I stared in horror at my fallen friend, blood pooling beneath her, evident of a severe injury. A nearby tree creaked and groaned, about to topple onto Willow. I hurriedly threw my flail at it, hoping to catch it. It successfully knocked the tree aside, but the crunching noise also attracted the dragon’s attention. With one eye pierced, it was a horrendous sight. Blood pooled out from it, hitting the ground with huge splats. Roaring victoriously, the dragon opened its gigantic jaws, gathered light inside, and prepared to fire a deadly beam at us. “NO!” I screamed in rage. My once calm aura flared violently, threatening to unbalance me, the exact same thing my parents constantly warned me about, but I didn’t care! I had only gone for two days on this adventure, made a new friend, and now, was I losing her? I refused to acknowledge this. “Dragon. You may be powerful, but you SHALL NOT KILL HER!”

Summoning all the reserves in my Stoke, I formed a thick shield of magma, blocking me and Willow. As the dragon unleashed its powerful ray of destruction, pushing me backwards, my burst of energy began to falter. “This cannot be...” the shield wavers, cracks, and-

Willow's necklace began to spin violently, glowing with energy. It fires a humongous wave of water at the shield, encasing it. Within seconds, the once fragile shield begins to harden, solidify, and turn into Obsidian. "Shadowglass... You shall not break this..." A powerful surge of blue energy floods into Willow's body, the blood pooling out of her body stopped, her wound closing, a dislocated shoulder sliding into place with a ‘pop’. She opened her eyes. I gasped in surprise. Her once blue eyes were now a shade of violet. She stood up and held out a hand, her long, wavy hair rippling in the wind. The wall of obsidian began to push the dragon's beam backwards. "Dragon, you tried, but you are not going to kill us." Under my disbelieving gaze, she pushed forwards with both hands, forcing the scaled creature's attack back onto it. "Die, dragon."

The beam exploded, said dragon's head taking the full brunt of the damage, splattering blood and gore all over the place. Me and Willow dropped the shield, the obsidian wall falling onto the floor, shattering. Our bodies were devoid of energy, me from exhausting my Stoke and Willow from probably expending all her energy to kill the dragon. We faded into sleep.

I woke up around sunpeak, though Willow was still asleep, snoring slightly. I felt like I had been whipped. Every movement caused me pain and strain. I almost didn’t have enough energy to retrieve some emberfigs from my Stoke. I ate them, relishing the energy that flowed into my body, soothing the pain and refreshing me. I can now move without pain. I stood up, and something glinted in front of me. Picking it up, I examined it. It looked like part of a star, similar to an arrowhead. The shard was colored brown and green. I grinned. The first shard out of five was obtained. What else could it be? I pocketed it and a few remaining emberfigs.

Partially to celebrate and partially to sate my hunger, I decided to hunt. Before I did, though, I found a piece of the Shadowglass from the wall. The rest somehow disappeared, probably crushed when the dragon fell onto the wall, crushing it to dust and being blown away by the wind. Or with some divine interference, maybe whatever possessed Willow? I don’t know. There was just one shard left on the ground, and I made it into a small knife. I wanted to polish it, but it was already sharp enough. It cut into spruce wood decently well, and I used that to make its handle, binding it temporarily with some vines I found.

Being unfamiliar with the forest, I decided to stick near Willow and not get lost. Scouring the nearby location, I headed in the direction opposite the way the dragon came from, as it had destroyed everything it laid its hands (or tail) on. Once I got closer to a more covered area, I stood completely still, letting my ears do all the work. A faint rustling nearby disturbed the peace of the forest. I Conjured my hunting knife from my Stoke, taking another chunk out of my currently very limited energy, being without food for so long.

The source of the rustling, a pair of rabbits, stood outside of their hole, holding some berries in their paws while munching on them. I threw an unprimed grenade in the opposite direction, successfully distracting them, now one of them staring at the unfamiliar item while the other scrambled back into the hole, dropping its snack. I frantically leaped over and stabbed the rabbit in the neck before it could cry out. Success.

Moving a safe distance away from the hole (so I have a chance at catching the second rabbit), I prepared the rabbit for cooking and impaled it onto a stick. Igniting the pile of dry sticks and leaves I managed to find, the rabbit started to slowly cook while I impatiently turned the spit, hungry for a bite of food. While it cooked, I noticed the second rabbit slowly move out of the hole, sniffing all the while. I scoffed inside. Seriously, what’s the use of smelling if you can’t smell your enemy who’s so close you can see him if you look up from your snack? I grabbed a rock, heated it slightly, and threw it with precise aim (enhanced by my pyrokinesis), striking the rabbit’s head and stunning it before it could run back into its hole, and grabbed it. It made a squealing noise and pawed at my hand, trying to escape. I cut its throat.

I ran, or walked, as fast as I could back to my meal, which was starting to be charred on one side and kind of raw on another. I hastily turned it and sliced off a bit of the charred side with my knife. The first rabbit was gone before I even knew what I was doing. I used some rabbit sinew to replace the binding of my Shadowblade knife, gathered up some more dry sticks and leaves and moved back, next to Willow, who was still unconscious. I set up the same thing for the second rabbit and was eating another emberfig when she woke up.

She woke up with a start, jolting awake. She pushed herself up. “Flint!” She choked out. “Where are you?”

“If you would turn around,” I said. Willow turned around and saw me chewing on an emberfig. Noticing her gaze, I nodded at my snack. “emberfig. Restocks my Stoke’s energy store. Really exhausted it back them.” I turned the spit. “Hope you eat meat. Does it need to be cold or raw?” I asked with a smirk, hoping to lighten the mood.

“We’re not ice, we can stand some heat. The meat would be fine. If I got any closer to the fire I wouldn’t be.” she said, shifting away from it, ignoring the jape on cold and raw meat. “I’m not in a mood to joke around. My back hurts as hell.” My playfulness vanished, replaced by concern.

“Oh yeah, your back. Pierced by a Thorn Oak barb.”

“Pierced?!”

“Yeah.”

“Then how am I alive?” I slowly described what I had seen before we passed out. “Interesting. So, my necklace started spinning and it, more or less, killed the dragon?” I nodded. “Wait, my eyes were violet?” I nodded. “That’s Tide’s eye color!”

“Tide? The ancestor who came to you?” Willow nodded. “So, she essentially possessed your body, mended your wound, and helped us win?” Willow nodded. “Wow.” I pulled something out of his pocket – two things, in fact. One was another emberfig, the other was the shard of the Star Badge. “The dragon’s body disappeared, but this was left on the grass. Part of the Star Badge I told you about, I suppose.”

“We got the first part that easily?” I scoffed at her words.

“You call being almost destroyed by a monstrous dragon, practically getting skewered by a huge spike, and almost being smothered to nothing if our ancestors hadn’t interfered and saved us easy?!”

“I thought it could have been worse.”

“Yeah, try topping that.” We both grinned as we realized we were starting to bicker again. I handed her the cooked rabbit, and she tore into it eagerly. “So, what’s our plan?” I was hoping she had an idea on how to navigate across Water’s land.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“Asking me? I thought you were the master planner.” She said, chewing and swallowing all the while.

I pulled out the map from my back, opening it so Willow could see. “Here, it says that we should be going towards a place called Twilight Bay. You familiar with it?” Willow’s eyes widened.

“I-I do know, but it’s dangerous, especially at night. You sure there’s no alternate route?” She examined the map, pointing at a location that seemed to be a detour. “Wait, here’s one... Jagged Cliff and Crystal Cove?! That’s much worse than Twilight Bay! There are huge groups of Aquamaws waiting for us in Crystal Cove if we somehow get past Jagged Cliff. I guess that settles it then.” I grimaced, remembering my encounter with the Aquamaw. Willow gave me a knowing smile.

“Should we wait ‘till sunrise? I thought you said it was dangerous?”

“Did I say we were going now?” I set up my tent while Willow set up hers, with the stuff appearing out of nowhere, hitting me with a breeze of cold air. I guess she may have something like a Stoke. I made sure to keep a distance, so the different temperatures of our tents won’t tamper with each other’s. “Good night!” She said, receiving just a nod of acknowledgment from me before I headed inside. “No annoying comments?” She said again. No reply. I lay down for a while before I heard her enter her tent. I felt bad for not responding to her, but I was really tired.

The next morning, I woke up from a terrible night to the sound of flapping. Unzipping my tent as silently as possible, I saw a pigeon pecking at the ground outside of Willow’s tent. Repeating what I did yesterday, I threw a nearby rock at it while running towards it. The rock clipped its wind, snapping it. Despite that, it flapped into the air, making high pitched noises. Its flight was only shoulder-high, though, and I easily caught it with a knife throw, stabbing into its back and weighing it down. I plucked it and cooked it after that. No doubt, I woke Willow. She greeted me with a yell.

“What’s that sound? Who’s that? Show yourself!”

“You should really know it by now. I’m eating an Emberfig.” I muttered. “You ready to go or do you want a bite of something?”

“Food would be nice, but not essential now. We do need some on the trip though.”

“That’s why I caught this bird. Do you want some of this pigeon, or can I store it?” I asked, ripping off a wing and tearing into it.

“Sure, toss me a wing.” She seemed too lazy to get it, but that may be fatigue from the dragon fight.

“Come over here and get it yourself. Me being the hunter doesn’t make me the slave by default.”

“Aww, has your Fire clan not taught you about treating ladies with courtesy?”

“I believe it’s courtesy enough to wake up early to cook food for you.”

“For me? Are you implying that you don’t eat?” As I handed Willow a wing, I finished mine and buried it, packing up his supplies, while Willow nibbled tentatively at it, enlarging her bites after realizing how hungry she was. When she finished it, I tossed the Shadowblade at her, and she caught it. She dropped it onto the ground, and I realized my mistake. “What the heck?” She exclaimed, clearly upset.

I hurriedly apologized. “Sorry! I didn’t realize it was that sharp! It’s a remnant of the obsidian wall we formed when we fought the dragon.”

Getting over her initial indignance, Willow examined the blade. “Wow... it looks well-polished, and the edge looks very sharp. Did you polish this or is this natural?”

“I didn’t sharpen it at all. I did clean it a bit, but I couldn’t wash it as there’s no lava around here. The handle’s made from some spruce. Speaking of washing, could you perhaps wash it for me? Water hurts me.”

Willow’s necklace spewed out a stream of water as she held the knife to it and rubbed it with a leaf. “Do you not drink water? Won’t you get dehydrated?”

“Dehydrated? What’s that?”

“When your body doesn’t have enough liquids.”

“Being fire, we don’t need water. I thought that was obvious.”

“Well, how did you expect me to know? All human beings drink water.” Her unintended insult made me bristle slightly.

“Am I not a human?”

“No human’s dumb enough to try to take on an Aquamaw.”

“Going back to that, are we?” As we argued back and forth, Willow handed me the knife. “Thanks, it looks really sharp.”

“Just don’t throw it at me again.” She grumbled. After she had finished packing, we started to walk towards the place called Twilight Bay. “Also, you mentioned that you had something called a stoke yesterday, didn’t you?” I nodded. She picked up what I said. “What’s that?”

“It’s a storage space in a pocket dimension all Fire people have. We can use it to store our weapons, supplies, and our energy resources to fuel our usage of Fire, Conjuring them to appear next to us when needed. Look, I can put my bag inside right now.” I held my backpack in my hands and closed my eyes, sending it to my Stoke. A few seconds later, the bag disappeared. “Before you ask, ‘why didn’t I store everything inside first,’ it actually has a limited space, and more items inside it saps your physical strength faster than if you were holding it.” I closed my eyes again and the bag appeared on the floor. I picked it up and put it on. As we walked, I picked up my flail, which was lying on the ground near where we battled.

“Actually, Water people have something similar! Most of our tools and weapons can be compressed into water and warped into a storage container and changed back anytime. We can also use water to construct temporary weapons, though not as strong as one that actually takes time and effort to make.” I cast Willow a slightly jealous glance.

“Not every one of us has a Stoke. We needed to train our mental capabilities before even trying to form one. Incorrect techniques could result in death.” I involuntarily gave a small shudder when remembering my experiences. Apparently, Willow noticed as well.

“Did something close to that happen to you?”

“Yeah. I managed to form a small pocket space after a long time of training, but it collapsed soon after, sending me into paralysis for the greater part of my thirteenth Rotation.”

“We never asked each other our ages. How old are you now?”

“I’m seventeen. And you?”

“Sixteen. We’re getting close to Shrieker territory so be caref-” As we talked, I stepped onto what I would later know as a Fanged Shrieker’s tail, Willow’s attempt at warning me being just a tad too late. It made a horrible shrieking noise. At once, several others poked their heads out of nearby trees and the forest floor, shrieking raucously. “Oh no. Back away and DON'T LOOK THEM IN THE EYES!”

“Whoops. Too late!” I, not knowing how to deal with Fanged Shriekers, had accidentally looked one in the eye, further enraging it and prompting it to snap its beak viciously. “Should we fight them?”

“Seems like it’s the only way!” Willow summoned her trident while I unsheathed my Shurkien. The group of fanged avians howled and amassed midair, gnashing their beaks. They dove at us, aiming for our heads.

Willow’s flung her trident into the middle of the flock, knocking some of them to the ground. I swung my Shurkien at them, shearing through many birds and turning the once intimidating flock into a flurry of feathers and blood. Organizing again and calling reinforcements, the cloud of Fanged Shriekers let out an ear-splitting scream, dive-bombing us, this time in a wide array. Willow held her trident in front of her horizontally, presumably defending, while rash me Conjured my flail, once again at a disadvantage without a ranged weapon. Several of them managed to get to me, violently snapping at me with their fanged beaks and drawing blood. I responded in kind and killed many of them, splashing blood everywhere. I really should have stopped and defended myself sometimes, rather than kept swinging.

After an unnecessary confrontation, I received many lacerations on his arms, though Willow was completely fine. “How are you not injured at all?” I asked while dabbing some flavender extract onto a particularly deep wound, wincing in pain.

“I’ve fought plenty of those annoying things in my training. I know when to defend and when to attack, unlike you,” she replied, unknowingly pointing out one of my major flaws in battling. “Seriously, not knowing how to protect yourself when needed will be a major issue in future conflicts for you.” I sighed, annoyed.

“Thanks for pointing out things that I already know I need to work on, little miss perfect,” I snapped.

“I was just trying to help you, not badger you.” Willow flinched.

“Fine. Let’s keep going.” I put away my medicine, shrugged on my backpack, and walked towards Willow, avoiding the dead birds.

“Oh, and look for banana-shaped fruits. The leaves on their trees can be useful,” Willow said.

“Banana? Like the fruit?”

“What other banana do you know?”

“Some of us fight with bananas. If you throw it correctly it can come back at you. Throwing bananas at each other is also a popular sport, not using actual weapons of course." Willow burst into laughter.

“I’m sorry! That sounded too funny! Don’t you mean a boomerang?” Willow said between laughter while I looked at her, confused. I had no why idea why it was so funny. After all, it's an actual sport that we play, not a joke.

“A boomer-what?” I asked, confused. Willow’s laughing fit escalated. Unable to hold herself upright, she collapsed to the floor, clutching her stomach while laughing.

“Do you seriously not know? A boomerang acts the same as you described your banana. It’s what everyone calls it.” Willow said, sitting up with a large grin plastered onto her face.

“...Anyways, they’re both the same shape, so I’ll look for bananas on our- what is your problem?!” I exclaimed as Willow, who had just calmed down, started laughing again. I sighed. Weird girl.

From then on, the word “banana” became a taboo on our journey, and I ceased to ever mention it again.