Nit the Wit ~ Ethical skull and bones

Nit and Mid appeared in a small clearing just inside the forest border. A weird vibe has been reported by one of the local magic dabblers. Usually, this would be ignored. This time it was different. When scrying the area the Mages could not detect anything, which is really bad. they could not detect even the life force of the trees.

Wasting no time, Nit and Mid felt the vibe hit them and followed an animal path into the towering dark trees.

After a few minutes of listening to Nit ramble on in muffled tones, Mid decides she can't take it anymore.

"Why are you wearing that ridiculous animal skull on your head Nit?" She turns to face Nit, hands on her hips and the best look of disapproval she can muster. Hopefully, her voice showed her annoyance at him because it is very hard to look at Nit with disapproval instead of pity.

_{This image is from the Apostrophe image writing prompt}

"I read that it will help me draw energy from nature, then I can become a much stronger wizard," Nit replies walking past her and completely ignores the effort she put into her look of disapproval.

"That would take a whole herd." She calls after him, then sighs and resigns herself to just accepting that he will now be wearing the stupid skull for the whole journey.

Nit looks back to see Mid shake her head at him. Fortunately, she can't see his smile under the deers' skull or he would surely have been pummeled. Nit did read that it improves magic. So he did not lie to her, but he is also not a Shaman.

He read it on the 'Shamans Daily' blog, although he is not one he likes to keep tabs on what the other mages are doing. Magic is universal after all. The article was titled 'Ethical Skull and Bones', very catchy. In it they discuss acquiring animal skulls and bones by a more humane means. It seems there is some who try to hold to the fact that killing the animal themselves is not only tradition but pertinent to enhancing the magic they use. Old skulls just wouldn't do for them.

This has been disproved at the University of Ohio and by a guy named Fred in Finland. Since it is magic and Nit knows all magic had the same source. He decided to try and use their method with his own. It did not work. Nit did not see any benefit to it, other than being something that would irk Mid.

Mid the Knight was a Witch of the Highest Order. Literally. She was in the Highest Order. They have recently decided to instead write out and brand specifically as 'Order of the Highest' since many were misusing their acronym, 'H.O.' and referring to the witches as Ho's.

It goes without saying that Mid the Knight did not take kindly to being called a Ho and publicly turned the last man into a slug. Just for a short time. The Order determined that this was a grievous misuse of magic even after it came to light that the man was, in fact, her boyfriend who had cheated on her. Nit disagreed and thought the douche got what was coming.

Nit enjoyed his missions with Mid. Deep down he thought Mid did too.

Slowing down to the drop behind Mid as she caught up with him. Nit settled back behind her on the path. She was the strongest mage here and he could not really see too well with the skull on his head. The only reason he has made it this far is because he kept an eye on hands.

Blindly following her stride judging where to walk from how she moved them to brace, sway the one or the other back more to indicate turning. Fascinating he thought.

Really pretty hands he also thought, and felt more than qualified to have that thought since he has been staring at them for almost an hour now.

"Are you staring at my ass Nit?" Mid asks stopping abruptly. This causes the skull to almost go flying off as Nit also stops in his tracks.

"No! Well, you are in front of me. It is not like I can't see it." He says partly defending himself partly trying to excuse himself. Although. He was more focused on her hands but admitting that would be very weird.

"Well, try staring less at my ass and observing more. Look over there!" Mid tells him and points to his right. Nit makes a show of taking the skull off to see better. He then slowly combs his pale blonde hair back with his fingers and proceeds to peer in the general direction she is pointing.

After a few seconds of scanning the treeline. Nit gives up, "What?" he asks looking at Mid standing next to him. Her pacific blue eyes clearly focused on something he is not seeing.

"Don't you see them?" Mid asks as she stands behind him then uses her outstretched arm to move his head into place. As Nit stairs down her arm past the tip of her finger he spots something very colourful dashing past his line of vision.

"Woah, what is it?" Nit asks as he starts seeing the colourful figures better in the murky light of the forest. "I think it is a hippie necromancer." Mid answers softly as she backs away. Her arm still outstretched and finger-pointing at the figures. Nit watches as the tip of her finger passes him and follows it with his eyes until he turns around to look into the eyes of Mid.

The blue of her eyes now grey. Not that she ever had rosy cheeks but if she did they would have turned sickly pale. Her bouncy short black hair seemed to have lost all life merely draped on her head like the wings of a dead crow.

Nit noted that it could also just be the humidity from the forest. So he quickly used his sling bag as a fan, assuming she could do with a bit of a breeze.

"What are you doing?" Mid asks just as he loses his grip on the bag and sends it awkwardly plummeting to the ground.

The bag seemed thoroughly confused why it was plummeting because a second ago it was moving upward, and although it has never been a fan it also knew that after up it was down and after down, it was back up. So as it was plummeting it waited for what it was certain should be up. Up never came and hence it resigned itself to plummeting.

"Do you know what those things are?" Nit asks Mid spooked by how scared she seems.

"Hippie Necromancers." Mid answers in an agitated sort of way, "they are rare and very powerful." she continues to tell Nit and also continues to back away.

"Stand still will you." Nit reprimands Mid and takes her shoulder to enforce the command. shaking her shoulder lightly to snap her out of it he asks, "What is a Hippie Necromancer?"

"Dude! You two are messing with the vibe man. You need to chill a bit." A voice says from behind Nit. Mid slowly steps from behind Nit who has now turned to face the voice. As she does so she grabs Nits arm and pulls him ever so slightly.

Nit knows. That means run!