“Count them again.”

The voices were quiet, low enough that someone traveling the road wouldn’t hear them through the background noise. Shouldn’t hear them.

“I’m telling you we need more,” this voice was younger and more desperate.

“He’s got kids with him. Star wings light, one of them barely more than a toddler.”

A third voice jumped in, but this one was outside the range of Ranvir’s translation stone.

Ranvir considered halting his step, but decided against it for now. The forest was thicker than any in Elusria, but not nearly as dense as Legea’s nightmare jungles. However, life seemed to flourish here. Bird calls rang out so densely and on top of each other, Ranvir doubted any one animal could actually detect where another was. The tree limbs above them regularly had critters crawling around and leaping across the road. He’d also spotted two dozen deer and smaller boar roaming the underbrush without even trying.

This place was alive in a sense Ranvir’d never experienced before. And all of it held power, whether small like the gust of wind squirrels used to lengthen their leaps, to movements of dirt and soil as boars snuffling up mushrooms.

“We have to,” the third voice joined in. This one was deeper than the others. It carried a grim undertone Ranvir wasn’t a fan of.

“I don’t like this,” the first voice said.

“You never do.”

Ranvir glanced at the children. Frija and Vasso were tiredly trudging along, neither of them used to walking for extended periods of time. “Let’s take a break,” he said. Ranvir’d brought a lot of things in his pocket-spaces. He hadn’t expected blankets to be the most common use.

Frija had showed her true colors as equal parts cat and human, meaning every break she would eat a little, then wrap up in a blanket and nap until they went again. Ranvir was fine with this, as it made her more agreeable. The day before yesterday, when he’d attempted to oppose her, he’d ended up carrying her into their inn, as she simply hadn’t made it on her own.

Vasso took it more in stride. He was older and stronger, though Ranvir suspected he was developing sores on his feet. Ranvir should’ve gotten him better shoes before heading out, and Belnavir didn’t have cobblers that could fashion proper boots within a couple of hours. Not properly.

Pulling out blankets and snacks, Ranvir heard the brush around them rustle and felt the three men, two boys and one man, prepare their spirits. The animals noticed too. In a flash of powers, most of them evacuated the area or hid. Boars flashed with stone mana and buried themselves, lithe deer rushed aided by wind or stone, squirrels and rabbits hid in their warrens and dens, birds, like they are apt to, flew away.

Frija picked up on something immediately, perking up and looking around, though Ranvir could tell she didn’t realize what had happened. Menace and Vasso seemed more aware. The nervous young man keying into the sudden silence immediately, while Menace’s hackles raised as it jumped into Frija’s lap and hissed.

Ranvir finished with the snacks and wrapped the blanket around Frija’s shoulders.

“Hey!” The grown up called.

Ranvir turned and nearly doubled over. The gut punch realization of what he saw struck him. The ‘man’ looked to be in his early twenties, wearing ratty stained clothing. It barely fit him, clearly made for someone with longer arms and narrower shoulders. Clearly taken off someone else or a hand-me-down.

He’s my age, Ranvir realized, trying not to let the sudden understanding run him over.

The man had two small nubs grown to the size of a finger joint. His companions, clearly younger brothers, had similar growths on their forehead. The youngest, maybe fifteen years old, looked skinny to the point of malnutrition.

Ranvir reevaluated the oldest’s clothing. Not taken, hand-me-downs.

“Don’t do this,” Ranvir said, raising his hands to the side. He pulled a gentle breeze of power through him, both space and sand, hoping it would help convince them to leave. He felt his eyes ignite and glow with the power. “Walk away.”

“Sir,” the middle boy said. “We need your money.”

“’Sir’?” the youngest exclaimed, looking both outraged and disappointed. He turned away. “Asshole, give us your money.”

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Ranvir shook his head. “Let’s talk this out.”

“We’re not talking anything out,” the oldest said and took a step forward. “We’ve got you outnumbered three-to-one, unless you want to bring the boy over there into this?”

Ranvir breathed in slowly. “If you will just explain your situation, perhaps we can work something out. I have money to spare.”

“Asshole,” the youngest seemed to have found his favorite word. “We don’t need to explain shit, and we’re not sharing shit!”

Ranvir winced. Frija was definitely going to pick up on this kind of language. “Let’s all take a deep-“

“Enough!” the oldest yelled and threw an attack. It was the first mana-based attack Ranvir’d seen since coming to Belnavir. He wasn’t impressed. Most of that probably came down to the man’s lack of experience and training. Ranvir’s enhanced Perception allowed him to track both where he was looking and where he was actually aiming.

The attack, a bolt of fire, was supposed to strike the ground before Ranvir. The brute threw it too high, however. Lifting his foot, Ranvir let it strike where his shoe had been. He’d already been forced to buy one new pair. He wasn’t paying for that again.

“This doesn’t need to-“ he tried again, but was interrupted by the youngest.

This firebolt came with more malice, but the edge of desperation in the youth’s eyes clear. Ranvir could practically see the starvation coming off him. The kid’s aim was just as off as his eldest brother, except he’d targeted high. Sand raged within Ranvir as he took a step to the left and intercepted the fire before it could get too close to the children.

Vasso and Frija gasped behind him, while the youngest bandit looked shocked.

“Enough,” Ranvir said, his voice firm. “I’ve-“

“Oh, gods!” the middle brother said, face paling as he turned to run. “He’s going to kill us!”

“Not today!” Oldest yelled, fire bursting between his hands. The man threw his best move. Ranvir could literally feel him emptying all of his power into that single strike. The sand-pocket cracked open and Ranvir called a dome forth.

The fire, bigger than it was hot, washed uselessly against Ranvir’s defense. There was a moment of silence as the first two aggressive brothers stared empty eyed at Ranvir. Flashing through a pocket-space, Ranvir quickly snatched the runner and deposited him with his family. The middle brother blinked and looked around, shivering and shaking as he noticed he was back with his siblings.

“Talk,” Ranvir retracted the dome to cover just the kids, before stepping up to men.

###

It turned out their family had been suffering from a poor harvest. Ranvir’d walked them to the nearest village, mostly because he was going there anyway, and talked with some farmers living nearby.

Their family was apparently notorious for ‘poor harvests’, rather the father was. He had a reputation within the city of scheming and favoring the drinks. It was an unfortunate situation, made worse only because his children were no brighter than him. He’d apparently risked their livelihood on a specific crop, which required certain weather patterns.

Usually, the capital would import at enormous costs to get the right crop, but if the father was lucky, his crop would make them rich. Unsurprisingly, he hadn’t been. Instead, they could not feed even themselves.

Ranvir’d been forced to pull out his power, by which point he’d quickly gotten the kids to work away from the farm. Somewhere they could put both their fire mana and simpler minds to work. With all that forest, most people had a need for lumber and firewood was almost always in shorter supply than preferred.

A quick, highly theoretical, tutorial on creating a zone of slightly raised temperature that helped them season firewood faster than normal and they were off. None of them, despite their aggressiveness, hesitated when offered legitimate work.

Running a hand through his hair, Ranvir sighed and returned to their rooms. The innkeeper’s rooms. After revealing his power, more gossip of a godhood had come out and suddenly a single room wasn’t enough. The only rooms good enough were the innkeeper’s own.

Frija sat on the bed and groomed Menace. Vasso paced the room, waiting for him. Vasso had his hands gathered at his lower back, the position bending him forward slightly. It gave him an almost comical old man appearance.

“You are okay,” Vasso stated as Ranvir entered. His eyes scoured Ranvir’s face.

Ranvir picked at the slightly singed collar. “They weren’t that strong,” he muttered.

“They were using fire mana.”

“Weak fire mana,” Ranvir emphasized. “I could’ve probably taken the hit without Sandstorm Rage if I wanted to. They weren’t really trying to hurt us.”

“But it was fire.”

Ranvir sighed and walking into the kitchen/dining area and pulled out a chair. He gestured for Vasso to take a seat opposite. “Vasso, I’m not sure what you’re trying to say, but I’ll say this much. Those guys could’ve thrown fire at me all day, and all it would do was tire them. Even if they dropped this house on us, we’d just walk out of it and find somewhere else to sleep.”

“We?” Vasso asked. “I’d die if the inn fell.”

“Not so long as you’re with dad!” Frija called from the bedroom. “He’s really strong.”

“I’m moderately strong,” Ranvir corrected. “From all that I’ve sensed and seen of this world so far, there’s only been three creatures that even come close to challenging me. Two of these local gods, who roamed the edge of my senses, and perhaps this king of theirs. Though his seemed an untested power to me.”

Vasso looked at him with consternation. “This house could fall on all of us and you’d catch it?”

Ranvir shrugged, “I’d make a shield,” he gestured, hardening the space to Vasso’s right. The boy pushed against the purple network. It didn’t budge in the slightest. That same technique had held against warp mana when Ranvir’d been much weaker and less experienced. Vasso couldn’t have broken it with his bare hands if he had a decade.

“What I’m trying to say is,” and Ranvir leaned forwards, glaring intently at Vasso until their eyes met. “We’re safe. I’m here.”

Vasso tensed, discomfort clear on his face. Suddenly, his shoulders slumped, and he seemed to deflate. Vasso leaned forward and rested his head on the table. Ranvir went around and simply put a hand and on his back, just below his neck. They didn’t move or say anything, they just sat in each other’s presence.