Alden opened the door to a building that was directly adjacent to the main road through the town. The road was wide and paved with small cobblestones. The road went from the north to the south of town, parallel to the big river.

As Alden opened the door and stood in the doorway he looked back at us.

"Come in, the people who will join you on your journey to Alora are waiting for you."

I looked at Zeph with a slight feeling of doubt.

"Is this really a good idea? Who knows how strong these monsters are," I said with a low voice.

Surprisingly, Lucian was the first to start moving towards the door.

"I think it is a bit too late to doubt things now. Let's just get this over with."

Weirdly enough, the show of determination was undermined by the uncertainty that was clearly in his voice. Maybe he sensed that me talking to myself about my doubts would get us nowhere. It could also be my imagination running wild but he did have a point.

Zeph and I looked at each other and started towards the door.

"I hope this doesn't get worse," Zeph said quietly as he noticed I looked a bit flushed.

Ever since this morning I felt a bit weak but didn't think anything of it.

Probably just fatigue. I thought.

As we walked inside the building, we entered a sort of hall with a carriage and 2 horses attached standing ready to depart. The carriage was one of those classic fantasy carts with a white cloth arching over the cart functioning as a roof and an open back and front. There were 5 people next to it that looked like they were waiting for something. Most likely us.

"Coachman! I found a few adventurers who agreed to help protect the transport. Get ready to depart." Alden called out as he walked to the people behind the card.

"That's fabulous Alden, thank you so much. I will be preparing to depart right away," the coachman said with relief in his voice.

"Hey guys, I have a few adventurers here that came from Birchbridge and are recommended by my friend who is a guard there. They will be able to help protect you and fend off any monsters that get near," he said with a stern voice and full of confidence.

I wish I had this guy's confidence. My god. I thought to myself as we all neared the passengers.

"Hello all, My name is Zephyria. This is my brother Zeph and this is Lucian" I said with a cheerful voice. "We will be riding to Alora together with you and if anything happens we will protect you. So don't worry about a thing."

There was a short silence.

Shit, was I overly cheerful? Did I sound way too confident? Say something people.

"Nice to meet you. I am Orin. Thank you for joining us. I hope nothing will happen but I am glad you want to protect us. We are in your care," the man said as he bowed slightly.

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

The other people were just behind him and they bowed as well.

"Thank you, we will be in your care," they said collectively.

A woman came from behind the carriage and walked up to us until she stopped just a meter away.

"Hmmm," she said curiously. "2 battlemages and a healer. That will work just fine," she finished after inspecting us closely.

"Uhm... might I ask what you are doing?" Zeph asked.

She stuck out her hand to Zeph.

"My name is Amber, nice to meet you," she said with a smile and a cheerful voice.

Zeph shook her hand. "Nice to meet you too Amber," he answered hesitantly.

Then, the coachman suddenly called out from his seat.

"We are ready to depart. Please board so we can be on our way!"

"Keep the carriage and the people safe ok? I don't want to get a message of some missing people with your descriptions." Alden said. "I don't want to be bringing Kellan bad news."

"Don't worry Alden, we will be ok." Lucian said as he boarded.

Zeph put his hand on Alden's shoulder.

"Yeah, we will protect them. Don't you worry!"

I smiled at Alden as I was the final passenger climbing on board. As I tried to pull myself up into the carriage I felt a little bit lightheaded and almost fell backward.

"WOW there!" Lucian said as he grabbed my arm, preventing me from falling any further.

"Are you ok?" he said worriedly.

As I pulled myself in and sat down I smiled. "Yeah, don't worry about it. Just missed a step."

Lucian wasn't convinced but he let it rest, though I could feel his gaze on me from time to time.

I really hope we can make it to Alora without any issues. I don't want this trip to take any longer than it needs to be. I thought as we departed.

The carriage started moving after the coachman whipped his reins and the horses started to move. On we went to the south of the city and on to Alora.

— Just outside Stonebridge

"Soooo... Amber was it?" Zeph started.

Amber was an Ignisari just like us and even about the same height as me. She had brown hair that went just past her waist. She had the same color brown eyes and her horns had a copper-ish shine on them with a dark blue ornament at the base just above her hair.

Her armor had a noble vibe to it. She wore a short black dress covered in a long coat that split open on the front from the waist down. 2 large parts of fabric hung down from her waist and covered her sides and back. Her armor had red colors on the outside and white on the inside from her waist and down while her top part was more dark blue and white. There were golden patterns on the edges of the fabrics and her shoulder guards were silver with gold. She finished the look with black high-waist stockings and shoes that were black with gold and high heels.

All in all, she had a fantastic figure and a beautiful face.

Wait, why was I analyzing her in so much detail?

I noticed that Zeph became a bit shy. We never really were in a situation like this. Never really had much contact with other people until after reaching Birchbridge. Now we had another Ignisari woman with us and a beautiful one at that.

No wonder Zeph.... or rather, I, am getting shy. I was never really a hero with girls in my past life, let alone here.

Something felt off though. It almost felt like I was not as much affected by her looks as Zeph was.

Might this be the difference between physically being a woman or a man?

I interrupted Zeph to save myself the trouble of dealing with the shyness. If it didn't affect me as much, let's help out.

"Are you a dark mage by any chance?" I asked looking at her staff.

She looked at me, surprised by my interruption.

"Yeah, I am. Why do you ask?"

"Well, we might be the protection for this carriage but if things were to happen, a bit of help would be appreciated," I replied with sincerity.

Amber smiled and nodded. "Yeah, of course. You can count on me."

"Thank you, Amber." Zeph started. "I mainly focus on close combat while my sister here is the ranged type," Zeph added.

"And for me... well you can probably guess," Lucian laughed.

Amber chuckled and her expression became more relaxed. "You guys are good friends aren't you?"

Before we could answer the carriage suddenly started to shake.

"HOOOOO!!!!" The coachman called out as he tried to get the horses under control.

"What is going on?" Zeph asked quickly and with a loud voice.

"Monsters! There are monsters up ahead!!" he shouted in panic.