Abraham stood with his naked feet planted deep in the hungry mire. The air had begun to swelter from the high-noon sun casting its painfully bright rays onto the mires - heating the hummus to produce a strong smell of moss and… for the lack of a better term… digestion.
The pools of murky brown bubbled with releasing gasses, attracting numerous insects and amphibians who chirped and whined loud enough to upset his lingering headache.
Beneath the surface of some of the clearer pools, he could see the unmistakable shapes of fish of all sizes and variations - even some frogs that swam in a panic away from his excitable companion.
In the heat, the more distant mires had become somewhat clouded - as if his eyes were too dry to see the furthest pools or if some form of gas had reduced the visibility drastically. Abraham imagined Logan might’ve had an explanation as to what this phenomenon was, but as he was quickly learning, Serah didn’t share his attention to details - certainly not the types of details he’d care for.
But she had far more endearing qualities that Abraham found more and more irresistible as she jumped, leapt and excitedly explained her own understanding of the ‘mind-magic’ as she had taken to calling the Miracles.
He stood in the mire and watched her dig around in a pool of the water, casting long glances at the front of her chest as she sat on her fours facing him and explaining something about life under the surface.
His mind was still reeling from her crazed explanation of how the ‘mind-magic’ was, in fact, not a gift from the Lord, but actually some form of force of nature.
If she’d have been anyone other than her beautiful self, he might’ve proclaimed her a heretic, but… as he was looking at her sun-tanned skin, he struggled to think she could be anything less than a Goddess, herself.
“You payin’ attention, Aber?” He snapped back to reality and looked up to see her grinning at him.
“Y-yeah, o-of course. Y-you were saying… that mind-magic can’t make something from nothing. Just change what’s already there, right?” Her head bobbed in a jerk as she continued to fumble around in the water.
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“Right! We’re gonna have to pretty much start over - whuchu wanna start with? Fire, cold, heat, sparks?” ‘God I’d like to just start with burying my head in that shirt’, he thought, but held his mouth for more productive thoughts.
“H-how about… Well, if you’re gonna teach me how to do things your way, I guess I should learn your Words of Protection?” She raised her eyebrow and for a moment, he wondered if the girl was some form of empath, at least until she began to giggle at him.
“The what now!?”
He fidgeted his hands and started down at the murky pool that had claimed his naked feet. “I-I mean… so I don’t get swallowed up by the S-Sin… You know?” She cocked her head before the realization dawned upon her.
“Oh! So you don’t overload - gotcha. Nah, there ain’t no words for that, Aber, you just don’t do it - aight?” To him, it would be insanity to do any work as a miraculist without the proper preparation.
“Got ‘im!” She shouted and immediately pulled her hand out of the water to reveal that a long, sleek fish with whiskers had claimed her arm. He yelped and fell backwards into the water at the gruesome sight, only to see her pull her hand out of the fish with ease - wholly unharmed by the procedure.
She discarded the fish to the mire and sprang to his aid with a worried half-smile. “Damn, you aight? You’re pretty jumpy - you always been like that?” He scuttled to get to his feet again and attempted to shake his head and resume his courageous stance.
“Y-yeah, I guess you could say that… Which is why it sounds a bit dangerous to use ‘mind magic’ without the Lord’s protection…” She shrugged matter-of-factly before returning to the fish.
As she gripped it by its tail and slammed it head-first into a root, she explained: “I think I’d trust myself more than I’d trust some guy I ain’t ever seen or met. Now, you gonna tell me whatchu wanna start with or not?” With a single strike, she put the fish out of its misery.
“Don’t worry, no one’s gonna hurt ya. I’ve got your back - I’ll put you out if you catch fire.” She giggled and raised two fingers to the fish’s underside- slicing it open by simply running her delicate fingers down its length.
Such precise work - such a high-level Miracle applied at her whim to do something as simple as gut a fish. Abraham was left winking and considering this freedom that came with her way of viewing the Miracles - that the ‘mind-magic’ could be used for anything without the fear of heretically wasting His Miracles.
“What you wanna use it for? The mind-magic? You huntin’ meat with Toofy?” She asked as her practiced hands threw the discarded organs into the waters, where the hungry fish, insects and reptiles fell upon them in a frenzy.
“Yeah, that’s what we’re here to learn. How to hunt…” He spoke, somewhat disturbed by the sight of her slaughter.
She raised her dirty finger to rub her chin ponderously.
“Then I gotit. We’re gonna teach you how to start a fire!”