Eumythymn Hunter

A Cold Shoulder

Virdjana's POV

"The winds have been shifting differently," I mumbled to myself.

When we entered the Burial Forest, strong gusts of air continues to push forward from the North, and as Eumythymn I am naturally more sensitive to changes in the wind than others.

"This is bad," I whispered to myself.

"Something is coming!" I told Dheeran, but the boy just kept shaking about like a confused mosquito.

There is no time for this, he has to get down, or that creature would see him. My eyes landed on the other pair of the dagger in my hand, I would hate to lose this, but I threw it anyway,

He stumbled on the grass and began grimacing at what seemed to me to be complaints.

"It's here." I pointed the huge monster that appeared before us, and that was the time he fell quiet.

Before us stood, or slithers a ginormous red snake, its gleeming scales turning the surrounding reddish. I remained in my position on the branch in silence while admiring the serpent.

"Wait, this isn't the time for this." I snapped myself back to reality, because I knew that would have been Reggie's comment.

I tried waving at Dheeran, giving signals that means 'don't move a muscle', and he seemed to understood that part. Good.

The snake's tail rattled, loud enough to echo across the Burial Forest. I saw Dheeran cover his ears and he looked like he was in pain. Should I help him? I contemplated the idea as I jump down the tree, slowing my descend with wind magic.

I reached for the spare knife strapped around my leg, spinning it across my palm as I take a huge leap aided with wind magic towards Dheeran. A compass for the directions of the wind, when will one appear, and what is the right timing to catch it?

"Virdjana, we should lay low while it's still unaware of our presence." he whispered.

"We should lay low, if it really hasn't detected us. Too late for that." I crouched to the ground to look for my daggers. "There you are my babies."

"Right. I thought you didn't notice. This snake is just waiting for us to make a big move then it will gobble us up." Dheeran said seriously.

"What do you usually do in this type of situations?" I asked.

"I challenge the enemy first. I find out their weaknesses by observing, then I gauge how much flames I should use to burn them to crisp with fire magic. If there's no evidence left, it is much better." he says so casually that I considered the idea that he might not be lying about his missions.

"Show me." I stated with a small smile.

Dheeran's POV

Time to show off! I mean, time to take this huge serpent down.

"If I do that, would you consider being friends with me? I'm not really comfortable with a classmate that doesn't like me." I responded as I point my finger at her like a gun.

"We'll see." Virdjana replies with a smug expression.

"Okay then."

The moment the snake hissed, I set both hands ablaze with blue flames, using it as a boost to get as high as the level of the snake's head.

"Eat this!"

To my surprise, the snake dodged and countered by smacking me away with its huge tail. I found myself unable to stop the force of the attack.

"Argh!" I hit the ground with a thud, but what hurt more was the slices I got from the sharp grass.

I glanced back at Virdjana who was simply balancing her knife on top of her finger. "Why didn't you back me up?" I complained while trying to regain my balance.