… 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 Aniz 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 Aniz 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…
Aniz 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 Aniz 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, Aniz 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,” Aniz 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 Aniz, 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…
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