It had only been a couple hours since the two of them left town that the sky started darkening around them.

“It’s getting late.” Nyx observed astutely. His stomach growled. “You don’t happen to have any food with you do you?”

“I think I still have some strips of dried meat.” Sunny supplied.

“I don’t wanna sound picky,” said Nyx “but…I don’t eat meat.”

“Totally understandable.” said Sunny “These woods are pretty lush, I bet we can find something.”

Nyx nodded

The woods were indeed plentiful and the two chatted as they collected a bounty of walnuts, blackberries and various benign mushrooms.

Nyx asked about Sunny’s home and he spoke of a great city, a center of spice, clay and sand trade and a melting pot of Southern Temperate and Scorchland architecture full of Lupantic style pillars, ornate facades all carved from sandstone and large public pools provided by a well built irrigation system.

When he began to speak of the dangers outside the city walls, the talk changed to dragons. The native desert earth dragons specifically, though Sunny loved them all. Dragons were his biggest special interest and he possessed a vast knowledge which he shared rapid fire and seemingly nonstop with Nyx, getting more and more excited while Nyx simply nodded and asked questions to show he was still listening.

“-but when the sandstorms come, not only are their scales thick enough that it doesn’t hurt them, but they also have a protective third eyelid! I have them too!”

“Please don’t demonstrate.” Nyx asked as politely as he could while yanking some more chicken of the woods off of a log with a shadowy claw created from his own lengthening shadow

“How do you know what mushrooms are safe to eat” Sunny asked, stopping his info dump.

“I uh have a sister that knows a lot about plants and fungi and….poison….that and also trial and error” he said depositing the shelf mushroom in a makeshift basket made of his own cloak, also held by his claws.

“That sounds very not fun”

“It wasn't”

They came upon a small pond and Sunny took a check of his water supply, which was running low. He stooped to refill his canteen. “Hey, how many of those arms can you make?”

“I’m not sure,” said Nyx, examining a claw. It was inky black as if absorbing the light around it like a vacuum and seemed all at once jagged and drippy “I haven’t really counted.”

“Can you make other shapes?” Asked Sunny

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“Yeah,” said Nyx “Nothing too complex but I can do spikes, uh…blobs…oh, I can wrap things up.”

“Neat, I mainly blow things around. And I can do like a-Whapow!“ he drew his falchion and made a slashing motion and a blade-like wind sliced through the air…

…flying a few feet before slicing a low hanging branch off a thin tree.

Nyx quirked an eyebrow as Sunny cringed.

“Fire wood?” Suggested Nyx.

Sunny smiled and nodded.

Nyx broke off a few sticks with a shadowy claw.

They sat down with Nyx’s harvest and without being asked, Sunny started a fire. Nyx looked at his food. There wasn’t much but…”Are you sure you’re fine with just that? Some jerky is hardly a dinner.”

Sunny smiled. “Believe it or not, earth dragons are always surrounded by food!” He effortlessly scooped some soil from the ground next to him with claws built for digging through earth. He paused at Nyx’s baffled expression.

“Oh, uh. We can live off of minerals and nutrients in soil. I mean It’s not a complete diet and it’s pretty gross to observe.

Nyx tried to blink away his obvious shock, motioning for Sunny not to stop on his account as he tried not to “observe.”

“So what brings you this far from Terramat” he said skewering mushrooms

“I started getting fidgety, wanted to go on some grand adventure like in books, travel the world, help people wherever I can. my parents thought it would be good for me. You?”

Nyx became sullen “Same thing I guess. For the longest time I couldn’t really get out much, guess it made me develop some wanderlust.”

“Do you ever miss home” asked Sunny

“No, not at all”

“Oh. I see” Sunny said in understanding “Hey speaking of home,” he said, wanting to distract Nyx from the sudden sadness “I just remembered I have some Terramatian spice blend, might make your mushrooms more interesting”

“Sure,” said Nyx, eager for a change in subject “what’s in it?”

“Cinnamon, cayenne, curry powder, cardamom, turmeric, anise, paprika, allspice, cumin, coriander-“

Nyx cut him off “Spirits that’s every spice on Magae!”

“Everything you need to make anything taste like home, center of the spice trade and all that” Sunny smiled.

“I’ll try anything once” said Nyx

Naturally the spice blend left Nyx coughing and sputtering as his mouth and throat were singed. Sunny calmly handed over his canteen, again, without being asked, holding back laughter as Nyx tried to blink his tears away.

Sunny had never paid much attention to eyes. Eye contact just wasn’t natural to him so had learned to navigate social situations by turning soft focus to the entirety of a person’s face so if you asked him the color of any given person’s eyes, he probably wouldn’t be able to answer. Nyx’s eyes, though, grabbed his attention. He had not a smidge of pigment on his body, but his eyes weren’t grey, or blue or red. Instead they were a dark, saturated violet.

From what he’s heard it’s not uncommon for magic to seep into someone’s irises, but Nyx’s ears were blunt, not the pointed ears of a natural born mage like him.

But what was really interesting was his pupils. Rather than black holes, they were a light, bright yellow, almost glowing. There was something deeply mysterious about this man. Oh well, it wasn’t any of his business, he could wait to let the truth come out on its own.

Mushrooms, nuts, berries, jerky and…soil consumed, the two curled up on their respective bed rolls, Sunny’s talk of dragons lulling them both to sleep.