… After having left the ruins, time passed, and he eventually found his way back to the peaks of Worth Woodsea. His heart still beat from the excitement earlier, and he was trying to adapt back to the silent atmosphere of nature and nature alone. There was nothing ‘natural’ about ruins built by people like himself, and his cottage too was included in that category, but at least his cottage was built with tree. The wind that passed his ears was refreshing, and soon, he would’ve forgotten most of the sounds back at the ruins. Yes, sounds; he heard things in there… he didn’t dare imagine what it would have been. However, one single sound caught his attention; the still snoring bastard of a stray wolf, away from his pack. The predator within Hyōen wanted to strike, but the human within him wanted to flee silently. He kept sneaking around the wolf, while his eyes scanned it with anticipation. It was familiar places, so he was convinced that this wolf very close to his cottage… and surely, it was. There, within a small opening in the shrubbery was a certain house of wood and branches. He was so close, and yet so far away from home… his mother knew not of his whereabouts as he usually just dashed around the forest without supervision. His mother was more responsible than letting him walk around on his own, though, but he was a sneaky one. Now, that left him in trouble with this wolf before him, and everything was too late when it opened its eyes; such state was enough to question its origin and anatomy, because he remembered those eyes from another day back in the past. It too was filled with confusion as its peaceful slumber was interrupted; by a human, in fact. It responded quickly, and walked towards Hyōen in order to intimidate him. It then suddenly began walking faster, only to feel some other creature grab its legs from the ground, a place that made it almost impossible to see its reptile skin…

Hyōen quickly opened his eyes as he noticed that a caravan was nearby. It was making a lot of sound with all the containments in it; he could assume that it was masses of stones inside, but he quickly remembered what he was here for. The daydreaming made him temporarily forget that he was here on another mission; a guy named Barras wanted some materials to smith armor and weapons for, but things had gotten pretty suspicious when he ordered from quite a discount-like source. It made him curious, and so he asked Hyōen by finding the mage near the outskirts to go get the supplies for him. However, he didn’t tell the mage about his thoughts, and so, Hyōen simply thought that this would be harmless. It would be far from harmless, though… the caravan suddenly reached the same place that he stood at, and the Fire Mage looked up at it. Two men were present; an old, tired, shady guy and a fresher aide. Two faces whom the Fire Mage had never seen before, but it didn’t bother him too much. When pulling up the money that he got from Barras in order to pay, he spoke: “Okay… I’m here on Barras’ request. Do you have the ores?” The fresher one nodded and replied: “Yeah, yeah, it’s right in here, don’t worry…” The aide even jumped down and bowed friendly, hiding his selfish grin underneath. “Oh… well, it’s nice to meet you. I’m not really that familiar with Barras, but he just asked me to do him a favor and get the materials for him. He’s kind of busy at the moment,” Hyōen explained to them. He didn’t like to hide essential facts away from them, and he found it necessary to tell them about his connection to Barras earlier than later. “Ah, that’s cool,” the aide replied rather quickly, “We’re just here to bring you the items, no worries…” The elder man didn’t speak a word yet, but his feet stepped on the caravan front a little too fast. It was as if he was impatient for something, but the Fire Mage did not notice that. “Uh… anyway, I never got to greet properly. I’m Hyōen, and this is Coda,” he greeted, presenting his bird companion as well to the two sellers. They kind of sweated a little, something that the Fire Mage didn’t notice either. “We have lots of time, so I guess a little chatting-“ “Actually,” the aide interrupted as he noticed the old man’s increasing impatience, “W-We’re… we’re on a tight schedule. Here, the ores should be waiting for you inside the caravan.” He quickly accepted the payment and as the Fire Mage saw them gather again and suddenly run off full speed, that was when he finally noticed something… then he moved into the caravan himself. Once opening the gate to the inside, he noticed a huge mistake and fail; there was not a single ore around. A few seconds passed before a fiery ascension of flames from his hair broke through the roof of the caravan’s package, revealing him having his hair lit crimson and his feet bursting with flames. Landing on the caravan, he looked around the area intensely; he just… he just got tricked! He would never tolerate such an indecent and foolish act, and he wouldn’t forgive himself for falling into this trap so carelessly. He had to find them now, or Barras’ money would be wasted…


The cold, biting air was refreshing. Someone like Hyōen found it relieving, in which he inhaled deeply and let out small grunts and echoing sounds. At last, he let out a huge roar that would make it dozens of kilometers across the landscapes, suddenly revealing his anger once again and causing birds to flee and humans to wonder of the sound’s source. There was no time to waste. After that couple’s quest for a good-old beating, what was going to be with Barras and the mission? Besides, he would obviously face greater trickery in the future, or so he thought. And how thoughts planted such motivations in people, making them steal and stuff like that… he didn’t get it at all. However, he did have time… he had hope; this was his chance to bring back the money and give a lesson to the two idiots, to show them just how stupid that it was to mess with him. He would surely show his merciless feathers when he spotted them. He was very much like a ticking bomb that wouldn’t mind biting your fingers off and explode the second that it met its target right now. His feet ignited just as much fire as his head did, and he rushed across the streets of Magnolia to look for the fools. People’s earlier expressions of someone passing them at a high pace was his greatest help, because the couple seemed to cause quite the scenes by running so fast. He could follow up their expressions despite the speed that he was running in. Apparently, someone were either turning their faces to the street to the right or to the left, or simply forward. By following them, Hyōen soon reached the two guys who were running away from him. His mouth emitted steam of anger as he sped up, soon catching up to the two muggers. He pushed a hand on their necks and proceeded to push them both down, shouting: “Don’t try and mess with me!!!” However, he managed to push down the old one, but the fresh aide seemed to held his ground and made it off of Hyōen’s grab. When the Fire Mage stood up again, he found himself and the others in an alley near the Bathhouse which he had been at a few times. There, the flames died off and left him facing the couple. “… Shit! He found us so quickly..!” the old man complained while veins popped up. That was when they both decided to just charge at Hyōen at the same time, making it two versus one. As they both aimed a fist towards the Fire Mage’s belly, he quickly ducked in order to avoid their hits. It left them moving towards the back of his, in which he wasted no time; all of a sudden, flames began to erupt from his back in the form of fiery waves, causing burns on the two men’s bodies. “ARGH!” they both roared in pain, moving away from the Fire Mage. Hyōen slowly rose up and looked at them again, having turned his face towards them while fire covered the field between them and him. “… Hehe! He’s a cocky one, ain’t he..?!” the fresh aide spoke, while the old man began shivering, “Don’t think that a little fire can bring me down, bon-man!” Now that was a nickname that Hyōen had not heard of before; bon-man… oh, like bonfire. Was that a compliment or an insult? He had to take it as the last one, given that this guy was not exactly friendly. Talkative, yes, but not friendly at all. “What are you waiting for, little boy..?” the aide inquired, holding up a hand to prompt Hyōen to attack. Turning his body towards them, he decided to finish this as quickly as possible; two guys against one would be a pain if he pulled the fight out for a longer time than necessary. Crossing his arms, blades of fire erupted and functioned as wrist blades for the Fire Mage, impressing the young aide and terrorizing the old one who just wanted to get away from him with the money. That pushed him so far that the elder mugger even tried to sneak away with the money all by himself, but Hyōen quickly made it to his position and attempted to slash the piece of cloth that he held on, freeing the money. Then, he swung those arms on the mugger eight times; each time causing a burning, slicing pain to travel across his body. It made him faint with surprisingly huge injuries that wouldn’t let him move away for now, while it now stood between the Fire Mage and the younger one.

“… You were quite fast there,” the aide spoke, “but that man was garbage. Let me show you a level that you’ll never defe-“ A sudden knee planting into his face interrupted the cocky aide from talking as he felt the knocking pain surge through his neck and back, while Hyōen balanced on his knee. Then, the Fire Mage leapt off the aide’s head and breathed out a rain of fiery bullets of fire down on the aide, but he quickly attempted to run through it and punch what looked like Hyōen’s stomach. However, when realizing it, he accidently punched the Fire Mage’s next attack with the razor blades, causing a surprising damage to travel through him once again, causing him to land on his back. Hyōen wasted no more time, once again, and simply landed right on the aide’s stomach, continuing to beat the crap out of the mugger who dared try and steal from him. He was tough… Hyōen had to avoid getting hit by surprisingly fast punches flying towards him, but the aide’s punches weren’t as fast as they were strong. And the air around Hyōen had thinned a little, in which the aide felt like having trouble breathing. With less air resistance, the Fire Mage succeeded in pushing the aide to a corner that he couldn’t get away from, and as the poor guy tried to crawl away, a fire feather was suddenly planted into his butt…

He still remembered the scream. It haunted him as they both were taken to the hospital, the aide and the younger aide, while Hyōen was left with the money. He decided to go back to Barras and report about what the hell just happened, but apparently, the blacksmith assumed all of that and asked him to keep the money… wow…

2011/2000