A Woman!

Ria made one last loop around the clearing, checking the small herb gardens she'd grown throughout the forest. At each one, she drew moisture from the air and shaped it into small, rotating spheres that hovered above the soil. The water would drip down slowly, keeping them watered while she was gone. It wasn't complicated magic, just enough to make sure nothing died of neglect.

"You be good now," she told a patch of ginger. The ginger didn't respond, which was fair. At least it had an excuse, unlike Tyrant.

Speaking of Tyrant, he was watching from her shoulder, having reluctantly accepted his fate once Ria threatened to leave the perch behind entirely. The bird had waddled over, climbed her arm, and settled in like this had been his idea all along.

Ria stood, adjusting the bamboo perch tucked under her arm. "Okay. Town."

She headed toward the edge of forest, following the general direction of "away from home" and hoping that would lead somewhere useful.

It did not.

What it led to was a creek, which became a stream, which eventually dumped her out near a road. Ria followed it, and after what might've been an hour or quite possibly three, she heard voices.

"-complete waste of time-"

"-just check the sign!"

Ria perked up. People! She followed the sound, stepping off the road only to directly step into what felt like wood.

"Ow."

She reached out, patting it. It was tall, maybe twice her height, and definitely not a person. There were more of them arranged in a row. She trailed her fingers across wood until she found one that had something attached to it. It was bamboo, split and carved with ridges. She ran her fingers over the grooves, trying to figure out what they said.

"Can you read this?" 

Tyrant, who could not read, said nothing.

Ria gave up on the bamboo tablet and stepped back, considering her options. She could follow the voices, but they were already fading. She could also pick a direction and hope for the best, but that seemed like a good way to end up somewhere worse than lost.

"Ok, you've been to town before right? With Otou-san?"

Ria imagined Tyrant staring at her with profound disinterest before holding Tyrant out at arm's length, slowly rotating in place.

"Just... I don't know, lean toward town."

When the round green compass refused to point anywhere, Ria stopped spinning.

"Fine, new plan."

She set Tyrant on the ground. The bird immediately fluffed up, offended by the audacity of touching dirt.

"Walk to town."

The bird stood, shook himself, and waddled exactly three steps before stopping and sitting again. Ria picked up Tyrant and tucked the bird back onto her shoulder. 

"You're useless."

She was about to pick a random direction when something shifted in the air as someone walking toward her along the road. Ria's head snapped up. Another person! Finally!

She sensed the outline: slim build, about her height, ponytail swaying with each step. Definitely not otou-san-shaped, which meant - a woman!

Ria rushed forward. "Excuse me!"

The figure jerked back with a yelp. Metal scraped against leather, and suddenly there was a knife between them.

"Stay back!" The voice came out deep and masculine, completely at odds with the female outline Ria sensed. 

"I just need to get to town!" Ria held up her free hand. "I have a flower and I-"

"A what?" The knife rose higher. 

Ria tilted her head. Why was this woman using such a weird voice? She sounded like she was trying to imitate Jin when he was serious about something. But the outline was definitely female given her narrow shoulders and smaller frame.

Well, Jin always said to trust women and never trust men, so this was probably fine.

"Look, I'm not trying to rob you or anything," Ria said. "I just-"

"Then why did you run at me in the middle of nowhere?"

"Because I'm lost..."

When she realized the knife was still up, Ria panicked, drew moisture from the air, and flicked her wrist. The moisture condensed into a thin stream of water that knocked the knife clean out of the woman's hand, clattering onto the road several feet away.

"How did you-" The woman's voice jumped up an octave before she caught herself and forced it back down, "What did you just do?"

"Water magic…?" Ria said like it was obvious.

Suddenly, the tension in the woman's posture shifted. She took a step closer, apparently no longer concerned about the knife. "Alright. I'll take you to town."

"Really?!"

"Sure, but I need help with something first."

"What kind of help?"

"The kind that involves water magic and not asking too many questions."

Ria nodded eagerly. "Okay!"

Finally, someone helpful. Jin was right about trusting women!

"I'm Nao, by the way." the woman said, already turning back toward the road.

"Oh, I'm-"

But Nao was already walking, her ponytail swaying behind as she moved. Ria scrambled after her, clutching the bamboo perch and trying not to disturb Tyrant too much. The bird chirped irritably anyway.

She jogged a few steps until she caught up with Nao's shoulder. "I'm Ria! Ria Shirakawa. Well, just Ria usually. Otou-san calls me Ria. Sometimes he calls me 'why are you like this' but I don't think that's my name."

Nao slowed down for a moment and glanced sideways at Ria, her eyes narrowing slightly. "...Right."

They walked in silence for a moment before Nao spoke again. 

"Those black robes. Where'd you get them?"

Oh, so they're black.

Jin had given them to her years ago, back when she was still small enough to trip over the sleeves. She grew into them eventually, and he'd smiled when she stopped stumbling around like a baby bird.

"Otou-san gave them to me."

"Your father?"

"Yup! He found me when I was little and kept me, so I think that counts. He's really tall and has a beard and knows everything about plants. Also he left to buy fermented mares milk three months ago and never came back, which is why I'm looking for him. Milk shouldn't take that long to get, right?"

Nao stopped walking entirely this time. She turned to stare at Ria, her mouth slightly open.

"What?"

"Nothing." Nao shook her head and started walking again, faster now.

"And this is Tyrant!" Ria started to gesture toward her shoulder. "He's a bird and he can grow plants on his back!"

Tyrant chose that exact moment to climb up the side of her head.

"Wait, what are you-"

The bird planted himself directly on her face.

Ria's world became moss and feathers. She reached up instinctively, fingers brushing against Tyrant's round body. 

"Mmph." Ria dropped her hands.

There wasn't a point in fighting it. Once Tyrant found a good sunspot, nothing short of a forest fire would make it move.

Then Ria sensed Nao's outline ahead - wait, ahead? The woman (man?) hadn't even stopped walking. The silhouette was already several paces down the road, like nothing unusual had happened.

Ria stood there for a moment, bird-faced and abandoned, before shuffling after Nao. She tried to angle her head so Tyrant wouldn't block her senses completely, but the bird just adjusted his position to maximize coverage of Ria's face everytime.

This meant something, though. Tyrant only sits facing north when he wanted the best sun angle. Moss grows on the north side of trees, so Tyrant's back moss needed north-facing sun, which meant town was north, not that knowing north helped when she had no idea where anything else was.

Ria eventually caught up to Nao, who glanced at her once and said nothing about the Tyrant on her face. The silence stretched until it became weird, then continued past weird into awkward until finally, the moisture in the air changed. It was denser now, more people-shaped spaces cutting through it. Then there were large ones, stacked close together. The outlines were blocky and jagged, nothing like the shapes of trees.

One structure loomed taller than the others, its outline cutting through damp air. More blocks clustered around it, and inside them, smaller human shapes moved inside.

"Is that the town?" Ria's words came out muffled through moss and feathers.

Nao didn't answer. She was already walking toward the large rectangular building. Ria hurried after her, one hand trailing across the posts outside to keep her bearings.

The air shifted as they passed through a doorway. Inside was thicker, warmer from peoples' breaths and body heat. Conversations overlapped, creating a jumbled mess of sound that made it hard to focus on any single voice.

Nao wove through the crowd. Ria followed the outline of her ponytail, trying not to bump into anyone.  

"We're here." Nao announced.

"Mmph mrrph?"

Ria tried to get her bearings. The room was crowded, people clustered in small groups. Against one wall, she sensed a large flat surface with objects hanging from it. Bamboo tablets, probably, like the ones she found on the road.

Nao moved toward the board. Her outline reached up, fingers grazing the tablets until she found one and pulled it free.

"Mmmph mrrrph mmph?"

The tablet then landed in Ria's hands.

"That's right, we're going demon hunting."