Beist walked along the path through the Luna Valley towards Moonglade, his walking stick tapping on the ground with every other step. He looked toward the sky, the sun past its zenith and starting to descend over the horizon. He should find somewhere camp fairly soon, before it began to get too dark.

He disliked traveling all alone, but not from feeling unsafe. He was not often bothered by bandits or the like. Most people that got a good look at him steered clear thanks to his startling height and width. The horns and claws also helped deter would-be troubles.  No, he disliked travelling alone because he felt lonely.

He eventually came upon a small area just off the path where the grass gave way to dirt and rocks. This was probably an often-used camping spot from the ring of stones in the center where a campfire could be built. He wished he had brought some firewood with him, there were no trees in the valley for him to scavenge some kindling or timber from. At least his thick fur and his enchanted walking stick would provide him with enough warmth for the night.

He sat down with a sigh, resting his tired feet. He was barefoot, but the thick skin on the soles of his feet were not bothered too much by the small rocks and pebbles on the ground. Still, he tried to push the rocks away with his feet to make a softer area of dirt for him to sit on.

"Maybe I should get a wagon" he thought out loud and sighed.  He looked both ways down the road as the sun started to set. Maybe someone else will want to set up camp here. He hoped someone would and if they did, that they were friendly.

Gladio was used to traveling alone he had been doing so for a while now, and while he sometimes felt lonely he was mostly used to that, he didn't have many people he could call friends and his family was small and living the small town life, so he often felt lonely but traveling and helping others usually took his mind off of that, The sights were particularly pretty this day, as the sun began to hide through the green horizon, the sky was painted red, orange, and a a bit of pink before getting to the dark blue of the approaching night.

That's when he noticed... He had nowhere to stop and rest! He began to quicken his pace as he hadn't seen a suitable camping spot in a while, but after a few minutes he found one, thing was it seemed to be occupied already... by a... beast? nah they were siting straight up so it wasn't an animal... maybe a were-beast? he wasn't sure what he was looking at so he decided to call out to them, hopefully they weren't aggressive and if they were he would be ready.

"Um... Hello!" He shouted nervously not sure if it was a good idea, he was at the other side of the road behind the were-animal. Surely nothing bad can come out of this right?

Beist looked up at the shout, seeing a young man on the other side of the road. He raised a hand in a slight wave and shouted back. "Hello! Are you looking for a spot to make camp? You may join me, if you'd like!" He awaited the man's response, slightly nervous. He wondered if they called all the way from the other side of the ride out of fear of him, or if they just happened to be walking on that side of the road. "I don't bite..." he thought to himself, not sure whether actually saying it out loud would lighten the mood or scare the stranger off.

Gladio was shouting from over there for a bit of both reasons actually, he happened to be walking on that side, but at the same time didn't want to startle the stranger, and preferred introducing himself from a bit away in case they weren't friendly. Seeing as that wasn't the case, and they seemed to be a friendly person, he approached.

"Sorry for the shouting... You never know whether the next person you meet is gonna be friendly or not" he chuckled a bit at that, trying to break the tension. After this he sat in front of the other with the campfire-to-be in between them. "My name is Gladio by the way!" he Began to take some neatly cut branches thick enough to serve as decent fuel for a fire, as well as some kindling.

Nothing new here he just grabbed one of the branches and made a small hole on it with the tip of his sword, then placed a few dried leaves and a bit of grass, lastly he grabbed one of the sticks he brought and placed the tip against the newly made hole rubbing his hands together for a bit to create heat by friction. "This might take a bit, thankfully I had everything needed for the fire as there doesn't seem to be any good fuel around..." In fact it had less to do with luck and more with preparedness since when he saw the expanse of plains he figured he would have a hard time getting stuff to make a fire, so he grabbed some sticks and branches as well as the driest leaves he could find, while it wasn't the most ideal of materials he had made fire this way before and in a cave in Frostgale of all places... so making a fire here should be no problem.

"Ah, no worries. No worries at all! You're quite right, you never know. It is a pleasure to meet you, Gladio. My name is Beistmild, but please call me Beist." Beist said as Gladio sat across from him and began pulling branches and dry leaves out of his bag and constructing a fire in the empty pit.

Oh, what a relief! Beistmild thought to himself as he watched them. He was very glad to see that he would not have to sleep in the cold and dark tonight as he had thought he would. How lucky that this lad had thought to bring fire making materials. Perhaps he should start doing that himself if he knows he will be travelling through plains.

"Thank you very much, young man. I'm sorry I did not think to bring such materials myself! Indeed, I believed I would have to go without a fire for the night. Oh, please allow me to assist with that!" Beist said before he lifted his walking stick and tapped it hard onto the kindling. There was a smell of burning coals and then the kindling slowly began to light from under the tip of the walking stick. He pulled back his walking stick and looked at Gladio with a smile.

"Ah, now that we have a fire, would you care for some tea? I did not bring firewood, but I did bring my favorite tea leaves" he said with a chuckle.

---

Ignis Staff

"Well Beist it's a pleasure to meet you too! And don't worry, I'm just used to carrying this sort of stuff with me, I've traveled a lot so I'm good at being prepared!" By then Beist had offered to help with the fire, as he approached with his walking stick Gladio wasn't very sure of what exactly Beist was gonna do but he moved back a bit willing to let the other try to start the fire. 

After a tap of Beist's staff, the kindling was lit already! "Oh! so you know fire magic? that's bound to be useful! mostly for survival situations, I know a bit of magic myself, although all my studies are in the Sky domain, I know lightning bolt but it's not really useful for fireplaces... or anything short of a forest fire..."

Helping the fire grow a little by blowing on it and placing some more kindling around and above it, in a way that the main ember had space to breathe, he then retreated a bit letting the fire do its thing. He looked at Beist once he offered to brew some tea. "Now that's a kind of preparedness I don't have!" He laughed a bit at his remark, while he considered himself to be sort of good at preparing for trips, he still usually forgot to bring things that weren't strictly practical or necessary. So having a nice cup of tea on the go was bound to be a nice change of pace for him. "Sure! I'll leave you to it!" After saying that he got up and walked a bit away from the fire, leaving Beist space to work, hopefully it would be an uneventful evening.

Beist started preparing his small kettle with a smile, filling it with water from his waterskin. He had been lucky enough to draw some from a river earlier. He wondered if he should go back to the river in the morning before he continued toward Moonglade again. It wasn't too far back, but there might be another river just up ahead, anyways. Well, it should be fine.

The kettle was filled and placed close to the fire. He would have liked to hang it over the fire, but he lacked any sturdy sticks to make a frame for it to hang from. This was good enough. He spoke again as he portioned out some tea leaves into two cups he removed from his bag.

"Actually, the magic was not quite my own doing. It came from the enchantment on my walking stick here. But yes, it is rather useful, isn't it? I am quite fond of it" He said as he held up his walking stick. It looked like it was made of charcoal and smelled like it as well. "My expertise lies more in alchemy, though I would like to learn some Earth magic. Perhaps in the future. Your Sky magic sounds quite impressive though! I would very much enjoy seeing a demonstration, if it is not too much trouble. Or too dangerous"

"Oh! Should've guessed that wasn't just a walking stick!" Gladio said while chuckling, it definitely looked sort of odd.

"Alchemy huh? that actually sounds really useful, and I guess it makes sense that you carry tea leaves with you!" chuckling again this time a bit louder. To him this observation made sense after all an alchemist would have an assortment of reagents and medicinal plants, and what is tea if not a weaker, albeit tasty sort of potion!

He thought a bit about doing a demonstration, while his sky magic wasn't really some demonstrative magic trick and most of the spells he knew were sort of offensive, he wouldn't mind trying to set up an easy demonstration. "Alright while the water boils I might be able to set up something." Honestly it wasn't very troublesome for him since he was a bit of a show-off sometimes... but who doesn't like a bit of praise?

He gathered some fist sized rocks and put them on top of one of the logs acting as benches, they should be easy enough to blow away and since rocks aren't really flammable there wouldn't be much chance of causing a fire after they land. once he set all three rocks on top of the log walked away almost to the road making sure the campfire wasn't in the way as he wouldn't want to snuff it out or make it much bigger with the gust of wind.

"Alright everything is ready for the demonstration" He said as to get Beist's attention in case he was looking somewhere else, then he just waved his hand once with a backhand motion as if brushing off dirt from an arm that wasn't there, this triggered the 'push' spell creating a strong gust of wind near the rocks that imitated the path his hand took first forward and then up, it was strong enough to send the three rocks flying away and then up into the air once they were at a reasonable distance from the ground, he pointed his finger at the one in the middle and used the 'lightning bolt' spell shooting an extremely fast bolt of pure electricity towards the rock, which exploded in mid air. Soon after the two rocks, and the now bunch of pebbles landed on the grass.

Hopefully that was a good enough demonstration.

Beist watched the pebbles fly into the air from the strong wind with an amused smile. That was already pretty impressive. He was about to begin a small clap to show his appreciation for the show, but then Gladio shot the middle pebble with a bolt of lightning. Beist was surprised, flinching a little at the sudden explosion. He stood for a moment and watched the remains of the pebble rain down into the grass with the other two stones. After getting over the shock, he laughed and began clapping.

"My, that surprised me! I wasn't expecting the lightning bolt. Quite impressive!" he said excitedly as he clapped. "Ah, I wish I had something so impressive to show you in return. I really should learn some Earth magic, shouldn't I? Though I'm not sure I'd be able to do something quite as flashy as that." he said jokingly as he returned to tending the fire and preparing the tea.

The water was hot, but not boiling. Perfect temperature for the tea. He poured the water into the cups with the tea leaves in small silk bags and let them steep for a moment before pulling the bags out and handing one of the cups to Gladio.

"Oh Sorry! I didn't mean to surprise you like that!" Gladio didn't expect the huge Beist to be so easily startled, still it made a bit of sense once he thought a bit more about it, he was big but he seemed to be kindhearted and not like someone who particularly enjoys battle, although this assumption might be wrong, it would explain why he would startle easily...

"Well Probably not as soon as you learnt the magic but once you figure out its ins and outs I'm sure you could figure some flashy demonstrations, and earth magic is definitely be useful so you probably wouldn't need to do some sort of target practice to demonstrate." Chuckling a bit he grabbed his teacup

Going back to sit on the log, he took a sip of the tea. "Oh, it's a good tea!" And immediately took another slightly longer sip, "By the way... Sorry if this is rude but now that there's a bit of a lull I wanted to ask... What exactly are you? You're not really the most outlandish thing I've seen but I'm still wondering... you're not really any normal were-beast are you?" He fidgeted a little as it might be an uncomfortable topic for Beist and Gladio didn't really want to bother him, still he really wanted to know "D-don't take it badly... I'm just curious is all."

Beist's smile faded a bit as he looked at Gladio. He didn't expect such a question so suddenly, but he supposed it was a fair one. His appearance was very unusual and he likely would have wanted to ask as well if he was in a similar situation.

"No, it's alright. I understand my appearance is rather unusual. I'm not exactly a werebeast anymore. That is to say, I was a a normal werebear, but I wanted to have control over myself while transformed. So, I made a potion that I thought would achieve that. Unfortunately, you can see the results of that potion before you now." he said with a sigh as he remembered the day he had drank the potion. He took a sip of his tea before continuing.

"Perhaps I was a bit greedy. It may have been easier to simply rid myself of the beast entirely, but I wanted to keep the strength it offered. And I did keep it, but at the cost of my human form. And my beast form is warped into something I can't possibly call a bear anymore."

"I'm sorry... I shouldn't have asked... I was curious is all. Sorry if I've brought back something you'd rather keep out of your mind." great work Gladio now you've gone and ruined it by being insensitive again! It's what he thought, he usually let his curiosity get the better of him and while he didn't mean any ill by it, it clearly was a bad choice of topic.

"B-but maybe if a potion caused it it could also reverse it? Well I mean you probably looked into that already but..." He sighed too not really knowing how to lift the mood. "Well for what's worth, I don't mind your appearance. I mean from what I gather you are a nice person so don't be too hard on yourself, I'm sure a lot of people will appreciate you and accept you as is. I mean I know it might not mean much from a normal human that's never really been discriminated because of appearance but... Well... I've been picked on as a child for being weird, of course it's not the same but, well... I guess what I want to say is: If people hate you for something like that they're probably not worth it, I mean sure people might be wary of you or fear you a little at the beginning but I'm pretty sure that by just being yourself you'll win them over, the good ones at least."

Gladio paused for a bit thinking about what he should say or if he should say anything else... "Sorry I'm not really good at this sort of stuff" he chuckled a little "still... If you need something you can count on me!" maybe he was being too kind to someone he just met, half of the stuff he said were assumptions, but he wanted to make it up to Beist so he thought that maybe the best he could do was offering to help him in a time of need... If that ever happens... It might not but he always liked to have other's backs mostly if they were nice and friendly people.

Beist let out a chuckle as he listened to Gladio's words of encouragement.

"Thank you for you kind words. It's alright. I'm actually already working on such a potion to try and reverse this. That's why I'm currently travelling. To find the ingredients I might need while I develop the correct mixture. It may take a while, but I'm rather patient. I can survive in my current form. It's just a bit embarrassing, you know, as an alchemist. One of my potions had such a horrible side effect and didn't do what was expected of it. It's a terrible blow to my pride. Also..." he said before clenching his fist and making a very pained expression.

"I used to be so handsome!" he cried out, a tear in the corner of each eye.

Gladio was relieved he got a chuckle out of Beist, Everything was not ruined! That was until he heard the last part... He stood up and tried to speak "Oh! B-but that's... W-well, it's not that imp-" he cut himself off "I-I mean you really shouldn't..." cutting himself off, he didn't know what to say he wasn't sure if he should tell him it doesn't matter, try to console him, or if it was a joke and he should laugh. but at the same time he didn't want to laugh in case it wasn't a joke!

His sort of social awkwardness really shone through in this moment, He wasn't sure what to do and he didn't want to let it go, what if it was an actual concern and he just agreed with him making everything worse yet again! He couldn't let that happen! So he just forced himself to finish a sentence. "I-I'm sure someone would think you're good now! A-a lot of people like fuzzy warm bear hugs right?" yeah... not really that great of a point but... that's like the least cliche and awkward thing he could think of at the moment...

Beist's could feel how incredibly awkward the conversation had become thanks to him venting some of his frustration with his new form. He especially regretted that last part, about him being handsome. It had really soured the good mood around the campfire and now he just felt guilty. Though, Gladio's response really hadn't helped. It just made him feel a bit more awkward having someone he'd just met call him a warm, fuzzy bear.

"Ah, I'm terribly sorry! I ended up venting a little and made things a bit awkward, didn't I? Let's just move on to a new topic and talk about something else, yes? You said you'd travelled a lot. Where are some interesting places you've been? I'd be pleased to hear about them. Did you see anything interesting on the road?" Beist said a little quickly, trying to move the conversation away from such awkward topics as quickly as he could.