MHO Chapter 24! Here’s the exciting conclusion to the little adventure in the ruins- as well as some surprise fallout from it. Enjoy!

-Llox

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“Lykou, look!” Kuna said, pointing at some shelves on the walls, lit up in green light. There were a handful of crude weapons made from wood and some kind of shiny green material resting on them.

“Fuck. At least it wants a somewhat fair fight, I guess,” the konuul replied, his eyes darting between their enemy and a few of the weapons on the wall. “Alright, you grab something over there and I’ll grab something over here. Just try and distract him without getting too close. I’ll handle the attacking.”

“But-”

“Kuna,” Lykou said, shooting a look at his companion. “It’s okay. Remember what we talked about.” He smiled briefly at the sereva before turning his attention back to the flower-monstrosity staring them down.

Kuna sighed and nodded. “Alright, just… please be careful.”

“Of course.”

They both suddenly bolted to either side. The plant monster glanced back and forth between them before choosing to swing its blade at the konuul, barely missing his tail and scraping the ground with a shrill, high-pitched sound that made the canid cringe. He reached for a two-handed axe on one of the shelves. He spun around just in time to use it to block another swing.

Meanwhile, Kuna grabbed up what looked like a spear with an extra blade on one side. At first he found it awkward to wield, but he managed to adjust reasonably quickly and hurried over to swipe at the monster’s legs. The blow hit, but he’d accidentally turned the blade the wrong way, causing the creature to barely flinch from the blunt strike. Still, it got the thing’s attention, giving Lykou a chance to slip around and land a nasty blow on the creature’s offhand arm.

The plant let out an angry hissing sound as it swung its blade around in a wide arc. Kuna was well out of reach, having stumbled back after his own failed attack, but Lykou barely ducked in time to avoid having his head caught in the swing.

“Go for the legs!” Kuna cried out.

The konuul tried to do so, but his swing was met with a perfect parry from the green sword. The beast made a sound that almost sounded like hissing laughter.

“Shit. I think it can understand us,” the canid said as he jumped back from another swing.

“Fuck, sorry!” Kuna replied, then swung his weapon awkwardly at the thing’s torso from behind. This time he had the blade the right way around and it wedged itself deep into the creature’s side, making it cry out in anger. Unfortunately, when it turned, the force pried the weapon out of the sereva’s hand, leaving him unarmed. He barely managed to avoid an overhead strike from the monster’s blade by tumbling to the side.

Fortunately, the distraction gave Lykou another chance, and with a powerful, sweeping attack, he chopped clean through one of the creature’s legs, causing it to fall over, howling and hissing in rage. The sword arm flailed around wildly as it tried to make contact with either of the boys. It tried to pursue the konuul by propping itself up with its offhand arm and crawling on its remaining leg, but he was able to keep out of its reach. Still, he couldn’t find an opening to counter-attack with its wild thrashing.

Kuna scanned the wall next to him and found a large wooden shield. He pulled it down and held it in front of him as he ran over to join his friend. Once they were side by side, they shared a look, as an unspoken idea occurred to both of them. Without a word, Kuna lunged forward and ducked behind the bulky shield, bracing himself as the green blade collided with the other side with a heavy impact- not enough to shatter it, but splinters showered the ground around him.

Lykou used the moment to run up and leap over Kuna, slamming the axe down on the creature’s corded-vine neck, then spun around just in time to sever the sword-arm preparing to attack him. The blade fell and the beast convulsed silently on the ground for a moment. Then, suddenly, the entire body dissolved into green dust, as did all the weapons in the room.

The boys flopped onto the ground and panted to catch their breath. Fortunately, no other assailants had followed them through the doorway. After a few moments, a wall section opened up nearby, leading into another, even larger room. But they were in no hurry to run through, and decided to take a moment to recover. Kuna eventually crawled over to sit by the konuul, embracing him.

Lykou returned the hug with one arm, while he pulled out the waterskin with his other hand. They each took a few sips as they calmed themselves down. Eventually, he smiled over at his friend. “Do we make a good team or what?”

Kuna stared at him for a moment, then slowly smiled back. “Fuck yeah, we do,” he said, then fell over onto his back, rolling his eyes up briefly. “But I’ve had enough weeds with attitude for one day. For a lifetime, even.”

“Me fucking too,” the canid emphatically agreed. “I hope we don’t have much farther to go to get out of here…”

After resting a short time, the pair reluctantly got up and peeked into the next room. It was large and circular, with a high, domed ceiling. The only light was coming from a single round skylight directly in the middle, which was casting a beam of sunlight down on the only thing in the room- a pedestal with a miniature tree growing on top of it. There were four items sitting underneath the tree, two on each side.

As they cautiously approached, they realized that the objects were two pairs of bracers, seemingly made of carved ornate wood and lined with a soft lining made from an unknown dark green material. On the tops of each bracer, there appeared to be an inactive glyph resembling a stylized tree with its roots leading into the ring that surrounded it.

Fortunately, the actual tree seemed normal, if unusually tiny, and unmoving. Lykou slowly reached out and picked up one of the bracers. When nothing happened, he grabbed the other on his side and began examining it. After a moment, Kuna picked up the other pair. “Is… is this the reward for putting up with this place?” the konuul wondered out loud. “Does this mean we’re at the end or something?”

“I sure as fuck hope so,” Kuna said, looking over the bracers. He then looked up and scanned the room. Other than the ring of light around the pedestal, the rest of the room was barely lit enough to see the walls. There was no sign of any other doorways. On the bright side, there were also no dark alcoves in the sides, either. “Now what? I hope we don’t have to walk back through all that shit.”

“Me either,” Lykou agreed. After thinking about it for a moment, he slipped the bracers on. “Hey, these are actually pretty comfortable.” A few moments after wearing them, the tree symbols briefly glowed with a green light. “Woah, hey!” he said, momentarily panicking. Fortunately, nothing else seemed to happen, and the glow faded away pretty quickly.

Kuna held his tongue as he sensed the konuul’s life energy starting to flow through a new pathway, as if the bracers had temporarily become a part of him. He wasn’t sure what to make of it, but it didn’t seem harmful. After hesitating for a moment, he put his own pair on to see for himself. Right away, he could feel it fuse with him, altering the flow of energy through him as well as the glyphs lit up. Initially, the bracers were a little big on him, but they quickly shrank down to match his arms comfortably. “Huh… normally I’m not wild about wearing things on my wrists, but these are pretty comfortable.”

“Yeah, they-”

Suddenly there was a faint click. The next thing they knew, the floor had opened up underneath them and they were sent, sliding and screaming, down a twisting, slick stone chute deep into the bowels of the structure. By the time they reached the bottom and landed somewhat roughly on an earthen floor, they were in pitch black darkness.

They both groaned as they stood up. “Shit. Where the fuck are we now?” Lykou wondered aloud. “Are you alright?”

“Ugh. Yeah, just sore, what else is new,” the sereva grumbled as he stiffly got up.

“How are we going to get out of a room we can’t even see?” Lykou wondered, feeling around in the dark. He grabbed at something, causing the sereva to yelp.

“That’d be my face,” Kuna announced, feeling the konuul’s hand withdraw after a moment.

Lykou chuckled and grinned sheepishly in the dark. “Sorry.”

“Here, give me your hand. We should avoid getting separated if we can help it,” Kuna suggested, reaching out for his friend.

“Good point.”

They awkwardly felt around for a minute, then finally managed to clasp their hands together.

“Alright, lets just follow the first wall we can find,” the sereva said, leading them slowly in one direction. Suddenly, he tripped on an uneven part of the floor. Luckily, Lykou managed to stay standing and help his friend up.

“Woah, you okay?”

“Other than being stuck in a pitch black room in the bottom of an enormous freaky stone building full of frustration and pain? Fantastic!” the sereva grumbled as he got back to his feet. He thought for a moment, then sighed. “Alright. That’s it. Fuck this.”

“Hmm?”

“Lykou… I have a secret to confess,” Kuna blurted out after a brief internal battle.

“Er, is this really the time, Kuna? We need to find a way out of here.”

“Just hang on, I’ll show you.”

“Show me? Uh, kinda hard to do right now, don’t you think? Can’t see… any… thing…” the konuul trailed off as the room was lit up by a green glow emanating from the sereva’s other hand.

Kuna grinned at him a bit sheepishly. “Ta-da?”

Lykou stared at him in shock. “Is… are you…”

The sereva nodded slightly. “Sooo… the mountain wasn’t a complete bust after all,” he said. “A spirit came to me one night and has been secretly teaching me magic…”

Slowly, a huge grin spread across the konuul’s face. Suddenly, he pulled his companion into a tight bear hug, lifting him off the ground with his enthusiasm. “I KNEW IT!” he shouted. “I KNEW you had it in you!”

Kuna yelped and gasped a bit from the tight hug, the glow in his hand flickering as he struggled to retain his mental grip on the energy. “Air! Lykou, need air!” he gasped.

The konuul loosened his grip and grinned apologetically at him. “Oop, sorry! But that’s amazing, Ku!” he said. “I told you you just needed to be given a chance!” He rubbed the sereva’s head softly. “And to give yourself a chance, for that matter.”

“Heh, I guess so,” the sereva replied, grinning bashfully.

“Why the secrecy though?” Lykou asked.

Kuna sighed and shrugged. “My mentor said to keep it secret. No idea why. I’m worried I’m going to be in trouble now, but fuck it,” he said, glancing around the room. “I’m tired of hiding it from you, and I have a feeling we’re going to need it to get out of here anyway.”

“Weird. But hey, I’ve got your back if they get mad at ya,” Lykou responded, giving the sereva a gentle squeeze. “What kind of spirit are they anyway?”

“Er… I think they’re a vizhni?” he said, then caught the konuul’s confused expression. “A kind of fire spirit. I’ve heard of them, but this is the first one I’ve actually met. They show up at night, usually above or in the campfire.”

“Fire spirit, huh? They have a name?”

“Er, kind of?” Kuna replied with a slight shrug. “They said they’ll tell me their actual name later. So right now I just call them ‘Mentor’.”

“That’s weird…”

“Yeah, they’re kind of elusive about some things. And weird in general, for a spirit. Then again,” Kuna said, looking away with a smirk. “So was Sluyrr, in a very different way.”

“Yeahhh, that’s true,” Lykou agreed with a small grin. “Anyway, we can talk about it more later, let’s see if we can find a way out of here, now that we can see a bit.”

“Right,” the sereva agreed, looking over the walls. The dark room wasn’t very big, but there were unlit lines and symbols all over the walls. More than anywhere else they’d seen so far.

“Look at all the spirit-signs. I wonder what they all do,” Lykou said. “Hey, you’ve got magic now, maybe you can activate one?”

Kuna looked a little uncertain. “Yeah, in theory… but you never know what they might do,” he pointed out. “Knowing this place, do we really want to take any unnecessary chances?”

The konuul looked around again, then shrugged. “I don’t see any other options at this point.”

“I guess you’re right. Still, lets look around to see if one stands out, first. Some might only take whatever that yellow energy was- earth, I think. I only know how to use life energy so far.”

“Life energy, huh?” Lykou said as he helped search the walls for any symbol that stood out from the rest. “I guess they’re all color-related somehow? How many kinds are there?”

“Technically a lot, for spirits, but only a small number people can learn to use, from what Mentor said. Life, fire, earth, water, air, and several others they didn’t specifically mention. And star, which is apparently a misleading name after all, but they’re waiting to tell me what it’s really called for some reason.”

“This mentor of yours sure likes secrets,” the konuul said, giving the sereva a sidelong look.

“Seems that way, yeah.”

After searching for a few more minutes, Lykou called Kuna over. “Look at this one. The one that looks like a bunch of squiggles. It’s a little bigger than most of them.”

“Yeah, I think you’re right,” the sereva replied. They shared a look, then he took a deep breath. “Well, here goes. Hold on tight.” The konuul took the sereva’s off-hand into his own again, then nodded. Kuna brought his glowing hand to the symbol and focused, slowly directing the life energy into the glyph. It took a moment, but then suddenly he felt it being rapidly sucked through him.

He stiffened up for a moment as a large amount of energy rapidly swept from the spirit world through his body, and into the glyph. A slight panic started to overcome him as he realized he was losing control, unable to pull his hand away. The glyph began to glow brightly, and the light began flooding out along all the lines connected to it, connecting to other symbols around the room.

Lykou put his free hand gently on the sereva’s shoulder, starting to worry about his friend. “Everything alright?” he asked. When there was no response, he tried tugging on Kuna’s hand, and became alarmed when he couldn’t even get it to budge. And after a few moments, even he could feel the massive flow of energy surging into the wall.

After a minute, Kuna clenched his teeth and shut his eyes as he tugged at his arm with all his might. Finally, the connection severed and he was sent tumbling over backwards, losing his grasp on the flow of energy. Fortunately, the entire room was now lit up brightly with the glowing lines all over the walls.

“Shit, Kuna!” Lykou cried out, quickly kneeling down next to his friend. “Are you okay??”

Kuna groaned and propped himself up on one hand, rubbing his head with the other. “I… think so,” he said, swaying a little. “That was just… a fuckload of energy all out of nowhere.”

“Yeah even I could tell,” the konuul said. “Did… did that all come from you?”

The sereva shook his head. “No, most of it was coming from the spirit world. I was just the bridge. Never felt that much at once, though,” he said, holding the konuul’s hand as he shakily got back to his feet. Soon he realized he wasn’t the only thing shaking, however.

Both of them looked around warily as a low rumbling accompanied a tremor in the ground, that was slowly growing in intensity as the glow finished filling out the remaining lines on the walls. Suddenly, glowing roots and vines burst through the solid stone and produced flowers that rapidly grew to full size and began releasing tiny motes of light that floated around in the air. Two large roots burst through the ground and curled back into a section of the wall, then forcibly dragged it down into the ground, revealing a passageway out of the room. They quickly took advantage of the opening to flee the room. Some distance away, they saw another wall section coming down, and sunlight was beaming in from the other side.

They made a mad dash for the light as the ground began shaking more and more. Cracks started appearing on the walls, causing the glowing lines to flicker. Chunks of wall and ceiling began crumbling around them. They reached the exit just as the roof collapsed behind them. Looking up, they realized they were back in front of the building they’d entered. Only now, the design on the front wall was completely lit up in various shades of green, blue, and yellow. It was clearly a large tree covered in flowers, with what looked like tiny people and houses scattered around its roots. Even the sun in the background looked small by comparison.

“Woah,” Lykou said, eyeing it as the ground continued to rumble underneath them.

Kuna tugged on his arm. “Lets get out of here!”

The konuul looked back and saw the stone pathway was cracking as roots burst from the ground in random places. All around them, the stone structures were crumbling and being overrun with wildly-growing plant life. The boys quickly turned and ran as fast as they could towards the edge of the old stone village, narrowly avoiding being tripped on multiple occasions.

The rumbling didn’t stop when they left the village. The forest around them shook, with birds fleeing their homes and other animals bolting away alongside them through the brush. Without thinking, they continued fleeing towards the north, near what they hoped was the mouth of the canyon. Some trees began falling behind them as enormous roots ruptured up from the ground. Finally, the rumbling settled down as they ran up a hill in the middle of a clearing. Once the rumbling stopped completely, they stopped to catch their breath and look back the way they’d come from. Their jaws nearly hit the ground.

Back in the direction of the ruins, they saw an unbelievably massive tree, now filling a sizable chunk of the canyon. Its top stood high enough in the air to compete with the nearby mountains, and its branches shaded half the canyon, though it was mitigated slightly by the thousands upon thousands of glowing flowers lining the tree’s branches, among its many enormous leaves. Small motes of light floated down around the entire tree.

They both stared at the tree in breathless silence for a while, completely at a loss for words.

*****

Back at the upper portion of his stream, near the falls, Sulyr was similarly gawking at the massive new growth down in the canyon. As a spirit, he’d been around a very long time and seen many things. Even so, the amount of energy he saw flowing in- and out- of the enormous tree was staggering. A veritable army of tree-tenders began appearing to check it out. Several popped down out of the trees near him and began chattering among themselves, though he didn’t bother to listen in on what they were saying.

Eventually, he pried himself away from staring to wander up towards the source at the head of his stream, hoping to find some solitude to think. When a familiar shadowy figure appeared, he whirled around at them and stared at them intensely for a minute. “I’d ask if you knew that would happen, but that’d be a silly question, wouldn’t it?”

The stranger sprawled out contently under a nearby tree and chuckled. “Perhaps.”

“Please tell me those two are alright,” he said softly after a moment.

“Of course they are,” the shadow replied. “They’re clever and talented boys. They got out just fine.”

Sulyr was silent for a minute. “What is that thing? Why is it so big?”

“With the growing number of mortal villages populating the world, our little tree friends are going to need some help keeping the balance,” the stranger said, plucking a nearby flower and examining it idly. “So I think it’s about time the syltheans made a comeback.”

The water spirit’s eyes went wide as he turned to look back in the direction of the canyon. “Oh…”

*****

Eventually, Lykou and Kuna managed to pull away from gawking at the giant tree now taking up a large portion of the canyon. They decided to continue hiking away from it, in case anything dangerous came from it. “I wonder what we unleashed,” Kuna worried aloud.

“Good question. You should ask your mentor about it the next time they show up,” Lykou suggested.

Kuna winced and looked around nervously. “Yeah, about that,” he said quietly. “Let’s not talk about it right now. They apparently check in on us invisibly now and then, so I never know when they might be watching. And I’m worried about how much trouble I’ll be in if they find out I told you.”

Lykou frowned. “Oh come on, I have so many questions!” he complained. Suddenly he grinned and looked around, then shouted at the air in general. “Hey ‘Mentor’, whoever you are, don’t be mad at him! Why are you making him keep secrets from me?? Stop being a creep-”

“Shhh!” Kuna shushed, quickly clasping his hand over the konuul’s mouth. After waiting a moment and seeing nothing happening, he removed his hand and glared at his friend a little. “I’m serious, Lykou! Who knows how they’ll react? If I’m lucky, they’ll just stop teaching me and leave, but they could do far worse for all we know!”

“Ugh, fiiiine,” the konuul finally conceded. He looked down at the bracers on his arms. “At least we got these out of all that mess. I wonder what kind of magic things they might do,” he wondered, then tapped on one of them. “Seem reasonably tough. More than regular wood.”

“Yeah, they’re pretty, too,” Kuna commented, running a finger along one’s surface. Suddenly he noticed a streak of the shiny green material they’d seen before on one side. “Huh, I wonder what this stuff is?”

“Hmm? Good question,” Lykou said, looking closely at it. “Kind of reminds me of sunstone a little, except dark green…”

Kuna ran his fingers along the smooth surface thoughtfully. Suddenly, when his finger reached the end, the glyph on the top began glowing again. “Uhh, I think I just did some-” he started to say, then yelped as roots suddenly grew out of the edges of the bracers and sank into his arms. “FuckfuckFUCK!” He desperately tried to claw them off, with Lykou running over to help, but they wouldn’t budge.

Suddenly, the fur and skin covering his body changed, turning a solid dark brown and hardening- though somehow, it didn’t affect his movement. The bracers blended in well with his new appearance, other than the green glowing symbols. Lykou jumped back slightly at the change. “Kuna?!” he blurted out, staring worriedly at his friend.

The sereva looked at his hands, bewildered. “Er… actually I feel fine,” he assured the konuul, running one hand over his arm. Suddenly a thought occurred to him and he looked up at his friend curiously. “Uh, Lykou… I know this is going to sound strange, but I want you to do something.”

“Name it,” Lykou said, still worried about the sereva. “I hope there’s a way we can reverse… whatever this is.”

“There probably is, but I have a weird suspicion about this. I want you… to cut me. Or try, at least.”

The canid stared at him blankly for a minute. “What.”

“Cut me. With your knife.”

“Uhh… why?”

“Just try it. Trust me.”

Hesitantly, Lykou pulled his knife out and very, very gingerly ran it across the sereva’s arm. It barely grazed the surface if his hardened form.

Kuna rolled his hands and grabbed the knife. “No, let me do it,” he said, then aggressively slashed at his own arm. He winced slightly, but the blade left no mark. “Huh. It’s like wooden armor or something.”

The konuul’s eyebrows raised. “Really? Here, let me try,” he said, taking his knife back, then looking at his own bracers. “How’d you get them to do that?”

“Just rub the green line on the side.”

Lykou did so, and after a jarring and mildly uncomfortable moment, he was similarly coated in the brown, woody coating. He looked down at his hands and slowly grinned. “This is weird… but cool!” Suddenly, he slammed his knife down into his thigh. He winced in pain as it actually managed to pierce the rough surface slightly. “Ow, fuck. May be tough, but not impenetrable.”

Kuna hurried over to his side as the knife came out. Surprisingly, there was little blood. “Be more careful!” he said, leaning down to examine the wound. To both their astonishment, it started slowly closing up before their eyes. “Woah…”

“Man, these things are going to be useful!” Lykou said, examining the bracers again.

“No kidding,” the sereva replied, looking back at his own. “We should be careful not to overuse them, though. They’re, er,” he started to explain, then nervously looked around before leaning in to whisper to the konuul. “They’re pulling life energy from our bodies. It replenishes, but slower than these things use it, seems like.”

“Ah. Good to know,” the konuul replied. He wanted to ask a followup question, but decided to play it safe for the time being. “How do we turn back?”

“Probably more or less the same way, I imagine,” Kuna said, running his finger across the line. Nothing happened. “Or… maybe not?”

“Try the other way,” Lykou suggested, doing so himself. The roots withdrew back into the bracer and his fur and flesh slowly returned to normal. Once the effect fully faded, so too did the glow on the bracers.

Kuna followed suit, and they both grinned at each other. “Hey, we finally have some kind of armor now,” he said as they finally resumed hiking through the woods. “At least something good came out of that place!”

“That, and we’ve got another awesome story to tell people back home!” Lykou pointed out.

Kuna chuckled and rolled his eyes up. “Yeah, and that too, I guess.”

*****

After several hours, they were approaching the far edge of the canyon, where they did indeed find the land sloping up and out of it. Fortunately, just as they began looking for a place to camp, they spotted a small cave at the bottom of a cliff by the incline, with a small babbling brook flowing nearby. Before they approached, they each made sure to activate the bracers again, just in case it was occupied by something nasty.

Peeking inside, they saw that it was clear and set their stuff down. “Whew, I’m definitely ready to settle down after this insane day,” Lykou said.

“Same here. You want to go grab some wood while I set up the pit?”

“Sounds good to me, be back quick,” the konuul replied as he started stepping back towards the tree line. He reached for his bracer, but the sereva ran over and stopped him.

“No, keep it on until you get back. Just in case, you know?”

Lykou smiled. “Alright, fair enough. But hey, you do the same. In case something comes by while you’re setting things up.”

“Deal.”

It didn’t take long for Kuna to gather enough rocks around to form a decent sized fire pit, set up close to the cave entrance. With that out of the way, he set up their sleeping mat. Without straying too far, he then searched the nearby area for useful kindling. Soon enough, the konuul returned with a large arm load full of wood. He started working on making a fire, but the sereva stopped him.

“Er, first we better make ourselves a bit less, you know, woody.”

“Oop,” Lykou said, looking down at his arms. “Yeah, that’s probably a good idea.”

“To be fair, I don’t know that we’d be more flammable than usual, but I for one wouldn’t want to take the risk,” Kuna said, deactivating his bracers.

“Yeah, me either,” the konuul agreed, doing the same.

Once they’d eaten, they sat against the cliff wall, enjoying both the fire and each other’s company as the moon began climbing into the sky. Kuna stared at the giant tree in the distance, still struggling to comprehend its existence.

“That thing sure is something else,” Lykou mentioned, following his friend’s gaze to the tree. “I wonder what all those little floaty lights are around it.”

“Some kind of magic pollen from the flowers, maybe?” the sereva suggested. “I’ve never heard of anything remotely like it.”

“Hey, maybe you can ask Mentor tonight?”

“Maybe,” Kuna replied, then frowned. “If they even show up.”

Lykou hugged him gently. “Hey, I’m sure it’ll be fine. I’ll be here for you.”

Kuna sighed. “I just hope they’re not too pissed.”

“When do they usually show up, anyway?”

“Er, well, after you’re asleep, obviously,” Kuna said, fiddling with the end of his poncho.

“Aww, but I want to meet them,” the canid whined.

“I know, and hopefully you will, but I need to try and smooth things over first.”

“Oh come on! Besides, I need to be here to help you if they pull anything.”

“They probably won’t even show up if you’re out here.”

“But-”

“I appreciate your concern, Lykou, but seriously, just let me handle it. I’ll wake you if there’s a problem.”

Lykou fixed the sereva with a sour look. Eventually he grumbled and rubbed his head. “Whatever,” he finally said and slowly got up.

“L-Lykou?” the sereva said, suddenly worried. “What are you-”

“Going to bed obviously,” the konuul interrupted. “So you can have your little secret magic meeting with your secret spirit friend.”

“I didn’t-”

“I’ll see you in the morning,” the suddenly grouchy konuul said before trudging into the cave and flopping down on the mat, pulling his blanket over him.

Kuna watched him go with a sinking, guilty feeling. His ears folded down, his eyes turning slightly watery. He considered going inside to try and talk to his friend, but he was somewhat at a loss for words. In any case, it soon sounded like the konuul was asleep.

He sighed and turned back to the fire, rubbing his sore arm. At least the effect from the bracers had healed all the little cuts and scrapes they’d gotten through their little adventure. It didn’t stop the ache from the strain, though. Nor the fatigue. And now he felt bad for upsetting Lykou.

Eventually, he became aware of a presence, and glanced up to see a familiar ball of fire floating above the firepit. “Hello Mentor,” he said quietly, his gaze dropping back down as he rubbed his arm slightly.

“Good evening, my student,” the spirit said, drifting down in front of him. “It seems you’ve had a very busy day indeed.” The spirit glanced back at the giant tree in the distance as if to draw attention to it, before facing him again. “And I see you’ve acquired something nice.”

Kuna sighed, unable to meet his mentor’s gaze. “Yeah. It was a long day,” he said quietly.

The two were silent for a moment. “You told him, didn’t you?” the spirit softly asked.

The sereva winced and curled up a bit. “Y-yeah… please don’t be angry. It was a tough situation an-”

“Kuna.”

“Y-yes Mentor?” he replied, nervously looking up.

“Do you remember the phrasing of our agreement?”

“Uh…”

“I said not to tell him until the time was right. Where were you when you told him?”

“In… in a really dark room in the bottom of a… building full of traps and monsters and magic shit,” he said, then winced, realizing he should probably watch his language for the moment.

Luckily, if anything, the spirit chuckled in mild amusement before continuing. “Sounds like it was a damn right time, then.”

Kuna slowly loosened up from the ball he’d been pulling himself into. “Y-you’re… you’re not mad at me?”

“Of course not, Kuna,” the spirit gently assured him. “Like you said, it was a dire situation. I trust your judgment. It was going to happen sooner or later anyway. I suppose he can join us tomorrow,” the spirit continued, then narrowed its eyes a bit, a faint smirk buried in the flames. “Provided he can behave himself and not interfere with your focus.”

“Oh… that’s… a relief,” the sereva said with a sigh.

“Somehow you don’t seem all that relieved.”

“I am, it’s just,” Kuna replied, glancing back at the cave. “He went to bed upset at me. I haven’t really seen him like that before.”

“Everyone gets cranky sometimes, Kuna. I’m sure he’ll be better in the morning. He had a long day, too, after all.”

“I guess,” he said, staring down at the ground with his arms crossed on his knees. “But I think he resents all the secrecy. And I insisted he couldn’t see you until I made sure everything was okay.” He sighed again and rested his head against his arms. “And I know he’s been homesick lately, too, so that probably isn’t helping.”

“I imagine not.” Both sat in silence for a few minutes, then the spirit floated up beside the sereva. “I won’t blame you if you’re not up to a regular lesson tonight, Kuna.”

“Shouldn’t I at least try? I feel bad wasting your time like that…”

“It’s perfectly fine,” the spirit assured him. “You’ve had a very long day. And I can tell you’re pretty drained. In more ways than one, I might add.”

“Y-yeah,” Kuna agreed, looking back up at the enormous tree again. “I activated a glyph in the bottom of that place and felt an insane amount of life energy flowing through me. And then… that appeared.”

The spirit looked over at the tree and grinned subtly. “Ah yes. Arbassla. Been a long time since such a tree has graced the world. That was quite an impressive turn of events, I must say.”

“I’m just glad it didn’t get us killed. I thought that glyphs might pull everything out of me for a minute there.”

“Not to worry, that was never a real danger. They draw power more efficiently than when you’re using magic on your own. Still, I can imagine what that must have felt like,” the spirit replied, turning back to face him. “You should be proud of yourself. That was no small feat.”

“What exactly, er, is it?”

“Arbassla? Ah, that’s quite a story,” the spirit said, staring off into the distance thoughtfully. “Perhaps best suited for another time. I’m sure you’re little friend will enjoy hearing it as well. But suffice to say it’s a tree that taps directly into some of the largest flows of life energy found in the spirit world and forms a bridge into the mortal world of truly spectacular proportions. It not only aided certain kinds of spirits in maintaining the natural balance, but brought into the world certain kinds of life that haven’t roamed this world in a very, very long time. And now, thanks to you, they will again.”

Kuna’s eyes widened. “N-not dangerous ones, I hope…?”

The spirit chuckled. “Any life can be dangerous under the right circumstances, Kuna. And yet that doesn’t mean it’s not important in the grand scheme of things. Not to worry, though, it will take a while for them to start showing up. In any case, you certainly got all the tree tenders stirred up. You can’t even begin to imagine little Koki’s excitement, I’m sure.”

The sereva smiled weakly. “Well, I guess that’s nice at least.”

“As I said though, you should rest. We can talk more soon.”

Kuna looked over at the cave, then sighed and nodded. “Yeah, that sounds good. Sorry t-”

“No apologies necessary, Kuna,” the spirit reminded him. “Besides, truth be told, the spirit world is all abuzz right now over that tree, and I’m just glad to step away from it for a bit. You go ahead and get some sleep. I’ll make sure you’re safe tonight.”

“Thank you, Mentor…”

“Think nothing of it. Goodnight, Kuna.”

“Goodnight, Mentor.”

After the fireball faded away, Kuna took a deep breath and turned to crawl into the cave to join Lykou. He sat near the edge of the sleeping mat for a minute, lost in thought. He would have expected to feel relieved, knowing that Mentor was not upset with him. But instead he only felt worse for having chased his friend off, for seemingly no reason. After some hesitation, he decided to give the konuul some space and curl up on his own for once, on the hard ground, using his poncho for a blanket.

A short while later, as he was laying there stewing in sadness and guilt, he suddenly felt the weight of the blanket drape over him. He turned over to see the konuul laying next to him, looking at him through somewhat sleepy eyes.

“Lykou?”

“Blanket and body heat is better than blanket alone, remember? C’mere.” The konuul pulled his friend into a warm hug.

Kuna returned the embrace weakly, his eyes slightly teary. “It’s pretty warm as it is here,” he said after eventually pulling back again. “Aren’t you mad at me?”

“No, just exhausted and annoyed at the situation,” the canid said, rubbing his neck. “It was a rough day and I guess it all just piled up in my head. Sorry for storming off like that.”

The sereva smiled a bit, a few tears leaking down his cheeks. “I’m the one that should be sorry. I-I was worried I really fucked something up. I’m sorry for pushing you away, Lykou, I just-”

“Shhh,” Lykou said, putting a finger over his lips and smiling at him. “Enough sorries. It was a long day. Now c’mere, you’re not sleeping on the hard ground, you goofball.” He suddenly grabbed the sereva up in his arms and rolled back over, pulling him onto the mat with him.

Kuna squeaked slightly, giggling at the sudden abduction. Once they were settled on the mat together, he rubbed his eyes. “Thanks, heh. It’s definitely a lot more comfy this way.”

“The mat does make a difference, hehe.”

“I meant being with you,” Kuna said, poking his tongue out playfully.

Lykou chuckled and blushed a bit, snuggling the sereva close. “You’re too adorable sometimes.”

Kuna just giggled and buried his head in the konuul’s neck, blushing slightly as well.

“And hey, sounds like things went well with Mentor. I guess I’ll be joining you tomorrow. Can’t wait to hear more about that huge tree. Arbassla, was it?”

The sereva briefly pulled back, eyeing the canid. “You were awake the whole time? And listening in?”

Lykou grinned. “Yep. Only listening though, didn’t look.”

“You naughty boy,” Kuna replied, grinning back.

Lykou poked his tongue out. They both shared a little giggle, then Kuna yawned.

“Well, let’s get some sleep for real, then.”

“Sounds good. I look forward to hearing all about what you’ve learned tomorrow.”

“Definitely,” Kuna said, cuddling up in the konuul’s arms. “Goodnight, Lykou.”

“Sweet dreams, Kuna.”