Despite how tired some of them felt, the party was whipped together with such amazing speed, Soral didn’t even have time to think about contacting Ruena. Somewhere along the way, a crowd had gathered, bringing along with them their own additions to the party fare. What resulted was a celebration that spanned nearly the whole Oasis in a chaotic jumble of excited people.

Some of them didn’t even know what they were excited about. Just that Soral was the star, and everyone was throwing a party. Others had more or less guessed what had occurred, but in their excitement, simply assumed everyone else already knew. Games, music, and dancing cropped up out of nowhere.

Soral felt, once again, that this sort of environment was where he belonged. He was surrounded by people. People he had helped, and people that were happy to see him. Even though he didn’t know who most of them were, that didn’t bother him. He joined the crowd with a wide smile of his own and let them lead him along in the festivities.

“You seem to be enjoying yourself,” Howler commented, before grabbing a hold of Soral, “Come on. We need to celebrate with everyone else. I don’t know about you but I am not interested in eating snake liver tonight.”

“Snake liver? Really?” Soral asked as he followed.

“You never know. There could be some.”

Soral shook his head, and waved at the others as they approached. Lala was holding a skewer as tall as she was, loaded with marshmallows and trying to convince the twins to set them on fire. Sloth, being Sloth, had found a nice spot for a nap while Scythe was challenging Jeff to a game of some kind. Some of them had only met that day, but everyone already seemed a lot closer.

“We’ve all been waiting for you,” Howler told him.

Scythe perked up as soon Soral approached. “There you are! You know, you really should become a chef or something. None of this food is as good as the stuff from that luncheon.”

“That’s because you only ate the weird things,” Phoenix argued, “Though the luncheon was pretty good.”

“I’m not making another feast for you guys,” Soral told them, “You already have one right here.”

“Yeah, but what about later?” Scythe asked, “Why don’t you just stay here and be my personal chef?”

“No way, he is going to be mine!” Lala broke in, “Why does he have to be your chef?”

“Why can’t he be my chef?”

“I’m not going to be anyone’s chef,” Soral told them, taking a sip of juice. It was pretty good, but he couldn’t place what kind of fruit it was.

Sloth snorted out a laugh from where he was resting but as soon as anyone looked at him he was sleeping peaceful as could be. Howler, on the other hand, did not bother to hide his laughter, and Jeff took the opportunity to squash Scythe in their game.

“No fair!” Scythe protested.

Their group had become the center of attention, yet no one dared to approach. After a while, some of the former spies who had joined them on their mission came with their arms full.

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“We wanted to thank you,” the man in front said, handing Soral the fancy glass bottle he had been holding, “If it hadn’t been for you, we would still be living in fear at his mercy.”

Soral smiled. “Make sure you make the most of your new life,” he told them.

The others slowly imparted their gifts to Soral, leaving his bit of the table they had secured piled high with various things. He eventually started shoving them in his pocket to deal with later. With their gifting done, they left satisfied.

“You’ve become even more of a celebrity now,” Rosalie commented, taking the glass bottle and looking it over. “Cactus Dew? What is that?”

“I don’t know,” Soral said, “I wonder if it is what that punch over there is.”

“I heard that was cactus fruit juice of some kind,” Rosalie replied, “Maybe this bottle is just the fancy stuff.”

Howler glanced over as they spoke, and seemed he was about to say something before he shrugged it off. Soral took a peek at just enough of his thoughts to hear ‘-immune to poison so it should be fine.’ Was this stuff poisonous?

Curious, Soral opened the bottle and poured a little into his now empty glass. Not too much, though. He took a tentative sip and almost gagged. Dew? More like fire. The liquid burned as it flowed down his throat and he began to cough. More than that, he began to feel that something else felt wrong.

The burning spread as magic surged through his entire body, building up with nowhere to go. It hurt, but most importantly, he couldn’t stop it like he usually could. As if it had a mind of its own, the magic slowly began to escape, making it appear to the others as if Soral had begun to glow. Just as Soral felt like he couldn’t take anymore, the world seemed to lurch around him and he lost consciousness.

==========

Howler knew he had made a mistake when he felt the magic surging within Soral, but before he could even reach out a hand to help, reality warped around him and the boy vanished. As soon as he did, Rosalie suddenly seemed a bit unsteady herself.

“What happened?” she asked, holding a hand to her head, “I suddenly feel…so… tired.” As she finished her words she collapsed onto the table.

The offending bottle of alcohol nearly spilled, and Howler quickly caught it. It had just been a little sip. Wasn’t Soral supposed to be immune to all types of poison? Should he have warned him? Would that have stopped him?

Before he could speculate further, a portal opened and the overbearing aura of the person stepping through it silenced the surrounding festivities.

“Who did it?” the man asked, his tone filled with icy fury, “Do you have any idea what you have just done?”

This was bad. He wasn’t sure, but he had a feeling the man standing before them was none other than the Black Wolf. The Black Wolf was famous for never getting personally involved unless the situation was extremely dire. There was no time to cower in fear.

Howler boldly approached the man and thrust the offending bottle at him. “Is this what you were looking for?”

The man snatched it with a look of disdain. “I was afraid of this. How did he get it? Who let him drink it?”

Arguably, this couldn’t really be considered Howler’s fault, but the Wolf was riddled with guilt and confessed. “I did. It was just a sip, and I thought he was immune to poison.”

The excuses sounded incredibly stupid once he said them out loud, but he had no intention of backing down. Someone needed to take the fall or everyone here would pay the price. Besides, Howler did not fear death.

The man scowled. “The price of this incident will be on your head. Gather every bottle of alcohol and liquor. Every cask stowed away in the crevices,” he ordered, “From this day on, anyone so much as thinking of it in his presence will face the same punishment under the law as murder.”

This caused an uproar, but one look from his icy glare silenced the crowd. “Be glad I have not banned its existence entirely. One sip, and the Wild One nearly tore this world to shreds.”

With those words, he left them, but he did not leave The Oasis. Instead, he went to speak to their Chief.

Howler was shocked he had been left intact, but now the responsibility of everyone’s safety rested on him. He didn’t want to imagine what would happen if he failed to carry out the Black Wolf’s orders.

==========

Ruena had been working hard while Soral stayed in the Oasis. She couldn’t let him be the only one learning. With the backing of the Belleas Company, she was able to learn everything she had dreamed of. The creation of magic tools, for instance, or even their knowledge on technology.

Unlike much of Altheador, the Belleas Company did not discriminate between magic and technology. It was a great relief for Ruena, who had no magic of her own, to be able to study the workings of technology in a safe environment. At first she played with simple devices made from gears and levers, but it didn’t take her long to move on to the more complex.

Jazz had also been a big help. She couldn’t understand him, as he was a cat, but he was talented at conveying simple messages in his own way. It was obvious when he wanted food, but he also helped her find rare materials and select the right components for her projects.

The only drawback was that over time, he seemed to attract other cats. These cats weren’t powerful magical creatures, but perhaps they were influenced by Jazz because they seemed far more intelligent than those she had seen before.

This was why, when the normally calm and helpful Jazz suddenly stood up and hissed, his fur standing on end, Ruena knew something was wrong. With their peaceful surroundings, she could only guess that something had happened to Soral.