Cronix already told the crow to stop the carriage before they made it to the gates of O'Kairo, so that's what she did, she stopped them near a forest right by the gate.
Frowning, Cayden asked, "Why exactly are we stopping?"
"Well, we can't just waltz in like we belong, we need disguises." Cronix explained, taking the cloak from Lapsa, but he couldn't help also frowning, "You guys don't have any ideas on how you guys can disguise yourself."
Both demi-humans shook their heads. The crow flew up, and landed on Lapsa's head, looking bored.
Seeing her land on his head gave Cayden an idea, "Why don't we wait till it's night time, and we can hide in your dark elements like we did back at the Ayuna's."
Cronix nodded, "That could work, but according to the map there's Core Creation guards here, we could get caught if we don't do this right, unless we do... A distraction." He said distraction with a tired voice, which felt odd considering, Cronix was still very young.
With a darkened face, Cayden asked, "Do we really have to cause destruction everywhere we go?"
"Wait, where did you guys get a map?" Lapsa wasn't with the two boys when they dumped out the contents in Riley's magic bag, so he was naturally unaware of it.
Cayden quickly answered his question, then turned his attention back to Cronix, "This time, we have to do something that won't be traced back to us, we don't need the entire city on our backs."
Cronix didn't argue with him, he also didn't want to draw everyone in a mile radius, "Do you have any ideas on what we can do then?"
Both of them began to think, then Cayden had an idea when he looked at the trees, "A forest fire!"
"No, no, no, we can't do a forest fire, if anyone finds out the whole kingdom would be after us?" Lapsa instantly went against that idea, "There's got to be something else."
"Okay then, do you have ideas that can replace it?" Cayden asked him, raising his eyebrows.
Lapsa could only shake his head, and with that, Cronix clasped his heads together, "We'll wait till night then. While we wait, we might as well collect some sticks, and things like that."
Cayden agreed, and they were split into two groups with Cayden and Cronix in one and the crow and Lapsa in the other.
"Do you think we went too hard on him?" Cronix asked, leaning against a cane made of rocks, that Cayden created for him.
With a shrug, Cayden said, "Probably, but for people like us, we has to get used to this."
The two continued collecting sticks, no longer discussing this topic.
"This doesn't feel right, I mean how will we be punished if anyone finds out, this is definitely not small?" Lapsa muttered, but while he was saying this, multiple thoughts were occupying his mind.
The crow was only partly listening, more focused on collecting the branches, but she stopped when she noticed Lapsa was staring at her.
"You know, do you even care about getting a name? I know you can't speak, but you don't seem at all interested in getting a name... Ah, my mind is all over the place today."
Lapsa stopped speaking from that point on, and they both went to collect more sticks, though they probably already had enough.
The crow gave every stick she collected to Lapsa, but when she turned around to give him the next stick, she noticed he stopped moving.
He was staring at a flower, seemingly lost in thought and in one of his hands, which were barely supporting the sticks, were an acorn.
The crow was very confused, she flew on top of his head, and pecked at his ears. It was only then that he came back to reality.
He muttered something under his breath, then he reached to pluck the flower. Of course with his hands full, he couldn't.
The crow looked at him with pity, before she flew down to the flower and plucked it herself. She then went back to the top of his head, she dropped it into his hair.
Lapsa nodded at her in thanks, then said, "I think this is enough, let's go."
When they went back to the carriage, they found Cronix and Cayden already waiting for them.
Cronix was sitting on the grass performing cognitive gathering, the air around him was getting increasingly colder. Cayden on the other hand, sat on the carriage with a book in his hands, constantly repeating something Lapsa couldn't make out, but it didn't look like actual words.
They didn't even collect half the amount of sticks Lapsa and the crow collected which amounted to more than 30.
Cayden looked up from his book, and made a bizarre face when he saw them, "You guys really went overboard."
Lapsa sighed, and said, "Let's get this over with."
Obviously they couldn't get it over with right away, and had to wait till nightfall, where the fire would be most apparent against the sky, and the dark elements would work best.
An hour slowly dragged by, the crow came out from the forest with a magic bag in her talons, she dropped it in front of Cronix.
When Cronix opened his eyes, they looked brighter than they did before, this didn't fade.
Inside the bag were apples the crow found, and he grabbed one then passed the rest to the two other boys. He also handed the bag to Lapsa, since it was an extra they got from the three companions the day before.
"That reminds me, you never told me how big your bag is." Lapsa heard Cronix say to Cayden before he looked at the apple in his hand.
The crow landed on Lapsa's head and watched him with a peculiar gaze.
Lapsa extended a finger, and at its end, the wind elements were swirling around in a circle. He touched the apple, and his finger drilled into it.
After he did that, he simply stared at it in a daze. If the crow could, she would've been frowning right now, but she couldn't, so with no other way to release her worry, she bit his ear like usual.
Lapsa didn't have any drastic reactions to the crow's biting, he just looked up at her, before sighing, and biting into the apple.
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The crow hopped down from his head to the ground, and then in front of him. Lapsa looked at her with the same peculiar expression she had mere moments ago, but his eyes also contained a hint of amusement.
Forming a blade with the wind elements, he cut the apple into pieces, and handed a piece to the crow. The crow gave Lapsa a look, but he didn't catch it since her beady eyes made it hard to tell her emotions.
Reluctantly, she ended up accepting the apple piece, despite not needing to eat.
Lapsa tilted his head when he saw her eat, "I first started feeding you so you could let me name you, yet even now I still haven't found you a name. It feels like it's been so long."
The crow finished her apple piece, and Lapsa tried giving her another, but she refused, and hopped closer to him.
A confused expression rose onto his face, and he knitted his eyebrows, "What happened?"
The crow cried and flew around him, she then suddenly snatched the apple piece out of his hands, and dropped it on his head.
Yet, this still did absolutely nothing to help convey her message.
As a last resort, she flew back down, and suddenly became silent, but her back was away from him. Lapsa was so very confused, he understood nothing, and felt like he'd been wronged.
He still did want to know what she wanted though, "Um... Crow?"
Even with her back to him, he could see her shake her head.
"Goodness... This is why we need to give you a name." Lapsa muttered, but the crow heard this and cried out, she suddenly became excited again.
Lapsa's confused expression only got worse, but the next moment understanding appeared on his face, and with an excited voice, he exclaimed, "You want me to give you a name!"
The bird cried out again, voicing her agreement.
"Okay then, let's start, and if you don't like it, peck on my ear."
The crow flew onto Lapsa's shoulder this time, and stayed there with her head on his, staring intently at his ears, seemingly ready to peck at them in a few seconds.
"...How about Yuneri?" This option, Lapsa made up on the spot, and the crow could obviously tell, so she bit on him hard, and it cut his ear with blood slowly leaking out.
Lapsa glared at her, "Don't do that so hard, I'm still only a Caster with three stars, I'm weak!"
There wasn't a hint of remorse in the crow's eyes, but Lapsa couldn't tell, so he continued forward.
"...Vertanx?" The strength the crow pecked Lapsa's ear with was even harder than before, and at that moment, Lapsa was just about ready to throw the bird off his shoulder, but he restrained himself.
"If you don't want a name you can go fly to Cronix!" Lapsa said with a voice that could barely withhold his annoyance, but this only resulted in another peck on his ear.
"Fine, fine, fine, I'll find you a name." Lapsa forced himself to calm down, he was starting to get afraid of the monster on his shoulder.
And Cronix is supposedly the demon.
With a hand on his chin, Lapsa lost himself in thought, trying to find a name for her. After a few minutes, Lapsa's face finally brightened up, and his eyes started to twinkle, he looked up at her, and asked, "How about Kara?"
The crow thought about it for a while, still kind of unsure, but when she looked at Lapsa's excitement, especially the twinkle in his eyes, she somehow couldn't refuse him, and resigned herself to the name.
Seeing her not refuse, and not biting his ear, Lapsa smilled, and he was filled with warmth, this coupled with the background noise of Cayden and Cronix bickering, created a unique atmosphere.
Bickering..?
Lapsa turned his attention to the other two boys. From what he could make out, the two were arguing about magic bags.
"No, I'm not kidding, it's way bigger than you can see. Here, put on the glasses Riley gave you, your eyes are obviously worse than what you think."
"What are you talking about, I don't need to wear my glasses to know it's not that big."
Lapsa couldn't keep his curiosity in check, "What the heck are you guys talking about?"
"Cronix thinks the magic bags are bigger than what they actually are." Cayden explained.
Cronix shook his head, "No, Cayden is just too blind to see the actual size of his magic bag."
"I could help decide." Lapsa offered.
The two other boys looked at each other, then agreed. Cayden handed him the bag Riley gave him.
"But before we start, how big do you think the magic bag is?"
Cayden answered with, as big as eight crates, like the ones we used for fruit, but four on the bottom, and four on the top."
Then Cronix answered with, "Just like his, but add that same amount to each side, so..." He began to draw it out with his mental energy, "216 fruit crates." Cronix then frowned, "Did I do that right?"
"Whatever, I understand what you mean." Lapsa infused his magic inside the bag, and he peered inside, and just like what Cayden said, it was the size of eight crates.
He slowly looked up, and there was a weird look on his face when he looked at Cronix, but he was surprised to see there was also a weird look on Cronix's face when he looked at him.
Before Lapsa could speak, Cronix spoke first, "Why didn't you use your mental energy to open the bag?"
"Why would I need to?" Lapsa asked, just as confused when he was trying to guess what the crow, or Kara, wanted.
"Magic bags use formations, you don't use magic to activate formations, that's how you weaken its power." Cronix explained.
But Cayden frowned when he heard this, "Wait, doesn't that mean we were both correct, and you knew that?!"
"Maybe..." Cronix said with a smile.
Lapsa quickly changed the subject before Cayden could say anything else, "I gave her a name." He said as he gestured at the large bird on his shoulder.
This got both of their attention, "Took long enough, what name did he give you?" Cronix asked the crow, as she flew off Lapsa's shoulder and onto his.
"Kara." Lapsa answer.
"Kara. Cronix repeated, then he nodded, "I guess she could pass as Kara, but that's going take some time getting used to."
After that exchange, nothing else significant happened, but Cayden was a bit sulky about Cronix's little stunt.
...
The sun set and night quickly arrived, using the sticks they gathered, a huge campfire was built. After setting it ablaze, Lapsa created a huge wind to stoke the flame, and to carry it to the closest tree.
The fire quickly consumed that tree, and made its way to the other surrounding trees. "This is our time to leave." Cayden muttered, while cutting off the rope connecting the blue lizard to the wagon.
The lizard quickly ran away, and the four left the wagon to become kindling.
With a dark magic cloak surrounding the four of them, created by the teamwork of Cronix and Kara, they quietly made their way to the walls of O'Kairo.
When they finally got close, Lapsa could see the fire they created had grown drastically, he sighed, but didn't say anything.
Near the entrance, they could finally see the guards, and as they expected, they were at the core creation stage.
There were only two at the entrance, but there was no doubt more on top of the walls. The two at the front were both at the advanced Core Creation stage, making them similar to strength as head butler Ortan.
They were both looking at the forest with a frown, "Should we report this?" One of them asked the other.
"Probably." The guard put their hand inside the magic bag at their waist, and grabbed a metallic disc.
They infused magic inside the disc causing it to flicker. It continued to flicker for half a minute before the avatar of a man's upper body came into view.
The four of them were too far to make out the features, but the voice was deep, and a little intimidating.
The guard that called looked a little nervous, "Sir, there seems to be a fire in the forest."
"A fire?" The voice sounded a bit surprised, "Well, what are you waiting for? Take it out already!"
"Yes sir!" The avatar from the disc went out, and the two guards looked at each other. One of them sighed and said, "Go rally up everyone else."
The guard nodded, and left towards the entrance, but as they were leaving, they briefly glanced at the area the four of them were hiding, then stopped with a frown.
Fear instantly grasped the fours hearts, even Kara's. The only reason she was able to take care of Ortan at the Ayuna's was because of the beast core, without it, she might not stand a chance.
The guard continued to stare, a confused look appeared on his face. "What are you standing there for, hurry up!" The words of the other guard knocked them out of their stupor and they continued to run, but not before taking one last glance.
While the four of them were shocked, they understood they had to move fast, and with the other guard now running towards the forest fire, the gate now remained empty.
They silently went through the gate, with Cayden helping Cronix so they could move faster.
After going through the gate, they went to the nearest alleyway they could find, which didn't take long.
By the end of it, the three boys were breathing heavily.
"Who would have thought a forest fire would help us so much?" Cronix said between breaths.
"Well, it was obvious, if that forest burnt down, O'Kairo would be punished by the kingdom, a lot of important people would probably die, and this place would then be swarming with holy knights." Cayden muttered.
Cronix raised an eyebrow, "Seriously, that's kind of excessive."
"If you think that's excessive then you should know that if you cut down a tree without the proper license, you could be executed." Lapsa commented.
"Who put these laws into place?" Honestly, Cronix couldn't think of a reason for such strong punishments.
"The king." Cayden answered.