Three weeks. It had been three weeks since Arras and Illia arrived. A lot, and yet also very little had happened in that time. A lot of learning for both of them, but it was comparatively less work than what they had to do when out in the wild. By now, Arras had mostly come to terms with what had happened to him. He never quite got over it, that would be absurd, but he could make peace with it and move on with his life.

Being the only spirit fox in the area as far as he was aware was... odd, especially when the rest of the creatures living around you were all humans, and it was a human who separated him from his family... But as Arras had come to learn, humans were radically different from each other. He could not hold the entire species accountable for the actions of one man.

When he and Illia had been offered a more permanent place of residence in one of the humans homes, Arras opted for a residency more familiar to him. There was a bit of hesitation after such a choice had been elected, but Illia managed to assuage any worries. Arras ended up doing almost the entirety of the work, though he didn't really mind. By the end of the day his and Illia's "home" had been built. A place to stay like everyone else in the village. It was an odd feeling, but certainly not a bad one.

So after a day of construction, Arras found himself yawning openly as he walked through the opening to their den. Illia had already returned home, and was soundly snoozing on her perch. She did have a bed, but it was usually fifty fifty for her on where she slept.

It's rather confusing for me, how exactly is that comfortable?

And she totally skipped out on practice today... I'm so chewing her out in the morning. Arras huffed as he padded to the center of their "den". For him, there were three things on the agenda to practice. Arras had long since grown satisfied with his proficiency in earth magic. To him, he now cared far more about three other magics.

During his near death encounter with the elk, Arras had made a breakthrough with his illusions. Similarly to when he had used earth magic to defy death, Arras had immediately took to practicing relentlessly with illusion magic.

Currently, Arras had his focus on the following magics, Illusion, mental, and transformation. For illusion, he still felt inspiration, fresh and potent. That alone was enough for him to continue down that path. However, the mental and transformation magics were for entirely different purposes.

Arras was made painfully aware of the weakness of his own mind on that day three weeks ago, and he wished to never experience such a loss of control again. The ability to freely communicate with others was merely a side benefit for him. Arras sought complete control over his own state of mind. As for transformation, it was a bit of an odd feeling that compelled Arras to work on the outlandishly difficult spell craft that was transformation magic. Part of it was simply rising to the challenge, to know if he could or could not do it, but the other stemmed from a sense of not belonging. As far as Arras cared, he was himself no matter what form he took. But others would not see him that way.

After Arras had learned of a world outside of this village... Something in his soul resonated with that. Something deep inside of him wanted to see the world, and that likely wouldn't be possible as he was. Seeing all of the world, anyways. So in order to go where he wanted, to do what he pleased, his form would need to change. Such a massive undertaking was well out of his reach still, let alone being able to hold such a change. But he made steps towards it day by day.

After Arras finished practicing, Illia was still asleep. Bobbing up and down slightly as her chest rose and fell. He huffed and turned away, towards his own bedding. A very normal bed, made of... Not leaves and the like. Instead an odd combination of materials which he didn't even know the names of.

Humans are weird, why do they even need all of this?

So, after he dipped under a layer of what the humans called "blankets" he began to fall asleep, not before stretching out and uncovering the upper half of his body though, keeping proper control of his temperature and all that. Overheating wasn't particularly fun. Though as he tossed and turned, he began to reminisce over the events of the past few weeks, mind drifting as he tried to find a sweet sweet gap of unconsciousness.

...

"So... We just need to help them with tasks involving magic and we'll be fed?"

"Yep! That's what they said." Illia replied back bubbly as can be. She certainly seemed happy about all of this.

"That seems a little bit... Too easy...?"

"How so? Arras you do realize you're probably better with magic than most people in this village right?"

"...Surely not?"

"Your entire life has revolved around magic Arras, not everybody has that same dedication as you. And spirit foxes are just inherently really good at it as well."

"I... Really?"

"Is it that hard to think that you're good at something?"

"What is that supposed to mean?" Arras whipped around and tilted his head at Illia with a bit more ferocity than usual.

"Yeesh calm down! Just making a joke, didn't mean anything by it."

Arras blinked, then huffed. "Sorry."

"Well... Anyways, Marus said we could expect work some time by today."

"Alright, though, did they actually say anything about what we'd be doing? Do they even know what we can do?"

"Uhhh... First question, no, second question, yes? I told them what I can do and what you've told me you can do. They at least found it agreeable enough to let us live amongst them."

Arras nodded slowly before he laid back down on the ground, if all he had to do was wait, that's what he would do... For now anyways, if they took too long for his tastes he might start working on his earth magic.

...

Turns out, resting was the right move. When two more humans had come to bring Arras and Illia somewhere, they'd also explained what the two would be doing. All Illia had to do was communicate between Arras and the humans, since he couldn't do it himself. Arras however, would be expected to assist with the construction of multiple paths. How hard could it really be though?

...

Very, very hard is how hard it could be. Using the amount of magic at the level Arras was being expected to use it at was incredibly difficult work. Arras was taking hold of and lifting dirt by the tons, then holding it in place for as long as need be, which could be pretty damn long from time to time. If Arras could sweat, he'd be pouring buckets from the level of strain he was putting on himself. And he wasn't even moving.

You know... When I heard "tasks" I didn't think torture was on the list.

"Oh come it can't be that bad."

"Oh thank the Nine Tails, can I let go of this spell now?"

Illia lightly huffed, somewhat exasperated, yet also somewhat amused. "Yes, you can stop now."

Arras almost choked on the air as he took in a breath, not even having noticed he was barely breathing under the strain of his concentration. With his spell released, the tons of soil he'd been holding up began to crumble back into the earth. However, the soil was battered away by the group of humans they were working with. In place of the old, stood a new substance that Arras wasn't quite familiar with, it was like a large amount of small pebbles all cobbled together.

It definitely felt worse to walk on in his opinion. Dirt was soothing, firm, this path felt as if it would crumble beneath him, it got inbetween his paws and hurt if he wasn't careful... Overall, he'd say he was not a fan. Though, it wasn't as if he couldn't just... Walk alongside the path instead.

"Alright, the next spot you need to hold up is right over there!" Illia cheerfully told Arras as she held a wing out to her right, towards the construction workers.

"Wh... What?"

...

The first few days were grueling work, though Arras found it was at least rewarding. The humans had stayed true to their word, and without having to hunt or kill, they were provided for. Arras certainly felt... A way, about that, but he didn't particularly mind. He also soon found, that he was not to be alone in his suffering. Given Illia wasn't adept in any field like Arras was, she was simply designated as a... Errand boy, is what she called it. Apply healing there, start fires here, stop somebody from feeling their leg after it was violently torn off... She'd been a bit more reluctant to talk about that one. Oh and, not in that order.

Regardless, her rather high mobility in comparison to most of the people that lived in the village made her the go to for a lot of moving work and or activities, so she quickly found herself almost as, if not just as busy as Arras was with his more heavy duty work. Which in all fairness, after the first few days he had started to get somewhat acclimated to it. In fact, Arras had started to view it as just a natural part of training himself. It was good practice with earth magic, and good practice with using higher quantities of magic. At that point, he'd decided to drop earth magic from his daily training. Because, well, his "tasks" did all of it for him.

After about a week. Arras found himself a bit more contented with his lot. Once again, he settled into a comfortable schedule. He'd almost gotten a mind link spell, similar to what Illia did, down in his repertoire. While he didn't exactly want to communicate with all the people around him. he was starting to feel somewhat awkward just wordlessly doing their work. There were still things to be improved on, and this wasn't where he wanted to stay for all his life... But Arras also knew that if he got stronger, traversing the forest would be much easier.

So, it was mildly surprising to him when he and Illia were offered a more permanent place to stay.

...

"So. Marus says we can stay in his house now if we want."

Arras was just about to lie down on the outskirts of the town again, right before Illia dropped that little... Not quite bomb, but heavy object.

"I... What? Why?"

"They mentioned it when they said I was done for the day. I'm sure all the specifics would bore you, so I won't bother, but they said we've been helping around long enough for us to be a little bit more trustworthy, so they're willing to let us stay in the village itself now."

"That's... Well, not sudden, that's a little odd."

"How so?"

"I... Sorry, I just wasn't really expecting that. I suppose I should've expected some form of... I don't know, acceptance? At some point in the future, I just... Didn't really care about it?"

"Well I mean, do you want to go? We don't technically need to go there, but it might be seen as a bit rude to not..."

"I don't dislike the people here, so... Sure, I don't see why not."

...

At first, Arras was in awe. The places were massive, with no threat of attack from other creatures as well. Plenty of places to stay, to train in... Actually, Illia said they wouldn't appreciate their houses being set on fire, so that one was a no go, but still.

As time passed though, he found himself less and less happy with the place. It was an indescribable feeling, but he felt very out of place. Despite how large it was, it felt closed. Shut off from the world outside, almost claustrophobic. For Arras, who was, almost always on edge ever since he'd lost his family, that really sucked.

It was at dead of night, Both he and Illia were asleep, or well, he should've been asleep. They didn't really have any specific place to sleep, despite having been offered a place to stay... So they were downstairs, that's what Illia called the place anyways.

Even being right next to his companion, Arras could not sleep for the life of him. He was covered by Illia's wing, and she was sleeping soundly... But he just couldn't do it. So, as gently as he could, Arras attempted to slip out from under her. Fortunately for him, she was a somewhat heavy sleeper when she was actually, well, asleep.

So gently, very very gently, Arras crawled out and stood up. He felt uneasy inside, so instead of staying he simply walked outside. He had a bit of trouble with the door, sniffing around and jumping for a bit. Though eventually he ended up using a bit of transformation magic to form a tendril, and turned the door knob with it after a bit of fiddling. He walked outside, and instantly felt a profound sense of relief.

Yeah... Didn't much enjoy that. Illia will be upset when she realizes I'm not there in the morning, but oh well. I'm sure she'll forgive me.

Arras laid down outside of the house, sitting under the stars. He didn't quite realize that he should close the door, but it wasn't particularly cold outside at the moment. He felt much more at ease where he was now instead of inside, so it didn't take him long to doze off.

Stolen novel; please report.

...

"Why did you even sneak out?"

Under intense scrutiny from Illia, Arras just gave an honest answer. "I felt trapped in there. Couldn't sleep like that."

"How?"

"I... It just felt suffocating in there, it was spacious, I know it was, but I just couldn't help but feel uneasy."

Illia stood there for a moment, before practically deflating. "I'd have appreciated it if you just told me. But alright, We'll figure something out, okay?"

"Well, there's not really much to figure out is there? I'll just keep sleeping outside, I don't mind."

"You know that isn't really the problem... I know you don't quite understand how these people... Work, yet. But you've ingrained yourself as extremely helpful. At this point, they feel as if it's necessary to improve your living situation after you've helped complete construction in days that would've otherwise required months of backbreaking labor for them."

"But... I'm fine?"

Arras really didn't understand why there was a problem. He would be fine outside, less so inside, so why bother with all of this?

"Look... Mmm, what's the way I can make this make the most sense for you... Oh, got it! Alright, basically, the people of this town think they owe you a debt for your work and want to reward you accordingly, you deciding to not take that reward makes them feel like they're not doing what they should be doing for you, and that makes them upset. Makes sense?"

"So... They want to make themselves feel better about themselves... By giving me something? Isn't that somewhat... Silly?"

"Well... I suppose you're not wrong." Illia huffed yet again. "In the end, what you want is more important to me then what the people here want. So don't worry about it too much alright? Just trying to explain to you why it matters. So sit tight, I'll have this sorted out by today."

"Well... Actually, if they want to "reward" me for my work, I think I have an idea on something they could let me do for myself."

Illia tilted her head at the fox. "Alright, I'm listening."

...

Instead of living with somebody, Arras instead requested to build his own den in the town. At first, there was a bit of opposition, or so Illia had told him. But after she argued a bit, they conceded and gave Arras a patch of land to work with. When Arras looked at the amount of land he'd been given to work with... He was a bit surprised. It was certainly much more then he'd been expecting. Though it would also prove to be a bit of a challenge because... Well, he hadn't worked with an area like this before... Also, he'd only worked on building a den once, in his life. It would certainly be... A unique challenge.

He'd been given full reign over this project, provided it didn't encroach on land not given to him. So Arras decided to simply start digging. He'd figure out the rest after carving out a good bit to begin with. His game plan for doing that, was to move and soften the earth with, well, earth magic, then move it out of the way while it was loose before it had the chance to solidify back into place. Doing this, he made extremely quick progress. Digging multiple feet into the dirt within minutes.

Of course, the deeper he got the longer it took to push the dirt back out to the surface, so after getting about twenty feet under, which took a little over an hour... Arras decided that was deep enough. So with renewed energy, he began to carve out his surroundings. Of course, not without a healthy dose of caution. He understood WHY his family had recommended a den to be built around a tree, because the risk of a collapse was a serious problem if a den was too large.

In order to properly ward against this, Arras kept a constant hold over the soil in all directions around him via large amounts of earth magic. Maybe a week ago, such a feat would've been impossible for Arras, but his work in the village so far had prepared him well for such an occasion. Precisely manipulating the dirt and stone around him was certainly difficult work while keeping track of the structural durability of his work so far, yet it was still very much doable.

Over time, he began to hollow out a huge area. He couldn't exactly scratch at the earth above him, but pulling it down via magic and then pushing it away did work perfectly fine. So with great caution, yet also great efficiency, Arras continued to work all throughout the day.

...

By the third hour, Arras was starting to get a bit hungry, but was also somewhat close to finishing up an area that he would consider livable. And despite that area being far smaller. much more constricted, somehow it felt so much more... Free. Now, Arras wasn't quite sure if Illia would want to stay down there with him, but he figured he should ask her if there were any additions she wanted.

After a bit of searching... And a little bit of reluctant questioning via some shoddy mental magic, Arras managed to catch Illia's attention from the ground as she was carrying something across the village. He knew he'd managed to... Get her attention with his magic, because she paused in the air for a moment and glanced down at him before carrying on. So instead of following after her, he simply sat down and began to wait.

A few minutes later, she came back around, and seeing that Arras was still there, glided down to the ground. She ruffled her feathers for a bit, then finally began to cast a telepathy spell.

"Hello Arras, I assume you wanted to talk to me about something, given you almost coated me in ash a moment ago."

"Yes, and, sorry about that. Controlling magic that far away is a bit difficult. I'm about done carving out my den, but I wanted to ask if you were still going to live in the same space as me now that you have a place to stay."

"Oh, of course I am."

"I-wait what? I know you never really mentioned it but I could sort of tell you didn't exactly... Like being underground?"

She side eyed Arras with a mix of embarrassment and annoyance. "Look do you want me to or not?"

"I mean-I'd love for you to stay with me don't get me wrong." Arras said defensively, "I'm just concerned for your own well-being Illia. To be frank, you're the last thing in my life right now Illia. I'd much rather you were comfortable with your situation. I'll be fine on my own if you'd rather stay somewhere else."

"I... Look, it's really not a problem, trust me on that alright? It... It... Ugh... It'd be worse to be separated from you then to be sleeping underground, alright?"

He blinked a few times at that statement, but quickly recomposed himself. "Alright, I'll ask you my second question then. If you're going to sleep in my, or I guess our den, are there any changes you'd like made to it? Changes from the last den we lived in anyways."

"Well, now that you mention it... Do you know what a perch is?"

"No, never heard of it."

"Weellll... I guess I could help you out with all of this then. Go to the den-in progress and I'll be there in a few minutes."

"Don't you have work to do?" Arras tilted his head at Illia, giving her a quintessential raised eyebrow look, despite not having eyebrows.

"Just finished it, only need to let Marus know now."

"Alright, if you say so... Oh by the way, why is it always Marus you're telling these things?"

"Oh he's the chief of this village, that's why he was the first one to talk to me."

"Is that like... A group leader or something?"

"Precisely."

...

The rest of the day was just spent between the two of them. For the first time in a week, they once again had a day to themselves. Of course, that was a day filled with work and toil in the dirt, but somehow neither of them ended up minding. True to her word, Illia showed Arras what exactly a perch was. Through a rather convoluted spell involving mental magic, she gave him an image of it. A cylindrical object simply sticking out of a wall. While the object was simple... Arras found himself a bit lacking in his capacity to actually make it.

In the end, they had to seek assistance for the task with their human... Roommates? Companions? Employers? Arras wasn't exactly sure what to call them. Neither was Illia as he realized, having heard all three of those things from her in passing. Regardless, Illia and Arras traversed the town. By now, Arras had a pretty good idea of what the place was like and which areas did which work, but he followed Illia anyways. She had a better understanding of the place, he just did as he was told. And within short order, they'd arrived at what Arras formerly recognized as the wood working section.

They got curious glances from the twenty or so people in the building, but Illia quickly took to starting up a link with one man who was currently doing something a bit odd. To Arras, he seemed to be cutting wood in a very strange manner, only shaving off edges of it, narrowing the edge of a large piece of wood... He wouldn't claim to understand the purpose of it, but it did intrigue him. Not more then his current objective, of procuring whatever it was Illia wanted, but still.

The two talked for a bit, and after a short moment the man agreed to whatever request Illia had. A few minutes later, he held a "perch" as Illia would call it in his hands. Illia gave him a nod, and he set it down on the ground. Turning away from the duo and returning to whatever he had been doing the moment before.

"So, gonna pick that up?" Illia turned to Arras with a chipper tone, clearly finding something funny about what she'd said. Whatever it was, Arras didn't get it.

"Sure."

...

After they returned, it was a rather simple solution to "install" the perch. Arras just kind of... Jammed it into the wall. Then re solidified it with a bit of help from his earth magic. The two talked some more, but eventually Illia got to her next point. Given Arras had asked her if she wanted to add anything, she figured that meant more then one thing would be available to add. So she made her intentions quite clear.

By the time Arras was done noting things down in his head, Illia had requested quite a menagerie of items. Beds, lights, a very interesting thing the people of this village had in their homes, Arras had noticed, a few extra perches, bowls? Whatever those were, Arras was sure they'd figure it out sooner or later.

So they went about getting all of these items, and with every trip back and forth, even despite the rather bland surroundings, the den seemed to grow just a little bit livelier with every addition. And so they carried on, the day passed, and they went back to their normal routines. But with this new space entirely their own, an invisible tension that Arras hadn't even realized was there yet seemed to melt. The two could really just... Do whatever, act however they wanted, it wasn't as if there was anybody to shock or annoy with any antics they might have caused down there.

So day by day, extension by extension, hours flew by and Arras finally found himself settling into a comfortable routine. Over time he even began to find himself speaking with the people of the village, growing comfortable with their presence... Even making what some might call friends, other then Illia of course. And so time passed, and passed... And passed... And...

And Arras woke up.

His eyes slowly blinked open, and entirely routinely he pulled himself out from under his blankets, setting foot on the packed earth that was the floor of their den. His mouth stretched open in a wide yawn before he glanced over at Illia... They weren't there.

Hm, that's odd, they're usually not awake this early.

Then, he heard something else. A thumping noise, quiet, yet still louder than something like that had any right to be given where he was right now. Then he heard it again.

Arras felt something deeply, deeply wrong. He felt it in his gut, a similar feeling to the time he'd gone on his final hunt with his family. That gnawing dread that something, somehow, was off. He scrambled out of bed and glanced around a bit more. All was as it should be down here... But...

Arras ascended to the surface, he nervously looked around... But everything seemed to be ordinary, everything except for the fact that everybody who would normally be walking around the village... Was gone? And also, Illia was here, seemingly just as confused as he was.

"What's going on?" Arras asked as he hastily spun up a spell. It would usually be Illia doing as such but she seemed a bit... Preoccupied.

"I don't know, I heard yelling up above and when I came out everybody was gone..."

The earth shook once again.

"What is that?" Arras stood on edge, something about this really wasn't sitting right with him.

"I-I'm not sure... Uh, wait, what in the... Arras, look over there." Illia lifted a wing in the direction of the forest, even further into the forest, a cloud of smoke was rising.

The forest was burning.

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No Bestiary or Dictionary today.