Firewood

The Dragon's Head Tavern and Inn, Vorland, 1439 ATC

The night sky was crystal clear, the stars twinkling like diamonds on their inky black background. The moon was full tonight, reflecting off the deep snow and making it surprisingly bright for the hour. The forest itself was in silence

Venser wasn't even using the axe to cut the tree.

''HA! HIYA!''

He yelled slashing at a single tree with his foldable short sword, he threw it down and his mark flashed greenish white, he made a backhand motion at the tree and blasted it with a large gust of wind.

Uprooting it but not knocking it over completely.

''HIIIIYA!''

He headbutted the partially turned over tree.

''OW! OW VOID MY HEAD!''

He held it with both hands and stumbled over. The tree did not budge half an inch.

At this time, Brea had filled a tinder box with smaller twigs and branches. It was another solitary, yet helpful, activity. The box was only halfway full when she heard Venser screaming about an injury as she looked around admiring the beauty of the forest at night.

"Are you alright?" Brea asked as she approached, setting her box down on a nearby stump. Her brown eyes scanned over his head for any sign of blood.

Nuikia rolled her blue eyes once more as the idiot known as Venser proceeded to collide his head with a tree.

"You dumbass. That's why you don't headbutt trees." The blonde huntress wasn't helping much, since she had no tool with which to chop wood on her, and didn't trust the axe Ven had brought. She had opted to pretty much stand there and watch Ven do all the work while holding a torch, making the fact that she came at all rather pointless. She did have a tomahawk at her side, but she figured this was a task that could wait until morning.

''Ah I'm just... Hic! Yeah this is a work out I could have these logs whenever I want..." He mumbled dropping it and falling down on his ass in the snow. He rubbed his head and gestured to the sandy haired barmaid.

''Glad you're getting the decent sized sticks... But the logs are what we need in the fireplace if we wanna keep nice and toasty...''

"Then why don't you cut these to smaller pieces with your magic then, Ven?" The blonde elf asked leaning against another tree while still holding up the bright, burning warmth.

The handsome bearded man craned his head to Nuiika and asked, ''How strong do you- Hic! Sorry, think you are? Maybe I should let you do it, to see if you actually can."

The sandy haired barmaid nodded in agreement. "Yes, but to start those roaring, warm fires, we'll need a well-stocked tinderbox." Brea put the box under her arm and weighed it on her hip.

"If she can carry the tinderbox, I can help you with the logs."

Nuikia shrugged.

"Never measured my strength, so can't say for sure. How strong do you need me to be?"

The blonde elf walked over and stood by the partially knocked over tree as Venser offered her the axe.

"I can wrestle a shark and hold my own. That good enough? Ro saw me do it." She said this with no ounce of sarcasm, but Venser's coworker spoke then about her carrying the tinderbox.

"Oh... Well if that's all you need, why ask about my strength?" Nuikia turned again, prepared to do what was requested. This was getting boring anyway.

In the tavern, as a shadow clone of Venser strided away, Timberlee Burkhart a traveling healer simply sat at the empty stool beside her now, taking out four silver coins from her small pouch tied to her belt and setting them on the counter. "Honey mead. Mulled. As warm as you can get it. I like a bit of a challenge in my drink." The shadow clone returned and simply nodded, taking the coins.

"Hot damn. She can carry the logs, then." Brea added. She had fully planned to give the guest the lighter load... but Brea knew for a fact that she could never wrestle a shark, so the choice was clear. A single snowflake blew past her, and for a moment there was a silence between Venser and Nuikia's bickering, and all there was was the cool night air and the crackling if the torch which was quite relieving.

"This was a good time for a break..." Brea uttered.

''I've wrestled gators and giant green pig men and giant catfish before...'' Ven said taking the torch now and letting Nuikia pick up the axe again and swinging it over her head, bring it down on the middle of the tree. The two bartender watched the blonde elf go at the tree for a few long minutes before Venser kicked off the tree, reaching down on his belt and twirling his extending sword about.

''We have enough to last the night...'' He said as sliced his left hand and covered the blade in it, and then reinforcing the blade with unstable, magical green lightning. "I'll just show you both something impressive and then we'll go back. Hows that sound?"

The glow of the bright green lightning blade caused Brea Rowland's eyes to widen, her mouth agape a bit in awe. It blended in perfect with the snowy forest scenery, even Nuikia couldn't help but stare in awe as well.

The sandy haired barmaid shook her head. "I'd rather be safe than sorry, but that would mean two trips."

The tip of her nose was becoming red and her ears had started to ache, but she'd rather go through this ordeal for a wee bit longer than have to wake up early because there's no more firewood.

''Oh, I ever tell you about my old lover, Tempey? Half giant, seven feet tall, nice figure, lovely in every way... We wrestled a lot. I got lifted up by my neck and slammed a lot. That was the worst.'' He bent his knees and held the sword in both hands.

"Ha!' With several swift strikes, the green lightning blade cut through with ease as several thin pieces of wood fell to the snowy ground.

Nuikia chuckled softly. "Aw, did that threaten your masculinity?"

She shook her head at the man. "C'mon, get it all done now so this trip wasn't such a waste. I can carry logs with ease. Didn't you say we were gonna load up a sled?" But it seemed Ven had already moved on and was talking about some old lover now...

When was he not talking about one, though? She sighed in annoyance as she moved srojnd him to pick up the wooden discs from the fallen tree.

Taking the mead, Timberlee softly gripped it in her hands, the glass becoming colder until it nearly frosted in her gloved hands. Her bending her fingers as she pulled them from the stiff glove, looking over the mead with a grin and putting it to her lips, taking a sip. ''You outdid yourself, shadow Ven."

''I mean fuck me... I may have said that but then we forgot it and no one reminded me to actually bring it."' The handsome bearded man raised his voice and broke off several chunks of the tree, holding his sword out and lifting a lever to allow the blades to collapse back into the hilt.

''Oh well then... Let's just do this in the morning when it'll be slightly less cold.''

Nuikia face palmed and sighed.

"Less work for tomorrow then... Well. No. Ugh."

"Are you deaf, man? I didn't come out here just to go back because you're a pansy and forgot the sled! I'm just going to grab all I can carry." Nuikia huffed and marches over next to him, nudging him aside to help him collect firewood.

Brea nodded and walked towards the tree chunks, placing her tinderbox on the ground and holding the torch in the other hand, picking up the thinnest slices of wood she could hold in one hand to help the blonde elf.

''Ah... Honestly was planning on doing this alone... But the more the merrier, right? I remember back when I was young, back in Armonia... Walking home from work every single late night... Winter nights!'' Back in Pantia during the fall the nights were mostly devoid of stars due to the pollution, around the tavern, it was quite the opposite. But tonight, the clouds swallowed up the stars like galaxy devouring monsters, leaving only inky black in it’s wake. Nowadays he remembered more and more. The orange leaves that fell from the trees whenever he walked about. He lived in the inner city of Armonia… He always remembered being alone whenever he walked home in weather like this. Almost exactly like this... Oh he remembered.

A bright light suddenly floods the area around the bar and leaves just as quickly as it came, leaving a redhead elven woman in its place. Said woman glanced around at the scene around her, a little displeased with what she saw; two people she didn't know and no bartenders. With an annoyed huff, Ruari sat herself down on a barstool.

"Hey... Uhhhh..."

Taking another sip of her mead, Timberlee kept her hand on the glass to keep the drink cold, delighting in it's color as she practiced her ceyomancy. It was a sight that reminded her of her closest. The sight of the woman sitting down, however, intrigued her. Running her gloved finger around the rim of the glass as she looked over. "Tough day?""

Nuikia set the wood down and took the axe with a firm grip, lifting the thing up once she positioned herself where Ven had previously been attempting to hack at the tree, noting where he had broken off some bits earlier. She aligned it where she thought it might go through well, on a sturdy looking, but not too thick of a piece, and swung the axe down with a decent amount of force. It made a nice chunk in the tree, and so she repeated this process until she was able to chop up some fairly decent sized chunks of wood.

"Ya know, this might be easier if you didn't babble so damned much." She huffed, her breath makes swirls in the air in front of her.

"Mhm! I am SAVING us time instead of you wasting it! Mhm, rgggh! Chop it today collect it tomorrow easy!"

"That sounds like a cold but memorable time." She said with a nod, the ends of her hair sweeping against her neck and adding to her shiver. Brea Rowland watched the blonde elf continue to chop the tree, and she felt kind of embarassed that she didn't have the strength to help with that. Come to think of it, she never really tried in her life.

"Hm?" Ruari turned towards the other patron, looking her over with tired icy eyes before responding.

"Not really, just bored. I was sort of hoping that I could find something entertaining here." She muttered, directing her gaze out the window instead. "... Why do you ask?"

''But babbling is my thing! Sex with avacado! It's oil is rich in a certain vitamin good for your hair!'' As if the two women with him knew what vitamins were.

Softly snickering she covered her mouth, setting an arm on the bar. "Because your gaze is as cold as my hands." With this, Timberlee turned on the stool, covering her purple colored eye as she looked over with her white, glancing about curiously. "Oooh, there's quite a few spirits in here... And not just the drinks!"

The blonde elf huffed again at his nonsense, hacked just a while more until she thought there were sufficient enough pieces to take back. She lowered the axe, keeping a firm grip on it while it dangled at her side, her chest heaving with each icy breath she took. Turning to look at the other two with her, she quirked a brow, "We good to go now? I can't feel my nipples."

''Can't feel yours? I'd take that over the cops tingling metal on mine." Venser said with a shrug.

"Let's go back and get ourselves some hot drinks then."

They began to move and then heard heavy, stomping foot steps and something moving quickly towards them.

"Another patron on their way to the tavern? Sounds like a big one! So, did I ever tell you about my half giant lover Tempey?"

Brea looked around her, eyes wide. It was moments like these that reminded her of her inconvinent human-ness when danger was lurking. It was always dangerous. Her nose and ears ached from the cold, and she just wanted to go inside. "Let's hope so, and let's meet them back at the tavern."

A small chuckle left the islandic elf as she leaned over onto the bar, crossing her arms on the counter so she could lay her head on them. "I'm not really in the mood for spirits, drinks or otherwise."

"Sounds good to me." Nuikia said as her long, pointed ears twitched.

"Something large, wings... Struggling to fly."

Laughing, a small orb rolled out from a jar on on her backpack. Timberlee waved her fingers at the blue ball of light as it moved to the counter, rolling about and through glasses as she kept her gaze on the woman. "Just because you aren't in the mood, doesn't mean they aren't. Ah, he's rolling around again. I'd stop him, but Argon has a mind of his own. Just no body."

"Er... I'd rather not." Ro grimaced, leaning away from both the woman and the ball of light. "If you could maybe find a way to make him not do that, that'd be just great." She glared at the blue light as it moved around, apparently a little put off by it's existence.

''... Along with forgetting to stock up on wood the other day I also forgot extra...'' His voice trailed off as he stared down the trail.

Rolling her eyes, she looked over. "Would I stop a being from talking? Nor a person from breathing? I won't force the spirits in this jar to do anything they don't want. Besides, if he bothers you so much..." With this, she covered her other eye, giggling. "You could always try to see like humans do. Blindly." As the purple eyed woman spoke, the spirit of an orb tumbled back into the jar.

"It's quite fascinating and I plan on taking it to a scholar."

The two women at the bar began to converse about spirits, gods, and other interesting specimens of the planet Laguna while about a mile and a half the three braced themselves for whatever was coming at them.

A screech was heard. And from behind one of the trees came a tall, lanky creature that resembled a human in shape, but was almost entirely covered in porcelain armor, and had two glowing blue eyes and metal porcelain wings and sharpened talons.

"Oh shit!"

Nuikia shouted, stepping to the side and countering a swipe with a quick slash of her axe to the monster's cheek. Breaking the hard face plating. In her moment of vulnerability, the monster kicked her, sending her tumbling away.

"Son of- Fuck!" Venser zapped his blade and swung his lightning sword horizontally, aiming for the Shattered One's legs with the intent of taking out it's knees. But before his blade could connect, it turned, causing his blade to collide with the monster's thighs.

ROARR!

"Arrrgh!" He cut through the metal, flesh and porcelain creature and was staggered due to the sudden distribution of weight and leaving him open.

Unable to react in time, Venser was helpless as the Shattered One rapidly spun around, violently swinging its wings in the process as he fell back, the sharp tips cutting the front of his tunic as he disappeared in a puff of thick red smoke.

Shiing!

The monster stumbled back, roaring in pain as blood gushed out of the wound on its side. It growled fiercely at Nuikia, who stood there, axe in hand, and stained in the creature's neon blue blood. Nuikia glanced around and drove the head of the axe deeper before the bearded man teleported through the air and fell, driving his lightning blade into the Shattered One's neck and bringing it down.

"Ha!" He swung his unstable lightning blade again and removed it's head from it's body, the pale blue glow in its eyes went dark.

"What is that thing?!" Brea cried.

"A Shattered One... A monster." Venser grunted, slowly rising to his feet.

"I've never seen a monster like that. Where did it come from?" Nuikia asked bring her axe down in its torso to make sure it was perfectly dead.

The events happened so fast that nobody could comprehend what had happened until the end.

"Okay. Both of you take one armload of wood and then take my hand. I'm teleporting us all back to the tavern. Right now."