Kire leaned against the wall next to the mirror in the washroom attached to his bedroom, sliding down it to sit on the ground with his knees brought up to his chest.
He looked out the door into the room given to him, and the heavy damage all across it from how his magic had been let loose as he couldn't control how much was going into him.
'Oh shit. Oh shit oh shit oh shit.'
What the hell was he supposed to do?
After awhile he forcibly calmed himself down and stood up.
"Just... explain that an accident happened while furthering my fusing of elements... except this was the first time I'd properly fused with them."
"..."
He walked to the door and opened it, walking down the corridor to the guards there.
"Sir?" One politely asked.
"I'm going to need you to get someone in charge of the accommodations... stuff happened."
"...what?"
"I blew up the room."
The guards stared.
"It was an accident!" Kire defended.
They continued to stare. "A-are you... being serious?"
"Yeah."
"..."
One of them stiffly turned and walked away to get someone else to hand this problem to.
'Fuck this, I'm not paid enough to handle this.'
~ ~ ~
I peered around a tree trunk, my eyes glowing with a golden light.
[We're clear.]
I walked towards the next tree for cover with Korven following.
Light fusion is great for detecting... except in this forest all the trees grow with lifeforce too.
So any threats just blend in with the rest of the living things, other than maybe showing as a bit brighter than the rest when they get closer.
I also could try and detect the heat in the air thanks to one of my dragon senses, but I'm not very precise with that and using fire fusion for heat vision would be better... if I knew for a fact these threats had a body heat.
Draconic senses: touch, smell, hearing, sight, temperature, mana. No taste. Maybe I'll change to get a sense of taste someday? If I can change from scales to fur I can at least get a sense of taste!
I guess the easiest way to compare my heat sense and heat vision given by fire fusion was... fish and birds.
Certain species of fish and many species of high-altitude birds can sense the heat in the water or air around them, because the temperature of the air or water affects its currents.
So if I had to guess, dragon's can sense the temperature around them to sense updrafts, since hot air rises.
Heat vision is entirely different, seeing as you see the heat emitted from an object, so instead of being like radar, it's a direct over-head view.
I walked... only to hear a "CRACK!" of a twig nearby.
I turned in panic, to see a larger lifeforce and heat signature come out form behind a tree's cover!
I summoned indigo flame, instinctually striking as Korven reacted to the threat as I attacked, jumping back!
~ ~ ~
The day before.
"Bast!"
A young girl with bronze skin lay on the thatch roof of a village home. Her hair was oddly golden-blonde despite her complexion, somewhere between olive and caramel to be darker than a tan but not anywhere near as dark as a desert tribe would be.
"Hehehe." She giggled to herself, listening to the kids looking for her.
"BAST!" A gruffest voice thundered, instantly making the north flee her face.
"WHERE ARE YOU?"
She rolled down the roof and fell off, grabbing the overhang with her hands to hang off of it before dropping down.
"Here Sir!" She jumped to attention before the knight sent to watch their village by the lord of these lands.
"Why is it Bast, that every time you are asked to do something you disappear?"
She looked down. "I was playing with the children Sir, as I was asked."
The older man stepped forward, roughly grabbing her by the chin to force her to look him in the eyes.
"You were asked to watch and care for them, as a woman must. Instead you okay hide and seek and climb buildings. Have you no shame?"
A burning anger and shame mixed uncomfortably in her gut.
"I only did as I was asked-!"
"SMACK!"
Her head knocked aside as she stumbled from the backhand slap.
"I can not for the life of me understand what my son sees in a shameful girl such as you."
As he walked away Bast muttered under her breath, "I'd prefer if that pervert never noticed me..."
A memory of that arrogant teen shoving her against a wall and hissing with his alcohol-stinking breath shivered down her back.
"I don't care how wild you are... I'm going to break you into my wife, and you'll be a good woman for me. It's what you're made for after all."
She shivered in disgust, casting the words and the deadly promise into the back of her mind, trying to ignore their deadly poison.
She turned to the children and forced a smile on her face.
"What should we do next kids?"
~ ~ ~
That night...
"Bast, you've been arranged to marry the knights son, John. You can't act this way!"
A man with the pale northern complexion more often seen spoke to his daughter.
"Mom did! Mom was a Warrior, and that is what I am too! I am a daughter of the Nesphirii tribe, not a northern woman to be broken and tamed!"
"Your mother is gone! You live in the north, and have been raised as a northern child. The only things you know of the tribe you claim is the tales your mother told you, so don't use that as an excuse young lady!" The man sighed, leaning back.
"I know you don't love him. I don't want to give you to such a man either... but I can't do anything about it. They are a knightly household. They hold power. To marry into them means you'd be safe from worries such as food or being taken by bandit raiders to be raped someday."
Bast scowled. "I'd rather fight those bandits to the death."
Her father slammed a heavy fist on the table next to him!
"BANG!"
"They won't kill you! They'll take you and break you, in the same way the many other girls I've seen were."
His memory seemed to sink into his days as an adventurer who hunted bandits as a mercenary before he settled down with the woman he'd met during his travels.
"If you were still an adventurer you wouldn't stand for this!" Bast insisted, leaning forward as she exclaimed.
"No. I hear the knight is even capable of feeling the elements and is close to becoming a mage, and his son is just as talented in the sword. Even in my prime, I could not stand to magic."
"So anyone with magic can just do whatever they like?!"
"YES! By the gods, yes! Magic is terrifying and unstoppable Bast! You have not watched a mage steak the breath from 30 men, or tear the life from them with a cloud of darkness! Even I have never seen the might of an awakened."
Bast stood shaking, rage and helplessness swirling.
The man slumped in his seat as he let out a heavy sigh.
What kind of monster was he for forcing his own daughter to marry someone so obviously arrogant and cruel?
He didn't have a choice, but the mere thought of what such a situation would inevitably do to her personality, the fire and passion she held...
He breathed out. 'What would you have me do Zemata? I have no choice but to accept the fate of our daughter.'
Bast whispered. "An adventurer can only live with no regrets when they fight for what the believe in. You said that."
"..."
After a long pause, the man could only sigh and wave his hand.
Bast turned and left through the door of their house, walking the streets of the small village in silent despair.