"...I don't like them already." Ashley commented.

"Seems they are VERY stuck in their ways." Lindsay said. "So perhaps it best if we avoided any contact with them at all costs." he reasoned, as he looked around some.

"Hmmm." he mumbled.

"I assume we'll be sticking to woods and forests and such?" he asked.

"Stay off the beaten paths?"

Lindsay chuckled in response.

"Indeed." he said, as Ashley sat there, creating a small orb of black fire in his palm, and the crushing it. And then creating another, and squashing THAT one, before sighing quietly.

"Maybe best to use Lindsay's fire." he said.

"Not sure if mine would be best..." he went on.

"If we're cooking over an open fire... mine might add a weird flavour or something, I dunno..."

The boys looked at her, before looking at each other.

"I... maybe?" Lindsay replied.

"I think we have, and I've never tasted a difference. None that I can recall." he admitted.

"Hm." Ashley mumbled.

"I guess I'm just worried over nothing." he stated.

"But I often wonder why my fire is black... and Lindsay's isn't." he went on. "It was never really explained to us."

Ashley nodded.

"Yeah, I can." he said, as Lindsay shook his head.

"I cannot." he told her.

"Why?" he asked. "You think that's connected?" he asked her.

"...why would it be?" Ashley then mused.

"I mean, it's still fire, right?"

Lindsay then paused again, and seemed to think about it... though he did NOT like what he was thinking about, apparently. This caused Ashley to come a bit closer and place a hand on his shoulder.

"You don't have to-" he started to say, before Lindsay interrupted.

"I WANT to." he stated.

"...I DO remember creating black flames." he then said.

"And... yes, once I was combined with a phoenix... they went to standard flames." he recalled, opening his eyes again.

"...huh." Lindsay mumbled.

"I never knew that." he said. "...interesting." he said further.

"Yeah, seems you got lucky, between the two of us." Ashley then said.

"You lost the curse, AND got crossed with an awesome creature." he told her.

"...and they picked a MOUSE for me..."

"...you think so?" Ashley asked.

"You HAVE been the one that did all the work, the sneaking, and such, throughout our lives of freedom." Lindsay reminded him.

"Okay, true." Ashley admitted.

"AND there's the fact that I'm immune to poison." he then added.

"Toxins." Lindsay corrected him.

"You're immune to venoms and such from animals."

"...I don't know." Ashley admitted.

"That sort of venom was never tested on me." he said. "Nor was demonic venom." he went on.

"...is it wise to find out?" Lindsay inquired.

"We have no idea how your body will react to it." he stated, which caused Ashley to laugh slightly.

"At this point? I welcome a challenge from any venom."

"I... well..." Lindsay mumbled, before Ashley spoke up.

"You trust Anya, right?" he asked.

"Yeah." Lindsay replied.

"And you trust ME, right?" Ashley then asked further.

"Of course. I always have." Lindsay stated clearly and definitively.

"Then trust us when we say that testing her venom on me should be fine." Ashley told him. "Remember... they tested a LOT of bad venoms on me." he reminded him further. "The worst being when they had a Quill-back Cobra bite me." he went on. "Took a few hours, but I was able to eventually ignore the pain and my body fought it off." he finished.

This was... distressing for Anya to hear. That particular snake's venom was as lethal as it got, and had a 95% mortality rate for those that were bitten by it, unless they had an antidote on hand to use within 10 minutes. And once that 10 minutes had passed, the victim was dead, due to their internal organs rapidly failing in quick succession.

They nodded in response.

"Okay." they said in unison.

"Guess we need to get ready and actually bed down." Lindsay then said further.

"Yeah." Ash agreed.

"And odds are we'll be on the move a lot." he added.