Chapter Text
Sage often walks ahead of me through the thick and thin woods we’ve ventured into. I don’t mind it so he can’t see how much I’m panting after only a few hours of trekking down the leafy trail. Sage seems to know exactly where he is going, despite all of the forks in the road we encounter. There is no civil life but is, not even a sign to point us in the right direction.
When the humidity finally gets to me, I think about Felix’s offer from before, and I regret not taking it.
“I could always teleport you two to Porrima. You’d be there in a minute rather than a whole week.”
“And when did I say I’d risk falling into a black pit of dark water for all eternity?” Sage mocked menacingly. “Oh yeah… I didn’t.”
Even Felix admitted that the portals are dangerous, so I guess this was the safest way…
I stop thinking optimistically the more I have to endure the trials of simple nature... At least back at Mournfall, there was an outhouse. Out here you’re completely open, and there is no way to cool off unless you decide to stick your head in the mucky river water when you spot it.
The setting sun’s rays trickle through the leaves like sparkling fire.
“Fire? You can’t do that either?”
“You don’t know how to use the internet, so don’t get all high and mighty with me!”
Sage merely laughs at my heated responses every time, as he should. They’re weak responses, but I say them with enough ferocity to entertain him.
“Tired from our travels today, eh? It’s only been a day, Elizabeth. Do you not travel around much in your realm?”
“I travel, it’s just in a way different way. We use automobiles and planes to take us where we need to go.”
“Aye? Automobiles?” He drags the word out.
“Yeah, they’re like wagons but they move on their own, without a horse or anything pulling them.”
“So they are concocted by magic, then? Does anyone walk anymore in your realm?”
“Of course we do, just shorter distances or for exercise. We really rely on our machines, now that I think about it.” I yank out my phone. “See?”
Sage halts and his ears go back at the equipment I’ve thrown in his face. His eyes are nearly crossed as he looks at it with filled black irises. Its gone from my hands in a flash as he scrutinizes the phone and we move on.
“This is just a small box… what does it do?”
“Well, its broken right now and needs to be recharged. You can call people with it. Communicate to them in many ways: facetime, a call, text, via social media—“
“Okay, that’s weird.” He throws it back to me and I clumsily catch it in front of me between my hands. “It’s like one of those callstones Felix uses to call us. It sounds like your world has a lot of magic… Is that why you worked with Felix a bit in the arts?”
“Oh, no. My world has zero magic. Its just advanced technology.” I ponder it, reflecting on my little life back on the third rock from the sun. “I miss bathrooms.”
Sage suddenly stops in a flat meadow beside the river. The water seems clearer than before and the earth is draped in a blue darkness as the sun goes down.
“I’ll show you how to make a fire.” Sage drops his bag and we settle in for the night. We have very thin blankets in our packs to avoid having to lug extra hefty supplies on our trip. I nibble on the waxy seeds in our parchment bag after I’ve flattened my sheet onto the flattest land I can find near us. A good distance between the two sheets, Sage begins to teach me how to use the fire.
Create a sort of circular pit with rocks. Use timber sticks rather than large logs to start the fire off. Put the medium sticks on the bottom and the thin ones with grass or leaves on top. There’s a few ways to ignite the flames. Create a plough with sticks or ignite it with a spark between smooth rocks against the thin material in the pit.
Sage cracks the rocks together until the sparks set the sticks ablaze.
“Alright-!” I’m barely able to raise my hands towards the warmth when Sage douses the pit with river water from his canteen.
“What in the Sam hill-?”
“You’re turn.”
“You just ruined a perfectly good fire!”
He shrugs. “And I can make another one, but you have to make it this time.”
I want to argue with him more, but its getting chilly and I don’t want to have to wait any longer. I follow his steps in trepidation as I clean out the pit he made and start making my own near it with drier dirt.
“Ah-ah-ahh, don’t forget the order of the sticks. What kind of rock circle is that? Do you want to catch the entire forest on fire? You have to flick the rocks together harder than that—“
He catches my hands in his and I loosely let him control their movement against the rocks in my grip. I turn to look at him and find he is crouched over me in order to reach this close, and I look away with a distracted blush on my cheeks.
“Hurry it up, its dark out here.” He orders. He stands up and hovers over me to inspect my next move. I try to recompose myself and can feel the heat radiating off me and the sweat mingle with the warmth of my body.
I click the rocks a few times in the same fashion as he showed me, and when it doesn’t work I go faster and grunt in aggravation until they spark a few times—
“There we go!” Sage gives me a genuine few claps. “You did it! Now, blow on what you have—“
I do so swiftly, and quickly kneels down again and presses his finger to my lips, causing me to jolt a little.
“Not too much or you’ll blow it out. We wouldn’t want that now.” His incredulous smile shifts from me to the pit as he lowly exhales against the small fire. I join his pattern of slow breaths until the fire has caught enough logs to breathe on its own.
“Atta girl.” Sage grunts as he plops onto his sheet across from me, and we sit there and watch the flames stir for a while.
I smile proudly at my masterpiece.
“This is like changing a tire, and I did all by myself!”
“Changing a tire?”
“Thank you, Sage!”
He scoffs disapprovingly. “You don’t have to thank me every time I teach you something. Besides, I plan to get rough with you.” His smirk is unbearably iniquitous as I catch his shimmering yellow eyes from across the flames.
I should be used to his teasing by now, and I probably will be way over it by the time we reach Porrima; or maybe I will slip and fall for them eventually.
“I’m sure I can handle it.” I find the right retort, despite the dryness in my throat.
“Heh. We’ll see. I plan on training you with a sword, got it? It would be nice if you had a Relic of your own you could use, but we’ll practice with my sword and sticks for now...”
I wince at this statement. When the possessed Celena attacked me, I had hoped a Relic would appear then, like the one that transported me there. The glint of hope was the light from my heart that protected me, and hopefully I would be able to use it again when I needed it.
“I can’t rely on just magic happening suddenly to save me. I can’t rely on you either.”
It sounded like I meant more than what I was trying to explain to him, but he didn’t respond and listened all the same.
“Ah, that is, I want to be able to help myself, so I’m prepared for your training.”
An impressed grin creases on his lips, and he nods approvingly.
“Get to sleep then, Elizabeth. We will continue our journey in the morning.” Without another word, he turns his body away from the fire and coasts off. I try to do the same, picturing my bedroom, or even the soft comforters from the office that cradled me so warmly.
There are howling owls and large and small things stirring in the bushes and trees around us… How Sage can sleep soundly is foreign beyond me. Thankfully, I’m finally tired enough from our hike today that exhaustion pulls into a deep dark dream.