Magic

It took a lot to shatter the mask of composure that Noorh developed over the past ten years. He remained calm in the midst of witnessing the chaos in Lahnthea. He remained in control when people looked down on him at the royal court. He kept his cool when he battled one giant monster after another to succeed in his mission.

But facing the approaching flock of winged serpents was enough to make his eyes grow wide with terror. He had seen how easily they could ravage a village, pluck its screaming villagers off the ground like ripe fruits from a tree, and greedily devour them in one swoop. They were scarier than the giant serpent guardian despite their smaller size because they attacked in groups that no gifted warrior could single-handedly survive through.

Noorh's heart raced as he quickly threw the cloak around him and Kiran. He then raised his hand in front of him, his dark eyes suddenly burning several shades of blue as cold sweat slid down his spine.

Kiran felt his thrumming heartbeat before she noticed the panicked look in his sapphire eyes. She gaped when she realized that his eyes not only changed colors in front of her, but a massive glowing silvery blue circle of flickering symbols also expanded from his open palm. She had only seen it in anime shows and video games: magic circles that appeared whenever a character was casting a spell.

And the magic circle that Noorh was casting seemed big enough to cover them both.

"A shield!" Kiran excitedly gasped as the symbols morphed and flickered around the circle.

Noorh raised a brow at her for a moment before focusing his sights on the circle that was slowly floating away from his palm.

To Kiran's surprise, the circle began to spin and with it was the fog and clouds around them. It spun faster and faster, forming what looked like the eye of a hurricane until the hole in the middle disappeared completely. It created an opaque wall of clouds shielding them from the horizon.

"It's not a shield," Noorh whispered as the adrenaline in his veins slowly subsided. "It's a cloaking barrier. Keep your voice down or they'll sense us."

Kiran quickly bit her lips and nodded, ready to do as Noorh instructed. The fear and anxiety in her veins was already replaced with the awe and excitement of witnessing a real and powerful spell being cast right in front of her.

Noorh took a deep breath to calm himself. His body was still recovering so he couldn't cast any complex spells to attack the winged serpents. All he could do was conceal him and Kiran. Thankfully, his panicked mind was able to come up with a solution on time.

He then looked intently at Kiran whose eyes were wide with what seemed like admiration, instead of fear. "You saw it," he whispered, the blue in his eyes fading into black.

Kiran blinked. "The winged serpents?" she whispered back, still astonished at the way his eyes changed from glistening sapphires to cold obsidians.

"The spell," Noorh whispered. "It's not supposed to be visible to the naked eye."

Kiran stared confused at him. "You mean you couldn't see the spell you were casting?" she asked in the lowest voice her suppressed shock could allow her.

"I can see it," Noorh assured. "But other people shouldn't be able to see it."

"That's how spells work in this world?" Kiran intently asked, her eyes burning with curiosity. "Your eyes change and only you can see what the magic circle looks like?"

"Magic-what?" Noorh asked, confused yet again. "Never mind," he muttered, shaking his head. There were more pressing matters than making sense of Kiran's brain farts. "This barrier won't hold long enough to keep us alive," he explained. "The winged serpents won't leave their nests until next morning. I can only sustain the spell for a few more minutes at most if I have to maintain enough energy to hike down this mountain with you."

That jolted Kiran up from her enthusiasm about Noorh's magical ability. She looked anxiously away, thinking of how she might be able to help him. As much as she would like to ease his burden by letting him leave her behind, there was no way she was going to be stuck on the side of a cliff for hungry giant flying snakes to eat her.

"Is there no way to defeat them?" she asked, genuinely curious at the possibility of facing the monsters head on. It always seemed to work on TV shows and movies after all. Noorh could be the overpowered hero in her twisted isekai adventure for all she knew.

"Absolutely not," Noorh hissed, frowning at her. "Did you see how many they were?"

"Don't you have a secret, ultimate, destroyer spell that you can use?" Kiran prodded. If he could cast a spell that huge and powerful, maybe…

"What kind of knowledge about magic does your world have, exactly?" Noorh asked, clearly miffed. "Do you have a secret, ultimate, destroyer spell that you can use to get rid of them?"

Kiran frowned. "I'm sorry I thought you were an extremely powerful mage," she hissed, crossing her arms over her chest. "Apparently, the wizards and heroes in my world are more invincible than you!"

"Then I probably should let you take care of those winged serpents instead of casting this barrier to hide us," Noorh muttered back, looking angrily away. One minute, she was being kind and cooperative. The next, she was being impossibly confusing and annoying. "Go cast your extremely powerful spell now, please."

"Well if it isn't your unlucky day," Kiran hissed back. "You got yourself a muggle who didn't receive an admission letter from Hogwarts instead of a smart and capable witch so I won't be able to cast any spells for you!"

"A mug-what?!" Noorh asked, staring baffled at Kiran. "You know what? I don't care anymore. I'm not even going to ask about whatever you just said. I'm just going to think about how we're going to get out of this mess so do me a huge favor, and shut up." He then narrowed his eyes at the cloud barrier in front of them, trying to sense how close the winged serpents were from where they were.

Kiran guiltily looked away. He was being rude, but she was being childish too. She already knew that things couldn't be the same as what she read on books and comics or watched on TV when it came to real life, but she still made unreasonable comparisons and expectations about Noorh and his abilities. Magic might not work the same way as it was described in her world's literature, and overpowered heroes might not exist in the real world - or at least in Lahnthea. She would surely have more time to learn and understand about how things worked once she survived the attack of the feathered snakes with Noorh.

Snakes. Weren't winged serpents snakes too? At least they looked like they were, except they grew massive chicken wings. Wouldn't things that defeat snakes work on them too? By the looks of it though, dealing with the flock of serpents would be like battling a cave full of snakes. Even the great Indiana Jones could faint at the thought of fighting them.

"Can't we just jump off the cliff like we did with the giant serpent and swoop past the nests?" Kiran asked.

Noorh stared incredulously at Kiran. "You didn't jump off the cliff, Kiran," he hissed. "You slipped, fell, and almost died! And the answer is 'no.' Aside from I'm not strong enough to save you if we do it again, the winged serpents can easily swoop down and catch us. Even the hatchlings will jump off the nest to eat us. They may not necessarily die in the process either. They can very well start flying right after eating us."

The hatchlings shouldn't be able to unfold and stretch their wings until a few more days, but seeing them already escaping their egg shells earlier than scheduled made Noorh think he shouldn't dismiss the minute possibility of the hatchlings immediately gaining the ability for flight.

Kiran looked away in thought. If they couldn't escape the winged serpents, the only way to deal with them was to fight them. And assuming that she and Noorh managed to find a way to get rid of the guardians, there was still a poisonous miasma that they had to deal with.

How did heroes deal with snakes anyway?

"Fire," Kiran gasped, remembering scenes where a hero in a movie used a flaming torch to shoo away snakes. "Aren't snakes afraid of fire? I mean, are winged serpents afraid of fire?"

Noorh studied her for a moment before sighing. "Fire might work," he admitted. "But the miasma itself is highly flammable."

"Methane!" she gasped, slapping her forehead.

The gesture left Noorh staring stunned and even more bewildered at her. "Um…Are you..?"

"I should have known that there's methane in the miasma, what with all the decaying stuff inside the nests," she muttered, clearly not noticing Noorh's reaction. "If we so much as light a match, the mountain itself can explode with the amount of methane in the miasma."

"I wouldn't go that far, but there's definitely a huge consequence," Noorh whispered. For one, they could get killed along with all the guardians of the pillar. "Are you okay? Are you in any pain?" he asked, worried at how Kiran hurt herself when she loudly slapped her palm on her forehead.

"Smoke!" Kiran gasped, remembering something that she read about snakes. "Snakes have elevated sense of smell," she eagerly explained to Noorh. "They are especially sensitive to odors and fumes. Since the winged serpents are like snakes that grew wings, they might also be repelled by extremely strong scents or fumes and smoke!"

Noorh stared curiously at her again for a moment, unsure if he should be impressed or weirded out by Kiran. In the end, he opted to take the more solution-based response. "That might actually work," he began. "But we can't make smoke without a fire."

Kiran frowned. "That's true," she disappointedly muttered.

"But we can collect smoke from here," Noorh said, narrowing his eyes at the cloud barrier. "We can wrap ourselves in a tube of smoke as we make our way down the steps. We need to move fast and hope that it pushes the hatchlings away from our path."

Kiran stared wide-eyed at Noorh. "You can do that?!" she gasped.

"I haven't done it before," Noorh admitted. "But if I combine a few spells and change them a little, it might work. We just need something flammable that can produce lots of smoke when burned."

"Will clothes do?" Kiran asked.

Noorh stared at her like she grew another head. "Undressing me isn't enough for you?!" he hissed.

Kiran tugged at his top. "I told you, that wasn't my intention!" she shyly hissed back.

Noorh rolled his eyes. "We'll need as many clothes as we can move around with before nightfall," he explained. "The temperature along the cliff can drop to fatal levels in the evening. I don't think we'll be able to escape it by the way things are right now."

Kiran anxiously bit her lip and turned away in thought. That meant they would need leaves and branches to build a fire. She glanced at the cliff face behind them. It was mostly a wall of solid stone with patches of moist black moss.

Noorh followed her gaze and knew immediately what she had in mind. "It's not flammable," he said, grabbing some of the moss with his left hand. He waved his right hand over it, drawing a halo of glowing embers just on top of the moss. A tongue of flame burst from before the halo, devouring the moss.

Kiran's eyes took in every flicker of the flame with excitement. Real magic was mind-blowing!

Noorh snapped his finger above the flame, snuffing it out. It left the moss intact as if it hadn't been sitting inside a burning fire.

Kiran's jaw dropped in awe. The moss could be a valuable raw material for innovation if they were in her world. How many house fires could the moss prevent if it was developed and infused in building construction? How many books could it save from imminent destruction, preserving ages of knowledge and wisdom? How many people could it save if it was infused into people's clothing? How much money could she gain from selling it to innovation companies? Heck! It could even be especially interesting to military scientists looking for ways to protect soldiers from death in the battlefield.

She stared intently at the moss on the cliff wall, her mind already conjuring a multitude of what ifs and weighing potential advantages and perils. She realized how side characters managed to loot treasure even after being warned of its dangers. It seemed logical to take the risk if it meant finally filling their empty pockets. Once inspiration hit, the urge to take that leap of faith for a better future was difficult to suppress.

"We'll need dry leaves or twigs," Noorh muttered, his eyes catching Kiran's intense look on the cliff wall.

The statement jolted Kiran from her thoughts. She turned to look at Noorh whose dark eyes already mirrored the dread washing over her. The only possible source of dried leaves or twigs would be the meadow at the top of the mountain pillar they were in. Clearly, hiking back up and facing the giant serpent again would be a huge inconvenience.

The only other possible source of dried leaves or twigs would be the winged serpents' nests.

"Burning a Reaping Willow twig can produce more than enough smoke to cover us," Noorh said, bitterly admitting that the only way they could get out of the mess they were in was to face the imminent threat of death in front of them.

"Reaping Willow?" Kiran asked. "The black wood on the winged serpents' nests?" she confirmed, already knowing the answer.

Noorh nodded. "I can-"

"I'll do it," Kiran said, cutting him off. "I'll get the Reaping Willow twigs." She turned around and cast her eyes on the cliff behind her. She could barely see the nests from where she was but if dangling down like Spiderman on the edge of the cliff was the only way to get them safely past the nests, she would do it. "Do you have a rope? Tie one around my waist and lower me to the nest below. I haven't rappelled before, but I've always wanted to try it. A life or death situation isn't exactly an ideal place to do it, but better now than never right?" she babbled, color already draining from her cheeks.

"Rappel..? What do you mean?" Noorh asked, his brows scrunched in confusion. "You want me to lower you over the cliff when you can't even look down from here?!"

"It's the only way we can get a twig without alerting the hatchlings!" Kiran argued, frowning at him to drive her point. At least that was how things worked in TV shows and movies. Heroes dangled precariously from a ceiling to stealthily steal stuff all the time. But they were supposedly trained experts so the chances that they would succeed in the feat was always high. Kiran on the other hand was a rookie. She was petrified of heights too, which lowered her chances of success immensely from zero to nil. "I'm not exactly strong enough to support your weight if you rappel from here instead of me."

"I don't even understand what you mean by 'rappel,'" Noorh snapped. "And why would I trust you to support my weight when your arms feel like sponge?"

Kiran frowned. "Was that an insult?"

Noorh rolled his eyes. "My point is that I'm not dangling you over a cliff," he declared. "I will-"

"I'm not just going to sit here and do nothing, Noorh!" Kiran snapped. "I may not be as athletic as you are, but I can do something to help you. I'm not going to be a dead weight that you'll have to carry around like a punishment! I almost lost you," she whispered, her brown eyes glossy at the memory of Noorh's cold and unmoving form in her arms.

Noorh stared speechless at her. He understood what she meant. However… "I almost lost you too," he admitted, his voice soft with guilt. He dragged her into his world and almost killed her twice.

Kiran froze.

"I haven't fully recovered yet," Noorh admitted. "So I can't promise that I'll be able to securely hold you while you rap over the cliff."

"Rappel," Kiran corrected.

"Whatever," Noorh muttered. "I'm not risking your life to save mine. I'm not going to risk my life to save yours either. If we're going to risk our lives on something, it's because we are confident that we'll survive it together, alright?"

Kiran bit her lip, tears welling in her eyes. Noorh would have been a great match for Alessa. "I don't know how to rap," she began. "But I can try to cause a distraction for the hatchlings. Do they have sensitive ears? I can't sing to save anyone's life, but I can sing to irritate eardrums."

Noorh smirked. "I don't know what 'rap' even means," he muttered. "But that just gave me an idea."