Zone B -- Forest

[Gildarts]

Finally they had arrived! Then, the small haze of rain turned into a downpour. Gildarts exhaled a breath of relief and Illidan was more pent up than ever. He felt like a caged animal, told to sit in the corner for his sins. For ten-thousand years or closer to eternity.
 
And well, Illidan was a rebel and he’d done his time sitting in a cage. But they did mention rest. And so rest they would have. As well as a good meal. Rest first, though, seemed to be on the agenda for both the weary magic-users. They had to be ready for the next fight.
 
The door opened, this time, the hatch was different than that of the city, vines grew along the outside, it was very… Bunker-y. There were stacks of logs everywhere and while Gildarts thought it quaint, though the oblivious mage never really regarded his surroundings unless in the thick of battle, he noticed that the trees had been chopped by saw and not by the hand of a mage. There was no residual energy and the loggers of this forest had gone just like the city.
 
“Illidan… Do you think something is kind of… Strange about this place?” Gildarts said queerly.
 
“We’re on an insane island hosted by a rich sociopath, watched by peasants of the Omniverse who crave violence and death but not enough to get their fingers dirty for themselves for a change, yeah I’d say it is pretty strange,” Illidan said bitterly. He was still mad about the fight. He didn’t blame anyone, though, only how formidable his competition had been. Only how much more power he needed to grow.
 
“No, Illidan. What I want to know is... Where did they go?” Gildarts said and his voice trailed. The primes’ two sets of feet squished in the sloppy soil as they made their way to a makeshift cover from the rain which did nothing for the sludge that their mucky feet still trudged along in.
 
“Maybe the mortals all died. The city looked pretty abandoned, and that fog monster could be a good reason,” Illidan was warming up to Gildarts again, though being a ‘team player’ was not always in the cards for the Scourge of Darkshire. “It gave you a whirl.”
 
Gildarts smiled as the reflection of his hair looking like that came back to his mind. Good thing no one had been watching… No, not at all, and surely not the implants of cameras everywhere.
 
“It could have been a flood scare, but I don’t see any of the lumberjacks now, and they just left their gear around,” Illidan glared at Gildarts as the Prime picked up a tarp and unveiled a chainsaw as though it were a child’s action-figure.
 
“I think I’ll keep it!” Gildarts said jubilantly as though he was taking home a new puppy and they continued to walk along the trench-like maze of lumber until they neared the clearing of the encampment. He inspected it and it was mostly dry. Likely still functionable. While Gildarts didn’t like using weapons, but there was no denying his magic was POOPED and he could use a little human thingamajig help if they got ambushed again.
Gildarts couldn’t help thinking that without magic, this is a life he could have had...
 
Smoke from the fire filled their nostrils and reminded them just how hungry they were. Their stomach’s squirmed. Gil’s last good meal had been in Ambrosia and Illidan’s well, who knew what and when a dark elf ate anyway.
 
Priorities were priorities and Gildarts fished out he and Illidan’s canteen, filling them both up from the trickle of rainwater that came directly from above and rolled off the makeshift slabs of steel roof in a nice clean stream. Once they were overflowing, Gildarts capped and screwed them.
 
Illidan was still suspicious and watched Gildarts do this, step-by-step, however it felt almost normal for the dark-elf to be served in such a way. Still the wizard had those vials and didn’t offer him one. Were they the key of the wizard’s power or was it something just to keep his throat from getting any more hoarse?
 
While suspicion ladened in his ally’s mind, Gildarts felt his head pounding from exhaustion and yes… Withdrawal.
 
You didn’t think you could get rid of me after one tiny fight, did you? Just because you’re in the zone and can’t be distracted so easily doesn’t mean I can’t reach you during it.
 
Enough! He’d had enough. Get this freaking voice out of his head! The sealed canteens fell to the muddy ground and Gildarts felt something like a jagged dagger running along the confines of his mind. He held onto his temples with more force that could lift a car in the air, begging it to stop. Illidan watched curiously, not offering him a bit of help and assuming this time, it was merely an effect from the telepathic one in the fight. There was nothing to be done, with or without his support.