Magical Girl Quest - The Fire That Burns

The three of you make fairly good time as you go. The several days of rest were apparently greatly rejuvenating to your sister, as her insistence at walking over any hills they found instead of around them. Admittedly, the view from on top was breathtaking and let you avoid any roads or small villages. Once, you'd had to move through a farmers land, but thankfully you weren't noticed. Though it was a little strange to find a farm this far north, there was probably something going on there but frankly not my problem.

With the fact that Morgan had managed to find you because of using magic, you clamped down on it as best you can for the entire duration of the walk, along with the fast pace you set. No breaks or stops, eat while you walk. When you ask Morgan about it she sends you an understanding look and starts to explain as you walk up a particularly steep hill.

"Compressing your magic like that is one way of doing it, but I really wouldn't recommend it for the long term." A pause as she takes a particularly long leap from a fallen tree to higher up the hill, jumping further than humanly possible. "It's a reliable way of hiding exactly how much magic you have at basically any range, but it's still possible to tell that you have magic. It's why I didn't notice how powerful you were until you stopped."

"Mmm, I'm assuming you are doing something different, seeing as I nearly didn't notice that you had magic at all?" You decide to take the more sensible route and walk around the little lump in the earth. "Also, how the hell are you doing that?" She looks at you from her perch a little confused, so you clarify a little. "Jumping so far without using magic."

She thinks about it for a moment before letting out an ahh. "Oh yeah, I'd completely forgotten about since I thought you knew. My bad." She hops down at least three metres and lands without issue. "The longer and more powerful magic you use, the stronger your body grows in proportion, usually. It's not always the case but in general you can pull off minor feats of magical strength on your own, nowhere near what you can do with magic, but it helps."

"Anyway, back on subject." She takes the opportunity to leap up the side of a particularly steep section, reaching down to give you a hand from the top. You take a quick run-up and push off of the base of the wall. You mange to make it high enough that you catch a grip on the top, though you still grab her hand and let her pull you up. "There are literally hundreds of different ways to try and hide your magic. Everyone makes their own way of hiding and their own way of finding." She lets out a little snort. "Honestly, anything involving shared magical knowledge is an enormous clusterfuck. No-one wants to share their secrets and old grudges mean that that transitions to literally everything. Thankfully, tensions have been cooling down recently, not sure why though."

"The way I use is to make my magic as passive and out of notice as possible. So long as I don't do anything with it, it generally passes underneath peoples notice." She grunts as she nearly falls off of the fallen tree she is currently walking on as she talks to you. "Someone out there will be able to find my magic, but it's fine since the vast majority won't notice." She lets out a little huff before surrendering and hopping down off of the tree. "Your magic, when I felt it for that brief moment was..." She looks a little lost as she stares at you, absentmindedly winding her way through the foliage at her feet without issue. "Once, two years ago or so, I was privileged enough to witness the birth of a Dragon."

Her words catch both your and Una's attention the second she utters them. Dragons are real! Yeeeees "It was like I was standing in the heart of a star, while said star was staring you down and contemplating the best way to eradicate you from existence." She shuddered a little. "Your intentions leak into your magic and if you know how to read that, it can tell you a lot about someone." She eyes you out of the corner of her sight as she looks forwards before glancing at your sister. "You're a scary girl yeah? But your heart is in the right place and don't let anyone tell you otherwise."

Before you can react to that she spins around and starts walking backwards. "For now, what you are doing is fine. There are a lot of magical beings wandering around, most of them animals or mobile clouds of magic. Just don't let out a lot of magic and it'll be fine." She smirks at you before jumping backwards up a small embankment. Oh now you are just showing off.

Your pointedly ignore her show of skill as you think. "You said you know about Magical Girls?" Just saying the words induces a twitch that makes your sister smirk at you from her position just ahead of you. "Is it common knowledge or are you just a creepy knowledge hoarder?" Your words apparently hit the right spot, because she promptly trips over backwards and has to fall into a roll to save herself from faceplanting the dirt. She recovers admirably as she glares at you, the look entirely ruined by the smudge of dirt on her cute face.

"I-I'm not!" She takes a breath as she moves to stand closer to you, facing forwards this time. "It's somewhat common knowledge, like... like you know that electricity powers electronics? Everyone knows, but it usually isn't relevant so you don't think about it. Most people learn from being told stories in their childhood but some people learn while looking through books and the like."

"Is there anything about magical girls that I should really know then? Any big secrets or downsides that aren't immediately apparent?" It was something you had worried about, there had to be some sort of downside right?

She strains her face as she thinks for a moment. "Uhh, not really? Apart from the whole Gaia thing there isn't any massive secret that I know about." She thinks for a moment longer before a small blush grows along the edge of her face. "There is uhh, one thing, yeah. Not really a secret or anything, but I should probably let you know ahead of time." She stops and squares herself up, looking straight at you. She hesitates for a while, shifting from foot to foot before her face firms. "If you didn't like girls before, you do now."

You stare at her speechless for a moment as what she is saying sinks in, a creeping blush also growing up your face. "W-what?" Really, you were such an eloquent speaker.

She moves her eyes away from you, though she stays standing where she is, resting her weight on one foot. "It's umm, a Gaia thing." She takes a deep breath, you hear her say under her breath why me. "For whatever reason, whenever girls are made into Magical Girls, she always uhh, tweaks their preferences." She hastily continues before you can react. "You can still like guys, yeah. Just, you'know. Yeah." I think I want to die

Your embarrassment is not helped by your sister letting out quiet giggles in the background from where she is leaning against a tree, hand held to her mouth. "I'm just uhh, mmm." You just decide to forget this ever happened, turning forwards and re-starting your walk, a touch faster than before. You were thirteen and you weren't thinking about this even if she was right and oh god Una is never going to shut up now. You knew it was a bad idea to let her read those Magical Girl Manga, as her quiet whispering of YuriYuriLove continued. You had no idea what Yuri was but you had a pretty good idea and notthinkingaboutit

You kept your gaze solidly forwards for the next hour, not saying a word. The silence was only filled by the crunching of your feet on the floor and Una's slowly quieting giggles. Eventually it's abruptly ended by your travelling companion. "I'm sorry." You look at her, she still looks embarrassed but also a little guilty. "I didn't mean to upset you, it's just something I thought you would want to know."

You let out a quiet sigh. "You didn't upset me, I just, don't really want to think about it ok?" She nods and takes a deep breath before plastering a smile onto her face. "So, Magic right? I'm not really sure how it must feel to you, since I've known about it since like... forever. But it must be pretty weird for you huh?"

Not where you were expecting her to take this but ok. "Yeah its..." You feel your magic thrumming your your chest, the quiet rumble you know could escalate into a roaring inferno if you let loose your grip. "How do you deal with keeping it contained all the time? Always having to keep it caged inside?" Your words are a little desperate, keeping your magic contained like this was hard and constantly pressed you.

Morgan blinks at your strangely for a minute before looking a little embarrassed. "That's not normal Cerys, magic is hard to pull to you and use. It shouldn't be pressing you to contain it." She lets out a little hum. "I guess this is just a Magical Girl thing? The only other things like that I can think of are really powerful magical creatures. They just let their magic seep out of them and saturate the area around though, not exactly good for hiding."

A question comes to mind as you think of it. "Who taught you how to use magic? I'm just kind of making things up as I go along."

"My parents taught me how to use a little magic and taught me the basis to make my own, then they let me do it myself." She interrupts herself by steering you away from a particular bush you had almost brushed against. "Don't touch that, harmless to normals but it makes your magic itch something fierce." You give it a wide berth as you stare at it, it's just a normal looking bush. "You can learn others magic of course, but it's almost always better to make your own, better suited for you." She flicks a couple of fallen leaves off of her coat as she says that, making her hair swoosh just so. You turn your eyes away from it quickly.

"You know a lot of magic then? I can do a couple of things, but they are all really dangerous." She nods.

"Yeah, I know a lot of different magic. Nothing big or flashy but I have pretty much everything covered at least."

Suddenly, a little sister interrupt. "Can you make lasers or fly or summon fire or see the future or teleport-" Your halt her stream of words by putting your hand over her mouth and looking at Morgan apologetically. You just know that she's been saving these up for days. Then you unleash the beast.

The next five minutes are nothing but Una speaking non-stop, almost as if she doesn't need to breath. Morgan doesn't even have a chance to answer any of her questions and looks to you to bail her out, but you leave her to her fate. Better her than you. In the end, all you manage to learn is that No I can't make lasers, no I can't fly, yes I can make fire, no I can't see the future or teleport.

By the time Una is starting to wind down, the sun is starting to get low in the sky. You haven't taken any breaks today, so you are pretty sure you've made it a good distance, thirty miles at a minimum, probably closer to forty or so. Well, so long as there isn't any more magic distance travelling. You take a look around for a good place to set up camp, but in the end you have to backtrack for a little while when you don't find any good spots. Morgan helpfully reminds you that ten minutes ago or so there was a well covered clearing with a stream that passed nearby.

Despite your ability to create ice and thus water, you are trying to avoid using magic. And you kind of stink, you avoided going into the water because of the thing so you are a little rank. Morgan either doesn't notice or is polite enough not to mention it, though she looks like she could use a wash herself. A quick effort later and you have your tent pitched in a shaded corner but unburied or disguised this time, the plan was to pretend that this is Morgan's tent and ward of anybody who was curious enough with her presence while you and Una hid.

Finally set up, you suddenly notice how damn hungry you are. Apart from breakfast, neither of you had eaten anything all day. Una was distracted enough not to notice right now, but you were acutely aware of the hole burning in your stomach. You remember your idea about hunting for food and decide that it's a pretty good idea, you run a test with Morgan and determine that no, she can't detect you when you use your temperature control. A quick scan lets you know of what you think is a beaver, it's pretty big but shouldn't be a problem. You stretch your sense over it and start gently raising it's internal temperature.

It only takes about two minutes, but it just slumps down onto the floor as it's temperature rises high enough, eventually you stop controlling it's temperature and watch it carefully. In your sense, once it's cooled down to normal temperature, it continues cooling down, body not moving at all. Huh, guess that works then. A quick trip out later and you are sitting in in the middle of your camp with a dead beaver in hand. Might not have thought this through all the way.

Morgan is just looking at you from her position against a tree. "Can you use that on people?" Of course she would ask about that, sensible girl.

You already know the answer to that, seeing as you've used it on yourself. "Yes, probably. I've never used it on someone else but I've warmed myself up before." She purses her lips when she looks at you now, muttering to herself.

"Can I just say say that you are a wonderful person and how I in no way want to fight you?" Her words make you snort and laugh a little, before you look back at the big hunk of dead animal at your feet. "Never hunted in the wild before? I can show you what to do." You accept gratefully and she moves over. "Got a knife?" A quick trip into your bags nets you the knife you stole, buried under some of your spare ammo. "Right, you start with the fur."

As she guides you through how to skin an animal and harvest it's parts, you call Una over with a bloody hand, best she learn this now while she has the opportunity. About half-way through you decide to strike up conversation again. "How old are you anyway?" Your sudden question apparently surprises her, since her hand slips from where she was holding up a flap of skin and accidentally slaps the bare muscle underneath. This has the amusing consequence of little flicks of blood splashing up her front, more specifically onto her face.

She looks at you as she slowly tries to rub the blood off with her even bloodier hand, in the end she just managed to smear cold blood all over her face. The morbid sight prompts a small giggle from you and Una as Morgan's eyebrows twitch before she lets out a reluctant smile. When she returns from washing off her face she answers your question. "Despite how rude it is to ask a lady her age, I am 16, thank you very much." She finished this by raising her head and letting out an imperious sniff. It is an impressive sniff, one she surely must have honed over many hours of practice and gruelling effort. The thought just makes you giggle harder.

When you catch your breath you decide to share back. "I'm 13." Before you can continue, Una breaks her laser-like stare at the beavers insides and breaks in with her own age. "I'm 9!" Once you get back to finishing peeling it's skin off you ask a question that had been in your mind all day. "Say, how long have you been travelling about? It sounds like you've been going from place to play for a while."

She lets out one of her little hums as she watches you carefully peel back the last of the beavers skin, leaving it's muscles completely exposed. "I've been travelling all my life, my parents had me on the move and when I was old enough, I set out on my own. I've only been on my own for... three? Yeah, three years or so now. A little older than you when I started." Mmm

"Are there any big DO NOT DO THIS? things I should be aware of?" She blinks before she nearly hits herself in the side of the head again, instinctive motion only aborted by recent experience.

"Yes, of course my bad. I should have let you know straight away." She settles down on her knees a little more comfortably as she guides you on how to cut through the muscle cleanly. "First things first, if it isn't obvious. Do NOT mock Gaia or taunt her in any way, she seems to be aware of just about anything and everything on the planet. Secondly, do not try to destroy the planet in any way or threaten the universes existence. She'll come down on you like the hammer of god, in the past she used to just glass the entire region where the person was, but in the last couple of hundred years she's been getting... better. Now she just sends something that kills everything it encounters. We don't know what it is, but it's killed a Magical Girl before so we don't risk it." She takes a breath now, looking a little winded. "Thirdly, do not try to summon any sort of being from another dimension. Just don't even try it. Someone did once and they summoned a horde of Demons. The subsequent fight is the cause of the Sahara desert and that is after Gaia finished fixing the place from where the continent was cracked in half."

Ok then... Don't piss of Gaia, got it. You nod as you think over what she's told you. Honestly most of it is common sense, which makes sense. She interrupts your thoughts with one last statement. "Oh yeah, and don't be rude to powerful magical beings of any sort. They are all intelligent and generally amicable to talking just... don't make them angry ok?" You nod at her words, not really surprised at anything she's told you about.

"You said something about Vows?" You prompt her. "Is there some way I could be tricked into a contract or something?"

She snorts at that, apparently very amused. "Yes, there are magical vows, no they are not binding. If you have a vow about something, it's basically an early warning system. If you say you have the vow, it flares so people know you are telling the truth and if you break your vow then both you and any others on the other end of the vow instantly know that you've broken your word." Now you have most of the meat off on a separate pile where she is slowly guiding you on how to cook it with your powers.

"One last question then." You lean forwards a little. "You said you like interesting things, what did you mean by that. You seen all sorts of cool things?"

She stops you from heating the meat now, it being a slight golden-brown colour. She takes a bite and chews it for a little bit before letting out a smile. "It's good, safe to eat." You and Una both take some and start tearing into it, it is good. God, it's been a long time since you had the opportunity to eat meat cooked like this. "My parents are explorers, they love seeing places never seen and areas unexplored. I however, live for seeing interesting things. Rituals passed down for a thousand years, the birth of a magical being, the truth behind the magical division of Hitlers SS, why there is a great barren wasteland in Russia." She is smiling a little wildly as she talks now. "I want to know the truth behind these things, I want to know."

Okaaayyyy then. It was getting pretty late now, a quick glance up informs you, the sun is gone from the sky now. You decide that it's probably for the best to get some rest, you tell Morgan this and she nods before clambering up the tree next to her very quickly. Was she embarrassed about being so open about her dream? It's a good dream. Whatever. You decide to just let it go for now, a sleeping coming quickly to you as your sister snuggles into your grip again.

The night passes without note beyond a wild animal passing by and you wake with the rising sun.

Travel...
[] You must be close to the border now, if you push quickly you can probably make it today
[] There is no rush, you'll get there eventually
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Morgan Questions...
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