It didn’t really seem to take long for the distant figure to approach our position. Within a minute, what was a distantly soaring ember grew into the shape of a flaming man.

Now this was a person I could relate to! He didn’t seem to have an odd, spongy body like Hal and was instead completely made out of a more natural substance like I am! Although I feel like clay is much more adaptable, I can definitely see a good reason to be made of fire if I could soar like they do. Using your own body to propel yourself is definitely a positive of being whatever race Hal’s partner is. Some type of Fireman?

Fwooomfff

Hmm, I’ll have to ask in a minute. He’s approaching close and started to land.

Taking a long moment to land, this Fireman takes in the environment and gazes at me with green embered eyes for a short while.

“Hello there, Almaej!” He shouts with enthusiasm and gives me warm smile, one that radiates heat in a comforting way as well. Odd but nice. “Nice to see you’ve survived thanks with Hal’s help.”

As he sets foot on the ground with a subtle swoosh of flame, the Fireman’s smile takes on a somber appearance as he notices the substantial mass of clay.

“I…” He stutters for a small moment and I swear his flame flickers a different shade with it before he continues suddenly, giving me little chance to contemplate this odd display of emotion. “I’m very sorry that we couldn’t find you before the worst happened. My name is Soot, I’m an elemental. Is there anyone else we need to help?”

Soot, the elemental as I’ve just been told, waves an arm at the surroundings. I follow his gesture and take in the splattering of my fellow Almaej.

“No, I should be…”

I give a blank stare for the briefest of moments as the haunted venture my team set out on comes back to the forefront of my memory.

Nearly a dozen warriors had formed a line, shaping their large arms that blocked the clay-dissolving blasts of water.

Those warriors had so much more mass and experience than myself, but even then, I knew as I watched my mentors shielding all of the other fresh fighters that the putty flying in grotesque clumps from their bodies was only a sign of the utter horror that this drenched world may hold.

I shake my head harshly to let the memory fade and answer the man. Proper introductions and answers. I can think on what’s happened later.

“Don’t you worry about it. I’m male and you can call me Arc. I should be all that’s left though, Hal did his best.”

Hal points a sidelong stare towards me with his slitted golden eyes before turning back to his partner.

“Hmmph.” He scoffs and seems annoyed for some reason. “I lost a wing, Soot. I was careless and my pride had me underestimating the damned Wyrm.”

I wave of yellow surges through Soot and surprise radiates from his face as he receives this news. Does his body… change color as his emotion do? I think I’ll take a body of clay over flying with one made of fire if I have a tell like that. Poker must be a nightmare for him!

“You lost your wing, Hal-flame!” Soot shifts and dashes behind Hal to examine the injury. He shifts with a visible discomfort upon a closer look by his partner. I give a brief explanation while he looks over my impromptu treatment.

“Yeah, Hal-flame was handling that dousing monster before it let out some beam that cut his wing off like it was made of paper.”

Hal gives a grimace at Soot’s prodding and my report.

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“Don’t make it seem so easy, Arc. The beam actually raked across my entire body then my wing. Barely tore a few of my scales loose until it cut the weaker tendons of my wing. My landing was what really knocked me loose.”

I look at his chest through the torn and soaked clothes he wears and notice he’s right. He’s actually got a long scrape across his chest that is a darker shade of pink than the rest of his spongey flesh. What tore his wing straight off couldn’t even cut the scales of his body! He’s definitely tougher than almost any Almaej I’ve ever met.

“Also, you don’t have to call me Hal-flame, Arc. Just Hal will do.” Hal clarifies upon my using of Soot’s term for him.

“Hargh Hargh!” Soot gives a short, couple of hearty laughs. “Yeah, don’t worry about it, Arc. I call him flamekin and Hal-flame because our shared bond to fire. You don’t have to feel the need to do the same thing.”

“Alright, I understand then.” I nod my head. Almaej have similar name as well, I can understand other races doing the same. “I’ll just call you Hal then, sir.”

He seems to shift for some odd reason when I continue with the sir after Hal, but I’m not sure why. Do they not call older gentlemen Sir here? I’ll ask that later as well.

Hal clears his throat softly and continues speaking.

“Anyways, you’ve gotten some of the gist of our situation here, Soot. I attacked the Wyrm and Arc here helped. It fled after an obvious loss and I chased it off the cliff only to be ambushed by the sudden beam and hit unluckily and crash landed. Arc administered first-aid and now you’ve arrived.”

Soot gives Hal a questioning look before answering back.

“Hmm, I’ll get the rest of the story from you later but I suppose that’s all we need to cover right now.”

Soot turns to look at me as well then continues speaking.

“I went to circle this volcanic area in hopes of finding more of your kind or the Wyrm’s. Ideally, I wanted to find the rift to either the Wyrm’s realm or your own. Hal-flame and I split up once we spotted you and the Wyrm. Sorry, but a water Wyrm is even more dangerous to myself than it probably is to you, I couldn’t help there.”

Ah, so that’s where he was during the fight. Being made of fire, I imagine water is more painful to him than it is even to my race.

“I don’t believe you would have found my portal.” I let him know when I find out where he went. “We’ve had a few of these rifts open recently. I know of two that have stayed open, but we knew ours was a risk to close and it did before all of our troops went through.”

Which was for the best in all honestly. The most experienced led the front with the newer fighters in the rear. Only a few of us made it in before the rift shut us away from our home world.

“You’re right, Arc.” Soot nods his head in agreement. “I didn’t find any other signs of Almaej around or their portal.”

I give a brief sigh of relief despite knowing I’m stuck here indefinitely. At least I know no one else ran into the Wyrm but myself.

Soot nods at my sigh and stays silent for a few seconds before he looks up towards Hal.

“However,” He smiles with some pride at him. “I did find a boiling lake in a strange valley that seemed extraordinarily out of the norm. I believe that lake is byproduct of the Wyrm’s rift and is still open. We’ll have to take care of it.”

Soot’s smile grows wider as his teeth beam like the sun at us.

“And you know what that means, flamekin!”

Hal glares at Soot as if he’s a bothersome ember that insists on hovering in his view. He leans his head back and lets out loud groan.

“Aarggggh.”

“We need to head back to the forward base and find a Worshipper of Shutter to help us close the rift!” Soot shines and shifts to a joyful violet at Hal’s inconvenience. “Also, we do kind of need to take the both of you there to fix you up and give you the welcome to Maja course, Arc.”

“The Welcome Course?” I ask with confusion.

“Yeah!” Soot shouts with enthusiasm. “You and the Wyrm aren’t actually the first visitors through rifts we’ve had. I’d bet most of our populace in this realm originate from other planes.”

I’m a bit stunned by this. Most of the people or their ancestors are from another realm? Even for Hal and Soot?

“That many arrive here? What about the both of you?” I ask with suddenly piqued curiosity.

“Har! Well, I’m directly from the Plane of Fire, but Hal-flame here is a born and raised denizen of Maja.”

Hal coughs pointedly and speaks up.

“Ahem. That much is true, Arc. Soot is definitely someone you can trust to understand your situation.” His black and golden eyes look at me, portraying a deeper understanding than his words convey. “We have a forward camp we set up with a few other groups we’ll need to fall back to. I’ll need at least a couple days to heal and there is an introductory the churches sponsor for newcomers such as yourself.”

“Churches? How many gods do you have if there’s multiple churches?”

Arc sighs before stretching his back and standing straight.

“Four official churches, nineteen gods, and even then, there are non-affiliated gods that rule independently.”

Nineteen gods! We had maybe one you could count and they weren’t anywhere nearly as responsive as they seem to be here. What do they do?

“Wha-?” I start to ask my questions but Hal raises a hand to stop me.

“Introduction course. I’m sure there’s a lot of questions you have but that’s what it’s for. Let’s start treading back to the forward base.”