Travel conversation

As the both of them walked through the thick woodland, they finally saw the first bit of pure sunlight in a while. The light came from the front where the sound of the river got louder and louder, the scene was pretty mesmerizing as Jonas had to admit. Mendo looked quite pleased himself as he said, "Every time i walk by this section of the road i have the same admiration of nature as the first time I've been here."

"Yeah..." Jonas paused a bit, then continued, "Nature really shows everyone who's boss huh?" His expression looked impressed. Jonas always had a weird fascination for the forces of nature, just everything about nature was so... incredible. The power a strong current has, the pressing strength of gasses or the incredible force behind natural disasters like tsunamis or tornadoes. The unimaginable heat of plasma or the incredibly cold nitrogen. All of these extremes could be found in nature or the universe.

Mendo looked at Jonas with an agreeing look, brightly smiling and saying, "I know right? That is exactly why i admire nature so much... I mean just look at the river, it's so strong that it easily made it's way through this thick forest. Or let's take the Fontechien mountain range, when i was a kid i used to help my father out as he went to the little mining town which lies in between the range... I used to explore the small part of the mountain that was accessible to me, that's why the small part at the edge of my map is so accurately drawn. Of course my father helped me draw it but..." Mendo stopped for quite some time, having a rather gloomy expression flashing across his face. As the short silence set in, they were slowly approaching the part of the road that lay open to the sun and river. After about 30 seconds Mendo opened his mouth again for a bit, saying, "Well, let's not get a person who wouldn't be able to talk with us anymore into the conversation hehe... Anyway, do you have a family somewhere?" Mendo tried shifting the topic while trying to lighten the mood.

"...No i don't" Jonas answered, who quickly saw the expression of Mendos face changing from curious to understanding. Just as they turned silent, the blinding sun finally showed itself beside the huge river which pushed it's way through the thick forest. The rivers width was astounding, seeming to be about 140 to 150 meters. As Jonas looked at the impressive river which was surrounded by the gigantic trees, he could feel a strange sense of tranquility. The trees on both sides were quite a way of the actual riverbank, speaking of which, the river bank was not really a bank so to speak and more like an abrupt edge into the relatively fast flowing water.

Both Mendo and Jonas stood still, appreciating the beautiful scenery which presented itself in front of them and taking in the moment. This time, Jonas appreciated his memory a bit, as he would never forget this incredible display of beauty.

After looking at the dazzling sight, the both started walking again. Mendo appreciated that Jonas seemed to have forgotten their little conversation, so as to keep to keep the atmosphere bearable he changed the topic to the weird little tool Jonas had, which could light fires almost instantaneously. "By the way, you have that weird fire device from yesterday right? is it some kind of Galving tool?" The curious side of Mendo seemed to have bitten him again as he couldn't refrain from asking the question. He thought that he could conveniently shift the topic to the weird thing he smoked yesterday as to answer his most pressing questions.

Jonas, who could clearly see the other fellow try to change topic, complied with the others request of an answer. After all his storm proof lighter as he liked to call it, wasn't really storm proof in any sense as it was just a simple Zippo lighter. He called it storm proof because he remembered his grandfather who bought it, for some reason thought for the entire rest of his life that it was storm proof, so it became a small inside joke in the family. Jonas reached into his pocket and got out the little lighter, looking at Mendo with a questioning look which seemed to ask if he meant the thing he just took out. Mendo who quickly studied the tool quickly gave a short "yes", leading Jonas to light the little flame of the fire.

"well, this is a simple lighter... it's not really that special, Zippos are pretty much just brass containers with a flint stone and a bit of fuel inside" The explanation was pretty crude but summed up the construction of the Zippo pretty well. The design of the Zippo was pretty much as simple as one could get with a modern day lighter, so to speak.

"brass!? that must have been expensive, is it a new invention from the western ports? And you don't even need Galving for it, this thing is incredible" Mendo seemed to be fascinated by the boringly ordinary tool, but he was right in some aspects. Making fire in the wilderness was a hard task and having a tool which could just quickly produce a flame someone usually had to work hard for, that was a life saver in many aspects. Jonas, on the other hand, was more intrigued by the other part of Mendos sentence so he quickly asked, "What are the western ports? are they known for inventing stuff? and what in the world is that Galving thing your talking about?" he barraged at the still marveling Mendo.

"Wait, you don't know of them? or wait i shouldn't expect anything from the random guy who got lost in a forest he didn't even remember entering" Mendo retorted in an sarcastic tone, obviously enjoying the teasing. Jonas slightly chuckled in his coarse voice, putting the lighter he held in his hand back into his jacket, "Ok, well i got on a high horse there in the beginning but i don't know much about them myself hehe. The main things you hear about the western ports is that new shit get's invented and that they discover new trade roads so merchants can get anywhere they want quicker... as to the second thing you've asked with the Galving, that pretty much is the poor peoples magic. I mean, we aren't nobles who have the divine right to use magic as they like to say. But, gimme a moment here ok? What the fuck did they do to deserve the "divine right"?! how come someone like a noble is more entitled to something like that then a normal peasant?! Isn't god like, i don't know, but shouldn't he reserve stuff like that for everyone equally? Anyways... im getting off track" Mendo sighed as he rearranged his bag, "What im getting at is that that stone is something we use to fight off the terrifying beasts around here. Anything else can't really be done because you have to keep the stone going in a circular movement, otherwise it wouldn't work- or no! wait, i think it's used in stuff like mills and the likes, but if you have that much Galving you wouldn't really use it for processing things and more for things like building an army"

Jonas looked at Mendo with a sense of disbelieve in his eyes. His eyes made quite a change since yesterday, as they didn't look dead like they did for the past four years, but instead showed a range of emotions. For example, a common one in the last two days was confusion, albeit disbelief was a close second. Hearing words like magic used in such a nonchalant way was already weird enough for Jonas, but all this happening after the still unexplained PC incident was even more unsettling. Was he in a parallel universe? At least that was the most plausible case. 'I need to somehow know if i still am in the same universe huh? I feel so dumb doing this, but in the case i miraculously am in a parallel universe, i have some pretty hard stuff to think over' Jonas thought while scratching his beard again.

His attention quickly fell onto the weird sword Mendo fastened to his waist. Jonas already knew what it looked like as he shortly shot a peek on it before they started walking, but as he inspected it closer, he noticed that the weirdly shaped blade actually seemed like it was able to spin.

Connecting the few clues he could remember, Jonas quickly had an idea why the sword was the shape it was, that being the reason Mendo had already mentioned. As Jonas was insanely curious as to how exactly the stone was supposed to work and also needing to proof what he had just asked himself, he nonchalantly asked Mendo, "Hey, can you show me how you use that sword? doesn't it have that weird Galving thingy in it?" Mendo instantly looked surprised, probably not expecting the weird question. As it didn't really harm to show off his skills a bit, he unfastened the short sword from his weird belt-rope thingy and firmly held it in his right hand, he also pulled up his white sleeve which looked pretty filthy. As Jonas looked closely at Mendos arm, he could clearly see that it was far more muscular than he had previously thought. Mendo began taking a weird stance, putting his left foot firmly on the ground infront of him and placing his right foot slightly more to the right so as to seemingly balance himself. He then swiftly placed his left hand onto the dull side of the sword and made it spin as fast as he could. As soon as he did so, he moved his right hand in a constant circular motion which he obviously had to train for, as the movement almost resembled a program diligently executing it's task. Shortly after Mendo started with this weird ritual, the blade began glowing as it seemingly reached the Draper point. The blade quickly began to shine brighter and brighter until Mendo suddenly pushed the little glow stick forward, causing it to release a short bright flame which stood at about 4 meters length.

Mendo seemed to be pleased as his expression confirmed, although he was kind of hard to recognize through his thick sweat and his red skin he quickly developed. It looked to be quite physically demanding to perform what he just did. "Well, that *huff* should be about *huff* enough to protect us hahah *cough*" Mendo proudly stated while still being out of breath. Jonas, on the other hand, just stood there shocked.

"I guess there's my confirmation..." Jonas mumbled after a bit. He scratched his beard while having the same absent look he had yesterday at the campfire. after Mendo quickly recovered he waved Jonas back to reality so that they should continue to make it to the village at Daytime.