Laughably enough, the evening was dark as pitch and the villagers had to carry lit lamps and torches in order to hold their precious meeting. In the shadows, hood pulled up to conceal his revealing hair, Axel watched with a growing sense of interest. The villagers certainly had many accusations to make against him, but he smirked when a sense of awkwardness seized those who were called upon first and they had to be cajoled and prodded to speak. Tales of brokenhearted daughters and heated charges of the red-haired devil infringing upon property and food. "Why should we have to toil and part of our shares be used to feed him? What has he done for us recently?" They pointed out half-burnt, now unoccupied houses as evidenced and Axel noted that no one mentioned the possibility of the houses being razed entirely to the ground if he had not been there. Then again, there was a reason he referred to most of the people present as ungrateful wretches, so there was no surprise there.
"How do we know he's not starting the fires himself?"
"My house burnt to the ground last week and there was fire nowhere near it! And somehow that witch managed to appear just in time to put on a show of trying to stop the flames!"
Xion's grandfather and the other elders appeared to be making no attempt to stop the building riot.
"He's been calling on the Devil's power! I saw him consorting with the horned demon himself on the last full moon." At that, Axel had to quickly disappear deeper within the shadows and have a stifled laughing fit.
When someone proposed, however, seeing if the fire demon was able to burn, Axel recognized this as his cue to melt into the shadows for the night. He weaved his way through darkened streets, humming to himself at the sound of yells for his blood. He was, perhaps, a little more on edge than he'd care to admit for when a hand fell on his shoulder, Axel whipped around with a curled fist and a hand pulling his dagger halfway out of its scabbard. When he saw it was only Xion, he sighed and slid the dagger back in until hilt met sheath. "You do know your grandfather will disown you if he finds you out here with me."
"I won't see you again, will I?"
"Most likely not, darling. Take care of that pretty face." He pressed a kiss to her cheek and waved carelessly. "Do be sure you're on the right side of the wall when you close the gate after me, dear. Wouldn't want you caught outside and having to explain things, hm?" He ducked out of sight.
Someone' house caught on fire that night, nothing of his doing, contrary to mob belief. He watched the blaze from a safe distance away and observed the many silhouettes running towards the creek with all forms of watertight containers. Wondering how many of the fire fighters were looking for him and cursing his name, Axel settled back against the inward curve of the tree and waited. Eventually, very eventually, the red glow faded and dark shades of violet colored the night once more. Axel did not close his eyes, kept very still and watched purple lighten and dawn began to color the clouds a light orange before he stirred.
If he looked, he could just pick out the hazy grey of smoke curling into the sky. Axel stayed where he was, thinking, even as the sun crept dangerously higher and higher. The entire village was likely to be sleeping soundly, a good few hours left before they began to arise. He thought about Xion, and her beau, he thought about fire, and he thought about the long stretch of life that lay before him. In his mind, the path lay shadowed and dark, and no matter how hard he tried, he could not realistically imagine what lay ahead. A chill morning wind breezed across his face.
From not too far away, faint exotic notes bourn on the wind made it to his ears. Axel opened his eyes. For once, a sincere smile actually made it to his face. Minutes later, he was walking briskly along the stream that ran a curve surrounding the village. The idle melody grew louder as he approached. "Greetings, Dem."
Demyx nodded, but it was hard to tell whether it was in acknowledgement of Axel's presence or part of his unconscious bobbing and swaying to his music. His eyes were closed and his fingers guided wiry plectrums across the strings. Axel, used to the musician's ways, sat, carefully out of the way of the neck of the instrument. Experience had taught him that getting smacked in the face by a sitar tended to leave him sore and still unnoticed by the player. The notes crept higher and Axel watched as the rushing water seemed to waver in the light. Reflections shivered and then evened out again as the stream continued running its way. Demyx struck a few more strings, the notes now falling in a steep depression, and sighed. "Hello, Axel." He lowered the neck of his sitar and placed it lengthwise across his lap, trailing a fond hand along the intricately carved wood.
"Still as tuneful as ever, I see."
The blond shook his head, eyes now open but fixed upon some point in the waters that Axel could not see. "It doesn't matter. They can't hear me anymore. Sometimes…sometimes accidentally I'll happen upon some melody that catches their attention for the briefest of moments. But never for long. It's the same with you, isn't it?"
Axel snorted. "It's the same with everyone who has ever been like us. I'm just noticeable because my gift was the only thing keeping me useful to them."
Demyx's fingers were never still, soft broken notes emanated from his sitar still in occasional strings. "It's not just you. We…something's changing." He finally looked up, eyes a clear blue-green and filled with worry. "Darkness. Some of us are saying it's the darkness getting stronger, infecting people's hearts like a disease, changing them."
"Worrying that they'll be after you next?"
"They are." Demyx looked at him questioningly. "You were at the meeting last night, weren't you?"
"I left when they started chanting for my blood. Rest assured, though I may have shared a bond with fire, but I have no particular desire to be close enough to burn."
"I shouldn't need to ask this, but you know about the fire that started last night?"
"If that is meant to imply that I had anything to do with it…"
"Xion's grandmother died last night."
Oh. Axel fell silent. Demyx was continuing, "I don't think they meant to, but after you left and they couldn't find you, some particularly bloodthirsty people began talk about smoking out the rest of us. I fled before they could get started, but someone apparently stormed their house with such an intention in mind and lifted a torch too high. I wish I could say for certain it was an accident, but…"
"Who all is there?" Axel, to his slight chagrin, only knew of Demyx as a fellow outcast; due to his hitherto special privileges, he had made sure to revel in them for as long as he could. He had had no desire of making the acquaintance of any potential companions because, well, then he had had no need of belonging to any group of people with similar predicaments.
"There's me. They were saying that Xion's grandmother was one, hence…you know. I'm pretty sure that baker's daughter was one, but the family left some moons ago. Oh. I think it's just me." Demyx had paled through his tan as the implications of that sank in.
"At the risk of sounding incredibly cheesy and a common whore at that," Axel remarked dryly, "run away with me." Demyx immediately began demurring, but Axel was insistent. "And I'm leaving before the early morning farmers arm themselves with pitchforks, so unfortunately I cannot give you the option of thinking it over. But what are you going to accomplish by staying here? Of course, this is assuming they do not drive you out soon after my departure."
"Where were you thinking of going?"
This time, Axel did have an answer. He gave a lazy grin. "Castle chasing."
Demyx was a romantic, even if he did not proclaim himself as such. Which is why he did not immediately laugh in Axel's face at the notion of chasing after a flight of fancy. That, and that the act of laughing in a proven pyromaniac's face seemed to be a foolhardy and injurious action. He did start in on the dangers of such a journey and the foolishness of approaching a monster made completely of darkness instead of running away from it. Demyx was also a certified coward, in Axel's esteemed opinion.
"I'm a musician, Axel. I sing tales about heroes; I don't go off seeking adventure myself."
"Well, then you'll be the first bard, sitarist to do so. And you're not seeking adventure; you're coming with me away from this godsforsaken village that's going to kick you out on your rump."
"Have you any idea of the tales told about the wilderness between the center of the kingdom and the castle? And I'm not even going to mention the journey that will have to be made to the center first before any of that begins. Those who've dared traverse the enchanted wild betwixt and between return changed for their toils. Tales of feral and twisted creatures that care for no law of animal or man, but merely obey their own hungers for destruction. Unseen portals that may appear anywhere and anytime that lead to realms of unimaginable terror. And the journey that grows longer as each sun sets with the castle drifting further and further away from the mortal realm."
"Spare me the poetics, Demyx. Are you coming?"
Demyx looked up at the sky with what was clearly intended to be an exasperated expression. "I suppose you will induce me forcefully if I do not agree."
Axel shrugged. "We would have to come to that point to see what I would do then, wouldn't we?"
"Yes, yes, Odin help us. Let me collect my worldly possessions and I pray the gods keep us safe from danger."
"I don't." Axel's smile flashed too brightly and displayed too many gleaming teeth.
Axel disappeared briefly and made Demyx wait by the stream while he apparently went on an errand of "utmost necessity". He reappeared within minutes, and tossed a knapsack identical to the one strapped across his back. Demyx caught it with difficulty; the knapsack was not empty. "Where'd you get all—?"
The redhead cut him short with a wave of the hand. "I don't care, and you don't want to know. Heaven's help, you actually have a conscience."
They waded through the creek with little difficulty although Axel actually shuddered as he stepped into the water. The cold wetness seeped through every layer of clothing he had on and he bared his teeth in disgust at the feeling. Demyx was grinning at him, soaked to the skin, and enjoying it. Annoyance forced him to keep moving and he somehow tumbled out on the other bank, mud and snips of grass clinging everywhere.
"Odin bless, Axel, you sure you'll be able to make it as far as the castle like this?" Demyx taunted.
"Let's see you walk through an inferno then."
Demyx hummed. He was acting surprisingly nonchalant and unconcerned considering the days ahead. Then again, the thought that their quest would inevitably fail might be giving him a macabre sense of peace. More power to him then. "Tales say I won't have to. Unless, of course, new perils have popped up on the trail since someone last walked through them."
"Maybe the fire killed them all," Axel said viciously.
"Maybe. You up for this?"
A long stretch of trees loomed before them. Axel looked up at the towering branches and leaves overhead. They swayed violently in a sudden wind as if sensing his thoughts. Ah, flammability. "Definitely." He absently fingered his pouch, feeling the sharp edges of the flint through the thin cloth.
Demyx glanced at him in concern. "Axel…"
"Relax. Would I really do that to you?"
"Yes."
"Ye of little faith."
Truth be told, the forest made him uneasy. He remembered arriving in the village some years ago—almost five years ago now, had it really been that long—young, as cocky as they come, and there had definitely been no forest, at least one that he had had to pass through on his way here. And no, he was not senile quite yet. So either the forest had grown disturbingly rapidly in the last five years, or something so traumatic had happened to him as a teenager amongst the trees that he had completely blocked out the entire memory. Foreshadowing, foreshadowing. Not.
Also, he quickly came to realize exactly how little light and how much moisture a forest contained. Even with the onset of autumn, the bed of leaves on the ground did not crackle underfoot but sank. The wood of the trees was not yet dry, trunks still healthy and not desiccated and withered. Still potential firewood, but Axel did not feel comforted that the trees were still alive and, if he believed Demyx and Xion's grandmother, possessing some measure of sentience. Those creaking branches looked particularly claw-like and menacing.
Demyx, damn him, was strolling along, and Axel had decided by now that the man had to be suicidal.
"Axel, can you feel it?"
"This entire army of wood wanting to claw my eyes out. Yes, Demyx, I can feel the malice directed at me from every direction."
Demyx leaned back against the tree he was nearest to. "Axel, you're imagining that. Besides, if you would stop thinking about everything you meet or see in terms of how well they burn..."
"Demyx, be quiet."
They both stood stock still for several frozen moments.
"Axel, I don't hear anyth—" It came again, just as softly, but Demyx's ears prickled this time. "Oh gods."
A soft skittering of rocks came again, just as quietly, never growing louder. Axel began backing up against a tree, then thought better of it. One hand groped for his pouch, undid the drawstrings clumsily, and gripped the reassuring flint. A sharp edge scraped his finger and the cautious shuffling somewhere within the forest stopped mid-sound. Axel and Demyx looked at each other uneasily.
Something roared and they began hurrying, leaping over tree roots, yanking each other up when the other slid on wet leaves, cursing. They ran, backpacks banging painfully against their spines with each stride. Then Demyx crashed headlong into…Axel stopped short just behind the musician and stared. There were thin white strands of wispy thread everywhere. A shade of green tinged his face. He was no arachnophobe, but if this place had giant spiders… "Demyx, come on, get up." That's when he noticed what Demyx had hit his head on. Throughout the mess of white, wrapped casings of the same color hung from thickly twined threads. The one nearest them swung back and forth gently, slowly coming to a rest as Demyx scrambled away from it. His eyes were wide. "What is that?"
Axel's instinctive thought was that they were bodies, dead more likely than not, wrapped up and hung for an afternoon snack someday. Of course, the conclusion he immediately drew from that caused his stomach to turn. Then he realized that the shape was wrong; that was no human or mammalian body inside. The silken wrappings were too even, the shape too smooth and rounded. And the threads were silk, just not spider silk, but… "Demyx, keep running."
Some of the cocoons on the far end were swaying. In respective slits, threads were beginning to split apart and rustling could be heard from the inside of the casings. Demyx stopped, resisting Axel's impatient pull on his shoulder. "Axel! They could still be alive!"
"That's what I'm worried about!" Axel snapped.
"But-!"
"Come on!"
Axel had lost track of how long they were running; all that remained was the monotonous pounding of his blood in his ears, and aching muscles that longed to just give out. He couldn't breathe properly, taking in short gasps of air. The end of the forest was nowhere near if he had to judge from appearances. How many minutes had they been running? Five? Ten? Everything still looked the same, minus the large silent cocoons they had left behind some time ago.
"Axel." He barely recognized his own name, Demyx wheezing it out with painful breaths. They stopped, Axel waiting for his pumping blood to calm. So far, all was now silent. Then in a flurry of flying leaves, a white moth, horrifically disproportioned, burst from the foliage and flew straight for their heads. Axel yanked his arm back, narrowed his eyes, and threw a rock at it. His aim was off. Instead of smashing into the mutated creature's head, it ripped a gaping shred from the wing. With a loud thump, the moth fell mid-flight and crashed to the ground back-first where it lay, legs and wings fluttering helplessly. Axel smiled grimly, drew his dagger, and began making his way towards the thing for a merciful dealing of a quick death.
Three more burst from the trees and he swore, throwing himself backwards. "Demyx!" The blond squeezed his eyes shut, mumbled a very quick apology, and swung as hard as he could. A moth flew in the opposite direction as it collided with the sitar to produce a very unmelodic twang of strings. Demyx winced. Little tufts of white hair clung to the strings and he grimaced, gingerly attempting to flick away the offending objects. That objective was abandoned when a second blur of white shot towards him from above. His sitar collided with the tree and the moth with the sound of splintering. A splatter of yellow and smashed body decorated the tree trunk as Demyx whined and drew his sitar away. Axel meanwhile was having little difficulty now slicing through his opponent's wings one on one. As it lay twitching on the ground, Axel slammed his dagger up to the hilt and dragged open the moth's head. A spray of yellow blood hissed as the moth's limbs beat frantically against him and the ground. Axel waited until the frenetic lashing stopped before pulling his weapon out with difficulty. A trail of black and yellow strained and followed in a thin strand before snapping and falling in a line of beads. Axel quickly dismembered each of the other dying moths in the same way. For his trouble, a few of the kicking legs scraped his face and he flinched. The stiff hairs on the spindly legs were sharp. Demyx was sadly cradling his sitar when he finally stood, groaned, and stretched. Axel knelt, wiping his blade on the wet leaves, grateful for the dampness for the first time.
"You look terrible."
Axel glanced upwards. Demyx looked relatively composed, a few stains of yellow dotted his clothes, but other than that and his hair hanging in sweaty strands, he appeared to have suffered no other aftermaths of the battle. "Wish I could say the same of you. How's the sitar?" He caught sight of thin fragments of wood poking out the side of the instrument and winced sympathetically. "Forget I asked that."
Demyx plucked a string tentatively, expecting no great result seeing as how his finger was bare of mizrab, but the broken echo that emitted from the instrument made his heart clench in pain. "I'm not sleeping here tonight." He looked up at Axel, ready for the heartfelt agreement he was sure would be evident on the other's face. Demyx blinked. And involuntarily screamed.
Axel, fairly certain his face was not to blame, looked behind him in dread. Trees. "Dem…?" By chance, a glimpse of white caught his eyes and his gaze traveled upwards. His mouth dropped open, but he did not bother with words. He began backing up, slowly at first before tripping into a stumbling run, turning his back on the horror. "Demyx!" The sitarist sat stock still against his tree, hugging his sitar against his body. His eyes were fixed directly upwards, and Axel saw that they were beginning to crawl down every tree in the vicinity. Roughly, he hauled Demyx to his feet and began a jerky run.
Fortunately, the bulging silkworms were not fast, hauling, as they were, bloated bodies upon sagging feet. But Axel and Demyx still dared not stop. Who knew what giant silkworms were actually capable of, but it was more the confrontation with these things of nightmares that kept their legs running and lungs heaving. As they flew past trees and the greenery blurred in their vision, more and more shapes of white began appearing before them. Axel tripped, shot out both hands to catch himself, and his hands sank into yielding flesh. It roared directly in his ear as skin stretched and burst. Hot slime splattered his face. Axel dared not look at his hands, nor down at the dying silkworm, just dug his boots harder against the ground and scrambled upwards. They burst into the light, and Axel let go of Demyx and turned. Demyx's momentum carried him forward before he fell to his hands and knees. "Axel, what are you doing?"
Axel did not answer him, but bent and began sweeping together a small bundle of dry twigs and leaves. It was better out here, where the sun could actually reach the ground; the tinder was already roasted dry.
"Axel?"
Demyx was beginning to sound panicked. Axel sighed and called over his shoulder, "Dem, stay back."
He eyed the small curved cage of small dried sprigs. It would have to do. Axel fumbled for his flint, praying gratitude that it had not fallen from his open pouch through all of the falling and dashing he had done. A clash of steel and rock, a spray of sparks. Axel watched the ball of twigs intently, muttering coaxes and threats beneath his breath. A second try returned the same results: the satisfying shooting of little fire fetuses, but not one caught within the nest of kindling.
"Axel!"
"Shut up, Demyx," he breathed. Little glimmers of white appeared sporadically in his outer vision, but he ignored them. Third try lucky, a spark drifted lazily into the waiting bundle and Axel held it to his mouth and whispered. His eyes lifted to the trees before him as he cajoled and tried to reach the tiny spark that was stubbornly fading into darkness. Eyes distracted by the first dark pincer-like mouth emerging from the forest, straight towards him, Axel barely felt the tiny curl of smoke that puffed from the tiny bundle. Still huddled over on the ground, knees bent, he carefully placed the precious handful before him, on the ground, never breaking in his soft litany.
With a roar that could not have been made from any normal vocal cords, the silkworm reared and spat a string of white. Axel dodged as the sticky strands of silk flew towards him. Loose wafting strands caught and clung to his hair, but he didn't dare stop to deal with that in any way. Lips still moving, he glared up into the dark sunken eyes. As the pincer mouths opened and spread wide to engulf and smother its hapless victim, the flames that had been unobtrusively smoldering away blazed upwards in a very differently toned roar. Axel smiled widely, reveling in the blast of heat that assaulted his face and effectively hit the silkworm in the face. Its many legs slammed the ground as its upper body thrashed and fell backwards.
In this carefully executed dramatic scenes, Axel finished enjoying watching the hungry flames begin consuming its way inward, stopping silkworms in their tracks as the wall of heat moved towards them. Branches began catching on fire with the hissing and spitting of a wet cat and wet wood.
"Thought the flames were getting harder to reach."
Axel finally snapped out of his reverie and began backing away on his knees. "It's harder to get the flames to calm down. These babies just leap at the chance to bloom. Oh, this is absolutely disgusting." He had begun to reach for his hair to clear it of the webbed silk, but stopped as soon as he caught a glimpse of his hands covered in dark, almost blackened, green rivulets. His face began turning the same shade. He hadn't noticed in the, pardon the pun, heat of the moment.
"AXEL!" Demyx leapt forward and yanked him out of the way as the blackened flaming corpse twisted and slammed into the ground—before the very spot Axel had been kneeling a second ago. Charring edges of skin were beginning to tear outwards to reveal the green innards. Demyx stared, unable to tear his eyes away, even as his fingers frozenly unclenched from Axel's arms. Axel shrugged him off completely and began wiping his hands on the leaves. Funnily, now that he needed them wet, they were now dried and curling from the heat. He really needed to get gloves sometime. "Think you could conjure up some water, Dem?"
"Not with that going." Demyx nodded at the flames. "Congratulations on starting a forest fire."
Axel smirked, twisting his neck around to look over his handiwork. The sun was beginning to set had it not even yet been a day and the colors splashed across the sky complemented the leaping tongues of flame dancing through the forest. "Thanks."
They agreed to keep watch on the forest through the night. Demyx, reluctantly.
"Why can't we move farther away?"
"What, are you scared of the worms or the flames?"
Demyx maintained his argument that sleeping so close to a wildfire that could and probably would roast them alive was one of the most foolish ideas he'd ever heard. "And I've heard quite a few of them through the years." Demyx held the same distrust towards the element opposing the one he possessed an affinity for that Axel did towards water. But Axel refused to move out into the open stretch of land that lay before them. "Anything mutated and malicious within leagues' distance would come running as soon as they saw us."
Ultimately, Axel won the argument, although they did move further away from the quickly lengthening shadows thrown by the newly skeletal trees. The angry crackling of the fire could still be heard as it moved deep within the forest. Demyx thought about the many cocoons that hung inside and the moths roosting above them in the foliage. Although moths didn't live very long anyways, did they? But then again, these were no natural insects… "I've never heard of such creatures. No bard or explorer has ever told such tales, and you would think they would have."
Axel shrugged carelessly, unfolding blankets that were now missing from someone's house back in the village and laying them out on the ground. "Maybe the experience was so devastating they have no desire to speak of it. If their memories have not blocked it out already. Maybe none who've ever encountered the creatures survived." He flashed a feral grin.
"Lovely, Axel."
In the night, the sudden thought occurred to Axel that he was spending a lot of time watching fire consume places he'd just passed through in the darkness. Sleep did not come naturally to him, but the intoxicating scent of clean smoke, untarnished by the unnatural blends of spice that often accompanied the smoke from sacraments back in the village, lulled him through the night into daylight.
"Sleep well?"
Axel sat up in a very uncharacteristic mood. His mind felt clouded and when he looked upon Demyx, the blond's clothes and skin clean again, he felt as if he were observing over his own shoulder. "Where'd you find water?"
"I think the stream curves around. There's a small pool forming not far from here." Demyx watched his curiously. "Are you all right?"
"Yes…" He gazed raptly at the smoke blooming against the clouds. So caught up in the shifting grey, Axel jumped when Demyx yanked him around by the shoulder. Demyx stared at Axel. "Gods above, you're sloshed."
"No, 'm not."
Demyx stared into eyes that were barely green anymore, a dilated circle of black obliterating the color almost entirely, and repeated stunned, "Yes, you are. You're sloshed."
Axel began a protest, pulling his arm away when Demyx slapped him hard across the face. A splash of water accompanied the move. The bitter coldness of the water more than the pain wrenched his mind from the euphoric cloud of…whatever it had been. "What in hell, Demyx?"
"Oh good, he lives," Demyx commented sarcastically before splashing him again. Axel, by now, had completely recovered and really did not appreciate the second attempt at drowning him ok so he exaggerated coming so close on the heels of the first. Demyx realized that fact a few moments later and his exasperated expression gave way to one more of sheepish horror. "Uhh…good, you're not acting half intoxicated anymore?"
Axel reminded himself that it was not a good idea to strangle the musician, seeing as how the man was the closest person he had to a friend right now. That, and his official go-to person for bailing him out of possible sticky situations such as enchantments or traps and the like. And fine, Demyx had grown on him a bit and suffocating him would result in, he was fairly certain, quick insanity, as he would have to provide both sides of a conversation. Either that or stay silent, which would more than likely lead to the same result.
So he opted for rubbing at his clouded eyes and yawning. "It's the smoke."
"I did tell you we should have moved further ahead."
"Demyx, nothing happened."
"Axel, you were behaving as if possessed by an incredibly lethargic spirit. Don't forget that smoke probably has some form of silkworm essence in it, if not remnants of whatever magic caused those things to change in the first place."
Oh. Yes, Demyx was definitely helpful in yanking him out of enchantments then, if that indeed was the case. "All right, so are we moving on?"
"You want to stay here?" Demyx was rolling up his bedding as he spoke.
"Well, it's not so bad. We're still alive." As Demyx turned to cast an incredibly disbelieving stare at him, certain that Axel was really bespelled out of his mind, Axel chuckled. "Demyx. Sarcasm. Ever heard of it?"
"If I hadn't before, I think I will in the days to come…" Demyx's eyes turned distant. "That pool of water is getting bigger."
"Bigger?" Axel did not like what that word entailed for a large body of the substance he was really really not fond of.
"Axel, calm down. It's not going to engulf the land in an unexpected wave. We…you could wash up there and we can refill our waterskins."
"Give me a moment." Ignoring Demyx's immediate objections of "Axel, don't go near it!", Axel headed towards the forest. He could feel the flames, though they were no longer visible, but he felt them smoldering a fair distance away by now. That was not what he traipsed forward for though. Bending, he examined the blackened husk of a corpse that now lay still on the ground. Several other similar bodies lay nearby, but this one lay directly in front of and closest to the center of the fire damage. In the new morning, it did not seem as frightening. Granted, the fact that the silkworm was now dead and no longer moving helped too. He gingerly felt and lifted its protruding mouth, examined the silk-producing appendages.
"Axel, what are you doing?"
Nothing salvageable, unfortunately. "Do you know how much we could get for silk of this quantity? Find a city and we'd be salivated over. Merchants would fall at our feet for such a bargain." Axel looked mournfully at the blackened trees. Toasting the entire forest had seemed a good idea, but now that the practical side of his brain was in the forefront…
Demyx shrugged. "What use would we have for so much gold?"
Axel cast an incredulous look at him. "Have you lost your sense? Any village would gladly allow us shelter with the right amount of wealth at our disposal."
"But the…no. You said, and I believe I quote correctly, that this was 'castle chasing', which I assume meant questing for this magic drainage situation."
Axel waved a hand. "Who needs magic when we'd be as wealthy as kings?" He caught the displeased frown on Demyx's face and chose to slide smoothly by the confrontation. "It doesn't matter; pure speculation. There's no silk left for us, I'm afraid. Now where's this pool of water?"
Demyx looked as if he wanted to press the issue, but then his shoulders relaxed and he indicated the general direction with a nod. "It's not too far a distance."
While Axel drank on good faith, trusting Demyx's assurance that the water was not contaminated, and used Demyx's recently filled waterskin to clean his hands and then the rest of himself, out of the corner of his eyes, he watched Demyx fit mizrabs onto his fingers and examine his sitar. A few hollow notes sounded in the air. Taking one last drink of the clean water, he approached, hair pressed wetly against his head. "How is i—she?" Knowing Demyx's regard for his sitar, Axel deemed it wise to change his pronouns.
"I don't think…" Demyx carefully traced the broken and fragmented wood of the hollow chamber. "I don't think this is repairable." His face was carefully set into a neutral expression as he spoke. He smiled a little forcibly. "Still playable."
"I'm sorry," Axel was sincere when he said it.
Demyx shrugged. "Yes, well, you didn't exactly force me to break it. I don't blame you."
He carefully tucked the sitar back into its case, and with the whole ensemble strapped securely across his back, stood. "Shall we take our leave then?" He cast a wary glance backwards at the trees behind.
"Let's."
They passed by the pooling water, neither giving a thought as to what brought it or what it portended. They passed over flat lands and dry grass. Axel began to wonder why he'd been so eager to leave the forest. This was much much worse. This was summer heat, not autumn dryness. Sweat traveled down his back in rivulets, yet there was little water to be found anywhere. Were it not for the continual small tufts of vegetation littering the ground, he would have laughed derisively at mapmakers and called this land a desert himself. He and Demyx spoke little, saving words and saliva for a more comfortable period of time yet to come. Demyx also seemed lost in thought most of the time, more distant than Axel had ever encountered him as. He didn't know whether this was a good sign or a bad one that such a preoccupying thought had cropped up in Demyx's mind. Then the stretch of plains ended and he switched to wondering why he'd thought that such a bad experience. For here was another manifestation of the dreaded element come to torment him by placing itself so squarely in his path. Their path, but no doubt, Demyx would not mind this new trek, as he had not in the beginning of their journey through the forest.
"Why a swamp," Axel moaned as soon as the visage became apparent from a distance away.
"Why not a swamp?" Demyx asked absently. "It's as good as anything."
Axel was prepared to glare sharply in Demyx's general direction, but the musician's face merely confirmed that his words had bore not even a hint of malice, but were purely an automatic response. This frustrated him more than if Demyx had outright taunted him about his aversion to water. And yes, he admitted it freely. While water may help clean and stave away thirst in small quantities, in larger amounts, he swore, it gained an arrogance and conniving mind of its own. Of course, he assumed Demyx, upon hearing this, would come up with a similar argument for his beloved fire.
"Demyx?"
"Hm?" Demyx turned his face away from the offending hand that Axel waved directly in his face. "What is it?"
"We're entering a swamp and you've been…your mind's been in another realm this entire days' worth of walking here. What fascinating philosophy is your mind musing over in there?" He tapped Demyx's temple with his knuckles and the musician shied away.
"Axel, do you really care about this?"
"What, your attention being focused on the here and now?"
Demyx sighed. "Do you actually want to go find this mythical castle or am I just aiding you in securing a new position in life that you can leech off of for as long as is possible?"
Axel had not expected this topic of all things, and spoken with such bluntness as well. "Great Odin, Demyx, you're still thinking about that?"
"Answer the question?"
He didn't think about it. "Of course. Why would I bother about renewing the source of magic or whatever quest may lie in that direction if I didn't need to? I didn't see you suggest this quest when the magic supposedly began to wane, until I had to practically coerce and drag you out here with me."
"Don't you care that something's wrong in the land?"
Axel rolled his eyes. "Do you?"
"Yes."
"This land did nothing for me except perhaps spit me out from its earthy womb, to which I will return once it's fed up with me, I suppose. Come on, Demyx, you can't honestly tell me you've had a better experience than I have. We're freaks of nature. People've always looked at us askance, treated us well reluctantly. What are you on about, giving them better than they deserve with their own judgments and acts?"
"You don't care about anyone else. No one? What about Xion?"
"I don't see how rushing headlong into a glorious adventure to save the dying land is going to help Xion anymore than not doing so would."
"What about me?"
Axel started. He hesitated. "What about you?"
"…Never mind. Please forget I said that."
"Demyx. If you're implying that if I cared at all about your wellbeing, that I would go chasing after and slaying this source of darkness or whatever this infectious evil may be, if it even exists, then you're mistaken. Like I said regarding Xion, unless I can see how that would help at all except for getting me killed, which I suppose some people would regard as a benefit for the land, then I'm not setting myself that goal. Right now, I'm going along with that goal tentatively in mind, because there is no better opportunity rearing its golden head up for me to see. But nothing will bind me to that option indefinitely, understand?" He paused, and said less heatedly. "And yes, I do care. You're my best friend."
It was Demyx's turn to gape and attempt to look as if he were not doing so once he realized what he was doing. "You…" He fell into awkward silence and Axel quickly broke in before they would have to endure a more uncomfortable pause. "So. Swamp ahead, now that I've finally gotten your attention back again."
Unlike before, Demyx quickly agreed with Axel without speaking that they should skip over the potentially messy and embarrassing gush of sentiment that seemed poised to burst. He nodded. "If you're prepared to encounter this new terrifying prospect."
"As I said before, let's see how you fare in an inferno."
Demyx snorted. "Yes, like your body would not burn as quickly as mine would."
"What can I say? Fire holds an obvious preference for me. You, on the other hand, it most likely would consider a mortal enemy. No offense, tough to be you, and all that."
"I would think the likelihood of us running into a veritable furnace that we would have to traverse in order to progress is rather low. As compared to us running into landmarks consisting of some form of water."
"Keep telling yourself that, Demyx."
