Lu slept on my lap for a little until my leg fell asleep… I was in pain too, but… It was hard to move, the same feeling you got from a sleeping puppy laying on you.

Airsidh groaned looking at her. “She was really tense the whole time we were there, no wonder she’s worn out.”

‘Right… It has nothing to do with the massive beating she took.’

The carriage suddenly stopped. “What’s–”

Airsidh already had a finger covering his mouth, cutting me off. “Sharpen your ears and stay quiet. Let’s try to take care of the monsters without waking her.”

“Monsters?” ‘like… Real monsters?’

He slowly got up and looked out the window, drawing the shades. “We’re in the mountains, so we're probably dealing with stoneflies or demon goblins…”

I felt myself start to sweat. ‘More demons?’

“Or… Spiders…” He growled. “We're going to have to wake her up…”

The carriage suddenly jolted forward but Airsidh, expecting it, wasn’t thrown off balance at all. He gently nudged Lu, making her start to stir. “Hey, wake up, you’re pretty enough you don’t need any more sleep.”

She groaned, lifting a hand to her head and grabbing a handful of hair. “What’s happening…”

“Monsters…” I said nervously.

She yawned. “Oh, fight time? I’m not complaining, but don’t we have knights for this?”

As if on cue I heard Finlo’s voice, bright as ever, shouting from outside. “Watch and learn newby!”

I paused. “She has a point…” ‘Also… I really don’t feel like fighting again, I’m sore too…’

He rolled his eyes. “We thin them while running then stop and fight them off. If they are riled up they'll find a village if we don’t take care of them. You’re both nobles, aren’t you? Time to act like it.”

‘A surprisingly rousing speech.’ “I never asked to be one you know…” I groaned, opening the door.

“Just get up on the roof and grab your bow.”

Before he even finished speaking I was already halfway up the ladder, and before long all three of us were on the carriage roof getting our weapons out of their cases.

Lu yawned. “Why running, isn’t cowardly?”

Airsidh smiled as he stroked his bowstring, hearing its deep vibration. “It’s called strategy… Unless you're talking to anyone at school, then it’s cowardly and we fought them head on…”

“Mom Said lying bad…” She growled.

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“Lu… You can just talk normally… Please…” ‘It was cute at first… But it’s going to get old eventually…’

Her eyes narrowed slightly as her jaw moved to the side. “Sounds like it’s cowardly…”

He smiled even wider as he drew the first arrow. “No, it’s… Ugh. Siya, come up with something that makes this ok.”

I whipped my bow up and tightened the weight. “I don’t know why not being an idiot is cowardly…” I groaned.

Lu… Pulled out her sword… Making me a bit nervous, readying it like she was about to jump off.

I grabbed her holding her back. “Ehhh! It’s not… In this case… Because…” ‘Ah come on…’ I froze time. ‘It’s cowardly because we aren’t fighting them head-on, we are running away, right? Ok… I think I can swing this.’

“We aren’t running away, we are racing them through the pass, We are both trying to get through the mountains to the village on the other side, we are just winning. As for why we aren’t fighting head-on, it’s because if we wait until the race is over there will be even more of them, so it will be even more of an honorable fight. See.” I pointed to the holes we were running past with spiders crawling out uncomfortably close to us and suddenly shivered. ‘Why can’t we ever just fight like… Butterflies or something…’

Lu put her sword away, sheathing it on her back. “Ok, so Air was just messing with me again.”

“Sure…”

She frowned. “That didn’t sound very convincing…”

Airsidh let out a long groan, “Just grab your bow and start shooting already.” He let loose an arrow that created a wind burst that gave me chills, penetrating through three spiders and causing an impact explosion that took out two more.

‘Do I even need to be here?’

I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand up as my eyes spun in my skull and my ears picked up a faint rush of wind that wasn’t supposed to be there. “Get down!” I yelled, grabbing Lu and covering her with my body. Luckily the spider jumping at us was skewered before it could hit either of us. Zu, who was driving the carriage had slashed its head off, spilling purple blood all over the rooftop. “What do you think of my knightly powers.” He grinned like a dork before turning his eyes back to the road.

“So gross…” Lu said, almost gagging.

“That’s a bit mean isn’t it?”

She slowly kicked the spider's head away, pulling her sword again. “It’s dead, it can’t hear me.”

‘Oh… She meant the spider…’

“Can’t we fight something cute instead, like butterflies?”

I paused for a minute. ‘I’m starting to think we really are twins…’

Another boom came from Airsidhs bow before I suddenly felt myself lift off the ground, curling my legs up like an angry cat before I realized it was Airsidh lifting me up with one hand. “Siya, focus. Take in the whole picture. The fight isn’t over just because one spider died.” He set me down facing the ever-growing hoard. They seemed to only speed up, getting closer with every second.

‘Oh come on…’ “Can I just use magic? No one’s watching.”

“No.”

I groaned. “Fine…” ‘Ok, let’s think. Shooting arrows isn’t going to make a dent in a hoard like that… It would be nice if I could just shoot a rock or something and cause a big rock to squish them.’ I looked around, but there was nothing but rocky hills, certainly no flimsy rock formations I could turn into mudslides.

“Siya…” My brother groaned as he shot another arrow.

“I’m thinking…”

He sighed. “Can’t you think faster?” Another thunderous boom echoed through the canyon taking out several more spiders as I tried to ignore Finlo running his horse parallel to the hoard, laughing and cheering as he sliced through them.

“Hey… So… What if I use a little magic?”

“Still no.” He said calmly as Lu chopped another spide in half, more of them closing in on us.

‘OH COME ON!’

Lu slowly poked the spider with her sword. “Siya! Can you throw this thing over the side?”

“I THOUGHT YOU WEREN’T SCARED OF ANYTHING!” I yelled as the tension started to bleed out of me. “Uh… Sorry…”

She shuddered again, slowly grabbing it and throwing it over the side herself, making a series of priceless faces.

“Siya…” My brother growled again.

“Fine…” I groaned back. “Zu, switch weapons with me for a while.”

Without question, he followed orders, which was nice. ‘Ok, a polearm. I can work with this.’ I stepped up to the side of the carriage. “Firtz!” I yelled. She casually ran up to the side, sprinting so effortlessly it almost looked like she wasn’t even breathing, much less breathing heavily. ‘Yeah, I can work with this.’ “You better catch me!” I yelled before jumping. ‘Not so much a plan as much as me just going at them with an ax… But to be fair it kinda seems like it’s one of those situations that looks a lot worse than it is. I don’t think we really need a plan to get out of this one.’