"Holy..." S said, semi fearfully as he looked on with wide eyes. So freaked out that he even couldn't decide what he wanted the second word in that phrase to be. Real emotional rollercoaster of a day for him, isn't it? I have to imagine it's quite tiring.

"Pfft. Talk about childish." Sis said, also peeking at the crater. "Also tacky, and... Stupid."

Truly insightful commentary, befitting of a higher being. 

Nobody asked, but, personally, I just think it's kinda silly. Still, I can at least appreciate the novelty of a cat explosion.

"Childish? Hardly." S responded just a little too late for it to flow nicely. "This is nothing short of artistry."

"No, it's a stupid cat." Sis insisted. 

"Not the cat itself, but the precision this would have taken..." S said. "I mean, uh, I don't really know much about fire magic or anything, but I do know that these big 'boom'-y magics aren't really meant for surgical precision. Like, that guy from earlier, for example, his crap was just rough and circular and stuff. That's how it usually is."

I'm glad that we decided to discuss this immediately after we gained a frame of reference.

S continued, "Usually, with that sort of magic, adding stuff or altering stuff just leaves you with a dud or a backfire. You've gotta be so precise, most people don't even bother trying. Even those who probably can seldom bother, as it's generally not particularly useful, and it just takes ages to learn something like that, combining such volatility with the skills of a surgeon, especially when fire's involved. The skill needed to make something even as simple as that, is just... Freaky..."

Oh, Catface is scary. In other news, the sky is blue.

"You sure you don't know much about fire magic?" I asked. "That sounded pretty knowledgeable."

"W-well, it's not that... It's not important." S said. "Anyway, you could probably do similar stuff with other types of magic, anyway."

That makes sense, though I figure combustion lends itself to the boomy/bomb esque stuff the easiest. Unless one's making a big ol' air cannon or maybe giant water balloons. Ooh, fun. Though, probably grossly inconvenient. 

"Point is, it's one hell of a calling card. Probably something worth noting."

"Noted." I said, noting it.

"It's still dumb." Sis indignantly insisted once more.

. . .

"Well, should we catch a play, or something?" I asked once more, for the same reason as before. 

"Right, about that," S began. "You guys feel free to do that, but I'm thinkin' I'm gonna take an early night."

"Really? It's not even dinner time yet." Admittedly, it was kinda getting there, though. We had a late lunch.

"Right. I didn't sleep too much while I was on the mountain, I've mostly just been running on excitement 'till now. Well, that and however much sleep I got when I was passed out. I don't really feel tired, but I worry that this is gonna wear off soon and I'm gonna pass out again. I figure I should do what I can to prevent that."

"Ah. That's fair."

"Plus, maybe a bit of sleep will help my juices start flowing again."

Phras- Eh... Was that suggestive? I don't really know. 'Juices' is just kind of a gross word, but I dunno. Not really feeling this one. 

"Yeah, that makes sense. Should I bring us back to Starsf-" I began.

I caught myself before I could say it, but I still noticed that S kind of winced a bit.

"Uh, anywhere you wanna stay around here?" I asked.

"Right, I dunno. I haven't really stayed here in the city much."

"What about those bedrolls you bought? You already paid for 'em, right?" Sis suggested.

"W-well, I can't imagine he'd wanna spend his first night back on the floor."

"Eh, that works." S said.

"R-really? I can pay, if that's-"

"Nah, it's not that. Sleeping on the ground is actually just pretty familiar to me. An actual bedroll should be more than enough. Honestly, I've spent plenty of nights surrounded by nothing but grass and sand. Sometimes just sand. Good times..." S explained with a smile at the end. 

"O-oh, alright. If you're sure..." I paused for a bit to make sure. Looks like he was. I put my hands together, "Basenholm it is, then- AHK"

AH! The heck-

Suddenly, as I moved my hands apart, I got hit by this sharp, shooting pain in my legs. I sort of crouched a bit as I recoiled.

"Woah, you good?" S asked.

"Wha- A-are you okay? What happened? Did someone-" Sis said, suddenly looking at me with the same eyes S had a bit ago. 

"Oh, uh, y-yeah, er, n-no, er, uh..." I took a moment to reorient myself. "I'm fff-fine. I think. Uh, I sort of... Fell earlier. Landed on my feet kind of awkwardly, uh, g-guess it's just now catching up to me. Ow..."

"A-are you sure? Is anything broken? Do-"

"Ye- No- I'm fine. I can still move everything fine. Just hurts a bit." I explained.

"Huh. One heck of a delayed reaction, isn't it?"

"Y-yeah, guess so." Yeah, that is pretty odd, honestly. Not quite sure what to make of that. "Weird."

"Right."

"Uhuh..." 

. . . 

Well, despite whatever the heck that was, we arrived back in Basenholm relatively easily.

Only other complication was when we were met with the surprise hole in the floor when we stepped into the house.

"Oh, right. Someone came in while I was here. Fell through. I don't know if I mentioned it." Was all Sis explained.   

"Y-you were attacked while I was out? S-Sorry, I-"

"Nah, not really. Dude was kinda weird. Mostly we just talked while he sipped his weird drink. Chill guy, all things considered. Oh, there's another hole over there, by the way." Sis said, pointing out a spot in the floor where it seemed like something had burnt through it.

"D-Did the guy do that?" 

"Yeah. Don't ask me how, I gave up trying to understand it."

"Huh..."

Weird. Still, looks fixable. Just gotta be careful, I guess. 

Anyways, S tucked carefully himself in, and Sis and I decided to head for the river. Sis got excited about fishing, and I thought I could catch up on training, or something. I figure I might be greeted with more opportunity to do cool stuff while S gets his magic stuff rebooted. 

Not that I actually learned anything cool. Well, I did mess around my dark tentacle guys for a bit, got 'em to spin around my body for some reason, which was a pretty fun distraction for, like, 5 minutes. Oh, who am I kidding, I was giggling about that for the better part of half an hour.

For the most part it was pretty uneventful, though we did see that armor guy from the church wistfully staring into the river for a while. Not really sure why. We figured it was best to leave him be. 

I wonder if anything's happened in town while we've been out? 

Looks mostly normal from here.

Well, regardless, we spent most of the rest of the day by the river. Sis was fishing, I was 'training' (swinging my sickles around like a moron, entertaining myself with magic, and cloud gazing.) and, aside from a short break for a quick dinner and some time spent doing whatever around town, the remainder of the day went by rather uneventfully. When the sky went dark and I got tired, I went to bed with S (well, n-not with him or anything, but, like, in the same room.), Sis did... Something, probably, and I had the best sleep I'd had in a while.

But as I stood by the river, and lay there in that bedroll, I couldn't get myself to stop thinking about what I'd heard in the 'bathroom.'