Farm and Kung Fu
After a short period of walking, the group saw what looks like a farm, it was made up of two buildings.
The first looked like a barn made of old weathered wood, while the second looked like a large family house which was in an equally precarious state as the barn.
At the bottom, approximately 100 meters away, was a river whose water flowed slowly; On one of the banks of the river was an old dilapidated structure made of wood, which somehow resembled an old and dilapidated port.
As Zark watched the growing wheat fields, he felt something on his back move uncomfortably.
Turning his head, he found that Ingrid, who was on his back, was moving.
Noticing her gaze, Ingrid said "Please put me down"
"Are you sure?" Zark asked questioningly in his deep voice, although he seemed kind of perverted, there was actually no malice in his actions.
With her face flushed, Ingrid looked in another direction so as not to make direct contact with Zark's eyes.
Zark wasn't an expert on emotions, but he wasn't a fool either, Zark's stats on Sense Motive's ability were high, so telling someone's true intentions was easy for him.
Perhaps only a liar of the highest level could deceive him, but in general it was very difficult to lie to him.
"I have no problem carrying you on, it was my fault that you were unable to sleep properly" Zark knew that Ingrid was not trying to get off of her own free will, so confirming that there was no problem, should solve things.
With Zark's kind words, Ingrid's joy and excitement was great, responding with "if you say so ...".
But she was interrupted by Keil "Lord, Ingrid is right, she should put her down, it is inappropriate for an overlord like you to carry simple servants like us"
There were no flaws in his logic, that was something worthy of Keil, the king hand.
"Is that so?" These words were a banal attempt on the part of Zark to take credit for himself, since he personally did not feel like someone superior.
"Yes, my lord"
"Mmmm .... Nyos ... What do you think?"
"I thought we should continue walking" was the inappropriate response from someone who did not care about the conversation that had developed.
With no other alternative, Zark allowed Ingrid to get off her back.
As they approached the farm, they spotted two humanoid figures emerging from the barn and walking in the direction of the house.
Halfway through, the figures stopped, apparently they had noticed the arrival of Zark and his group.
One of the figures, which looks like an adult man, says something to the other figure, which looks like a woman; the woman nods and continues on her way to the house, leaving behind what looks like a man.
Cautiously, the man approaches as Zark's group looks at him with analytical eyes.
Keil tried to identify what his combat power was, Ingrid silently used [Detect Magic] in an attempt to search for magic items or ability to use magic, Nyos searched for any clue to any hidden weapon.
A group of paranoid totals.
The man had a disheveled and simple appearance, his clothing consisted of dirty and grimy peasant clothes of muted and faded colors; it was easy to notice wear and tear from farm work.
"Good afternoon, travelers" said the man at a safe distance "What takes you in a place as remote as this?"
Looking around him, Zark realized that none of his companions were willing to respond, so he cleared his throat and replied "Greetings good man, I must be the messenger of bad news"
After recounting what happened, the man paled and with constant nods he responded.
"Indeed .... That .... is bad news, I think we should go to the house, this is a serious matter"
The path to the house was traveled quickly, mainly because the man walked with a brisk pace.
Upon entering the house, the first thing that was noticed is that it is a simple and humble place.
The house, as expected, was built entirely of wood, had two floors, although the second was not very large, the floor was compacted earth.
Upon entering, they come to what appears to be a living room with a dining table with chairs for the whole family, although the wood carving was rough and rustic, it looked in good condition.
To the right were two doors that seemed to lead to other rooms, while to the right were two other doors, on one side was a rough staircase that led to the second floor.
The only lighting in the place was a small lamp, this was not a problem for Zark and company because they all had night vision, but personally he wondered how these people would do to live in the shadows.
"We have visitors" the man announced as he indicated with his left hand that they could sit down.
Zark took one of the chairs without much relevance, Keil sat on Zark's right, Nyos remained near the exit door while Ingrid glanced around the place.
"I'm Emrich" the man introduced himself, just at that moment, the woman who had been seen earlier came out of one of the doors on the right which led to a kitchen. "She is my wife, Heidi"
Heidi's appearance was of someone not very remarkable, everything in her screamed common
"Welcome" Heidi started "we don't have visitors very often"
"I am Zark, the one who is next to me is Keil, the young girl is Ingrid, and the one who is next to the door is Nyos" he quickly introduced the group to return the courtesy "unfortunately I am the bearer of bad news"
After a few moments, and after listening to Zark's story, Heidi's expression changed to an ideal dark one that was possessed by her husband.
"Father, is something wrong?" The one who spoke was a girl of about 17 or 18 who came out of one of the side rooms.
She wore simple clothes that consisted of a one-piece suit with a long-sleeved shirt along with a skirt, in her hands she had something similar to a shirt along with a sewing needle.
"It is nothing Myriam, they are adult things" Emrich replied.
"But dad, I'm not a girl anymore ..."
Emrich raised a hand to stop her daughter "look for your sister Cassandra who went to the river to get water and come back as soon as possible".
"But..."
"Uncomplainingly..."
After these forceful words, the girl resigned herself to obey.
"Well ..." were her words before going in search of her sister.
As Myriam left in search of her sister, a thud was heard coming from the second floor, it seemed as if someone had fallen to the ground. In that same it was heard
"Oh no, I have been defeated again by the great white knight."
And then another voice, this time from someone young, spoke.
"The white knight wins victory again"
Zark's group looked strangely in the direction of the sound.
On the other hand Emrich shrugged his shoulders and answered the tacit question "He is my brother, surely he is playing with his son"
"That explains it," Zark uttered in an attempt to downplay it, since he noticed that Keil had her hand on the hilt of her sword.
While the atmosphere returned to calm, Ingrid was done.
With her tender voice capable of softening even the coldest person she innocently asks "Can I come up"
Emrich looked at Zark, who made no expression.
Unable to resist Ingrid's cuteness, Emrich nodded and said "sure, no problem."
"Thank you" were Ingrid's polite words as she ran towards the stairs.
"Is she your daughter?" Emrich asked as he shifted his gaze from Zark to Keil.
Zark and Keil looked at each other, and although it was barely perceptible, Zark noticed a slight smile on Keil's face.
That gave him a very bad feeling
Although Emrich's question was to be expected, it was still unexpected for Zark.
"I'm her guardian" Zark replied as quickly as possible in an attempt to avoid any deep thoughts on Keil's part.
"Is something wrong Emrich?" The question came from another woman in the kitchen.
"Yes Anna, there is an important matter that I should discuss with my brother Hugo, but it seems that he is more busy playing with your son"
"Yes ... It seems so, but I have a trick to make it go down" replied the woman whose name was Anna "Just wait a few minutes".
♦ ♦ ♦
When she went up to the second floor, the first thing Ingrid found was a boy of about 15 years old, she was not sure, measuring the age of humans was difficult for her.
From one point of view a human child grew so fast that in a few years she would surely die of old age.
"Poor animals with such short lives" was Ingrid's thought.
The young man wore clothes which were too big for him, perhaps made to fit him when he grew up.
Ingrid would not have that problem when she grew up, although her appearance was that of a young human about 13 or 14 years old, when she grew up her clothes would automatically adapt to her new height, the benefits of having magical clothes .
The young human before her was scheming, he had a wooden sword and her posture was similar to a victory pose.
Looking down from her, she found that there was an adult human sprawled on the ground. Was the adult defeated by a younger member of her own species?
Truly pathetic.
Perhaps in this duel the young man would have demonstrated his worth as a warrior, perhaps it was a form of initiation towards adulthood than by humans.
This made sense to Ingrid, in the books found in the castle library they described humans as a warlike race and in constant conflict with each other.
Truly pathetic.
Although for Ingrid humans were only slightly more evolved animals, she could not deny that they also possessed her charm.
In the library she read a book written by a human named Leonardo Da Vinci; While she was reading the book, she noticed that the human Leonardo was a kind of Scholar, but he could not use magic, and although he possessed that disability, this did not limit him, since he was able to create very interesting machines.
This Leonardo, she reminded him of 4ndr3, since they are both researchers.
Staring at the young human, she wonders if he is an interesting human like Leonardo or just a slightly more evolved insect.
"Excuse me girl ..." she started the adult human who was getting up from the ground "Who are you?"
To Ingrid, this human was garbage, a waste of space and oxygen, since she was defeated by a member of her younger race.
Is that called old age affecting you that affects races with limited time?
She couldn't tell.
If it was a different situation, she would have ignored him, but since her father had instructed her that she should be nice, she had no choice.
Grabbing the hems of her skirt, Ingrid made a slight bow as she introduced herself "My name is Ingrid, I am a traveler, I arrived a few moments ago"
Immediately the human man realized what he was talking about "Are you with the group of people who are heard low?"
Ingrid just nodded, it seemed that the adult human was smart enough to connect two neurons.
"I went up to ask if I could join, since I realized that they are doing combat practice"
The adult human scratched his head as he replied "it was not combat practice, we were playing knight."
Ingrid touched his chin, perhaps this "game" was some kind of training to get the knight class, with that in mind, he snapped her fingers with an idea.
If it was some kind of training to be a Knight, maybe practicing against a dragon would help him gain more experience points, right?
"What if you 'play' with me?" She proposed Ingrid to the young human "you can be the Knight and I the evil villain"
The young man looked directly at the adult human and asked "May I?"
The adult human stared at Ingrid before asking her a question "Are you sure?"
With a confident smile, Ingrid nodded.
The adult human shrugged from both of them and said "then no problem"
The young human raised his wooden sword, with a firm grip he took a fighting stance.
Ingrid wondered if the young human had ever received combat training.
To show that she was ready, she took a suitable stance for close combat, she was not an expert but had combat training.
She advanced her left leg at the same time that she bent it 90 degrees and the other leg slowly stepped back, keeping it bent but not touching the ground with her knee, placing her rear foot on the ball of the foot and her front leg resting on the sole of the foot.
she extended her right hand leaving the palm open up; on the other hand she kept her left hand close to her waist
Anyone who saw Ingrid's stance and had knowledge of martial arts would know that it was the Qi Long Bu or the Dragon stance used in kung fu.
Like a brave warrior, the young human raised the sword over his head and with all his might made a downward slash.
Ingrid, although he was a full caster, noticed a relevant detail, the young man was talented, she was intelligent, she knew when something was trained or natural, and both the posture of the feet combined with the position of the sword, revealed the potential of the boy.
But even if she was talented, she couldn't match someone with true combat training.
Just as the low cut, Ingrid stopped it with her left hand, slid her right foot in the direction of one of the boy's legs to unbalance his posture and grasped with her right hand one of the ones that held the sword, quickly with a full-body movement similar to a judo lock, knocked the boy down.
The match was over in 6 seconds.
Both the adult human and the young human were speechless.
"How did you do that?" Asked the adult human.
On the other hand the young human said "Awesome".
While both humans were impressed, a voice called from below "Dinner is ready!"
"I think we should go down," Ingrid commented.
"Yes ....." was the only thing the adult human said.
Ingrid extended her hand to the young human, who accepted it with a trembling hand.
As Ingrid made her way up the stairs, she was suddenly stopped when the young human grabbed her shoulder.
If it were hers for her, she would have chopped him to pieces, but she refused to do so since this human piqued her interest.
"Ingrid, right?"
At the question, she nodded.
"How did you make that move?"
"Practice" she had no need to hide the truth.
"Could you teach me how to do it?"
"Why so much interest?"
"I want to become strong to become an adventurer, so that I can help my family"
"A noble goal, but you've already started at a disadvantage."
"I know, I'm poor"
That was not the disadvantage that Ingrid said, since she meant that he was a human, but not having the resources to obtain the basic equipment was also a disadvantage.
"What's your name?" Ingrid asked directly.
"I am Marcel and I want to be a hero"