Aside the Fire

Cas opened his eyes to see an alluring sunset. He found himself still within a forest. He was lying down on the ground, his head resting on one of Greyhart's traveling bags and a forest dwelling bear's fur was on him to keep him warm. He quickly threw off the fur and sat up, disgusted that he was wrapped up in that thing. He then noticed that his hands were covered in bandages. In fact, all of his body seemed to have bandages wrapped around it, from his waist to his face.

"Finally up, sleepyhead? About time." a condescending voice to his right said, he looked over to see Arianne leaning against a tree.

"Just who I needed to see. It was much more peaceful here without you." Cas said disappointed.

"You better watch it, hero boy." She said in a threatening manner, holding up one of her daggers.

More footsteps could be heard, Cas looked to his opposite direction as Greyhart as well as Evandrus and Diane appeared.

"Why, if it isn't the knight of the hour! We were just talking about you." Greyhart said, joyful as usual.

"Greyhart! How long have I been resting?"

"About half a day, your little moment of bravery just delayed our investigation of Obselok by another day." He said without joking.

"Oh… I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize, Cas. After all, your will is stronger than ever right? It's a good thing that the whole cave incident happened!"

"I wouldn't say it was a good thing…" Evandrus spoke behind Greyhart like it was a reserved spot for him.

"Anyways," Greyhart continued, "Tomorrow morning, we finally set out to reach the kingdom! I'll be out scouting the way there to make sure it's safe for us." Greyhart noticed Arianne across the campfire, she looked as though she wanted to leave. "Arianne! Good thing you're standing there, come with me!"

Arianne rolled her eyes as she reluctantly followed him, making one last rude look at Cas.

"You all best get some rest, I assure you tomorrow will be much more difficult." Greyhart kindly suggested.

Cas nodded as he stood up to go sit near the campfire. By this point the sun had already disappeared, it was now nighttime. As cas was walking over to sit on the log next to the pleasantly warm fire, he noticed someone else was sitting across from him.

"You're… Diane, right?"

Diane didn't say a word, she only continued to stare at him.

"Um… I heard you're a very good archer!" An uncomfortably long pause followed that statement.

"Why?" She finally spoke.

"Hm? What do you-"

"Why did you do that?" Her voice felt detached and unemotional.

"Why did I do what?"

"Greyhart told me about what happened. I was disappointed to hear that you risked your life to stop a single cave golem."

"I'm sorry but, do I know you? Or do you know me?"

"I do not. I do know that you have a brother, who you have made it clear that you want to protect him."

"I… That's true. But, how did you-"

"So you claim to love your brother and swear to protect him, and yet you decide to throw away your life over something so trivial such as your pride? What kind of knight would think so selfishly?" Her voice raised in tone a bit.

"I-I'm selfish? But… I was only trying to make it clear that I can save myself. I didn't want to be a burden!"

"If you truly wanted to stick with your ideals, you could have let your teammates rescue you so you could reunite with your beloved brother."

"Di-did something happen to Clement?" Cas looked around. Noticing that he wasn't anywhere to be seen.

"Not that I am aware of, but you never know when he could be in danger. Why risk that in favor of your pride?"

"I understand your way of thinking, but please, believe in my brother more than that. I know he can be strong on his own. Besides, he gets annoyed when I help him out too much."

"I see, well I can only hope that you're right. However, a knight must do all of the saving for it is his job. Protecting your family is also the duty of any living thing.

"How does one save others when he can't save himself?" Cas smartly responded.

Before Diane could respond, another voice was heard behind Cas.

"You two should be resting, not chatting your mouths off."

"Evandrus…" said Diane.

"Please, just call me Evan." He said politely. "Having a name like that makes it seem too formal when people address me. I'm really not that high above others."

Cas was oddly enraged by seeing Evandrus walk in and talking so modestly. He couldn't help but give in to how he felt.

"You like to keep yourself grounded, Chromalis?" Cas stood up and said, clearly alluding to how Evandrus is part of a royal family.

"I told you, it's Evan." He repeated more seriously.

"I'll just ask upfront, do you by any chance know the king of Prismont?" Cas said whilst ignoring him.

Diane no longer wanted part in this conversation, she quietly left the two on their own.

"Do I know his majesty? Of course I do, he watches over all the blessed lives of Prismont and-"

"No no, I don't mean that. Have you ever spoken to him?"

"I um, I haven't, why do you ask?"

"That cruel man who you call 'his majesty' destroyed what remained of my family, by executing my mother…"

Evandrus looked down and turned his head away from Cas, clearly conflicted about all this. "That's a shame… And you're telling me this because you resent royalty for acting so high and mighty above everyone else, is that correct?"

"Yes. And I know you are trying to hide your arrogance from others by masking it with politeness."

"Well I'm not, and I'll never be like him."

"Huh?"

"I may be a part of the Chromalis bloodline, a family that used to be strong and powerful, but as you might've noticed I'm nothing but a coward really."

"Then why are you with us? Don't you have a goal?"

"I'm just a cleric you know? We're just dragged along to make sure no one gets too injured." Evandrus laughed at himself. "At least, that's how I see it."

"What about your mother and father? Did they force you to work for the church?"

"My father is dead. And my mother, well… I'm not exactly sure where she is. I chose to become a cleric to maintain some status and to help anyone I can. And after what you said back at the gates about wanting to protect your home town, I guess we have a few things in common." He looked back at Cas and smiled.

Evandrus saying this made Cas realize, it's unfair to judge people just because of their family. Cas took a clear look at him, his white and gold robes covered everything but his hands and face. His eyes were honest and kind, and his smile was genuine.

"I suppose we do." Cas said awkwardly. "Please forgive me for jumping to conclusions."

"It's not something to apologize for, I understand. Say, is your brother doing alright? You should probably check on him. I believe I saw him practicing magic on a nearby hill."

"Right, I will. Thank you, Evan."

Evan smiled and waved goodbye at Cas as he ran to where the closest hill was.

Cas soon arrived at the top of a hill, there he found Clement sitting by a cliff, practicing magic skills with his staff. Clement noticed his brother and turned around.

"Brother, you had me really worried earlier."

"Sorry, Clement. I acted on my own and I had to know how to save myself before anything else."

"Well, no matter the reason, I'm glad you're alright. Anyways you should check out this new spell I made." Clement said proudly.

Cas watched as Clement moved his staff around, causing several bright lights to appear out of thin air. Clement then held a leaf up to the lights and allowed them to touch, causing the leaf to catch on fire and burn up.

"Ow ow ow, hot!" Clement exclaimed as the fire barely managed to spread to his fingertips. He rapidly moved his hand up and down.

"That's an amazing spell, Clement!"

"You really think so? I named it 'fireflies' and I took some inspiration from those pickitpyros we saw in the forest."

"See, you are good at casting spells, aren't you?"

"Well, all of the spells I can really use were ones I made myself. I'm still no good at following the steps that were taught at training. I remember one time I was able to use this huge impressive fire spell, but it completely missed the target. It was a pretty big failure, so I figured going smaller was the better way to control it."

"You're really a genius, Clement. Don't stay up too late though, make sure to get some rest."

"I will. Goodnight brother."