Phoenix in Another World

by Cheer

9

“Dammit,” Dolf grunted as they stopped. The footsteps went far deeper into the forest than they expected. “Damn thing must have some cursed luck. Survived that blast and ran right into the chitterwolves den,” he shook his head, as he looked over the webbing that began to permeate the area ahead “If they hadn’t died before then they damn well have now.”

Maria let out a breath at the sight. Chitterwolves were dangerous. More than dangerous. Outright deadly. The viciousness and pack mentality of wolves and mobility of giant spiders. That’s not even touching on how many webs there are in there. “I suppose we should turn back then.”

Baurd, the youngest of the group spoke up. “We can take it! I mean, come on, a little fire and the spiders are no more.”

Dolf stopped, turning to him with a mix of anger and annoyance on his face, “Oh, yeah. Let’s just set the forest on fire to find someone who’s probably already dead, and if they’re not? Well a forest fire will sure do the job.”

Maria put a hand on his shoulder, stopping his scolding as she instead garnered Baurd’s attention. “Look, Baurd, I can understand that you want to prove yourself. I’ve known plenty of adventurers like that,” She said as the usually kind expression she wore disappeared without a trace. “About three fifths of them die. They’re the reason I have this-” Maria lifted the soft red hair that usually covered a side of her face, exposing a large burn. “-So don’t make the same damn mistake. They’re dead, and if miraculously they are somehow not dead, they aren’t worth the risk.” Letting the hair drop again, she sighed. “We’re going back home. Come on.” Maria began on her way, not waiting for a response.

Dolf had a smirk on his face as he wrapped an arm around Baurd’s shoulders and started pulling him along. “There’s a good reason she’s the boss.”

“Y-yeah.”

“She’s right though. She saw a lot of bad stuff in a decade of adventuring. It’s not an easy job, and getting fame or glory is rarer than finding gold in your own shit. We do it because it pays, but it ain’t worth dyin’ for.” Dolf let go and began walking ahead. “Keep that in mind.”

Baurd’s eyes were fixed on the ground the entire way back, and would continue to be even as they went their separate ways in town.

Maria sighed as she arrived home. Today was… slightly strange but mostly draining. This was why she was a receptionist now. But, now it was her favorite part of the day. She pushed the door open with a smile “Belle! I’m home!” She called out into the simple two floor house. One of the few luxuries she’d bought herself after her retirement.

“Mary! Did you find it!?” Belle shouted, almost tripping over her own feet as she rushed to her elder sister.

Maria easily lifted Belle into her arms, mentally recharging herself by taking in the scent of her kid sister’s blond hair. It was always so calming. “Mhm” She mumbled before taking her over to the dining table and letting her take her seat. She could tell from the shine in her eyes that she was barely able to wait for an explanation about what it was.

“It’s not as exciting as you’re hoping.” Maria said with a chuckle as she started gathering things for dinner, using a small bit of magic to create enough flame to get the stove started. “It was just an elemental that ran into some chitterwolves.” She didn’t like lying to her sister but telling her the truth would only feed her curiosity and that would be the worst idea. “They won and it exploded.”

Belle frowned and crossed her arms. “We don’t have elementals here”

Maria raised a brow at that. Looks like Belle had been studying the wrong things again. “That may be true that we don’t naturally have them, but they do have their strange ones. I’ve told you about the ice elemental we found in the swamp right?”

Belle frowned “That was… the job with that pretty boy mage, right?” She asked, trying to remember the many stories Maria had told her.

“That’s right! But remember, I called him the ‘Empty headed pretty boy mage.’ Titles are important, ”She joked, but that idiot was such a pain. Acting like a princess and never planning things through. She was the one who told them two mages on a job was bad luck and they ended up relying on her anyway. “We ran into the elemental and he told us to attack it, since it’s resistant to his magic and he’d already used it once that day.”

“But elementals explode when you kill them!”

“That’s right! So instead we doused the archers arrow in oil, pulled it back-” She started moving her arms, miming the story as she told it. “-and zoom! It flew through the torch, catching on fire before hitting the elemental. Now what happens when you hit an elemental with their weakness?”

“Bigger booooom!”

Maria swept Belle up in her arms, peppering her with kisses all over her face as they both giggled “That’s right!

Once the giggle-fest was over and Belle had been sat back down at the table, Maria finished up the stew she’d been cooking. Belle was the first to speak up though. “So… a fire elemental wandered into the forest and got attacked by a bunch of chitterwolves? That’s… really boring,” She said with a pout. She wanted something exciting!

There was a soft clack as the crude metal bowls of stew were placed down “The world is usually boring,” Maria said with an eye-roll. “But, the things that are exciting are more often than not the most dangerous,” She warned.

“I know...” It was far from the first time Belle had been told that exact thing and doubtlessly wouldn’t be the last.

Dinner had been simple. With curiosity safely pushed away Belle had gone back to her usual excited self and had gone to bed with only a few complaints. Maria, however, was still awake. Something still felt wrong. Those footsteps hadn’t lost energy the entire time. A few trips here and there but no dragging, no falling. It was as if they hadn’t just used enough magic to easily kill themselves. She may have calmed Belle’s curiosity, but the same couldn’t be said for her own.

Comments

[Argent-Revenant-Eclipse]

I find the lack of comments here to be somewhat concerning and off putting.

[Cheer]

9828364
Right? Like, I'm in the same boat. Comments are awesome but no one's been talking. ;_;

[PonyofEntropy]

Interesting, going to follow to see were it takes me.

[LightningBark]

Ok, I wanna see where this goes, if only to understand this new world and Sunset's place in it.

[Cheer]

9864152
Yeah. I had a little block but I'm getting more worked out recently

[Liqwidice]

Just found and read through this. Very well written and I can't wait to see where you take this.

[Cheer]

9915763
Eeey. Thanks. I'm gonna try to write more soonish. But I've just started reading steel ball run and uh... yeah. XD

But yeah. Thank you much!

[Spellflame]

9926076
Fair enough,
I cannot wait for the next chapters!

[Ariel Schnee]

9828364

I find the lack of comments here to be somewhat concerning and off putting.

*Force lightenings the non-commenters* *Slams them against the wall*

I find their lack of comments... disturbing.

[blargg]

Neat!
9828875
I can get behind your reason for the micro chapters, but if I had to guess (baseless claims incoming) they will cause fewer comments. Less to respond to and all that

Also could use a cover picture. When browsing it's really easy to just scroll right past a story without one because it might just blend in with the one above it if it's just text. Maybe the shooting star in the "past is not today" song?

[Blue Horizon]

I don't really know what this is but... I like it. Interested for more.

[jen_lee_hattie]

“Bigger booooom!”

You know what they say

art is an explosion

[Skyblazer9]

I am kinda curious of what kind of a world did Sunset ended up in?