"You two! Go out and hunt something big for dinner, alright? I wanna see teamwork! Partnership! And Lin, no fireballs! Barbaric methods, only!"
"Why no fireballs?"
"Don't ask questions!"
"Yes sir!" Liora shouted, saluting.
"What are you doing?" Linnie asked, laughing. "Are you a soldier or something?"
"I don't know... it felt right."
Alwyn shook his hat over the ground, causing a large, comfortable-looking, cushioned seat to fall out.
"Have you had that the whole time?" Linnie asked, awestruck.
"Huh? Yeah, yeah..." Alwyn said, kicking his feet up in relaxation. "Get to it, the sun's gonna set soon."
"Do you have more furniture in there?"
"Obviously."
"But... then why have we been rolling around in dirt all this time!?"
"Oh brother... we're camping, who uses furniture while they're camping? Now don't make me ask again."
"You—!"
Alwyn snapped his fingers, and when Linnie blinked, he and Liora were standing in the middle of an unfamiliar wooded area.
"Whoa, so magic can do something like this, too?!" Liora exclaimed. "But if he can just make us appear anywhere, why're we walking so much every day?"
"I've been wondering the same thing... come on, let's find something to eat!"
"Meow!"
They both looked to the ground, where Lady was sitting and scratching her ear.
"He sent you with us, too? Sorry pretty lady. Maybe you can be useful and smell out some food for us to hunt, huh? Will you do that? Ow! Why don't you like me...?" Liora pouted.
Back at the camp,
'Ooh... that trick drained me. Damn, I haven't felt the need to conserve mana like this since—well, ever, now that I think about it.' Alwyn turned his gaze to Aliza, who was napping beside the fire.
It had become a very common occurrence. Often, Linnie would find the time to take a nap, too, when she was asleep.
'I'm risking a lot to keep you alive, you know. Tch.'
He lowered his hat over his eyes, deciding it wouldn't be bad to take a rest, himself.
Meanwhile, Linnie, Liora, and Lady were taking a, largely quiet, stroll through the forest. They were on edge. To be specific, Linnie and Lady were. Liora was cheerfully skipping around, whistling.
The sun had set, and the cool air of spring nighttime carried the soft moonlight into the forest.
"Have you ever hunted before?" Linnie asked.
"Nope! Why, is it hard?"
"Naw, it's easy! All we gotta do is find a big animal and beat it with a rock until it dies. A sharp stick wouldn't be bad, either."
"Like that?" she asked, pointing through the trees.
Linnie moved beside her, trying to see what she was pointing at. Squinting, he could see the shifting of the large pale shape between the trees.
"Wow, that thing looks big," he whispered.
"What is it?"
"I don't know, let's get closer."
"Meow."
The three of them crept up closer, trying to get a better look. Then it stepped out and into a clearing. The world around them seemed to suddenly darken in contrast.
The moose was large—larger than usual, its shoulders rising like a small pale hill among the undergrowth. The creature's fur wasn't white in the same way snow is, neither did it have the faint yellowish color of keratin that shone from Liora's hair when under the right conditions.
It was white like something that had forgotten what it meant to be touched. Unaltered, like the reverse of the blank void of space.
It even had a faint, blue glow.
Its fur was thin and soft-looking, almost beckoning for Linnie and Liora to give it a pat, translucent at the edges, like the beast itself was made from moonlight molded into the shape of a moose.
Its antlers were smooth, wide, and perfect, like a polished bone sculpture made from marble. Its eyes looked hollow, but were just... incredibly deep. Like looking down a well. There was no reflection or glimmer, but no hostility either. Just something old and mysterious.
The wind moved through the clearing, and its fur blew in the gust of air. If the beast was breathing, it made no audible sound.
It looked past them and into the distant trees. The spectral moose hadn't yet acknowledged their presence even once.
Linnie and Liora looked at each other, exhaling at the same time, not realizing they'd been holding their breath.
She gyrated her hand, miming as if to cast a spell, and silently moved her fist through the air. It collided with her other hand, causing an explosion. She flapped her hand around in a way reminiscent of a dying fish.
"What?" Linnie asked, whispering.
"Shoot some magic at that thing," she whispered back.
"I can't, Alwyn would notice if the meat was cooked. I bet he'd make us go catch something else if we brought it back all burnt."
"...Just do it like that time, then, when you were transferring mana to me. Remember? You removed the heat from the mana. Can't you just, like, do that?"
"Of course I can't do—actually, that's not a bad idea."
'How come I didn't think of that!?'
Linnie raised his hands, taking aim at the spectral moose. He closed his eyes, focusing the mana into his hands. Mana separated from the concept of heat, just like he'd done once before.
When he felt a strange feeling pooling between his hands, he opened his eyes. To his surprise, floating there was a spinning ball of... blue?
It was concentrated mana, a mass of a malleable, property-less force.
"MA—! Ahem, mana... ball?" he whispered.
He focused, shooting the ball at the moose with all the force he could muster. At the last second, the beast finally turned, spotting them. The ball whacked it square in the face, bouncing off and dissipating into the air.
There was a moment of silence. A peaceful, serene silence... before Linnie was made to wish that he didn't have any ears.
It bellowed, shaking the entire forest and nearly knocking Linnie and Liora off their feet. They watched with wide eyes as it reared up off the ground, slamming its front legs back into the dirt as a show of force.
"Aha... the spell... didn't have much force behind it, I guess," Linnie nervously laughed. "We should probably start running away now."
The moose, rather than fleeing away, stamped its feet and prepared to charge. Despite its majestic visual, it was, in fact, still a moose. It was sometimes easy to forget that moose were not their peaceful cousins, deer.
No, they weren't alike at all.
Linnie turned around and started to run in the opposite direction. In truth, he hoped that the beast would start to chase Liora, rather than him. The sound of heavy footsteps and huffing right behind him took those hopes and... tore them to shreds.