Holding his spear, Ezekiel scanned the area trying to decide which direction to head in. The fact ilmarillion could fly didn’t help him either as there were no tracks on the ground or other signs to even try and follow. He only hoped it was nothing serious that had happened like being attacked or being taken from the camp. He wasn’t sure which direction he should check in with no clues to use, so he planned on circling the camp slowly expanding his search. It wasn’t a perfect plan but until he found some trace of the faerie and where she had gone it was the best he had.

  He hadn’t gone far when he noticed the smell of smoke in the air. He paused breathing through his nose trying to tell where the smoke was coming from. There was no noticeable breeze to help with the direction the fire might be in. Hoping it might be someone else in the area he headed towards the where he thought the smell of smoke was coming from. Soon the smell of smoke thickened and was the only thing he could smell in the area. It was both good and bad. It meant he was heading in the right direction But it clearly wasn’t from a campfire. This much smoke could only mean one thing. Bushfire.

  His pulse quickened at the thought. Bushfires could be a real danger, they could travel incredibly quickly in the right weather conditions. It was only mid spring fortunately so things weren’t that dry yet making it unusual that a fire had started without help of some kind. Ilmarillion had talked quite animatedly about setting fire to things. Could this be caused by her?

  Knowing the danger of bushfires he still continued in the same direction. He knew he was taking a risk heading towards a bushfire as it could easily overtake him if he wasn’t careful especially if the wind picked up. He hadn’t been walking for long, as the smoke kept increasing–starting to sting his eyes and burn his throat–when he saw the light of flames ahead. He could hear the crackle and roar of the fire as it consumed the plant life.

  The fire didn’t appear to be moving in his direction from what he could tell but he kept himself ready to make a hasty retreat if needed. He had always enjoyed fires and found watching the flames dance almost hypnotic in the way they moved.

  Something about this fire set him on edge. He wasn’t exactly sure what it was but as he watched and listened he could just make out a screeching coming from the flames as well. Trying to peer through the smoke and into the flames, he could see large shapes moving about within the flames.

  Almost every instinct was telling him to return to camp but curiosity drove him forward. He only needed one clear look at what was moving within the flames. He had to know what was caught within the flames. He took several steps closer to try and make out what it was within the fire. As he stepped closer he felt something cling to his face. Reacting more on instinct than anything else he leant backwards and brushed at his face quickly with his free hand.

  His heart beat madly in his chest, knowing he had just walked into a spiderweb he continued to swipe at his face and head to remove any trace of the web from him while he quickly surveyed his surroundings. Now that he was focusing on it, he noticed the glint of spiderwebs reflecting the light of the fire which was partly obscured by the smoke which is why he had missed it. The forest wasn’t completely covered in spiderwebs ahead but now that he was looking it was easy to notice all the webs. There was more in the surrounding trees than he had ever seen at once, reminding him of news articles when spiders all tried to escape flooding and covered trees or higher ground in webs.

  That is when it clicked. He knew what was burning in the fire now and he was not willing to get closer. Knowing it was spiders within the fire he knew it must have been Ilmarillion. Not willing to get involved with the spiders he turned around and headed back to camp. He would not be exploring this way again. But he would need to make sure everything was prepared to go at a moment's notice if the fire spread.

  He was almost halfway back to camp when he heard the sound of wings behind him. Still on edge after seeing the webs and giant spiders he turned around expecting a giant insect to be flying after him. To his relief, he saw Ilmarillion, flying towards him with her wings fluttering excitedly behind her.

  “They might not be giant spiders but there are a lot of spiders in the area.” she said. “I took care of the nest back there as it was getting a little close to our camp.”

  “Australia is known for its spiders,” he said.

  “What is Australia?” she asked

  “The country we’re currently in. It is famous for having a lot of snakes and spiders.”

  “Well you definitely have too many spiders.“ she huffed. “That was the fourth group of spiders I have burned. They are literally everywhere. I generally expect to come across the odd spider, but never this many in such a small area.”

  “Why do you hate spiders so much?” He asked curiously.

  Ilmarillion looked at him in such a way he already felt stupid for asking it. “Imagine being my size and flying into a web. Now imagine getting stuck in that web and not having enough mana or strength to break free. It is worse when we are younger and often need help to escape. Most faeries have a very strong dislike of spiders.”

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  “That makes a lot of sense.” He admitted.

  “Fire is also the best way to deal with them.” she added. “Gets rid of the spider, the webs and any eggs they have.” she said matter of factly. If it hadn’t been for the smile on her face when talking about burning things he would have had an easier time believing her.

  “Come on we should get back to camp. How did your last meditation go?” she asked, starting to fly back in the direction of their camp.

  “It went well, I managed to compress a single drop like you said.”

  “Well done, hopefully we will finish the rest of it tomorrow.” she said

  “Why did you leave me though? I thought you were keeping me safe? Why were you off burning spiders?” Ezekiel asked.

  “You were safe. I set up a ward around the camp to keep monsters away.” she said. “If anything stronger had approached, I had a secondary detection ward set up to alert me if anything crossed the first ward.” She explained.

  “Also dealing with large nests of spiders, as I was doing, helps you as well.” she said.

  He couldn’t really argue with that if she had left protections in place. He had come to realise that while she often caused trouble, she had always kept her word and followed through with everything she said. Even when it wasn’t always obvious that was what she was doing.

  “Were those giant spiders you killed back there? What would you consider a giant spider?” he asked. The size of the spiders he had seen running around in the blaze were even bigger than the first one he had woken up to.

  “Giant spiders are probably twice your height and eight times as wide as you.” She said with a smile.

  “They often take over entire forests, caves, ruins or anywhere they are able to create a nest without being exterminated quickly. They consume everything in the area before expanding out, quickly growing the size of their nest and amount of spiders. The older they get the larger and more powerful they get, they are best taken care of quickly before they get a chance to establish themselves.” she said. “They never truly stop growing.”

  Slightly horrified by the thought of having to deal with multiple spiders that large he understood the faeries reactions to using fire to clear out their nests. Arriving back at camp, everything looked as he left it. Thankfully no trace of spiderwebs could be seen.

  “We will continue your mana training in the morning.” She said. “For now, sleep. I will ensure nothing approaches.”

  Setting up his small one man tent only took a few minutes. It was thankfully easy to set up and a big reason for why he chose it. Entering his tent, he quickly changed out of his clothes, his pants were done for after the day he had and his top was pretty dirty as well. Taking the chance he inspected his leg with the cut on it.

  Unwinding the bandage he was surprised to see that other than the dried blood there was only a faint red line left on his leg. Quickly pulling on his new clothes, he left his tent to talk to ilmarillion.

  “My leg is almost completely healed.” he said

  “That is a side effect of gathering essence. It helps accelerate healing. Old injuries and new ones can be healed. Usually the effect is minor, maybe taking a couple days off what a regular recovery would be. It might not cure aging but it can definitely help slow it down.” she explained.

  “How much would it slow down aging?” he asked.

  “It depends. It would probably add another twenty years to your lifespan but that can change with the amount of essence you gain as well as how much you gain regularly. Gaining a lot of essence in one day as you have done will not change much for you in terms of aging. The same as if you did it a couple of times a year it wouldn’t really add up to much. If you were gaining more every day, then you would start to see some change as well as a general improvement to your health all around.” she said. “It is part of why people try to gain essence, to delay death and old age for even just a single day.”

  “Man, you should have really highlighted that when teaching me about essence. That is awesome.” he said.

  “Keep in mind that the only reason you saw such that amount of healing was due to the fact you had almost no essence to begin with. The amount of essence gain you had was much higher proportionally than you will usually get. The more essence you have accumulated, the more essence is required to achieve a similar amount of healing. Do not walk into a rift thinking you will walk out fully healed as you often leave in a similar condition to how you were at the collapse. It is not a quick and easy way to restore yourself back to health.” she warned.

  “Alright, I won't get careless, don't worry. Do you have things like healing and mana potions then?” he asked.

  “Of course, though like with all things, you do not get something for nothing. Healing potions will use your body's natural abilities as well as mana and even essence to help you recover quicker depending on the quality. So if they are used in a fight, it can heal you but could leave you too tired to continue the fight. Unless the injury is life threatening then it would definitely be better to use a potion than dying.” she said.

  “Can I have some for just in case?” he asked, eager to get his hands on one for himself.

  “Not right now. Maybe once we finish training, I will consider it. For now, no.”

  “You should really try and get some rest. You have done well so far with the training but I can not stay with you indefinitely. If you do not learn all I wish to teach you before I must depart, that will be the end of your lessons. Sleep will help you focus better tomorrow.”

  “Good night Ezekiel, rest well.” she said, before fluttering up and away from him, before he could say more.

  Grateful for the faeries help, he made his way back to his tent. Glad his current injury was basically healed already made him feel better about his mistake in the rift. As long as he didn’t rush, he would hopefully be able to manage whatever came his way.

  Laying down inside his tent the desire for sleep hit him hard. Despite having rested a few hours earlier it had been a stressful and physically exhausting time. His head had barely touched the pillow before sleep took him.