On a road to a city, a few hours ago…
Greaves points to the lights in the distance down the hill, no more than two hours of travel away.
「See! There's the city! Why do we need to stop here, when we can get an inn!? Nothing is going to happen!」
Greaves shouts at the party, the last beams of the sunlight flicker out across the vast landscape.
「Greaves, I already explained this to you. Lian is right-」
Will speaks with clear frustration in his voice, but Lian interrupts him.
「No, Will. Your friend is right. Most likely, nothing will happen.」
Snap! Clunkclunk!
Lian says, then snaps a thick branch over her knee. She throws it into the pile of wood forming an unlit campfire.
「See!?」
Greaves crosses his arms with a smug, victorious grin.
「But…」
Snap! Clunkclunk!
Will adjusts his glasses and furrows his brows, surprised by her strength, as she breaks another branch thicker than the last.
「He is right. Most likely, nothing will happen. We could go the rest of the way in the dark, and we would simply get to the city. But…」
Snap! Clunkclunk!
「Hmpf. Is nothing happen when you try this another 10 times? 20? 40? 80?」
She breaks another branch with a quiet grunt, as she puts more force into it. Alicia is kneeling on the ground and setting the thrown branches into a neat cone. She glances at Lian with awe in eyes, when she's about to break another branch.
Snap! Clunkclunk!
「That should be enough, right? Could you, Will? Anyhow…」
「Ah, yes…」
Lian sits down next to Alicia, and hugs her spear. Will nods and mutters out a short incantation under his breath, then snaps his fingers at the wood pile. A small spark flies out from his thumb. When it touches the sticks, a little flame pours down the broken branches, quickly setting them ablaze and lighting the darkness up. Greaves refuses to sit down, still crossing his arms and standing over everyone.
「…That is mighty convenient.」
「Thank you…」
Will adjusts his glasses again when Lian praises him with a smile, while the flames dance away.
「As I was saying… 99 times you will be correct. Nothing will happen. But then on the 100th time, you and you friends will die. In a stupid, and preventable way.」
She looks at Greaves with a serious expression, there is no sarcasm or jest in the tone of her voice.
「Tsk. As if.」
Greaves clicks his tongue and looks away at the distant city lights.
「Greaves, listen to Lian already! She knows what she's saying! Sit your stubborn ass down already!」
Will shouts at Greaves and points at an empty spot across the campfire.
「Hmpf. Fine, if you're that scared of the dark, I'm just going to sleep.」
Greaves lays down next to the fire and turns his back to the flame, away from Will.
「Ah, I'd like to sleep for a little while too, if that's okay…」
Alicia chimes in, meekly stating her wish. Will nods.
「It's okay Alicia, go sleep. We need you well rested in case something happens.」
「Yeah, and you keep watch, Will. In case your new girlfriend is out to kill us.」
Greaves peeks over his shoulder at Will, who immediately scowls.
「Greaves! How dare you!」
Greaves snickers while Will yells at him. Lian lowers her head and starts quietly chuckling as well. Half an hour later, Greaves and Alicia are already fast asleep. Lian scoots closer to Will.
「So, how long have you been learning magic?」
She asks, resting her head on the shaft of her spear as she looks at Will. He adjusts his glasses and keeps staring at the fire.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
「About 10 years, give or take. A mage stopped by our village once. He gave me his old spellbook.」
「And you learned everything all on your own?」
Will glances at Lian, the glint of the campfire's light reflects off her dark eyes at him. She smiles gently, looking at him with a tilted head, still loosely hugging her spear.
「…It's not that impressive. If anything, I'm learning really slow. I've been at it for 10 years, and I only know a few spells. Alicia is a self-taught healer too.」
Will talks quietly, with his eyes on Alicia sleeping next to Greaves. Lian looks at the rest of the party with him.
「Really? How did that happen?」
「Her grandmother was a healer too. Greaves did a stupid something as a kid, I ended up breaking my leg after I fell off a tree. Greaves felt bad about it, so he broke his hand with a hammer…」
「That's… Pretty extreme.」
Lian's eyebrows rise a little.
「Yeah… He was like, 「Look Will! Now we're even, right?」 and stuff, with eyes full of tears. Greaves is really bad at owning up to his mistakes. But that doesn't mean he doesn't feel bad about them.」
Will spreads his hands and shrugs.
「Either way, Alicia spent a few nights learning the simplest spell from her grandmother's tome of healing magic. It took her a few days to heal us. I guess it was early live practice.」
A brief silence occurs.
「Look, sorry about earlier… I still haven't properly thanked you for the help.」
Will breaks the silence and adjusts his glasses again. Lian shifts around and tilts her head, taking a better look at his face. Will's eyes shift away, as Lian's face angles more and more.
「Earlier?」
「About what Greaves said. He has a big mouth and no manners, and-」
Will notices something glimmer below his chin, and he leans back a little on instinct. Without moving his head, he looks at it. Cold sweat chills his back as he sees Lian's sharp spearhead, ready to slash his neck open. Her dark, almond-shaped eyes lock with his, and she smirks a little.
「Your friend is right. You shouldn't trust just about anyone. There are plenty of people who will exploit trust, or even put themselves in a situation where they can coax some out of you. And all of it will serve only to kill you, or enslave you.」
Lian says, as she and Will keep staring each other in the eyes. Will gulps.
「The only people you can trust are from your clan. Anyone else can turn on you at a moment's notice.」
She pulls her spear away and wraps her arms around it again, hugging it in a loose grip. Will exhales with relief, and wipes his forehead with his knuckles.
「You said clan… Isn't that just another word for family?」
Will looks directly at the spearwoman. Her silky black ponytail slides off her back and dandles loosely, as she tilts her head the other way and looks up at the night sky.
「Clan, family… It does mean the same thing, but when I say clan, I mean the clans of my land. You can think of those as a larger, tightly-knit extended family.」
「You sound like you have some bad experiences with people… I'm sorry if I'm assuming things, I don't know what's it like in your kingdom.」
「Ah, we have no king, so to say. It's just clans at peace and clans at war. Usually when someone from another clan comes before your clan, it's a declaration of war or an attempt at deceit.」
「That can't be true. That sounds like nobody ever interacts with anybody else, because it's just too risky.」
「And that's exactly how it is. Human memory is short, and deceit works best when bad memories fade.」
Will adjusts his glasses again, shifts around, and straightens out.
「Where are you from then, Lian? I have never heard of a place like that. It sounds incredibly harsh.」
「Ah, of course you wouldn't have heard of it. I come from a chain of small islands. The weather there is very often terrible and the islands are shrouded in fog more often than not. Beasts are rampant outside of the clan fortresses. The smaller clans live in hiding, or pray for good fortune to survive, until they can garner enough power to not live as slaves under another clan.」
「…As slaves? Still, I don't understand why I haven't heard of your people. Someone must have traveled there and written accounts of the place.」
「Why, that's because we're usually slaughtering, kidnapping and enslaving yours.」
「What!?」
Will almost wakes Alicia as he exclaims in shock. Lian simply smirks, very smug as she rests her head on her spear shaft.