That Kid...

…

"I was expecting him to begin digging for information immediately, but turned out I was naïve to think him in such way," said Taizun while slowly exhaling annoyance from his inner self.

"Wait a second…" he said as he realized something. "He is a fire, FIRE elementalist, right?" he asked.

"Aye, Herr Ognist ist no doubt a fire user, thou knowest 'tis better probably than I!" Zeugen confirmed while standing up and then throwing away barbecue sticks. "Yummy!" He yelled merrily.

Taizun scratches the back of his head, though he is not itchy, "Harrumph! Then, why did he even bother finding a cigarette lighter? Why not blew fire to his smoke?"

Zeugen replies while pointing his finger upwards, "Ah, zat again, Herr Taizun?" he said. "Vell, since thou love to forget things. I shalt slam it back to your head, meun freund! Herr Ognist refuses to use his own element to burn his cigar because of three things!" Zeugen pointed three with his fingers.

"And that is?" asked Taizun curiously.

"First! It tasted very, very, VERY strange. Second! There's a chance zat his cigar vill blow up like cannon and made a mess on his wrinkly face. Third! He sayest zat by smoking using conventional methods shalt bring him balance in his fire element, though I alone distrust 'tis final reason of his for he is just a habitual smoker."

"Even I don't believe that final reason of his," said Taizun agreeing with Zeugen.

"Hmph, enough of that, if we kept hanging around doing nothing but enjoying ourselves here, the soldiers we brought here will rage. Even though they're well trained regulars of the empire, they're still humans. They gotta have a sense of wanting to go on a big party."

"Hm… I do agree vith zee this time, Herr Taizun, hm!" Zeugen nodded with a smile. "We shalt BRRING ze entire legion to zis party, ja!"

"No, you dumbass, have you exhaled too many excreted steam of yours?" Taizun nagged.

"Nein, of course, I hath not yet blowing steam windes lately, hee-hee-hee," Zeugen joked.

"I'm glad we've been friends for so long that I don't find your annoyance… annoying me that much. Otherwise, you would've been an ice sculpture."

"Gyahahahahaha! Zee really ist a funny man. Mein windes ist hot enough to melt thy ice. But I do hope zee don't turn me into ice."

"That's why, before that happens, let's get back to our encampment. We must commence the evacuation soon," said Taizun as he stood back up.

"WEH! What of Herr Ognist? Zee shalt leave him behind? Thou art truly colder than an iceberg!" Zeugen said hyperbolically.

"…huft…" he exhaled in a slight annoyance. "I know. We'll wait for him. But just five minutes. Finding a lighter shouldn't be that long!"

…

..

.

Walking in the cloak of the night theme, the fire dragon in the shape of human casually asks a villager that he saw lighting up a torch with a match.

"Scuse me kind sir, may I have one of your elegant looking matches?" he asked gently.

"O-Oh, sure, take it all, pal. I don't need it anymore," the villager replied while kindly giving a box of matches.

"My, my, what generosity, then I will gladly accept it. Much appreciated, friend."

Without the human villager noticing his horns, Ognist walks away into the wilderness where no torches illuminate the area. Shortly, yet too late, the villager instantly turns his attention to find the man he gave box of matches to.

"I believe I saw a horn sticking out of that guy's head… argh, what am I thinking? I must've been drinking too much ale tonight."

And with that, the villager dismisses the fire dragon.

…

*Srrash!

The sound of a match tip scratching the side of the match box, causing it to light on fire. Slowly, yet relaxed, he lights up the cigar that has been on his left hand for some time now. And finally, he sucked the cigar as if he sucked something through a straw. He is really doing it to his heart's content. Lastly, he blows out the smoke in his mouth in a relieved noise.

"Bwaaah… not smoking a day is nigh impossible for the likes of me. How foolish of me to not bring a lighter along,"

While having a nice smoke, he reminisces a warm time, "I really miss those old days… gathering together in a shack in a beautiful evening at Sacran city, playing chess, drinking coffee, and of course… a cigarette in hand. Too bad, Taizun and Zeugen don't smoke. Well, that cold boy would've frozen the cigar before he even sucked it. Zeugen might not be able to light the cigar because his breath is always moist. My best bud Adri would love to smoke, but hell no he would never be able to do it because he is a Water Elementalist. Just remembering those makes me want to return to Gaia, our world. Sir Adri… are you still alive out there? Are you with us in this world? I hope you are healthy as always."

After a few minutes, his cigar has runs out. "Haah… what a good time tonight, eh? Oh, shit, I got carried away by this cigar again! Gotta go back to those two before they complain again…"

He rushes back into the village. Just as he turned around, he bumps into a petite girl.

*THUD*

"Hyaaah!"

"Oooh, I'm sorry there little one, I didn't see you…"

Ognist crouched down to assure the kid is alright. He saw the kid's forehead all reddening because bumping into his cloak—in which beneath it is armor, "Yikes, I was too careless. Come show me your injury…"

Just when Ognist is about to inspect the little girl's forehead, a voice of a young lady is heard.

"Pio! This is why I told you not to run around too much. You'll hit someone! Mister, I'm very… sorry…?"

The young lady froze as if she saw a ghost.

"What is the matter, young one?" Ognist asked. He looked up to her shocked face and realized that the lady in front of him is already marking him hostile. Just by sharing sights to each other is enough for Ognist to determine her alignment.

That's right. The young lady spots his pair of horns.

Reflexively, she takes the little girl to her cradle immediately and she looks incredibly alarmed and threatened. "Get… get off her, you freak!"

The little girl asks, "Aily? What's the matter?"

Ognist realizes that he might have accidentally compromised the mission and quickly takes action and tries to persuade the alarmed girl.

"Young lady, please be at ease—

"H-How can I be at ease if there's a monster in front of me?" she said quickly. Aily didn't know if the person in front of her is a dragonian. But with him having a visible pair of horns alarmed her. On the other side, Ognist is in a state of panic, thinking that the human girl in front of him knew of his origin as a Dragonian.

And because of his panicking, he resorted to talk things out and accidentally reveals that he is, in fact from Dragonia.

"R-Rest assured, young one. I… I am of neither a threat to you nor to anyone in here! I maybe a dragonian, but I am not willing to harm anyone," Ognist assured stutteringly. Meanwhile the girl in front of him is getting restless and breathes abnormally upon hearing him saying the word 'dragonia'.

"D…Dra…Dragonia… you say—?!" she said alarmingly. Aily stepped back a little and nearly tumbled over. It is as if the blood in her body stopped flowing. A thundering flash of remembrance of seeing a horned humanoid being in the past strikes her mind.

Ognist snaps and realizes he did a bigger mistake, "Darn it! I shouldn't have said my race in the first place!"

He tries to crank down the tense in the air, "Calm down, and don't be alarmed. I beg of you, for the sake of everyone in here," said Ognist while continuing to bow before her.

Even so, she still appears threatened by his presence. Ognist realizes that his 'friendly' approach will not suffice because his opponent is completely viewing him as a bad guy. The tense in the air increases significantly. A long silent falls between them.

Shortly, Aily voices out, "Go away," the young lady said softly.

Slowly, Ognist raises his head, "Pardon?"

"Go away!" she said it again. "I… I will not tell anyone," she said while breathing intensely. "Go away, you freak! Don't you dare harm anyone in here," despite her words coming from her mouth, the fire dragon notices her lips are twitching and her body is creeping out.

Hearing her command, Ognist knew that he must not leave, yet.

"I'm sorry, but I can't," Ognist replied politely.

"Tsk, don't make me repeat it twice," the girl stated.

A strong wind glides through them. Aily's hair follows the flow of the wind, making her presence slightly scarier. Ognist's long jet black hair is no different, though.

"Aily, why are you being so mean to this kind guy?" the little girl asked.

"He's a bad guy. He's not a human, he's a dragon, a big bad dragon." the young lady replied harshly.

"But he doesn't look like a bad guy," the little girl straightforwardly said. "He doesn't look like a dragon to me either… his mind is also saying—"

"—Gosh, Pio, he may look like that, but in contrast, he is not," she stated harshly, cutting Pio's words. "I remember seeing some in the Spectral Forest. I rushed as fast as I could because I believe Marco was in distress. Sir Sean was also there. Both of them were in a bad state. Before them, stands a man with identical horns like this man here!"

"Aily, Pio, what are you two doing?"

Another voice is heard, this time, it is a sound of a young man. Hearing the voice, Ognist slightly shoved his head upwards to peek.

"…That man…" Ognist said to himself. "Argh… This will be a long night for me. I can just escape with the teleportation module, but if I do that, the entire operation will be in jeopardy. Everyone will be alarmed. I must forward a signal to those two to move on with the mission without me."

Ognist crouches down on purpose and have his right hand prop his body against the ground while giving out another apology, "I am utmost sorry. I do not mean to cause any disturbance here."

Meanwhile, from his hand flows out a trickle of mana energy. He silently activated his special skill in order to bring caution and order to Taizun and Zeugen. Yellow ripples are generated from his hand against the ground, but that ripple is unseen by anyone except himself.

"I trust you two on this."

…

..

.

Seven minutes has passed. It has past the time limit the two dragonians had agreed on, which caused them, especially Taizun to be extremely irritated.

"Harrumph! That barbecue head is overly enjoying his evening tobacco, isn't he! If I'm too serious, then he's too relaxed! That's it. Zeugen, let's go, now!"

"Ayayayy… Herr Ognist takes it too long, ja? Fein, fein, let us leave this place. He willst catch up with us later. Zat, I believe greatly."

The two leave the sector and headed towards their encampment, where the Imperial Soldiers are holed up, awaiting command.

After reaching some distance from the village, Taizun suddenly got bumped by a kid with casual village attire.

"Hey, boy, go play somewhere else!" he said in a harsh way.

The boy only stares at them, and then proceeds to bow down and then leaves them right away in a strange manner.

"…Huh, what a strange kid," said Taizun in response of the boy's actions.

"Vat is it, Herr Taizun? Do zee know zat boy?" Zeugen asked.

"No, I don't know him. Forget it. We've something better to do than this."

"Ja, ja, I get it."

…

…

The trickle of mana energy sent by Ognist never reaches Taizun or Zeugen. Somehow… his signal has been swallowed by something, causing neither Taizun nor Zeugen to know their senior's condition currently.

In that night, something is on the loose.