By the time I’d worked up a sweat, the sun was well over the horizon, and the first stirrings of birds had turned into a full-throated dawn chorus as the wildlife of the forest started its day.
A growl made me spin around in alarm, expecting to see a bear or some sort of monster emerging from between the trees. But it was just Kegohr getting up and stretching. He rubbed his eyes with thick knuckles and peered into the stew pot.
“Looks good,” he said, leaning closer. “Smells good, too. We gonna eat?”
I sheathed the Sundered Heart Sword. “Soon. Needs a little longer.”
“Gotta perfect it, right?”
“Of course. I wouldn’t feed you anything that isn’t perfect, buddy.”
“Lies,” the ogre said with a chuckle. “That first meal you made us tasted like something my ma used to give me as punishment.”
“A week isn’t long to learn,” I defended myself. “Besides, you enjoyed it well enough yesterday.”
“That I did. So, when do we eat?”
“Let’s wait for Vesma,” I said with a chuckle.
I hadn’t a meal for myself back on Earth very often, and I’d only ever eaten the food the guild cooks had provided here. This mission had provided me with an opportunity to explore the culinary arts, even if we only ate what we could gather. Vesma and Kegohr seemed to appreciate my cooking, and I liked seeing their faces when I tried something a little different.
I went over to stir the pot. It did smell good. I was getting better at working with whatever ingredients we could hunt or forage during our travels.
“What smells so good?” Vesma asked as she yawned.
“You’re up,” I said as I leaned down to kiss her.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. I say it’s time we eat.”
I fished out bowls from my bag and served up the stew. We were all hungry, so the first few spoonfuls were accompanied by satisfied silence rather than conversation. Once I’d taken the edge off my hunger, I turned to Kegohr.
“I see you lost some of your fur last night.” I pointed at the bald spot with my spoon.
“One of those scaled bastards pulled out a chunk. Stings like lemon juice on a cut.”
“Here,” Vesma said as she handed him a small vial. “It’s a healing tonic I made from the plants Faryn taught us to gather.”
“Looks like you’ve got a tattoo under there,” I said as Kegohr applied the tonic. “Does it mean anything in particular?”
He turned his gaze away from me and hunched over his bowl. “It’s nothing,” he muttered under his breath.
Vesma and I exchanged a look. She clearly knew what the tattoo meant, but she didn’t want to tell me. At least, not right now. It seemed she preferred Kegohr explaining its purpose himself.
We kept eating while Kegohr just stared at his bowl.
“Alright, it’s something,” he said. “It’s the mark of a Wild, a half-breed Augmenter like me, whose power ain’t like other Augmenters. We’re touched, you know? Connected to the inner spirit of the element. I never had to defeat a fire spirit to gain control of the element. One day, it was just there.”
“You don’t have to speak about it if you don’t like, brother,” I said. I recalled how he’d learned the Spirit of the Wildfire technique when a group of tainted guild members assassinated his father. He’d sworn vengeance on the entire tainted guild after that. One day, I’d find a way to help him pay those fuckers back.
“It doesn’t go well for a lot of Wilds,” Kegohr continued despite my words. “The connection eats them up. It’s too bloody fierce for them to control. The lucky ones burn out, end up dead or powerless or mad. The unlucky bastards become monsters. They become a threat to everything and everyone around them.”
Vesma had known him for years, but she still looked uncertain about what to say. Wild magic was new territory for me, its meaning and its dangers outside my knowledge. I didn’t know how to feel about it.
On the other hand, I knew exactly how I felt about Kegohr.
“So? Maybe it’s because I’m still new around here, but what’s the big deal?”
Kegohr dropped his bowl. “The big deal is—”
“It’s just a different way of Augmenting,” I interjected. “Unless it makes you snore louder, I don’t care.”
Vesma went to sit beside Kegohr and laid a delicate hand on his muscular shoulder. “Ethan’s right,” she said. “You’re our friend, and we don’t care whether you’re a Wild or not.”
He sniffed, smiled, and looked up at us. “You guys,” he said, a tear in the corner of his eye. “You guys are the best.”
“Right back at you, buddy,” I replied. “Now, let’s finish eating so that we can get moving again.”
We polished off the rest of our breakfast, washed the bowls in a stream at the bottom of the clearing, and stamped out the remains of the fire. Within a few minutes, we had our bags packed and Vesma had the map out, leading us onto a new trail through the trees. We talked as we walked, telling jokes and remembering friends back at the guild. Around us, a beautiful spring morning was bursting into bloom.
“So, tell me again about this tilivision?” Kegohr asked me as we marched along the trail.
“I want to know more about the internet,” Vesma countered. “All that knowledge at your fingertips. Surely, everyone in your land must be intelligent.”
“You’d think so, but we mostly use it for memes and porn.”
“Porn?” Vesma screwed up her face. “Sounds terrible.”
I laughed. “You’d probably enjoy it. All kinds of new knowledge to learn.”
“Tell her about the midgets,” Nydarth whispered from my sword. I was the only one who could hear her, and I was glad for that now. “The Russians in the temple had a particular fancy for those.”
“Tilivision, internet, porn,” Kegohr marveled. “All these great things, and you decided to come here?”
I shrugged.
