There were a few things about them she learned as she crept after them. The boy, Marcus, was as she’d suspected a swordsman and adventurer. He was also trying to find these bandits for the bounty on them. Apparently they’d been been raiding traveling people and caravans for goods. The girl, Junia, was a member of some sort of guild. She hadn’t named it, but it sounded like it was an organization of healers. She specifically was here to finish her first ‘Trial of Avo’, whatever that was. She’d not gone into further detail.

Them finding the lake had proven almost revealing- in more than one way. And not just for her. Apparently this guild wasn’t one for shyness when it came to bodies. Junia had immediately began to disrobe in order to bathe. Marcus had begged off seeing her in such a state, saying it wasn’t gentlemanly. Junia had seemed to have no such compunctions and had merely mocked him for a few moments before taking her turn- unfortunately, Marcus had nearly turned in her direction to avoid seeing his friend undressed, and THAT had nearly caused her to get spotted; it was only the rustling of a nearby squirrel creature that had him take his attention away long enough for her to get a bit more distance and out of sight.

It, fortunately, wasn’t so long before they finished up, and carried on- with Mia steadily behind them.

Not much further after that, they’d started talking again. “Hey. I’m seeing tracks here.” Marcus sounded excited, from the tone.

Janice seemed more subdued. “Don’t get too antsy. C’mon, we need to be careful. Wouldn’t want to disappoint Loren, would you?” Loren?

“Mm…yeah, you’re right. We gotta be careful about this,” Marcus acknowledged. Whoever this ‘Loren’ was, it was clear they were important to him, if nothing else. “Maybe there’ll be a bigger meaning to this so long as we do it right.”

“Only one way to find out for sure,” came Junia’s response. “Now pipe down in case they hear us!”

They made the rest of the trip in silence. Mia knew that they’d come to nothing, but that just made her stalking harder. More than once they seemed to get the feeling that something was following them- at least determined by their constant stops and starts. At one point she had to hide behind a boulder as they turned around! Fortunately, if they detected her, they didn’t say anything about it. Yet.

Even without this, Mia grew more and more nervous. They were going in the right direction. Eventually, they’d come across-

“Blood!” And there it was. “Look here…it’s not too old, either. Something was here.”

“Right.” And then something she couldn’t have guessed happened. He spoke a single word- something that she didn’t recognize nor could’ve, she doubted. SOMETHING about the word almost felt unreal, but it was present nonetheless.

Less than a second after he uttered it, however, his sword suddenly burst into a strange, blue flame. The glow was brilliant, yet it didn’t seem to affect either Marcus or Junia any, as he kept it out, marching forwards carefully. Mia did everything she could to not scream. ‘What the hell was THAT?’ Since when was FLAMING SWORDS a thing? Okay, part of her thought it was impressive, but maybe at much longer of a distance than THIS! That, or maybe it was just she was frightened of that blade being used against her. The latter was more likely, really.

Thinking about it a bit more, it made sense. Otherwise why would Junia be carrying around that stick? It probably did some kind of weird magic, too.

The next couple of minutes were…well, tense. Sweating. Not to mention…well, they were going right back to where her…where she’d killed someone. That still hung heavy in the pit of her stomach, really. But what could she do about that now? She’d have to live with it…and part of that was making sure these two wouldn’t see her and put an early end to the whole ‘living’ part.

It was hard to continue that line of thought, though, when she heard the exclamations. “What the-!?”

“Oh, gods! What happened here?” Junia, for someone who was trying to go after them herself, seemed awfully dismayed at the carnage. “...not a single survivor.”

“Creepy. Looks like some sort of animal attack, though,” Marcus’ voice came through. “We should check to make sure.”

There wasn’t anything she could do but wait and see what happened.

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“Eugh. This is pretty bad. Whiptails, looks like,” came the girl’s voice after some time. “Dunno what this might be otherwise.” So, that’s what they were called? “Just about all of ‘em were chewed up, it seems. Except this one poor guy- doesn’t have much unsurvivable with him except for his skull. Seems like he slipped and smashed his head.”

Mia didn’t even realize she’d let out a gasp until she’d heard rustling- and then a shout. “Who’s there?!”

‘Shit,’ Mia swore inwardly, taking a slight step back- onto leaves.

“Show yourself! Now!” came Marcus’s voice. And now Mia’s heart- maybe hearts? She felt SOMETHING thudding lower than she’d thought- pounded fiercely. She knew she was found out. Those two likely had some level of combat experience. Her? Nothing. But then what was she supposed to do? If she kept quiet, that wouldn’t help anything, either!

‘Well, maybe that’d be the first thing to straighten out,’ she thought. She REALLY didn’t want to die, though. So maybe…yeah. Yeah? Okay. Right, careful. She could do this. Carefully, just one step at a time…

“What the…” Junia breathed. Immediately Mia felt bad- or at least humiliated. Junia stepped back once, and Marcus visibly tightened his grip on his sword. “What on Lotera?”

‘Lotera?’ Huh. But, that’ll come later. She needed to speak. “Hello?”

Another visible jolt. “It can talk?” Rude.

“So what’s it doing here?” Marcus asked. “Was it following us?”

For a moment, Mia lost her fear at the insult. “I CAN understand you,” she frowned. “I-I’m pretty sure I’m a ‘she’, not an ‘it’.”

“Well, doesn’t matter much until you explain what you are and why you’re stalking us,” Marcus said. He seemed VERY on edge, and it was hard for Mia to blame him. Unlikely that he’d ever seen anything like her before- or at least she guessed that was the case. She’d freaked HERSELF out, why wouldn’t someone else be scared? But what should she even say?

“...what are you doing here?” Wait, no, that was stupid. She knew what they were doing. Why’d she bother asking that?

“...we’re just trying to hunt bandits in the area,” Marcus says tentatively. “Seven of them.” That sounded about right to her. She didn’t see all seven, but…well, she hadn’t really cared to look. “This is what we found.” And then his eyes squinted. “You wouldn’t have had anything to do with this, would you?”

She blinked, once, and that pause in response was enough for them. “Did you help kill them?” Junia asked with a tense expression.

“N-no! Not-” she paused. Would it matter if she told them or not?

What she didn’t realize was that her hesitance would cost her. “Not what?” Marcus said carefully. “Not all?”

“I- he was attacking me first!” she desperately shouted. “I don’t know anything!” Already this was spiraling out of control, and she began to take some steps back. “I-I just…I didn’t…”

There was a pause as she tried to figure out the words, and the duo studied her carefully. Blessedly, they hadn’t accused her of any more than that, but they clearly kept her in their sights. Whatever she’d think to try was stifled by a thought of the swordsman just leaping forwards and cleaving her head clean off…

But then, miracles. Junia pointed at her with the stave, causing her to flinch. But whatever that did seemed to answer whatever silent question she had, the girl simply sighing. “...forget it. Marcus, stand down, she’s not a fighter. At least, I don’t think.”

“But she’s got a sword…” Marcus protested. Even then, it was a light one, more of curiosity than discontent.

“She’s not even going for it,” Junia pointed out. “As a matter of fact, that doesn’t even look like it’d fit her.”

“...hey, yeah.” Something seems to light up in his eyes. “That’s way too small for someone of her size.” True, she technically was a few heads taller than them- more if she stretched her legs up- so a sword like that wouldn’t quite fit her, would it?

“Y-yeah! I mean, I was alone and I didn’t have anything, and then I came across these people, all dead! Or- so I just took one! Just in case!” It was technically true. “I haven’t had it longer than a few hours!”

The glance behind her briefly told Mia that Junia wasn’t entirely sold, but she didn’t say anything else towards that subject. “...fine. Now, mind answering our first question?”

Mia blanked. “Wwwwhat do you mean?”

Marcus was the one who sighed, this time. “What on Lotera ARE you?”

Oh. Very good question. Introductions. “Well…” she couldn’t quite meet their eyes as she considered the question. “My name is Mia. I know that much. As for the rest…” What should she say? Oddly enough, she felt like the answer was on the tip of her tongue. And yet she couldn’t quite place it. “I guess I don’t know,” she admitted, forlornly. “But that’s what I’m trying to find out, I think.”

A pause. And then Marcus finally, blessedly, lowers his sword. “Okay. I think we’ve all got a lot of questions, here.”

She couldn’t have agreed more. “And…if you don’t mind, I’d like to ask the first one.”

The duo looked at each other. “Go ahead,” Junia agreed.

Mia couldn’t help her excitement. “HOW in the world did you make your sword light up like that?!”