"Hmm, let's see..."

It was a nice, sunny afternoon when Aladar was making his way home from hanging out with some of his friends. The temperature was just perfect for the walk, and the wind was bowing ever so slightly.

Most importantly, he was able to nab himself a copy of a Nosferatu tome, which he was currently scanning through.

"This is one epic spell." He said as he flipped through some of the pages. "I've got to hand it to some of these Dark-types. I may not really like them, but they know how to conjure up some pretty cool magic."

He hummed, following the path that led to the city.

As he walked, he noticed that the swamp that he hung out at every once in a while was coming up. The path he was walking on was parallel to the swamp, so he saw it often.

"I wonder what Jimmy and Bern are up to today?"

"Jimmy is at home playing on his new Switch, and Bern is off with Borys looking for a good time."

The Zangoose jumped from the unfamiliar voice.

Looking around, a Mud Elemental had been laying in one of puddles near the path he was on. Standing up, he was tall like most of the other ones, about 12 feet tall, a little over twice the size of Aladar. His eyes also had a light-blue glow to them.

Aladar would be surprised, but him and Fox Aladar had been running into a lot of these elementals recently, so part of him had lost the shock of finding one out of nowhere.

"Well hello there." The Zangoose greeted, closing his book. "I don't think we've met before. You know Bern and co.?"

"Why yes." He replied, stretching. "They are idiots."

Chuckling, Aladar stopped for a second and let the golem approach him.

"I wouldn't really say idiots, but they are a bit thick-skulled." He replied back. "I'm Aladar."

Aladar could sense that this guy had a bit of a thicker air than the previous elementals he's met so far. The guy had more serious aura to him; not like stuck-up, but less lenient and driven by hormones than the others. It might be the smooth river silt texture on him, but he was cut from finer cloth in the Zangoose's opinion.

He also sounded pretty bored at the moment.

"Ren." The golem said.

That said, Ren suddenly turned his head and looked at the book in Aladar's hands.

All of a sudden, a smile appeared on his face.

"Ooo, what do we have here?" He asked.

"Oh," Aladar held out the book. "It's a-"

Just for Ren to snatch it before he was able to answer.

"Nosferatu?" He read, flipping the first pages. "A spellbook? It's been a while since I've read one of these."

"Excuse me!" Aladar stated, trying to reach for his book, but failing horribly due to the size of Ren, and the fact that he was being slighly held back by the elemental's arm. "That's my book, give it back! I haven't read that much of it yet!"

"Fascinating..."

All that serious air that Aladar felt coming from Ren had just been blown away like the wind. It was like his personality had taken a 180 as soon as he opened the book, and as kinda cute as the Zangoose found it, he was still annoyed that his new book had just been snatched from him.

"You'd better not get any mud on those pages!" The Zangoose said as he attempted to get the book back.

The two of them suddenly had also began walking along the trail again.

"Now that's interesting." Ren said, flipping though more pages. "This spell could be considered both a Dark and Ghost move. Most ways it's used, it creates a little fog tornado that sucks people into, and drains their life force. It's both a healing and damaging spell; never knew there was a one for darkness, but then again, I'm not really surprised."

"You enjoying yourself?" Aladar asked. "You do know that I exist, right?"

It was as if the older male had forgotten that he was there.

He was completely engrossed in the book he was holding.

"Can Mud Elementals even use spells?" The smaller male asked. "I mean, I think they can use magic, but not spells."

"Depends on the person."

Aladar was kinda surprised that he had gotten a reply.

"Though I should really try sometime." Ren continued. "And even if I can't, I've forgotten how fun these are to read; there's casting positions and forms, history about the spell, info on what it can or can't be used on, variations on how it used to look. So many descriptions and diagrams, not just words."

The two of them continued this for another fifteen minutes until they were almost at the city. Ren had gone through the book several times, noting every little detail there was. Aladar was still annoyed, but would be lying if he said he wasn't having a good time walking and talking.

As they got to the gates, Ren tossed the book back to the Zangoose.

"We should hang out sometime. How many more of those spellbooks do you have? I want to read all of them."

Aladar thought to himself, thinking of every spellbook he had.

"Umm, I think I have about thirty of them." He answered.

"Bring them to me!!!"

The elemental had grabbed Aladar's shoulders as he said that.

"You have no idea how bored I've been these last few days." He continued. "I have some friends who bring me things when we hang out, but they've been really busy lately! Let's meet up tomorrow and do stuff together!"

"Alright, I have no objections." Aladar chuckled. "And you say that Bern and co. are idiots, just look at you right now."

Ren blushed a little after the Zangoose said that.

"I'll come by the swamp at around noon tomorrow. I don't need to be anywhere, so maybe I can even stay the night if it's alright with you." Aladar smiled as he said that. "You're kinda funny really. Just don't tell Bern. He'll make things awkward."

Reb blushed a little more, trying not to think of what would happen if Bern and Aladar were in the same room together.

"Hello?" The Zangoose waved. "Earth to Ren!"

"O-of course!" The golem almost instantly replied. "Noon! Tomorrow at the swamp. I'll be there!"

That said, Aladar waved again and entered the city.

_________________________________________________________________

Ah Ren~ When I think of him, I think of Raine from Tales of Symphonia. Very stern and serious, but as soon as something interesting catches their attention, they just get all bubbly and excited.
At least that's how I imagine him.

Art and Ren  Bernherbys