Mark sat near the small fire, stirring a small iron pot filled with oatmeal and small chunks of dried fruit. He had never heard of these fruits before, but 'Examine' ensured that they were edible. They kinda tasted like strawberries. If strawberries looked like raisins.

The man sighed and looked to the side of the cave where a young man, Alex, lay sprawled out on the ground, a large red lump throbbing on his head. He'd awoken not too long ago, taken one look at the little fairy girl, screamed, turned, and proceeded to slam his head into a low-hanging stalactite. Mark just shook his head and let the man lay where he fell before getting breakfast ready.

When he turned back towards the pot, he found Tsutsuji hovering over its edge, eyes gleaming, a greedy grin warping her face. After several attempts to steal a taste when she thought he wasn't looking, Mark flipped the little bug girl away. She gave a small cry as she tumbled through the air,

"Hey!"

"It's not ready. Go play with some of the cave beetles."

"I'm not a Bug!"

Tears fell from Tsutsuji's eyes, her cheeks poofing out in a manner Mark had only seen in some older anime. The little Guide raced to the far wall, sulking in the shadows, repeatedly mumbling something Mark could not quite hear.

Mark just ignored her, stirring the porridge, careful not to let it burn. The mellow, slightly fruity smell of porridge soon began to fill the small cave. The young man, Alex, gave a long yawn, stretching himself out as he stood. The soft rustling reached his ears; Mark turned to see Alex finally waking up. Alex slowly walked toward the campfire and sat down across from Mark, rubbing the sleep in his eyes and the growing lump on his head.

"Yo, I have the strangest dream, there was this little Bug, and you were….."

"I said I am not a Bug!"

Alex stopped mid-sentence, his eyes slowly turning towards the small figure of Tsutsuji crouching in the corner of the cave. Her tear-marked face was a bright red as she turned her head to yell at Alex, a dark and gloomy air surrounding her. Alex's eyes bulged, his heart going zero to sixty in an instant. The young man stood, the panic in his voice rising as he spoke.

"P-pixie! Quickly, kill it!"

The cloud of sleep lifted from Alex's mind, and with a practiced hand, he drew his sword. Mark moved simultaneously, standing and striking down on Alex's sword hand with the wooden ladle, still covered in hot porridge.

Alex gave a sharp yelp, dropping his sword, and gave Mark a confused look.

Tsutsuji stood from her corner and flew over to Alex, stopping just short of his nose before yelling at him, a vein bulging on her head, snot and tears still on her face.

"And I am not a Pixie either! I swear, do humans no longer know how to show any respect or reverence? I am a Guide. A GUIDE. G.U.I.D.E!"

"A-a Guide?"

"Yes, a Guide. Do you not know what that means?!"

"N-no?! I mean, Y-yes?! I mean, you're a-a spirit?!"

"YES! Finally!! Do get it now?"

"Y-yes? No, I mean, why is there a Magi Spirit here? Why do you look like a- "

"DON'T YOU DARE SAY IT!"

Mark raised an eyebrow at the two's banter before went back to stirring the porridge. As he watched the two go back and forth, Mark wondered to himself what the "Pixie" Alex had mentioned before was. A small window suddenly popped into his vision, as if to answer his pondering,

Pixie

Index Entry: Also called “Fallen Ones,” “Corrupted Spirits,” and “Devil Wisps.” While the name and shape vary between cultures, they all refer to the same creature. Pixies are Malignant birthed when a Magi Spirit is corrupted by miasma. While Magi Spirits are naturally able to cleanse miasma, if the Spirit is weakened or exposed to massive amounts, a Pixie may be born.

Pixies can take many forms, depending on their vessel when they were a Spirit, but every one of them is extremely dangerous and is considered to be at minimal a C-ranked threat.

Adventurers are advised to take caution and report any Pixie sightings to the proper authorities.

Mark raised an eyebrow at the sudden window. Well that was .... convenient.

He'd not realized he could use the "System" like this, as well. He silently filed the discovery away.

If Mark had learned anything in the military, it was that information could mean the difference between a successful mission and death.

It was a lesson many only ever got the chance to learn once...

It took a moment to read through the window before he focused on another unknown word. The first window closed, and a second opened in its place.

Malignant

Index Entry: Lifeforms infected by miasma. Miasma is a poison released when dead Magi are unable to be recycled back into the natural cycle. This poison can “disrupt” the Magi in an area, causes them to become destructive and virulent. If the internal Magi of a Lifeform is disrupted, they corrupt their host, destroying their mind and mutating them into dangerous Malignant. Like a virus, Malignants only goal is to “spread” their sickness. To this end, they will attack any uninfected life forms without warning and without regard to their own safety.

That... didn't sound good...

Mark furrowed his brow, a deep frown crossing his face. He didn't fully understand what these things were, but they didn't sound like just normal creatures. They sounded... dangerous. Were those things in the forest Malignants? Mark shook his head in response to his own question; no, the system said that Malignants were mindless, but those 'Forest Goblins' were obviously intelligent, if not too skilled.

Well, most of them...

Malignant or not, Mark knew he didn't want to meet either again. The two continued to bicker back and forth, with Mark doing his best to block them out. Before long, the porridge was finished, and Mark stood, calling out with a smirk.

"Tsutsuji, are you sure you are not a Pixie? Your tongue is poisonous enough. Stop picking on Alex and get ready to eat. Food's done."

Tsutsuji's head snapped to the side as she gave Mark a fiery look, but still, the little Guide hovered across the cave, her angry melting into greed as she stared at the boiling pot.

Still in a daze, Alex ambled over, glazed eyes staring at nothing in particular, and sat down across from Mark. Tsutsuji hummed to herself as Mark passed her a small dish filled with porridge.

Mark had found the small bowl in the supplies taken from the cargo and a few other items that might come in handy later. The bowl itself wasn't big, more likely something meant for alcohol than food, but it was quite a large portion to the tiny girl. Even still, she was asking for seconds before Mark had even filled Alex's and his own...

Mark took a small bite and nodded. Not bad. A little 'wild' compared to what he was used to, but beggars couldn't be choosers.

After her third bowl, the tiny Guide finally gave a sigh and fell backward. She lay there for a moment before springing to the air, moving slow and low towards the bedding near where Merry lay.

"Well, that was nice. I'm going to take a Nap."

"Hey! Don't just leave your mess for others!"

Mark snapped out at the retreating Tsutsuji, who snuggled into the bedding, humming as though she hadn't heard him. Mark gave a heavy sigh and shook his head.

Alex, who had been mindlessly eating like a robot, gave a slight jump and stared at Mark as if he was seeing him for the first time. His voice broke slightly, though coming out of a daze,

"W-wait, this is not right. Someone explain what is going on here! Mark, why is there a Spirit here? Why is she just sitting down and eating with us like it's normal?!"

Mark stopped mid-bite and looked toward the young man, an eyebrow raised.

"Why? What's wrong with it?"

Alex stared wide-eyed, mouth agape.

"What's wrong with it?! What's not wrong? This is a Spirit we are talking about!! A Magi Spirit! A manifestation of Nature! and you are talking about her like she's some Stray that wandered in during the night!?"

"See! HE gets it!"

came a small voice from across the cave.

Mark shrugged his shoulders as though he didn't care and said in a calm voice, scooping more porridge into his bowl.

"Well, She IS a stay..."

"HEY!"

A small pebbled flew across the cave and landed in Mark's bowl. Mark stared down with a frown, before scooping it out and dumping it into the fire.

"As for why she's here, I'm not sure how m-"

"MARK!"

Tsutsuji shouted from across the room, panicked in her voice. Both men stood in a flash, bowls forgotten as they looked her way, weapons half drawn.

There in the dim light of the cave, they could see Tsutsuji keening near Merry's head as she lay on the bedding, the young girl's good eye slowly blinking as she stared at the three.

~~~ 2 hours later ~~~

Mark scooped some of the still warm porridge into a small bowl before thinning it out a bit with the prepared water. Careful not to spill any, he walked towards the wall where Merry sat and placed the bowl in front of the silent girl before walking away.

Merry had panicked when she had first woken up, though her injuries prevented her from moving much, preventing her from worsening the,. Small blessings, Alex had said. Sure, whatever.

Alex sat by the fire, still nursing the mark on his hand from when he had foolishly rushed over to check on her. Surrounded by strangers and still suffering from a mild fever, the little girl had lashed out. It had taken a surprising amount of effort to pry her tiny teeth from the young man's hand.

The little girl had nearly crawled from the makeshift bed, frantically look around the cave as if searching for something. Not seeming to find what she was looking for, however, tears quickly weld up in her good eye. Slowly, the memories of the previous night seemed to come back to her as her eyes went wide. The child began to wail, and a sound of a deep grief unbefitting of such a small girl filled the cave.

It was a sound that Mark wished he wasn't so familiar with. As he watched the flickering flames, they and the sound seemed to melt together, like the phantoms of long-forgotten demons pulling themselves from the fiery pit itself.

Merry had cried for close to twenty minutes before seeming to run out of energy and fell asleep once more.

When she awoke an hour later, her eyes were dead and cold, glazed over with a look Mark knew all too well. Alex hesitated for a moment, the memory of a child's sharp teeth still fresh in his mind, then moving slowly towards her, he carefully propping the small girl up before checking her wounds and changing her bandages. Merry had sat there in silence, not seeming to have the energy to resist, her eyes staring into nothing.