Into The Woods

Parting the foliage slowly, an arrow glinted in the sunlight as a bow string suddenly became taunt. Up ahead, a bunny feasted on some weeds nestled on the roots of a rosewood tree. Like a sparrow in flight, the arrow was let loose and it arched through the air.

THWACK

"EECK!" Ears raised, the bunny dashed for its life into its burrow hidden amongst the rosewood tree roots. Just before it could even scamper inside, another arrow miraculously found its mark, pinning the bunny's head to the earth.

"Drat," Leo cursed.

"Ha!" Eliza's ginger hair swayed as she stuck her tongue out, having made the kill her brother Leo just missed. "Better luck next time."

"Shut up," Leo huffed, annoyed that this was the third kill he had failed to make this morning.

"Sure short-stuff," Eliza smiled at her brother, passing Leo while marching upright. She was taller than him by a couple of inches seeing that she was 5' 11".

Rolling his green eyes, Leo approached Eliza's kill, which just happened to be their breakfast.

"You gotta hope that your marksmanship improves once we move out later to find that Ignis Ape."

"Pff," Leo glanced around, only spotting the endless forest canopies. "Aren't they supposed to be extinct or something?"

"Hmpth," Eliza shook her head. "The old Ignis Apes are as dead as a doornail, yet I'm pretty sure that these new Ignis Apes somehow, I don't… hmmm…" her voice treaded off into the wind. "I think… I think that the chimps living around us turn into them actually."

Leo arched his brown eyebrow, "and what makes you say that."

Eliza pressed her lips as she tapped her thin lips with her forefinger, "You remember that two years ago when I was 18 right? When we stumbled upon a chimpanzee's mother and her children?"

Leo rubbed his chin pensively, "I think so, was that the one where one of the younger chimps had dark orange hair?"

Eliza smirked. "Yes, precisely. I think that somehow these Ignis Apes weren't born originally as Ignis Apes. Sure maybe Ignis Apes might still mate and have a few Ignis babies or two, but that - that little orange chimp made me think… maybe they can also be made naturally."

Leo's eyes suddenly widened, "wait, hang on… so maybe they're just like dad!"

He thumped his fist into his open palm, "if a chimp can naturally gain powers like dad, then that means -"

" - that means we can acquire magic too!" Eliza and Leo finished each other's sentences, their green eyes glistening as they looked at each other.

But then, their grins slowly faded, as they remembered. "If only we were that lucky…"

It was sad that the truth of the matter was that for any mage that awoke magic naturally without drinking a beast crystal potion could only cross their fingers and pray that they could somehow, someway be blessed by the light and gain magical abilities. Just like how their father had acquired healing magic around the age of 12, after sustaining heavy injuries during a Gelu Troll raid. Sighing, Leo watched Eliza grasp the bunny by its rear legs as he tugged his arrow out of the earth.

Once they got back to camp, they met up with their mother, who had diced up some potatoes they had brought along and tossed it into a simmering pot.

"You found water?" Leo's eyes widened. "I thought there weren't any streams near us."

Eliza's short ginger hair shook in disapproval, "really? Did you forget who our mother is?"

On cue, their mother gave Leo her signature dimple smile, slightly towering over Leo as she pointed her ladle at him.

"Freeze."

Slowly, thin snowflakes grew around the ladle until the whole ladle tip itself was encased in a layer of ice.

Smacking his forehead, Leo shook his head in shame as he stared at the orange flames licking the bottom of the pot before him. "Ha ha, right. If you excuse me, imma just walk over here and practice my sharpshooting."

Nodding, Leo's mother proceeded to stick the ladle into the simmering water to let the layer of ice melt while Eliza took care of skinning her kill. Their mother was an ice mage, just like Leo's great-grandfather who had been one of the lucky soldiers to have drunk one of the Gelu Troll beast crystal potions. Somehow, the ice magic that ran in his veins was passed down to Leo's grandfather, and finally to his mother, yet the magic power in their veins significantly decreased with each generation. Now all Leo could do was lose every staring contest with every glass of water he had, giving himself headaches for how many times he yelled "Freeze!" non-stop for hours on end, yet to no avail.

Nocking an arrow from his leather quiver, Leo asked over his shoulder, "man, it would be so much easier if we could just bring a few muskets along."

Shaking her head, Leo's mother responded as she mixed the pot, "you know why we couldn't do that, they'll make too much noise if we're hunting an Ignis Ape."

"I guess.."

THWACK

Leo's arrow pierced the Kapok tree's trunk one foot away from the spot he had been aiming.

"Especially if you miss even with those spectacular aiming skills you have, you'll likely blow yourself up if the Ignis Ape manages to light your gunpowder pouch on fire."

Leo turned back to scowl at his mother. He couldn't help to compare her and Eliza to each other in how quick witted they were and how much they resembled each other. Her and Eliza both had neck long ginger hair, green eyes, thin frames, and were taller than Leo. He himself was just around 5' 6" with brown hair as he took more from his lean father who happened to be only 5' 0". It was ridiculous really, why such a short man had managed to score himself a wife that inherited the frost magic of her grandfather, but, when paired together, a fire could be seen sparking in their eyes.

"Eeeeggghh." Leo shivered, the thought of the passion he sometimes saw between his parents riddled him with goosebumps. Thank god his room had thick walls.

A few dozen fired arrows later and some friendly banter, they finally sat down and discussed today's approach to their mission over their potato and bunny stew breakfast.

"Are you telling me that we have been heading closer to the Northern Ironwood Forest just because you spotted dung that looked like Ignis Ape scat?" Leo waved his spoon at his mother.

"Yes, their dropping are much more -"

Eliza's face scrunched as she bit down on her juicy bunny leg, "mmm!"

Setting down her bowl, she waved her hand and pointed at her mouth. "Immm eeeeing eeeree!" She grumbled, her mouth chock-full as she tried to swallow everything quickly before her stomach retaliated.

Smirking and lowering her bowl, their mother continued, "sorry, sorry. I'll keep it civil." She glanced back at Leo. "Yes, I can differentiate between an Ignis Ape and chimpanzees due to certain 'qualities'. Also, Ignis Apes happen to make big nests out of leaves when they sleep, like this one above us actually." She pointed upwards and Leo squinted. Sure enough, 50 meters up the Kapok tree, Leo could make out a small bundle of leaves on one of the thick branches.

"How on earth is your eyesight that good?" Leo rubbed his thin neck, "man I can't imagine not having neck problems in the future."

"Your father obviously is a healing mage - thus the eyes," their mother tilted her head, sweeping her ginger hair behind an ear. "And naturally being like 5 inches taller than you helps."

Leo gave her a deadpan look while Eliza almost choked on her rabbit leg.

"Gee, who would have thought."

Leo went back to his bland stew, and eventually they all washed all their utensils by melting another magically conjurered chunk of ice before they set off again through the bitter foliage. Swinging their knives, they cleared a path through the underbrush, hoping not to stumble upon the occasional snake as Leo stretched his neck while scrutinizing every leafy branch for an Ignis Ape. He spotted green leaves, green ferns, green lizards, and oh right, more green leaves. Grunting, despite the obvious never ending forest scenery, Leo started getting the hang of his sister's and mother's daily routine. They were the ones who normally ventured into the forest after all while he would stay back and try to help his father treat any patients that would come to them since his father could perform healing magic.

But after a whole morning of scrutinizing the forest canopies until his neck turned sore, plus the fact that he had been doing this for three days, Leo disgruntledly muttered to Eliza, "If only Ignis Apes walked on the ground, like otherwise all we are doing is shooting around aimlessly until we find fresh scat or large bundles of leaves in the trees."

Eliza shot him a look, "Yeah, well, it's not like they were all murdered a century ago by Dawn Light."

Leo narrowed his eyes, to which she grinned for they both knew that it was common knowledge that the previous human King, Dawn Light, had massacred all the Ignis Apes.

Supposedly.

"Honestly, I don't have much of an issue with the remaining Ignis Apes." Eliza swung her knife at an exposed branch before muttering, "...and it seems kinda sad that we have to hunt down these like majestic beasts."

Eliza glanced at their mother trudging ahead of them as she whispered to Leo. "Like, these guys are amazing! They can fire bend with their minds, and can even make something explode just like," Eliza snapped her thin fingers, "just like that!"

"Hey hey, don't forget about those Gelu Trolls," Leo pointed off northward, towards the ominous chilly peaks. "Those guys can freeze anything they set their sights on and," Leo placed his arms on his thin hips and stuck his chin out, "they're also super coool."

Eliza snorted. "God, and I thought I had to grow up." She then sighed, turning over the hunting knife in her hand before cleaving another thin branch and leafy fern. "We're supposedly here to hunt Ignis Apes, but…" her green eyes peered at Leo's thin bony frame, "do you want to?"