“Pretty strong cavalry too.” I followed up on Cellestra’s remark after swinging my weapon left and right a couple of times. “The force behind these blows is astounding.”

Cellestra giggled. “I’m glad you’re happy.”

I chuckled. “I am fairly confident in my footwork too.”

I came to a halt and thrust the tip of my new weapon forward a couple of times while moving from left to right and then to the back and front.

Cellestra’s giggle grew to full-blown laughter.

“Was that a bad joke?” I asked, smiling.

“No,” Cellestra let out while laughing. “I just can’t get over the fact that whenever you’re excited, your ears twitch like crazy.”

“What?”

I bent over forward to view my own face and ears with my spider eyes but didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary.

“It’s already stopped,” Cellestra explained. “But believe me, this isn’t the first time it happened.”

I continued to look at my face while lost in thought. “Are you serious?”

Cellestra nodded.

“I never knew about that,” I said softly. “You said I do that more?”

“Yes,” Cellestra said, smiling widely. “Although this was probably the most I’ve seen them move. I’m sorry. I couldn’t help but laugh.”

“How do they move?” I asked out of curiosity.

“Like this,” The elf said as she took her own long ears in her hands and started moving the tips inward and outward. “The more excited you are, the more they move.”

“You gotta be kidding me.”

“Nope,” Cellestra said with a chuckle.

I shook my head and thought about how funny this must have looked… and I never knew about it.

“I think it looks adorable.”

I was immediately silenced by that comment. I decided to ignore it and move on while practicing my halberd, but the words resonated through my head as I went, leeching my focus. I was overjoyed to think that she thought it looked… adorable.

I let out a deep sigh and tried to focus on my weapon again as I ran through the fields. I noticed the grass become dryer and turn slightly less green, slightly more yellow. I wondered if that was due to a lack of rainfall. A look at the sky told me that there was no sign of rain in the near future; there was not a single cloud in sight.

That made me wonder. If it did rain, how would we stay dry?

“Are you okay?” Cellestra asked. “You’re so quiet all of a sudden.”

“I’m okay. You caught me by surprise earlier,” I admitted honestly.

“The adorable part?” She asked.

I nodded. “It’s because… you know…”

“Oh,” The elf let out. “I’m sorry if that made you feel awkward.”

“It makes me feel great,” I said quickly. “That’s the thing.” I sighed.

“I’m sorry,” Cellestra said softly as she looked down to my cephalothorax and slowly moved her hand through my hair. “That must be harsh.”

“It is, I think, but you don’t have to feel sorry about it. It’s my problem, not yours.”

“Still,” Cellestra said.

I cursed in my mind for having her apologize over nothing. I looked for a way to cheer her up when something popped up in my mind.

“You know,” I said. “You haven’t braided my hair again after washing it. Would you like to?”

“Sure,” The elf said with a small smile. Almost immediately she tried fishing out the comb from her backpack… with the necessary difficulties.

I chuckled at her struggles while I went back to testing my polearm. Thrusting and swinging a weapon as heavy as this with such ease made me feel more powerful than I’d ever been, even if that wasn’t necessarily the case. I was so fixated on trying to understand how to use the weapon that I could almost forget that I had a wide arrangement of spells and abilities to help me out in combat.

Still, knowing how to hold my own in physical combat would always have value. I knew the feeling of being powerless, and I never wanted to feel like that again. If I ever ran out of mana in a fight or couldn’t cast spells for whatever reason, I wanted to have something to fall back to.

That made me think about our next possible opponent.

Cellestra was already combing my hair gently when I spoke. “You’ve never had the misfortune of running into trolls?”

“I haven’t,” The elf said. “You have, you said. Think you’ll be able to beat them?”

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“Yeah,” I said confidently. “Although they are large and strong, in my old life, I’ve seen some things work well against them. One of those things is spears or other pole weapons. Due to their size, they are especially vulnerable to them.”

“And other things?”

“Fire works well. Then again, fire usually works well, but against trolls, it’s even more effective.”

“Why is that?” The elf curiously asked.

“From what I have been told, it disables their body’s natural ability to regenerate wounds quickly.”

“I see,” Cellestra said. At the same time, she stopped combing my long hair and looked lost in thought.

“Are you thinking about what I think you’re thinking?”

“Uhm, maybe?”

“Troll blood as alchemy reagent?” I asked, almost laughing at the thought.

Cellestra nodded.

“And you blame me for having an obsession with weapons,” I said before bursting into laughter.

The elf shook her head and laughed. “Yeah, I suppose it’s even weirder than that.”

“To be fair, you may be onto something here. If we end up fighting trolls, I wouldn’t mind getting you some of their blood if you think you can do something with it. Do you have all your alchemy stuff with you, though?”

“Some of it, not all. While I appreciate your offer, I doubt it’s going to be of any use. I don’t really have anything I can test it on anyway.”

“I mean,” I started as I stopped my weapon practice. “I wouldn’t mind testing it for you, but I’m hardly a suitable subject. I have great toxin resistance and regeneration of my own. How would I see if it works?”

The elf nodded. “It’s pointless as you say. I wouldn’t mind getting some of their blood, though. I can freeze it and perhaps study it later when we’re closer to civilization. If nothing else, maybe it can make some money. Healing items tend to be pricey… for good reason. I can imagine you know why that is.”

“Dungeons?”

The elf nodded.

“Well, no worries. I do have to wonder though, how far out that valley is.”

“Kealyna, the day just started. Take it easy. We’ll get there soon enough. From Muck’s words, I understand it’s pretty hard to miss.”

“I suppose you’re right. I just want to get past that checkpoint that Muck was talking about. It seems from there, the way is clear to our destination.”

The elf continued to comb and eventually started making long locks to braid. She had to lean over forward in order to reach everything, but I assisted her by leaning backward. I carefully rested the pole of my weapon on my body next to the elf while I heeded Cellestra’s advice and tried to calm down.

“And you’ve been going for a while already. Make sure to get plenty of rest later on,” The elf continued.

I nodded. “I will. Thanks.”

A while of silence followed while I let the purple-eyed elf do as she pleased, before she broke it.

“Hey, Kealyna?”

“Hm?”

“What’s your favorite food?”

I frowned, but only briefly. I realized she was just trying to make conversation. Her question, however, had me thinking.

“Uhhhh,” I managed to produce while I was still thinking.

What did I like in the first place? It was not like I ever had anything fancy… or expensive, for that matter. My diet consisted of about the most standard food there was for elves: bread, salads, fruits, and some meat. None of those came to mind when Cellestra asked what my favorite was.

Until I started thinking about what she herself had made when I was still a spider. The fish that she’d prepared was delicious, even if I’d been distracted at the time. The boar was also great.

“To be fair, what you’ve prepared for me has been about the best I’ve ever eaten…”

“For real?” Cellestra asked with a frown.

I nodded. “Everything you’ve made has been delicious. Though raw snake isn’t so bad, if I could choose, I know what I’d pick.”

“That’s… very kind of you. I’ve never seen myself as a good cook.”

“Well, you are, at least in my eyes.”

“All ten of them?” Cellestra asked with a giggle.

Her joke made me burst into wild laughter. It took me some time to calm myself down to speak.

“Yes. All ten of them.”