Elemental Cats

After passing through the town gate before dawn even arrived, Toz summoned Lucy and Nil from their spiritual space, where they usually stayed when Toz was busy.

Lucy looked around excitedly while Nil laid down around Toz's neck to continue sleeping.

"Toz, Toz! Look, a burning tree!

"Whoa, look at that, the ground is on fire! Cool!"

Not caring that he didn't get any answers, Lucy continued pointing at everything that caught his eyes while riding on Toz's head.

While walking at a relaxed pace, they passed by several different things, the fields immediately surrounding the town, where farmers could be seen checking on their crops, and a couple of meadows and groves. That was about as far as the proper road went. After that, it split up into smaller ones connecting to farmer's huts or a few paths leading into the wilderness in different directions. One went to a mountain barely visible on the horizon, another to a nearby forest, and a third followed a river snaking its way around that very forest.

"Where do the two of you feel like heading?" Toz asked his cats.

"Oh! How about the forest? I have never been inside a burning forest before!"

"I want to see if the fish is any good."

"Huh? I wanted to go to the mountain. though?" Since none of them was the compromising type, Toz was slightly stumped since he had hit the first roadblock on his journey. What direction he should take.

After a few moments, with both cats looking at him pleadingly, Toz picked up a stick.

"Okay, guys, we will go in the direction this stick falls in."

"Hnng" Lucy did his best to look even more adorable, to try and make him change his mind. Unfortunately, Toz looked away before he got affected.

Holding onto Lucy so he wouldn't cheat, Toz placed the stick in front of him and let it fall. Despite Lucy trying to blow it in the direction of the forest, it fell toward the path leading to the river.

"Noo...!"

"Hehe, fish, here I come!"

Blaming the stick for being unlucky, Lucy stomped on it, breaking it into splinters before catching up to Toz and Nil and jumping on top of Toz's head.

The trio continued walking next to the river for a while, enjoying nature and the sound of splashing water.

Since it was a flatland, the river wasn't rushing. It calmly flowed onwards, occasionally bending. While looking at the forest on the other side of the several-meter-wide river, Toz grew curious about where they would end up if they just continued following the river for as long as possible.

With the river's sharp edges, clearly denoting the border between forest and river, and river and grasslands, they hadn't found a suitable place to have their breakfast yet, but up ahead, the river split around a large rock placed in the middle of the river and on either side was a riverbank with logs and old campfires placed.

With a pre-arranged campsite, Toz decided it was a good opportunity to try their fishing luck and, if there was none to be found, at least have a snack.

Upon reaching the campsite, Lucy immediately started inspecting every little thing he found in detail, his behavior looked more like something a dog might do, but both Toz and Nil were used to it as they did their own things.

Toz pulled out a bit of firewood and prepared a fire to grill the fish or heat some preserved food, and Nil had rushed to the riverside, staring intently at the water with his tail waving from side to side. Toz joined him shortly after finishing the fire preparations since he had to make sure Lucy didn't wander off and also fish out a fishing rod from one of his pockets.

Ever since they decided to walk along the river, Toz had been on the lookout for insects that could be used as bait. And early dawn was a good time to find insects in a location with good amounts of fire attribute mana, but finding and catching were two completely different things.

Thankfully he had noticed a few green bugs with orange edges that looked like walking smooth rocks, in the grass, after stepping on a few and hearing a crunching sound from his otherwise silent footsteps.

After throwing the hook with bait next to the huge rock, where the water was significantly calmer and a spot more likely for fish to appear, the only thing left for Toz to do was wait patiently.

Usually, he would've stroked Nil next to him to pass the time, but since that would be distracting for Nil, he held himself back until Lucy, finished with his investigations, came up to him.

Toz sat on the sandy riverbank with Lucy in his lap, and Nil next to them focused intently on grabbing any fish that passed close enough to the surface.

The time passed like that, as the sun slowly rose above the horizon and it went from early morning to just morning both Nil and Toz had gathered an amount of fish while Lucy slept. The campfire had turned into a pile of glowing embers, perfect for roasting.

Because they had forgotten sticks to put the fish on, Toz used his magic to create a bunch of long metal needles he pierced through the fish and placed next to the campfire.

The fish were tiny things at the bottom of the food chain that could be easily eaten as they were, but Toz and Lucy preferred warm food. Nil, on the other hand, didn't mind either way. He had eaten quite a few while fishing.

Most fish and creatures were weak in a low level fire attribute plane due to the clashing attributes and the amount of fire mana conflicting with their nature. That didn't apply to planes of higher level since even the water would turn into fire attribute water and thus affecting the creatures living in it.

The fish weren't anything special since Toz didn't bother seasoning them, but they made for a decent breakfast, and while eating, they met a few other explorers passing by in either direction.

Some just walked or rode by without caring, others nodded and kept moving, and a few stopped to exchange greetings or news. Since Toz grilled a lot of fish, he offered it to some explorers who looked especially hungry.

Although few had any useful news to share, either because they wanted to keep the resources to themselves or because they hadn't found anything, there were several who had told Toz the same thing.

There was an Ember Deer migration a few days walking away. A large herd that moved a little here and there in search of food. That piece of news woke Lucy up from his after-breakfast nap, and he almost started pulling on Toz's pants to start moving. Although he didn't know what an ember deer was, a migration of an entire herd of them was bound to be amazing in Lucy's eyes. Maybe he could even show off his might by catching one.

That thought got a sparkle shining in his eyes as he redouble his efforts in getting both Toz and Nil moving.

They had finished eating anyways, so after putting out the fire, they continued moving.