There was a boy, standing in a strange place. Everything around him was sparkling and flickering, illuminating the whole place. The ground he was standing on wasn‘t the usual ground one could find in common worlds made from dirt or sand. Instead there was something like brownish gold, littering everything under his foot. He didin‘t dare to believe that it was gold, because it was too absurd and unbelievable. Just imagining what sensation it would cause if revealed to creatures known as greedy humans made him shudder and lift his head to look at other things.

However, the more he looked, the more dumbfouded he was.

“This is tree? I think it's made from emerald. Why are there so many emerald trees?”

“Amethyst..? Sapphire and opal…”

“I see diamond and some other gemstones that are definitely precious. Is this world some bored god’s treasury..?”

The boy was mumbling and mumbling to himself still not daring to believe what he was seeing. Trees were made from sapphire and chrysolite, covering most of the space around him. They were huge and towering and had an enormous branches which looked like a giant’s hands. Seeing them felt like seeing a pillars holding the whole sky. There were also bushes made from diamonds and forest berries made from ruby. He even picked one and admired for a while before trying to bite it. It looked like a berry after all, so it should be edible. Or so he thought. But ruby is a ruby, not edible even while looking like berry. Luckily, his teeth were hard enough to be safe even after this experiment. There was also other plants made from gemstones, if these minerals could be called plants at all. A boy was looking and looking at them feeling shocked at first, but after a while he became numb.

“As expected, there are all kinds of wonders in the universe.”

Suddenly fatigue hit him. He was so absorbed admiring this new world that he forgot his trip through the endless winter world. That unforgettable coldness still enveloped him, sleepiness and hunger returned to bother him. Seeing that biting cold was seeped in his coat so much that it felt like sitting in a fridge, he decided to take it off. As for food, luckily he had enough for a few days. But after that… it seemed that he will have to eat ruby berries. Hopefully he will find some human settlement.

Taking off his coat and searching for some suitable place to rest, the boy’s figure was revealed for the first time. As the coat was very thick and big, it wasn’t possible earlier to gauge what this boy looked like. He was sixteen, but his body didn’t quite match with his age. A bit shorter than his peers and quite skinny, probably from malnutrition. Always traveling as far as he remembers didn’t let him to enjoy tasty food. Not only tasty, sometimes even normal food was hard to get. Sometimes he could hunt some animals or find some mushrooms, roots, berries or other edible things, but not all planets had it. Many known worlds didn’t have habitable conditions, so no creature lived there except humans, of course. They could supply all necessities through the gates from other planets, so living there for humans wasn’t a problem. But the thing was that to get these supplies from other worlds he had to have money. It isn’t anything new, you can get everything you want with money, as some like to say. And he didn’t have any money so couldn’t buy anything. Of course, if he really wanted to get some money, it wasn’t impossible. It’s just that he was too obsessed with his travels, neglecting other things.

Although skinny, he was definitely handsome. Short black unkempt hair emphasized his slightly pale, from traveling Snow Graveyard for a long time, complexion, he had sharp nose, pale lips and black obsidian like eyes. Going through the crowd young girls always casted him few more glances, although he never really cared about it. However, now, when compared to his brilliant surroundings, suddenly he seemed out of place. Not handsome anymore, like a beggar is never outstanding in the emperor’s palace.

Looking all around him once more, he noticed a fine shelter to rest. There was a pit quite close to him and it would protect him from cold winds if there was such a thing. There was also small protrusion, just enough to hide from rain.

As he got to the pit he unpacked his one day food portion and slowly ate it. He knew that eating slowly helps to quench hunger much better than eating it quickly. He still remembered traveling with a caravan some time ago and there was a fool who had had loved eating. During travel there was a bandit attack and these bandits were so strong that no hired mercenaries could stop them. Luckily, these bandits were only after goods in the caravan and didn’t take any lives. They also didn’t have enough manpower to take all goods with them so only a portion of caravan suffered. But ironically, the one who suffered the most was that man with too much wealth. Only his clothes were left to him. And after a while he had to sell them, because they were quite precious, but the money he got barely covered his food expenses. So he limited his food and only after day of being hungry could he enjoy his food. But he ate a way too quickly. This didn’t help him to fill his stomach at all and because of that he couldn’t sleep properly. Day after day, night after night, he couldn’t live anymore like that and died from exhaustion.

Remembering that caravan, reminded him that he is now in foreign land and won’t be able to return back. This made him a little sad, but having no relatives or friends over there quickly extinguished that little emotion. Actually even he thought that having not even a one friend was strange, but he just couldn’t help it, he was just too weak at socializing with others. Friends… To him it was easier to make enemies than friends.

Finishing his dinner he gazed at the burning evening sun, ready to take off to the dreamland. But just before giving in to sleepiness, a boy recalled that little world spirit in the shape of butterfly. It gave up its world for the sake of complete stranger. After exhausting all its remaining strength it definitely didn’t survive. Moreover, it even gifted him something very, very precious. Something that made him different from masses of people, different from masses of gate travelers. He glanced at the blue snowflake tattoo on his palm.

“That name you gave me… Agni… I’ll treasure it.”

He murmured while falling asleep.

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The next day was even more beautiful than the previous one. Morning sun was ceaselessly illuminating precious stones, making surroundings like picture brought from a fairy tale. Agni was traveling through sapphire forest, enjoying scenery and warmth brought by a golden morning sun. From time to time he would stop for a few minutes to rest or to examine some kind of plant he found interesting. Some even were stored to his bag, when he wasn’t willing to part with them. But he didn’t pick many of them because they were too heavy, being stones after all.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

After traveling for a while Agni suddenly stopped. His usual relaxed figure sharpened as he watched alertly in front of him. Slowly his hand slid down to his waist, where his short sword was hanging. It was ordinary sword one could find everywhere. However it was also Agni’s most beloved sword, because it accompanied him from the moment he was “born”. Even when he got a chance to get a many times better sword, he chose not to that.

Agni intensively stared at the strange creature between the giant trees, munching some diamond bush twigs as it was nothing to it. It was about a meter tall, similar to wolf animal and had black crystal like spikes covering its whole body. Actually it was so black that even in the moonless night it could be easily seen. As if the whole world’s darkness concentrated in it. There was also a two dark red eyes, ominously glinting from time to time. As for its teeth… it looked like an ordinary teeth, but seeing them capable of biting the diamond, renowned for its hardness, made one shiver.

“Crunch” “crunch’”

The creature was obviously enjoying its meal, completely unnoticing the invader in its territory. Seeing it being so defenseless Agni felt an urge to kill it. He didn’t know why, but he felt very threatened witnessing this black creature so easily biting a diamond branches. He contemplated a second on whether to take a risk or to not finally deciding to slay it.

Then he didn’t hesitate anymore. Leaning forward, Agni sprinted to the black spikey wolf as fast as he could, but not forgetting to do it silently to not alarm the prey. Agni was very confident in his abilities having a dangerous looking animal considered a prey. Or maybe it was his pride not wanting to acknowledge that some strange planet’s random animal made him feel threatened. Anyway, sprinting as silently as he could he quietly unsheathed his beloved sword, quickly closing in to the target.

But this animal wasn’t as unguarded as it seemed from the first glance. It quickly noticed that something strange was going on and swiftly avoided an incoming sword strike which was aimed at its neck area. This was where its black crystal defense was the thinnest. Unfortunately the black creature dodged just in time and a sword missed, striking its back only to be reflected by a big crystal spike.

Agni frowned as he felt his arm becoming numb. Obviously a sword wouldn’t easily penetrate this sort of defense. Even the thinnest spot on the creature’s neck could probably deflect his sword.

He felt troubled, but didn’t stop his offense. The black wolf like creature could only be confused as to what happened, because almost no one have ever dared to challenge it, especially during its most enjoyable activity which was eating. It just dodged and dodged as Agni aimed his sword towards its eyes. He was certain that its eyes weren’t made from crystal and therefore were its weakness. But it became annoying as he couldn’t pierce them not even once. That wolf was quite fast and had good reflexes making his sword to miss every time.

Gradually a black wolf seemingly come back to reality and released an angry roar. It finally understood that someone actually was challenging it. This made a confused animal a second ago very furious. It bared its scary teeth and pounded on Agni after the later finished his sword stab towards a left eye. This was a very small opening, but animal somehow noticed it and bitted while Agni has temporary lost his balance. Agni’s eyes constricted as he watched creature’s frightening teeth approaching. He could see diamond pieces stuck in between them, left from eating the diamond branches. He quickly fell down on the ground and rolled away to dodge the incoming strike. Luckily, he reacted fast enough and only his shoulder got grazed a bit. But an already angry animal became even more furious witnessing its attack not working. Stopping only for a half a second, it immediately chased after Agni.

Drops of sweat rolled down Agni’s forehead as he understood just how dangerous situation he was in just a moment ago. But he didn’t feel scared. On the contrary, he was very excited.

“Come, let me kill you!”

He exerted every ounce of his strength and shortly, after standing up, his sword was already speeding towards its target. The wolf who was chasing its rolling target was momentary stunned at this unexpected outburst of speed. It was confused as to why this creature who was already quite fast suddenly became even faster. But sword was already in front of it and not having any time to be stunned it quickly opened its full of harder than diamond teeth mouth and without thinking too much bit down the incoming sword.

“Crack!”

Agni’s eyes widened as he watched a black wolf stopping his sword with its teeth. Even the most precious sword, unless a magical artifact, would break, not to say that his sword was as common as the stars in the sky. Many had a way better weapon than his. Therefore, his beloved sword just cracked and finally broke like a twig. Seeing this scene would make one think that Agni was really just swinging a fake sword all this time.

Agni just stared at the broken sword and clenched his jaw. He really never cried before, but now, he just felt the urge to do this. This was his best friend. One that accompanied him from the beginning. When he was “born” he had only some clothes, few silver coins and this sword. He even considered naming it, but couldn’t think of any suitable name even in the end. His eyes moistened and he staggered, almost falling down.

Although Agni was sad, this couldn’t be said about a black wolf. It was very pleased with itself for getting rid of that annoying stick. It had been swinging In front of him since the battle started and that made him displeased and angry. The stick didn’t even taste good, but still dared to show off in front of him.

Agni was still rooted in one place reminiscing about the lost sword as the wolf attacked him with its front leg. Its claws weren’t inferior to its teeth in any way and they looked like black, death scythes. Sadly, Agni wasn’t able to react in time and was blown off in the distance.

The spot where he landed stirred the dry sand, or we should say gold dust, and everything around him was drowned in a sparkling golden cloud. It was very beautiful sight, not something you can see even in your whole life. But Agni didn’t have any time to appreciate that once in a lifetime view. He suddenly recovered from his dream like state, only to find a frightening claws approaching him. He could only helplessly shift his body a little so that the wolf wouldn’t hit his vitals. Thanks to that, his wound looked serious, but didn’t endangered his life.

Slowly his eyes started burning with a hatred and his body started emitting an eerie coldness. As soon as the golden dust particles settled down, he shot forward like an arrow shot from a bow. Fast and powerful. The black beast was momentary surprised that this creature still didn’t die, but thinking that Agni wouldn’t last one more strike from it, it also charged forward.

However, strange thing happened afterwards. In the right Agni’s hand, extreme coldness flowed out and formed into an ice lump. After that, it became bigger and bigger, quickly forming in the shape of sword. It looked exactly the same as his beloved one, which was bitten by a black wolf. The black wolf was once more surprised by this strange happening, but seeing that it was being stabbed towards it again, made it pissed off. It widely opened its jaws which had already broken the previous sword and believing that this time was the same, it bit down. But the really weird things then happened. The sword was a bit harder than earlier, but with the black wolf teeth it was nothing. However, who would have thought that after being broken, the sword parts became so cold that the coldness quickly spread out all over his body. A thick ice layer formed on its black crystal spikes and his insides were also being frozen by the ice shards that a black beast had eaten. It let out a whimper and started scratching its body, but this didn’t help to escape from an unbearable coldness. After a while a black wolf became a blue wolf, being covered by a blue and freezing coat. Slowly it lost its strength and could only whine a little before being frozen to death.