Chapter Seventy-Four - Dibs on Petting

Setting up camp was something of an adventure.

We had found a nice spot a little ways off the main road. Close enough to hear the few carts still moving about, but not so close that we could see anything. It was a nice enough spot, with a flat bit of ground on the downwind side of a little hill. We had plenty of trees all around us, and no animal trails that we could see.

Awen had been left to guard the camp while Amaryllis and I scavenged branches and such for a fire. Really, it had been an excuse to let the poor girl sit down and relax. Her feet had started to blister from all the walking and I think she was minutes away from just collapsing. Her previous lifestyle hadn’t included half-day-long walks and trekking through forests.

Amaryllis and I made a few trips until we had a nice pile of sticks to work with. Some Cleaning magic took off any moss and such from them and I set about preparing a campfire while Amaryllis pitched a tent.

I stacked the wood as neatly as I could, two pieces on each end serving as walls to hold all the branches that I chopped into foot-long lengths in place. Then I stripped some bark and made a neat pile of it to one side.

Digging a small pit was easy because I had a spade. I found it mildly ironic that I had done a lot of things with my spade, but it was only now that I was using it for actual digging.

A few rocks picked from around the campsite served to line the sides of my little firepit, then I tossed in the bark and a few smaller branches.

The entire time, Awen looked at me with fascination, as if I was doing something really cool instead of just starting a fire.

I pinched my tongue between my lips and brought my hand up as I crouched before the fire. Mana poured into my hand with just a tiny bit more ease than it usually did. A byproduct of Physical Manakinesis, maybe? Then I started to form a fireball.

It was slow going, carefully crafting first the ball itself, then the cone, then I aimed it at the firepit and let loose.

A few branches and some bark flew out of the pit as my anemic fireball burped.

There was a distinct lack of fire when the dirt cleared, and Awen had her arms thrown over her head for cover as little bits of wood rained down around us.

I pouted. Had that been too weak? There was certainly some sort of kinetic component to the tiny fireball, and a bit of an explosion. Maybe I needed to think hotter thoughts?

“What kind of moronic idiocy are you up to now?” Amaryllis asked as she stomped over to me and placed her talons on her hips so that she could glare down.

“I’m starting a fire?” I tried.

“The only spells you know are Fireball and a plethora of cleaning magic. Now, seeing as how I’m the one with the brains between the two of us, I can only guess that you’re trying to start a fire with a Fireball spell.”

“Uh, yeah?”

“A spell meant to kill things, with fire, as opposed to one meant to light things on fire?” Amaryllis added.

“Uh, I mean, it should work, right?”

She sighed and for a moment looked like someone trying to suppress a headache. Then she bent down, picked up a bunch of sticks and tossed them in the pit. Her hand glowed for a moment and then a small, controlled jet of electric-blue fire shot onto the wood. When she cut it off a moment later the sticks were most definitely on fire. “Don’t try that again. There are spells for starting fires. What you tried was like... cutting toast with a claymore.”

“Ah,” I said. “Well it’s a good thing you’re here to help!” I said.

Amaryllis huffed. “Moron. The tent’s set up. We’ll need to squeeze in two at a time. Are we doing three watch rotations or..?”

I thought about it for just a moment before shaking my head. “No. Two. You and I are both a bit more used to this. Awen needs more time to recover.”

“Awa, I, I can do my part. I wouldn’t want to rob you of sleep.”

I shook my head, a grin plastering itself across my face. “Nuh-uh. Tomorrow will be your first full day of adventure. You don’t want to miss it because you’re a little tired. And besides, Amaryllis and I weren’t planning on having a third person, so later on, when you do take your turn with the watch, we’ll both get to sleep more than we thought.”

“Awww, oh okay,” Awen said.

Grinning, I tossed a few more sticks onto the fire while Amaryllis returned to working on the tent. “Do you know any magic?” I asked Awen.

“Awa, a few little spells,” she said. “Some for lighting lamps, a few cooling spells. And I’m okay with the levitation spell. The wind aspect one.”

“That sounds awesome!” I said. “I want to learn all sorts of neat magic. Mostly because magic is cool, and I want to be even cooler.”

“Then I think you’ll be the best at magic in no time,” Awen said.

“Thanks!” I said. “I have a few scrolls for spells that aren’t Fireball. Amaryllis, do you think you could teach me another spell?”

“You’ve hardly mastered Fireball,” she said. “But I can’t see the harm in you practicing something a little different, as long as it’s a simple enough spell.”

I pulled my pack closer and rooted within until I found the scrolls I had bought at Booksie’s store. “I have Holy Light, Light Ball and Draw Water,” I said.

“Light Ball,” Amaryllis said almost right away. “It’ll be the easiest to teach you, it’s fairly close to Fireball, and it’s the sort of versatile spell that will teach you how to do other things in the future.”

The harpy came over to sit next to the fire and, with a twist of her hand, had pen and paper next to her. She wrote something and poofed it away, then her rucksack appeared. I watched as she fished out a pot and a can with a metal screw tab on it. Soon, beans were being warmed on the fire and Amaryllis was sticking some sausages on sticks. Rocks placed just-so held them near the fire.

I pulled my attention back to my scrolls, then selected the right one and began reading through it. The spell was close to Fireball at first glance. Though this one had less swirls to it, and a long thin line of mana needed to be fed into it at all times. One that supposedly let the caster control the spell with a thought.

“Light aspect mana, huh,” I said.

“Obviously,” Amaryllis replied.

I set the scroll aside and fished out plates and some hardtack and cheese. Then I fetched out my tea kettle and filled it with water to boil.

Sending mana into the kettle while also pooling some in my opposite hand took a lot more effort than I would have thought, like rubbing my tummy and my head in opposite directions, but that just meant it was a good bit of exercise to practice my magic. “Hey, Amaryllis, do you have a skill for magic stuff?”

“I’m a mage, Broccoli. Of course I have magical skills.”

“No, I mean, manipulating mana and such.”

My birdy friend nodded. “Thunder Aspect Manipulation, at disciple. It’s a merged skill that comes from the Thunder and Mana Manipulation skills. It narrows down the range of spells I can easily cast, but the added efficiency of my main mana aspect can’t be overlooked.”

“More boom for your buck?” I asked.

“Something like that. Speaking of skills, last time you were mentioning your skills you spoke of three of them, but you’re level seven. You should have four class skills.”

“Haha,” I said. “I, uh, have... the Cool skill.”

Amaryllis stopped paying attention to the food and turned to give me the flattest look I had ever seen. “Broccoli. You are not only a poor liar. You’re an imbecilic one.”

I flushed and looked away. “Sorry. Lying is wrong, I know.”

“So, what’s your fourth skill?” she asked again.

“I’d rather not say,” I said.

“My class skills are Thunder Aspect Manipulation, Electrostatic Discharge, Thunder Clap, Mage Sight, and Electrostimulus. It’s taboo to tell someone you’re not close to what your skills are, but I trust you enough that I don’t mind telling you. And Awen here couldn’t do anything with the knowledge if she tried.”

“Why are you telling me that?” I wondered.

“It’s part of the social contract that when someone tells someone else something private that they need to return the favour by sharing something in kind. We call it reciprocation at the academy. It works better on humans than on harpy.”

I choked, uncertain of what to say as my jaw worked. That was utterly unfair. She was trying to manipulate me, in broad firelight, to tell her something I didn’t want to divulge. And then she explained how she was manipulating me! The height of meanness. That was telling the puppy you were going to kick it before doing so.

Maybe it wasn’t that bad, but still.

“Th-then I won’t tell you,” I huffed.

I had better things to do, like prepare the tea. And practice my magic and....

“It’s Cute, my last skill is Cute,” I sobbed.

Amaryllis gasped and turned towards me with wide eyes. “Cute? Cute? The forbidden skill? Don’t you know what happens to people with that skill?”

I stared back, eyes widening to match and heart thumping in my chest like a crazed bunny. “N-no, what happens?” I asked.

She leaned a little closer. “The people who have the Cute skill,” she said in a low whisper. I came closer to hear better. “Get mercilessly teased by their friends... forever!”

It took a moment for that to register, and by the time it did, Amaryllis was trilling with strange birdy laughter. “Rude!” I shouted back.

“Really Broccoli? You got the Cute skill? That’s... well it’s certainly you,” Amaryllis said. “I’d advise against putting too many points into it. Maybe you can merge it with something later.”

I flushed. “It’s not like I asked for it. I wanted the Cool skill.”

“I, I think you're cool,” Awen said. “Even if you’re also c-cute... awa.”

“Thanks Awen,” I said. “You’re a good friend. Did you hear that, Amaryllis? Awen can make uplifting comments without teasing her friends about their misfortunes in life. Be more like Awen.”

Amaryllis chuckled and leaned to the side to bump her shoulder against mine. “Food’s ready,” she said.

We separated everything onto three plates, then I poured some tea into some mugs that Amaryllis had and we got down to eating. It wasn’t inn food, but it was filling and hot and it tasted a little smokey from the fire.

“So, tomorrow we’re on the road again,” I said after swallowing some beans and wiping my mouth clean with the back of my hand.

The girls both nodded.

“Are there any monsters or anything we need to be careful about? Bandits?”

Amaryllis hummed, but she looked to Awen since she was our sort of expert here.

“Awa, I don’t think so? There are wolves, but they’re rare. And in the desert there are lots of monsters in the sand, but not in the plains. And we have lots of guards passing by, so there shouldn’t be bandits. The only ones we might run into are the drolls, and they’re easy to handle. Or, awa, so I’ve been told, I guess.”

“Drolls?” I asked.

“Large dog people,” Amaryllis said. “They roam in packs. Not too violent, unless you provoke them. They’re clever enough to barter with, though they don’t have much worth trading for. Some have tried to put them to work, but it’s not usually worth it.”

“Awesome,” I said. “So, um, dibs on first watch, and if we meet some drolls, I get to pet them first.”

***