As we walked back to my village Ryuji kept relatively quiet. The silence between us was occasionally broken whenever he asked questions about my life or the village, but I tried to keep my answers as short and direct as possible, without seeming unfriendly.

Even though it seemed like a normal conversation on the surface, it was exhausting to keep my emotions hidden and not break out into tears. I didn’t practice my magic too far away from my village, barely at the edge of the forest, but it felt like we’d been walking for hours, even if I logically knew that it was only about ten minutes away.

When I finally saw the familiar buildings against the horizon, I nearly cried out in relief.

“There’s the village, Ryuji,” I said, still getting used to the unfamiliar pronunciation of his name.

It took a second for him to reply.

“Oh yeah, you were talking to me,” he said. “I’m Ryuji.”

I turned around to face him, a little confused when I saw the giddy smile on his face.

“That’s my village,” I repeated, pointing. “It might not look like much, but we have all the essential businesses to cater to anybody that might travel to our village. There’s a tavern you can eat and drink at, and a general goods store that can sell you maps, like I mentioned.”

“Hmm,” Ryuji said. “Does the tavern also have rooms I can stay at?”

I paled at the thought of an Otherworlder staying in my village, but nodded. Be friendly. “It does,” I said. “But not many people actually stay there. I’ve heard that it’s pretty expensive while being pretty cheap in quality.”

I apologized internally to Alec, whose family owned that tavern. I knew they worked hard at delivering the highest quality service they could, but I was doing them a favour, really.

“Then is there anywhere else I could stay?” he asked. “What about your house?”

It was a testament to my survival instincts that I didn’t burst out into tears.

“Excuse me?” I said instead, hoping I’d heard wrong.

“I’d need a place to stay,” he said. “At least until I can get an idea of where I want to head next. As long as it’s not a bother.”

It was a bother. More than that actually.

“As much as I’d love for you to stay, I’m sorry. My dad wouldn’t approve of me bringing a boy over.”

Once again, my quick mouth spouted out the first thing it could think of, but I was surprised by how reasonable this claim was. My dad wasn’t the type of guy to try and control my life, but I doubt he would be happy if I ever tried to convince him to have a boy stay over, especially if it was a stranger, and doubly especially if it was an Otherworlder that could annihilate the village with a single thought. I had been too scared to check, but I doubted Ryuji had even broken a sweat after casting that absurd excuse of a simple fireball spell.

“Oh,” Ryuji said. “That makes sense. I guess it would be hard to trust your daughter with some guy you’ve never met. At least not until he’s proven himself.”

I’m not entirely sure Ryuji meant for me to hear that. From the way he was mumbling, it seemed like he was talking more to himself than anything. So like always, I ignored him.

“And here we are! At the wonderful village of Plainswood!” I said, raising my arms and pointing at the array of small buildings that crowded the main road. We were still far enough from the village that the people milling around the main street didn’t seem to notice us, but we were close enough that I could recognize their faces.

I desperately glared at them, hoping that some of them would notice the desperate fear on my face and help me out.

None did. I’d never felt so betrayed before.

“So,” I said. “What do you think?”

“Weird name, but it looks nice,” he said. “Very medieval.”

Once again, I ignored the word I didn’t recognize. “I’m glad you like it,” I said, assuming it was a compliment. “The name’s just because we live right in between the forest and plains lands. Nobody really cared when they were making the village. I’ve been living here my whole life, so it’s just normal for me.”

“Is that so?” Ryuji asked. I couldn’t tell what expression he had on his face, but I could tell he was thinking hard about something, from the inflection of his voice. “I could see how you could get tired of living in such a small community after a while.”

I don’t know how he came to that conclusion from what he said, but I just smiled and nodded, not wanting to disagree with a boy who could potentially kill me in the blink of an eye. “Yeah, I guess so,” I said. “Lots of people my age do end up going to the city to get better jobs.”

“The city, huh,” Ryuji mused. “What’s it like over there?”

My eyes widened, sensing a way out. I was already trying to figure out a way to get Ryuji to go to the city and meet with a Crown official who was trained to deal with Otherworlder arrivals. If Ryuji wanted to go to the city naturally, that would be the best possible outcome I could hope for.

“Oh it’s wonderful! There’s so much to do in the city! Good food, good entertainment, and… lots of things to do.” I was slowly realizing that I didn’t actually know much about what the city was like. I hadn’t strayed too far from home and had no real interest in leaving, so I’d never bothered to try and figure out what it was like outside of it. “I’ve always wanted to go there. In fact, it’s been my lifelong dream!” I said instead, trying to make up for my lack of knowledge with enthusiastic lying.

“I see,” he said. The comment was so casual that I had trouble understanding why it sent a shiver down my spine.

There was another one of those long pauses I was becoming so accustomed to. I knew that I should say something, to stop Ryuji from thinking I was being rude to him, but for whatever reason I couldn’t stop myself from grinding my teeth together in dread, even if I could understand why I was doing it.

I opened my mouth to try and say something, but a miracle happened and I ended up not having to.

“Hey Lena!”

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I look up to see a familiar face staring at me. Bran, the Sherriff’s son, was leaning against a small post in the ground meant for hitching donkeys to. He gave me a casual wave and a smile, though it seemed to falter the closer I walked. I watched his eyes search my face and with a start, I realized that I wasn’t smiling anymore. Quickly as possible, I gave him a shaky grin and a smile.

“Hey Bran,” I said, waving back at him. “How’s it going?”

By now, Bran was frowning. Pushing himself up, he started to walk over to me.

“Hey Lena,” he said cautiously. “You doing alright? You look like shit.”

I winced, but was suddenly grateful that I’d had my back to Ryuji for our entire walk. Bran was a decent guy, but pretty dense. If he could tell how close I was to pissing myself with fear, I was glad that I had hidden my face from Ryuji.

“I’m fine,” I said, hoping that at least my voice wouldn’t betray me.

“Who’s your friend?” he asked, cocking a chin towards Ryuji. I paled quickly at his casual disrespect for the Otherworlder, but quickly realized he had no idea what he was dealing with.

“Oh that’s my friend, Ryuji. Ryuji, this is Bran, my childhood friend,” I said, walking forward to grab Bran’s shoulder in a vice grip. He winced, but I quickly put a finger to my lips. Hiding the motion from Ryuji with my body. “I’ll introduce you two some more in a second, but I got to talk to you about something I saw in the forest. Ryuji, could you wait here a second while I talk to Bran?”

I smiled at Ryuji, but paled slightly when I saw a slight frown on his face. “Alright,” he said.

I nodded at him and tried to drag Bran away as fast as I could, but he held firm. Not wanting to waste any time, I discreetly punched him in the side.

Bran winced and looked down at me. “Hey, what the-”

I cut him off with a violent yank on the arm before he could continue.

We still weren’t close enough to the village to have any buildings to hide behind quickly, so I just dragged him far away enough for us to be out of earshot at long as we were whispering.

“Lena,” Bran immediately said once we stopped. “Is that guy bothering you? Should I get my dad?”

I gripped his other arm and looked up at him. He was about a foot taller than I was, and probably about twice my weight, but the look in my eyes must have put him on edge because he tried to lean away from me.

“Lena,” he said. “What the f-”

“Bran,” I said, cutting him off and gripping him even tighter. “I need you to shut the fuck up, and listen to me. And listen to me well. That guy is not bothering me. And he isn’t bothering you. In fact, he shits rainbows and sunshine as far as anyone in this town is concerned, because if we don’t treat him like the fucking king, we die.”

My voice was getting raspy from the harsh whispering, and the breath I took felt harsh against my throat, but I spoke anyways.

“That guy,” I said, motioning my head towards Ryuji. “Is an Otherworlder.”

Bran wasn’t having the reaction I was hoping for. I was hoping for him to suddenly pale with the realization at what he’d done, but still be calm enough to nod and listen to what I had to say. I was hoping for him to do his job as the Sherrif-in-training and help me help him get us through the biggest crisis our village had ever faced.

What I didn’t hope for, was for his face to go completely blank and for him to sigh wearily.

“Goddammit, Lena,” he said. “I thought we agreed to stop with the prank war last year. I can’t be doing this now that dad actually started treating me seriously. Who is that guy, anyway? Some bored kid from Oakwood?”

I paled. At this point, I would be surprised if my skin wasn’t completely transparent. “I’m not joking, Bran,” I said. “I’ve never been this serious in my life.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he said, reaching over and peeling my fingers off his arms with a surprising amount of ease. I tried to grab him again, but he was a warrior. Even though his father only started to seriously train him for the Deputy Sheriff position last year, Bran had been training his swordsmanship ever since he could walk. With his superior strength, he was easily able to grab my wrists and stop me from grabbing at him. “You’re gonna really scare someone if you keep acting like this. We’ve already got Old Fran running her mouth about the supposed Demon she saw in the forest. We don’t need another baseless rumour floating around and scaring the kids. We can say you won the prank war so why don’t we just drop it, okay?”

My mind flashed with panic at the idea that he wouldn’t take me seriously. “Please, Bran,” I begged. “You have to believe me.”

He looked at me, his eyes narrowing.

“Gods, Lena,” he said. “Are you crying?”

I blinked, suddenly aware of the fact that my cheeks felt a little cold. I recoiled in surprise, trying to retreat so I could discretely wipe them away, but Bran still had a grip on my wrists and wasn’t letting go.

“You’re serious?” he said, the casual humour in expression slowly melting away.

I nodded frantically, allowing myself to feel some hope. I wasn’t sure if he believed me completely yet, but I was getting to him. I couldn’t even help but be mad at myself for crying like a child if it got these results.

“Yes!” I hissed. “I’m telling you I saw him fall from the-”

It was something in Bran’s expression that made me stop talking. The way his eyes darted up and widened in shock. He let go of my wrists and took a step back, his hand falling to his side where a short sword rested in a scabbard at his waist. I don’t know if he intended to draw it, or if it was just a reflexive action, but he never got the chance as Ryuji suddenly appeared in front of him, faster than my eyes could register.

Bran froze. He was slightly taller than Ryuji was and twice as thick, but he stood in place, unable to move.

Ryuji casually stepped sideways to stand directly in between me and Bran.

“I will never allow a beautiful girl to be hurt in front of me.”

I blinked twice, unable to believe what I was hearing.

Before I could gather my thoughts, Ryuji turned around to face me.

“Lena,” he said. “Are you alright?”

As his eyes scanned my face, I grew suddenly aware of the fact that I wasn’t smiling. I quickly fixed that, but a brisk wind chilled my damp face, reminding me of the tears that were still there.

“Y-yeah,” I said, quickly wiping my eyes. “I’m good.”

Ryuji’s eyes softened and reached a hand out. I froze, unable to draw away as his finger got closer to my face. When he touched my cheek and smeared one of my tears messily across my face, I just wanted to cry even harder.

“It’s okay,” he said. “He can’t hurt you anymore.”

I had no idea what was going on. So I smiled.

“Um!” Bran shouted, a little too loud and panicked than what could be considered normal. “Excuse me! I just want to make it clear that I wasn’t doing anything bad.”

Ryuji’s head whipped around to stare back at Bran. Bran’s eyes shifted down to meet mine, and I could see from the panic in his eyes that he believed me now. I guess seeing Ryuji teleporting so casually made it easier to believe my story than my tears did.

“Really?” Ryuji asked. “So you’re telling me that you didn’t make Lena cry?”

“No!” Bran shouted, then winced when he seemed to realize that the evidence seemed to be stacked against him. “I mean, yes! But that wasn’t because I’m a bad guy or anything. I’m a good friendly guy! I’m also very uninteresting and naïve!”

Very subtle, Bran.

“Would a good guy harass a girl and make her cry?” Ryuji asked.

“No!” Bran shouted. I think he meant to deny the fact that he made me cry, but his shout was just kind of nonsensical instead.

I internally screamed when I saw Bran still had his hand on his sword. I assumed he believed that Ryuji was an Otherworlder at this point, but I think the placement of his hand might have been a subconscious attempt at reassuring himself, like a weapon-shaped security blanket. Unfortunately, if Ryuji saw that as a threat, I was afraid of what might happen.

Ryuji wasn’t looking at me, so I tried to motion to Bran to take his hand off his sword. It was very crude sign language, but even if he could have interpreted it, Bran was unfortunately too focused on his potentially impending death to actually notice my movements.

Ryuji stepped forward. Bran stepped back.

Ryuji stepped forward, and lifted a hand into the air. While Bran flinched at the movement, he didn’t immediately piss his pants so I had to assume he didn’t understand it for the threat that it was. As someone who witnessed him casually shoot a pillar of fire into the sky without even trying, I was glad that my own bladder wasn’t full.

I motioned to Bran again, but gave up, seeing his eyes locked with the Otherworlder’s. Bran’s hand twitched, possibly as a nervous tick or as a reflex, and Ryuji noticed, shifting forward slightly and extending his arm.

Bran was kind of an ass at times, but he was my friend. Honestly, if I was being rational, I didn’t like him enough to give up my own life for him, but it seemed that my mind worked strangely under stress.

I tried to grab Ryuji’s arm to point it to the sky, but my legs buckled underneath me as I lunged forward, making me crash into his back instead. On instinct, I grabbed on to whatever I could to stop myself from falling, but froze when I realized exactly what I was grabbing.

Oh shit. I was grappling an Otherworlder. I was so dead.