“Surmaer.”
“Yep?”
“Why did I tell you to go into the forest?”
“To get some shelf mushrooms to have for dinner?”
“And did you get the mushrooms?”
“Yes.”
“So why is there a girl on the table as well, I did not ask you to get that.”
Surmaer took another look at the foreign girl currently laying on their dining table, a basket of shelf mushrooms laying buy her head of straight black hair.
Surmaer shrugged, curly brown hair bobbing with her. “I swear she was alive a couple hours ago.”
Her mother closed her blue eyes, slowly taking a breath before opening her eyes once more. “But WHY is she still on our table?”
“I was tired.”
Allendira watched as Surmaer took another bite of torligette, a bit of sauce getting on her chin as she slurped up the noodles. Her daughter had a habit of picking things she thought was interesting, but this was just too much.
“Also if she ended up being a noble I thought it would be good to keep her body just incase someone or something came, get a reward and all that.”
Allendria takes a closer look at the corpse on her table. She was probably around her daughter’s age, thirteen or fourteen years old. Pale and unmarked skin adorn the soft features of the girl’s face, and while the clothes she wore were simple they were better quality than anything any commoner should have. Most noticeable was the ring on her finger, a thin silver band embedded in an obsidian ring.
She would have to relent to her daughter on this one.
“Hmm, fine. If after two days no one comes looking, chuck her back into the forest.”
She could see the way her daughter’s mouth twisted in disagreement with the statement but simply continued.
“For now just put her in your brother’s room-”
“Woah!” Surmaer spat, mouth still full of food. “Ware nhaot phuttin’,” she pauses at her mother’s disapproving glare, and speedily chews before swallowing. “We’re not putting a body in Ronin’s room.”
“It’ll just be for two days, besides, he’s not even using it right now.”
“But still!”
Allendria sighs, giving a quick roll of her eyes before fixing her thirteen year old daughter with a pointed look, “Just put her in there, it’s not like we can put her in the pantry.”
“Oh yes we can!”
“I’d chuck you to the bears before I’d let a rotting human corpse into my pantry.”
“I’d rather just put the body back where I found it, then!”
Allendria gives her a motherly smile.
***
Whatever good she saw in the idea of carrying the noble-like girl back home was non-existent now, her legs burning with each step over the uneven terrain of the forest, cold, stiff, pulseless arm slung over each shoulder, her crossbow hanging on her hip constantly, annoyingly, smacking into her leg with any movement.
There was definitely going to be a bruise there by the end of the day.
“But can’t we just take her to the church?!”
Surmaer meets her mother’s look of disapproval with her own.
“Surmaer, you KNOW what’s been going on, you’ve also read Ronin’s letters. It’s best to just leave things as they were before and try not to draw attention to ourselves.”
“But that’s just so-!”
“I know,” Allendria snaps, “Just put her back.”
Surmaer snapped out of her thoughts as she spotted the rusted red of the sword the girl had with her before she found her.
It wasn’t a very good looking sword, the blade covered in rust, the guard looked crude, and the handle was wrapped poorly in scrappy leather. The only interesting part of it all was the gem in the hilt, the multicolored stone glittlered in the light.
But she wasn’t here to look at pretty rocks.
Surmaer gently placed the girl down, the body already starting to stiffen up. She lies her on her back, picking up the sword and placing it on the body, setting the arms on top of the handle.
“Welp, it was nice knowing ya.” Her unsteady attitude reflected in her voice. “Thanks for the memories and all the leg cramps. May death be your next big adventure. Bye now.”
She turned on her heel and started to walk away.
The sudden grunt coming from behind, however, made her freeze.
It was like a trickle of cold water went down her spine. Some part of her wanted her to stay absolutely still, but another rioted against the decision.
Move or not to move?
Finally, she turned around, sucking in a sharp inhale at the now open eyes staring at her.
Then the mouth opened up.
Surmaer grabbed her crossbow.
***
Allendria could only stare when she saw the new addition to her dining table.
“Surmaer.”
“Yeah?”
“Why did I tell you to go into the forest?”
“To get some cinderberries and mint?”
“And did you get the cinderberries and mint?”
“Yes.”
“Okay….. but why is the dead girl back at the table, wha- why would you bring it back-”
“Well I mean she’s alive Now!” Surmaer huffs.
“At least I now know where you’ve been sneaking out to these past couple of days,” Allendria hums, thinking of her daughter’s recent dodgy behavior. She sighs helplessly, “And you even gave it our oatmeal.”
The girl in question was currently glancing back and forth between the two nervously, a bowl of said hot oatmeal sitting in front of her.
Allendria pursed her lips, gaze zeroing on the sheathed sword on the girl’s hip. She sits down at the dining table, her own bowl of oats in hand.
There was a slight tension in the air, the steady clinking of spoons against bowls wasn’t the only sound, but it was the loudest. The only one who didn’t seem affected was Surmaer, happily wolfing down her breakfast.
It was only until Allendria’s hunger was mostly sated did she break the silence.
“So, where are you from?” she asks, taking in the sight of the meek expression on the girl’s face.
Surmaer’s ears perk up and she quickly rushes to answer. “Uh, mom, so here’s the thing.” She shares a glance with the girl, “She doesn’t really speak.”
Allendria could only raise an eyebrow at that. “You mean she’s mute?”
“Uh, no, I mean she doesn’t know Revirian.”
“Oh, she speaks Adlun then.”
“No”
“What?? Then where exactly is she from?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted, “She can’t exactly tell us right now.”
Another silence falls over the table, Surmaer keeping a firm gaze with her oatmeal, Allendria alternating between watching her daughter and watching the girl, who was content with looking at everything except the mother.
“You know she can’t stay here.”
“What?! Yes she can!”
“Where exactly is she going to stay, then?”
“She can stay in my room!”
“Your room barely fits you,” she replies, thinking about all the random things cluttering the girl’s room. “It would never be able to fit her as well.”
“Then… then…..” Surmaer’s face pinched with reluctance, “then we can put her in Ronin’s room.”
Her face twitched with surprise, but she forced it to remain in a neutral expression. It had merely been two days since she found her. “You’re really willing to do that?”
Surmaer rolled her eyes, “It’ll be better to have another set of hands around the house. Ronin’s at school across the country and your elusive husband is never here. We can’t upkeep with just ourselves.”
Allendria scowled at the husband comment, but didn’t say anything, the missing father being a subject of many of their fights.
“But we don’t know who she is. We know nothing about her. She was a corpse when you brought her in, she could be dangerous, it’s dangerous to be taking in random strangers right n-.”
“It’s also supposedly dangerous to go out into the forest but I do everyday and I have never seen anything.”
“That’s different.”
“It isn’t and you know that. Mom, we can’t constantly be suspicious of the people around us just because of some demons running around on the other side of this damned country, it’s exhausting. And as for the corpse thing, I don’t know but just trust me when I say she’s harmless.”
“And the sword by her side?”
Surmaer waved the issue aside, “Completely rusted. It’s about as dangerous as a walking stick.”
Allendria pursed her lips.
It was the goddamn bird situation all over again.
“Surmaer, This is the damned bird situation all over again, isn’t it?”
“What?!” She exclaimed, face burning in embarrassment, “No!”
“Oh yes it is,” Allendria retorts, “This is the bird situation all over again except now it’s a human instead of a bird.”
“I was just SEVEN YEARS OLD! When are you guys gonna drop that?!”
“When I’m old and dead.”
“I swear this isn’t going to end like the bird situation!”
There was a long pause between the mother-daughter pair, contemplation rolling around in Allendria’s eyes. Surmaer gave her the best pleading look she could muster.
“Fine,” she relented, “she can stay.”
Surmaer cheered.
“But she is now one hundred completely your responsibility.”
Surmaer cheered, a little less enthusiastic.
***
After breakfast was cleaned up Surmaer dragged the girl by the hand and brought her over to her brother’s room, brown eyes glowing with amusement as the girl look dumbstruck at the room.
The room itself wasn’t anything impressive, just a bed with a dresser and a small table to act like a desk, but the notes posted over her brother’s walls, ceiling, and really any viable surface gave off a little bit of an oppressive feeling, even if the information on said notes were basic in nature, the sheer number of them was impressive.
Surmaer pulled the girl over to the bed, explaining along the way. “This is my brother’s room, but considering he’s a million miles away at the moment with no way to get to us, I guess it’s yours now.” A quick look told her that the girl didn’t understand, the slight scrunch in her eyebrows speaking for itself, but it didn’t matter, Surmaer could teach her.
She pushed the girl down onto the bed, body sinking into the hay stuffed mat before joining beside her, making sure not to land on top of the sword.
Surmaer pushed her brown curls out of her face, giving the girl a wide grin.
“My name is Surmaer, what’s yours?”
She didn’t get an answer, but was glad to see a bit of recognition in the girl’s black eyes at her name.
Finally she just pointed at herself before slowly pronouncing her name, the curt, two syllable name stretched out like taffy.
“Suur- maarre, my name is Suuur--MARE.”
“Sss,” the girl started, and Surmaer’s eyes glinted.
“Yeah, Surmaer. Sur. Maer. Surmaer.”
“Su- su... mae yer.”
“Sur. Maer.”
“Su may a.”
“SurmAER.”
“Su may ah.”
Surmaer paused, sighing at the girl’s accent. It wasn’t anything she had heard before, and while her name was simple, it didn’t seem that the girl could wrap around the last syllable of her name, making the name three syllables with an odd pause at the beginning.
They sat in silence for a bit, but the look of nervousness on the girl’s face made her laugh.
“It’s fine, it’s fine, let’s just stick with Maea, ok? Mae-ah.”
“Maea.”
Surmaer beamed at the correct pronunciation, and watched as some of the nervousness washed away.
Surmaer sat up and tugged the girl up with her. She placed a hand on her own chest and spoke again. “Maea.” and then she pointed at the girl. “And you?”
“Ah, watashi wa Yuuma. Takahashi Yuuma.” The words seemed delicate, the quick syllable words flowed easily, even if Surmaer didn’t understand a word.
“So… your name is… Tak- Taka…” she trailed off, and gave a pointed look of helplessness.
“Ta-ka-ha-shi.”
“Takahashi.”
The girl- Takahashi smiled at the semi butchered iteration of her name, some syllables too stressed upon but it was better than what she could do.
“Hello, Takahashi.” Surmaer grabbed her right hand with her left, only taking a second to marvel at how soft her hands were, she was definitely a noble, and then placed a hand over her heart and gave a quick nod before letting go.
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Takahashi only hesitated for a second before returning the nod, “Hello, Maea-san.”
Surmaer judged the response as satisfactory, not paying mind to the attached suffix and moved on to the next word.
**
Allendria leaned against the wall next to the door and listened in on the two, eyes softening at her daughter’s excited voice whenever Takahashi pronounced a word nearly correct.
Her daughter wasn’t the most socially active, her son being the only one she knew who was worse than her daughter, and it had been a while since the girl made a friend.
Quietly, she stepped away from the door.
**
Lunch and dinner were an interesting affair, Surmaer extensively naming everything on the table, table included, before letting anyone eat.
Both watched with interest as Takahashi chanted something before eating, but the two simply went back to their meal, just chalking it up to cultural differences.
Cleaning up was definitely quicker with the extra person helping.
Finally the sun dipped below the sky and Allendria pulled a sheet out for Takahashi, giving it Surmaer to deal with.
“Don’t want your new friend getting eaten to death.”
Surmaer rolled her eyes and grabbed the sheet.
“Takahashi!” she called out, giving a knock on the door.
“Yes.”
Surmaer opened the door and peered in, spotting a smiling Takahashi sitting on the bed, boots kicked off, sword by her side. She didn’t miss the melancholic expression she wore when she first opened the door, but didn’t say anything.
“Here, this will prevent you from getting bit by mosquitoes.”
Surmaer unfolds the large sheet of cloth, the thin material stiff from how tightly woven it is. She quickly drapes it over the tall bedposts, the cloth now hiding everything on the bed. The only sign that Takahashi was there was the two legs awkwardly sticking out.
She laughed.
“Have a good night, Takahashi.”
She blew out the candle, descending the room into darkness and started to close the door.
“Goodnight, Maea-san,” replied Takahashi.
The door closed.
“Maea-san?” a voice questioned behind her.
Surmaer jumps and quickly turns to her mother, lightly scowling. “Don’t sneak up on me.”
“Okay, okay, but Maea-san?”
“Yeah… she…” Surmaer stares at the wall, a helpless smile on her face, “Her pronunciation is terrible.”
**
Surmaer quickly got dressed, the morning air casting goosebumps up and down her limbs as she crawled out from bed.
She pulled her slippers on and quietly left her room, only to jump in surprise to see Takahashi already sitting at the table.
Her brown eyes met black as Takahashi gave her a small smile. “Ohay-- eto, Goodmorning, Maea-san.”
“Goodmorning, Takahashi, how are you?” she asked slowly.
“Good.”
The two let the quiet come, not making any move to make any conversation, as limited as it would be.
The morning was a quiet but peaceful one, the two eating together and Surmaer couldn’t remember the last breakfast she shared with someone, her mother tending to wake up much later in the day, and by the time that happened she would already be out and about.
She seemed to be the only morning person in her family, Ronin also tending to wake up well into the day.
Sunlight slowly trickled into the windows and Surmaer watched the golden light streak across the table and over Takahashi. The foreign girl’s shoulder length hair was a mess, probably not having a comb with her to brush out the knots. Her black eyes were unfocused, looking lost in thought as her hands mindlessly fiddled with the ring on her finger, her sword resting at her hip.
The same melancholic expression was on her face.
Surmaer slowly got up and quietly walked over to her, watching as Takahashi jerk when she put a hand on her head.
Wide eyes stared up at her questioningly and Surmaer simply gripped her head and made her face forward.
“Stay still.”
Her fingers ran through the end of the hair, getting out any snags that she could find and slowly worked her way up. Her fingers gently dragged over the girl’s scalp.
Ah, she remembered when her hair was this long. Now it sat at her chin, the hair becoming a giant mass of curls that went every which way.
It took a surprising amount of time for her to fingercomb her hair, the silky strands hiding a surprising about of knots, but it wasn’t long until she managed to pull it out of her face, doing a quick braid to hold it.
Surmaer grabbed Takahashi’s hand to hold the end and keep it from unraveling.
“Stay,” she commanded, and went to go retrieve her old leather pin.
Flipping the braid up on her scalp, Surmaer pressed the black leather slip against it before pushing the stick through, pinning it against her scalp.
When she finished, Takahashi pressed her hand against the leather, feeling it.
She gave a small smile, “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
***
It only took a week for Takahashi to become stir crazy; living a cycle of waking up, eating, cleaning, and simply sitting for hours with Surmaer learning Adlun in the cramped house wasn’t doing it for her anymore. Pacing back and forth in some of Surmaer’s clothes, Allendria could only look up in irritation as Takahashi bumped into something for the eighth time.
“Surmaer!”
Sumaer pokes her head in, eyes wide in confusion. “What did I do?”
“Nothing.” Allendria snorts, “Yet, anyway. Take Takahashi down to the market and get her some clothes, she can’t keep wearing yours.”
“Oh, That’s it? Sure, let me just-- wait. Who’s paying for this?”
“Guess.”
“Oh. Goddamnit."
“She is your responsibility now,” Allendria hums.
Surmaer sighs. “Ok.”
It only takes a couple of minutes for the two to get outside, Takahashi looking around with wonder as she looks at the things she could only see before from the window.
The house the Avdemoux family lived in was on the outskirts of the village, having to go up a dirt path to get to the main roads. But that was why they built the house where they built it, away from the people and the noise.
“Where are,” Takahashi pause, trying to think up the correct words. “..We going?”
“The market. It’s just a block in the village where everyone goes to buy what they need. Pretty much every single store is placed there.”
Takahashi nods in agreement, before smiling meekly and saying, “Sorry, I don’t understand.”
Sumaer simply laughs.
No matter what time she went, the market was always a little bit busy, people grabbing something or other, or just using it as a hangout spot. The cobblestone streets were worn smooth from the amount of people walk through, tables and chairs decorating empty lots so pedestrians could sit down. The buildings were wildly different from each other, each one serving a wildly different purpose, illustrated, hanging signs telling what those purposes were.
Sumaer put a comforting hand on Takahashi’s shoulder, the girl looked visibly uncomfortable as she walked down, but being under the constant stares she was getting, she couldn’t really blame her.
“Sorry, I should’ve known better. You’re new, and we’re not exactly a bustling city.”
Takahashi stuck out like a raven among the doves, her pale skin and black hair and eyes wildly different from the normal mocha skin and curly hair that the villagers had, Sumaer included. A forewarning definitely would have helped, but she was just so used to Takahashi at that point that it hadn’t crossed her mind.
“Er. Thank you… I think.” Takahashi’s eyes glanced over to a loudly whispering couple, before turning back to Surmaer. “Let’s be quick, please.”
“Yeah,” she scratched the back of her head, “That’s for the best.”
Both of them scurried over to the building with a needle and spool of thread and open the door.
Takahashi’s head looks up at the bell jangling about their head and looks around, clothing hung up around the walls of the store, oddly reminding her of her room.
A man dressed in nice clothing, the cloth brightly coloured and patterned unlike the neutral clothing they mostly saw, walks out from a back room, skin noticeably lighter, his green eyes sweeping the store until they locked onto the two of them, eyebrow raising at the sight.
“Well,” his grin audible in his voice, “if it isn’t little Avdemoux.”
Surmaer rolled her eyes, “Well if it isn’t the horse fucker.”
Takahashi next to her choked trying to hold in her reaction, though shock or laughter neither of them knew.
“That’s not a very nice thing to say to a nice guy like me.”
“The only good thing about you if your ability to sew clothes and fuck horses, Nelroe.”
Nelroe scowls at her, but shrugs and replaces it with another smile. “The mouths of kids these days,” he pauses briefly as a look of nostalgia comes over his face. “You definitely got that from your dad. But anyway, I haven’t seen you in a while, how your brother? Who’s your friend?”
Surmaer scowls at the commentary, and briefly glances over at Takahashi. “Ronin is doing fine, great even according to his letters, and this is Takahashi.”
Surmaer sighed when she realized Takahashi wasn’t paying attention at all, and gave her a light jab to her side.
“Eh? Oh!” The girl smiles meekly and bows, causing the other two in the room to drop their jaw. “My name is Takahashi, Nice to meet you.”
“Surmaer,” Nelroe starts, “What the fuck.”
“I swear,” she sputters, “I have no idea where she learned that! She’s literally only been here a week and barely knows the language!”
The dirty-blond-haired man closes his eyes and takes a deep breath.
Takahashi, meanwhile looks like a startled rabbit.
“I-- I’m sorry? I don’t know-”
“It’s fine,” Surmaer cuts in, “Just don’t do that, again, ok?”
The raven-haired girl hesitantly nods, rigid with anxiety.
“Look, Nelroe,” Surmaer turns, “I literally picked her up a couple of days ago by the forest, she doesn’t-”
Nelroe’s eyes go wide before he bursts out laughing, leaving the two girls to exchange questioning looks with eachother as they watched a grown man become a laughing mess as he sinks to the floor.
“Um, Maea-san, what…?”
“Just wait.”
Only after a couple of minutes of gasping for breath between laughing fits and wiping tears from his eyes did he settle down, his arms hugging his sides from the pain. “It’s-” he gasps, trying to contain his giggles, “It’s just like the bird incident.”
“No!” Surmaer fumes, “It isn’t!!”
Nelroe simply descended into hysterics once more, the sound of laughter filling the room.
Takahashi brought her fist to her mouth, trying to suppress her own laughter, finding the situation a little ridiculous but nonetheless funny.
Surmaer takes one glance at Takahashi’s laughing face and kicks off her left boot, throwing it at Nelroe’s head.
***
“You know, it says a lot about your teaching ethics if your friend here knows the word horse-fucker and not the word for socks.”
“Nelroe just give me my damn change.”
“And what’s with the ugly sword? Is she, like, a-”
“My change, Nelroe.”
***
“Takahashi, you took forever in there!”
The two girls made their way back home, each carrying a small box of clothing.
“But I wanted to make sure I liked everything.”
“It’s just clothing though.”
“But you’re buying it for me.”
“And I can buy more,” she snips, rolling her eyes.
Well, okay, Surmaera admits to herself, She didn’t take forever you just got hungry halfway through stopbeingsocranky.
“Maea-san?”
“Yes?”
Takahashi paused in her steps, and Surmaer watched the thoughtful expression that crossed her face as she looked up towards the horizon.
“Your....”
She trailed off, and Surmaer has to poke her on the cheek before she finally snaps out of her trance, giving Surmaer an odd look.
“Don’t think too hard,” she states, “I’m hungry.”
Takahashi stifles a laugh for some reason Surmaer can’t find.
“Right,” She replied, giving her a warm smile.
The two walk in peace, but it seemed to be more fragile considering how Takahashi smashed it into a million pieces.
“Maea-san, what’s the ‘bird incident?’”
Surmaer stares at her, eyes blank of any emotion.
“No.”
“No?”
“We do not talk about the bird incident.”
And with that she spun on her heel and definitely didn’t run back to the house.
“Wha- wait, Maea-san!”
***
“So…” Surmaer starts, both girls hunched over a piece of parchment, pen in hand.
They were practicing writing the alphabet, the thirty letters scrawled over the tan paper over and over.
“Yes?”
“Uh, so,” Surmaer stuttered awkwardly, “you can’t really…. Bow to anyone here.”
Takahashi had obviously thought about it, not even hesitating to question it. “But why?”
“I don’t really know how to properly explain it,” she starts, running her fingers through her hair, “but you’re basically mocking them and insulting their dead… There’s a lot of background to it that I can’t properly explain, but just don’t do it.” She sighed, “Mom will be able to explain it better than I can.”
“Oh, then should I ask…?”
“Please never do that… Ahem, now, what color yarn do you want? Mom is going to try to teach me to knit again, and if at least one of us can get something out of this...”
Takahashi tilts her head in thought, as if color preference was a life and death, critical decision to make.
Surmaer pokes her cheek, grabbing her attention, “Takahashi, what color do you like?”
“Hmm. I like… blue.”
“Blue it is then.” She turns her attention back to the paper in front of her, tapping a character with her finger. “Practice this one, it still looks pretty weird.”
“Alright.”
***
It wasn’t long until Takahashi integrated into their lives. Allendria no longer had to remind herself to cook enough for three people, naturally making enough.
Surmaer and Takashi, Allendria noticed, seemed to fall into a routine of waking up early and eating together, in which Surmaer would pin up Takashi’s hair afterwards. They would then stick to each other like sap, most of their day spent in the other’s company.
Takashi became more and more fluent, understanding more words even if her accent was still atrocious. Her writing lessons progressed quickly, picking up the spellings of words quickly.
So, a month passed in a blink of an eye, and then a letter came.
***
“Ronin’s letter is here!”
Surmaer crashed through the front door, Allendria scowling at the dirt being tracked in but quickly forgot about it to focus on the white envelope covered in stamps being waved around.
“Ronin’s letter is here,” she repeats, a little out of breath, copper skin flushed red from exertion.
Allendria plucks the letter out of her daughter’s hand and tears it open. Blue eyes quickly scan over the writing.
Takahashi looks up from her knitting to watch the scene in interest, a ball of blue yarn sitting in her lap.
“Well?” Surmaer askes impatiently, “What does it say?”
“Let me finish reading it first,” she replies irritatedly.
Several minutes pass as Allendria goes through the multi paged letter, her face going through a variety of expressions.
“Are you done?”
“Yes,” she snips.
“And?”
Allendria makes her way over to a chair before tossing the letter on the table before her, snow white pages gently fluttering..
“Ronin is doing great, excelling at his studies despite the undercurrent of possible danger. He actually got top scores for his midterm testing.”
Surmaer’s face exploded into a grin, “That’s amazing!” She hated her younger brother, but she also loved him despite him breathing sometimes enough to make her want to punch him in the face.
“However, a rumour is circulating the school that one of the Heroes have finally fallen to a dungeon during training, though it’s not confirmed yet.”
Surmaer’s grin froze, and slowly slipped into something that was a little bit somber.
“That’s…”
“Heroes? And who is Ronin?”
The two finally remembered about the third with them.
“Um, Ronin is my annoying younger brother, and I’ll explain heroes to you later.”
Takahashi pursed her lips but nodded.
Surmaer noted the upset expression her friend wore and quickly tried to remedy the situation, plopping down into the space next to her.
“It’s not like it’s something secret or anything, it’s just that you most likely won’t understand right now if I try to explain it!”
Takahashi nodded, expression smoothing out a bit, “It’s okay.”
Surmaer let out a sigh of relief.
“But just teach me more, okay?”
“Of course!”
Allendria folds the letter and tucks it in her apron pocket.
***
It was another day, another morning, but Surmaer had different plans for today.
Quickly pulling Takahashi’s hair into the usual style, she pulled the girl out of the house.
“Maea-san, where are we going?”
“Oh, you know~ Just exploring. I wanted to just spend the morning outside today.”
“ I understand, but,” she looks pointedly at the crossbow, “Why do you need that?”
“Just in case.”
Takahashi give her a confused but concerned look, memories of the first day they met obviously flashing behind her eyes and Surmaer quickly clarifies.
“You don’t want to go into the forest if you don’t have a weapon. Some wild animals can get aggressive. I’ve never experienced anything super terrible, but I’ve heard some stories.”
“I see.”
They continued to walk on, the bird’s twitter and Surmaer’s humming filling in the silence.
After another ten minutes of hiking, Surmaer stops and looks around, Takahashi watching her intensely.
“Hmmm…”
“What is it, Maea-san?”
“I can’t find the marker.”
“Marker?”
“I tied a piece of cloth to a tree to tell me where I am, but I don’t see it.”
“Oh, then did we get lost?”
“I don’t see how we could’ve, all of my other markers were there.”
Takahashi walks up and grabs onto Surmaer’s hand.
“We probably just got mixed up, let’s go somewhere else, Maea-san.”
Surmaer simply shrugs and let’s her lead the way.
The two find themselves sitting, socks and shoes off as they stick their feet into a stream of chilly water, leaves drifting down and occasionally brushing up against their legs.
Surmaer kicks her foot back and forth, lightly splashing some rocks jutting out in the middle of the stream.
Her eyes trail up, pausing over a spot with large tadpoles swimming in a much calmer area.
This was nice, she decided, taking in the scenery.
“Maea-san?”
“You can just call me Maea, Takahashi.”
“Then… Maea, what are the heroes you were talking about a while ago?”
“Oh, right. Well, let’s see. I’ll have to tell you about the demons...”
“Demons?”
“Demons are like… evil, twisted beings. They’re pretty much only here to consume and destroy whatever they want.”
“I see.”
Surmaer nodded, “Well, about a year ago I think? An army of demon’s had suddenly teleported into the capitol… it wasn’t good. They’re still doing a lot of rebuilding for the damage caused on that day.”
“But the Heroes?”
“Right, So six months after the invasion, the king summons a bunch of Heroes, powerful people from another world to help, and there was a big parade and everything to greet them, after that, well, I don’t know much. I know the entire country is on alert but..."
Surmaer sighed, and flopped down into the grass. “The only real information I get is from Ronin’s letters, and those only come every two months.”
She watches as Takahashi lays down in the grass beside her, and only looks away when she meets her gaze.
“Can you tell me about Ronin?”
“Ronin, he’s a genius.” She blew some hair out of her face before continuing. “He used to just be my lazy, troublemaking, younger brother, but then he suddenly got really into his studies and now, he’s in the top school in the country a million miles away.”
She let out a laugh as a memory bubbles up to the front of her mind. “I remember, one night we both couldn’t sleep because of the heat, so we snuck out together and went swimming in a pond. Ronin tried to race me into the water and ended up face planting when he tried to take his pant’s off while running.”
“I don’t have any siblings-” Takahashi starts, Surmaer stifling her laughter to instead watch her talk, “-but I did have someone who was like an older brother to me.”
“Where is he now?” she asked, interest sparkling in her eyes. Takahashi, to her knowledge, had never really talked about herself, instead letting her take the lead in the conversation and following wherever she took it.
“Not sure, but he must be doing something amazing right now.”
“You don’t know?”
Takahashi shrugs, “I don’t, but he’s just an amazing person in general, I don’t doubt him.”
Sumaera watches a bittersweet expression flood the black-haired girl’s face. She pokes her cheek, enjoying watching her snap back to the present. She gives her a grin, confused about her wide-eyed look but just chalked it up to Takahashi being Takahashi.
She never figured out what was going on in her head at any time.
She would be lying if she said it didn’t frustrate her a bit, seeing the odd expressions on her face and not understanding what was behind it. But if she could provide as a distraction, than that’s at least one thing she could do.
“Takahashi.”
“Yuuma.”
“What?”
“Just call me Yuuma.”
“Mmm, Yuuma.”
“Yes?”
Surmaer groped for Yuuma’s hand, giving it a hard squeeze when she found it.
“I’m glad I found you.”
Surmaer’s hair stood up on her neck as her friend smiled back at her.
“I’m glad you found me, too,” she sighs.
Surmaer looked up at the tree canopy above them.
Was the water suddenly colder?