Chapter 8 - The start of a new journey.

With a new bow in her possession, Sora spent the next couple of weeks practising her skills with Rio, joining him outside the village to fire a couple of shots into some of the trees. Not only that, but she also took on some magic training, she was still a novice in comparison to Noel, but her growth was far more rapid than what they had anticipated, especially for her type of magic.

According to Noel, the ability to summon spirits is a rare skill only found in certain races, such as onis. It was quite the shock to find it embedded into a bow, plus Sora's amazing control over it.

But Sora wasn't the only one who was training though. As usual, Rio himself was practising his magic. Unfortunately, he wasn't as adept at it as the girls.

Every day the two would head out of the village and practise for an hour. Often needing to bring breakfast with them since they leave first thing in the morning.

An hour into their usual session, the two found themselves being drained of energy, so they decided to sit down and relax with their breakfast spread out in front of them.

"You've been doing this for a while now haven't you? How have you managed?" Sora asked, in between bites of her sandwich.

"Usually just like this," Rio responded. "Still, you've been growing fast haven't you?"

"Well according to you and Noel I have, but I'm not so sure myself," Sora responded.

"No it's definitely a lot quicker than I imagined, you barely get tired summoning your spirits," Rio assured, causing the girl's lips to curl a tiny bit.

Once breakfast was finished, Rio fell into a deep sleep, leaving Sora to gaze at the clouds on her own.

It was a quiet morning, no birds were singing yet and the wind was just calm enough not to whistle. Sora herself had let nature's atmosphere take her over while she just sat in place. She would occasionally glance at her surroundings, but her body was as still as a tree.

While looking around the girl noticed a pile of books sitting by a tree.

"Has he gone through all of that?" She looked at the boy next to her and remembered that he had often came home all beat up. "You've been working hard huh?"

As the words escaped Sora's lips, Rio began to stir in before his eyes slowly parted open. He aimlessly stared at Sora for a few seconds then lifted himself up into a sitting position. He gave his limbs a good stretch, letting a couple of bones pop while groaning.

"How long was I out for?" he asked.

"A good 20 minutes, you can keep sleeping if you want," Sora proposed.

"Nah it's ok, if I keep sleeping I'll be here all morning." Rio hopped up onto his feet and went to his pile of books. "How's your body? You're not too drained from using magic?"

"I was feeling a bit drowsy earlier, but the break gave me my energy back," Sora answered. She then noticed that Rio had begun to pack his stuff. "Are we leaving already?"

"You can stay if you want, the boss called for me to be in today, he needs me to oversee the figurine crafting." The boy tossed his satchel over his shoulder before continuing to talk to Sora. "Looks like you've got your second wind, you wanna stay?"

Sora thought about it for a bit before shaking her head. "Let's go home. I think I shouldn't push myself too quickly."

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While her mornings were now spent on either work or training. Sora's nights had become her time where she would just lay on her bed, deep in thought on what would come after she began her search.

Though more confident with herself to survive, she was still in two minds whether to bring Rio with her or not. She needed to make a decision soon since she promised Noel she would join her not too long after they survived the temple and she didn't have much time left. She wanted Rio to be by her side, but at the same time, she felt rather selfish for dragging him onto a journey with her.

"I really need to ask him."

Just like how Sora had been arguing with herself, Rio himself was also lost on what to do. Apart of him wanted to go with Sora, for his own curiosity, he also felt this would be imposing on the girls. He knew how important this search was and he didn't want to tag along just for his sake. In fact, just the thought left a bad taste in his mouth.

"I guess I can always leave if I want. I'm sure she'll be fine with Noel."

A sudden knock then tore Rio out from his train of thought.

Hopping out of his bed, the boy opened the door and was greeted by Sora in her pyjamas.

"Hey what's up?" he asked, confused about her sudden visit.

"Yeah, I need to talk to you. Can I come in?" the girl requested.

Stepping aside, Rio let Sora into his room before sitting beside her on his bed. Next to him on the bed, the girl played with her fingers and her lips quivered, clearly dying to open her mouth.

"So? What's this about?"

"Oh! Right." Sora took a deep breath and faced Rio. "I was gonna ask, what are you planning to do after I leave?"

"Uh, well I haven't actually planned anything solid yet," Rio confessed.

Hearing that made Sora quickly jump close to Rio, eyes locked onto his. "Then- then why don't you... why don't you come with me."

Rio's eyes momentarily widened from the proposal. "Where's this coming from?"

Realising what she just did, the girl quickly sat back down, blushing madly. She couldn't believe she let her excitement get the better of her and pressed her face mere inches away from Rio's.

"Sora, are you sure? I'm not even a part of Hololive."

"I know that." Sora hung her head for a second and played around with her fingers. "But I don't think I can keep on going without you."

Rio did not expect such a confession from her, he was honestly taken aback. The boy was also glad it was dark in his room or else he'll have to deal with explaining as to why his cheeks suddenly began to flare up.

"You're really sure about this aren't you?" he managed to let out calmly, despite the quickened heartbeat.

Sora nodded immediately, her gaze not showing any hints of doubt.

Seeing her determination made the boy smile a little, he was so unsure about whether to join the girl or not, but the answer was now right in front of him. So he didn't need to deliberate it any further.

"Sure, but I doubt I'll be useful."

"Nonsense, you'll be great!"

When she got back to her room, Sora immediately dropped and hugged her knees. "I was so nervous!"

She looked back at how close she got to Rio and immediately burst into a crimson ball of embarrassment. She was so forward with him, that even shocked her, but she didn't dare break in front of him so she played it out.

"Ah we were so close! I thought my heart was gonna burst out of my chest."

Her heart continued to beat like a drum all throughout the night, leaving Sora barely get a wink of sleep. She only got some since her brain finally decided to shut down for the night.

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The day finally came for Sora and Rio to depart for the capital. Noel was sat on her wyvern waiting patiently for the two while they said their goodbyes to the village.

With how sudden their arrival was, both outworlders had made a large impact on Riverbank that no one could just let them go without at least some gifts.

"You really don't have to give us anything," Sora said, trying to push back the several packages from being handed to her.

"No no, we insist." The farm lady then forcefully made Sora grab the packages. "Now make sure to use those as soon as you get to the capital ok?"

The two friends briefly glanced at each other before nodding at the farm lady. They knew there was no use in arguing and just accepted whatever came their way.

Up next was the boss of the workshop, his gift was solely for Rio but it was still a surprising item. With its dark, wooden body, the gift to the male outworlder was a staff.

Rio stared at the item in his hands with sparkling eyes. Its craftsmanship was breathtaking for him, its weightlessness despite having metal casings in some parts and the faint carved jagged pattern on the body, it was beautiful.

"It ain't finished yet though."

Walking up to him with a familiar orb, the chief presented his item to the boy. "Here, you'll need this."

No words dared to come out of Rio's mouth as he stared at the stone. But the silence was also an answer for the chief, who sighed before shoving the thing into Rio's hand.

"Get that to craftsman in Esteria so that they can fit it into your staff," the chief ordered.

It took a few seconds, but once everything registered inside Rio's mind he immediately tried to refuse the parting gift. "I can't keep this, you can sell it to get something for the village. Isn't the food still short, why waste it?"

The chief and the rest of the villagers chuckled at the rambling boy, but the chief assured him that the village would be fine without the need to sell the stone because the knights have already provided a year's worth of meat and vegetables. However this didn't convince the boy to keep the item, so the chief opted to just tell Rio that if he wasn't going to keep it then he'll toss it down the river.

Rio jolted at the empty threat, thinking it was real and accepted the orb in a panic. He was completely played by the chief.

With their goodbyes now finished, the two outworlders hopped onto the wyvern and got themselves comfortable. Unfortunately for Rio, the winged beast only had a saddle good enough for two, so he had to sit directly on the scales, which slightly protruded out. It wasn't the best of seats, but he had no choice and just needed to bear the slight pain.

"Goodbye everyone!" Sora shouted as she ascended onto the sky.

"Goodbye, you two!" was the chorus that many of the villagers shouted back.

Noel lightly kicked her wyvern's side and it responded by flapping its wings, lifting itself off the ground slowly before picking up the pace.

After they got a steady pace, Noel turned to her passengers and asked if they were doing ok, but instead, she got to see the two of them enjoy the sight of the world from the skies. They were grinning from ear to ear as they soared past the treetops and fields, Sora even straightened herself up to feel the rush of wind hit against her face.

"Try not to fall," Rio advised, a little bead of sweat dripping down his head.

"We're nearing Esteria," Noel informed. "A piece of advice you two, try not to wander the streets at night when we get there. We've been getting reports that people have been going missing. Our hunch is that black market criminals are gathering forces for a worldwide coup d'etat."

"What?!" Sora and Rio screamed in unison.

"Don't worry about it, we're making sure nothing catastrophic happens and it's the same in the other kingdoms," Noel assured with a comforting smile.

Not necessarily the words the two wanted to hear, their journey had just begun and already they got a sign of great danger heading their way.

But it wasn't all doom and gloom, since just past the clouds, with its stone walls and multi-coloured buildings, was Esteria.