The flicker of flame disappeared as quickly as it had burst into life above Roy’s palm. He sat at the edge of the wooden platform which constituted the central square of the goblin camp, behind him the goblins lazed about after the meal, under the gaze of the bright orange tent that dominated the skyline. Tig lay at his side, eyes shut and arms spread apart, quietly recounting tales of his travels across his homeworld.

“I’d never seen a sky so blue. Thank the Powers, that sky spread till it met the ground oh so far away,” his was quietly reminiscing voice just barely a whisper and his face was as calm as the still water sbelow, but at the same time he seemed to be an actor on a stage, bearing open his soul to the spectators below.

“That’s where it touched the rocks, they don’t call it the Copper Wastes for nothing ya know. It stood out so, you could see all the crags and scarps, and all the beasties too, ha!” it was oddly calming, listening to Tig while his mind twisted through his mana, aligning little patches before bubbling them out of the ethereal membrane.

Then he pulled the little packets of mana into the physical world, watching awestruck as they again and again light up and vanish, leaving neither smoke nor ashes behind. He tried lighting them up faster, and then slower, each variation giving a resultant spark that differed from the others. If he was fast, the mana lit up like a light bulb, like a marshmallow caught aflame, a bright yellow center with wisps of fire that drifted upwards.

If he was slow and let the mana spread into a cloud he could watch an erratic wave of fire quickly spread from the center, a contagious energy that ended only when all the fuel had been consumed. He could also vary the amount of mana, he could let the heat aligned mana spread in his body, let it grow in size before ejecting it out into the world, or he catch it in an instant, let it remain as only a speck.

“You wanna travel he world right?” catching him by surprise, Tig pulled out of his reverie and addressed Roy.

“Well, yeah, I guess,” he wanted to see all the sights he never could see before the system occurred; now there was nothing holding him back. He would see it all, and more.

“I grew up in a village you know, bit north of New Atlarium, I was kinda like you, never seen the world outside the little wood we had around us,” Tig sat upright and stuck his little hand into his travelling robes, “It was a good life, with good friends and all.”

TIg’s hand stopped as he seemed to clutch onto something just beneath the robe, right over the left of his chest, “But you know, or maybe not, we had trouble with the mushrooms just south of New Atlarium. My family’s from a clan that lived near the city, it used to be safe there and there was a lot to do to boot.”

Tig pulled out a small slip of paper, no larger than a paperback novel. It seemed to be in pristine condition, a miracle considering where Tig had pulled it out from, “So we had to help out, turn the tide and all. Suppose to be a quick thing too, but then it got longer and longer, and...”

Tig fingered the edges of the paper, smoothing down its immaculate surface, he produced a small orb of flame and under the light Roy could see the image on the paper. It was a photograph, but clearer and more lifelike than any he had seen, or perhaps it was just because of the little light cast by the fire, “I went back north lookin’ for a... friend.”

There were two figures in the photo, a goblin, ears dwarfing the size of his head and mouth wide apart, revealing little white nubs for teeth. He was a youth just like the goblins Roy had seen scampering around earlier. The edges of the mouth curved upwards, so naturally prone to smiling, and every line on his face emanated spunk. Roy couldn’t quite catch the differences in features between the goblins, he didn’t know what to look for, what set them apart, but he would have bet his money that the young goblin was Tig.

Beside him was a girl, not a goblin girl, he didn’t know how to tell them apart and had forgotten to ask. It was a human, like him. She was young, with a large head set above a petite body. Wavy brown hair framed two bright hazel eyes and a small button nose. Roy guessed that she was no older than seven or eight, or she may just be especially short considering how she stood shoulder to shoulder with the younger Tig.

“She’d gone off to some academy in Aur... that’s where all the big cities are, New Atlarium’s just a small colony across the Dazurian Ocean to em’,” Tig heaved a sigh before continuing, “So I took a boat and followed, crazy stuff. Aur is so wide, the world too, you don’t really feel it until you’ve seen it.”

Tig, so boisterous and full of vitality slowly deflated, now he was just skin and bones, frail enough that a slight pressure would send him crumbling into dust, “So... did you find her?” it was his line, his piece to speak in this private performance.

“Five, Six, Seven years I wandered, then I came back,” Tig spread his arms and gestured towards the other goblins, most meandering off to their own quarters, “Emperor damn the mushrooms, they were the tide, look at us here. The great migration... it’s like when you light up a speck of heat mana in a big cloud of the stuff, fwoom!”

Tig was trembling, his body swayed from side to side blasted by a hurricane of emotion. Struggling against the downpour he raised his arm and passed the photograph to Roy, with that his energy was expended, his reserves depleted, “Your gonna see the world right? If ya meet a Claria... Should be an Imperial magician, just...”

“Should I give her the photo?” the suggestion seemed to slide off Tig and hang in the air.

“I’m an elder now, things are bad here and I gotta help the clan,” Tig stood up but his eyes still rested on the ground, “Work tomorrow, I’ll be going now, been nice chatting friend.”

“Yeah, uh, good night Tig,” the other goblin waved before trundling across the central platform and disappearing down a walkway.

Roy sat there for a while longer, scrutinizing every little detail on the photograph and engraving the name Tig had given him into his mind. It was such a simple thing, but so important to the other man. It was like the spell he had been taught, so easily given away but still so precious to the recipient.

After tucking the photograph away, Roy stood and stretched his limbs. It was probably approaching midnight now; everything not in the gaze of the torches was unfathomable. As he retraced his steps back to his own tent he stepped in and out of pockets of light, their edges touching just barely so that he could make out the planks underneath his feet.

His steps were heavy as he considered all the conversations he had today. All the big revelations and all the small details, they all made up the pieces of a towering puzzle, he couldn’t hope to complete it but as he gathered up the pieces and assembled them together, an image would arise out of chaos.

Really what was he doing now? He was on the straight path, his immediate goal to meet up with the survivors in the grocery store... Then he would convince them to head south, towards the location the radio had given him. On the way he would look at the scenery around the road, take in the sounds and smells, there was no conflict, no need to panic. His goal and path were just as well defined as they had been since he left the old couples house, so Roy pushed aside the overwhelming weight that had accumulated over the day, it was an imaginary construct.

Then the solid, if creaky, surface of the wood seemed to vanish beneath his feet, morphing into an abyss that sped towards him. Roy had barely enough time to yelp before he found himself sitting in the water, waves like swirling darkness around him. Great, he was soaked again and he doubted he would be provided a new set of clothes at midnight. Roy made to pull himself up from the water, but his ears picked up another sound, a faint splashing that would have been inaudible had there been cars rushing down the road.

It didn’t sound like feet, didn’t sound like a quiet tap that trailed after the goblins. The sound of water being pushed aside, run through by something solid grew as Roy picked up his pitchfork and tried to determine the source of the sound in the dark. This was bad, had something snuck in through a crack in the wall, the hunch sent a wave of fear through his body.

“HELP, there something in the water!” the desperation was evident in Roy’s words, in the quiet of the night his holler was deafening and a chorus of shouts responded. As if sensing the imminent approach of others the monster leapt out of the water, a disturbance Roy could not have missed. He turned to the left, whipping around his pitchfork as fast as his limbs could, at the same instant he activated Reckless Strength and his body filled with power.

As Roy brought the pitchfork around the shaft of the polearm smashed into something hard and whatever it was gave way, falling to the side and sending up a fountain of water. Tensing his muscles, Roy took a blind jab at where the monster might have fallen, at first nothing but air met his weapon, then he grazed something, it’s texture convincingly like concrete or stone.

The monster was short, maybe only half a meter tall, it was also tough with rocklike skin. Roy stuck the pieces together and judged that he was probably fighting a hastaos, with almost no sense of vision Roy couldn’t even hope to bring up the blue screens to aid him. It was a relief when the rustling of fabric began to sound from everywhere at once, footsteps followed alongside quick shouts for light

“OVER HERE!” he needed to direct the others to his location of they would never find him the dark. Help was on the way, Roy assured himself as he began to slowly back away from where he expected his enemy was, he tried to make out the quiet rushing of the water, now overpowered by footsteps and shouting.

If only he could see his enemy... Roy took another step back, he could feel the predator closing in on him, shortening the distance before it lunged, mouth open and ready to tackle him into the water. Roy held his breath and focused on his mana, he pushed at the energy, aligning it with all his might. The amount was small, he didn’t have the luxury of waiting for it to spread, creating more, instead he ripped it out of his mana body, dragging along bits of plain mana in his rush.

He allowed his focus to slack for a second, he waved his pitchfork before him and thanked his luck when the tip smacked into something by chance and drove it back, giving himself just another feet or two of breathing room. Before he could celebrate, the energy drained out of him, taking with it the strength that had been driving him on. The water was restricting again and the weapon a weight that couldn’t we swung with abandon.

But the sounds were close now and Roy risked a distracting glance, there were a dozen shifting orbs of flame around him, but they couldn’t pin point his location, they needed to comb through every bit of water. They needed a signal, a flash of light. Roy set his heat mana ablaze, a rush of fire that spread through the cloud for a second, though a slightly longer one when compared to his previous experiments. The burst of flame was enough, the goblins began to hop into the water, bringing to life a swarm of small flickering flames around where he stood, under their light the Hastaos could be seen, reptilian eye glaring him down. It was readying to leap, muscles tensed for one final strike before the group encircled it.

Roy braced his weapon and lowered his center of balance; he wouldn’t repeat the scene from the bungalow again. The monster surged out from the water, droplets thrown into the air and seemingly suspended for an instant before rejoining the whole. The Hastaos was bug, maybe almost the size of an adult, it was halfway out of the water and already the tip of its snout reached his chest, had he underestimated the range of its lunge, would it clamp its jaws over his throat...

Before the monster could reach him a series of arrows pelted its sidde, each digging through the skin and sending shocks through the Hastaos. Some arrows drilled into the flesh, other seemed to hit in quick succession, a burst of arrows Roy could not imagine loosing with a bow. The Hastaos spasmed and then collapsed onto Roy, its jaws still open as it unleashed its last breath, the warm putrid air smothering Roy as it passed over his face.

Skill Up!

Align Mana LV 1 > LV 2 (Novice)

Skill Up!

Evoke LV 1 > LV 2 (Novice)

“You good?” a voice asked, Roy couldn’t tell who had spoken considering the corpse he now lay buried under.

“Uh, yeah, I’m good,” Roy stammered, then he began to chuckle to himself, he’d made it.

“Good, good,” Roy could imagine the goblin turning towards the others, “How long jaw get in? We find now, or more get in.”

“I not like long jaw, I get bite many times now!”

“I think is hole in wall, wall is bad, look like my tent.” A chorus of glugging sounds filled the air.

“I think good plan, we go look at wall,” with that the goblins walked away, their footsteps petering out.