A Path Forward

“Let’s move,” Ralf said after a while. Reluctantly, Nia and Tia let go of each other and looked to the dwarf-like man. He wore a grim, but determined expression on his face.

“Where do we go?” Nia asked, hoping that he had an idea. They couldn’t go back to the city and they couldn’t hope that Mother Clemens or the twins would be able to catch up to them. All she could do was hope that they were still alive.

“I have no idea.” Ralf shook his head. “It’s just that I’ve learned, it’s better to keep moving than to do nothing. And I don’t think having a pity party is going to help us at all.” He demonstratively turned to the forest and started walking. “We’re on our own and have to survive. That means we have to find food and shelter. Neither of that will be coming to us. I hope we can find something that’s edible, although with how the food we’ve eaten so far looked, that’s a challenge of its own.”

“He’s right.” Tom nodded and walked past them.

“He is,” Sonja agreed and also walked toward the forest.

“Come.” Tina offered her hand and Nia took it. “They’re right. The positive thing is that the tunnel has probably been used by all sorts of smugglers, so I guess that there’s a road nearby. It’s not much, but it is something that can lead us to another village.” Nia noticed how Tina gulped and took a deep breath. “Let’s just hope that Luaria is guiding you towards her. I fear she’s our only chance right now.”

Nia looked down at her feet while walking. So far I haven’t really felt any kind of guidance. It would be nice to have some, but … as with the world we’ve come from, we can’t rely on any gods.

“We have to find our own way, have to forge our own path. We can’t rely on Luaria. If she’ll give us guidance, then it’s only a plus. Until then, we have to assume that we’re on our own,” Nia said without looking up.

“Agreed,” Ralf commented and she got the impression that everyone nodded.

“I have a suggestion,” she continued after a while. “We all don’t know much, but we know a little about our respective fields. We should train each other in what we know.” She eyed the sword that she was still carrying. “And since we have an extra sword, I’d like to learn how to use it.” It would also mitigate her problem of not being able to use her magic.

Her suggestion was met with silence. Then, as she feared that they’d just ignored her, Tom spoke up.

“Okay, but I won’t learn your stupid prayers. I don’t think those will do anything for us, since we're no priests.”

“I also think that not everyone will be capable of learning the way I do magic,” Sonja added, “It’s far from something I can teach.”

“I still might be able to grasp it.” Nia made a fist. It was magic that she could sense and it could serve as a replacement for her priestly magic.

“Okay, then I’ll try to teach you.”

“I think I just need a few demonstrations. I have to find my own way to create these effects.” If I can create any effects.

Sonja stared at her for a moment, then nodded.

“I can try to teach you what I know about show fights, though I don’t know how much of it is applicable to real battles.” Ralf spoke over his shoulder to her.

“It doesn’t matter. Every bit helps, especially just knowing how to lift the thing without stabbing myself will probably go a long way.”

She earned a few wry smiles with that comment, but in the end, Ralf nodded as well.

“I will get your endurance and dexterity up to speed,” Tina promised. The glint in the older woman’s eyes sent shivers down Nia’s spine. For a moment, she thought of retracting her earlier statement, but the memory of the sword stuck in her chest made her forget that thought just as quickly.

“Very well. The only other thing missing in our plan is food.” Nia’s stomach growled in response to her own statement, and the rest looked away. They all knew that that was their biggest problem. “I guess we just have to try out different things, and hope that they’re not poisonous.”

“You can be our taste tester,” Tom said with a grin, indicating that he was joking, “you apparently won’t die that easily.”

“Poisons can also cripple a person. Even though they’re not dead, they’re unable to move, and I’m not immune to those,” she answered and bit her lower lip. The escapade with the random villains still fresh in her mind. “But maybe you’re right. It’s probably our best chance.” The chance to happen on a crippling poison was slim. Although there were other dangers out there. Illnesses, viruses, bacteria. She stopped her train of thought.

“You’re serious, aren’t you?” Tom asked, his eyes wide.

Nia smiled crookedly. “I’m starting to like you guys, and I don’t want to run through this world alone.”

Shit, Saesquar really managed to achieve one of her goals. We need to keep away from her, if what I suspect is true.

The dark goddess’s plan was devious: Bring them so close together, that the one she can’t touch or kill is willing to die for her comrades and then she’d be able to end her life. The only question that remained was: why? Why would she go through the trouble of summoning him, transform her into a priestess and then have this convoluted plan to kill her? There was still information missing for her to understand Saesquar’s motives.

After a few minutes following a thin trail, they stepped onto a dirt road. Deep grooves indicated that heavy wagons used it frequently. Though with how the city had fallen, it was unlikely that they’d meet traders on the way that were able and willing to part with some of their wares or that could take them to the next village or city.

“Wait here,” Tom told the rest. “I’m going to forage. Sonja, will you accompany me?”

The girl in question looked at the rest of the group, then nodded. Together, they vanished in the underbrush.

“Let’s wait over there, so that we’re hidden from the road. We have no idea, if the fight in Drakkar is still going on, or whether Saesquar has won and will randomly come this way. The same way one of her goons was randomly in the city we’ve visited.” Ralf stepped back into the greenery as well before stopping again.

“Are you saying that Saesquar has a way of tracking us?” Nia’s stomach dropped out of her. She suddenly had the urge to vomit the one fruit out that she’d eaten more than an hour ago.

“Just saying that it’s a possibility. It could be a coincidence, but …”

“You don’t believe in coincidences,” Tina finished for him and he nodded.

Ralf looked at her and winced. “Look, I’m just saying it's better to be prepared for the worst. It’s also why I agreed to your proposal.” He sighed, then reached for the sword. “Tell you what: Let me start with your training right now.”

Nia stared at him for a moment, but then gripped the sword at its handle. She had to use both hands to even lift it. Without magic, it was far too heavy for her. She pressed her lips together and concentrated. Again, nothing happened, the magic around her hung mostly dead and didn’t react to her trying to get it to resonate.

“First let’s you get used to its weight,” he began, and stepped behind her. “Just move it slowly …”

Nia dropped the sword just a few minutes later. Her arms were burning, and the sword had only seemed to become heavier over time.

“Tina, I think you need to work on her endurance and dexterity first. Then we'll get her strength up.”

Nia knew that she’d been in bad shape before her transformation, but she hadn’t thought that it still translated this badly to her new body.

“Alright, I know a few exercises that can help train one’s strength.” The grin on Tina’s lips made Nia believe for the very first time that the older woman was neither a priestess nor a saint …

‹ « | » ›

Some time later, Nia laid on her back, panting heavily. Now, even more of her muscles were burning. Tina was a harsh mistress, when it came to training. Push-Ups, sit-Ups, running, climbing trees, jumping jacks. It was hard to believe that she could come up with that many exercises just like that. Had she really been a thief in her past life that worked at a church and then turned into an office lady? Or was she secretly training athletes that wanted to compete in the Olympic Games?

“I think that’s enough for now,” Tina said, looking down at her. Was that pity in her eyes?

“It seems that Tom and Sonja are also returning.” Ralf walked back onto the road and waved to the couple. They did have things with them that looked edible. There was a fruit the size of a mango, only that it was blue and had a serrated green leaf with a red underside still attached to it. When Tom handed her the fruit it felt squishy and smelled absolutely delectable.

Her opinion of the fruit changed with the first bite. She spit everything out and tried to cleanse her tongue. “That one tastes like detergent,” she gasped. It was even worse than that one Indian spice she had tasted once. Spicy detergent.

“That’s too bad. There was a whole tree full of these things,” Tom said and sighed.

“Maybe it wasn't a good sign that the fruit were mostly left alone.” Sonja shrugged, then handed Nia another fruit. That one was bent like a banana and deep red. The texture itself reminded her more of a tomato, and when she bit into it, it tasted like a grape. The fruits in this world were really weird.

“That one's edible,” she announced her verdict and kept eating. The rest still stared at her, as if they were waiting for something. After half the fruit, Nia slowed down with chewing and tilted her head.

“Are you feeling strange somehow?” Sonja asked and touched her forehead.

“No?”

“Good, then those aren't immediately poisonous. It can still take some time for the poison to have an effect though.” The girl smiled and distributed the rest of the red fruit they had. It wasn't that many. “If she doesn’t collapse in the next ten minutes, I think it’s fine to eat them.”

“Then we have these mini melonuts.” Tom introduced quadratic brown nuts to her that had light-gray stripes at the side. She tried eating those, but had to give up. They were harder than hazelnuts. Maybe they needed special tools to open them? She looked for a few rocks and smashed one of the mini melonuts between them. The inside really looked like that of a nut, but it tasted like … nothing. Nothing at all. Still, they were probably edible.

“And that’s it.” He sighed. “We know too little of the flora of this world to really find that many things, and I really don’t want to go foraging for mushrooms. Those could end in our world in a disaster, I don’t want to know how it’d be here. Especially not that purple one with eyes on it …” He suppressed a shiver, and Sonja even rubbed her arms.

“Let’s rest a bit more, and after we had something to eat, we should continue,” Ralf announced. For now he seemed to have become the party leader. Nia didn’t mind, and no one else raised a complaint. Democracy also works if a majority is silent …

As Nia stood after everyone dared to eat their fruits, her legs didn’t stay silent. They raised a complaint. Signed a petition. Several of them. She didn’t say anything about it, though.

Training was your idea. Don't complain. But why did you have this harebrained idea to do it in a weakened state while traveling? You should know better. You should know that a body needs time to regenerate!

While she complained to and admonished herself, they followed the road, away from the city, hoping against hope that the citizens had been able to push the dark goddess back. Torax’s reasoning had been good, but they had no idea how strong Saesquar really was …