Since he went to bed so very early, Terry was up before the sun had even peeked over the horizon. He built a small fire, cooked himself breakfast, and ate all before Kelima showed any signs of life. He amused himself for a while using a heavy string that vaguely resembled twine to play with Dusk before he fed her some pieces of leftover meat from breakfast. By the time he finished with all of that, the sun was at least partially up. He decided that was enough sleep for the teen. After all, she’d invited herself along, so she could work to his schedule. He walked over to her tent. Grinning like a madman, he started slapping the canvas and shouting.

“Time to get up, princess! Wakey! Wakey! Wakey! The Terry Train is about to depart the station with or without you!”

There was a muffled shriek from inside the tent and some telltale noises of the girl thrashing around. Figuring that she probably wasn’t going to get back to sleep after that rude awakening, he went back over to the fire. He saw that the kitten had apparently been watching that turn of events with keen interest. Sitting down, he picked the kitten up and gently stroked her head. The kitten nuzzled his hand for a moment before hopping down to sit in his lap. After a couple of minutes, a very groggy and mostly-dressed Kelima staggered out of her tent. Terry was amused to see that she was only wearing one boot and her hair looked like a brunette bird’s nest. She glared around until her eyes met his.

“What the hell?” she demanded.

“Tick tock. It’s time to get going. Pack up your stuff.”

“It’s barely even morning.”

“Yeah, but we need to go to that nearby town or city or whatever it is, and I want to spend as little time as humanly possible there,” said Terry. “So, we’re going to go early, buy what we need, and leave.”

Kelima looked like she wanted to protest or maybe suggest some alternatives, but it also seemed that her brain just wasn’t up to the task. Instead, she made an inarticulate, aggravated noise, and disappeared back into her tent. While he heard her hurriedly trying to pack up her things, he spent a leisurely few minutes taking down his tent and sipping at a cup of tea. When she noticed him relaxing by the fire while she took down her tent, Terry thought she might start yelling at him.

He immediately started making plans to go to bed early every night and rousting her at ungodly hours. Kelima appeared to be the walking definition of “not a morning person” which would just add to the amusement factor. He did take a little pity on her when she dragged herself and her pack over to the fire. He held out a cup of tea that was still warm if not hot. Her move to take the cup was almost mechanical. There was also nothing in her expression that suggested real thought was happening inside her head. She just stared into the middle distance as she sipped the tea. Terry resisted the urge to mock her. He’d already had some fun at her expense and taking it any further felt a bit like kicking a sleepy puppy.

He let her finish her tea and handed her a piece of fruit to eat. While she ate that, he rinsed out the cups and stored them in his pack. Then, after Dusk crawled inside of it, he shouldered his own pack. He concentrated for a moment and, doing his best to limit its range, used his newly acquired ice magic to snuff out the small campfire.

“Let’s go,” he told her.

She managed to give him a grumpy look that showed her thoughts were finally starting to come back online but dutifully got up. Terry basked in the quiet as they made their way back to the road. He was just certain that it wasn’t going to last. That minor prophecy came true after they’d been walking for about fifteen minutes.

“You didn’t say goodbye to Nari,” observed Kelima.

“Neither did you,” deflected Terry.

“I wasn’t really awake. What was your excuse?”

“She wasn’t awake. Plus, I told her we’d leave early. I don’t think she was expecting me to hang around just to say goodbye.”

“It’s good manners to tell your host that you’re leaving.”

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“She wasn’t our host,” corrected Terry. “I’m her customer. A customer who is about to go off and do something stupid and dangerous at her request. I think she’ll find it in her heart to forgive me. Especially if I come back with what she wants.”

“What does she want?” asked Kelima around a yawn.

“Blacksmith stuff.”

“You don’t say.”

“Shocking, I know. I assumed she’d just want some banana nut muffins and to hear sweet, sweet nothings.”

“I am coming along for this stupid and dangerous thing. Don’t you think I deserve to know what we’re getting into?”

Terry thought it over for a second and said, “Not really.”

“I’ll be risking my life too!”

“You can always go home. Nobody is making you come along. I’m sure your parents will understand if you tell them I was going off to do unreasonably hazardous things.”

“Is it unreasonably hazardous?”

“Oh, it’s definitely going to be unreasonably hazardous.”

“You have to tell me what it is after something like that,” complained Kelima.

“You’re going to discover that I don’t. Take it as a learning experience. Life is a series of disappointments.”

“Well, you’ve certainly been a disappointment.”

Terry thought that she likely meant that to be an insult. However, he took it as a good sign that she was going to get tired of this game sooner than later. Then, he’d be free again. Well, he’d be free-ish. There was the town and the monster army to deal with, but that was a problem for a future Terry who had conquered Wyvern Peak and retrieved some special rocks.

Other-Terry piped up and asked, Are you trying to drive up her blood pressure enough that her head explodes?

Is that possible here?

Of course, it’s not possible, muttered other-Terry in a tone that suggested he was answering a stupid question.

Don’t get snippy. I can make magical death ice come out of my hands here. Is a head exploding from blood pressure really that big a stretch?

Yes, Terry. Yes, it is that big of a stretch. Don’t you think it would have already happened if you could stress detonate someone’s brain cage?

What are you trying to say?

You know exactly what I’m saying.

Recognizing what an entirely fruitless conversational path they were heading down, Terry decided to change the topic.

So, we’re going to have some time on our hands over the next couple of weeks. And I might have to fight a lich or demon or some other hideously powerful thing.

Terry could almost feel the glee radiating off of the disembodied personality that had been lodged inside his consciousness as other-Terry spoke.

Say the words.

I think it’s past time that you started teaching me about what I can do.

Finally! Time to turn you into a homicide vagrant!

Terry shook his head and thought, Don’t you mean murderhobo?

I already told you that’s a stupid word. I refuse to use it. Especially when I’m just having fun by pushing your buttons.

Keep it up and my head might explode.

If anyone deserves it, it’s you.

I take it back. I’ll figure things out on my own.

Other-Terry began laughing maniacally and said, Oh no, merry sunshine. You already said the words. You’re stuck now.

You make it sound like I’ll need a hockey helmet.

Well, it couldn’t hurt, said other-Terry thoughtfully.

Terry shook his head again and ignored the questioning looks that Kelima kept shooting at him. No way was he even going to try to explain the existence of other-Terry. He didn’t even understand it, which meant there was almost zero chance he could explain it in a way that wouldn’t make him sound like a crazy person. Given everything that had happened, he wasn’t entirely convinced that his sanity was intact. Sure, he could still pass for sane in Chinese Period Drama Hell. Except, that wasn’t exactly a high bar in a place where there were wolves the size of horses hunting human beings in the forest, and orcs or man-goat things could randomly attack travelers. Before he could venture too far along that mental rabbit trail, he spotted signs of civilization ahead.

“Okay,” said Terry. “We need to establish some ground rules for how we do things in cities and towns.”

Kelima arched an eyebrow at him and said, “It seems like I should be the one giving you that lecture since you can’t seem to go anywhere without randomly assaulting or insulting people.”

“Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. There’s nothing random about it.”

“Fine. Let’s hear these ground rules.”

“First, you’re not going to announce how you’re a noble. Second, you’re not going to drag me somewhere to engineer a meeting with some other noble. We’re going to go buy food and a few other supplies. We’re not going to do anything else. Those are the ground rules.”

Based on the way Kelima’s face puckered up like she’d just swallowed a lemon whole, Terry figured he must have shot down some plan.

“That anything else you mentioned might not be avoidable.”

“I think it is. And if it isn’t, I’ll blame you entirely for it.”

“What? That’s not fair. You start trouble by yourself all the time. You can’t blame me for that!”

“I totally can. After all, why do you think people like me keep strays around? It’s to blame them for things.”

“I’m not a stray!”

Terry shook his head like he was hearing something tremendously sad and said, “Living in denial is a terrible thing. You should talk to someone about that.”