“Ah!” Basil chirped happily. “There's half of that pineapple bun left.”
“Ew. No. That's from two days ago.”
“Well it's perfect for a barrier construct.”
Touya looked at Basil slowly, then painted a grimace onto his face. “You're not serious.” Basil, while glaring at him firmly, lifted his hand up to the other– the pastry held in his palm for the one protesting to take it. Neither one moved for a few seconds as Touya hoped he could wait him out. Usually that'd work, and Basil would find something more appealing – like a slice of bread in the shape of a pocket with cheese and salted-dried pork inside. Instead this time, the blond held his arm up firmly. Touya waited a few more seconds.
“Hey. My arm's getting tired.” Basil complained as he stood up, pushing the pineapple bun toward Touya.
Touya made sure his face appeared more disgusted as he picked up the small bun. It was a small round innocent piece of fried dough, several days old, that smelled of pineapple. He could even make out the pieces of sliced pineapple lovingly mixed into the dough. He shut both his eyes, took a deep whiff of it's pleasant smell, and then tossed it into his open mouth. Two chews later, he coughed, and then finished chewing it. After swallowing, he opened his eyes to look at Basil, who had crossed his arms in front of his chest and was giving him a very irritated look of disapproval.
It made Touya chuckle his response. “You're right. It wasn't that bad. Fresh is better.”
“We don't have fresh.”
“I know, I know.” Touya waved his hand up in defeat before turning to face the ridge where the boulders were. “Hmm, how long do you think it should last for?”
“More than a day at least. The workers might not arrive tomorrow.” Basil said in a kinder tone.
“All righty.” Touya clapped his hands together and shut his eyes.
All of the muscles in his body went tense as he focused. He drew his right foot back to be inline but behind his left foot, not too close that his toes were touching his heel, but close enough. He slowly waved his arms out as if he were using them as the only thing to balance himself, keeping his elbows at the same height as his shoulders. Slowly, he eased his palms out farther from his body, with one palm open and down toward the ground and the other mirrored, but facing to the sky.
Basil took a few quiet steps back as a spark of electricity went around Touya's form from the tips of his hair, around his woolen clothes, and down to his leather boots.
Touya clearly spoke the incantation, but said it softly so no one besides Basil could hear it. “Borrowing from the Queen, nature assist me, build an impenetrable wall that those seeking to harm these traders cannot break, fifty-two hours then be waste.” His eyes jolted open, the purple eye glowing far more brightly than his green one, until it looked like electricity itself were shooting out of it in the shape of a contained flame. “Construct: Wall, Level One!”
Out from his purple eye the electricity in the same grape color shot forth along his arms to his fingertips and then shot both down into ground, and up into the air. The electricity on the ground zigged and zagged until it shot down the ridge and, within ten seconds, made a giant misshapen circle around the boulders and the tradesman on either side moving them. The bolt that went into the sky burst forth to the tops of the trees before bursting literally like a firework, creating an electric net that connected with the charged bit on the ground.
The tradesmen below stopped and paused for a second as they saw nothing but a flash of light. They waited to see if another would happen, akin to a storm moving in, but when none came, they went back to work.
With a satisfied smile on his face, Touya relaxed his arms and straightened up. As he eased his legs back to a normal standing position, he clapped his hands together as if there were dirt on them he was knocking off. “Not too bad. Level One felt pretty easy to cast.”
“Slowest cast time, but longest lasting.” Basil nodded in agreement. “You think it'll hold back wolves?”
“It should.” was Touya's response as he turned back to face Basil. The blond made a sound as if he saw something on Touya's face and immediately started rummaging in his sack again. Curious, Touya took a step toward him. Before he could get too close, Basil stopped him with his palm against his chest. “What?”
“You're still releasing magic energy.” Basil said without looking up to him. He pulled out a small jar and pulled the cork off it. “Better save it.” Touya held still as Basil held the jar up to his right eye. The electricity that was faintly zapping around seemed to know the jar was there and flocked into it. Once Touya's eye stopped glowing, Basil removed the jar and corked it.
“How many of those do we have now?”
“That's the third.” Basil carefully tucked the jar back into his bag. “It's a good thing Queen suggested we bring the jars.”
“Why?” Touya folded his hands up behind his head. “It's not like we're going to run into walking skeletons in the ruins.”
Basil shook his head at him while smiling. “If that was her worry, she wouldn't be sending an electric eel and an eagle.”
“Yeah, whatever.” Touya looked away disinterested back toward the boulders. “Well, that was boring.”
“You're just annoyed because you had to do that after fighting that living gelatin monster this morning.”
“Wouldn't have had to if you hadn't gone,” Touya changed his voice to a high-pitched irritating one, “Oh lookie, Touya, baby, there's some gelatin! That's perfect for channeling your lightning when we get to the ruins! We can use it instead of a torch. Won't that be cool?~”
“You say that jokingly, but I know you had fun kicking it's butt.” Basil snickered as he tied off his pouch and started into the thick brush away from the boulders. “Look on the bright side.”
“We're walking into a dark forest. How is that bright?” Touya asked as he followed, not dropping his arms from behind his head.
“We're that much higher to the ruins.” Basil pointed into the dim wood. Just ahead of them they could make out the clear white cobblestone of the path, only higher on the mountain.
“Maybe some boars will attack...” Touya muttered hopefully as he felt like the darkness of night was settling in around them. “Wait a minute.” He cried indignantly after his companion. “You aren't an eagle! You're a damn finch!”
“Eagle!”
“Finch!”
“Can a finch make winds like me? No, they can't!”
“You are a teeny tiny bird and I'm an awesome force of nature!”
“You're a weirdo. A jellyfish!”
“Eel!”
“Jellyfish!”
“Finch!”
The two continued bickering as they went.
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