Burned

Chapter 6

Once they were out, and had a place to sit and rest, Isaac spoke.

"So, Xander. I have a question for you." He said, looking at the boy sitting across from him.

"Yeah...?" Xander seemed a bit preoccupied with something.

"Why were you so eager to leave your village as soon as the opportunity presented itself? I already told you why I left mine, so spill it."

"...I don't want to talk about it..." He frowned, focusing, then looking away from Isaac.

"Yeah, well I didn't want to talk about why I left so-"

"I said I don't wanna talk about it!" Xander said, uncharacteristically firm and angry sounding with his voice.

Isaac was quiet, and then "Xander, you're on fire."

"I... What?"

"Look at your hands." Looking down, Xander saw that what Isaac had said was true. The tips of his fingers had gone aflame. And so were the tips of his ears, but Isaac decided not to mention that part. Xander's eyes were as wide as saucers at this new discovery.

"I... I don't... B-but how..." He managed to get out. "I mean y-you were supposed to... But I... I'm...?"

Isaac simply shrugged. "You're the one who was constantly reading that book. I dunno, you tell me how it happened."

"I can't," Xander was still marvelling at the wonder that were his fingertips, though the flames eventually died out. Xander tried with all his might to bring the flames back to his body, but it was all in vain.

"Why can't I..." He stared at his hands, frowning.

"Well I'm no witch." Isaac said, leaning back against a tree. "But it seems like that magic is fueled by your emotions. More specifically, anger, annoyance, and probably others of that part of the spectrum. So, by that logic, it's pretty much useless now seeing as how you're happy and insanely cheerful about 98% of the time. Great."

"H-hey! It's gonna be useful, just you watch! I just... I just have to study more of that book!"

"Then why not do that and maybe we won't have to suffer through more of you getting bad wood for fires at night."

"You know you could gather wood if I do such a horrible job..."

"I could, but you can't cook fish and I refuse to do all of the work." Xander didn't say anything else after that comment. Instead, he just picked up the book he'd been reading and went back to the section on pyromancy. It was all talk on balancing and concentrating on your chakras and such, but that didn't really make any sense to Xander. He sighed, putting the book away. Maybe something like meditation would help with that? He wasn't exactly sure how the whole thing worked, to be honest.

"Um, Isaac?"

"What."

"I'm gonna be working on this whole magic thing, so just... Be quiet?" It came out as an uncertain question for some reason. He wasn't sure how to tell Isaac that he needed silence so he could concentrate.

"Yeah, sure, just tell me if you need something, I guess." Isaac responded. Xander nodded, then went to sit on the other side of him, so that Isaac couldn't see. He read through the book, hoping that he could find something on how to meditate and "balance his chakras". It wasn't much help. Maybe he should have also bought a book on meditation while they were at Mason's shop.

"This is stupid..." He groaned.

"Giving up already?" Isaac asked. "That was quick. I'd say about 10 or 15 minutes tops."

"I guess. But I'll try again. I dunno how to 'balance my chakras' or whatever...' Xander told him.

The next two hours were fairly quiet, with Xander trying his best to 'meditate', and Isaac trying - and failing - to take a nap. It was like this until Xander stood up.

"Isaac, can we go for a walk or something?" He asked. "I'm bored and this whole chakra thing is getting to me. I can't seem to get it. I dunno if it's been working this entire time or not, but I can't focus. I've just been skimming through the other pages on the other kinds of fire magic to put it off for now. I don't know, maybe a walk will clear my head or something..."

Isaac looked at him for a moment before quietly nodding and standing. "Yeah, sure. Let's go." And their walk began. No one had said anything, they just watched the scenery ahead of them as they moved through the trees. Who knew? Maybe they would come upon-

"Another village." Xander spoke. Looking ahead, they could make out the gate to a village called Grendel.

"Did you want to go in or something?" Isaac asked him. Xander shrugged in response.

"Maybe we can get something to eat?"

Isaac was quiet for a moment before shrugging. "Alright, fine. Let's go."

Xander grinned before making his way to the village gate, Isaac following behind.