymore. It had something to do with the whole “been there, done that” thing some people sometimes brought up as a demeaning way of saying something wasn’t interesting to them.

Though it wasn’t so much that it was not interesting to Solmar, it was more that he had gotten somewhat used to them, just like how he had gotten used to being around people and animals to the point where it was no longer special. When after some struggle, the guy finally brought him some stew and told him that they could have bread once it had cooled down, Solmar figured that he would rather have some now. Since fire and burning meant nothing to a fire demon slayer, he took a piece of hot bread, dipped it into the stew and took a bite. Being the kind of blunt instrument that he was, especially in terms of speaking, he was the first to say it when something tasted terrible or not. In this case, the stew tasted good enough while the bread made it better. Chomping down quite quickly, he was never one to waste a whole lot of time when it came to food. With him, it rarely ever got the chance to get cold. In between taking another bite and finishing what was in his mouth, he turned his attention towards the old guy, just staring at him for a moment without saying anything as he was formulating a sentence or two.

“So… seeing as you’re some old geezer, that must mean that you’ve managed to gather up quite a bit of magical power over the years right? Do you have any faith in your magic and yours spells? Or did you just get old without really, you know, getting stronger and smarter down in some kind of cave or something.”

Once he finished with his question, he returned to eating his stew now that he had finished his bread. Though his tone would not suggest it, he was actually quite interested in what kind of stuff this guy could do and if it was in any way as cool or as good as he imagined the magic of a thousand year old mage to be. If it in some way failed to live up to what he believed it might be, he would most certainly bring it up too, though he really just wanted to see what the guy could do. It was for that same reason that he kind of hoped that the stragglers from Blighters Vine would get here soon, so the man would need to defend himself and show Solmar exactly what he was capable of. Come to think of it, that would most likely be the best way to see exactly what he could do without him holding back. People rarely did so when their life was on the line after all.

“Oh, that reminds me. The food is pretty good.”


(869 // 3099)

“So I take it that means you’re not human either. That’s cool, I’m not either, though most people can either not tell or simply don’t care.”

And that was exactly how he liked it. He was not human, but he looked human in just about every way, so no one really looked at him like he was different. They treated him differently because he behaved differently. Choosing to be out in nature instead of living in a house was one of those things that made people think of him as strange. The same went about him constantly traveling around Fiore and other portions near to it as no one really knew what he was up to when he was traveling. But none of that really mattered much, he didn’t like most people anyway, so if they wanted to think of him as some oddity, that was fine with him. He’d be outliving them all, which was always a good thing to keep in mind. Speaking of outliving others, when the guy tried making a point out of his age, it seemed that he was way older than a thousand years as he had previously stated. Being several thousands of years old, it seemed that he had never really thought about the age thing much before Solmar had brought it up.

Coming to terms with the fact that he was, well, old, he next shared a story regarding how he was from another place than Fiore or Tolgalen, which were more or less the only places on Earthland Solmar himself was really aware of. That said, he didn’t doubt that there was probably a lot more out there, though he hadn’t been there yet, so he did not really care about it all that much. Had he not been to the Greenscape, he would not have been able to understand the concept of what it meant to have one’s blood be the magic that kept a place operational. He had after all seen how an earthly entity more or less kept an entire dimension of natural life going almost on its own, which was why he could imagine the strain it might put on someone. Though he could understand that, he never really understood the workings of a soul as it was something he had never really seen before. While he had seen ghosts and spirits, for some reason, he did not count those things as being what souls were. It was a rather hard to grasp topic, so he figured he would just leave it for what it was.

“Well that depends entirely on what kind of healing spells you’re capable of. As things are right now, I’ve got nothing but a few cuts and bruises, so I could probably do without. Still, I’d like to see what you can do. Especially with what’s coming and all.”

Speaking the truth, there really wasn’t a whole lot about him that needed tending to as he usually healed up quite well when given the time and rest in which to do so. Lately though, it was as if he had been rolling from one fight into the next with very little time between them. Up until now, he had always managed to come out of things alive when others were less lucky. To many of those that had perished along the way, he felt he owed it to keep going and keep fighting, even when doing so without really taking a break might mean that he would be joining them one of these days. Not really knowing how to stop himself as there was something inside of his very being that kept pushing him onward towards the next foe, it was at times like these that he would make the most out of what little resting time he had. Filling up his bowl of stew and going right back to eating, he would just hear out whatever it was this guy had to say about himself. After all, the topic had changed to magic, likely a magic he had not seen yet up until now, meaning he would be paying attention no matter what.


(693 // 3792)

“... Demonic.. Deep sea mantis... Shrimp?”

Snickering a bit after uttering these words after they had been spoken by this person who, apparently, was a mixture of draconic and demonic blood, he only stopped when the expression he got was one of utter seriousness. Not once had he ever heard all of these things put together in the same sentence, nor had he ever even considered the possibility of it all. It made his active mind work overtime in trying to figure out how a demon shrimp would have a child with a dragon, up until the point where he blocked it out of his mind on account of it being somewhat weird to him. From what he could tell, it was true that having a demonic side could be viewed as a disease, which was the way this guy clearly saw it. In his own case, the fact that he was as much a Fomorian as Sidhé kept him balanced, making him strangely human in the process. After all, the Sidhé part of him wanted him to protect and preserve life in most of its forms, while the Fomorian side was violent and hostile, wanting to rid itself of those that stood in his way.

Having never really thought about it in such a manner, the two parts of him created the same duality that existed in many, if not most human beings. That said, he still felt like he was better than them, not taking to owning any lands or building a home for himself as that would make him come across as a hypocrite. While on the subject, it seemed odd to him that this person… dragon, would make such an effort at trying to conceal what he truly was. Though Solmar really did not have the right to bring it up on account of how he too was something that looked human but could at times seem somewhat monstrous if he wasn’t careful, he still felt it odd. After all, he looked human no matter what he did, at least up until the moment when the right conditions were met and his eyes and teeth changed. This guy had to constantly focus just to look the way he did, which seemed like the kind of thing he would personally not want to struggle with. If one was born looking one way, it seemed idiotic to want to be something they really weren’t.

“Being loved by nature is not a useless title, unless you choose to make it exactly that. To be loved by nature is perhaps the greatest blessing in this world, as nature is the one thing that reigns supreme. People tend to believe that they will live forever, though the only thing that lasts until this world eventually perishes will be nature. Life will come back in different forms, shapes and sizes, so to be loved by something as pure as that is not a useless thing at all. At least I don’t think so.”

Sharing a bit of what he personally believed was true, both in this world and in the one he had seen a few weeks ago, nature was one of those things that possessed a power no human being could ever hope to rival. So between the guy explaining how his magic worked and talking about his so called useless title, there were a few other things his ears managed to pick up on. People were approaching, several footsteps, hopefully those that believed they would end up finding safe haven here. Knowing exactly what kind of people these were, he waited for them to get within his line of sight, which meant he would also be put in theirs once they left the tree line and the cover of the foliage. Once they did so and noticed the man that had been relentlessly chasing them for some time now, they did not waste a lot of time on muttering any words. Instead, spells started being flung around, showing that there was really no intention of talking to the two mages that had been sitting around there. Not really having to make much of an effort to evade the attacks, he got up from his seat and inhaled deeply.

Sucking in various fire based spells, he belched loudly before dropping his cloak to the ground and cracking his neck, loosening his body and getting into attack mode. Punching his fist into the palm of his other hand, he was ready to crack some skulls, at least until he noticed that something had changed to his cook. Aside from a pair of wings and a strange tail sprouting out of him, he could swear that the guy had suddenly become female. Raising his brow in disbelief as he had no idea what kind of physical traits one possessed when they were of both demon shrimp and dragon blood, Solmar could only imagine that this was one of them. Taking a moment to reassess the situation now that the person he had been with for the past ten minutes had changed into a different person entirely, he felt like he needed to be aware of what he could expect. As someone who had been with and around demons before, he knew how they had … mood swings. In his case, when his darker side had taken over, people died. It did not matter whether they were good or bad people, all they needed was to be close to him when it happened, and they would cease to breathe. When he approached Yona and she attacked him in her own demon-fueled state, it seemed that her urge to drain him of the blood flowing throughout his body was almost stronger than her sanity.

Spotting the ice magic that he… she, was now using, it seemed that there was more to this person than using plant based food magic as had previously been stated. Finding the diversity in magic quite interesting, he wanted to see more of it. Deciding between actually helping in the fight or simply seeing what this guy… girl… woman, could do, the biggest part of him wanted to see what kind of other magic spells she could cast. He had seen water spells being used in the past, as well as earth based spells and even some lightning, though ice was entirely new to him. And as things were, he had always considered ice to be the kind of thing he would want to know more about so that he could figure out how to properly utilize it and add it to his own arsenal of useful spells. Activating his magic zone, he had an easy time scanning the people that entered into the six hundred meter range of it. Being able to see each and every person around them now, he could make an accurate assessment of what he was dealing with, which also related to the man turned woman shrimp dragon person. From what he could tell, he would be able to handle everyone here, at least as long as he kept his head in the game and kept from getting cocky.

Knowing his limitations and strengths quite well, he would stand back and keep his eyes on the situation. And when he said eyes, he meant he would keep his magic sense on the entire zone to accurately assess everything that happened. Keeping tabs on the magics being used, steps being taken and potentially dangerous situations brewing, the mage would step in when he needed to. For now though, that time had not yet come.


(1268 // 5060)