"Pirantrophs, a rare sight."
"Why the hell are you laughing? There are monsters in front of us!" I yell desperately. I think saliva's splashing on her face.
But she's still chuckling, I don't know if she's trying to mock me.
"You have to relax. Those creatures don't attack.. first. Normally... sometimes."
Holding back the thousands of insults crawling up my throat, I yell, "What do you mean?!"
"Don't worry, you'll see." Her voice is too calm for this situation, and she just keeps riding the horse, without a care in the world.
The thick black monsters remind me of buffaloes. But they're much larger, taller— about ten feet tall. And their faces are pig-like, with two long brown horns protruding from their heads. There're four of them— currently moving together, to a set destination.
We're now getting closer and closer to them.
"Don't worry, they'll run as soon as they see our wagon." Jennette keeps assuring, her voice calm and soothing.
"Um, but I don't think they're running Jennette. They're standing still now."
We're just few inches away from them, and the creatures halt their movements— their eyes staring at our incoming wagon like prey.
"Jennette." I call, but she isn't answering. we aren't far from the monsters now. And they're blocking our path.
"Jennette." As I call her, I shake her shoulder, but she still refuses to reply me.
The biggest one out of all of them pokes its face close to Jennette's. My hand on Jennette's shoulder freeze. But Jennette just sits on the horse— her eyes never leaving the Pirantroph's.
The thing's nose is just like a pig's.. it really is pig-like.
"Kruunk!" The pirantroph shouts. And as it's mouth open, the smelling air blows both I and Jennette's faces and we close our eyes, the bang of both our hairs flutter.
Then Jennette lets out a reluctant sigh.
Now she's sighing like me.
"I really didn't want to kill. I just wanted us to enjoy the smooth trip." As she speaks, she stands on the back of the horse. Perfectly balanced. And she pushes me back inside the wagon with her left hand.
"I gave you, and your other Pira friends a chance to run away."
She raise her right hand upward— her palm spread wide.
"###### ... Inubladu." She calls out with a low, calm voice.
Immediately— a green sigil etched with various runes form and hovers above her open palm.
Wron!
From her the sigil on her palm— a warm green hue of light flickers, and it rumbles, forming something; a blade.
It's a windblade!
It's green.
As she swings the wind blade on her hand down hard— the wind blade severs the head of the first monster immediately. Causing our horse to move back a little with a low "neigh," as the blood splatters everywhere.
Immediately my jaws drop down to the ground.
What the? She's capable of that? What as that? I have got to learn that!
Her sharp brown eyes stare down at the other pirantrophs from untop the horse.
And as the pirantrophs see the severed head of their leader on the ground— they turn to meet Jennette's chilling glare, and immediately; their instincts tug at them. And they run away.
"Hmph." The sigil dissolves as she wipes off the dust from her black gown; caused by the impact of the monster's head with the sandy ground.
"Impressive." I exclaim. The awe In my voice, and the childish glimmer in my eyes increase.
And she jumps, and lands her butt on the horse's back.
"Pfft, no Young Master Charles. It's not impressive. Pirantrophs aren't even d-rank monsters. You should be able to kill it easily too. Don't you know your own strength?" I knew it, she just came with me to mock me throughout this journey, and her laughter keeps increasing.
"Don't call me Young Master Charles anymore. I've abandoned that identity. Call me Ed. And, of course I don't know my strength, the only person I sparred with was Klaus back home. And the only time I fought someone who wasn't Klaus, was on the day I had a duel with Richardson."
It's true, I've never fought anyone apart from Klaus who I trained with every day, I never even sparred with any of the kids I was in the same class with.
"That's why I'm going to become a mercenary in Ludia. To increase my experience. That's what I lack. After all, I need knowledge, enlightenment and training to ascend my circles." As I speak, Jennette shakes visibly, albeit slightly.
But she wouldn't try to say anything— and she shouldn't. I warned her.
And she nods. "Do you want to learn how to use air mag—"
"Yes!" Before she could even complete her question, I already answered her. My eyes flashing with excitement.
"Haha." I guess my quick response surprised her. "Then... I'll teach you starting from tomorrow."
"Thank you sensei!" I tell her playfully as I bow my head, giving her a fist-palm salute.
She chuckles softly, "what's sensei?"
"It means master."
"Master?" A small smile forms on her lips, "okay."
Finally, I'll have something productive to do during this fucking trip.
And we continue riding.
***
"We have to set camp here. I didn't get to sleep yesterday, I need to rest too."
She stops the horse.
It's nighttime, and Jennette is tired. It's obvious, I can hear it from her exhausted voice, and the way her eyelids are heavy, and how she's yawning every now and then.
"Yeah, I think that'll be good too."
She nods.
"But I didn't bring any camping materials, and where are we gonna tie the horse?"
The area where we are is filled with grass, and flowers. Only the narrow and straight footpath is devoid of grass, it's just soil.
We're in the middle of the road too, it's dangerous, and in the far distance, howls of wolves echo.
"The horse.. it won't go anywhere, don't worry. It's a specially trained horse, trained by vice-captain Klaus himself."
My brows curl up.
"If that maniac is the one that trained it, then I feel bad for it. I know it won't go anywhere, but if it does run, I won't blame it or get angry, it's suffered enough." I tell Jennette bluntly, and she glances at me with a curious expression. "I wonder if the horse carried boulders on its head every hot afternoon."
She finally burst out laughter. "Oh you, you're gonna miss those guys aren't you?"
Huh? Is she crazy? Me? Miss them? Pfft, the only people I miss are Marcelle, Dustin and Margie.
"No, that's impossible." I shake my head as I declare plainly.
She lets out a weary sigh. "Alright, whatever you say... but I brought something with me that we can sleep in."
My eyes betray me and gleam with curiosity, "and what's that?"
She touches a pouch attached to the strap on her waist.
"Huh?"
She opens the small pouch— bringing out something from inside.
Wait...
What the hell? How...
"How is it even possible to bring out something like that from inside your strap?" My voice low but curious.
"It's one of the perks of being a mercenary in Ludia." She shrugs, "they hand you a standard-issue subspace bag once you're licensed."
Subspace? I'll just assume it's some sort of magical pouch or bag that stores things that are larger than it.
"How much time do we have left before we reach Ludia?" I ask.
"You asked that this morning Ed. It's two days."
In her arms, she holds the two folded mats she brought from her pouch, and she jumps down from the horse, and I come down from the wagon too.
"Now, to sleep. We've got a great day ahead of us tomorrow." She says, her tone light and floaty.
Yeah, I'll learn air magic and... travel, so uneventful.
She lays the mat on the ground, and we lie down to sleep.
It's really uncomfortable sleeping on a mat, laid on grass by the side of the road. Bugs are crawling, and the crickets are creaking. Who knows what might creep on me while I'm asleep?
"Goodnight Jennette."And I turn my neck to face Jennette who's lying down beside me.
She turns to face me too, her eyes meeting with mine, and she smiles brightly, and squeezes my cheek.
Gosh, I'm not a damn kid.
"Goodnight Youn– I mean, Ed." She says as she lets out a soft giggle.
And we both sleep off.
______________
"Those are the ones eh?"
"Yes boss, the ones that smell like money!"
"Shhh, lower your voice, you'll jinx it you rat tongue!"
"So, should we keep tailing them, boss?"
"Absolutely! We just have to wait for the best time to strike, like we always do."
"Don't worry. We'll monitor them like we're hawks."