Not a Monster

After a while spent in the monster realm, I began growing numb to monster attacks. At first, every single encounter sent chills down my spine, but now it seemed a bit too trivial. Most of the heavy lifting was, of course, done by Nila, but even I managed to draw my blade a few times to slice either some carnivorous bird or overgrown insect. What I could not help but remain amazed about were the views, so other worldly with vegetation of darker tone as well as the terrain, that was a bit too wobbly from a normal one. We often descended and reascended only to be met with yet another swarm of man-eaters, however, with time their number dwindled significantly. I would say they were most potent in forests, and open fields were more reserved to the flying beasts.

Those fanged eagles Nila mentioned were especially troublesome, as their diving speed was way too fast for me to dodge. I fully replied to Nila upon their attacks, but even with her skills, they sometimes flew right past her magic, trying to gouge our eyes out using their sharp talons and fangs. I even managed to get a deep wound on my arm, while I was swinging my dagger like a madman, hoping that its blade would graze the eagle, rendering it dead. The injury was not too deep, with one cast of Pollux Miaplacidus, Nila managed to stop bleeding, and a simple bandage further improved the state of my arm.

If anything, with each minute passing, I became more thirsty as our water reserves went dry quite fast. Food was not really a problem at that point, since humans are capable of surviving days without any nutrition, meanwhile, water was not only tight, but also a highly valuable resource as our bodies would survive for even 3 days without it. Nila was not really happy about the idea of wasting time here or, perhaps, even drinking from whatever watering hole we might find. But soon enough, she decided that it would not hurt to find some kind of water stream.

"Just make sure that we will not diverge far from the path." She said while strolling behind me, all this time I was the one leading the way, even though I had no idea where we were going, but I made sure to go straight. Her prediction of traversing the monster realm in several hours failed quite a while ago, which was a bit irritating, since we might have gone the wrong way from the very beginning.

I turned my head at her and frowned, "What path are you even talking about? We first went through the forest and now ended up in this stupid field."

She turned away, her lips were a bit sullen, "I might have shown the wrong way… but the general direction should remain unchanged, in the end you yourself confirmed from where you came to the monster realm, thus, if we go to the opposite direction from that point, this should bring us to the Dlayla region."

"Makes sense." I murmured and looked around to notice something that could remind me of a water source, however, uncommon colours of local nature along with uneven landscape made it difficult. I decided to diverge from the straight line we had been going by all this time and headed downhill while prickling my ears.

"I will not forget where we have been, I am quite decent at memorising paths and maps."

After my words, I heard her accidentally kneeing her suitcase, which was accompanied by her quiet groan. She was following me and so, we walked through the brand-new path that led to the small grove. It would not be too wise to waste a lot of time in search of water, since this place was not the safest one, so it was decided that we will only have a look at the grove and then return. Luckily, upon coming closer, Nila's ears twitched and she accelerated, overtaking my lead. There was indeed one shallow and narrow water stream that cut through the dirt.

Nila took out the empty water sack from her suitcase and filled it with that new water, which made me raise my brow, "Should not we first boil it?"

"There is no need for that." She answered and pulled the sack out of the water stream. Then, she took her notebook and flipped through pages, humming quietly. She fiddled around with the sack for a little while, then forced it into my hands and now oriented around her notebook with both of her hands. She summoned her staff and pointed it at the sack, "I forgot that Canopus Libra should work just fine."

Then, she cast the spell on it and urged me to have a sip. I was not happy about being her guinea pig, but I was the one desperate to find some water, so I gulped down water without any consideration for my safety. The water inside had a little earthy taste, but overall, it was fine. 

Nila extended her hand once I was done, I had no issue in handing her the sack. Then, she took a few sips out of them as well, without wiping the sack neck. I believe it was called an indirect kiss, but not me nor Nila were bothered about it. I never had a relationship, all my acquaintances were somehow related to the band I was part of. Naturally, I hated them all, hated this place with all my heart, thus, I never once thought about affection or love. Perhaps, I had a crush on someone all the way back at the orphanage. But it was still a foreign element for me, something unnecessary and… a little scary. My egoism surely would not let me fall for someone without seeing any gain from it, I was too practical for such trivial feelings. Regardless, upon catching this fleeting thought of my first indirect kiss being stolen by her, a slight smile formed on my cheeks.

Nila only tilted her head, clearly clueless about my thoughts, or rather the concept of this gesture. Perhaps, she was too old to even think about something so silly?

"I was wondering, how old are you?" I timidly asked, but Nila did not answer. Her eyes widened, and she pulled me by the sleeve onto the ground. I was frozen with shock as I thought she tried to attack me, however, once my eyes were directed at the sky, besides swaying tree tops, I noticed two shiny objects instantly passing through the place where I sat just a second ago.

Nila jumped up and cast an offensive spell at the place from where those objects flew. My eyes followed its path and between the trees, I noticed a dark figure dodging her attacks and dashing towards us in zig-zag motion. Once the light hit that person's figure, I realized one thing, it was not a monster, but a human! Our attacker wore all black from their pants to their swaying coat, only several belts, buttons and pockets in their costume gave some depth to their appearance. In one hand, they held a rapier and in another, some stick, or maybe it was a short wand? But the most important detail, that I immediately recognized, was the wide hat on their head that refused to fall despite the sheer speed they were running at.

The tip of their rapier was thrown at me, right to my head, but before it could make contact, Nila's spell blocked its path. She fired yet another offensive spell at the attacker, but they blocked with the same defence, Tureis. Nila did not stop at that, once magic failed to harm them, she thrusted the defensive spell with her very staff and managed to break it as there was a slight glow at the staff's tip, but the attacker managed to parry Nila's physical attack with their rapier. The attacker jumped away, however, Nila remained beside me.

I glanced at Nila's face and a cold sweat ran down my spine. Her expression was always cold, however now, it felt like she could easily form ice with her glare alone. There was a hint of anger in her eyes, however, the most prominent emotion in her slightly narrowed brows was disgust. She pointed her staff at the attacker and calmly asked, "What business does a harvester have with us?"