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I swear, something always has to happen when I visit here.
Fire Spirit Cookie sends a flame towards one of the cake monsters, careful not to make it too powerful, lest he burn down the forest.
Ugh, this wouldn't be so much easier if Windy was here.
Speaking of which, where is he?
Usually, whenever something is in the Forest that shouldn't be, Wind Archer Cookie is right there to banish it. It's how he always managed to find Fire Spirit Cookie whenever he came to visit (which can be annoying when you're just sitting and trying to catch your breath from flying all the way here from Dragon's Valley, only for an arrow to come flying at you out of nowhere). But, even with a ton of cake monsters right here in the forest, he was nowhere to be seen.
Has something happened to him?
Who am I kidding? It's WIND ARCHER COOKIE. He can handle a bunch of tiny cake monsters.
…
UGH, why am I still worrying?
He shot another ball of fire at a cake monster to take his mind off (unnecessarily) worried thoughts. But, he guesses he wasn't fully paying attention, because his fire misses the cake monster and heads straight for the trunk of a tree!
Fire Spirit Cookie rushes to it, completely ignoring the cake monster coming back and charging at him (it's not like it'll do any damage to him. Seriously, you'd think that Dark Enchantress Cookie would bake these things stronger). He tries putting it out with his cape, but the fire was already spreading up towards the branches of the tree.
“Crap!”, he mumbled. “I better put this out!” But how could he do that? Making flames was easy, but controlling them? Once a fire starts, it can't be contained. Blah blah blah, “The will of Nature” or whatever Frost Queen Cookie yaps about. That doesn't stop the fact that the fire is spreading quicker than he can think and the forest would be gravely harmed if he didn't-
Fire Spirit Cookie hears the loud whoosh of an arrow and very quickly moves out of the way as the arrow narrowly misses him and hits the trunk of the tree.
The effect is instantaneous. From where the arrow hit, the fire starts disappearing as it washes away in the wind. The tree's trunk and branches, which were turning into ash, have come back to its former glory. The cake monsters around the area fall to the ground, and it's like nothing ever happened.
Fire Spirit looks forward to see Wind Archer Cookie standing there with his bow still in its shooting position. He relaxes a bit, letting out a small breath through his mouth. He has that same peaceful expression he usually has. Fire Spirit has to admit that the excitement he feels isn't just related to the fact that he put the fire out, buuttt, he should probably focus on the fact that Windy's calm expression dissipated to an annoyed one when he turned to look at him.
“Fire Spirit Cookie” Wind Archer Cookie starts, though, it sounds more like a statement. “I've already told you not to use your flames in the Millenial Forest.”
“Well, look who finally showed up. Ya know, I was expecting a ‘thank you' for taking out some of those cake monsters that you keep on mentioning, but yeah, sure, an arrow to the head works too.” He gets up, dusting himself off. “Where were you anyways? You're usually on these things like a cheese hawk.”
“We both know my arrow wouldn't have hurt you anyways. It wasn't made for crumbling”, he asserts while crossing his arms. “And I was taking care of other cake monsters in the forest.” Wind Archer Cookie closes his eyes and sighs. “There have been a lot more of them in the forest lately. The other guardians say the same of their territories as well. Even Moonlight Cookie mentions having seen a few in the City of Wizards, which means they have managed to find a way to infiltrate that sacred place.”
Huh. That is concerning. The City of Wizards was Enchanted by Wizards to be a place that could only be accessed through dreams. If Dark Enchantress Cookie has managed to spread even there, what else can she do? Fire Spirit Cookie has to admit that even he is a bit worried. He speaks up to say something, but he notices that Wind Archer Cookie has a somber and worried look on his face. His eyes are scrunched like he's deep in thought while he looks down, with his mouth quivered a bit.
This is really worrying him, huh?
Other than Agar Agar Cookie, Fire Spirit never really had to worry much about Dark Enchantress spreading to the Dragon's Valley. The place was on a damn volcano, and any cookie of darkness, as unspicy as they are, wouldn't dare step foot in there (besides Agar Agar Cookie). It would probably take a lot longer for Dark Enchantress Cookie to reach there with all of her minions. Plus, she'd have to deal with the Everburning Flame, and there was absolutely no way in the Oven that he would let himself lose to her, or her army. His fire could burn all of them to ash within seconds. But, while Wind Archer Cookie could handle her in a fight, he had an entire forest to protect. He might be fine, but the forest isn't like his secluded home in the Dragon's Valley, where there isn't anyone in danger, so he can let loose; everywhere he looks, Wind Archer Cookie's home is full of life. One small mistake, and all of these cookies and desserts would be gone.
That would be a lot for any cookie to worry about…. I don't want him to worry about that right now. I hate seeing him like this.
Ugh, when did I become so soft?
Fire Spirit Cookie leans his arm on Wind Archer Cookie's shoulder and tries to seem as calm and cool as possible to ease him. “Look, Windy. I know that you think this is all pretty scary, but worrying about the future won't get us anywhere. All that's gonna do is distract us from the problems we're facing right now.”
Wind Archer Cookie turns his head to look at him. His face still seems worried, but with a hint of annoyance now. But, Fire Spirit can see that he's calmed down just a little bit.
“How are you always so calm? Can you please take this more seriously?” Wind Archer asks.
Fire Spirit Cookie shrugs. “I am, I am! All I'm saying is that there's no use wasting energy worrying when there's a way to solve a problem we have right now.” Fire Spirit grabs onto Wind Archer's shoulders to get him to focus on him. “Tell me, do you sense any other cake monsters in the forest?”
Wind Archer Cookie closes his eyes and focuses on his breathing. After a few beats, he speaks up. “There's some north of here. I can handle it. I think you should-”
Fire Spirit quickly lets go and shoots up into the air. “Ha! Nice! Bet you can't beat more than me, Windy!” He takes off, cackling as he leaves a flustered and confused Wind Archer behind him. That should take his mind off of his worries.
“Don't call me that!” he hears him scream. As he flies, he feels the wind catch up to him as Wind Archer goes into his wind form. He can feel Wind Archer surpassing him, and he makes sure to turn up the heat and go faster.
Fire Spirit Cookie spots the cake monsters Wind Archer was talking about. There sure were a lot of them. He could see at least fifty of them in a clearing, but he just knew there were more lurking on the forest floor.
Fire Spirit Cookie lands with a massive thud on the ground, making sure to keep his fire power at a minimum and relying purely on the shockwave. With that, he takes out at least twenty of the fifty cake monsters. He gets up and wipes the sweat off his face and turns to face where Wind Archer landed. “I'm at twenty, Archie! Try and see if you can keep up with that!”
“Don't call me that either. And this isn't a competition!” Wind Archer growls. He quickly shoots at the remaining cake monsters with excellent speed and precision. Fire Spirit's eyes catch onto the flexing of Wind Archer's shoulders and his brain short circuits for a moment. He gets pulled back to the present when he sees Wind Archer's arrow aiming at the cake monster he was about to attack. Despite Fire Spirit trusting the arrow wouldn't hit him, and knowing that it wouldn't hurt him if he did (the arrows were specifically made to knock out and immobilize, not kill), he still instinctively dodged it.
Fire Spirit turned to see Wind Archer giving a small smile. “I'm at twenty-one.”
Oh this bastard. “Wha- I thought you said this wasn't a competition!”
“It's twenty-three now. You're losing, Fire Spirit Cookie”, he taunts.
Of course he only knows when to have fun when it's to spite me. Even so, Fire Spirit couldn't help but grin at that.
“Alright, Forest Guardian. If you wanna play like that, I can fire it up!” Fire Spirit Cookie charges towards one of the large cake monsters with his staff, knocking them out like they were nothing. He looks back at Wind Archer to make some snarky comment, but he sees that Wind Archer is just as successful as him.
How is he doing that with just an arrow????
“Geez, save some for me, Greenie!”
Wind Archer smiles. “Do better, and maybe I won't have to save any for you”, he replies, still focused on taking down as many cake monsters as possible. “Don't forget that these things are still an actual threat to the forest. Focus on them instead of on me.”
Fire Spirit lets out a laugh and says, “Aw, but how can I focus on them when focusing on you feels so much better?”
It’s something innocent enough he thinks, but saying it out loud made it seem a lot more… flirty than he intended. Not helped by the fact that he sees Wind Archer's pointed ears perk up and have a slightly pink tint before he misses for the first time that day. He quickly recovers from the missed shot, but his ears are still a bit pink.
“Huh? Windy, you good?” Did what he say seriously make him mess up? Ha, who knew you could make the Guardian of Wind stumble so easily?
Wind Archer Cookie grumbles as he puts another bow in his arrow, and, while Fire Spirit Cookie can see the back of his head, he can tell that he curled his face into his scarf for a second.
“Just- try your best to focus on them and not me” he says, before turning into the wind to chase after an escaped cake monster.
Fire Spirit follows him in hot pursuit. While he can tell Windy wants to change the subject, he's still grinning at it.
Wind Archer gets surprised when cookies flirt with him, huh?
Oh, he's definitely never going to let that go.