Chapter 2: Unexpected Rescue Mission

As Alluen and Ellis left the store, a sigh of relief escaped them. Finally, they had what they were searching for: a sleeping bag. But, alas, their pockets weren't deep enough. Yet, fate seemed to intervene as the supplier was nowhere to be found. Instead, they were tasked with tracking her down, with the promise of a discount as their reward.

"Okay," Alluen said, pulling out the map lent to them by Norn, the shop owner. He unfolded it with a flick of his wrist, pointing to Stargaze Mountain nestled within the forest.

"Looks like a bit of a trek," Alluen observes, glancing between the map and the distant mountain. "But before we head off, shouldn't we look around the town and buy some supplies? Even though it might take a while.."

Ellis shakes his head. "But what if something happens to Cami while we're shopping? We could probably hunt and forage around the mountain if we really needed food or whatever?"

Alluen nodded, prompting Ellis to say, "Then let's not waste time. The mountain can't be that far away that the shopkeeper would send two kids there right?"

Once more, Alluen nodded, stowing away the map. "Yeah, let's get moving. Every moment counts," he agreed, urging them forward.

Leaving the town, they made a quick stop at the local bakery for provisions before delving deeper into the forest. With bread in hand, they journeyed on, only for Alluen to spot scattered goblins.

"Hey, hold up," Alluen called, pausing their progress.

Ellis stopped, waiting for Alluen's next move.

"There seem to be goblins around. Could you scout ahead while I cover the other direction?" Alluen suggested.

Ellis pondered for a moment, then proposed, "Wouldn't it be faster if we both scouted? You take one direction, and I'll take the other."

Alluen hesitated, citing the difficulty of the terrain for his tail. Instead, he handed Ellis a whistle, explaining its use for signaling danger.

Taking the whistle, Ellis dashed off into the forest, while Alluen remained vigilant, attuned to his surroundings.

Meanwhile, Ellis forged ahead, pausing now and then to scan for goblins until he stumbled upon two people guarding a cave. Eavesdropping, he overhears their discussion about a girl they captured and deduces it is Cami.

Reacting swiftly, Ellis blows the whistle, alerting Alluen, who promptly heads towards the sound of the whistle.

After five minutes Alluen arrives "Find something?" he asks.

"Yeah, I think I found Cami. There are some dudes – bandits I think – outside a cave and they are talking about a girl they captured with sleeping bags. " Ellis confirms.

Alluen ponders for a moment, then asks about the bandits' numbers and weapons.

"I couldn't see much, but I did scope out the guards outside. There's only 2 of them that have spears," Ellis replied.

"Should we try to sneak in?" Ellis suggests, gripping his sword.

Alluen nods, readying himself. "Yeah, attacking head-on would probably get us killed by several armed adults. "

Alluen and Ellis inch closer to the front of the cave; they look at each other and nod before jumping out at the guards. Ellis stabs one in the throat and grabs his mouth, muffling the guards' cry and taking him down. Alluen wraps his tail around the guard's head, managing to block his screams and crushing his neck. Alluen and Ellis let the guards down to the ground before taking the spears they had before advancing into the cave. 

"Hey" whispers Ellis as they go further into the cave.

"Yeah?" replies Alluen glancing over at Ellis.

"This cave seems kinda deep and I can't see shit. What if we get ambushed or spotted while going through the cave?"

Alluen pats Ellis on the shoulder causing him to jump a little. "I can see alright in the dark and I can also tell where people are from the taste in the air, we'll be fine" explains Alluen

Ellis recovers from the fright and smiles, reassured before they continue onwards.

In no time the pair come across a flicker of light and they pause, peeking around the corner of the cave's walls they see a group of bandits hanging around a few tables piled with food and drink with a girl tied up behind them all lit by torches on the walls.

One of the bandits at the table sips from a mug before saying "Hey Marcille, how long are we gonna hole up here trying to get this girl to make more sleeping bags for us? We aren't some sort of merchant group that's gonna start selling shit. I wanna go and see if there are any adventurers around the forest we can mug"

A lady standing near the captive – Marcille – snaps at the man saying "It's the off-season of the guild right now when there's not much herbs growing or goblins. If we don't secure some source of cash flow for that time we're fucked!"

The bandit at the table slams his mug down angrily and scowls at Marcille and the other bandit's hands shift towards their weapons. After a tense moment, the bandit at the table leans back and the tension is broken. 

Ellis taps Alluen and they retreat further back from the bandits before he speaks "So there's five of them and they're all armed and armored with leather and some metal. The girls got a spear, the guy at a table has a mace and the rest of them have swords. Since I only have a sword and dagger the girl could fend me off and your shield and spear would be a bad matchup for the mace. How in the world are we going to fight them???"

Alluen thinks momentarily before saying "Easy, we don't."

Ellis grabs Alluen and shakes him aggressively whispering "Dude we can't just not rescue her!"

Alluen pushes Ellis away to stop the shaking and replies "I don't literally mean not attacking them, not here on their terms anyways" Alluen grins at the end of this sentence, and even though Ellis can barely see him through the darkness he feels shivers run down his spine.

Clack!

All five of the bandit's heads snap up and look over at the sound, a pebble that rolled into their den. Marcille's eyes narrow and she motions for one of the bandits to investigate. The bandit unsheathes his sword and takes a torch walking slowly into the darkness.

The moment he is far enough for his torch light to separate from the cave. Thunk! A spear embeds itself in his head and the bandit falls over and collapses. 

Everyone in the cave freezes and gaps in shock before the bandit at the table recovers and angrily growls. "On me!" he yells, flipping the table and pushing it towards the tunnel. Marcille ties Cami to a ring in the wall before she and the other bandits grab torches and follow behind. 

All of a sudden Alluen charges out of the darkness shield high and rams the table shifting it to the left and exposing a bandit hiding behind it. Thunk! Another spear embeds itself in the head of the bandit before he too collapses. 

With a furious shout the bandit holding the table slams Alluen aside and he moves closer to the dark and Ellis appears behind him. They both then turn and run back into the darkness eliciting a shout from one of the bandits and causing him to run into the darkness after them shouting "You'll pay for fucking killing Derek!"

Marcille futilely shouts "No you imbecile it's a trap" before the bandit is heard screaming and then the cave falls silent again. 

The 2 remaining bandits back into the cave again shuddering, eyes frantically looking around before Ellis comes charging from the left and they shift in his direction. Thunk! A sword this time embeds itself in the head of a bandit and Marcille backs away dropping her weapons and saying "Please just spare me I-I know the locations of other treasure buried around this forest please!"

Ellis and Alluen grin at each other and as Alluen ties up Marcille with his tail Ellis approaches Cami and unties her ropes while asking "Hey your name is Cami right?"

Cami looks at Ellis with an expression of surprise and answers "Yes how do you know?"

Ellis smiles and replies "The store you supplied sleeping bags to told us you were possibly missing so we went to look for you." The ropes come loose as he finishes talking and Cami gets up and stretches, rubbing her raw wrists.

"As thanks for rescuing me" begins Cami, grabbing the boys' attention, "I'll give you two of my sleeping bags for free. If you want them anyways"

Ellis and Alluen cheer but they're interrupted by Marcille who Alluen is still holding captive "Seriously??? That's what you fucking raided our cave and killed us for!?!?!"

Ellis and Alluen look at her before shrugging "Yeah more or less."

Marcille looks at them with an expression of disgust before Alluen tells her "I'll crush you too if you don't tell us where the treasure is." Which quickly changes Marcille's expression and demeanor.

Remembering what she told the boys, Marcille says "I'll need a map from Travis, the guy over by the table to find the treasure." 

Alluen loosens his grip on Marcille and moves forward to grab the map when he sees a glint of light from the corner of his eye.

Shank! 

Blood drips to the ground and Alluen screams as Ellis and Cami turn around to see a knife lodged in Alluen's tail, Marcille grinning before a sword slices into her neck decapitating her with Ellis dropping the sword immediately after.

"ALLUEN!" yells Ellis as he scrambles towards Alluen before hesitating over which part of him he should run to before hugging Alluen's top half. 

Alluen gasps to catch his breath, tears forming in his eyes from the pain "I-I'm alright. Alright enough anyways."

Cami steps over to the pair and says "I know some emergency first aid and can dress your wound but you should take him to the town's clinic before it gets worse."

Ellis says "That probably would be best, lets go!"

Alluen interrupts, however, saying "Clinic's pretty expensive through and the church also expects donations and will start to blacklist you if you don't."

"Are you guys part of the adventurers guild?" asks Cami.

Alluen and Ellis nod in agreement.

"The guild offers some mild free healing since adventurers often get hurt on the job. Your cause of injury is noted down however it will play a part in guild evaluations" continues Cami. 

"Ranking up aint important right now so guess we'll go there," says Alluen and Ellisnods.

"So" begins Ellis "Can you still move Alluen? I don't think we'll be able to carry you and your tail." 

Cami dresses Alluens tail using the bandit clothes and after she's done Alluen flexes his tail and winces saying "It still hurts to move it but it's that or sitting in this cave waiting for you guys to convince the guild to send healers to me."

Ellis nods as Cami grabs a torch and they head out of the winding cave. The trip back to town takes a bit and the group had to be even more careful to avoid goblin camps but they made it back safely and without Alluen's wound worsening. Once they entered the guild, the receptionist ushered Alluen into the clinic, leaving Cami and Ellis alone.

"So" begins Cami

"Yeah?" replies Ellis

"Wanna get the sleeping bags I promised you two while he's healed?" finishes Cami

"Hell yeah" goes Ellis and they walk to Norn and Andy's, greeting the owner when they enter.

Norn replies "Hey, I see ya found Cami. Welp I'll keep my end of the bargain to sell both for 4 bronze so-"

"Oh." interjects Cami "Well Norn I kinda promised them a 100% discount on the camping beds when they rescued me. Sorry."

Norn waves off Cami's apology and says "Nah that's fine. Two sleeping bags is a small price to pay for my supplier back. Gimme a sec to grab them from the back and I'll give them to ya."

Cami breathes a sigh of relief and she and Ellis wait until Norn comes back with the sleeping bags, giving them to Ellis and declaring "Here, on the house I guess."

Ellis cheers and waves goodbye to Cami and Norn as he rushes out the door and back to the guild where he finds Alluen sitting and counting his scales.

"Hey Alluen!" chirps Ellis.

Alluen looks up from his scales, stretches his hands in a hug, and says. "Yo Ellis! You got the sleeping bags I see. Nice!"

"Yeah!" cheers Ellis hugging him back.

The pair head into the woods foraging for a few berries and even manage to grab some honey from a bees nest "Damn armor already on your skin is useful" remarked Ellis when Alluen used his tail to grab a honeycomb. "The scales are kinda weak since I'm young though" Alluen adds on.

Eventually, the pair reach a clearing in the woods where Alluen sets down his backpack and begins unpacking a tent. 

Ellis excited, says "Whoa you got a whole tent in your backpack? Have you been living in the wild this whole time?" 

Alluen chuckles and replies "Somewhat. I've hunted animals and picked some herbs but I've mostly sold them in town for other materials and such. Anyways can you go grab some sticks to start a fire?"

"Sure thing bro!" answers Ellis, saluting as he turns away and runs into the forest. Ten minutes later Ellis comes running back with an armful of sticks as Alluen finishes making a firepit having finished setting up the tent.

"Nice" comments Alluen before frowning and saying "My flint has broken into rather small pieces at this point however so this might take a while."

Ellis moves closer to the campfire stacking the sticks in before saying "Nah gimme a sec I can start a fire."

Intrigued Alluen watches closely and "Kainetie" a spark flickers before bursting into a full flame from Ellis' whisper. 

"Whoa," says Alluen before taking a salted chicken wrapped in cloth out of his bag, unwrapping it, and skewering it on his sword, cooking it over the fire. Ellis stares at him doing all of this with dead eyes.

Alluen, noticing him staring, shrugs and says "What? I'm hungry after all that we went through."

Ellis sighs and asks Alluen "Want me to teach you about magic while you roast that chicken."

"Hell yeah!" replies Alluen, almost dropping the chicken in his excitement. 

"So" begins Ellis "There are 6 main types of magic that people can use. Water, fire - what I just used WITHOUT A SINGLE THANKS." 

"Sorry" murmurs Alluen as Ellis rants.

"Ahem. Anyways" continuous Ellis "Wind, earth, light, and dark are the other four elements. What element you're good at isn't something you can change and is decided at birth though my tutor says if you train hard enough you can use high-level magic of any type. I feel like he's mostly saying that to get me to focus on my studies though. Most people are born with two elements they're really good at, I know fire and light magic, uh I've heard legends of some really strong people becoming suddenly proficient at types of magic after beating a really strong monster but idk if that's true, or not."

Alluen holds his sword using his legs and claps at the end of Ellis' speech before then asking "How would I know what kind of magic I'm good at then?"

Ellis stands up at this question and says "By trying each element of course." and extends a hand to Alluen. 

Alluen looks down at his chicken however and asks "Can I finish cooking first?"

Ellis shocked stays frozen momentarily before kicking dirt at Alluen who yelps "Hey!" as he scoots away from Ellis to avoid the dirt.

Ellis chuckles and waits for Alluen to finish roasting the chicken before they eat it fighting over the drumsticks.

Once they finish they wipe their hands on the grass and stand up. "Alright Alluen" begins Ellis " Now repeat after me kainteie"

Alluen repeats the incantation and there's a small flash but only smoke comes out of his hands. "Alright," says Ellis "Not fire then hmm let's see maybe ceindtsei"

"Ceindtsei '' repeats Alluen and a drop of water forms on his finger. 

Ellis nods saying "Same as me so not that either then let's finish with Earth since the others require light and shadows as well as a lot of power. Repeat after me tupoei"

"Tupoei '' murmurs Alluen and suddenly the grass around him grows high enough to cover his feet. 

"Whoa" goes Ellis as Alluen pumps his arms into the air saying "Yes!"

"I can infinitely grow food!" excitedly says Alluen. 

Ellis pauses and thinks for a second before saying "There's a limit to how much mana that a person has so you wouldn't be able to just spam the spell. However, mana recovers over time so we probably could grow some food faster."

"Damn." replies Alluen before asking "How would I know how much mana I have then?. Just use spells till I run out?

Ellis nods and says "Yep, running out of mana apparently makes you collapse through so I wouldn't try it"

Alluen sighs before saying "Would be real annoying if I suddenly ran out of mana during the middle of a battle." he looks at the sky before continuing "It's getting late though so we should probably turn in yeah?'

"Yeah." agrees Ellis and they unfurl their sleeping bags before settling in for the long night.

Far away across the country a boy cries, wishing for happiness, peace and for friends outside of the cult he's trapped in. His tears fall but they do not stain the ground. They mix together slowly forming a bubble where within an image of a forest forms and within that there lies two sleeping bags.