I don’t know what happened. I had been fighting the goblins and despite the shaman successfully buffing them, we were doing good. We finished them off and that’s when I first noticed that something was wrong. Wren. He suddenly turned towards me as he killed the last goblin. His eyes were bloodshot and despite calling out to him, he didn’t answer.

I readied my weapon just in case something happened, but as soon as he started moving forward he stumbled. He put his hand to his chest and fell to his knees. Then he collapsed. Lights out.

I ran over to him and shook him, but nothing could get him to respond. At the very least, he had a pulse and was breathing, but I had no idea what was wrong. And oddly his whole body felt warm to the touch. We had been in this cold cave for a good while, so he shouldn’t have been that warm to the touch.

Bella walked over to me and placed her hand on my shoulder, “Is he alright? That was a pretty intense case he had there.”

“Case? You mean you know what this is?” She gave a light chuckle but stopped when I glared at her. I was not in the mood for a chuckle.

“Yeah. Or at least I think I do. Before he passed out did he seem intense or emboldened to you? Did he fail to react to your calls? Is he warm to the touch?”

Seems she may just know what it is. “Yes. All of those. What was this? Will he be alright?”

“Yeah. Aether Overflow. When someone with a high amount of Aether doesn’t use it for a while the Aether can build up inside of them and overflow. It’ll cause a heightening of emotions, a completely one minded focus, and will slightly enhance physical ability. This is common among people new to having an Aether related class or exceptionally talented children. The heat is from the Aether that was coursing through his body. Now that the Overflow has happened he’ll be fine. Him blacking out means that his stores ran dry and he’ll return to normal. Your friend is alright.”

I sighed in relief, it seems like a logical explanation. He matched the symptoms and since we were fairly new to this world, we could be considered as experienced as children. “So what now? Do we just need to wait for him to wake up?”

“Pretty much. Though I’d suggest one of us finish up exploring this tunnel in the meantime. Don’t want to find out we missed a few.”

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“Alright. You go ahead. I’ll stay with Wren.” I gave him a pat. “Want to make sure he wakes up to a familiar face, y'know?”

“Sounds good. You’ll hear back from me in a bit.”

She headed off into the tunnel ahead. While she’s gone, I’ll set up our little break spot. We have some provisions that we brought with us, but it isn’t much. But if I’m the only one eating them right now, it shouldn’t be a problem.

I set Wren down flat on the ground and found a rock to be his pillow. “Stay safe man. Don’t be falling into predicaments like this any more. I don’t know if I’ll be able to take care of you if you’re on a rampage.”

Man. Being alone with an unconscious body really makes you say some stuff that you hadn’t thought you’d say. “Y’know, when we made fun of you for throwing up, I was worried about myself. I mean, killing a goblin obviously made me concerned, but I didn’t have nearly the reaction you did. Should I have? Was I the weirdo for being mostly fine with it? I’m not sure. Or at least I wasn’t.”

There was a stirring by my feet, but I didn’t take note of it, “You see, I’ve been thinking a lot about the path I want to take. And I think I want to defend you. You’re all over the place. You’re lively. You keep things dynamic and interesting. But I know that you can be hurt the most when something happens. But I don’t. I don’t get perturbed or disgusted. I am solidly there. So let me be solidly there for you. Let me be your rock. Let me be your shield. Your unchanging piece in all of the chaos. You’ve always been my best friend. I can’t thank you enough for the things you’ve done for me. But maybe this is close enough.”

“Uhm, thanks man.” Suddenly, I was made aware of an awake Wren, who I had apparently been monologuing to. “Hey, I’m sorry that we are in this whole mess. It might’ve been easier if I had just let us die. But I think we’ve got a great life ahead of us. And I’d love to have a rock like you in these dynamic times.”

I looked at him. At first I was embarrassed that he heard what I said and responded. But then I realized that he was back up. “Are you alright? Does anything feel off?”

“I’m okay. A little bit sore all around, but it feels like there was a weight on my chest that I didn’t know about and now it’s gone. And that relief of burden is a good feeling.”

“Oh right!” I quickly gave him the rundown of what I was told happened. “So that feeling of a weight being gone might be quite literal.”

“I wonder. Perhaps that is true.”

Finally, footsteps resounded in the tunnel. Bella was back. “Javi, you need to see this. Oh, Wren, you’re up. Good, both of you can come take a look.”

“This doesn’t look like much.” We were being shown an offshoot with a low ceiling. It didn’t look like much, aside from being at the end of the regular tunnel.

“This baby is a money maker.”