Gerald handed me the knife…I mean, sword… and we walked out to the back yard. He lit a few torches to shed some light on the area. I don’t know why, though. It makes it so we can see colors, but I could see just fine otherwise…

*Shing* He pulled his sword out of this thing out of a weird pocket-thingy by his side.

“Alright, come at me!”

“Hmm? I don’t understand…”

“Attack me. Pretend I’m a monster, or something.”

“What’s a monster?”

*sigh* “A monster is typically an animal that tries to kill people and other animals.”

“Oh, but you’re not a monster…”

“Chalia.”

He’s wearing a complicated expression. Oh, he’s smiling now.

“Umph.” “You really like that name don’t you?” he asks, picking me up into a big hug. “Yes!”

“Haha, I thought so.” He set me back down. “Come help me get some firewood.”

“Okay!” I’m so happy, I’m so happy! I get hugs, and got a special name, and we are fetching things, which is something I’m really good at! This has to be the bestest day ever!

After bringing a few loads of firewood to the house we got to eat. The food was so good! I had never tasted anything like it!

Then it was bath time. It was weird. The water was so warm! And Mina made sure I used this bar of something to make sure there were bubbles all over me. Then I rinsed off and it was time to sleep.

The warm bath made me really sleepy, and the last thing I remebered was being carried into a room.

*** *** ***

“Please stop! Please stop! Don’t hurt her! I was the one who couldn’t get the ingredients in time! Stop hurting Twenty-Six! Please Chalia stop hurting Twenty- Chalia Six! I’ll be faster next—Chalia!”

“Hm?” I open my eyes to find myself in Mina’s arms, with Gerald looking over me. Mina is talking to me while rocking me back-and-forth. “Mmm” I curl up and snuggle into her chest.

“It’s ok, you’re ok. We’re here for you.” I rub the saltwater from my cheeks. Wow. It feels so nice. I like these people a lot.

After I assured them that I was ok, Gerald got to work putting on his jewelry and doing some other things. At the same time, I helped Mina get the food ready and we talked a bit.

“So Chalia, where did you come from?”

“From the group of royalty with lots of carriages.”

“Do you move a lot?”

“Yep! We have to go all over the place to meet with people and show them how important we are.”

“And how do you do that?”

“By setting up this big arena and doing shows for people. I haven’t actually seen the shows, but that’s what people tell me. I am on the tent crew.”

“So when did you get your tail?”

“Tail? Oh, Mr. Snake!”

“It’s a tail. It is attached to you”

“Oh.”

“So when did you get your tail?”

And so the conversation continued while we made the food. The most interesting thing was that I learned that the ugly birdy was not actually a bird at all! She called it a dragon, and then said I was probably part dragon. This was because of my tail, the hard patches on my skin, and the things growing out of my head.

“Alright, let’s get you to the blacksmith.”

“Okay!”

Mina dressed me up in super big robe with a hood and had me get into a single horse carriage. Why aren’t there safety bars? Oh, well. Mina told me not to look outside, and I know how to keep from doing that.

I felt like a couple people stared at me along the ride, but I don’t know for sure. How should I be able to notice in the first place? Other than that, the ride was uneventful, and we got out at the blacksmith’s place, entering from the back.

“Gerald? Oh, Mina! What brings you around here?”

“Hello Kreffler, we need a little discrete help again.”

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“Hmm, ‘nother runaway?”

“Well, maybe, but this one is a bit special.”

“Well, well, let me take a look. Take off your outer robe.”

“Heltrina herself! What is this you’ve brought me?”

“Relax, she’s not a dragonspawn.”

“I can tell that, considering how many I’ve killed in my earlier years, but this? Could this be a dragonkin?”

“I’m pretty sure. After talking with her it seems she ended up running away from an arena fight and ended up hiding in a dragon’s den. The dragon ended up taking a liking to her and passed on some genes, or something.”

“Wowee, this is incredible!”

“Kreffler, if you would?”

“Oh yeah, sorry, sorry—I’ll get to work. I know you must be itching to get her out of here before any of those blind dragon hunters find out.

“Ah, yes, thankfully, this’ll be easy. They just bolted the things together.”

The blacksmith pulled out a couple of tools and used them to twist these little parts that were sticking out from my anklettes. I asked why they were taking my jewelry off, and Kreffler gave me a strange look. Mina sighed before telling me that they aren’t actually real jewelry, and that wearing them now could get me into trouble. It felt really nice to have them off, and I know I shouldn’t complain; so I didn’t saying anything else.

After giving Kreffler some round metal things saying goodby, Mina brought me to the bear axe to get some training. It seems that I’m going to have to go to another place before too long, but I need to know how to fight before I leave. Now I don’t know why it’s called that, but what I do know is that there are a whole bunch of people there, and a lot of them are wearing lots of jewelry and holding sticks with pointy metal ends.

“Chalia! Come over here!” Gerald caled out.

“Okay!” I said as he let me down various hallways to big room with lots of people swinging knives—I mean swords—at each other.

“Do you know what they are doing?”

“Swinging swords at each other?”

“Sort of. They are practicing how to fight and kill. We don’t have much time, but you need to know a few things before we send you to the next city, so I am going to have some of my friends teach you.”

“But I don’t want to kill anything else!”

“It’s a tough world, and it’s going to be even tougher for someone as special as you,” he said, tapping one of my horns. “You will always be in danger. If you do not learn how to fight, then you will become a burden to whoever is taking care of you, or you will die, or something even worse will happen to you. This is important. Do you understand me?”

Oh, he’s looking into my eyes, this is no good! Cover the head, cover the head! It’ll be any minute now. Prepare for the pain. Prepare for the—what? I feel warm. He’s… hugging me.

“Chalia, I’m not going to hurt you, I just want you to understand that this is important for your own good, ok?”

“Mhmm.” I’m trembling a bit, but not because I’m scared. It’s more because of relief mixed with shock. Whenever someone pays that much attention to you without smiling, you are going to get kicked. End of story—but him…

You know, come to think about it, neither he nor Mina have kicked me or shouted at me, or anything like that. In fact, whenever they told me to do something, they did it with me. They are really nice people. Just thinking about it makes me feel so warm inside.

“Chalia? Chalia? I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to, I—maybe I should have waited until—”

Why is he apologizing? Oh, I’m crying… I should clear this up.

“Nn nn, no, it’s just that… Why are you so nice?!” I grab his shirt and bury my face in it. “You don’t hurt at all!”

“Chalia. You are not a slave anymore. You were a slave, and bad people put a bad kind of jewelry on you and made you do jobs without giving you any love; but that is not how things usually work. You are free, and you don’t have to hurt like that any more. There will be pain and hurt, but it will be for a reason. And if there isn’t a reason, you can fight back. You do things to stop people from hurting you and other people.

“Once you grow strong enough, you may even be able to make your friend free.”

“Friend?”

“The one you like to talk about so much, Twenty…”

“Oh, Twenty-Six! Free. I want to make Twenty-Six free, too!”

“Good, but to do that as a commoner, you will need to learn how to fight.”

“Oh. I don’t want to kill! But for Twenty-Six… Ok. I understand.”

“Alright! Let’s get started.”

“Mmm.” I like it when he ruffles my hair. I don’t know why, but it feels really nice.

For the next few hours, he sent me to different people who had me do activities to find out what the best method of fighting would be for me. There were a whole lot of different reactions, like “Chalia, come over here!” “You’re Chalia? So cute!” and “So this is the girl. You ready for a challenge?”

It was fun. We played a bunch of different games, and everyone seemed so excited to see me! Then Gerald looked at these papers the people wrote up while I was playing their games.

“Hmm. Your strength is phenomenal, and you can move quickly, so you should be able to use just about any weapon. You are not too flexible, though, so I wouldn’t reccoment daggers as your main. Also, we don’t want to waste any of your agility, so greatswords are out. Of course, it’s not like I’d recommend one over an axe, anyhow. Your dexterity is mediocre, so one-handed swords are out. That leaves us with longswords. How does that sound?”

“Good?”

“Haha, yes, we’ll make a fine longswordsman out of you!”

The rest of the day was really boring. I was given a fake sword that was big and heavy, and I had to practice swinging it in different ways; but that wasn’t the boringest part. I spent most of my time just learning how to draw it from its sheath and put it back. Gerald said that I will be an adventurer, and it is a lot easier and more comfortable for an adveturer to wear a sword on their back than at their side, so he gave me a special scabbard and had me practice using it, which was really really boring! But he says tomorrow will be more interesting, so I’ll look foreward to that.

Honestly, I didn’t even mind it. I’m so freaking happy right now! I’ve been surrounded by all sorts of nice people, I don’t have to wear the uncomfortable jewelry, and to top it all off; I get to eat three times a day! Yes, that’s right, three whole meals, and I don’t even have to hide during any of them! And now we are going back to the house, to see Mina again.

“Chalia!” “Mina!”

“Haha, aren’t you just a bundle of energy!”

“Mhmm. Today I did all sorts of stuff with a fake sword, and weird exercises, and other stuff. Oh, and I got this!”

“Oh, you are learning the longsword!”

“Yes! And learning how to carry it on my back. But tomorrow, I’ll be learning how to swing it!”

“Oh, that sounds fun!”

“Yes! Well, today wasn’t really, but I’m looking forward to tomorrow, and everyone is so nice!”!”

“Oh, good. Did you get your supper at the barracks?”

“Hmm? Supper?”

“Uh, did you get a third meal today?”

“Oh, yes! I had the first one here, but then I got two more at the bear axe!”

“Haha, good, glad to hear. By the way, though, it’s one word—barracks.”

“Bear—bearaxe?”

“Say the second part quickly. Barracks.”

“Barracks.”

“Good! There you go!”

And so that is how things went for the next few days, except sometimes Gerald had to go out to the gate for work, so he told me to listen to his friend, Elius.

As for the present, we are going to have a good night of sleep and prepare to travel tomorrow!