Despite Shroud's previous somewhat helpful vision on how Aodh got so sick, he did not how to cure it. No matter how much he continued to search his no longer present memories, he couldn't recall anything else that would have been useful. He also didn't know what caused burned soul sand to give such nasty inflictions.

He slumped in despair down next to the now unconscious Aodh who shivered from what could only be a high fever. Although Shroud had wanted to depart from Aodh as soon as they had found safety, he couldn't now with his sort of forced companion so ill. Shroud sighed and started his persistent racking of his mind, but again he was at a loss.

Another thing that was bothering him was how he was even slightly willing to help this stranger he didn't even know much about. He didn't care about any other mob; person, no one and he'd rather just kill anyone who got in his way! This unknown kindheartedness towards Aodh who laid silently besides him just made Shroud want to tear off his own skin.

'I need to leave…' Shroud decided and quickly picked himself up and left the makeshift shelter. He would come back for sure, Shroud just needed to be away from Aodh for a bit to calm his nerves so he could think better.

And so Shroud wandered over to the other ledge connected by just a narrow nether rack bridge. He trudged on through the fire and flames and cursed at the soul sand whenever he passed by some. He found a new patch of soul sand and went on a heated rampage, clawing and destroying any he got his claws onto.

'This is your fault you ff-ing piece of aegfho! I could've left Aodh right about now!' Shroud ranted within his mind as more and more blocks of soul sand were destroyed into their smaller counterparts.

The mobs around him saw this and fled, fearing for their lives even though Shroud only felt like feverishly getting rid of all the soul sand. Shroud had been so furious at the soul sand that he nearly used his recently acquired fire attack on it. He snapped back into reality before this happened and just continued to curse and swear at the foul soul sand.

When he got much of his anger out, he sat down by some nearby mushrooms panting deeply from destroying so many soul sand blocks which now the smaller, floating versions littered the floor. He didn't care and picked up one of the red mushrooms and nibble a bit. Then he grabbed a brown one and nibbled on it as well.

As he was eating his mushrooms a miniature spark made a click noise in his mind. Something wasn't right and he paused and listened in-between his deep breaths. It was quiet at first, but then there was a partially fainted, scratchy sounding gasp towards the way he came.

But before he left to investigate, Shroud gathered all the mushrooms in the area for him and Aodh to eat later. Again, Shroud heard the gasp except more clearly and at once knew he had heard a Blaze.

'uh-oh… there's no way there's a fortress so close!' But there was as Shroud found a gap that revealed a large Nether fortress with many Blazes's scouting the place for intruders. Shroud looked away and faced the direction he had been walking from only to see the hideout still in sight.

Blazes, unlike the Ghasts that attacked out of fear, would burn you to a crisp if you were even half way across the Nether from their beloved fortress. Shroud despised Blazes since they were pretty much the only mobs who didn't fear him in the slightest way.

Now Shroud was more angered and annoyed than when he left the hiding spot with such a close by fortress. When Aodh woke up they were finding a new spot that Shroud chose since Aodh's first choice was obviously a bad one.

Unluckily for Shroud who was still in his thoughts, One of the Blaze scouts had looked up and spotted him and burst into flames preparing to fire at the distracted Shroud.

Shroud's eyes widen as he finally noticed the Blaze who just launched his fire towards him. Shroud jumped back and barely dodged one blast. Another blast harmlessly smacked the side while the third flew through the gap and hit a disconnected pillar of netherack off to the right of Shroud.

Shroud turned his attention towards the Blaze who was starting to fly up, trying to get through the gap to him. Scanning quickly around looking for something to block up the gap with, Shroud eyes narrowed at the many blocks of soul sand that was still on the ground.

"Grrr… it'll have to do!" Shroud thought as he glared at the soul sand. He dashed towards it and picked up only a little before returning to the gap and placing the blocks down in front of it.

The Blaze started charging up his flames again when Shroud realized two things…

One: He didn't have enough blocks to fill the opening completely and the Blaze was going to get through the gap before he could get more.

Two: Soul sand plus fire is a really bad thing and a really dim-witted thing to have used to fill the gap with.

So Shroud decided to do something he truly despised to do; He ran.

As Shroud started sprinting to the hideout, Voice started to soundlessly, but violently screech in Shroud's mind causing Shroud to stumble multiple times as his vision blurred. His foot caught the edge of one of the many blocks making him fall into a ditch just as the Blaze got through the opening. Shroud tensed and held his breath as he turned around and saw the Blaze looking around for him.

Somehow as the Blaze looked in Shroud's direction, he didn't see him and went back towards the fortress. Shroud continued to stay still until he was positive that the Blaze wasn't coming back. Voice was no longer screeching, though still mad, so Shroud could think and see clearly again.

He ended up in a small crater that was positioned at the right angle so that he could see out of it but no one could see him in it from a distance.

Shroud counted himself lucky and dragged himself to the hideout which was not too far away. As he entered he noticed that Aodh had awakened and was trying to stand up only to fail. Aodh caught sight of Shroud and seemed to relax.

"Thought you left me for good Shroud, so where'd ya been?" Aodh asked in his usual cheery mood and half-smirk. Shroud just glared at Aodh and pointed to the opening for the hideout and rasped sternly,

"WE ARE LEAVING." Aodh smile turned into a frown at the harshness in Shroud's tone and confused as to why Shroud wanted to leave so soon or at least what he believed to be soon. Shroud just continued to glare intensely at Aodh waiting for him to say something.

"Um.. why do yo-?" Aodh began to say only to be cut off by Shroud who guessed what Aodh was going to say.

"FORTRESS TOO CLOSE!" Shroud partially screeched towards the end. Aodh eyes widened upon finally realizing why Shroud wanted to leave right now for they were pretty much hiding out on a death trap. Only problem was that Aodh couldn't get up and was in no condition to travel. Still, he tried to get up again to leave only to slump back down in exhaustion.

"Shroud I can't move to leave, I'm sorry, but I'm just too drained to move." Aodh hung his head in shame as he finished speaking and only looked up when he felt the area around him suddenly get hotter than it was before.

Aodh stared in shock at what he was seeing. Shroud was engulfed in fire and looked ready to kill Aodh right then and there as his eyes glowed brightly when he narrowed them at Aodh. He looked like he was going to explode when a look of horror crossed his face and clutched his arms tightly around himself and doubled over in what looked to be an attempt hold the flames back.

Aodh saw Shroud shudder fiercely as he walked out of the hideout painfully slow. When Aodh couldn't see Shroud anymore did Shroud unleash his rage on anyone and everything. Many mobs who were curious of the hideout ran away with harsh burns criss-crossing just about every inch of themselves when Shroud caught sight of them.

Shroud grunted in pain as he wasn't used to having his flames be as powerful as they were now. Even scorching twenty Pigmen and two unsuspecting Ghasts didn't extinguish the fire within him. He scanned the area looking for something to get the rest of his anger out on. He saw nothing as the word quickly got out to avoid the area. No longer able to hold back the fire within, Shroud screeched in pain as all the pent up fire was expelled in one massive and destructive wave.

Shroud collapsed and was trying to breathe when he looked around and saw how much of the area he burned. Blocks closest to Shroud had actually been destroyed completely while blocks up to thirty blocks away were on fire. Shroud would've been impressed with himself if he didn't feel like he was going to faint.

Shroud nearly did pass out too, but he gathered himself up and slowly walked back to the hideout which was unharmed by his destruction. He never felt as weak before as he paused to try to steady his heavy breathing and nearly vomited on the spot, but he didn't and started to walk again to the hideout.

When he entered, Aodh was staring at him with fear and concern. Shroud would've been offended by his staring any other time, but he was too exhausted at the moment to care as he fell to his knees and blacked out before his head hit the ground.

/

Aodh watched as Shroud dragged himself in after a while and although Aodh was still afraid of what he had seen, he also felt worried as he saw his strange companion's eyes droop and his body shook with every slow step and heavy rasp. He was about to ask if he was alright when he collapsed to the floor and was instantly out.

Aodh sat there shocked before regaining his wits to check if Shroud hadn't hurt himself when he blacked out. It was hard to get himself up to check, but he finally managed to stand and cautiously hobbled to Shroud. Aodh thoroughly checked for any wounds, but sighed in relief when he found none.

He was still worried though as he had no idea what had just happened besides finding out that Shroud had some sort of fire power, but it seemed he had no control over it.

Aodh decided he would ask Shroud when he woke up. In the meantime, Aodh decided to check his supplies while he waited and how best to use them.

Of course he had his iron sword old faithful with him for protection, but he also had a few empty bowls, four buckets of water, some cobble stone, two glass bottles to drink water from, a used stone pickaxe, and eight slices of pork chops.

The bowl would come in handy when he ran out of the pork chops and the water could be used to bring down his fever which still was bad as ever, but not unbearable at the moment. He couldn't do much with his supplies so he decided he should get some sleep and check on Shroud later when they were both awake.

And so Aodh fell into a light, uneasy sleep waiting for Shroud to wake up from his deep, yet unrestful sleep.