I prepared for our trip past Twilight Bay, sorting through my various weapons, expanding them, testing them, and warping them back. I sorted through the medicines in my pack, noting which ones would be needed. Ginger and thistle for poison, aloe for soothing, plantain leaves for wrapping, as well as many other herbs and medicines I brought. After all, I came prepared.
Back at home, in a desperate attempt to mix up the horribly dull life, like many others, I decided to pick a hobby. Of course, you could consider archery and trident combat a hobby, but that’s what everyone, literally everyone does. You needed to be able to wield a bow, trident, and a melee weapon of your choice to be able to qualify for actual combat. My choice weapon was the machete. I picked it out of all the melee weapons because in addition to being a relatively long weapon, it can also be very useful for traversing jungle areas, allowing for efficient clearing of vegetation and navigating through dense forests. Practicing these three weapons every day was boring.
After some testing of various activities, the hobby of my choice was botany, primarily herbology. I was fascinated at the diversity of fruits that populated our lands, from froscherries, which would cool you down when you overexerted, to various melons, large, sweet fruits, to shadeberries, a type of small berry containing a slow-acting toxin that can be treated with glowberries, large berries with large pits that can be found on vines. Not to mention the plants and trees that grew everywhere, including in other lands. Naturally I became fascinated with all these plants, mainly fruits. To help myself commit all these florae and their specifics to memory, I read a lot of scrolls, hence my second hobby.
“Willow! You ready?” Flint asked as Luna pressed her nose to my arm, near her Binding Mark, like when we first met. The day we became friends was on a hot, sunny day, sweltering by our standards. Perhaps it would be just the right temperature for Flint, but not for a snow coyote. Back then, I was fourteen turns old, and Luna was still a young pup. I had to eat some fruit that I brought with me just to keep myself at a reasonable temperature while I explored outside. She whimpered as I found her hiding under a bush, shaking and breathing rapidly. I carried her back to my home and fed her some froscherries from a bush I was cultivating in a corner. I would often get heat exhaustion from my expeditions into the wilderness, and the froscherry bush I grew was perfect. After gobbling down five froscherries, Luna felt much better, dashing around my house and poking her nose curiously at many of the plants I grew. Unlike other wild animals, she immediately liked me, even jumping onto the table and sliding into my lap once, puffing snow all over me. That day was a fun day.
When night arrived, I decided to take her outside, so that she could return home. I brought her back to where I found her, constantly wriggling in my arms while I did so. When I set her down in front of the bush, her fur positively glowed in the light from the full moon, and shined as she pranced around in front of me. It was then that I decided to pick a name for her: Luna.
After some running around, Luna began heading in a specific direction, looking at me expectantly. I took it that she wanted me to follow. She took me to a hollow spot at the base of a large beech tree, where she leapt in and curled up peacefully among the leaves. I noted that the leaves were fresh, meaning that she had a habit of regularly changing her bedding. Neat. Before I turned around to leave, Luna nosed my wrist. A rune began to appear on it, along with a... very weird feeling. It’s like adrenaline, drowsiness, and heat, all combined. Being the avid scroll reader that I was meant that I knew what was happening: dear Luna gave me a Binding Mark.
From then on, I would often visit Luna’s den, summoning her with the Binding Mark if she wasn’t there. We would often take walks in the forest, visiting random points of interest and occasionally hunting. I noted that despite eating meat, Luna also likes to eat fruit, specifically strawberries. She would yip and look at me pleadingly whenever I held up some fruit, and would leap at me frantically if I held up some strawberries. Any ones growing on wild bushes were quickly devoured by her, sometimes making her choke if one of them was sour.
“Willow, you’re spacing out.” Flint stood in front of me, concerned. Luna nudged me again and Flint’s wolf Riley gave a low whine. I shook my head, clearing myself of my flashbacks. Time for a rough trip.
“I’m back. You ready?”
“I’ve waited for you for some time already, if that’s what you mean.” As snarky as ever.
“Well, let’s go then, if you’re so ready.” I can already picture him being stabbed repeatedly by a couple of the local pufferfish. He needs to stop being so rushed and take stuff nice and easily.
As we got closer to the shoreline, a group of pufferfish promptly launched themselves at us. Summoning my trident, I batted several of them away and impaled one on the tip, but Flint, being the fool that he often was, left himself wide open for a nasty hit on his leg, trying to get at one of those flying menaces. The pufferfish we hit but were still alive flopped on the sand for a while, then propelled themselves back into the bay, thrumming their air vents. Riley had a pufferfish firmly gripped in his jaws, growling and shaking his head viciously. It had expanded inside his jaws, gumming it up. Flint managed to hobble over and pull it out but collapsed soon after. I pulled out some plantain leaves and a Sunpeak peach.
“Eat this peach and wrap your wound in these leaves. Disinfect it as well,” I commanded him. Another pufferfish launched itself at me. I dodged it when it got close, so it couldn’t turn to track me. It landed in the sand and Luna killed it with a bite. “Wait. Move up a bit. You just had to get hit this early.”
“As if I wanted to,” Flint muttered.
“Well, you could have at least dodged.”
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“I need a ranged weapon to fight with, dammit!”
“Like you can be fast enough with a bow to snipe ten out of the air in five seconds.” They were ridiculously fast.
“I’m gonna make a bow after this.”
“Only if you survive. Now shush and eat,” I chided, not unlike how a mother does. Flint ate the peach and poured something onto his wound, wincing in pain. I walked up the beach, trying to find something to bind the plantain leaves.
“Where are you going?” Flint asked before I managed to get too far.
“I’m trying to find something to bind your wound up.”
“I got it covered. No need.” He pulls out a large circular piece of beige-colored material from his backpack, peeled off some white plastic from one side, and stuck it onto his wound. He looked up, noticing my confused gaze. “That’s a wound plaster. The part that covers the wound has a cream on it that soothes the wound and increases its healing.”
“But isn’t covering it as tightly as that bad for the wound?” I sat down next to him, examining the item.
“No, I just stuck it on, there are adhesives on the edges. The material allows some air to flow in.” I was impressed by this form of injury protection.
“Seems like not all Fire people are idiots then.” Flint, to my surprise, laughed.
“Well, most of us certainly aren’t.”
“What, got a mortal enemy back at your home?”
“No, it’s just a few kids who decided to try and catch a fire salamander. Most of them died and one came running back with both arms broken. Stupid.” I laughed. That reminded me of Flint himself.
“Sounds like what you did back when you fought the Aquamaw.” He grimaced.
“Don’t remind me. I was taken by surprise.”
“Maybe the kids were as well. Where’s the salamander now?”
Flint patted his sword’s sheath. “Here.”
“You killed it? Salamanders are so cute!”
“Not when they’re twice as long as your arm and rushing at you like a stag. Plus, their skin is the best material for a sheath for my Shurkien. You have a weird taste for ‘cute’.”
“Hey, it’s not my fault that everything in your home is so violent. Salamanders in our home are passive and cute.”
“And I suppose as soon as you turn around it stretches its neck out and bites your head off?”
“No. They eat plants and berries.” A soft growl from Luna roused us both.
“Okay, time to go! Sorry for keeping you two waiting.” Flint stood up and I followed soon after, apologizing to Luna and Riley, who were staring expectantly at us two.
“Also, Flint, I’d rather you dodge every single fish that comes at you than be hit by one again,” I told him as we started our walk again. “Plus, we’re starting to get near snake and crab territory, so watch where you’re stepping as well.” He gave me a nod.
The rest of the day was rather uneventful. We crossed most of Twilight Bay before Sunfall with no more pufferfish attacks, Flint falling into crab traps twice and a snake trap once. Luckily Flint didn’t get injuries from those critters, Luna and Riley snapping them up as snacks. They seem to be getting along well. We decided to settle for a nap when we found a large area without any traps inside.
We set up our tents and a barrier with large palm leaves to prevent pufferfish from targeting our tents, after Flint rejected my idea of setting up another Shadowglass barrier, saying it took too much stamina and was risky. Honestly, I had to agree with him. The last wall we made was with the help of Tide (or whoever possessed me) and all of Flint’s energy reserves. If he didn’t want to risk it, I couldn’t push him. Flint was open for having pufferfish as a meal (does he eat everything he sees?), so I went ahead and actively engaged them in combat, bringing back seven of those. Despite some spikes on their main body, the poison is only concentrated in the spike on its head, the rest being deterrents for predators. That clearly didn’t stop Flint. He commented that they tasted like turtles, which confirmed my theory of him eating everything.
He also thought it would be a good idea to suddenly take out the snake that I had killed and put it next to me. When I glanced at it, I freaked out. Riley came to my rescue, snapping up the snake in two bites. The wolf is just as much of a foodie as his friend. Flint complained to Riley for “eating his snack,” and even had a mental conversation with him just to prove his point. Eventually Riley hopped up and walked away with an indignant air while Flint looked on guiltily.
“What did you say to him?” I asked. Clearly not something kind.
“I told him to keep his paws off my food. He replied with confusion and some hunger. He can’t form full words yet, but I realized that if I directed my thoughts towards the... mental thing that was him he could hear it. We could be talking soon.”
“Well, you won’t be if you keep upsetting him. Seriously, is a snake worth arguing over?”
“If he doesn’t learn to not eat my food, he may be eating other things of mine later.”
“He probably didn’t even know the snake was yours. Also, what’s the problem with giving him some of your food? Riley’s your friend after all.”
“Fair enough.” He walked over to Riley and had another brief talk. Riley seemed to feel better after that, nudging Flint a few times and giving him a whine. He flopped down a safe distance from Luna. We moved into our tents after that, cleaning our animal friends and allowing them to join us. Before we slept, I had one more thing to show Flint.
“Flint, come out of your tent for a second. Here’s something you should see.” He crawled out of his tent, peering outside. I pointed upwards. He looked up and gasped. The dying rays of the sun stretch across the horizon, casting a warm and ethereal glow. The fading light dances with the shadows, creating a mix between illumination and obscurity. Faint glowing dots emerge from the sky, more prominent than anywhere else. The orange rays, like liquid fire, mixing with crimson and yellow of the night sky, forms a swirl of colors, a blend like no other in the night sky. “Now this is why what we’re standing on is called the Twilight Bay.”
“Amazing... This is like lava but much more pretty...” I couldn’t help but laugh at his reaction. Despite everything he seems to be able to appreciate beauty.
“Some of us come here at night just to see the sky. In no other place will you find a similar scene.” We admired the sky for some more time, then went to the tent and started to sleep.
I was woken up in the middle of the night by the sound of creepy giggling. “Flint! Ghosts!” I shouted, shooting out of my tent and shaking Flint’s one. Riley growled and snapped inside, while ghosts floated in and out of the tent, some carrying dirt and rocks. I heard shrieking inside and a burst of light, some ghosts being lit on fire by Flint. The rest had horrified looks on their faces and fled. He unzipped his tent and crawled out, dusting himself off. The ghosts pelted him and Riley (who was also out and shaking his pelt indignantly) with massive amounts of dirt, dirtying them. “Need some water to wash it off?”
“No, it’s gonna turn the dirt into mud and make it harder to clean up.” Flint glanced back at his tent with an annoyed expression. “Great. Now my tent is full of dirt. I hate ghosts.”
“At least you scared them off. They won’t be coming back anytime soon.”
“I sure hope so.” He proceeded to clean up his tent and Riley, grumbling all the time, while I returned to my tent and slept.