Two Months Later...

After running away from the towns people of Droc, Lyra and I kept following the arrow which hopefully is pointing towards Circe.

We’ve spent around two months together, hopping from town to town, getting supplies, going to the next town, helping travellers, getting supplies, saving a town from angry hippogriff, getting supplies.

Honesty, Lyra kept me from losing my sanity over these few months, I would be skin and bones without her.

She also started training me…

“AGH!”

I fell on my back… again.

“Remember, plant your feet and find your balance, your opponent will be able to see that and use it against you.”

“Yeah yeah, I kn--“

She threw a straight with her right fist at my head, taking advantage of my unpreparedness.

Hitting my cheek since my head was turned away from her, I jumped back and got into stance, left foot forward pointed at around one o’clock, left foot back also pointed at one o’clock and sightly outwards with my toes of my right foot inline with the heel of my left.

Shoulders off-centre so my left side is facing the front, elbows touching my torso and fists resting on my eyebrows covering my face.

“Got you.”

She winked at me.

Her stance is a bit different from mine, her feet are around the same as mine, but her arm are out in front, and hands are open and relaxed.

I step forward and throw a jab with my left, she deflects it with her hand, but I drop and use a right uppercut towards her left side.

She jumps and flips overtop of me, I quickly turn and see her left leg coming up, I send my aura to my right arm and block a hard roundhouse kick towards my head, lunge towards her throwing a straight while her leg is in the air.

Using her left hand pushes my straight away from her head, I plant my left foot and step back.

Stepping forward I throw a straight, which she deflects, but I kept advancing and bent my arm so my elbow would hit her head.

AGH

Leaving my right side open she kneed my stomach.

Shit, I forgot to protect it with my aura.

She ducked under my elbow and got close to my chest, wrapping her left arm around my right arm gripping right below my wrist she turned around so her back was facing my chest.

Her right shoulder got underneath my armpit and threw me over her shoulder and slammed me on my back.

Lyra walked around to where my feet are.

“You got to practice moving your aura more, it should be automatic, and do not give me attitude.”

She held her hand out.

I grabbed it reluctantly then pulled as hard as I could, but she wouldn’t budge.

“Worth a shot.”

“Maybe it would have worked on someone else, but I know you too much.”

Helping me up we practiced a bit more, focusing more on moving my aura from one place to another, defending and attacking. If I put too much aura into my fist the rest of my body is left unprotected, but If I don’t put enough in my fist, it won’t even damage my opponent.

After Lyra slammed me into the ground for the hundredth time, we kept following the arrow and came across fields of pale golden wheat.

In the distance was a quite large circular town, and a couple of farmhouses in the fields.

As we got closer, this town was easily bigger than Athens, the ground was carefully carved cobble stone, the houses were made of mostly stone and thatch, probably due to the lack of trees.

“Look! There is a trading post.”

Usually these are only found in cities, well I’ve never been to a city but I’ve heard of them.

We enter the building and both of us were blinded by all the shiny things. Swords, crystals, staffs, rune stones, dragon scales, and so much more.

Lyra slowly looks at me.

“You need to hide the gold, or I am going to spend it all.”

I quickly step back from her and count our gold pieces.

“Okay, so actually we have zero gold pieces, 50 silver and 20 copper. A meal is around four silver, so… um…”

“We have around 12 meals left, but we still have some rations from the last town, if we only eat two a day, we get six meals for three days which should be enough, Damian pleaseeee can I get something?”

She’s giving me puppy dog eyes…

“Fine, you get 15 silver.”

She smiled and put out her hands pressing together making a bowl, I poured the 15 silver into her hands and she bolted off.

“You gave me 18!”

“Hey!”

Before I could chase after her, she was lost in the sea of goods.

I waited inside by the exit until she walked right past me without saying anything.

“Um, Lyra?”

I followed her closely, then I grabbed her hand.

“What did you buy?”

Turning around was an evil smile.

“It’s a surprise.”

“Of course it is—”

Suddenly, I bump into an older woman, shorter than me and crying.

“OUF, sorry…”

“What’s wrong?”

“Lia, she’s missing. I’ve been looking all day, can you help me?

“Lyra, you go right, I’ll go left.”

Lyra stepped forward and spoke.

“What does she look like?”

“Um, she's… she’s… five years old, brown hair, she’s wearing white overalls, and… a pink bow! In her hair.”

“All right, let's go.”

-

I went right and searched for the girl in the alleyways, because that is what every comic I read put the missing children.

Getting to the alleyway, I… um…

I could not breathe… I grabbed my chest.

“D—”

I tried calling out to Damian… I could not…

The walls were closing in…

Why?

I do not want to die alone…

“Ylra...”

“Layr....”

“Lyra!”

It is Damian, his voice his soothing.

“What happened? You just curled up in a ball.”

I look up and saw I was in fetal position

“Come on, we’ll search for her together.”

Damian made me feel safe, I do not think I would have survived without him, he's the only person I trust after I left those two.

We checked each alleyway while yelling out Lia, we knocked on doors, asked around, gathered a few more people to help, but we could not find her…

“What about the sewers?”

“Why would she be in the sewers?”

“I don’t know! That’s the only place we haven’t checked.”

Damian walked over to the nearest manhole cover and lifted it up, he winked at me then jumped in, crossing his arms.

Plugging my nose, I followed soon after.

I am jealous of his human nose; this place is causing me to have a headache.

Damian then started calling her name.

“Lia!”

GRRRAHHHHHH

Knocking Damian off balance, the sewers started to shake from that roar.

We sprinted towards the sound, I drew my bow and Damian kept that sword on his back, the last time I saw him use it was when he fought that dragon.

Turning right, we were met with a giant mouth with rows and rows of teeth, jumping back I got a better look at the monster.

It had four chunky legs, and the body was basically its mouth with three tentacle-like arms towards the back of it. The tentacles on either side of his lower back region flared out at the end which had spikes.

On top was the last tentacle flared out just like the two but instead it had rows of eyes.

GRRRAHHHHHHHHHHHH

It charged at me opening its large mouth, I easily jumped back from where we came, but then I saw hair. IT WAS THE GIRL.

“Damian, the girl! She is inside the monster!”

“Shit.”

That is Damian’s favourite word.

“How do we kill it without hurting the girl?”

What if we…

“Damian! Get it the monster’s attention, I am going to shoot the eyes.”

Immediately Damian started yelling and the monster turned towards him.

I pulled back on my bow and created a mana arrow. This will do less damage than making a real arrow, but it should hit all of the eyes.

Letting go, the arrow raced towards the eyes, but the back of the tentacle opened more eyes, then it moved out of the way, causing the arrow almost to hit Damian.

“Watch where you’re shooting!”

Knew it…

I pulled back on my bow and created another mana arrow, but this time it had a surprise.

Shooting it at the eyes again, which it dodged, but this time it burst into a blinding light.

I used this moment to jump on top and create a mana arrow into my hand which I pierced it right through the tentacle.

CCCRRRAHHHHHH

Oh no…

Almost throwing me off, the monster started running down the sewers, crashing into the sides, trying to get me off. I had to hold on to the slimy, gross tentacle, looking behind I saw Damian chasing after me.

He then jumped and grabbed onto one of the hind legs and slammed his feet into the ground causing the monster to slow down.

This gave me the chance to pull out one of my premade arrows, I took out my crawler venom arrow which should kill a monster this size.

I raised the arrow and jabbed it into its thick hide; the arrow tip should automatically release the venom.

The monster started to slow down more and more until it dropped to the ground.

“If I ever turn this ugly, just kill me, okay?”

Damian said while he kicked the monster.

I jumped off of the back and went to the mouth, Damian and I slowly opened its mouth.

“Hold it open, I will go get her.”

Damian nodded and I entered.

“Lia? Lia?!”

“huh…?”

I saw the top of her head, reaching down I put my arms underneath her arms and pulled, pulling and pulling both of us popped out hitting Damian on the way out.

“We did it!”

“Yeah, we also are covered in poo…”

We took the girl back up to the surface and were met with a crowd of people cheering.

The mom came to hug us, even though we were covered in poo.

“Thank you! Thank you!!”

I felt warm, but not because of the poo…

Since we saved that little girl and killed the monster that was actually the cause of a lot of missing children, the townspeople gave us a free room to stay in anytime we want, plus free desserts!

“Lyra, you are not eating the whole town's cake supply.”

“But-but-but… DAMIANNNN pleaseeeee.”

“No, we do not have enough room to keep cake in our travel bags.”

“You are no fun.”

I pout as we walk to our room. Damian turned the key and it was a very small room in a inn, but it had a bathroom, a bed and a small table.

Oh… There's only one bed…

I turn to Damian and he is already blushing.

“I can sleep on the floor—”

“NO!”

I quickly covered my mouth. I can not believe I just said that.

“Well, I mean, you need to have a good sleep if we are going to keep on walking, right?”

“Um, yes, I do need sleep, heh…”

“You can shower first; I have to go do something…”

“Um, sure, just be careful.”

That was too much for me, I never felt this way before, it feels good, but it is just intense…

Besides that, I have something to do.

Nearby, I saw an empty room, it is probably used for parties, but its perfect for what I have to do.

Even here I can hear Damian showering, still, I have this fear, but it is not as bad as the alleyway.

-

Lyra had been gone for quite a while. I finished showering 30 minutes ago.

I sat on the bed reading one of the books on the table, the title was Horeta yamai ni kusuri nashi.

Bursting into the room was Lyra, scaring the shit out of me.

“You scared the sh—”

“Damian! Follow me.”

I got up, and she looked scared.

Running out of the inn, the townspeople were running and screaming.

At one of the entrances to the town was on fire while two people walked in.

A townfolk ran into me, I quickly grabbed their shoulders.

“What's happening?”

“THEY'RE BACK! Please help us, they keep raiding our town, but they don’t take anything, THEY JUST KILL PEOPLE!”

He pushed himself off me and ran with the others.

“Hey! You over there!”

One of the two people coming from the fire started waving their hand, it sounded like a woman.

“Yeah! I’ve never seen YOU before! And looking at your aura, you’re pretty strong!”

“Damian, just like I showed you, focus your mana on your eyes.”

“I told you, I can’t, it never works!”

“Okay, well, based on aura alone, I can take on the girl, you can take on the other one.”

“Got it.”

Hold on, Circe and Corban, I’m coming…