Chapter 4

Ah another morning waking up to a cool feeling across my body.  Sadly I think this might become a habit, I mean when you are used to being sweety waking up, and instead you have a cooling pack that can keep your whole body at a nice temperature, who wouldn’t want that.  Opening my eyes I can see once again Robin kneeling on top of the sleeping bag, but I also notice that she is a lot closer now then when we went to sleep.  “Morning Robin, sorry about your tail again, it just feels really nice.”  Releasing my personal cooling pack back to its owner, I get up and stretch while thinking what needs to be done before we head out.  “It is fine, if it helps you sleep then that is what matters, also I kind of enjoy it also.”  Hm she enjoys me holding her tail?  Looking down at Robin, I see she is staring at the ground and there is what I believe to be a hint of red in her face.  I wonder if she is too warm because of me holding her tail?  “Well if you say so then I won’t decline the offer.”  Getting the stuff packed back into the bag, I decide there is about three things that we need to do before we head out.  One is refill the water container, two hand out breakfast, which unfortunately will be just granola bars, and three, start teaching Robin a bit of common sense.  Actually now that I think about it maybe she should teach me common sense, actually probably best I strike that last one off the list until I know what is common sense in this world.  I mean Robin has been treated like trash for her whole life, I don’t think she will be a reliable source of common sense.  

After getting everything set we are off towards the city.  I am still practicing my elemental control as we walk along, and I notice something straight away, my control has gotten better.  It’s not a huge jump but it is noticeable.  The ball forms faster in my hand, and feels more solid.  While the walls I was trying to build at each step are no longer just mounds, but instead about one or two in walls.  Hooray for progress, apparently absorption is really helpful in controlling your element.  I can’t wait till I can spend at least a couple of days absorbing elemental power.  

For the last three hours I have been enwrapped in practicing my element control, but as we were walking both Robin and I heard a rustle of the bushes up ahead.  Breaking out of my concentration I stop and watch carefully at where I heard the noise came from, I also was reaching for the flip knife that I had in the side pocket of my backpack.  I quickly look over to Robin to see what she is doing and I notice that she is probably even more tensed up than me.  After about half a minute of staring at the bush, something jumps out.  About eight yards in front of me I see a rabbit with a horn on it's head.  From my side I can hear Robin exhale, seems like this rabbit isn’t too much of a threat from how Robin is responding.  “It is just a Uni-Rabbit, from what I have heard from other clansmen these can be easily killed by almost anyone.”  Oh nice so our first encounter with trouble is as weak as they come.  That really had me on edge, I guess I need to get used to this if I want to live in this world now.  “Hey Robin let me try and handle the rabbit by myself.  I will need to learn how to fight if I want to survive, right?”  Robin took a couple steps back and moves behind me, seems like she is all for me fight huh.  With the knife in my right hand I slowly step towards the rabbit.  When I am about three yards away from it, the rabbit jumps at me horn first at about chest level.  Not expecting it to be able to jump that high all I could do what try to jump out of the way.  Unfortunately the rabbit’s horn gouged out a good piece of my side as he passed by me.  It hurts a quite a bit, but I can’t let it throw off my focus.  Now that I know the rabbits jump height I can try something that should work.  I stand still for about twenty seconds, luckily the rabbit just stares at me for the entire time.  Finally I am ready, I start to move slowly towards the rabbit and once I get about three yards away again it jumps at me.  This time I am ready and move away with room to spare.  Unfortunately for the rabbit it fell into my trap, behind me I created a foot tall wall.  With it’s horn leading the way the rabbit impales the wall behind me, leaving it stuck helpless in the air.  With a quick stab to the spine of the rabbit I kill it.  Truthfully this is not my first time killing wildlife, actually it was my ability to kill wildlife that saved me a couple of times in the wilderness.  Taking out some rope I string the rabbit up and slit its throat to drain the blood.  The meat should be pretty nice if these Uni-Rabbit taste anything like rabbits back on ‘Earth’.  “Hey Robin can you get some wood again I want to cook the rabbit and have it for lunch.”  A small nod heads my way and off Robin goes to fetch some wood.  Once the blood stops draining I start to butcher it trying to get as much meat as I can.  This will really help us from running out of food.  Robin comes back with a good amount of wood and starts her fire again.  As I am getting some rabbit meat skewers ready Robin comes over and sits by my side.  “Would you like me to heal that?”  Robin points at the wound on my side, I guess I kind of forgot about, seeing as it isn’t a big deal.  Though it will be nice not having to look after and making sure it doesn’t get infected.  “It you would please.”  Lifting my shirt so Robin can have better access to the wound, it sucks that one of my favorite shirts now has a rip in it.  

Robin proceeds to place her hands a couple inches away from the wound and then her hands start to glow, same as when she healed her own wound.  I started to feel a small tug on the area of the wound, but then it started to feel really good.  Sitting there for a couple of seconds enjoying the feeling I take a look at Robin who is concentrating on the healing.  I guess I should probably start realizing the situation I am in, and be a bit more serious about this.  I have travelled in so many forest that I have started to become too relaxed.  Luckily it was only a rabbit, but next time it could be something far more dangerous.  I don’t know how strong Robin is really, but it would be nice if we could get strong together.  “All done, you should not feel any pain now.”  Robin stated as the light from her hands disappeared, and breaking me out of my thought process.  “Hey Robin, I am happy you came with me.  I just wanted you to know that.”  Ah I feel like that sounded really stupid.  I know I am not good at this emotion stuff, considering I have had literally zero friends the past 7 years of my life.  “Thank you, I am also happy I came with you.”  Well that’s nice to hear at least I am not hated by her for taking her out of her village.  Though she could look at me while she is saying that, I mean is the sky really that interesting?  Well whatever, the meat should be cooked by now.

After having the rabbit meat for lunch which the atmosphere felt even quieter than usual, we are off again.  We walked for about another 5 hours, and during that time a couple of things happened.  One I was able to start a small conversation about food with Robin, and I learned that the rabbit meat was the first meat she has had in the last fifteen years.  That is super sad!  Like the saddest thing I have probably ever heard of, I can’t imagine going without meat for a week let alone fifteen years.  Meat is the substance of life, and provides you with the power to keep moving forward.  The second thing that happened is we ran into more Uni-rabbits.  It was only two rabbits, so I decided that I could take them, but Robin asked if she could fight one.  Of course I let her, especially because she asked.  If I declined one of her first couple requests, I feel like I would be stopping any progress she is having to becoming more normal.  I took out my rabbit the same way I did earlier, this time on the first try and without getting a wound.  I also got to see how Robin fought, which was pretty cool if I had to say.  She just stood there for a couple of seconds then raised her hand with a puddle of water on her palm.  Then the puddle turned to ice and shot out towards the rabbit, and before it could even move the ice shard pierced right through it's head.  She just fucking launched an ice shard through a rabbit's head!  How cool is that?  I feel like I shouldn’t be amazed by the elemental things Robin can do now, but that was too cool.  Anyways I also skinned the two rabbits and have their meat inside a plastic baggy, which was originally meant for carrying toilet paper in.  Now that I think about it I am surprised I haven’t had to go to the bathroom the whole time I have been here.  I would like to ask Robin about it, but I don’t really know a good way to ask her why I haven’t been shitting lately.  Kind of seems like a bad chit chat topic.  

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

As for why we have stopped after making it so far, well we somehow stumbled upon a few corpses of what I believe to be goblins.  At Least from the description I have read before I think that I would classify these as goblins.  About two and a half feet tall green skinned ugly looking with pointed ears, yep they got all the characteristics.  “Hey Robin these guys wouldn’t happen to be goblins would they?”  After a couple of seconds I still don’t hear any response from Robin, so I glance over at her and see that she is staring down the goblin corpse.  “Hey Robin what's up, you know something about these guys?”  I asked Robin a bit louder to break her out of her trance.  Robin quickly looks at me then back to the corpses, “No, I have only ever seen lizardmen, humans, and some forest wildlife.  I have never seen this creature before, they are so different.”  Ah so that's what it is I guess this is her first time seeing something so new, I mean it's mine also but I have read enough books and was already surprised enough with the lizardmen to be surprised by a goblin.  “I am sure we are going to see many new and amazing things, but for now let’s see if we can scavenge anything off the bodies.”  I can already see what looks like a makeshift shield and club on the ground but nothing much else.  I walk over towards the corpses and remove the shield that was still on one of the goblins arms.  It really is shitty, I think makeshift is almost too nice of a word for the shield.  I hear Robin come up behind me and start looking around the goblin corpses.  I don’t think the club will come in too handy, and truthfully I think with a couple more days of practice and absorption I will be able to make a club of earth.  For now I will stick with my knife and this shield, “Hey Robin do you want this club?”  Maybe it could be useful for her, though I doubt it, I mean she can wield her element pretty nicely.  “No it would only burden me.”  Ya thought so, welp doesn’t look like there is much else here, shame.  Getting up I look over towards Robin who seems to be carrying a small bag in her hands.  “What have you got there Robin?”  She opens the bag to show me a pretty green rock, “I don’t know.”  Hmm well hopefully someone in the city will know, could potentially get us some money as I don’t think I could sell this shield for a dime.  Taking the small bag from Robin I put it inside my backpack and set the shield onto my arm.  “No use hanging around, you ready to get moving again?” and with a nod of the head we are off once more.

After about three more hours of walking we finally break out of the trees, in front of us is a lot of open space with some small house scattered across the land, I am pretty sure these are farms.  I still don’t see a city, but there is at least obvious signs of civilization.  Though the sun is setting now and I don’t think we can make it to the city before it gets dark so it's probably get to camp here instead of intruding on others property.  “Hey Robin we are going to set up camp here, you good to do firewood duty or do you want me to do it?”  Before I can even finish my sentence I can see Robin heading back into the woods, for what I am guessing is gather some wood.  Getting the rabbit meat ready, Robin comes back with the firewood and does her thing.  After another filling meal I find a good place to lay down the bags and also a good place to do some absorbing.  As I am laying down on the dirt and about to start my absorbing I hear Robin lay down next to me.  I guess she decided to absorb earth elemental power today.  After about two hours of exhausting element absorption I call it quits and head to bed.  I am excited to see more inhabitants of this world tomorrow.

When the sun hits my face I am woken up by the smell of grass and a soft breeze.  My cooling tail was working wonders as usual, and today I decided to just thank Robin instead of apologizing, I mean she has already given me her permission, no reason to feel bad about it.  With a thank from me, and a quick you’re welcome from Robin we start our day.  We pack up the bag, and I hand out some more breakfast, I have only enough granola bars for one more breakfast, so it's a good thing we are reaching the city soon.  I am also starting to feel the affects of not showering or doing any hygienics for the last three days.  While I have easily gone longer than three days of not showering, it still builds on me.  I really hope they have some kind of showering system in the city.  “Hey Robin you ready to finally reach the city?”  Hopefully Robin is excited as I am, truthfully I am usually against going into really populated areas, but it's a new world, how couldn’t I get excited.  Looking over at Robin, I see her staring towards our destination, “Yes.”  Was all I got from her, but she looked like she has resolved herself for something, maybe she expects everyone in the city to treat her like trash.  I really hope not, I would like to believe that are time spent together so far has shown her that at least not everyone will treat her like that.  

It didn’t take us long til we found a dirt road to walk on, and started to see more houses and people, at least I believe they were people.  From what I could tell I have seen a centaur, a dog person, and a lamia.  The lamia really freaked me out because at first I thought a normal person passed me, but then their giant tail came into my vision.  The tail was like eight feet long and as round as a big log, I mean how do they even fit in most places.  I at least thought all the farmers were normal, until I got a bit closer look and realized they had stitch marks all over their body.  I now believe they are zombies, actually kind of like a zombie/Frankenstein’s monster mash-up,but apparently instead of eating brains they do farm work.  I  mean whatever gets the job done.  

As I was thinking that I spotted a large grey wall coming into my view, and as we continued walking it only got bigger.  After about two hours since we started walking this morning, a large gate on the even larger grey wall was seen.  To elaborate on the city itself, From what I can see from here, there is a castle on top of a hill area.  That is about it, as I said the wall is pretty huge, probably about hundred yards tall.  In front of the gate was a line of people, and my guess is that is where we need to go to get inside.  Robin and I got in line and waited our turn, while we were waiting I was trying to look at all the different races I was seeing.  I have counted at least ten different races so far.  There is only about thirty people in the line so it's a pretty high amount that aren’t humans.  While my head is spinning with all the new and amazing things I am seeing, we apparently made it to the front of the line already.  Robin tapping me on my shoulder brings me back to reality, and I step up to the guard, who to my surprise is a lizardmen without any human like features.  “Hello, my name is John and I am a traveller.  I arrived in this world, and was told my the dragon clan that I could find a city here.  Is there any way me and my companion can get in?”  Hopefully me being a traveller will help me out here, as it seemed to help when I was in the lizardmen village.  The guard stares at me for a second then looks over his shoulder towards another guard and starts yelling, “Hey fresh shit get the captain.”  Wait the captain is that good or bad?  Oh man I really hope it’s good.