Irwin's Journey - The Cardsmith

Irwin first noted his breathing… It was ragged and loud and somehow had drawn him out of whatever catatonic state he had been in. Then he realized the itching was gone! He almost wanted to cry, but instead, he let out a sigh, feeling his chest hurt slightly.

"Feel better?" Ambraz asked worriedly, flitting up above him.

Irwin nodded, noting there were scratches across the sides of Ambraz's surface and a single tiny dent.

"Did-" he croaked before coughing till his voice returned. "Did I do that?" he tried again.

"Yeah, it's fine. Nothing a few cards can't fix," Ambraz muttered. "I… didn't realize itching doesn't count as pain."

Irwin frowned, then realized there was also a tiny spec hovering beside Ambraz, and it took a moment for his eyes to be sharp enough to recognize the Emberion that had been hiding in his hair.

"It fled out when you started screaming," Ambraz said, seemingly realizing what he was looking at.

Irwin sighed, closing his eyes as he enjoyed the absence of the infernal itching. "It should," he croaked.

"What?" Ambraz muttered.

"Itching should be counted as pain," Irwin said, shivering. "Thanks for holding me down… I had almost released Coperion Body to dig out my own skin."

"No problem, kid," Ambraz said softly. "Listen, you might wanna go and talk with Scintilla. She was outside, but I managed to convince her to stay there. You… well, you might wanna clean up a bit before you go talk to her."

"Is she-"

"I'm outside," a soft voice called through the door. "You alright?"

"Yeah," Irwin said as he jerked upright, stifling a groan.

He felt as sore as if he'd practiced with Crithann for a day. There was also a sharp pain in his arms. Looking down, he grimaced as he saw four deep gouges running through his coppery skin.

Wonder how I managed to keep Coperion Body up, he thought.

Looking around, he found an old shirt, and he grabbed it, wiping his face. The pale fabric came back bloodstained, and he grimaced. Right, he wasn't really this copper colored. After he finished wiping his entire body down, the shirt was red all over, but he felt slightly better. He absently noticed the Emberion returning into his hair.

Yeah, sleep well, he thought, shaking his head at the little sleepy glutton. He'd done nothing ever since nestling in his hair but sleep and eat the heat of his flame every time it was up.

I could do with a bath, he thought, deciding that would probably make Scintilla happy as well.

With a deep breath, he focused on his Sweltering Heart, and tendrils of steam began forming all around him. Within moments, the room was thick with a hot, wet fog.

"Scintilla, you wanna come join me in a steam bath?" he asked, trying to sound casual.

There was a snort from the door, then it opened. Something rushed in, then the door slammed closed. A few moments later, a hot, lithe figure wrapped him in powerful arms.

Scintilla buried her face in his chest. "You really need to stop ruining my dinners like this," she muttered.

"Yeah. Sorry about that," Irwin said.

"How come your throat isn't hoarse?"

Irwin shrugged, causing Scintilla to snort and hit him, probably for jostling her around.

"No idea. I guess it's because of my high healing factor in heat," he said.

Scintilla didn't respond, remaining quiet for a while.

"So… you got six cards now?"

Irwin couldn't hold back a smile, not that Scintilla could see that. "Yeah!"

"That's good," she muttered, kissing his chest.

Irwin frowned at the slight worry he heard in her voice. Was it because she still hadn't found the last card she wanted?

If only she would just tell me what she wanted, he thought.

They continued standing in the hot steam, both lost in their own thoughts, until finally retreating to Scintilla's room for a reheated dinner.

Between chatting, eating, and knowing he had six cards now, Irwin slowly managed to shove the horrible memory of the itching away.

"So, Numilli is ready to go?" Irwin asked as he took a sip of the burning liquor Scintilla enjoyed.

Scintilla grunted, shaking her head. "Yeah, she won't shut up about it. Let's enjoy our little off day tomorrow and see where she brings us after."

Irwin nodded, but he knew that he wasn't going to be doing much resting. No, he thought as he gazed at his right hand. He was going to check what the card could do.

--

A deafening boom was followed by a painful grunt.

"By Gelwin's beard, this is horrible," Irwin grunted as he swayed on his pained legs.

"That is why I told you, kid. Use it after we create your heartcard!" Ambraz snapped, flitting back to his shoulder.

"That could take two years," Irwin said, shaking his head. "I don't wanna have a sixth card that I never use until then. Besides, after I create my full hand, shouldn't that help?"

"Yeah, it will help, but it's not going to make it less dangerous," Ambraz retorted.

Irwin sighed, looking around the empty hills. He'd decided against practicing the Vaelite Body Enhancement skills inside the burgeoning town. The last time he'd practiced a new card close to others hadn't gone too well, which was probably a good move if the deep indents in the sandy hill were any indication.

Looking around, he took a deep breath, flexing his arms, his heavily muscled Coperion Body letting out a tiny whine like bending metal.

"I think I can probably do it; I just need practice," he said.

"Ugh! You're going to try again? Wait for me to clear out this time!" Ambraz hissed.

Irwin felt a tiny surge of hilarity as he remembered how Ambraz had been hurled away the previous time. Then he shook it away.

"Okay, are you clear?"

"Definitely! Go and break your legs again," Ambraz shouted.

Such faith, Irwin thought as he focused on his Vaelite Body Enhancement card.

Like his first card that had a hidden type, he had found that it had at least one hidden ability, which was partially alluded to in the description.

Focusing on his legs, which was about the largest area he seemed capable of right now, he felt the tiny pinpricks of Vaelite that now spread throughout his flesh- Coperion imbued or otherwise. Taking it slow so he wouldn't make the same mistake as the previous time, he readied himself and drew on his new card.

It immediately resonated a deep, slightly dangerous hum that felt and sounded far clearer than any he had sensed from his other cards… well before he'd slotted the sixth one.

Looking at the hill, Irwin decided to try and run up this time. Down had been… unpleasant. Lowering his weight slightly, he took a tiny jump forward, and as soon as he landed, a powerful force began building in his legs. The heat that was always in his body seemed to amplify it somehow. There was even a tiny bit of the energy bleeding over into the rest of his body as he felt all of his muscles tense.

Let's try two this time, he thought, taking another step and sensing the power build up even more.

"Stay upright," he muttered as he hesitated slightly.

Triggering the card's ability was something that he had found came far more naturally than most of his others had after such a short time. Perhaps it was an offset for how hard it was to control.

Stop being so worried. It's not like it will hurt, he reprimanded himself, tuning out the tiny voice that said it might not hurt, but it wasn't all that pleasant either!

With a thought, he unleashed the power the card had built up in his legs, and he shot up and forward, sand spraying out from behind him. Air streaking across his face, he tried his best to focus on landing and gritted his teeth as he landed on the ground. The sand sank and slid below his feet, but he was able to hold his balance. At the same time, he felt the power in his legs, which had vanished when he triggered, return. Without stopping, he leaped forward again.

Managing a second jump-step, he let out a woop as his speed increased.

Up is better! he thought.

He landed, again holding his balance, though only just, and propelled himself forward again. This time, there was even more force, and he felt his body drop sideways, his balance gone.

Stop, he thought in panic, releasing his hold on the card. A moment later, he slammed into the ground just as the card stopped humming. There was still some power in his body, but at least not as much as before.

Unlike the first time, he very slowly pushed himself upright, making sure not to trigger the remnant energy in his body. When he stood, he looked back and grinned.

"That went much better," Ambraz shouted as he hovered above him. "Try again!"

Irwin looked up with a crooked grin. Weren't you the one that said I shouldn't? he thought.

Not that he didn't agree.

His grin turned genuine as he prepared to try again.

--

"Something tells me he's not coming back for dinner," Scintilla said, standing beside Greldo on the town walls, staring at the distant figure sprint across the hills, leaving behind explosions of sand.

"Yeah… you do realize we have to travel with him?" Greldo muttered, shaking his head. "That bloody near infinite stamina of his was already enough to drive me crazy, but this?"

Scintilla laughed, shaking her head. "Well, I'm going to eat. Wanna come?"

"No, thanks," Greldo said, shaking his head. "The spice and fire in that food is way too much for me."

The Ignitzion laughed as she ran to the edge of the wall. "Your loss," she shouted before turning in a red blur.

Greldo watched her leave before letting out a weary sigh. "Ah. Right. She had that teleport thing…"

He turned to Coal, lying to the side and eyeing him with blood-red eyes, just like his own now were.

"Guess the two of us are going to have a bad time keeping up," he said before lying down beside Coal.

He watched Irwin jump up way further than any normal person should be able to do before shouting as he plummeted back down, slamming into the sandy dunes.

--

"You are sure, absolutely sure, that there are no large amounts of nasty demons around, ready to follow us inside?" Greldo hissed.

"Yes, yes! Why don't you believe me?" Numilli sniffed.

"Yeah… Why do you think?" Greldo muttered.

Irwin ignored both of them as he stood beside Scintilla, examining the distant massive pit, surrounded by long, treelike stone growths that towered high above them. The high dunes around them barely managed to obscure them from view, which was probably why they hadn't been found by anything yet. He hoped.

"Those are fingers," he muttered as he suddenly realized what he was staring at.

A mouth, stony lips drawn back as it rose up out of the desert, slag-like teeth the size of walls around its edges, and the tips of fingers spearing out of the sand hundreds of feet to either side. It was hard to wrap his head around it due to the sheer scope and size of the things.

"They look… humanoid?" he asked as he looked at Scintilla.

His girlfriend -he still found it difficult to realize that- was fiddling with the sword on her hip as she nodded.

"Don't know the exact details, but from the images I've seen, they look like enormous stone elementals," she muttered, sounding unsure.

Numilli jumped at the question, seeming more than willing to ignore Greldo.

"Yes! Some have two arms, others three or four, but for the rest, they generally look like us," she shouted excitedly as she walked forward and began waving her arms around. "They exist on a lot of worlds, one of the few beings we know that seems to exist on worlds even before we find them!"

Irwin blinked, then raised an eyebrow. "Well, can't it be that they just move to them when the portals to the Portal Gallery appear?"

"No, no," Numillis said, pouting. "There are enough ancient and more recent findings, done by teleporters that can do random chaotic teleports that find themselves on worlds without a portal, and-"

"What?" Irwin snapped as he looked at her with wide eyes.

Numilli blinked as she took a few steps back, looking around as if searching for a monster before realizing Irwin was staring at her.

"What, what?" she asked, her voice rising a few pitches.

"What are-" Irwin frowned as he recalled the exact words. "- Random chaotic teleports?"

Numilli blinked, and then a glitter appeared in her eyes. "Have you never heard of those? They are really fantastic, and-"

"-dangerous. Very dangerous," Scintilla snapped as she glared at her cousin. "Numilli, don't go spouting this nonsense! Remember what Aunty said."

Numilli's face again switched to a pout as she crossed her arms and looked at Scintilla. "It's not fake or a myth!" she snapped.

"That's what I said," Scintilla said.

Irwin could hear the exasperation in her voice. He listened as Scintilla and Numilli argued for a bit, which mostly consisted of Numilli whining and Scintilla trying to keep her calm, only with partial success. Their voices kept rising until Irwin finally had enough.

"Alright," he boomed, his voice deeper due to him being in Coperion Body.

Numilli and Scintilla spun to him, both seeming startled and for the first time, Irwin noticed a slight resemblance to them. Both had a similar slant to their eyes and roughly the same jawline. It was just that Numilli's facial expressions were usually so different from Scintilla's that he hadn't noticed. Greldo stood to the side, leaning against Coal and grinning widely.

The hound's red eyes conveyed hilarity before focusing on Irwin. Irwin was momentarily distracted by the intelligent, conscious look the hound gave him, and he wondered exactly how intelligent Coal even was.

Gotta ask Greldo about that sometime, he thought before turning to the two Ignitzion girls, one smiling and the other pouting at him.

"So, to summarize," he said, fixing Numilli with a stern gaze and raising a finger. "Earth Titans exist on most worlds, and there is reason to believe they don't migrate from the Portal Gallery. Two-" he put up another finger. "The skills of some teleporters sometimes go out of control. Either by choice or not-" he quickly added as he saw Nummili's mouth start to open. "- and when this happens, they end up in worlds where there is no Portal to the Gallery, or they can't find it. A few of these manage to return somehow, and they have left records of this. Correct?"

Numilli nodded excitedly.

"And why is this relevant knowledge just before we enter into that thing?" Irwin asked as they pointed at the distant monstrous mouth, wondering how they were even going to enter it.

Numilli blinked, then looked down while Scintilla focused on her with a sudden interest.

Wait, don't tell me that…

"Oh, no reason," Numilli said as she walked forward. "Just something I find interesting."

"Hey, don't go on your own! You promised to follow my lead until we reach the heart," Scintilla snapped as she ran after her.

Irwin shared a look with Greldo, who was looking more interested. They followed the other two, walking side by side.

"Wanna bet she is one of those chaotic teleporter people?" Greldo whispered.

"No," Irwin said. "Because I think I'd lose that bet."

"Yeah. Think Scintilla caught that?"

"Definitely," Irwin said.

"Well, what would some teleporter business have to do with the enormous heart of an Earth Titan?"

"No idea," Irwin said, staring after Numilli intently.

"Think we shall wheedle it out of her before we go in?" Greldo said, echoing his own thoughts.

"I think it might be better if we did," he muttered as he recalled the previous time they had been inside.

As they continued the last distance separating them from the massive maw, he thought about his own card, Sweltering Heart. Although he had gotten it from the previous Earth Titan card, most of that one had been lost when he and Ambraz had reforged it -something far beyond their ability then or now. Still, he recalled the immense power the heartcard had held, and he couldn't help but wonder what Numilli wanted it for. They had asked her a few times, but she kept brushing it off with references to research.

"So, I'll do a short-range teleport to get us down to one of the veins," Numilli said, staring into the deep darkness.

"Before we go, I have a question," Irwin said as he crossed his arms and stared at her. "Why do you need the heart, and don't brush us off again. The teleporting stuff has something to do with it, and we can't go in there if we aren't sure it is safe."

Numilli's face warped to annoyance as she shook her head. "I told you, it's just-"

"No. No more mentioning research and things like that. None of us believe it," Irwin said sternly.

Numilli pouted and then looked at Scintilla, seeming to look for help from her cousin, only to see Scintilla calmly look at her.

"He is right," Scintilla said. "You can't expect them to risk their lives without knowing."

Irwin grimaced as Scintilla didn't seem to include herself in that. Did that mean she was fine with potentially risking her life without knowing exactly why?

"But, but-" Numillia began looking around, then at the hole, then at them. For a moment, her expression turned ugly, and something flickered through her eyes; then she sighed, and it was gone as she hung her shoulders.

"I got… hurt," she muttered. "It happened long ago, and ever since, I can't finish my current heartcard."

Irwin blinked, recalling that Numilli was potentially a soulcarded. The way she spoke just now seemed to make that far more likely.

"There was also something else that happened," she said, her hand rising to her head before she jerked it back. "If I don't manage to finish the hearcard, I'll be stuck like this."

Irwin nodded, starting to understand what she wanted. "So you are going to try and drain the heartcard and use it to fill up your own?" he asked. Then he frowned as he realized something else. "If you have two completed hands and are working on your heart card, why aren't your eyes silver?"

"Probably because of the damage," Numilli said as she sighed. "I can't fill up my heartcards soulforce anymore. Any normal card I use just fizzles away," she waved her hand around.

Irwin shared a look with Greldo, who sniffed.

"And this happened when you had one of those chaotic teleportations?" his friend asked.

Numilli looked up, her eyes widening in surprise.

It wasn't that hard to figure out, Irwin thought.

"Yes," Numilli said slowly.

Irwin looked at her, then turned to Scintilla and Greldo before making a decision.

"Fine. Let's go and see if we can find the heart," he said. "How sure are you that there aren't any wyrms or fleshgorgers in there?"

"There are no fleshgorgers! Don't worry," Numilli said while her sadness seemed to evaporate, replaced by her previous upbeat joy. She looked up with a bright-eyed smile and focused on the depths of the hole.

Watching the dark cloud begin to grow around her, Irwin prepared himself to be transported. At the last minute, before the cloud surrounded him, he stomped his feet on the ground a few times, feeling the energy surge and throb in his legs.

Just in case, he thought as everything turned dark.

The teleport lasted for only a fraction of a second, and the next thing he knew, he stood on a sand-filled slope, the light of the sun a mere pinprick high above him.

"Don't make a sound."

Greldo's hissed whisper caused Irwin to stop moving, the powerful energy in his legs suddenly something he wished he could dissipate. Scintilla stood close by, frozen mid-step, while Numilli had turned pale as she looked around.

Searching for whatever Greldo had seen, he quietly looked around as well. They were standing in a massive chamber, the walls far away, while above him, he could see light creep to the crevices between the stupidly large teeth. He was about to ask what was going on when he saw a familiar tiny hole in the wall. No… not tiny. Just far away. He focused on his Eyes of Blaze, something he hadn't done in a while, and the distant wall appeared in all of its cracked, rocky-like texture. Innumerable holes dotted it, and as he looked around, he noticed shadowy movements in a few.

Shit… Wyrms!

There was a rustle beside him, and looking up, he saw that Coal had vanished while Greldo was cocking his head in different directions, eyes closed. Irwin waited, happy when Greldo finally looked up and around. Meeting Irwin's gaze, he put a finger on his lips before beckoning him and the others.

Irwin swallowed as he saw Greldo quietly sneak forward, then took a calming step as he followed him. At the same time, he recalled what he knew about wyrms, most of which came from the previous time he'd been here. They loved the heat, but if they had too much, they would explode violently. Normally, that would be a great thing, as he could just summon his flame. However, fleshgorgers loved wyrms and could smell their blood and gore from miles away.

He followed Greldo until they reached a slanted hole leading down, which reminded him of the first Earth Titan they had gone into.

Greldo looked around and then held up a hand before vanishing in a shadowy blur that dissipated into the hole.

Irwin gritted his teeth.

So, add to the list of the next cards whenever I finally become a soulcard, he thought to himself. Some cards to sneak around!

A long two minutes later, Greldo reappeared beside them. He gave a mocking smile, then beckoned as he sat down and let himself slide down. Irwin snuck forward, trying to make as little sound as he could before sitting and staring down. Even his eyes couldn't see an end to the tunnel vein, and there was already no more sight of Greldo.

Fine, here we go, he thought as he pushed off.