“That… THAT WAS INCREDIBLE! And, and did you see those weapons!? They gotta be class A at least!” Desmond couldn’t stop going on and on about his first experience.

The four of them were currently at a small fishing game booth, stooped over with delicate nets in their hands, trying their luck at catching the small, elusive fish. Desmond, though also focused on the game, was speaking more than he was fishing.

“Personally, I liked the tall guy with the spear! He’s so cool! Alrick, what about you? Matthias?”

Alrick thought for a moment before answering. “Definitely the black swordsman. Even if it was projected through water, you could tell how sharp his jet-black blade was!”

“Mhm… I personally liked the one with the magic staff. He looked so cool when he casted magic.” Matthias added.

Alrick rolled his eyes. “Please Matthias, you probably only like him because you’re one of those damn genius mages!”

That was enough to send the normally calm and collected Matthias into a state of indignancy.

“Oh yeah? Well, I bet you only liked the swordsman ‘cause he made all the female priests in the hall fall for him with a swing of his blade! You’re more brawn than brain, you battle maniac!”

“Oh, screw you, you son of a-!”

The battle maniac lived true to his name and jumped on his friend. They rolled around on the ground, tussling and playfully throwing punches. Noticing that a crowd was forming around them, Sirus quickly stepped in and pulled them apart. As much as he hated being in the center of attention, he knew that if word spread that Alrick and Matthias were fighting on festival day, they would probably be scolded.

“Alright you two, that’s enough. Why don’t we get something to eat before we part ways? I know a café that has some tasty sweets, and it’s pretty close to here. I’ll treat you guys!”

Pausing their brawling at the mention of food, Alrick and Matthias both nodded vigorously, drool already forming at the edge of their mouths. Desmond, too, looked at Sirus with a gaze of reverence.

Forget what I said about being mature. Sirus inwardly grinned, You kids are still kids.

“Come on! Follow me!”

=+=

“Really Sirus? At this hour? I know ya dedicated, but the shop’s closed!”

“I’m a customer tonight, Pahn.”

“Oh!” The russet-haired baker grinned and did a fake waiter bow. “Well, then, by all means, dear patrons, make yerselves at home!”

He showed the four boys to a table outside his closed shop front, where his booth was set up, selling sweet and savory pastries. Alrick ordered a sausage bun, while Matthias and Desmond each asked for a birthday cake flavored cheesecake. And though Sirus was indeed off duty, with Pahn egging him on, he brought the dishes over and served the three, waiter’s apron and everything.

Just as Sirus was watching the boys take their first bites, he noticed a certain figure in the crowd. He stood up in dumbfounded amazement – he had rarely seen Elder Chryssa outside a 200-meter radius from their cottage, much less here in the shopping district, which was on the opposite side of town. Forcing the ominous possibility of Chryssa trying to court Pahn into the depths of his mind, Sirus waved and called out to his grandfather.

“Hey! Gramps! What’re you doing out at this time? Are you looking for more bread?”

Elder Chryssa turned at Sirus’s call and quickly staggered over. It was obvious his age had caught up to him.

“Whoa! Gramps! Slow down! It’s festival day, no need to be in a rush.”

Sirus, who was still cheerfully watching the boys eat, turned again to his grandfather, who immediately wiped the smile off of Sirus’s face.

“Sirus.”

For the first time in Sirus’s life, the cheerful, unguarded personality he knew of was wiped clean from the old man known as Elder Chryssa.

“…Gramps?”

Sirus, still dumbfounded at his grandfather’s drastic transformation, didn’t notice Pahn walk up behind him.

“’Ey! Mister Chryssa, awful late for ya to be out! Take a seat! If ya out this late, why not grab a bite? I heard ya like my bread!”

Instead of being overjoyed as Sirus would expect, the old man merely gave a tight-lipped smile and shook his head.

“Thanks, but I came only to deliver a message.”

He turned to Sirus again.

“Sirus, we are running low on pyrograss. I need you to get some more from the woods north of here.”

At this time? Has he finally gone senile?! Sirus kept his thoughts to himself and cast a doubtful look at his grandfather.

“Gramps, are you alright? I got a basketful a few days ago. Plus, it’s one ‘o clock. Going into the woods can’t possibly be a good idea right now.”

“I’d say so.” Pahn chipped in, “Mister Chryssa, with all due respect, it’s past midnight. I would suspect of at least somethin’ mean roamin’ in the woods at this time.”

But Elder Chryssa refused to yield.

“No, Sirus, I need it now. A large order was placed just now. It seems that there’s not enough of it in our cellar to meet demands. This is very urgent. You have to go get it NOW!”

Sirus was shocked that Chryssa had raised his voice, almost as if he were panicking. Never in his whole life had he seen his grandfather lose his temper.

“I, uh, sure, Gramps. I’ll get it done.” He replied uneasily, noticing a slight look of relief pass through his grandfather’s face.

He turned to the boys, who were also watching the scene with curious interest.

“Sorry guys, this is where I leave you all. I gotta run a job for my Gramps. Enjoy the festival you three.”

“Aww, it’s so late. Bye Sirus!” Alrick energetically waved goodbye.

“Farewell Sirus, I hope I’ll meet you again soon!” Matthias waved.

“It’s nice making another friend! See ya!” Desmond also waved.

As he walked down the street leading to his house, away from Pahn’s café, he saw his grandfather turn towards Pahn. He could vaguely make out his grandfather muttering something to the baker.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

“Now, as for you and the three boys, remember that favor you owe me for those antidotes I delivered last winter…”

=+=

Grandpa isn’t acting like himself. Sirus thought as he slung his herb bag over his shoulder. Grabbing a small shotel gathering blade hanging by the door, he headed out of the dark interior of his grandpa’s shop.

Sure, he does have his serious moments, but today is completely different. It’s almost as if he’d seen a ghost. Something must be bothering him immensely. Sirus walked past festival stalls. His entire life, he assumed his grandfather couldn’t get upset. When he was learning basic alchemy and accidentally mixed the wrong ingredients once, the shop nearly burned down. In the rubble, his grandfather had only chuckled and told him to try again. His whole life, he knew his gramps as a forgiving and cheerful, carefree man. So, what was it? What wiped that smile off his grandfather’s face?

The paved roads eventually gave way to dirt, and soon to a rocky trail as Sirus traveled north from town to forest, still pondering.

He couldn’t think of any reason – the life the two led was a happy one. Though at times Sirus was stressed by his grandfather’s actions, he knew that his gramps still cared deeply for him, especially after his parents had passed into the afterlife.

“Perhaps he really has gone senile…” The words came out of Sirus’s mouth. He paused, and then vigorously shook his head. No. There’s got to be a reason that I’m blanking out on. Even if he was insane, Gramps would never send me this deep into the forest at this time. As a former adventurer, he should know… Still, coming out this late does make me feel uneasy.

“Ah, there’s the pyrograss.”

The dim light of Sirus’s pyroil lantern was soon overpowered by the light of two full moons as he waded into a clearing in the forest.

The grass in this clearing was different from that growing in the other parts of the forest. Instead of thin green blades, thick, transparent, drinking straw-like tubes filled with glowing electric-blue sap sprouted in clumps on the ground. This was pyrograss. Its sap, upon contact with the air, would turn into a flammable liquid. It was used as lantern fuel, as in the case of Sirus’s lamp, before the mana-powered lamp was invented. Now, its only purpose was potion-making.

Sirus got to work at once harvesting the grass. He quickly cut each stalk and, before too much oil could leak out, tied the ends shut and stored them in his bag. The bright moons overhead made the task much easier, and, in an hour, Sirus had already gathered three-quarters of a bag of the herb.

Just as his shotel swung through another clump of pyrograss, Sirus suddenly froze. He could hear a low growl behind him, followed by barking. From the corner of his eye, he saw what appeared to be five jumbles of sticks held together by black mist stalking him.

Wooden direwolves.

Their eyes bright crimson, they eyed Sirus hungrily as rows of thorns protruded from their wooden mouths. Vaguely shaped like wolves, these masses of sticks held together by dark magic were usually solitary creatures but tend to hunt in small packs. While Sirus could probably take down a single direwolf, even without magic, five of those wolves was a different story. Even the townspeople with magical abilities wouldn’t believe a man who claimed that he survived a five-wolve attack unscathed.

The direwolves started creeping towards Sirus, barking to one another to form a coordinated attack. Sirus turned to face them, pointing his shotel at the nearest wolf.

No, this isn’t enough

Direwolves can be deterred by axes, which could cleave through their bodies, but swords used for slicing were ineffective at piercing the bundle of logs protecting their cores. Alternatively, another excellent way to destroy their wooden bodies was with-

Fire.

Sirus noticed that the blade he used was stained with the oil from cutting all that pyrograss. As the first wolf lunged forwards, maw wide open, Sirus stuck the end of his shotel into his lantern. Floom! His pyroil-coated shotel immediately burned with an electric-blue flame. Sirus lunged at the wolf that ran at him, striking it flat on the snout. It immediately caught on fire. With its face ablaze, it tried to roll around to extinguish it, but the freshly cut pyrograss quite literally only added fuel to the fire.

“Ha! Take that!” Sirus yelled.

But it wasn’t over yet. The four other direwolves ignored the burning pile of charred logs and bared their fangs at Sirus, cautiously surrounding him from all directions.

This was bad. If they all simultaneously attacked, Sirus would have to fight them off at once and risk catching on fire. If he failed, he would be mauled and eaten. It was a lose-lose situation.

But before either party could make a move-

“GRAAAAAAAWWWWWWLLLL!!!!!”

A ferocious roar resonated from within the forest. The direwolves, who had been the hunters up until now, acted like the hunted.  They rushed past Sirus, wooden tails between their legs, and disappeared into the forest. Sirus, also realizing the gravity of the situation, seized his bag and lantern and sprinted after them.

As he ran, he could hear the sound of snapping twigs and shaken leaves behind him – a sure sign he was being pursued by something much bigger than a direwolf.

“Huff…huff…huff… That’s … strange … what did I do… to make it so aggressive?” He said to himself while running. “No… I have to get back to the village-“

His statement was cut short as his foot caught on a root. Falling flat on the ground, Sirus could only curse before the beast was upon him. As it barged out of the trees, Sirus could now see its entirety. A massive, wagon-sized starbear. With razor-sharp claws, it rushed towards him, mouth wide open, displaying its knife-like teeth… and flew right by Sirus, almost as if he wasn’t there.

“Huh?”

For the second time today, Sirus was dumbfounded. The starbear…ignored him? From Elder Chryssa’s accounts, they had massive appetites, devouring any prey that wandered into their territory.

So why had this one decided that Sirus was not worth its time?

Before Sirus could fully recover, more rustling could be heard in the forest. This time, a horned rabbit burst out of the undergrowth and leaped past a shocked Sirus.

“The starbear was being chased by a horned rabbit, of all things? No, there’s gotta be a better explanation…eh?!”

Out of nowhere, a silver-horned elk jumped out from behind a bush and sprinted past Sirus. It was followed by birds, rodents, insects, and reptiles of all kinds, predator and prey alike. Sirus ducked behind a tree, shielding himself from the stampede. Praying he wouldn’t get turned into roadkill, Sirus only gaped at the insane numbers of creatures running past him. Soon, the cacophony faded into total silence. The insects had stopped buzzing, and the frogs had ceased their croaking. The silence made Sirus uneasy.

It was as if all traces of life had deserted the forest.

Picking himself off of the ground, Sirus tried to get a grasp of the situation. It was evident that these animals were not hunting. There’s no possible way a starbear would be fazed by a horned rabbit. Elk and birds did not prey on pyrelizards and giant spiders. If not hunting, there were two possible conclusions to make. They were either running from some form of natural disaster, like a flood or a forest fire – but Sirus’s couldn’t hear rushing water or smell smoke – or, they were fleeing from something much more powerful than their strengths combined.

“Gah…” As he tried walking, he felt small pains with every step he took. There were small cuts and bruises across his whole body, undoubtedly the result of his mad dash through the forest. Back at the clearing, Sirus turned his eyes to the night sky. Focusing on the larger moon, Norus, he could vaguely make out the cardinal directions and adjusted his course. He turned southwards… into the direction of the source of the stampede?

A sense of unease was beginning to form in the pit of his stomach.

“No…”

This meant the source of danger was in the direction he came from. However, on his way here, there hadn’t been anything of considerable danger. Plus, between him and the village, there was only a three-kilometer wide stretch of forest. Anything significant enough to pose a threat should’ve been detected, even by a human like Sirus. That meant… The threat was coming outside the forest. That would mean the village. However, starbears would rarely run from humans.

Gulping, Sirus steeled his nerves for the return trip and plunged into the darkness.

A hazy, purplish dawn was beginning to break as Sirus slowly made his way back to Ixos. Using a fallen stick as a support, he made his way through the broken brush.

“Man, will I have a story for Gramps.” He thought of his grandfather, who sent him on this suicidal task. “It’s surprising I didn’t get killed tonight. What was that old man thinking?”

His grandfather’s face resurfaced. It was that face of panic Sirus had seen at the festival. Sirus recounted his own thoughts as well. He couldn’t be insane. He must have seen or known that something would happen. Something more terrifying than being in the woods at night. It suddenly came to Sirus. The only reason his grandfather would send him herb-gathering this late was because he knew Sirus would be in greater danger if he stayed in Ixos.

The pieces were beginning to fall in place. The animals were fleeing … from what? Sirus didn’t know but understood they came from the south, where the village was located. His grandfather had sent him into the forest to gather herbs – a dangerous task at such a time. It would only make sense that Elder Chryssa was trying to indirectly chase Sirus out of town for a reason Sirus didn’t recognize.

His pace quickened. He felt a sinking sensation in the pit of his stomach. Something wasn’t right.

Then, as he made his way out of the last line of trees, the final piece of the puzzle revealed itself. That wasn’t dawn. Sirus sharply inhaled in cold realization. It was still too early for the sun to rise. Even if it did rise, it doesn’t come up from the south.

That violet glow. It wasn’t the first rays of the sun. It was the light of a massive fire. A fire, reflected in Sirus’s eyes, consuming the entirety of Ixos.