Finally recovering from his rather pitiful state, Hearth gets up and looks around for the 'perpetrator', who's already connected to this fox. His eyes shift left and right throughout the entire forest not noticing a single person in the area.
Jake, meanwhile, approached Hearth's form in the light plane and couldn't touch his face. Clenching his fist and biting his lower lip in frustration he could only sigh in acceptance, "Hey kid what's your name?" Jake's voice startled Hearth who again tried to find him but couldn't understand which direction his voice was from and looked at the fox. Foxy slowly approached the boy and leapt on him, "Kew!"
Hearth made an 'oops' sound and cradled Foxy in his arms, his eyes softened as his hand rubbed through its soft fur speaking in response, "Where are you?" His eyes carried a heavy weariness and he believed that if this were an assassin they would have already killed him.
Jake wondered if he should reveal his identity for a couple of seconds but eventually assumed that if he couldn't touch him then couldn't do the same, "If you'd be so kind as to take a look down towards your feet you'd see me." Hearth wondered what he meant and did as he was told.
Near his feet he saw a flat 2d silhouette of a man and yelped, taking a step back, "Y-you're a shadow?! How's that possible?"
"I don't know I just am.", Jake responded bluntly, "Kid what's your name, do you have one?" Hearth gathered a bit of his sanity and cleared his throat.
"S-shouldn't you introduce yourself first?" He asked in an accusing but, timid tone, to which Jake scoffed, "Says the one who tried to take away my fox." He spoke with sarcastic venom, but it seemed that Hearth didn't catch on and felt embarrassed, "S-sorry I didn't know..."
Jake felt a bit bad because of the kid's downtrodden face and silence persisted between the two till Hearth spoke, "My name is Hearth Flame."
Jake nodded, "I'm J-" For some reason, Jake felt an aversion to using his actual name which only made him salty disliking the restriction. Some smoke began to rise from the top of his head and dissipated just as quickly; it gave him an idea, "My name is... Mist, this is my fox companion, I only met it a day ago so I haven't actually named it... if you don't mind me asking Hearth, how old are you?"
"My 12th cycle is supposed to begin soon... why are you and your fox out here mister mist?" Hearth asked in return slowly feeling less distressed with this stranger but keeping a guard up mentally, just as his family raised him.
Jake, no, Mist had no reasonable explanation so there was only one option, tell the 'truth', "I'm... looking for civilization, I don't know how I ended up here and have no memories from this place. I only found this fox in a cave a distance from here a day ago and it became my companion." The full and honest truth, just as Jake was accustomed to telling his parents.
Hearth who, somehow, actually picked up on this truth nodded, "So you have no idea how you got here? Where were you from before?"
"I was from another world... I don't know how any of this works, where I am and I have no identity here, I'm completely lost.", Mist told the truth skillfully though Hearth was a bit sceptical so Mist gave him no time to think about it.
"Hearth could you take me and Foxy to a city or town? We need a place to settle down or at least I need a place to stay could you help, I'll repay you in the future.", Hearth's mind was a bit of a mess and didn't know how to handle this random stranger but nodded, for the time being, he curiously asked, "C-can you get on the horse?"
Mist shrugged and oddly enough his body was able to climb on the horse, though it was a semi-tangible feeling, the horse itself felt no actual weight getting on it. Foxy hopped on as well having silently watched both Hearth and Mist's interaction. Hearth was weirded out by how a shadow with no owner climbed on the horse since it to him Mist wasn't on the horse itself... but its shadow. Mist would later learn how this strange distortion worked and how in appearance he was interacting with the shadows but, in truth no living shadow was able to actually interact with their natural environment...
***
Mist and Foxy were having a jolly good time on their new ride, at the cost of Hearth's anxiety because he had seen things he had never seen today. A fox that sunk in the ground like a puddle and became a shadow.
Then there's this next guy who simply IS a shadow, he knew concepts could get weird but not even he knew it was to this level, though maybe he should've considered it given his grandfather's ability.
Mist was humming in amusement at his new sights, pushing any dark thoughts about his situation to the side. If life was going to give this opportunity that many may dream for then he'd appreciate it to its fullest... he'd try atleast.
As they rode towards the horizon, Mist thought it a good time to ask some questions, "Hey kid, could you explain what you tried to do with Foxy before?"
Hearth's heart skipped a beat not expecting to be talked to but nodded, "Yes I simply tried to merge our Soul concepts together, do you not know how to do it?"
Mist gulped not getting the whole concept thing, "Well you see... uhh... what even IS a concept? Like an idea? Souls exist?"
Hearth stopped the horse suddenly, "You don't know what concepts are? As far as I know everyone in the universe knows about them though."
Mist sighed, "Yeah well I have no memories from here, I have no idea how the world works... why'd you stop?"
"Lucky, my horse, is tired, we'll need to stop for the time being."
Mist nodded not really focused on arguing the matter, "Sure thing."
Hopping off the horse, Foxy followed. Then Hearth emanated a calming white light from his hand and Lucky was put to sleep.
Hearth climbed up a tree and sat on one of the branches Foxy excitedly climbed after him but Mist clicked his tongue, "I can't come up here it's dangerous for me."
"Okay but what if a beast comes by how are you going to handle them, best to hide here."
"Don't worry they can't touch me."
Hearth shrugged and contined the conversation where they left off, "So you know nothing about how concepts work?"
Mist hummed in agreement causing Hearth to take a deep breath, "I guess I could give you a rundown. Let's see hmm... yes I think that's a good place to start.
"So first off, concepts are manifestations of people's minds that are the birth of creation itself. A person has three stages till they can develop a concept. One, a person must be firm in their beliefs, as in, have rules layed out on their role in the universe. For example my role is the successor of the Flame family and our beliefs are chivalry and change. I won't say more than that on the first step..."
Mist affirmed his understanding despite it's outlandishness and asked, "Say... so it's like magic or something?"
Hearth coughed profusely, "How do you know of magic? It's not a common one but it is a branch of it."
Mist realised his mistake, "I know it's a word used to describe things that don't really make sense on the world I come from."
Hearth's young brain tried to fully decrypt Mists words but be spoke the complete truth, "Fine then I'll explain the second step. After setting your foundation. The next step is to choose an evocation method, some use their heart and minds, some, their bodies. People may even use their tongues or other odd body parts to circulate and evoke a concept."
Mist asked him to go one not rly getting it but feeling that the body is like a wand for magic of sorts, "Can you use an external object for evokation like a sword?"
Hearth pondered how to answer, "Well, yes, but its unreliable, slower, and often exposed to more danger so more fragile depending on the materials."
"Ok and what the last step?"
"It's called awakening, a person from there will instinctually know their path and must have 'faith' in their concept. Also extra point, that when using a concept people have different shapes of energy and hence there are multiple branches of concepts."
Hearth felt pretty proud of his explanation but Mist felt it go over his head as it was very supernatural. Yet it excited him, seeing the runes on the horse, the strange day and night cycle, and the light from Hearth's hand Mist felt that perhaps... it really was a second chance in a world more suited for him.