First Steps I

[Arvid Sawyer]

"Are we there yet?"

"I mean," he made a show of looking around. "No, I don't think so."

"Are we there yet?"

"Still no."

"Are we there y-"

"Nope," he replied, not at all bothered by Saul's belligerence. His friend was annoyed and he understood that… And he was too excited to be annoyed, really, so his friend would have to look for something else to do because that wasn't going anywhere.

Somehow, that seemed to annoy Saul even more.

His friend started to grumble to himself but otherwise stayed quiet after realizing that he was unlikely to get a reaction out of Arvid. The now bored teenager kept his hands on his backpack's straps as he walked by his side, both of them moving through and watching the familiar forest and mountain scenery pass by.

Because- Oh, was that a juniper tree?

And with a fallen branch to boot. According to his book, naturally fallen branches tended to be better magical material than ones cut by a person. Good for control. Apparently, it was the tree "giving" the branch to the world, so the material was supposed to "fight back" less when used to cast.

It was all pretty much speculation, but Arvid would take that.

Lucky~!

"Wait a second," Arvid said, not even looking back. He heard Saulus groan behind him even if he stopped at the road to do as he said. He needed all the materials he could get, especially if he didn't need to pay for them. Because he had no delusions on how expensive such things would be. With his rather sad funds, Arvid would pick up any and all things he came across that looked half-decent.

"Again? We will never get to Willowherb if we keep stopping at every tree you find," his friend said with a tired sigh. He didn't know what the rush was for though. Sure, they'd already been at it for a few hours, but they should be pretty close already. He hadn't stopped to pick up branches that much and there was little else around the road that'd caught his eyes.

"Come on, I thought you didn't care about even going anywhere," Arvid replied, rolling his eyes before going back to checking the branch. It was too big to be turned into a wand without working on it, but that was fine. Better too big than too small. It wasn't too hollowed or cracked either, which was nice. 'Yeah, this'll do,' he decided, taking it and placing it inside his backpack. Good thing he'd only packed the absolute essentials to save space for just that purpose.

"I don't care about the destination, but I do care about having to walk with this heavy backpack… or stopping every few minutes for you to inspect trees or flowers," He answered with a sigh. "It is close to noon, we left Wintergreen at five, Arvid. It was supposed to be a two to three-hour trip to the station," the man groaned yet again.

He looked towards the sky, the tree tops covered most of his vision, but he could tell that the sun would be at its highest point in an hour or two. Huh, he has been stopping a lot more than he thought.

"Why is that branch that important anyway? It looks like every other branch out there," Saul continued while squinting at the juniper tree branch peeking out of his backpack as if he would get his answer from it.

"Fallen branches are more agreeable as magic foci," Arvid started explaining, very excited to talk about something that he was quickly coming to love. "Supposedly, the tree gives permission to use it, since the branch detaches from it naturally. Much better than having to cut it off of the tree. The magic flows much more smoothly through it and just like it's supposed to."

"That… makes absolutely no sense to me. But then again, I doubt magic cares about making sense," his friend shrugged, already losing interest in the topic.

"It doesn't, but that's just the best part about it, right? It's not logical, it's all about meanings and emotions and abstract things. Makes it much more fun, honestly," Arvid commented with a chuckle. "I do wish it'd make a little more sense. Would make my job easier, but I'm not really complaining."

"If you say so, V," Saul said with another sigh. He had been doing that a lot. "Shall we continue or you gotta hug the tree too as thanks for the branch?"

"That'd be fun, but I don't think it works like that…" he replied, before pausing and tilting his head. Would it work like that? Maybe not quite how Saulus said it, but maybe some other way of thanking the tree for the material… Maybe that kind of thing would work? "I should look into that though, maybe."

Saul only rolled his eyes, but that was fine. Arvid was the one that was interested in wand crafting, not him. As it was, he was just grateful that Saul had even brought up the topic so he could talk about it. And who knows? Maybe his friend had just given him an idea.

They continued their walk through the road after that. It turned out that they weren't that far from the town at all. It wasn't even an hour later that the forest density started to die down to give place to mossed rocks and patches of grass. Without the trees impeding their vision, both of them could spot the town further down the serpentine road that made its way down to the base of the mountain.

"I was expecting it to be bigger than Wintergreen and with a lot more people… But it's still surprising," Arvid commented, looking around with wide eyes. Even before they reached the place it was interesting, with the vast sights uninterrupted by the mountains. The forest was a familiar sight, but not seeing peaks over the horizon was new, and the plains had been a completely novel experience too. "And this is just a town. Can't wait to see what Magnolia is like," he mumbled, looking around and doing his best to not look like a wide-eyed kid.

He probably failed though.

"Yeah, welcome to civilization, oh savage one. Let me tell you about the customs here before you try to knock someone with a club and take them to your cave," Saul commented exaggeratedly before chuckling. He wasn't as excited as him, but given that he was born in the capital and regularly visited his older brother there a few times a year, this was probably nothing much.

"I'll try my best not to," Arvid replied easily.

Both of them descended the rest of the mountain and crossed the small plains, probably gained by cutting down a portion of the forest. In the distance, at the opposite side of the town, he could see a small plum of smoke rising and rushing away from the town. The sound of a whistle reached his ears soon after, only covered by the ever growing sound of people talking and moving in numbers he had never seen before.

"That's the train, I'm guessing?" Arvid asked, looking in the sound's direction.

"Yeah, one of them at least. It seems to be going in the direction of Crocus though," he answered both of them following the lazy trail of smoke making its way toward the horizon. "It's not ours, we would need to go the other way."

From there, it descended into a talk about the town itself. Willowherb was mostly a merchant trade center. A gathering of small firms or independents that made a living from buying materials from places around it and sending them somewhere else. Just like how Wintergreen sold wood and some crafts, other villagers sold metal, Lacrima ores, or even animal pelts, Merchants would buy anything they could make into a profit.

It wasn't long before they arrived at the gates of the town itself. He had seen them from a distance, but the sheer size surprised Arvid slightly now that he stood in front of them. They were made of cut stone and higher than even Miko's inn in height. He could spot some guards in armor making their rounds on top of it, going from one tower to the other at regular intervals.

Arvid stayed behind a little, his excitement leaving place to a quiet worry as he followed his friend's example while they approached the guards. Saul was the expert, as it were, and he certainly didn't want to mess anything up somehow. Still, he ran a hand through his hair, peeking through the gates and into Willowherb. He couldn't wait to walk around and see what was different and what was the same as in Wintergreen.

"Papers…" Arvid heard a bored voice intone from beside the gate. Both of them turned towards a small building embedded in the wall right next to the entrance. A pair of guards stood beyond a countertop. A group of people moved forward from the short queue they found themselves in. The process repeated itself with every new person and it wasn't long before both of them found themselves at the front of the line.

As they passed their IDs to the man, Arvid saw him pause for a moment, something that hadn't happened with the person from before. 'Reading the mage part, I guess,' he thought. He hoped so, at least, because his mind was rather unhelpfully coming up with things that could screw up his chances of traveling to Magnolia. Did he need to renew the IDs and he'd forgotten? He'd got it updated to add his Wand Crafting and Wand Magic, but maybe he'd forgotten something or got something wrong?

"Everything is in order," the guard said, passing the IDs back. "Have a nice day."

"You as well," Arvid mumbled, letting out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding back.

"What's up?" Saulus asked from his side, having noticed his nervousness.

"I just want things to go well. Getting sent back would suck," he answered with a nervous chuckle.

Saulus just hummed in response.

As they walked through the streets, Arvid was a little taken aback by the amount of people. No matter where they went or where he looked, the streets were never empty. Granted, sometimes there'd be few people, but in Wintergreen there were entire chunks of village where you could walk through and never see anyone. It was like being near or in the main square, but everywhere.

There were colors everywhere. Bright and dark, decorated or simplistic, but never basic. Everywhere had a look, an aesthetic, a theme. Shops and restaurants of all kinds littered the side of the streets. Employees screamed at the top of their lungs to attract some customers away from the competition.

It was chaotic in such a wonderful way.

It was all full of personality and emotion and life.

While they walked, they saw many things, things that Arvid had only been able to daydream about before. His imagination fell short, as it turned out. Even the simplest of things, like the stone road and normal houses stood out to him. They weren't that different from those at Wintergreen but they were different and that was enough for him to look at them in wonder. There was a lot more rock and a lot less wood, for one, which as the son of a carpenter struck him as odd, even a little unsettling.

And then there were the people and the merchants. Those latter ones were everywhere. Some had stands, some others moved their goods in carriages through the city, probably either arriving from or leaving towards somewhere else. Wintergreen was lucky if it got a merchant or two a month and in Willowherb Arvid seemed to come across a new one with every turn of his head.

It was all so… so different.

It was less than an hour later that they managed to make it to the other side of the town. In front of them, the train station stood imposing over him. He could see the train tracks going towards the sides and through the automatic gates that allowed them to safely cross the walls.

Saulus was currently in the middle of a very large and slow line. Being that he was the one that had to buy the tickets for their train trip given that he had done this multiple times before. His friend looked utterly miserable as he advanced a few short steps every few minutes, but his sacrifice would be remembered… maybe.

Arvid, meanwhile, waited on a bench in the park next to the station. His eyes kept darting around in every direction, trying to take everything in without any sign of stopping anytime soon. The place wasn't as populated as the main road, sure, but it was still pretty crowded. There were also several stands along the outside part of the square which had people passing by to check the goods, if not always buy something.

Glancing towards Saul and the queue he was in, Arvid decided that he did have some time to peek around.

Which he did, eagerly.

So, he started walking by the stands, checking what they sold. There seemed to be a bit of everything, from trinkets to food and everything in between. He passed by souvenirs, tea, incense, clothes, leatherworks and woodworks (shoddy jobs, those). Then Arvid stopped in front of one in particular.

"Ah, someone with a passion for the crafts, huh?" the man behind the stand asked, to which Arvid smiled at the obvious question with an even more obvious answer. Who else would stop at a stand that only sold materials, after all?

"Yeah, can you tell me the price of these?" he asked then, not wanting to waste too much time. Saulus was going to be done with the queue any moment then and it wasn't like he had all that much money to spend. Still, the creature materials on the stand were pretty good, in his inexperienced opinion. Nothing seemed to be too damaged, at least. There were hides, furs, scales, feathers, claws, teeth, fangs, spikes. Even some vials of blood, he noticed morbidly. 'Magical materials,' he realized, reading some of the labels. He wasn't going to be able to afford much, but maybe he could get a good price on them?

"Of course," the man answered happily. It was then that Arvid's hopes were dashed as the merchant spoke, a smile on his face as if he hadn't just uttered a number that wouldn't just take everything Arvid had, but also put him in debt. Then, obviously noticing the change in his expression, the merchant continued, signaling a much more accessible assortment of goods. "All as fresh as they can be, of course. Only the best."

Arvid hummed distractedly as he looked at the materials. If he could get some of those, what wands would he be able to make…?

"Could we lower the price a bit if I bought several?" he asked, turning his attention to the merchant for a moment. The merchant's customer face fell into a disinterested one now that he knew Arvid didn't have much money. "I'm a bit short on money and in the middle of a trip, so I can't really afford as much as I normally would."

And he'd learned never to take a merchant's first price, so there was that too. He'd only broken the "always haggle" rule once in his life, but that had been for the Wand Crafting book, so he thought it was justified. He needed money to get to Magnolia and not be on the streets afterwards though, so…

"And I would normally be fine with that, but my cart broke down shortly before arriving here, you see? I have to have it fixed, and for that I need money, my friend," the merchant said.

Immediately, Arvid's eyes shone at the opportunity presented then and there.

"Guess we can make a deal then," he said, drawing a raised eyebrow from the merchant.

[}-o-{]

"So, you two are magicians?" the merchant asked.

"Yep," Saul answered absently as they watched Arvid work his "magic" on the cart. He'd grumbled a little at the state of the vehicle, but he always did that. People needed to take better care of their things, he'd say.

"You… are not going to help him?" the merchant continued his query while giving him a wry look. Both of them glanced at Arvid while he continued working on the cart, fixing it was something that wouldn't take very long. The merchant paid for the extra wood after all.

"Nope," Saul responded, again. Which was fair. He did technically get abandoned at the queue and he had spent the past hour looking for him. He could understand his friend being a bit pissed at him.

"I-I see…" the merchant said, petering out at his friend one-word responses. He had been trying to start a conversation with Saul since he had arrived half an hour ago. At first, he'd also tried to sell him some of his wares, eager for some more income. When that didn't work, he tried to start small talk to break the ice.

Now? Now he just looked like he was about to cry.

"So, what'd you get attacked by for the thing to end up like this?" Arvid asked, throwing the poor bastard a bone. Saul had been in a bit of a mood since they got out of Wintergreen and now he was worse. He was his friend, but he knew he could be a bit much for others.

"A-Ah, yeah those," the merchant hurriedly said, eager to start a conversation that didn't put his social skills in doubt. "It was because of a pack of Jagras, nasty creatures that they are. They ambushed me on my way to town when I came back from Sorrel."

That explained the claw marks, Arvid supposed. Quadruple reptile-like monsters with nasty claws and an even nastier appetite. Those creatures didn't tend to go high enough up the mountains to be common around Wintergreen, but he had seen the odd straggler group reach their walls once or twice before. Usually, they were weak enough for even the village itself to drive them away. Or, if they proved to be too much of a nuisance for long enough, they were dealt with by the Rune Knights… or a mage.

Most of the time, they were considered more of an annoyance as long as they didn't gather in too big of a group or you walked into their nests. Yet they were really aggressive and ate anything they could fit inside their mouths. Rune Knights and some guilds went regularly to cull their numbers before they became a danger to any ecosystem they came across.

The problem was that sometimes some of their members tended to leave the packs for greener pastures somewhere else. Thus, spreading themselves like an annoying pest. A small broken pack of Jagras were few in numbers, but if left unchecked they could triple in number in just a few short years.

He imagined this last scenario was the case for this because a proper Jagras pack would have destroyed the whole thing. Let alone those Great Jagras he had been warned about. Though those had never actually gone up the mountain too heavy and fat to make the trip up… or anywhere, really. It was still a story told to children to keep them out of the forests, together with several others.

"That is odd," Saulus finally joined the conversation with a drawl. "I thought they stayed way deeper into the forest. If there was a group here, the Rune Knights would have already dealt with them way before they attacked anyone on the roads."

"Well, I don't know about that. But there weren't many of them, I already filed a report for the Rune Knights about it and they told me they would start an investigation about it." Arvid guessed that made sense, lowly monsters or not, they couldn't let the roads towards the town be the hunting ground for any kind of monsters at all. "They even said that they would refund most of the money I lost along with my cargo once they verify what was lost, but I need that money now if I want to fill my Guild's quota. If I don't get the money for the membership by next week then…"

"Sounds rough. Think you can make it?" Arvid asked, his voice a little strained as he continued working. The merchant, Fergus, if he remembered his name correctly, looked towards the floor in defeat before he shook his head and sighed.

"If I still had at least some of my cargo, then sure. But with what I have left? Unless I overprice it…"

"Hopefully not to us," Arvid commented jokingly, even if it wasn't really a joke. He had wands that he could use to make sure the deal was upheld and he'd do it if he had to.

"Of course not! I'd never go back on my word like that," the merchant protested, acting offended. Arvid wondered how much of that was true and how much of that had an added 'especially with a mage' to it. Regardless, he wasn't going to make things hard on the guy as long as he held his end of the deal and that'd be that. "Although… maybe we can strike a second deal?" the merchant added, which made him pause.

"I'm listening," Arvid answered instantly. Saulus groan of annoyance was completely ignored by both parties.

[}-o-{]

[Saulus Lambent]

"I hate you, so much."

"I love you too, buddy," Arvid replied cheerfully, sitting beside him on the back of the merchant's cart.

All three of them were on their way towards where the merchant had been attacked. He did propose to leave this to the Rune Knights, but even he knew it would take far more than the week's deadline the merchant had. The guys weren't exactly known for making it in time after all, stretched thin across the entire country as they were. They usually only moved with any sort of speed when things were serious, which wasn't the case now. It wasn't like a road to a random village from a small town like Willowherb was of any kind of priority.

There is a reason most people just placed Free Jobs for independent mages to take and hoped for the best when they wanted their problems gone fast. If not, one usually waited for the Council to approve the quest and reach the Guild boards, but that would take even more time.

Such was the way of bureaucracy.

"This is what we are signing up for whenever we apply to Fairy Tail anyway. What's the big deal?" his friend added.

"For you, it might be the case. You are getting materials for your wands after all. I am doing this as charity work," he sulked while trying to relax inside the cart whose driver, the merchant that had spent his evening drilling his ear with friendly words while looking at him like one giant wallet, did his very best to run over every bump and rock to ever exist in Earthland.

He knew the kind. Sweet words and a moment of weakness and he would have anyone's attention. They were pretty much everywhere in Crocus. Hell, Saul himself had received lessons on how to do it from his brother's firm. Empathy sells after all.

The guy wasn't even that good at it. His eyes might as well be Jewel notes. He was just lucky Arvid really wanted those materials.

Fucking amateur.

"Oh, come on. Don't be that way," Arvid told him with a chuckle. "I'll treat you to something when we get to Magnolia and start making money. How many magazines is this gonna cost me?"

"You are such a kind man, Mr. Sawyer. I swear I thought I was going to lose my job over this. If only the world had more people like you…" The slimy, rat-looking man directed the most overworked puppy dog eye's look he had ever seen at them. He had pretty much been kissing the ground Arvid's walked on since they agreed to help him. He guessed part of it was genuine, since he was basically getting his cargo back, at premium speed at the cost of a few materials he could only sell to a small number of customers. How many people were going to buy a vial of blood or a yellow tooth the size of a finger after all?

Arvid just rolled his eyes.

"We are here to help, Fergus. Think nothing of it," were his friend's words, even if his face said something completely different. Nice, Arvid might be, but he was no idiot. "God, if I wasn't so short on money right now," he mumbled for only Saul to hear.

Saulus wasn't sure if Arvid got how slimy the shit was, but he at least knew the merchant was happy about getting the biggest part of the cake here though. You don't grow up in a small town without learning how to haggle after all.

"If he tries to weasel out of his side of the deal, we beat him up and take the cargo," Saulus whispered back. Mentally begging for the man to try just that.

Suddenly, Arvid looked like he very much wished that would happen too, eyes darting towards the many boxes and bags on the cart.

'Atta boy. Come to the dark side.'

"So, I was attacked around here," the unaware rat said with a slight tremble in his voice. He guessed that he was still reasonably afraid of the creatures that almost killed him, even if his greed was clearly superior to his survival instincts.

And it was easy to see that the man wasn't lying. Chips and pieces of wood from the cart spread across the road. He could even spot the beasts' tracks, even if he was no expert on the matter.

Most of the crates looked to be broken down, but at least the cargo was still there, even if in tatters. Pelts of animals, claws, and even some bones were thrown around smashed crates. Luckily for the merchant, only the crates that seemed to have once held meat were completely empty, he could smell the scent from where he was.

The cart slowed down with the sound of the electric-powered Lacrima dying down. It was a civilian version of the vehicles mages tended to use. Just that it was way slower and more inefficient than a person pumping their own magic power into it.

With a hop, both of them descended and got to work. They carried whatever few crates were still intact first, then gathered what was spread around the road inside and placed them inside new empty boxes they had brought along inside the cart.

It wasn't long before they had most of the lost cargo back into the vehicle. Even if neither of them was a particularly experienced mage, circulating your Ethernano through your body wasn't a particularly hard skill, anyone with a working magic container could do it almost by instinct. It wasn't a lie to say that even average mages could be considered superhuman by the common folk… As long as they fed their body enough magical power, that is.

Saulus made sure to complain at every turn even if he wasn't even tired though. It was pretty much their working ritual at that point. Besides, it helped them distract themselves from their nervousness. They made it a point for at least one of them to have their magic on hand during the whole process for a reason, after all.

While Saulus got the things inside the new crates, Arvid kept watch, white-knuckled grip on the axe he'd brought as a secondary – read, main, since his wands weren't that great yet – weapon and his other hand often twitched towards where his creations hung from his belt. Whenever his friend took them back to the cart, Saulus let ashes swirl around his arm. They were both ready to lash out at whatever decided to come out of the tree line a scant few meters away from them.

Even if they could probably take a couple of Jagras themselves, they didn't exactly know how many of them were out there. A full pack of them might mean they would have to retreat.

Better to get things done quickly.

"See? Piece of cake," the merchant said, very pleased with their job.

It was at that moment that they heard a hiss coming from the woods.

[} Chapter End {]

Adrian: Ah, maybe his real name is Murphy instead of Fergus?

Arc: The man had one job…

Adrian: I mean, should have expected much from him… but probably would have been disappointed anyway.

Arc: Leaving that guy aside. Our heroes are finally on the first leg of their adventure. Arvid certainly had a good time visiting his first town ever.

Adrian: When a small town is already an adventure… Arvid's going to have a good time for a while it seems. Regardless of that though, we hope you enjoyed the chapter. Please, do let us know what you think about it. Reviews are our entire motivation to continue writing.

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