Somehow Safe

The dark green wyvern's wings made and broke crescent shapes as it flew away. Ioronia watched it, while Noag's attention took the sunlit view in.

"I'm still a bit shocked," she said.

"Eh?" Noag said. "At what?"

"The young girl Aldlesian."

Noag sighed.

"Yes, the benefit of tyranny is that the majority is always overruled," he said.

Ioronia smiled.

"If only we could all adopt a radicalized religion as the core of our government, then we'd certainly be walking into enlightenment," she said.

"Hahaha!" Noag laughed.

He stroked his beard.

"But it was more how human she made them seem," Ioronia said.

"First one unmasked?" Noag said. "The fighters always have those fool things on unless severe respect or disrespect is called for. But yes, they're completely human alright. The monsters they've made of themselves are of their creation."

"They're probably considered heroes in their home," Ioronia said.

"With such a king, I can only wonder if the people haven't felt his soldier's ire."

The mood turned sour at such thoughts.

"Is it too much to hope he at least loves and respects his people?" She said.

Noag held his withered old hands to his face.

"I am certainly an old and bitter man," Noag said. "But shouldn't you know better than me of tyrants?"

"I try to see hope whenever it doesn't cost me," Ioronia said.

Noag scowled at that.

"It's easy to hope things are better for a neighbor just to forget their pain," Noag said.

"As even-keeled as ever," Ioronia said. "But what could I do? I am not built for overthrowing foreign tyrants, and even if I was, the vacuum of power would create as much harm as legitimate tyranny."

She slid on a calm expression. Noag peered at her in the corner of his eyes.

"I've become too harsh in my old age," he said. "Certainly, thoughtless help is as bad as actions made for harm. But don't let flowered thoughts disguise apathy."

Silence stood as their companion for a moment.

"So, what are you going to do if these fugitives show up?" Ioronia said.

"Hand them over," Noag said.

Both tones held intonations of casual topics like the weather.

"After that little speech about apathy?!" Ioronia said.

She turned her shocked expression at the old man pulling at a nose hair. He shrugged.

"My job as the mage of this border is to settle disputes," he said. "The two would cause a dispute. Saving their lives doesn't outweigh the damage such a thing could cause."

"Before you didn't seem to fear getting on the Aldlesians' nerves," Ioronia said.

"Letting them walk over us would be the same weight of problems," Noag said. "I cannot be a doormat, but no matter the weight, two lives don't outweigh potential war. I am held responsible to those things within my sight."

"Tch."

"Within my sight," Noag said. "They can't hold us responsible for those things held without. If they're fiends the story turns to the same tragedy as always. I'm certainly not going to expend any extra effort to look for them."

"But you'll expand effort," Ioronia said.

"It is my duty to protect the borders! If you think you can do better, apply for the position!"

"I'd rather do what I can without such weighted duties!" Ioronia said.

Noag turned back to his tower.

Danielle spotted a tower on the horizon. It cut the bright sky as a line of dark gray. Whistles cut through the air as they leaned towards it.

"That's the border!" Melorandious shouted.

What would have taken them days more on foot took hours in flight. Compared to Danielle's old world, they were both slow, but her dirty feet had come to a new understanding of speed. She took in the full open-sky view once more. It would be a shame to waste the opportunity, but she looked forward to the steady beautiful ground. And water. She felt she could drink a whole gallon of water.

"Yup, that's where we'll be landing!" Rubo said. "Just a little longer!"

The strange man hadn't shown any concern for riding the wyvern barebacked throughout the entire trip. Then again, all she'd really seen was his hair, which was little indication of his expression. His tone seem strained, at least.

"Eeeep."

Droplet poked a bit of its pudgy body out of the big pocket of her dress. Droplet was situated at the top of the pocket, with the straps of the saddle closing the rest of it. Out of worry for it falling out, Danielle shoved it back in. It looked like the strange little ball had gotten soot on it. Or in it. The biology of the thing remained a mystery.

I'll see what happens if I put some water near it, Danielle thought. It'll be cute if I can feed it.

Droplet hadn't shown any indication of a mouth up to this point, so Danielle's hopes for feeding were small. Droplet poked up again and was shoved down.

They angled down. The increase in speed caused Danielle to grit her teeth as she leaned forward. Shooting towards the ground, Danielle's stomach dropped with fear.

The wings shot out, slowing their descent before they hit. Danielle clutched her eyes shut as she braced for the impact. The hind legs touched the ground first, and the wyvern closed his wings to land on them like arms. A small jolt passed through the dragon to its riders.

When Danielle opened her eyes in curiosity, she realized that the jolt was the indication they had landed. Melorandious got off first, and Danielle started unbuckling herself from the saddle. Rubo had jumped off before Danielle had opened her eyes. He was rubbing a cloth on the Wyvern's head as he murmured soothingly to it.

Danielle saw the wyvern's scales turn blue. But she didn't jump or bother at it. In her ignorance, she assumed all wyverns could change colors. The ground moved from her as she landed, causing her to stumble. Steadying herself, she realized her body was just expecting the ground to move like the wyvern had.

A dark-skinned woman walked toward them. Rubo swallowed as he turned his head. Melorandious watched this with slow understanding lighting his eyes.

"I—Ioronia, I didn't expect to see you here," Rubo said.

He flushed. Ioronia smiled at him, but her eyes glanced at Melorandious and Danielle first.

"It's good to see you, Rubo," she said. "Who have you brought with you?"

Rubo's smile stiffened.

"Well, just a few people I saved from the fire," he said.

"A poor pair caught behind the Aldlesian border at such a time?" Ioronia said. "What a sickening cup to drink."

"What?" Danielle said, confused. "Cup of what?"

Ioronia's eyes lingered on Melorandious' broken horns. Neither had anything to hide them.

"Rubo, offer your coat to the girl," Ioronia said. "She's obviously in shock."

Rubo did it, his expression turning serious. The woman pulled the hood over Danielle's head immediately.

"And you," she faced Melorandious, "make your hair useful."

With eyebrows raised Melorandious obediently pulled his long hair over the broken stubs of his horns, alongside most of his face.

"Ioronia, is this necessary?" Rubo said.

"Relax Rubo, it's just caution," Ioronia said. "We all might not care, but the less people know, the less these two might have to deal with... more bad luck."

"Rubo!" one of the guards said. "Noag's been waiting for you. Who did you pick up over there anyways?"

"Just a few travelers Rubo found," Ioronia said. "We were just discussing letting them stay at my place until it blows over."

The guard looked at Rubo for more information. He shook his head as he spoke.

"Yeah, they're just travelers with bad luck," he said.

A bitter taste rose in Rubo's mouth, but he swallowed it.

"I better tell Noag everything's fine," he said, to Ioronia. "It'd be great if you could help Danielle and her friend while I'm busy. They look like they could use some water."

"All I really need is a break," Danielle said hoarsely. "And some water."

Danielle didn't fully catch what was going on. But if the stranger failed to smuggle them in, she understood that would take more running. She needed water before she did that. Melorandious laughed.

"We could use a break," he said. "But I think we can hold out a bit longer."

She caught his stare that bored into her. She nodded and shook her head. Yes, she understood the woman was trying to help. No, she wasn't leaving without a drink.

"How about you get some water too, Mel," she said. "Who knows when we might get another chance."

Melorandious frowned.

"We can take it slow," Ioronia said.

Melorandious and Danielle got their bags. The heavy, awful bags with bricks or blankets in them.

Why? she thought. Why is this rando trying to help us?

Her brain was stuck on that. She looked at Melorandious, trying to get his attention, but he ignored her. Tightening the hood's strings before pulling out her canteen, she splashed her face and gulped down some water.

Ioronia passed another smile to Rubo as she pulled Danielle away. Melorandious followed at Ioronia's side with an easy smile on his face. Danielle squinted at it. There was little she could see to smile about. Her focus shifted towards the tower. She watched Rubo enter as she followed it up into the sky. The stone blocks should have been just another reminder of how far from home she was, but Danielle found them relaxing to look at it. The big smooth cuts reminded her of some castle from a book, without the years of disrepair added to it.

But the trees quickly hid it from her view. She took up pace beside Melorandious. He chattered away with Ioronia quite uncharacteristically. Or, like he had with the Rovers.

Is he trying to fool people with this? she thought. Or is our relationship that bad in his eyes?

Soon enough, placing one foot in front of the other was all she could bring herself to think about. The two Melorandious and Ioronia passed words. Ioronia circled around questions, and Melorandious gave only obvious answers.

"It must have been difficult, getting caught in the fire," Ioronia said. "Difficult time for crossing the border, for sure."

"It is always difficult to cross a border," Melorandious replied.

He was weary with their adventures as well, and his short tone was leaked through the first part. But he redirected cheerily enough. Danielle followed behind looking ahead.

"I suppose, that man, Rubo? Meeting him was to our luck. And meeting someone so kind as to help us after," he said. "I can't give thanks enough."

It felt like flattery but was oddly cutting.

"I only do what I can," Ioronia said.

Her tone was sedate. She had picked up on the sharp question of the words.

"Is that your house?" Danielle said.

Between the trees, a brick house could be peeked.

"Yes, tired?" Ioronia said.

"Is that an actual question?" Danielle said.

"Of course not," Ioronia said. "Would you like to take a bath or food first? Forget it, you can decide who'll take the first bath while I prepare something."

She opened the gate of the yard's fence, the dirt road turning into a path of broken bricks embedded into the ground. A pleasant wooden porch transitioned the yard into a house. Danielle and Melorandious stood as Ioronia opened the door.

"The bath's in the back room," she said. "Put your bags anywhere you like."

Danielle swung her pack down with abandon in the middle of the floor. Melorandious watched with dismay.

"What?" She shot at him.

He turned away.

"Will you be letting us sleep here?" Melorandious said.

"I didn't bring you here to make you walk down to town," Ioronia said. "But I've only got one guest room."

They all stood in a small kitchen crossed between a dining room. It felt shockingly similar, but there was a wood stove and a lack of appliances. Also, the floor was wooden rough slabs instead of tile. Joy over the familiarity and stability of it still flooded Danielle with energy.

"I'll go first," she said. "Speak now if you object!"

Melorandious shook his head.

In the back room, there was a tub. But it was one of those ancient things that was only a tub. No knobs or pipes anywhere. The entire tub seemed to have been left in the storage room. At least it was clean.

"Crap," Danielle muttered.

"Eep?" Droplet said.

"Oh, I forgot about you!" Danielle said. "All set to come out now that the walking is all done I see?"

Droplet wriggled out of her pocket and floated to the edge of the tub. It stuck a tendril out at it.

"Yes, it's a tub!" Danielle said.

Droplet's tendril gestured more excitedly at something specific. Squinting, Danielle noticed more familiar lines.

"Does everything run off of magic in this world?" she said.

Placing a finger to it, the lines lit up. Danielle jerked her hand away.

"Yeepi, yeepi," Droplet squeaked.

"Yippee," she said, with her mind absent.

Scouring the intaglio, she found a circular shape. Pressing it lit the lines of the whole tub, and water started to form at the bottom.

"All right," she said. "We have progress."

At least there was a bar of soap nearby. Smelling oddly like fat, but it was soap. Shampoo and conditioner were absent, although she lacked the courage to completely route through the strange bottles on the shelf. Nor could Danielle figure out how to change the temperature of the water, or even know if there was a way. This dampened none of her joy as she settled into scrubbing off the dirt that had collected for days. A small hitch occurred when she realized she'd have to get out. She relaxed in the tub. Her mind weighing the walk of shame in her mind versus calling out for a towel.

The ebony woman Ioronia entered before Danielle could decide on either one.

"I thought you'd be needing these," she said.

Not only a towel but also a change of clothes from her bag.

"My savior!" Danielle said.

"What would I be if I mentioned that we have stew as well?"

"I dunno what's better than savior. A goddess?" Danielle said. "But let me eat the food first before we go that far."

"Fair," Ioronia said. "I'll be digging in with your friend though so you might want to hurry. Um—"

Ioronia had just caught sight of Droplet, hovering around Danielle's head. She shook her head with a small smile.

"Might want to keep the elemental out of sight outside of here," she said, her parting words.

"Are you a big deal?" Danielle said.

Droplet puffed itself out, which only succeeded in giving it an odd shape. Danielle poked it. It was all clean now, but the water flowed right through it. It didn't get much bigger.

"That's not a good thing," she said. "We're already too damn conspicuous."

It wilted.

"Meeep."

"Oh, don't worry! It's because we're so iconic that it doesn't matter if you're the same!"

The bath finished without any trouble. Danielle left the water behind for Melorandious to deal with, perhaps it would motivate him to teach her more practical lessons. She stepped back into the living room the cleanest she'd been. Melorandious and Ioronia dug into the aforementioned stew. The smell of warm food wafted over to Danielle. Droplet rolled about on the table as Danielle slid into her seat.

"I have to admit you're the goddess of stew!" Danielle said.

Ioronia laughed.

Nothing, absolutely nothing, beats a warm dinner, Danielle thought.

But as soon as rolled herself onto the first bed she'd laid eyes on in this world, she changed her mind. Her opinions on beds and warm dinner were barely formulated as she sunk into sleep. Droplet beside her on the pillow.

"Guess I'll take the floor," Melorandious said.

He stood in the doorway, clean after his own bath, and a little too late to debate over the bed. With a few extra blankets from their hostess, he rolled his own beneath them. Making a decently comfortable surface. Then he set about waiting. The house quieted, and when Ioronia's shuffling stopped, but he kept his patience and held. Only when it felt like his eyelids wouldn't be pulled open again did he climb out of the layers of blankets.

He put his hand on Danielle's shoulder. She barely stirred. He shook her, gently.

"What the hell?" Danielle said. "It's not even light out."

"We should get going," Melorandious said.

"Excuse me?"