The Mad Artist

(Amanda)

As I walked on the snowy ground of the forest, I sensed an ether signature nearby just on the border of the forest.

'A human.' 

My first instinct was to help, but I quickly realized that it was a foolish idea. What if he were hostile? Just because it's a human does not mean that they are not going to attack me.

But to be honest, I was curious.

So I cautiously walked towards the border of the forest. Right before I reached the end of the forest, I climbed one of the giant trees on the border, just to be safe. 

In the distance, I could see an abyssal leopard, an amethyst flame burning its face. In front of it, not far away, a boy around the same age as me stood in a field of amethyst fire. The boy had pale blond hair and a pair of deep violet eyes; his clothes were burned, revealing the art rune that ran along his shoulder, the same fire that surrounded him and burned the leopard's face, was dancing on his hand, but unlike the leopard, he didn't seem in pain.

Grinning, the boy walked forward and lunged through the flames toward the leopard, and punched it in the face with the hand in which the flames danced. The creature let out a pained growl and took a step back.

Angered, it shot towards the boy, attacking with its claw.

The boy dodged, but still got wounded. I thought he was going to fall back, but surprisingly, the boy held on to the leg that attacked him, and the flames augmenting his hand transferred to the creature. Still grinning, the flame traveled on the leopard's leg, then its body, and finally its face, eating away at the fur, skin, flesh, bones, blood, and everything else, and the leopard was no more, no proof of existence.

I was about to approach the boy, but stopped in my tracks. Because the flames were not put out. The boy laughed, and the flames burned even more, reaching the forest, eating the trees and snow, and leaving nothing behind.

Just when the flames were about to reach the tree I was on, all of the flames disappeared, and the boy fell to the ground.

'He passed out from ether exhaustion.' I realized.

I stood in my place, debating whether to help him or not, as I watched the flames go out.

After a bit, I ultimately decided to help him. The reason was simple: I wanted to.

Climbing back down, I walked through the destroyed trees, which surprisingly had no burn marks on them. 

Making my way back to the boy, I found him lying on his back, the wound on his face bleeding and staining the snow. 

In the distance, the place where the leopard's body was supposed to be, there was no snow, on the ground, not even water from the melting of the snow; that was the case for every area touched by the…fire?

I didn't even know anymore.

Turning my attention back to the boy, I knelt beside him, took a dagger from my dimensional storage ring, lifted the sleeve of my coat, and cut myself.

Blood flowed from my fore arm, and just before it landed on the snow, it stopped in the air as if time itself froze. With a wave of my hand, the blood moved and gathered around the wound on the boy's face, healing the wound and falling on the ground.

Looking around, I decided that it would be safer in the forest. Turning back to the boy lying on the ground, I tried to pick him up, even though he was skinny. I had a hard time carrying him, but eventually I did, and headed back to the forest.

After finding the camp, I made as soon as I was teleported here, I took out a rope from the dimensional storage ring and tied the boy to a tree. I still didn't know if he would attack me once he woke up or not.

'Better safe than sorry.'

I could beat him in battle, but I would prefer to preserve my ether for the abyssal creatures.

Time passed, and night fell. I was cooking two pieces of meat that I got from a leopard that I had hunted myself, when I noticed that the boy had woken up and was looking at the night sky.

"You're awake," I said.

He turned to look at me, and I noticed something weird. His eyes, which were once a deep violet color, were now golden.

"I am?" he looked around and tried to get up. "Why am I tied to a tree!?" he panicked.

He looked more... sane.

"I tied you up," I answered.

"Can you untie me?"

Without answering, I got up and sat in front of him.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"Grey."

He answered, realizing that he wouldn't be free if he did not answer.

"What domain do you belong to?" 

"The blood domain."

"What's the name of your blood?"

"Unnamed."

I did not speak again, thinking about his answers.

A moment passed, then two, then Grey broke the silence.

"Can you free me now?"

"Yes."

I got up and untied him. 

Noticing that the food was done, I got two plates out and handed him one of the pieces of meat on a plate.

"Thanks."

I didn't say anything and just ate the food.

"What happened to the leopard?" He asked, looking around.

I was confused. Weren't you the one who killed it?

"It's gone."

"Gone?" he tilted her head to the side. "You killed it?"

"No, you did."

"What!? How!?"

So I described every thing that happened.