17 Northern Road

"So, Cody, tell me about yourself." Melinda struck up conversation as they headed north out of the village.

"Me? What do you want to know?" Cody asked, somewhat startled.

"Hmm. How about… what you're good at?" Melinda queried. "Do you know about Feats?"

"I did the Tree Climbing one. You?"

"I'm not particularly good at anything." Melinda's face fell. "I did the Nova Gem trading route Feat."

"Wow…" Cody almost stared, but managed to turn away in time and divert his attention to Laila. "How about you?"

"Deep water swimming. That's easy enough. Not like climbing a tree for hundreds of meters." Laila shook her head. "You're really good at climbing."

"I'm from Flora, the Forest World. The whole planet is covered with trees." Cody explained. "You're really good at swimming."

"I'm from Ocearan, the Water World. The whole planet is covered with water." Laila returned right back.

Cody had an odd feeling, as though he'd already known, but whatever.

"Ah. So that's why you were always wearing a swimsuit." Cody realized. "And even now…"

"Wetsuit? Yeah, the clothes I have at home are all designed for swimming." Laila paused. "My whole house, and the entire city is underwater. My home is actually half-buried in a sea cliff, among the roots of a giant illuyar tree."

"What's an illuyar tree?" Cody had to ask.

"Oh. It's an underwater coral-based tree that glows in the dark." Laila explained. "It's also carnivorous, so try not to get too close to the branches. The roots are safe enough, though."

"My home is on a tree too. But mine's a Sky Tree, and it's not dangerous... unless you fall from a high branch." Cody thought back. "The branches are where we build most of our houses, but there are some people who live among the roots."

"Sky tree, sky tree…" Laila tapped the empty air, probably searching the Academy datanet for Sky Trees… "Wow! Those are huge! They're so tall! Living in their branches… it must be like living in the sky!"

"Not exactly." Cody scratched his head. "There are a lot of trees and branches just as high, so we mostly just see more branches and more houses and trees."

"That almost sounds like my home world." Melinda mentioned, grimacing. "Step out on the surface and all you ever see is snow. It's like there's nothing out there but white. Even the mountains are white and you almost can't tell there's actually a mountain in the distance. It all looks the same at first glance."

"Snow… you're from Syrinx?" Cody guessed.

"Yep. Direct to you, live, from the Frontier's biggest underground bunker." Melinda gave him a small, humorous bow. "We're like the ice moles. Only bigger."

"What's it like?" Cody questioned.

"Oh, it's not all bad. We have thermal control, so it's not all that cold, inside. We even have a greenhouse garden park." Melinda snorted. "You'd think we'd spend some money on terraforming and trying to get a little closer to the sun, but no, word is, we WANT to be snow in all the time."

"You do?" Cody was startled. "Why?"

"Apparently, we run a whole lot of machines that run very, very hot and it's simply cheaper to leave the planet frozen and keep the temperatures down than to spend money to warm the planet and cool the machines forever more."

"What kind of machines are those? Do you really need them?"

"Those? You mean the Frontier's datanet cloud servers? I suspect they're kind of important. What do you think?"

Cody gulped. "I think they're important. We need our datanet."

"Everyone says that." Melinda sighed. "I guess we're not terraforming."

"It's like the Regi Kelp in Ocearan. It's just too important, so we better not mess up the environment." Laila added. "Doctors and medics in every star system of the Frontier would outright riot if anything happened to the kelp."

"Monkey ahead." Melinda warned them, pointing.

Indeed there was. It was a Zebra Monkey, similar to the kind that attacked him and Riki the other day. This one, however, only snarled at them from afar. It kept its distance, not approaching the three of them or their bicycle carts.

"Maybe the carts scare it?" Cody figured.

"How so?" Melinda asked.

"It might not be willing to attack 'animals' much larger than itself."

Just in case, Cody glanced in the back of his cart, thinking to reach for his practice sword, which had been leant against the near edge of the wheeled crate so as to be within reach…

But the bumpy road had proven too much for that precarious lean. The practice sword had slipped all the way to the floor of the cart, quite out of reach of Cody's short arms.

Unable to reach his sword, Cody picked up his bamboo pole which was long enough to jut out the front even when sitting within the cart. Hefting it in his hand, he cycled onward holding it out in front of him as if his bicycle-cart 'beast' suddenly had an incredibly long horn.

As for Melinya she hefted a pickaxe while Laila sat in the cart wielding a shovel. They had rented those tools from Specs, and bade him forego renting his own, offering to lend him theirs as necessary. This saved him quite a few credits.

A second monkey showed up next to the first, and the pair of them began to approach the road as Cody and the others were about to pass by.

"Should we stop and engage them?" Laila asked.

Melinda shook her head. "No, I think we can just keep going. As long as they don't attack…"

The monkeys charged.

"Oh, scrap…!" Melinda yelped, hurriedly pedaling to aid the electric motor and add on more speed. "Run for it!"

Cody took one look and instantly saw that there was no way they were going to outrun the monkeys. The electric bikes that Specs hobbled together weren't exactly powerful in the first place, and the added weight of the carts and the people on them slowed them down even more. Without the carts, perhaps, but as it was, the Zebra Monkeys were significantly faster than them.

"Turn around!" Cody urged Melinda, then stopped his own bike and got off with his bamboo pole in hand. He did not even take the time to grab for his sword. He pointed the bamboo pole at the monkeys and charged right at them.

Melinda got the idea easily enough. She swerved over to the left while Cody dashed ahead; this put him squarely between them and the monkeys, buying them precious time to get off and gain their footing for a fight.

Assuming, that is, that Melinda would actually stop and stand with him. Looking at her speed and heading, all she really had to do was keep going and she could safely retreat, leaving him to face the monkeys all by himself without risking her own skin. She could flee all by herself…

Eh…? Cody blinked, suddenly realizing something. Melinda really was by herself. "Where's Laila?"

"Here." Laila said from behind him. Cody turned to see Laila already there, at his side, shovel in hand. She must have jumped right out of the cart earlier. "You take the one on the left, I'll take the one on the right."

"Okay." There was no time for discussion. Cody raised his pole like an oversized sword and lunged forward.

Now, it should be noted that the Mina Style's First Form was never meant to be used with a bamboo pole. The ideal weapon for the First Form was some sort of thrusting sword like a rapier, or an estoc. Otherwise, a lighter long sword like the jian wouldn't be too bad either.

A bamboo pole was wrong for it in so many ways. Herman would likely throw a fit if he ever saw Cody trying to use the Uta Form with an ex-fishing rod. Surely there were other, more suitable martial styles for use with a staff…

But the Mina Style was all Cody knew, and the bamboo pole was what he had in his hand. Having rushed out in such a hurry, at this point, he could only pretend that the pole was a really long sword and pray that his sword instructor would never see him do this.

"Ha!" Cody rushed straight in and stabbed the monkey in the face.

Amazingly, it connected. Cody wasn't sure who was more surprised that he scored a hit, the monkey, or himself. Thankfully, the bamboo pole was rather light, despite its length, and so Cody had been able to maneuver it in position in time.

The monkey fell over backward, then crawled about hissing at Cody angrily.

Meanwhile, Laila took a swing at the other monkey… and missed. She went down sprawling.

Right. Sea-legs. She wasn't exactly sure-footed on dry land.

Cody darted back to cover her, poking his pole at the monkey threateningly, staving it away so that Laila could get back on her feet. "Melinda! Where are you?"

"Coming!" Melinda finally arrived. "Do you want your sword?"

Cody stared. Melinda had done the very thing Cody had neglected to do in his rush; she'd stopped to pick up his practice sword. Now she held two of them; the other was probably hers. She held out one for him, hilt-first.

"Thanks!" Cody grabbed it, putting down the bamboo pole.

"Let me!" Laila seized the pole. "Ah! Much lighter!" She held it back-handed, raised high like a throwing spear.

Melinda raised her own practice sword, and finally they felt like they could put up a proper fight.