Chapter 41 Journey to Cindercrest Village

Chapter 41 Journey to Cindercrest Village
"How much longer do we have to walk, Jax? It's already been a week and all we've run into are some grey wolves and a few slimes," Mira said as she dragged her feet along the dirt path. "Cindercrest is a real place, right?"

"Yes, Mira, Cindercrest is real. According to the map they sent us off with, it shouldn't be much longer." Stopping for a moment, he checked the map. "Maybe another day's walk and we should be able to see it."

He flipped to another piece of paper the guild had sent them. On it was the explanation of how magic density was known to work. In the area they had come from, the ambient mana was restricted, the dungeon pulling it inward, never fully letting the surrounding area become saturated; where they were headed, however, the ambient mana would be stronger and laced with fire affinity.

"We should probably stop soon for the night," Jax suggested, noticing the fatigue on Mira's face. "The closer we get, the more we'll start to see beasts we aren't familiar with."

The mark on his chest began to pulse. "Something is wrong, Mira. My mark is acting up again." In response, the ambient mana took on color and shape. Orange cinders flared outward in abundance, pooling toward Jax, his mark drawing in all it could. The overage caused him to writhe in pain, clawing at the mark in hopes it would stop or at the very least quiet the jolts radiating through him.

All at once the bundle of mana dispersed. At the center of it sat what appeared to be a turtle egg, covered in moss and emerald scales. Beside it lay Jax, unconscious from the disruption.

"I have been born again. Jax, you are my master. Use my power and grow."

"Hah--!" Jax sat upright, his hand clutched to his chest, rising and falling in a panicked rhythm. "What the hell just spoke to me?" Noticing his other hand was wrapped around an egg, he looked around for Mira.

She was lying at his side, and he had been moved onto a makeshift bed. A fire bloomed at the back of the clearing, behind it the forest had opened up into a wider central area, the trees pushed back by some unseen force. Mira must have dragged him here before throwing together the camp.

He patted the girl on the head. "Mira, wake up. I'm okay."

"Please, Jax. I promise. Just five-" A yawn forced its way out before she finished. "Minutes." Then her body went completely rigid, her eyes shot open, scanning him up and down. "Jax! You're awake." Tears formed and her voice went noticeably shaky. "No one was here to help me. I didn't think I would be enough to save you this time."

"I'm here and I'm fine, Mira. I don't even feel off this time," Jax said, squeezing his hands into fists one after the other. "To be honest, I feel better than I have since we left the floating fortress. But the real question is where did this egg come from?"

They both turned their attention to the large green and gold egg lying still beside Jax. He reached out and felt the warmth floating off of it. "Mira, I think it's a wardback egg. Something inside me is saying it's that turtle god somehow."

"How did a literal god's egg just appear next to you?" she asked, trying to make some sense of his words. "What if it's not over, Jax?"

Jax forced a laugh and stood. "We knew it wasn't over, silly. There is definitely more that's going to happen. We just got removed from Ravelin -- of course it's not over. This just isn't quite what I imagined more would be."

"Would you like some help setting up a camp we can actually enjoy?" he asked, letting out another short laugh. "You did a great job getting me to safety. Thank you, by the way."

"Don't forget it." Her usual demeanor slowly returned as she let go of some of the anxiety. "But yes, let's finish setting up camp for the night."

As they assembled the tent and set out the supplies Jax would need to make dinner, his mind kept drifting toward the egg. For what seemed like the first time, he couldn't explain his way out of a problem.

Once the camp was complete, Mira set out to hunt wild game for dinner, leaving Jax and the egg behind.

The forest felt different once Mira was gone. It had been changing for most of the day, but sitting still made it impossible to ignore. The air carried a dry warmth that didn’t match the falling night, and now and then small orange motes drifted between the trees before burning out on their own. 

Even the silence sounded thinner here. Ravelin’s woods had always felt damp, heavy, crowded by the dungeon’s pull. This place felt open in weird ways, as if the land had been hollowed out and refilled with something brighter, hotter, and less forgiving. 

The egg seemed to belong to that feeling. The longer Jax sat beside it, the less it looked out of place. "So," he said, dropping his voice low. "Do you have some kind of spell callout?” He waited a few seconds before adding. “You can't just send a message like that and disappear again, damnit."

The egg sat in silence. He gave up on the interrogation in favor of taking notes, writing down the last week's worth of events, all of it nowhere near as interesting as the message and the egg.

Mira appeared from behind the brush carrying a bundle of flame-aspected squirrel creatures. "These things spit fire, Jax. I got us a few just in case you were extra hungry," she said, holding up five of them.

"You're incredible, Mira. Truly… how do you navigate every bad situation we've gotten into lately and come out ahead?" He rubbed his chin and smirked. "Are you sure you're my Mira?" A laugh followed, tears forming in his eyes.

Mira set the creatures down and faced him with an expression of pure certainty. "I learned it from you, Jax. Ever since we set out together you've kept us safe." She moved closer. "I want to protect you now. Maybe more than you want to protect me."

Then something in the distance let out an ear-piercing scream.