Where Do We Go From Here

 With the group reassembled, they got back on the move again. Leaving that village behind, the current plan was to find a nice clearing where Amaia and Millie could begin her weapons training. Nibbles was ahead of the group, sniffing anything and everything that happened to catch her interest (which was basically everything). Sara had been whistling some sort of tune that Millie couldn’t place. But given the grimace on Amaia’s face as they glanced at her, it probably wasn’t on-key. Talia, meanwhile, looked a bit distant.

“Hey,” Millie started, tapping the vampire’s shoulder. “You good?”

“I’m just trying to figure out where to start with finding out what happened to the others,” she admitted. “I was so concerned about the finding out part that I never once considered the first step.”

And she’d chosen now to bring that up? Millie nodded, somewhat understanding. Stage one could always be a difficult one to parse, she figured.

At the moment, they were walking along a road. There was nothing of consequence on either side of it, but it was the sort of open road that—combined with the full moon overhead and the permanent dark of the area—definitely reminded her of more than a few of her favorite movies. That was the sort of place where hitchhiking went horribly wrong. Yet somehow, she felt safe there. It wasn’t like she was alone or unarmed, after all. So far, the only one of this group she didn’t feel safe around was the drider, but maybe she was just being petty.

Hm, no. She kept coming back to that attack on her dog. She had little to no tolerance for that sort of thing.

Talia had never, as far as she knew, lied to her about any of this. She was fairly up-front about losing track of her prior champions, and had admitted that she wasn’t entirely sure how Millie’s magic worked. She’d given her best guesses about it so far.

Amaia seemed to be pretty cool so far. They did get a bit edgy when their target was mentioned (no doubt due to some level of trauma), but overall, they seemed friendly enough. Willing to help Millie train with her absurd weapon. Most people, after acknowledging the ridiculousness of it, would just laugh and walk away. But not Amaia.

And then there was Nibbles. Millie knew that Nibbles didn’t always listen. She was fairly certain the werewolf viewed calls of “No...nonononono…!” as “Go...gogogogogo!”. It was like that even when she was a normal dog. And yet despite that, and the fact that she wanted attention from everyone and was very driven by food, Millie trusted her wholeheartedly. Even without the leash, she always came back to her human.

“Maybe the next town we find,” Talia said after a bit of silence. “I remember what my prior champions all look like. I recall their names. So, next town over, I’ll ask about some of them. “

Amaia tossed their head up a bit, before catching it again. “May wanna talk to some ghosts about it. I did that in the last town.”

The vampire glanced at them. “Really?”

“No names or descriptions. Just asking about anyone else that might’ve been going on a quest that passed through town.”

Sara rolled her eyes, muttering about how dull that all sounded, while Millie adjusted her hat. “Find out anything interesting?” she asked.

“They’ve had a few go through there. Some were griping about basically everything.”

That gave Millie some pause. This place had seemed pretty awesome to her so far. What was there to gripe about, she wondered? Probably the constant moonlight. It was easy to forget, sometimes, that her interests and those of the general population didn’t always align. Where some were devoted romantasy readers, she’d always preferred stuff with a bit more gore. She couldn’t quite connect with the romantic aspect of anything. For a while, she thought she might have been broken, but then she found out that there was an actual orientation for that and it helped her feel a bit better.

Besides, she’d had more pressing things than romance in her life, much of the time. Deadlines for work, time with her dog, and now this quest. It all kept her mind nice and occupied.

After a while, they came to a stop in a clear spot beside the road. Nibbles had plopped right down in the dewy grass, rolling onto her back and glancing at someone—anyone--to rub her belly. Millie rushed over to do just that, Nibbles’ larger size giving her much more belly to rub. She did that for a few moments before getting up and removing the scythe from her back.

Amaia pulled the whip from their hip, taking a brief moment to also rub the werewolf’s belly for some pre-training session luck. Yes, for luck. Definitely not because they found the werewolf oddly adorable.

Sara and Talia had settled beside Nibbles for now, Talia taking her own turn with giving her some attention. When Sara reached for the belly, Millie glanced toward her, eyes narrowing. “I’m watching you,” she mouthed, before turning her attention back to the dullahan.

Amaia’s head floated a little ways away from their body, but still close enough to monitor the situation. Their body was holding the whip, Millie gripping the scythe in both hands. It wasn’t quite as heavy as it could have been, but she imagined it could still do a fair deal of blunt force trauma.

“Okay, Millie. Take a few practice swings with Final Draft first,” the dullahan said. “No aiming at anything. I just want to see how she handles.”

Millie nodded, taking a few deep breaths, before giving Final Draft a test swing. She nearly lost her balance right away, and Amaia held up a hand.

“Okay, so that’s your first problem right there: your stance.”

“My stance?”

“Yeah. You’re gonna want both feet firmly planted. No trying to balance on the balls of your toes or anything like that. Because you probably will fall on your ass, and I’ll have no choice but to laugh at you. Got it?”

“Noted.”

She took another swing, trying her best to take the dullahan’s advice to heart. But instinctively, she still tried to balance on one foot, supporting herself on the balls of her toes with the other foot this time. And as the dullahan warned, she wiped right out on the grass, causing her trainer to laugh.

Well, okay, causing everyone to laugh. Even Nibbles, who had no idea what everyone was actually laughing at, joined in. With that little humiliation in the books, she positioned herself again.

This time, she watched her front foot and back foot. Both boots’ platforms firmly on the ground. If she had her way, those heels would not leave the ground for anything.

She took another swing, and this time her feet stayed where she wanted them and how she wanted them. But there was a slight problem, as well. She tried to move to a different position, but her boots were practically cemented in place.

“...Intention went a bit too far that time, dear?” Talia called.

Muttering to herself a bit, Millie focused on getting herself unstuck. It eventually worked, and she shook each leg to make sure. She took another practice swing, managing to stay planted without the accidental use of magic.

“So, not the most balanced of weapons,” Amaia appraised. “But figure out how to use gravity to your advantage, and it’s all good.”

Once she’d gotten a few good practice swings in, they began their sparring session in earnest. Millie had found herself dodging most of Amaia’s attacks, holding the scythe up as more of a shield than an offensive weapon.

Amaia, for their part, moved with a particular grace. It was clear that they practiced with that whip as often as possible. Millie was pretty sure that their time not spent at the hardware store or taking care of basic human needs (insofar as a dullhan would need to, of course) training with Vertiwhip.

Somewhere in their session, the spine wrapped around Final Draft’s staff, but Amaia didn’t pull.

“Okay, so a heads-up,” they told her.

She tried not to snicker at this turn of phrase coming from, of all people, the freaking headless member of the party.

“This whip is strong enough to snap things in half with enough force, including your scythe.”

Millie grimaced at the thought of having to repair Final Draft after a practice session, of all things. If she was going to fix this weapon she’d spent so much time and effort on, then damn it, it was going to be in the aftermath of some huge, consequential battle!

They had a few more small practice fights, Amaia being the more seasoned combatant of the two. But Millie had actually landed a couple of halfway decent hits.

Eventually, they got moving once more. They weren’t sure where they’d be going next, but they had their mission firmly in mind.