"Fire kills things!" the ague-pale elf yells angrily, as her companions drag her away by the elbows.
"Less shouting, more running!" says the other, complexion a healthier colour, if oddly shimmery.
"Did that look dead to you?" howls the anvilthane at her other side.
"Fire! Kills! Things!"
"You're thinking of trolls!" the other elf warbles.
"SHALL I SET YOU ON FIRE TO SEE IF YOU'RE ONE, THEN," the first shouts.
"This is why wizards are shit," the anvilthane pants, as they scramble around another corner. "You can't just substitute haha I know Fireball for every field of basic knowledge! You don't know any chemistry!"
"WHAT'S CHEMISTRY GOT TO DO WITH ANYTHING," the wizard rants, feet scrabbling as she still attempts to charge back the way they came and throw more fire, as if that hasn't already got them in enough trouble.
The other elf chokes out a disbelieving laugh.
"CARBON!" the anvilthane bellows furiously. "YOU BURN THE SAME AS TREES OR TOAST OR TROLLS BECAUSE YOU'RE ALL MOSTLY CARBON! STANDARD FIREBALLS DON'T TORCH ROCK BECAUSE THEY DON'T HAVE THE ENERGY TO BURN SILICATES!"
"OOZES AREN'T ROCKS!" the wizard yells back, and then tumbles onto her arse as the anvilthane abruptly releases her elbow. "Ow!"
"WE'RE IMPROVING THE WORLD'S AVERAGE EDUCATIONAL STANDARD BY LEAVING HER TO DIE," the anvilthane declares, and scuttles away ahead of them.
"Barrel-sviwing taproom vermin!" the wizard yowls, clutching her tailbone.
Later, much running and a surface campfire ringed with a salt perimeter later, the wizard grandly plops down on a fallen log next to the anvilthane.
"You left me to be digested by ooze," she says, nose in the air.
"And yet," the anvilthane grouses.
"I've decided to forgive it," the wizard says grandly. "...In exchange for imparting some chemical lore, which clearly you're abundant in."
The anvilthane grunts suspiciously. "Aye?"
The wizard regally nods, and inspects her nails. "You implied," she says in conversational tones, "that someone of sufficient chemical wisdom might set the very rocks aflame—"
"No," the anvilthane says.
