Heroes to Hunted

The Sun soon dawned, basking the wilderness in its warm glow. With the arrival of the day's first light, various chirping birds and woodland critters crawled out from their places of rest to hunt and forage.

Following their example, my companions stirred awake too. As expected, Mizuno was among the first, followed by Joseph and Barik soon after.

Mizuno stood up from her bedroll, revealing she'd taken off her black cloak sometime during the night.

She wore a shadow gray, buttoned blouse fitted with a black leather harness, and her pants were tight around her slender form. On each side of her hips was a leather holster fitted to a belt. They were empty but obviously used for storing her two twin longswords.

She performed a series of morning stretches to rouse her muscles into action before throwing on the black cloak, once again concealing her body.

Meanwhile, Joseph ventured over to the only party member who hadn't yet started the day.

"Get up," Joseph ordered a dazed Alan. "It's time to get up."

Alan shuffled in his bedroll and squinted upward toward Joseph. "Ugh...what time is it?" he griped while rubbing his eyes. He opened them slightly more to see the Sun still hiding behind a wall of pine trees.

To Joseph's frustration, Alan mumbled, "just five more minutes," before rolling to his side, away from Joseph.

"It's time for you to get up!" Joseph replied, then repeatedly shoved his brother with his foot.

After each push, Alan sighed irritatedly but remained docile. Eventually, however, Joseph's incessant foot nudging frustrated Alan to a boiling point.

Alan threw up a hand and tried dismissing his brother. "Why don't you try to give Mizuno a morning smooch instead?" he taunted and pulled his blanket over his head.

Joseph clenched his teeth in anger, and his nudging became full-blown kicking. "Get the hell up, you lazy lout!"

Several strikes later, Alan couldn't take the beating anymore. "Cut that out, will you?!" he snapped back. "Fine, I'll get up... Just stop that!"

Alan stood up from his bed, and we ate more of our packed rations for breakfast. Afterward, we equipped all our gear and fastened our rolled-up bedrolls back to our rucksacks. Ready for another day's journey.

We walked for hours, passing familiar scenery, until we stumbled upon one of our old campsites. It was the one we'd been forced away from by that swarm of blue wisps.

Some of our makeshift supplies were still intact. However, the elements and creatures from the forest left their damaging marks in various ways. A bit of it was sure to be useful, but the risk of stopping here wasn't worth it.

"We should keep moving," I said. "Right, Mizuno? What if we reencounter those orbs? The wisps?"

Mizuno nodded in agreement and motioned for us to move on.

"You won't see them," Barik interrupted, "they're only attracted to high concentrations of mana." He then performed a hand gesture to emphasize his point. "They won't attack so long as no magic is performed nearby."

"Are you sure?" I asked. "I was awake when they appeared and didn't see anybody casting magic. How would you explain that?"

Barik brought a hand to his beard and stroked the braids in thought. "There's only one other thing that wisps like. 'Crystalline Aether.'"

Mizuno and I gave him quizzical stares.

Noticing our confusion, Barik elaborated. "They're crystals formed from highly condensed and hardened aether. So wisps will swarm to those."

If we had one of those, everything would make sense. Especially when explaining their large numbers. However, that begged the question, "who had an aether crystal?"

"One of you must've; it's the only explanation," he replied confidently before heading into the abandoned camp.

Mizuno approached Barik. "These crystals... What do they look like?"

While walking to the log the sisters sat at, Barik replied, "they're hard to miss. Aether crystals glow, and their color reflects the element they were formed from. They'll also leave a glowing, colored residue on the skin of anyone that touches them."

Mizuno brought a hand to her chin while lost in thought. However, in the end, she emerged just as clueless as she started.

Likewise, I hadn't seen anyone holding anything resembling a glowing crystal throughout the trip or with any bright residue on their body. Sadly, we couldn't turn back to question any of the others, either. Not while the camp was on the brink of starvation.

So we dropped it and, for the next several minutes, foraged for supplies around the campsite.

The brothers made it a competition to pillage the most gear. Though there wasn't much to pick from, to begin with.

Barik sat down and retrieved a crude writing utensil from his pack. Then, he pulled out another book.

When I walked over out of curiosity, I saw that he was taking notes regarding our paths, the surrounding scenery, and the pond ahead. I noticed something else too. It was a strange sight, considering the man was encased in bulky armor.

Rather than being equipped with heavy leather boots, like the Traunt brothers and I, Barik sported armored "sandal-like" shoes that widely exposed his heels and toes. 'An odd choice, but to each their own, I guess.'

Rather than questioning Barik's eyebrow-raising wardrobe decision, I moved on to another curiosity. "What are you doing?" I asked.

Without looking up from his notebook, he pointed to the pond ahead. "You said this is where the wisps came from, right? So I'm taking note of this place for the future."

"I did... But why are you logging the location?" I assumed it was to avoid danger, but he had already stated how to prevent it.

Barik took a breath and answered my question with another. "How many of them were there?"

Thinking back on that night, I remembered a scene painted wholly in blue. Like a night sky nebula, I recalled the space above the pond filled with hundreds of bright orbs.

"Hundreds..." I replied.

He brought the pencil to his beard upon finishing his notes. "Mmmmm," he grunted, "if there were that many, I'd wager this place an aether spring. In that case..." he slammed shut his book and packed it back into his rucksack, "I'm noting the place for rare materials. That's all you need to know."

I gazed out at the unnaturally still pond. Just like before, there were no ripples, air bubbles, or flying insects in sight. It was as if the pond was completely lifeless.

"An aether spring?" I questioned.

"Yes, you all witnessed a swarm of wisps being birthed from here. So there's nothing else it could be. There's also the pond's stillness to be considered."

He paused, then turned to me with narrowed eyes. "Have you noticed how even the buzzing insects avoid it? It's because no living thing can stand exposure to pure aether. If you absorb it too long, your Aether Gland will overload and rupture your insides. It's...not a pretty sight."

For a moment, Barik and I sat in stillness while staring out at the sparkling blue water. However, our trance was interrupted when a giddy Alan shouted from behind us within the tree line.

"Guys! Guys! I found something!" he frantically gestured for us to follow.

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