Sky Fruit

Anne made a high pitch whistling noise and shortly after, Hawk landed on her shoulder. We left the front yard of her house and made our way through town. As we were walking, I felt a couple of eyes on me. A quick glance here and there, nothing major, but still noticeable. I was even starting to feel a bit self-conscious. 'Is my clothing that weird? It may be different but it's still nothing extravagant when compared to Cris or some other pricy outfits I saw.' The thought faded away as we exited the town and the plains replaced the buildings.

In front of us was the same forest that I saw on my first day. Nervous energy was roaming through my body, but Anne stepped into the forest without hesitation. Her confidence spread to me as well. Placing a hand on the hilt of my blade, I stepped into the forest.

As we walked, Anne asked a question out of the blue. "You excited for tomorrow Arden?"

"You mean my training with Caden? How can I not be excited, you talked him up so much."

"I didn't talk him up that much... by the way, I've heard that any pupil that has completed his training has gone to become at least an A rank practitioner. Isn't that amazing? I'll be looking forward to the day when you become A rank as well."

"Alright, but don't set your expectations too high... he might kick me out once he realizes how little I actually know. Also, how many pupils has he had? Because that might not mean much if he's only taken in like three..."

"Well, he's had many. He takes pupils freely and even accepts payments from royalty to take their kids as pupils. However, less than 1% of them actually pass his training. Which is why whoever actually completes it tends to become really successful."

"Hmm…. so that's how it is." I became a bit nervous about what was to come, but I was also a bit curious as to what training he has. 'I guess he has to make his money somehow, I'd accept money to tutor kids as well if I was in his position.'

"Have you decided on a path yet?" asked Anne.

"A path? What do you mean?"

"Assuming you're going to be a practitioner of arts. You have the options of becoming a warrior, mage, or even a magical warrior in your case. Becoming a mage will probably be the best choice for you, I guess magical warrior is possible but it's definitely a gamble."

"Why? Because it's hard?"

"Eh... partially. You obviously have a talent in magical arts, if you try to learn sword arts on top of that, you might just hinder your progress in your magic. Plus, you're already pretty old so you'd have to learn at a monstrous rate to become a magical warrior."

"Geez, am I that old? I'm only 18 you know? But I suppose you're right… I can probably ask master Cadan tomorrow. Have you decided on your path yet?"

"Yeah, I'm becoming a mage."

"But don't you use a bow?"

"Yeah, but that's just because there's nobody here that can teach me higher magic arts. Well, except maybe Cadan, but he already chose you as a pupil. I'm saving up money to go to a bigger city and attend a Magic School."

Her voice lowered and she took out her bow.

"Let's stop talking, for now, we're a bit deeper into the forest so let's be on guard."

I nodded while unsheathing my sword. We traversed through the forest in silence, only with the occasional sound of nature echoing through the area. Then sounds were vaguely familiar, but still foreign. A screech here and a rustle there, they seem like the sounds on earth, but something about it was off.

The trees around us grew taller and the sunlight that seeped through the cracks began to vanish. In front of us stood a cluster of trees that seemed a bit different from the others, near the roots were bones of animals and some that vaguely resembled a human. It grew closer to each other and has vines that draped down from its branches that laid near its roots.

"Careful, the vines will attack anything that moves within its vicinity. We're going to have to step into its attack range for a few steps to get past them though. Get ready to dodge or parry the vines."

I gripped the hilt a little bit tighter and walked forward keeping an eye on the vines. After walking parallel to the trees for a bit longer, a noticeable gap between two of these trees appeared.

"We're passing through here, follow my steps exactly."

Anne carefully navigates between the trees purposefully digging her shoes into the soil for me to follow. We got about halfway through before a vine suddenly sprung into life and snapped at us.

It came at a frightening speed threatening to wrap itself around Anne, but she easily jumped over it. In that time, I willed time to slow down before slicing the vine with a clean cut.

"Let's go!" Anne said as she broke out into a run. I followed, triggering more vines to awaken and strike towards us.

Anne weaves through the attacks effortlessly and came to a halt after escaping the danger zones. Not having the same agility, I had to rely on my new sword to clumsily fend off one more vine with the help of my time powers before also escaping to safety.

"Are you hurt anywhere?"

"Ah… no. I'm… I'm good." I was already breathing hard, but Anne didn't even break a sweat. 'I think my stamina may be drained at a faster rate when using time powers… I shouldn't overexert myself. Or at least I hope so…. surely I'm not this unathletic right?'

"That's good, let's keep moving then. The trees are becoming more spread apart, so we should be seeing some sky fruits soon."

We began to make our way through the forest and as she said, the trees slowly transformed from collections of dense short trees to taller more spaced out trees. The sun once again shines through the leaves making traversing through the terrain a lot easier.

"Alright, there shouldn't be anything else hiding around on the ground. The area ahead has mostly threats in the sky, so just keep an eye above you. The trees here are too young, but once the trunks get a bit thicker, sky fruits should start appearing. It rests at the top and has a teal color."

As we walked, I scanned the top of the trees as Anne suggested. There were a lot of birds and squirrel-like critters, but they were all a bit odd. The color of a squirrel was a hush green instead of being brown, and one specific bird had a brown body but a bright pink beak. Shortly enough, the tree trunks began to get progressively thicker and thicker until a faint blue fruit appears in the corner of my vision. Out in the distance and high into the sky, a fruit slightly bigger than the size of a tennis ball hung with little presence.

"Hey Anne," I said as I pointed into the distance. "Is that what we're looking for?"

Her eyes followed my fingers and widened.

"Yep, that's a sky fruit alright. That didn't take too long. I'm going to have Hawk snatch it. We typically grab sky fruits slightly before they ripen because when they do ripen, the birds around this area usually get to it first. It lacks a little energy and tastes a bit worse but that one will do. The birds in this area might attack when they see an intruder taking their food, I'll take care of them with my bow. If they get close, then I'll count on you."

"Got it."

We made our way near the bottom of the tree and Anne sent her Hawk into the sky to fetch our prize. Hawk broke the thin branch connecting the fruit to the three and began its descent. As Anne predicted, before Hawk got back to us, another bird that resembles a falcon flew towards Hawk aiming to disrupt it. Recognizing the threat, Anne quickly nocked an arrow and sent it whizzing through the air piercing through the body of the Falcon and sending it to the ground.

"Since we're not pressed for time or injured, we can collect the bird as well. Here, take this bag."

She tossed me a bag and we stored the bird carcass and fruit separately. Following a similar procedure, we wandered through the area and obtained 8 more fruits without too much trouble. There were certain trees that had two birds in the area while one tree didn't have any. Not all the birds were killed so we ended up collecting 9 fruits and 4 bird carcasses in total. It wasn't too late into the day, but Anne had a limited supply of arrows, so we had to end our hunting and gathering session early.

On our trip back, no real threat popped up. We had to pass through the vine trees again but having more experience this time, I was able to fend it off easily, even while carrying some extra baggage. We walked until the lights of Velia came into view and I finally sheathed my weapon upon seeing Anne relax and put her bow behind her back.

"Whew… we made a lot of profit today. I typically don't go for sky fruits despite having Hawk because I'm limited on arrows and I couldn't carry everything but… with you, we can really make a killing doing this…"

"Haha, this quest seems to work out pretty well with our party. Great choice."

"Thanks, you definitely made the entire process a lot easier as well. Plus, it gets pretty boring when I have to do most of the quests alone."

"Oh, by the way, Anne, something you said earlier piqued my interest. Didn't you mention a Magic School? What's that all about?"

"Usually you learn advance magic through a mentor or a Magic School. I'm not wealthy enough to hire a private tutor so I can only save up my funds and hope that I can one day travel to a bigger city and attend a magic school to become a mage. Why? Are you thinking of going as well?"

"Well… I haven't really thought about it that much. If I'm going to become a mage or even a magical warrior, it's probably my best option as well right?"

"I guess. You sure have your sights set high."

"Aren't you the same?"

"Pft… I suppose, but I always get told how unlikely it'd be. It's just weird to meet someone who has the same ambitious attitude I guess."

'Right, I'm not on Earth anymore. I'm used to the idea of having the world open to me if I have the drive… but I guess this world isn't the same.' I wasn't very ambitious. When I lived back on Earth, I just followed the system. With another chance, I definitely have to make it count. I added attending a Magic School to my to-do list alongside learning the arts and protecting Anne.

"Heyo! You always seem to come back when I'm on shift, is that on purpose Anne?"

"It's not exactly hard to meet you when your shift is from noon to nightfall, Danian."

"True true…"

Danian noticed me behind Anne, but this time his expression was different, he seemed a bit more reserved.

"Ah… I guess it is the same Arden after all. The stranger who beat Cris in a sword duel and got the attention of the legendary Air Swordmaster." Danian said as he showed a bitter smile.

His eyes were a lot less fierce than I remembered from the first day of meeting him. "How did you know about that?" I questioned.

"The town's boring, it's always the same stuff. If there's drama, it's bound to spread, especially one that's as spicy as this."

'Right… there were other people using the dueling area as well at the time… they probably spread the word around.' I pushed my hair back and gave a sigh. 'Well… not many people should recognize me, but this is definitely a headache.'

"Welp, that was bound to happen I guess."

We gave our goodbyes and made our way through the town. As we walked through, a lot more eyes stared at me. 'So, this is probably why people were staring at me in the morning as well…' A lot of people were whispering and pointing to me while Anne and I made our way to the guild hall. We handed the quest note to the lady at the front along with the fruits and she paid us accordingly. One silver and 80 bronze, each fruit was worth 20 bronze, and we still haven't sold the bird carcasses yet.

'Seems like we really did strike it big this time.'

"By the way… you're Arden right?"

I was a bit taken back. The last two times I interacted with her, she was all business and didn't show a speck of emotion on her face while speaking.

"My name is Jen, if you have any other questions about the guild or quests, don't be shy and feel free to ask me anytime!" she said as she flashed a charming smile.

"Ah… yes, I'll definitely do that. Thank you."

As we walked out of the building, I felt an elbow hit my arm.

"Ow, what was that for?"

"Well aren't you popular, Mr. I'm the pupil of the Air Swordmaster."

"That doesn't even make sense..." I complained as I rubbed my arm.

"Whatever, here, take the 80 bronze first. I can give you the rest after I sell the birds and break some change. I'm gonna head home, I'll catch you later."

"Yeah thanks, catch you… later… Anne..."

'Jeez, why is she always in such a hurry to leave.' I examined the 80 bronze coins and put it in the bag that Anne gave me. 'Oh… I should return this to her… and the sword too.' Upon realizing just how much she has helped me, I was even more determined to pay her back. 'I'll help her get in a Magic School, that's the least I can do after everything she's given me.' I was determined but more so, I was hungry. Putting my ambitions aside, I patted my full pockets and decided to conquer my stomach first.