After things were explained to Rose I apologized for my little outburst, not that it carried much weight with the giggling I hardly kept in check.
“You got quite the girlfriend there Alaster,” I said after finally regaining my composure. We had moved to the main part of the church since the living area was hardly suited for 5 people for an extended period.
“She is just a friend Alena” Alaster replied, a little red in the face, though Rose once again reddened like a rose. I had to hold myself back from going into another fit.
“Sure she is,” I said glancing between them. It was so obvious they had a thing for each other, but ill have plenty of time to tease them, my sides couldn’t take much more tonight though.
Father sighed. “Alena, you should show Rose around the village, be back for lunch though. As for Alaster, I am curious to hear how the Order has treated you”
I wanted to hear it too, but I had to agree it was best for Rose to be somewhat familiar with where things were. I could pester Alaster later.
Rose didn’t seem like she wanted to go with me after what happened but followed me anyway.
Outside I spoke up. “Again, sorry for all that, the bar is a normal hang-out place here and mom works there, so we grew up going there often. The drinking happens later once the rest of the villagers have finished their tasks for the day”
“I know, I overreacted. Bigger towns and cities have bars open all day, drunks and prostitutes at all hours of the day” she scowled. I winced a little when she brought up prostitutes, I wasn’t sure if Alaster had told her what mom’s job was.
“Anyway that is the bar there, not far from the church, but far enough we thankfully don’t have to hear all the shenanigans going on there, though Mom keeps a pretty good lid on it most of the time”. I said pointing to the bar. It was pretty small, usually, there would be at most 5 villagers there in a night. The owner was getting up there In years so Mom pretty much ran it at this point.
“Though, for the next week while you are here, it won’t be open. Mom asked for the week off, and Jack just decided to close for the week.” I said. Jack wasn’t a bad guy, gave Lily a roof over her head and a place to work. Didn’t make any complaints about me staying over either, so long as the bar was closed anyway.
The church was separated from the rest of the village slightly, making it more open around the church, other than a tool shed behind it. The rest of the village was a single road, with various houses on the sides. The bar is at the edge. When merchant caravans came, they came through the main road and to the square at the end. That was where a majority of the business was.
There was a smithy, a tanner, and a tailor on the left side of the square coming from the church, and on the right was a grocer and a carpenter. The village was small, so there was not much more than the essentials unless a caravan was here.
I often helped out at the various shops if they had particularly large orders to fill. Silvergrove specialized in fur and leather, so we stockpiled as much as possible between caravans to trade them for other goods we needed, like spices and foods that could not be gathered in the surroundings.
We had no farms here. So grain was a major import. We could gather some fruits since spitting seeds over time had left us with random fruit trees of various types, far from enough to feed the entire village though.
Beyond the square was just forest. The villagers when going out to hunt would gather there and head in, so there were a couple of sheds there to hold gear and other tools used close to the smithy so they could be maintained easily.
Between the houses on either end of the road were alleys that went to more houses. Altogether only around 20 families were living here. Some people stayed after coming on a caravan, others left with them.
Rose seemed interested at first but seemed disappointed when I finished my tour in only 15 minutes.
“Alaster said it was small, but I never expected it was this small. I don’t think I’ve seen a village smaller than this one” She said as we got to the edge of the forest.
“Yeah, it can be quite boring here, not that I have anything to compare to though,” I replied. “We should go out and explore the forest tomorrow. There is a pond me and Alaster liked to sneak off to as kids. Great place to do some sword practice!” I added with a hint of excitement.
“That sounds fun, will be nice to get back at you for embarrassing me earlier.” She smirked.
We headed back to the church, it was still well before lunch, but there was not much to show and with Rose all dolled up, I wasn’t going to get a spar out of her tonight.
The day passed after that fairly uneventfully. Alaster had talked about his training, which excited me, but I wanted a more practical lesson. He had a ton of different teachers and had to learn a bunch of different forms. However, a lot of his training seemed to be outside of fighting too, learning about demons and how to contend with them, and the state of the world in general.
I had to learn some of it. Father was the village teacher, giving various lessons each week to all the kids of the village, though what Alaster described was much more in-depth. I felt sorry he had to put up with that. I hardly could stay awake when Father was teaching me. The only thing I picked up without issues was reading and writing, and that was only to keep in contact with Alaster.
The next day, I told Alaster about my plan to go out to the pond. We were scolded as kids since it was dangerous, but now we should be able to handle any small demons that bravely got close to the ward.
So, after getting suited up we headed to the pond. I brought both my sword and three of my practice ones. Rose and Alaster took one each for when we got there for a bit of sparring.
The pond was close to the village, but still, around 30 minutes walk away. Thirty minutes for me anyway. Rose didn’t seem quite as used to it as I was, and Alaster was out of practice. In the end, we arrived in almost an hour.
I had been here a few times in the last few years. Though mostly as I went with hunting parties. I was still scolded if I came out here alone and it was discovered.
The pond was clear, and I could hear the frogs croaking well before we arrived. It was late spring so there was a lot of activity. The pond sat in a fairly large clearing, with two trees near the pond. One was large and teeming with life, while the other seemed to be struggling.
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That tree was about as vibrant as the other when I and Alaster visited years ago, but in the years since it had been dying. I was not sure why, it didn’t seem like there was anything particularly wrong with it. It Might of had something to do with the roots.
I started to stretch, getting ready to spar. Alaster and Rose did the same, though they looked like a mirror of each other. Doing the same stretch at the same time. That had to be from their training, so I tried to follow along but was always a step behind them.
Alaster found my copying amusing but didn’t say anything.
Once we finished, I pointed my stick at Alaster. Smirking and ready to compare. I knew I was probably going to get destroyed, but I had to see where I was at.
“I’m taking the first bout” Rose called out. Lifting her stick. “These sticks hardly compare to the training swords I am used to. But should be sufficient.”
“Fine, this will be fun!” I said as I turned my attention to Rose. Alaster walked off to the side to ref our match. I felt I should be able to take her on at least.
“Ok, ready?” Alaster said, glancing at both of us. I returned a nod and Rose smiled. “GO!” He called, waving his arm as he took an extra step back.
I charged forward, wanting to make the first move. Rose kept her stance as I approached. I tried a side blow to her right, which she easily deflected and pushed down to try and make me lose my balance. To counter I twisted my body to spin around her left.
I heard a small laugh from Alaster as soon as I started but I continued my spin and brought my stick around to try to catch Rose from behind. However right as I was midway through my pivot, I felt Rose’s leg slide in-between mine. I lost balance and tumbled hard to the ground.
As I tried to get up I felt something on my neck. Rose’s stick. I grumbled as I could hear Alaster laughing hysterically now. Didn’t even last past the first blow, how embarrassing.
“To be honest, you did better than I expected,” Rose said as she moved the stick away and held out her hand to help me up.
I took her hand and got to my feet. Thankfully the ground was soft so I only had to deal with some grass stains on my clothes.
“Thanks” I replied, a bit red in the face, not so much from the loss but from Alaster who continued to laugh. He just had to rub it in.
“Heh, sorry Alena, I don’t mean to laugh, I just did the same thing early on and I got humbled pretty quickly. Footwork is super important in swordplay. You always want to keep your legs apart and avoid crossing them if you can” Alaster lectured, finally composing himself.
“When Rose blocked you, going left was a good call, but you don’t want to pivot like that, instead step to her left, but keep straight on. That way you can still respond to her next action and not leave yourself open” He continued. I listened intently, I could see what he meant. I effectively turned my back to her there. If it were one of the other village kids I would have easily won, but real training was different.
Unfortunately, I never got my spar with Alaster in the end. It just turned into a lesson on footwork and stances. I was happy to learn though, maybe before they left I could get one up on Rose if I practiced hard. I could see now that they were leagues above me.
As the sun was getting lower, we decided to head back. Being out after dark was a bad idea, and it would take us around an hour to get back, especially with us tired from all the activity.
However, once we started towards the tree line to head back, Alaster stopped and held his hand out to stop us. I wondered what he did that for but I didn’t have to wonder long. In our path was a dark mass.
It looked like a boar, but it had black-looking fur and red eyes. I knew what it had to be, a demon. I had never seen one before but I had heard talk about them. It was aware of us and seemed ready to charge at any moment.
“Alena, stay back. Let us handle this” Alaster said as he drew his sword. I wanted to help, but I could hardly argue. I had just been thoroughly taught how far behind them I was. Still, I drew my sword but stayed back. Having it at the ready just in case.
Alaster made no complaint about me wielding my sword and Rose got hers at the ready as well.
I could see the boar was not looking at them though, it was looking at me. I was the furthest back, why was I its target?
Before I could think about it anymore, the demon boar charged at me. Both Rose and Alaster were in front of me, on either side. They both prepped their weapons and swung as the boar tried to rush past them.
They both hit their mark, getting it on either side, creating a spray of blood that turned into a black mist. The boar did not stop though and continued past them and to me.
“ALENA!!!!” Alaster screamed as he turned to chase the boar. I had to make a move or I would be skewered before he got to me. I had no intent to run, I was going to use a bit of what I learned.
I held my blade low, and as the boar got close, I stepped to the left and lifted my blade in an arc, hitting it in the neck, causing a fountain of blood that turned to a black mist as it left the body, and right onto me.
My body seemed to absorb it, why was I absorbing it? I knew this black mist must be miasma, it’s generally bad to touch so I knew absorbing it must be bad. But the boar did finally fall and dissipate into more miasma.
The miasma seemed to come toward me. I panicked and tried to jump back, but my legs did more than jump, they leaped.
Alaster caught me thankfully, I jumped right back into him. He managed to avoid falling back thankfully.
“Good job Alena, did the miasma touch you? It’s poisonous so we should go get Father to check you out” he said worryingly.
I felt fine, in fact, I felt better than fine, it was as if all the exhaustion from our training session was gone. But I nodded, despite the probable lecture that awaited me, it was better safe than sorry.
The boar had not left behind a crystal, so we headed back. I felt like I wanted to run home, I felt so full of energy. Normally that would be fine, but it was strange. It was as if I had gotten stronger after the miasma had touched me.
I didn’t share that with Alaster since I didn’t want to worry him. Rose seemed a bit annoyed by how close Alaster was staying to me, constantly asking me if I wanted help over logs and such. I was halfway tempted to just tell Alaster to carry Rose, she seemed like she wanted the pampering more than me.
As we arrived at the village, the sun was starting to set. Dinner was likely ready soon so we headed right to the church. Though as we got closer and closer I felt like I was getting heavier and heavier. It was slight, I wondered if whatever effect I was under was wearing off.
When we got to the church, Father was cleaning some of the pews. He had seen us come in and waved at us, but he noticed the atmosphere and dropped the rag he was holding.
“What happened?” He asked. If I could describe father in one word, observant was a top contender.
“We ran into a Demon, I think Alena might have been touched to be some miasma,” Alaster replied. I felt fine, but the worry on Father’s face told me what I experienced was anything but.
“Dinner should be ready soon, you 2 should clean up, Alena come with me to the clinic.” He said as he directed Alaster and Rose to the left portion of the church, where the addition was. I followed him to the right and into the clinic.
“How do you feel Alena? Angry at all?” He asked as I sat down. Angry? Why would I be angry?
“No, why?” I asked.
“Miasma has an effect that triggers negative emotions, though that is mostly with a light dose. Higher doses can cause mania or even possession. Paladins and anyone expecting to fight demons typically wear gear imbued with light mana to counteract that, but you don’t have that” He said as he felt my forehead. My head did hurt a little, but nothing out of the ordinary for a day of activity.
“I felt good, energetic. I still do in fact. Though I feel heavier too. It’s hard to explain.” I said, trying to put what I was feeling into words.
Father continued to hold my forehead and seemed to be rubbing the top portion. It felt like there were a couple of bumps he kept going over, but I never hit my head I don’t think.
“Ok, I am going to give you a dose of light mana and see if that helps.” He said, I could hear in his voice he was worried, but I felt fine. Though a dose of light mana? Not just healing? I guess light mana countered dark mana.
I felt the familiar feeling of Father’s mana entering me, it felt cool, and I could feel my energy dropping. My fatigue was certainly coming back, and it felt much higher than I was used to.
I started to doze in the chair, so father helped me up to the bed and laid me down.
“But… dinner…” I asked, but I could barely keep my eyes open.
“Rest first, I will make sure you get a double portion for breakfast,” He said, rubbing my head. The bumps seemed to be gone.
I gave in and let sleep take me. I never felt this tired after any amount of Father’s healing, what was different this time? I would have to ask Father in the morning.