I woke before the boba bird.

Stars still hung in the dark sky. The breeze smelled faintly of smoke and ash. Maybe that’s why I couldn’t sleep. Sweet dreams won’t come with the scent of nightmares lingering inside every inhale.

The boba must be exhausted. Boba were usually farming animals. Their huge eggs were valuable sources of food and they helped plow fields. Their jovial personality also made them ideal training mounts before tackling pegasus or griffins. The boba we had were training mounts, not farm animals, but he still wasn’t used to being pushed like that.

I stroked the fluffy crest on top of its head. Its long neck and curved beak made a spiral when it slept. Maybe I should name it. It felt wrong to keep calling it boba bird. But naming felt light-hearted and I did not feel like I had it in me to come up with a proper name. It was gray, I’ll just call it Gray. Easy and thoughtless. I laid against Gray’s chest, just below the saddle. Boba feathers were often used as stuffing in pillows. The soft pillowy down felt familiar even if being under stars did not.

How many days would it take to reach Oranhail?

In game, the only time the party ever stopped for the night would be a scripted story scene or usage of a tent item. That gave me zero hints of how far the capital actually was from Xete.

Hunger didn’t matter, as I did not feel the need to eat anything. But Gray would need to eat and we both would need water. How did one find fresh water in the middle of plains?

I shifted my weight and rolled onto my side. I thought my butt would be the sorest part, but my thighs felt like they were rubbed raw and my calves were just a stretch away from a charley horse cramp.

A rustling of grass.

I jolted and grabbed my sword.

Was it a breeze?

In the plains of Oranhail, there were usually three main types of monster encounters – the isinf, that resembled mice; the eodor, that resembled wolves; and the ssom, who resembled snakes. There were other, bigger, monsters out there, but they were rare encounters compared to those. Thankfully. The plains were home to the rupit, spiders who ate ants and took over their homes, essentially getting a buffet of food and home in one swoop. They only appeared on the surface when it rained. Right now? Not a cloud in the sky!

Of course, those four did not compare the sheer number of creatures that existed in the world. But in my mind, the reason why those specific creatures were included in Dragon Fantasy had to be because they had aggro tendencies. The ones that minded their business wouldn’t be in a game.

At least, that was the logic that let me not become a nervous wreck. I was already a wreck without adding further descriptors to it.

I closed my eyes and tried to relax by rolling over to the other side.

Maybe I would run into traders tomorrow. Then I could barter those jewels that were poking my chest for some necessities. Maybe they’ll turn back when I tell them what happened and not have to worry about being alone for the trip to Oranhail.

Hope bred some wild delusions. Most of Xete’s trade came by water, not land. I would most likely make this trip alone.

Tears lined the edge of my eyes. Crushing sorrow filled my chest. I took labored breaths. Not yet. I couldn’t cry yet. Crying could wait after relaying the message to King Yuri. Crying would waste precious water and sodium stored inside me. Crying would make my eyes puffy and irritated. And crying would not bring back my home.

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Squawk!

My eyes shot open as my body was shoved to the ground. My hand tapped the wet grass and dust, searching for that leather hilt of my sword.

Squawk! Squawk!

Gray’s feathers stood on end, making him appear larger. He stomped his large clawed feet against the ground, kicking up a small cloud of dust.

“Where is it?” I whispered as though he could understand me.

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Since Gray faced the east, I also did. I held my sword in front of me in a basic stance. What would eat a boba bird? Probably an eodor. They traveled in packs; in the game encounters were usually at least three and some even had five. Way too many for me to handle alone.

Running would only give them a fun hunt. This wasn’t a game where the encounter ended just because I ran offscreen.

Would a spell scare them?

I held out my hand and felt the tingle of mana pooling through my body to my fingertips. The air around us became cooler. I envisioned a line going in front of us and ice building upon that line like bricks of an igloo. A sheet of ice began to form.

A heartbeat later it shattered as an eodor leapt through it, straight to Gray.

I blindly slashed my sword at it, missing.

Gray’s instincts were better than mine, as he moved out of the way easily and even managed to get a kick on the eodor’s head. As stumbled backwards, I sliced my sword downward into its torso.

Another eodor came from the side, straight at me. I tried to catch it but it tackled me to the ground. Its snarling teeth went straight for my neck. I won’t die! An explosive burst of mana mixed with the adrenaline and shot through my hands in a crackling explosion, encasing the entire beast in ice.

That attack used up all my mana; the familiar weariness of no mana reserves hit at the worst time. I needed an ether!

Squawk!

Gray! I pushed the ice block off me and got to my feet. Gray flapped his wings and stomped the ground. Two eodor flanked both sides. If Gray was injured there was no way we could make it back to the capital in time!

I grabbed an ether from my belt and chugged it as I dashed to them. I held my hand out towards Gray, reaching for him as though he were a lifeline I had to catch in order to keep from falling. I had never succeeded in an attack boost spell, but I could consistently boost my agility like I did that first battle with the crabeas. I had never tried it on another person but it had to work if we were going to survive!

“Embody the will of Goddess Celeritas! Quickness!”

Golden light appeared around Gray’s feet.

Did it work?

One of the eodor leapt.

If not for a golden streak of light at Gray’s feet, I would have no indication he actually moved.

It worked!

The other eodor attacked.

A blur of gold. A loud squawk!

The eodor had a mouthful of feathers.

Gray stomped the ground, kicking up a huge cloud of dust.

I focused on the eodor with the mouth of feathers. I tried to aim at its neck for maximum damage. First a bud, then it flowers into spikes, and burst!

The eodor yelped and fell down, unmoving.

The other eodor growled.

Gray managed to dodge again, but the golden light around its feet faded.

I still had some mana left in me, but not enough to cast another speed spell.

Gray stomped the ground again.

Again with stomping the ground! Why did he keep doing it? Was that some form of action for him?

Kick it like you did the first wolf, you stupid bird!

Surely, this battle would have a win condition of “Keep Gray Alive” but then Gray’s AI would be so mind-bogglingly stupid that he would end up dying anyway! Battles like that were the worst!

I dashed to the eodor and tried to slice it with my sword. It easily dodged out of the way and now looked to me as an easier dinner. I held my sword in front of me. I had to try and stab it. Magick didn’t kill it in one hit. Maybe if it hit a certain HP it would run away like monsters sometimes did in the game when they hit critical HP.

Magick or sword? I only had one chance!

Its hind legs lowered and its tail tensed like a cat’s before it pounced.

I steeled myself and tightened the grip around my sword.

It launched towards me, teeth glistening with drool.

I swung upward in an arc.

A miss!

I dropped my sword and put my hands around the eodor’s neck, trying to hold it away from me. Mana poured out of my hands. Ice, ice, ice, ice!

A blur of gold flashed in front of my face. A loud yelp. A drop of drool hit my chin. The heaviness on my chest was gone.

Gray! I jumped up and grabbed my sword, shoving it into its holster at my side. Then I dashed to Gray and hugged its neck. “You stupid bird!” I buried my face into his soft down. “You’re the best!”

Unlike all the little monsters I fought before, this fight felt earned. Like I had just finished a boss battle. Lalalaaaaalalaaaaaa~

I climbed on top of Gray. If there were eodor here, there may be others. Eodor weren’t the top of the food chain in the Oranhail plains and there were plenty of scavengers that would enjoy a feast. I slapped his rear end and we launched into the night.

Three ethers and two potions were still on my belt. Mana recovered naturally over time, so as long as we didn’t meet another set of monsters. Casting quickness on him would get us to the capital even faster and he would be able to outrun any enemies that could come our way.

We continued running along the road until Gray became tired and we could take another nap.

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Gray woke me by pushing me off his body. If I thought my muscles hurt yesterday, that didn’t compare to this morning.

I took a potion bottle and took a small sip.

It eased the pain to a dull ache, enough to be an annoyance but not enough to feel cured. I also gave Gray a small amount of potion. The bottle had three-quarters left now. The days of shoving entire potions down our gullets would be over. Two bottles were not enough to keep us alive if danger struck again.

My mana reserve felt like it was at full strength again, even if my HP felt like it was only half full. Going from never riding to riding all day and battling at night wrecked my body. But we had to press on.

The fear of the soldiers following us ceased. I was a young girl on a simple boba bird. They probably thought I would end up killed by a monster. Especially since ten-year-olds typically weren’t high in level. The only thing we had to worry about were monsters that thought we looked like an easy meal.

Dark clouds blocked the sun. The air smelled of petrichor.

Storms meant rupit came to the surface.

I.

Hate.

Spiders!