Working Relationship

I radiated pure joy as I walked out of the conflagration that was a forest once, " Haven't you ever seen a walking forest fire?' i asked the awwed Terra mage that had accompanied me to the forest, he was expecting weeks of back-breaking work, usually, fire and terra mages work together to pull up the stumps after an area had been cleared by the fire mages but with the intensity of this fire, the after-work would be minimal.

The Terra mage just looked at me as if I was an alien, "Just how big is your mana pool!?" the man asked in what looked like worship.

"Just big enough to destroy a castle," I replied nonchalantly as I walked back to the outpost, our day's work was done in only an hour so I figured I would go and eat as conjuring that much mana may not have drained my mana pool much but I still got hungry after I used mana in those quantities.

Upon reaching the gate to the outpost, Sergeant Volk came up to me pissed as hell, "WHAT IN THE 9 HELLS DID YOU DO!" He roared at me as he blocked my way into the outpost.

I looked at him as my anger simmered in my heart at his tone set it aflame slightly, " I cleared the forest." I replied coldly.

Sergeant Volk wanted to throttle me right then and there but managed to restrain himself once again, " We asked that you cleared the south side of the outpost with a controlled burn!" he said through gritted teeth.

I just looked at him in reproval before responding, " It is in control, sooner or later that whole section of the forest would have had to been cleared anyway, now it will be done all at once. If that's not controlled clearing then I don't know what is!" I said loudly so that the soldiers that came to see the forest fire could hear.

Laughter rang out among the common soldiers and even a few lieutenants that had come out to watch the show laughed at my answer.

Volk was even madder than before but just as he was about to snap completely, Kace came out and put a calming hand on Volk's arm visibly calming him down, before speaking to me, " You just wanted to burn down the whole forest didn't you, I bet you didn't even care about how big of an area that caught fire," he said as he snorted and just walked away, already used to my antics and personality. "If he wants to burn down the forest then let him, but if it gets further than a mile into the woods he is to go out and put it out himself! We don't need him chasing all the Wild animals from the area when it would be better if they ended up in our cookpots at some point to supplement the rations that the army provides us," he said as he turned and walked back to his office.

Volk looked at me smugly before he also turned around " you heard him, Bruni, go control the conflagration you created!" he said as he walked back into the outpost.

I watched the backs of my departing superiors for a few seconds in contemplation before walking back to the burning forest alone to stem the forest fire from getting too large. I didn't get upset at being ordered to control my fire, I got excited that I could burn such a large patch of the forest and used my mana to make the flames even hotter as I walked through the inferno.

Trees were on fire from the bottom all the way to the top on most, smoke couldn't enter my mana bubble as I filtered in fresh air to breathe, just because the fire couldn't hurt me didn't mean that falling trees and smoke inhalation couldn't kill me so I kept a watch out for trees that were starting to crash into the ground.

Many hours later the fire had burnt itself out, I walked back among the still-burning remnants of the forest fire as ash and destruction filled my surroundings in all directions. The abundant Fire mana that was left caressed my skin and welcomed me with open arms, the fire mana birthed by the destruction of the forest was intoxicating, I drew in as much as I could handle while walking back to camp, it set my hair alight and the amount of light coming from my eyes made me look almost like a Fire Elemental.

They were beings of pure mana, the most common were Earth elementals followed closely by water elementals, but fire elementals were only found in volcanos and other extremely hot and burning areas of the countries, they were expressions of mana itself making them extremely hard to kill and even harder if they were left to grow unchecked for long periods of time.

It was dark when I walked back into the outpost, I went to the bathing areas to clean the soot off my body and the ash out of my hair before grabbing some bread and cheese to eat at a cooking fire that was to the side of the barracks where soldiers that couldn't sleep or were taking a break from their duties gathered to rest and think, this late at night I was alone and so used a small amount of mana to ignite the wood left in the fire before sitting and eating a well-deserved meal.

In another part of the camp, Sergeant Volk made his way into Kace's office before saluting and sitting down at Kace's look. "Bruni is wild, he doesn't care nor does he listen to orders with any great deal of affinity, I know you want me to limit the damages he does but today was a good example of what I can actually do! That boy is half-mad and he has more talent for mana than all of us combined!" he vented at his superior as frustration leaked from his voice.

Kace looked at Volk for a few seconds before replying to the man, " Bruni is a broken child, he is young and has been through more than we will ever know, he only hints at what he went through at the Dark ladies castle, let alone his mother being murdered right before his eyes, they captured and tortured him before forced him to use his magic repeatedly to kill innocents, he is damaged goods for sure, but it wasn't his fault, do not blame the child for what has happened to him! He was in our care and we let him get captured from under our noses! If anything it is us who he should be attacking for the failure of keeping him safe when we promised him that we would protect him! He may be a handful but he is the most powerful firemage in the kingdom!" Kace said with pity in his eyes and anger in his heart as he looked at Volk with heat, not directed towards the man but at the whole situation. "We failed him Volk we must do all that we can to make up for it," he spoke softly after a few minutes of silence dragged on between the two officers.