27. Jaspis

Truth be told - but only to Waldina herself - traveling on horseback was straining for her as well. Muscles ached so differently while riding compared to running or other activities. Thus an entire month on the back of a horse didn’t sound inviting.

At some point she put the cape she’d gotten from Claudia’s knights underneath her thighs to soften her travel even a tiny bit. She helped Claudia do the same. Though it was of little help once faced with the obstacle of traveling for a month like this. But at least it was something.

Though traveling on horseback wasn’t all bad: After a month they’d surely hurt less while riding. That would make traveling with horses a viable journey method. Not that it really fit the style of ninjas nor Waldina herself. But at least it was possible.

All of a sudden Waldina heard movement a little further ahead of them. She turned to look at the sound’s way and could distinguish five different human figures. She couldn’t see their levels which most likely was a sign of one thing: There was someone of higher level than her in their party and they had the ability to conceal both their skills and levels. A cold sweat ran down her forehead at the thought.

She continued reining her horse like she hadn’t seen anything so the other party wouldn’t notice them. Or they’d just ignore her and her company.

As Waldina meters away from the adventurer group, directly on their left, she met the gaze of their supposed leader whose eyes were glinting teasingly. The leader seemed to be a young male mage, at least his appearance matched that conclusion. Their gazes locked on to each other for a terribly long moment that seemed to last forever. The gaze was only interrupted with an arrow shot from next to the mage. The one who’d shot the arrow was a woman close in height to the party leader. Her black hair was tied to two buns, on each side of her head. Her gaze was cold and fierce. She seemed like she could easily shoot down both Waldina and her company without batting her eyes.

“Tsk,” Waldina clicked her tongue, noticing the arrow flying towards her. She stretched herself in order to reach higher and catch the arrow in mid-flight. On the other side of the arrow there was a paper with a message: “Please stop, we want to talk.”

Waldina glanced at the group going through all the possible scenarios in her head. The male mage, donning a purple cape nodded slowly before raising his hands, as if to sign surrender. Waldina sighed and signaled Claudia to halt her horse. After the horses slowed down enough Waldina jumped down from the horse but asked Claudia to stay put, on her horse, and preferably a little further away from them. Meeting someone in the middle of the forest was always dangerous and right now Waldina had a terribly bad feeling about the group. She didn’t want to take any needless risks.

As Waldina got close enough to the group, their leader, the male mage in purple cape stepped forward, with a smile - that was more like a grin - on his face. The man’s whole demeanor was full of playful teasing, the kind only needlessly confident - and often ones full of themselves - could have ones accompanied by any and every woman.

“What did you want to talk about?” Waldina began straightforwardly, feeling no need for smalltalk. She had left her horse with Kiandra and Claudia who stayed further away from them. She wanted her hands free in case of a fight. She may not have been on the same level with the adventurers she now faced but it mattered little in the face of a fight. After all in real life’s battles one just had to try their best and hope for the best. Besides there wasn’t a rule stating that lower level players couldn’t beat higher level ones. And she was a damn great ninja.

“Well, well, perhaps introductions are due here?” the male mage stated needlessly calmly, with a lazy grin. Waldina frowned.

“I’m Kris, the leader of this B rank adventurer team, Jaspis,” the male mage continued without a care for Waldina’s reactions.

“Liliana,” nodded a white-haired woman in a priestess dress, standing behind Kris and the archer.

“I’m Evin,” a voice next to Liliana called out. It belonged to a man carrying a heavy-looking sword and shield.

“Rubin,” the dark-haired archer smiled tightly. She clearly wasn’t one to be humoured with stupid jokes nor delays.

“The name’s Vel,” a man standing close to Kris stated. He was holding two short-swords and a gaze filled with interest that was fixed on Waldina.

“Cyril,” Waldina managed to say after a moment’s calculation, “my name’s Cyril.” It wasn’t all a lie either; her game avatar in Adventurous Online had been named Cyril.

After hearing the name there was a quick flash of surprise in Kris’ face before he contained it back to flirtatious interest.

“And your company?” Kris pointed directly towards Kiandra and Claudia, who were staying exactly where Waldina left them.

“Kida and David,” Waldina nodded and signed to Kiandra behind her back. She wanted to give them some sort of heads up about the fake names, in case of further conversation.

“Hmm,” Kris didn’t seem entirely convinced of her answer but let it go. “Anyways, we wanted to chat about a certain lady, whom you may know of. We’re searching for her and in a bit of a hurry.” The words confirmed Waldina’s earlier bad feeling about the group, yet she managed to keep her face neutral, slightly interested.

“Is that so? What sort of lady? I can try and keep my eyes open in case I see her,” Waldina cast a friendly smile on her lips, though signaling she had very little interest in the matter.

It got both Kris and Vel laughing, though others in their group weren’t that interested in Waldina nor her company.

“She’s of nobleblood, blonde and originally from somewhere around here. She’s most likely running away with her knights, afraid of running to the earl of Cliffertown, if she hasn’t actually gotten herself kidnapped,” Vel explained as Kris was still busy getting amused over Waldina’s earlier reactions. It was clear from Vel’s voice that they didn’t believe for a moment that Claudia would have been kidnapped instead of running away from the earl. That gave a nasty glimpse of how mister Cliffertown was taking his bride’s ‘kidnapping’. Though, they just needed to not get caught.

“Aha. Is that so? I don’t really want to get involved with the matter regarding nobles,” Waldina admitted apologetically.

“No, no need of course. Just wondered if you had seen her here?” Kris continued taking back his place as leader.

“No, I don’t think so,” the ninja informed them, smiling tightly. “Did you have anything else? We gotta get on moving soon so we get to our ideal camping spot.”

“Ah, apologies for the delay. I hope we meet again,” Kris nodded and let Waldina and her company continue their trip. Though his mind was filled with all sorts of thoughts and he wasn’t sure what to focus on first. Firstly, his intuition told him the ninja did in fact know of Claudia, the lady his group was tasked in finding. Secondly, he remembered meeting a certain man a little while ago who had asked about a ninja named Cyril.

“So many questions and so few answers,” Kris sighed, frustrated, before turning to his party members. Their job was to look for Claudia, especially from the forests in case she was hiding somewhere there. The earl had prepared a nice reward for them and Jaspis had no real reason to decline. In fact, Kris felt they didn’t have any other choice.

Waldina didn’t stop to tell Claudia and Kiandra the conversation she’d had with the members of Jaspis. Instead she just signed for them to get on moving. While they moved forward she continued making sure none of the Jaspis members were chasing after them. Only after the distance between them had grown massively, could she finally relax her tense shoulders.

The main reason she didn’t talk about her prior conversation with Jaspis to Kiandra and Claudia was because she was afraid of accidentally spilling the details of Diaz’s - meaning Claudia - identity by telling her of the chasers. In the worst case Jaspis would realize Diaz to somehow be Claudia in disguise and Waldina surely wasn’t about to mess up on her very first day in guard duty. Or hopefully not in any other days either but failing right from the start would be simply pitiful. Though perhaps the first days were the ones they’d most likely fail, taking into accordance their fresh tracks and worse synergy that would grow better with time.

“Hmm Kida. I do think I like that as a nickname,” Kiandra grinned a little over an hour after they met Jaspis. She was too scared to talk about anything at all before making sure Waldina wasn’t staying on her toes anymore.

“Yes, I was simply trying to figure out something on the fly,” Waldina grinned, slightly more relaxed now.

“I get it. You didn’t want them to figure out anything by the names we used right?” Kiandra checked though the question was more rhetorical than serious.

“Yes,” Waldina admitted, smiling at the blue fairy. The fairy was once again grabbing the horse’s mane, face turned towards Waldina.

“Why the name Cyril?” Kiandra examined Waldina’s expression carefully, not quite sure what kind of reaction the question would get.

“It was… The name I originally gave for this game avatar,” Waldina pointed at her appearance. Kiandra went through each word with careful consideration before blurting out: “Would you like to be called Waldina or Cyril?”

“Hahah, I wouldn’t have introduced myself as Waldina if I wished you knew my other names,” the ninja laughed without attempting to hide it before gently glancing at Kiandra.

“Fine,” Kiandra nodded, “do tell me, if you ever change your mind.”

“Sure sure.”

The sun had already set before Waldina reined her horse to a stop. Claudia followed her example and was ever so glad for the decision. Her whole body ached and she was dead tired.

“It was about time to stop,” Claudia mumbled, stretching her arms. Kiandra followed her example and yawned.

“I’m sorry, I had a problem looking for a suitable spot,” Waldina admitted although she wanted to add that she’d merely made sure that they completely left behind Jaspis. And most importantly, ensure they wouldn’t fall behind in their schedule.

They settled close to a small river, right beneath a small slope, ensuring the wind and rain wouldn’t get to them that much. The slope behind them gave them some cover, even if someone managed to sneak from behind. Waldina could manage observing the front and sides herself perfectly well. Though she missed the skill which helped her sense all the enemies close by without seeing them. It was a skill all ninjas got from the start but at these levels it felt rather useless. Nightvision, ability to sense other beings and masking one’s own being, to almost invisible level. Those were skills Waldina couldn’t wait to master.

That night Waldina lit only a small fire. Just enough to grill food for three, nothing more. Kiandra looked at the sight with confusion:

“Why such a small fire?”

“The night isn’t that cold and we’ll be back to travelling once you manage to get some shut-eye and energy,” Waldina explained, spreading the lowest layers of the bonfire in the hopes that the fire would spread more quickly. She had gathered a couple of branches and dry leaves, which she used as the basis for the campfire. Her aim was to get the fire burn fast and die fast. It would make it easier to leave earlier without having to worry about the fire spreading.

“What might be ‘some’?” Claudia inquired with disbelief in her voice. After a whole day of riding the horse she had at least hoped to relax for a long while.

“Hmm, some hours. We’ll continue sometime after midnight,” Waldina mumbled while trying to ignore the complaints she got from the others. To get their attention elsewhere she began explaining all sorts of things about setting a campfire to Claudia. She backed her sudden lesson by saying a boy from the countryside, such as Diaz, would surely know these things. And thus she got half of her company to listen and shut up. Claudia listened with serious expression though Kiandra continued with her list of complaints.

“What else should I know or be able to do? What do men do?” Claudia wondered as they sat around the campfire, enjoying their dinner.

“Uhhuh, that’s a good question. I’m not exactly an expert in these things. But I guess the easiest things would be to not act like a noble. Like not using polite language and being a little rougher. Obviously, you shouldn’t insult anyone but using words mainly used by aristocrats can blow your cover,” Waldina listed all the things she deemed somewhat problematic for Claudia’s current appearance and acting. Those few things really ruined the illusion of a countryboy.

“That’s so true,” Kiandra agreed, “and then you should totally get used to going to the shower and toilet like that.” The fairy pointed at Claudia’s male disguise causing her to blush deeply.

“B-but I couldn’t… It would be so improper. The body of a young man and all,” Claudia mumbled, her face as red as tomato.

“How are you planning on surviving in the academy? By visiting the ladies’ room?” Kiandra continued without giving in.

“Well well, let’s take it easy. Everything has a time and place. Don’t pressure her too much,” Waldina said gently then turning to Claudia. “I think using the sword could really do good for you. You handle it way better than I could’ve hoped for but a little practice could do you good.”

Claudia nodded and asked the ninja to teach her. Although the ninja herself wasn’t a master swordswoman, some parts came easier to her, most likely due to her role as a ninja. After finishing their dinner they spent a great while practicing and Claudia improved greatly. Claudia herself would have probably liked to practice longer but after an hourish Waldina sent her and Kiandra to bed.

Though it wasn’t a bed. But the ground. Which was quite a shock for Claudia who wasn’t used to sleeping on the ground. After a moment’s hesitation Waldina placed the capes they’d got from Claudia’s knights on the ground, so Claudia could use them as a bed. Claudia grimaced as she got down on the hard ground but then she closed her eyes without a word. The ground wasn’t perhaps the smoothest close to a river but at least the horses enjoyed it, and Waldina too.

Just a moment after Claudia went to sleep on the ground, Kiandra flew next to her and closed her eyes. Before doing that the fairy made Waldina promise to sleep as well. Though the ninja hadn’t said anything on the matter. Perhaps one of these nights she’d ask Kiandra to stay up in night guard duty, but the night wasn’t now. Every step closer to Xunte Sintra, the center of AO’s world, would mean more monsters. And worse than that, more adventurers. More people to see and look for Claudia.

Waldina looked at her sleeping companions before stepping towards the river. Slowly she took off her black ninjadress and dropped it to the ground. Then took off her thigh belts, settling them next to the dress. Next she took off her shorts and shoes. A quick glance around and after she was sure she was alone she took off her underclothes before dipping her feet to the river.

As she was standing in the middle of the river, her feet still touching the ground, she released her purple hair from her tight ponytails. The long hair flowed beautifully all the way up to her waist. Purple was a beautiful color though perhaps a tad bit too strong for her nature. Though the contrast with the color and her nature seemed to make her stronger. It was easier for her to act like someone else.

Yearning filled her mind.

Suddenly she had ended up in a situation where she wasn’t just trying to act like a strong person. She had to be one. Claudia’s future was somewhat on her hands and Waldina wasn’t that confident of her skills. And then she thought for a moment how she missed her safe office job which wasn’t about life and death.