On the path to be adventurers

“I got it!”

A cat was resting in my arms while he purred at me and Elizabeth, we both gave him head pats and scratched her head, the owner was an old lady that had some tears in her eyes but at the moment she hugged her cat she started to scold it.

“How many times have I told you not to go beyond the path?!”

“Meow…”

The cat seemed to understand its owner, we only laughed, the lady gave us her signature in the paper that said her request and we went back to the guild to get another quest, finding the bracelet lost in the woods near the town before entering the city.

“Ah, yeah, I remember being in here”

“You must, but did you talk with somebody in here?”

“No, a merchant helps me get into the city and he spoke with some people in here to deliver their stuff”

“I see, maybe we can talk with them to know if they have sent the bracelet”

“Maybe not the wisest choice, Elizabeth”

“Why not?”

“If we asked them, they would know about a bracelet, and they will search for it too, we can ask them if it is our last choice but let’s try to recover it without telling anybody”

“Again, with those assumptions… okay, I will take your lead then”

We spent all day trying to look for the bracelet, we were covered in leaves and dirty while the sun was almost gone.

“We should really ask the others, Ryu…”

“Huh… maybe you are right…”

We walked into the town and asked an old lady that was passing by.

“Excuse me, have you seen a bracelet made of gold? A lady lost her a couple of days ago”

“Oh, yeah, I remembered seeing something like that, give a moment you two”

We both sat down on the floor and waited for the old lady, after a few minutes she came back and after inspecting the bracelet and confirming that it was the one, we said thanks to the old lady and left town to get into the woods and set up a camp.

“And?”

“What?”

Elizabeth was smiling and she gave a side eye hitting me with her shoulder, I eye rolled and whispered.

“You were right…”

“Hmm? I cannot hear you, Ryuuuuuu~”

“You were right! Dammit…”

“Hahaha don’t get so upset; I know why you don’t trust others but you should trust them from time to time”

“And you to-“

“Yeah, and me to not trust them that often, I know, I am not dumb, Ryu”

“I wasn’t”

Elizabeth laughed, she put herself in front of me and pointed her finger near my nose

“I know, I just like messing with you”

Elizabeth smiled and we both went to a spot that seemed good to set up a campfire and eat a good stew, we talked until we got tired and we went to sleep after some hours.

We took a carriage taking breakfast back to the city and searched for our new target, this time it was.

“Strange noises coming from the farm? It is a bit far away…” —I said

“It said that we only need to guard for the night so that should be easy, what could it be though?”

“Only a way to find it out, let’s go, if it is that far away, we need some food and water”

It took us some hours to get the ingredients to make sandwiches and make them along with collecting water from the cleanest river outside town, but after that we started to walk down the sun with our helmets and part of our armor hanging in our backs.

“You think we can reach the farm just by walking?” —I asked.

“We should… besides, no carriage goes that way and we already are walking so, yeah”

“I see, well, no complaints then”

While we were walking, Elizabeth was whistling and I looked at her, I smiled and followed the path to the farm, when we arrived, the sun was going down, and we talked with the farmer.

“How are you two?”

“We saw your request in the guild, and we came to help”

“Oh, adventurers, nice, yeah, so I need help to see what is going on, a lot of my vegetables and plants are being eaten by a creature, you would think it would be just a rabbit or something, but look at this”

The farmer showed us a leaf of the size of her hand that was bitten

“No animal can take this type of bites, this was a single bite, if there is something dangerous, I need you to take care of”

“Sure, no problem, sir!”

“We can take care of this; you can go to rest”

“Thank you, you two, best of lucks”

When the farmer left, I was covering my mouth and Elizabeth look at me and hit me with her shoulder.

“Don’t be happy about this, Ryu…”

“Sorry, I am just excited… I wonder why… is not that I like to fight but… maybe this is the thrill your father mentioned me when he was an adventurer”

“Just be careful…”

“Don’t worry, I won’t do anything stupid”

We step into the farm while the farmer when to his house a little far away from the farm, we stood in different positions and look at the possible entries, waiting for our foe to arrive, but as the night went down, we didn’t say anything, I went with Elizabeth and I saw her moving her head trying to not fall asleep.

“Why don’t you rest?”

“Huh?...”

Elizabeth looked at the floor and she nodded, I went with her outside the dirt and she sat down leaning into a rock, taking a small sleep. I smiled looking at her and went into the farm but not that far away to be able to see Elizabeth.

Another hour passed and I yawned and scratched my head, I was on my way to see Elizabeth when I heard a sound. At that moment I approached her slowly and moved her body.

“Elizabeth… wake up…”

I was whispering at her and she didn’t wake up, I got near her ear and blew air, she then woke up about to scream but I took her and put my hand in her mouth.

“Shhhh…”

I pointed out the farm and she looked while putting my hand down, we approached the fields holding our weapons when we saw a turtle from the size of the half of our bodies eating the plants, it was big, but its mouth wasn’t that big, the reason why it seemed so big it was because the turtle was pulling out the leaf.

“It’s just a turtle…”

“Wait, Ryu!”

I stood up and approached the turtle when it saw me and started screaming, I covered my ears and the turtle started running after me.

“What the hell?! I jump to the side and saw the turtle’s red eyes following me”

“Aren’t turtles supposed to be slow?!”

“They are not, Ryu, this is a tortoise and they are aggressive to anything!”

“Seriously?! Dammit!”

I stand up and saw the tortoise running again, this time I jump in front of it and get up her shell, it was slippery so I trip and hold myself from the start of its shell, the shell was almost from the size of my body, and when the tortoise notices me, he stopped and turned around her neck to bite me.

I opened my hand and with a water shot I got off its shell, Elizabeth was already in front of him and she stabbed its eye and then kicked her lance to make it all the way in. I stand up and tripped one more time.

“Are you ok, Ryu?”

“Sorry, I owe you one…”

“Don’t make me worry…”

“Sorry, sorry…”

“You smell awful though, I wonder if there is water nearby”

“This liquid of the tortoise…”

We reached a river nearby and I bathed in there along with my clothes while Elizabeth looked far away and when I finished, she gave me two coats to cover myself from top and bottom. When we arrived, we looked at the tortoise and she took her lance out.

“Sorry, Tortoise… this wasn’t our intention…”

“Now we just need to wait for the farmer”

“No need, I heard everything, I never thought it was a tortoise and you just took it down, you are really something, thank you for helping this old man”

“I didn’t do much, sir, it was her that took the tortoise down”

“Give you some credit, Ryu… even if you made a mistake, you made the opening to make me slay the tortoise”

“Haha, anyway, I will notify the guild so you don’t have to carry all this”

“We can do that?!”

We both got on our knees and smiled at the ground.

“That would have been helpful with the slimes from the other day…”