San Dorino outskirts, one week later
Despite their rocky start, Ozzie was surprised by how quickly it seemed Janus had warmed up to him. While initially unsure about having a kid tagging along, he felt that if this kid really came from Zeal, then he was a living, walking treasure all on his own.
Janus ran up ahead and jumped on a rock, holding a big stick and waving it around. "Ozzie? Can you really teach me magic?"
"Only if you're willing to learn it," Ozzie replied. "No more of this 'I have it/I don't have it' crap. You're talented, and I think its time you embraced it."
Janus gave some deep thinking to this. He buried his magical prowess deep away in his mind back home. Thirst for power was doing terrible things to his mother, and it seemed to demand everything that his sister had. He hated that, and refused to allow the same to happen to him. Now though, he didn't care. He'd never hated anything before in his life, not even his own mother, as much as he hated Lavos. One day, some day... He was going to kill it. It couldn't possibly expect to get away with what it did, and he was going to teach that creature that it was not invincible."
"Back home..." Janus spoke, "Schala told me I had 'Shadow Magic', and that it was rare... ...is that good, Ozzie?"
Ozzie smiled. "Rarest of rare... followed in order by light, fire, and finally water. It's also the most destructively powerful, in that same order... of course... my own knowledge of magic is pretty basic. I make dead things walk again, I don't know a lot about fireballs or tsunamis or stuff like that. For that, you would need a magician. Don't worry, we'll meet a magician someday Janus. For now though, let's just focus on a few basic wards. You know what a ward is, right?"
Janus scratched his head. He never actually had to think about this before, but now he wished he'd paid attention. "Uhh... I think so..."
"Ok, no worries," Ozzie told him. "Basically, a ward is like a sort of shield. Cast this when another foe launches a magic attack to block it. In order to cast a ward on a target, you simply point to that target with one hand, while the other hand makes the signs. To point it at yourself, you just point to the ground. Think you can do that?"
Janus followed Ozzie's gestures closely and chanted as needed, but it took several tries before he finally, *briefly* got a small shield to appear around him. By the time he had managed to finally and reliably sustain a magic ward, they were already deep within a huge forest.
"Ugh, I hate this forest..." Ozzie groaned. "It's so huge... I can never find the way back to the secret cave back home.
Janus was too busy pretending his new ward spell was blocking off Lavos's attacks to notice or care what Ozzie was talking about. He knew he'd probably need stronger magic than this, but as long as he was learning, he was sure he'd be alright. Ozzie, however, had made it painfully clear over the past week that he was pretty bare-bones, and not a professional for the boy to look up to. For that reason, Janus longed to meet a wizard of some sort that actually could teach him the things he needed to know...
"Janus... Janus! HEY JANUS!"
Janus looked up at his big friend. "Huh? Wha?"
"I said are you coming or what? The woods are on fire!"
Janus looked around for signs of a red blaze, but mostly found heavy smoke filling the air. Coughing and running out with Ozzie, he looked back to see a red glow was indeed beginning to fill the air.
The sound of laughter came from somewhere deep within.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA! EVERYTHING IS ASH! THE TREES, THE LIMBS! THE LEAVES! THE GRASS! EVERYTHING BURRRRNNSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS! IT'S ONLY NATURAL THIS WAY!"
Janus and Ozzie ran back in, covering their mouths as they tried to rescue the screaming child lunatic. By the time the two of them found him, he was laying on the ground, in a coughing, laughing fit, fire still pouring out of his hands. "LLLLOVE IT! THE FIRE IS BEAUTIFUL!"
"Janus, grab his legs and let's get him out of here!"
Flaming branches were coming down all around them as they quickly tried to get this mad pyro to safety. Almost nobody tried to put the fire out, as only San Dorino got involved: it was two days from Porre, so they didn't even bother.
Janus and Ozzie stopped on a hill overlooking the blaze, and laid the boy in the grass. He looked to be a bit younger even than Janus, but definitely mage-like.
"...I think he's dead. Do that thing where you bring the dead back!"
"I don't bring the dead back..." Ozzie repeated, "I just make the corpses live again. What this kid needs is some mouth-to-mouth, I'm afraid... Just hold on..."
Ozzie was about to put his lips to the kid's face, when the boy woke up and screamed, slapping him across the face. "YOU HOUNDING FIEND! I'm not *that* kind of boy after all~"
Janus and Ozzie gave each other a look. What a weirdo.
"Hey," Janus told him. "You know we just saved your life back there."
"Yeah?" The magician groaned. "What do you want for it, a medal? Wanna 'nother merit badge for that stupid amulet you're wearing?"
Janus scowled. "I... it's not stupid! You shut up!
The little magician laughed loudly. "Your mom!"
Janus jumped on top of him and started trying to gouge his eyes out. He might have succeeded if Ozzie had not intervened.
"ALL RIGHT, THAT'S ENOUGH! Look, kid... we're just passing through alright? We saw a fire, we came to help. Simple as that. Now, look if we can just-"
"SHADOW!" he continued. "Hey, holy crap, you're a Shadow Boy!"
"Huh?" Janus asked. "Oh! yeah... I am Shadow! I know, right? hahahahaha... What are you, then?"
"I'm fire mainly," said the young magician, cockily, "But I also know a lot of illusion magic. Magic is definitely my strong suit, and I loooooooooooooooovvvvveeeeeeeeeeee using it!"
Janus's smile lit up."Then you're gonna teach me all about it!"
"Whoa, whoa whoa hang on a second," the kid replied. "Why would I do that?"
Janus immediately responded by lifting the little wizard into the air and tossing him around a bit. He didn't know much of dark magic at the time, but he'd caught on to this much at the very least. The magician fought it a bit, but ultimately stopped trying once Janus had lifted him high enough into the air.
"H-hey, man..." The kid whined. "Come on... let me down... Look, I'll teach you some more magic, I promise! Just don't ask me for fire, ok? You have to be fire element to do that!"
Janus frowned, angrily. "I want you to teach it to me anyway."
The kid screamed as Janus started shaking him. "I CAN'T! LOOK YOU'RE SHADOW, IT WON'T WORK!"
Janus was getting impatient. "I... SAID... TEACH ME... NOW!"
The little magician was tossed to the ground, hard. Tears were in his eyes... "h-hey... n-no f-f-f-fair... *sniffle*... stop it..."
Now, Janus felt kind of bad for beating the kid up. He offered the boy a hand and helped him to his feet. "Alright. But you *are* gonna teach me fire magic. I'll learn, no matter what."
"Might as well..." the kid sniffled. "I've just been doing this ever since my folks got burned up at the stake. I guess it was their fault for being... fiends.
"Sounds like we're both loners, then... comin' our way?" Janus asked.
"you know what? Sure. I can get down with that", the magician replied. "So, what's your name?"
"Janus Zeal. You?"
"Hell if I know," the little mage shrugged. "I bug people so much though, that they usually just call me 'Flea'. So... I guess that's my name."
That made Janus feel awkward. So far, he was the only person he'd met who had a last name. Ozzie and this weird kid were both in the same park otherwise, and it was starting to make Janus feel... "less than fiendish". Over time, as their journey towards Medina continued, Janus came to use his last name less and less. He even experimented with a few other monikers of his own, like "Face" or "Blue". Nothing he had really stuck out though...
Janus was becoming convinced that his new allies might actually be friends. He was still untrustworthy of either of them though, and, as he would one day discover, he was right for it...