In the cow shed

We made good progress on horseback. The scenery flew by and soon enough we found a footpath leading through the forest. We decided to follow it, which ended up leading us out of the woods and onto a dirt country road. The wheat stood high on both sides, and wooden fences lined the road. After the suffocating denseness of the forest this was a welcome change of scenery, I took a deep breath. We had survived.

Now that we had put plenty of distance between us and Verus, we felt comfortable taking it a bit slower. The fight had left us drained, and the horse desperately needed rest as well. We went to camp in an abandoned cow shelter before twilight.

While cooking, we started an animated conversation about the fight that had taken place earlier in the day.

“We really showed that guy who’s boss!” Chiyo triumphantly exclaimed. “He was acting all high and mighty, and look where it got him!”

She started doing an impression of Verus. Had it not been for her contorted face doing its best not to laugh, she might’ve actually been good at it.

“Evil-doers, Remember my name. It’s Chiyo.” She let out a mocking bark.

I couldn’t help but grin. “Wolf-men don’t actually bark, do they?”

Chiyo didn’t believe me. “They most certainly bark! Didn’t you hear him howl? And speaking of that, real wolves howl at the moon, not the sun. What a strange fellow indeed.” She nodded thoughtfully, as if anything was going on inside that head of hers.

“What if we threw a bone at him? We’ll have to try that next time we see him. Who knows, maybe he’ll run after it on all fours.”

We continued like this for some time, laughing at the witch hunter by candlelight. Eventually our conversation shifted to some pressing questions that Chiyo had.

“This has been on my mind ever since I got here, but I had no time to ask. Where are we exactly? And shouldn’t we be watching out for monsters jumping out to get us?”

“You have monsters roaming the countryside in Aomori?” Immediately my image of her beautiful country was shattered.

Chiyo quickly replied. “No we don’t! I was just thinking… y’know what? Never mind.”

She suddenly cut off the topic, which happened from time to time. Normally my curiosity would get the better of me but I let it slide. Her explanations were far too confusing for me after all. So I moved on to her next question. I racked my brain to remember Alicia’s books and stories.

“We’re in the kingdom of Scaldis, one of the five human realms. Monsters and the likes were driven out of these countries a long time ago. You’ll only find them in the Lands Beyond, across the ocean. Only the most resilient of humans manage to survive there.”

“Across the ocean? So we’re on an island?”

“It’s the size of a small continent, but pretty much.”

“What about dwarves, or elves? Where do they live?”

Chiyo leaned forward with a twinkle in her eyes as she said this, but I had to disappoint her with my lack of knowledge.

“Uh, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

You could see her heart sink as I said that. It appeared that she expected something more out of this country.

“That’s so boring!” She jumped up, almost bumping her head. “How are you supposed to go on an adventure when there aren’t any monsters around!”

I remembered something. “Well, we’ve got beast-men like the witch hunter we met earlier. There are also supposed to be dragons living in the high north. They’ve mostly gone extinct in the southern regions but they’re still around in the icy kingdom of Klaralven.”

Her eyes lit up again. “Dragons? We need to go there! Hey, let’s just skip the capital and go straight to dragon slaying!”

“Idiot, that would be way more dangerous than whatever Indestria has in store for us.”

“Huh, who are you calling an idiot? I’ll just blast them away with my magic, easy peasy! Dealing with people is much more of a pain… Except that Verus guy, I don’t feel bad about zapping him and stealing his horse. Serves him right!”

Speaking of Verus, I couldn’t help but think back to the moment I had held Chiyo’s hand. My reflexes had gotten sharper to the point that I could instantaneously react to anything that happened. It had felt like an incredible amount of power was flowing through me. Eventually, I spoke up about it.

“Earlier, when we were fighting the hunter and our hands touched, did you feel that too?”

“Oh~ don’t tell me you got all flustered from holding hands with a girl? You really are so touch-starved!”

She couldn’t help but make fun of me, but that confirmed she hadn’t felt it.

“Chiyo, let’s hold hands again.”

She turned red as a tomato.

“Y-y-you’re way too direct about this! Learn some decency… you perverted country bumpkin!”

She was pretty cute when she blushed. I thought about teasing her more often.

“I don’t mean it like that. When we were fighting the witch hunter earlier, something strange happened. When our hands touched, it felt like I was suddenly an expert swordsman. I felt more powerful than ever before. Like you were sharing some of your power with me.

“Oh… so that’s what you meant…”

Chiyo looked at the ground and pulled her knees up to her face.

“We can try it again, see if anything happens. But don’t make it weird, okay?”

She shyly extended her hand. I put my palm up to hers and…

I felt it again. A rush of power surged through me, and I could see every hair on my outstretched arm in minute detail. Chiyo looked like she was about to lay an egg, yet she had made it flow so naturally before. There was still a lot for her to learn.

After a moment I let go. I tried to tell her that it had worked but I promptly keeled over and fell asleep. As it turns out, sharing power is not without a drawback.

                                                                                *

When I woke up again, I was face to face with a cow. It had wandered into the shed and was nibbling at my blond hair. I gently pushed the cow out of the way and went outside to stretch my legs. Chiyo was peacefully sleeping on the other side of the shed.

It must’ve been around 4 in the morning: the sun hadn’t come up, but the sky was already getting lighter. I was just checking up on the horse when I heard two voices approaching on the road. I dove into a ditch near the shed, and waited for the voices to pass.

Road patrol

I couldn’t quite make out what they were saying, they were having a hushed conversation. As far as I knew there shouldn’t have been a nighttime patrol on these backroads. Had the news of a witch appearing already spread throughout the province, and was there now a manhunt for us going on? In that case it would be a lot harder to enter the capital unnoticed.

When the men had passed, I carefully made my way back into the shed. I shook Chiyo awake while she was in the middle of sleep talking.

“Super… twinkle… bu- wuhh!”

“Don’t cast spells in your sleep, wake up.”

Chiyo rubbed the sleep out of her eyes.

“Oh…hey. HEY! What was up with you yesterday? You suddenly collapsed and I didn’t know what to do! I was trying to wake you up, but you kept on snoozing like a baby. And now you’re the one waking me, when the sun isn’t even up? You have some nerve, young man!”

“Let’s leave that aside for now. I just heard a patrol pass us by… I think they’re searching for us, so we need to get moving before the sun rises.”

We decided that it would be best to leave the roads behind and cut straight through the countryside. We rode on as the sun started to peek over the horizon on our left side. Verus’ horse was clearly a trained one. It jumped effortlessly over ditches and fences separating the pastures.

We made good progress over the next days. We weaved in and out of flowery meadows and lush forests, passing distant towns and villages on the way. Chiyo and I made sure to stay out of sight of farmers going about their day and the increased patrols, hiding in the tree lines when necessary.

On the second day after our encounter with the witch hunter, we came across a lake hidden in a forested valley.