Mia and Schörl woke up next to the ashen campfire.
'What could she have possibly meant by giving her "protection" to me?'
"Hey, Mia, when are we gonna continue?"
"I'd say we go now if you're ready."
"Oh, sure."
They packed their leftover wood and got moving. As they walked, Schörl noticed how many ruins there were in the forest; it was like a gold mine for relics if they were hunting for them.
"Hey Mia why are there so many ruins here?"
"Oh, well, probably because this was a small castle in ancient times. We don't know much, but there was a crown very similar to the one the King of Pohjola has, and that one has been passed down for more years than anyone can tell."
"Could it be that there was a war here and the Kingdom of Pohjola won?"
"Maybe."
As Schörl and Mia walked around the ancient stone ruins covered in snow, Schörl got an idea and a small grin on his face. 'What if I could find a rune for my shortsword here?'
"Hey Mia, we've been walking for a while now, and I'm getting tired. Can we stop here at the ruins for a while?"
"Oh, um, sure."
As they both sit down inside a ruin with a roof still intact, Schörl starts looking for any trapdoors or anything that could lead him to a rune.
'Hm, what's this?' Schörl thinks as he touches a wall with a stone sticking out. Unfortunately for him, though, nothing happens.
"Aw man, I really thought it could be one."
"Well, let's get going. You clearly aren't tired."
"Ok then..."
***
In the forest, they found a small goblin camp right next to where the old gate of the ruins used to be. Schörl rushed in with his shortsword, covering it in flames with mana imbue magic. "Whoa, how did he learn that!?" Mia followed, punching a few goblins' heads clean off with her brute force.
Schörl was going to get stabbed, but Mia quickly stomped the ground to make a pillar appear and kill the goblin who was trying to stab Schörl from behind.
After most of the small goblins were dead, Schörl rushed for the camp's champion. Mia tried to warn him, but she couldn't, she was too focused on killing the normal goblins fighting her.
Schörl was grabbed and thrown against a wall; he was bleeding slightly and coughed up some blood.
The goblin champion rushed again, but Mia jumped, imbued her hands with earth magic , and pierced its chest with her fist to finally end the champion.
Schörl and Mia took care of the goblins that were left. "What the fuck were you trying to do? You nearly got yourself killed, you don't even understand how weak you are; goblin champions are C-level bosses!"
"I'm sorry. I only tried to help."
"Well, you can't help when you act so recklessly."
"Let's keep walking now," Mia said, visibly angry with Schörl.
She thought she might have even lost her brother if she hadn't been there to help him. They traveled in the forest for quite some time until it started to get late again.
***
"Well, it seems we have to find somewhere safe now."
"Yeah, but where? I don't see any caves nearby."
"That 's fine; we can make an igloo and stay there for the night."
" How, though? We don't know water and flame magic to use temperature- variant magic."
"That might be true, but you can still warm the snow to create an area without it , then I can use earth magic to sleep in an earth igloo."
Schörl started to melt some snow in a circle; it took him a while, and he was beginning to get tired from too much mana usage.
"Are you okay, Schörl?"
"Yeah, don't worry, I'll manage."
After Schörl was done, Mia quickly made an earth igloo and set up a campfire next to it so they could cook some goblin meat and warm up a bit— though Schörl didn't really need it after all the work he had done.
"Hey, Mia, how come you didn't use fire magic? I know you're a lot better than me at it."
"Well, you said it yourself—I'm better at it. At that young of an age, you can still increase your mana pool by overusing it, like you just did."
"Right, I guess that makes sense."
Mia went outside to check if any beasts were nearby because this was usually the time they started hunting. It didn't take long before she saw a few deer being attacked by a huge black wolf with blue teeth and red eyes that turned purple whenever it got to eat the deer's meat. 'What a wonderful beast, I think we could hunt it.'
"Hey Schörl get up, fresh meat is here!"
"I was just going to go to sleep. I'm tired."
"There's no time for you to be whining right now. Come on, it's time for some fun."
Mia attacked the monster first, delivering a pretty nice blow to its face. It still endured it, but its right eye got blinded by the spikes in Mia's gauntlets. Schörl went in and attacked it with his shortsword. He inflicted a small wound, but the monster brushed it off and whipped Schörl with its tail, sending him flying into a tree.
"You need to use flame magic if you want to deal damage to these beasts. You're too weak with your physical strength alone!"
He landed a solid stab wound on the beast's left eye, blinding it. Then Mia attacked and finished it off, by piercing its chest.
"Well, that was easy. I expected more."
"My stomach got crushed by that tail. I just want to go to sleep," Schörl sobbed a bit, but he endured the pain as they walked back to the igloo, with Mia pulling the now-dead beast behind her.
"Well, let's eat some of its meat now!"
Mia took Schörl's shortsword and cut a few nice pieces of meat for them to cook and eat. After a while, while Mia was still eating, Schörl had fallen asleep while sitting, so Mia took him to his small earth bed with cloth to make it softer.
In the morning both of them woke up pretty early and got back to walking
"How long do you think we have to continue until we reach the castle, or well, kingdom? I'm not even sure what to call it."
"I guess you can just say castle, as we just crossed the borders of the kingdom. Also, I'd say it will take around two more weeks, as we've been traveling for a good while now."
"Good to hear that."
"Schörl started to play with some fire magic while Mia was scouting for any nearby monsters, just in case. 'Hm, how do those people in my dreams make the flames black?
I would think it has something to do with the rune. Aah, why is this so hard?
I can't think of any ways to make it black. I've tried adjusting how much magic I use and what form everything takes.
Really, at this point, I wouldn't be surprised to accidentally use a completely different magic. Could it just be that I'm only seven and too young to even use those cool black flames?'
"Hey, Schörl, look! It's a small village!"