Azeneth’s laughter turned into a yawn as we left the shop behind. She held me against her chest, one hand around my grip, the other on her staff. Rooftops, balconies, and stretches of canal passed below us. I was still getting used to seeing the streets from above when I noticed her head tilting.
“Don’t close your eyes…”
“Just for a moment.”
“Azeneth, we’re flying!”
I tried to keep her attention by talking about the castle. I asked how much farther we had to go and repeated the question when she only mumbled. From her chest, I could see part of her face: her eyelids sinking lower, her mouth half open. I tried to nudge her with my grip, but she held me against her, and I couldn’t move.
Her chin dropped until it brushed my guard. The staff tilted, and we started losing height. I saw an overhanging roof approach, then a wall with an open window. I shouted her name. Her fingers loosened just as we hit the frame.
A shutter snapped. We crashed through wood and fabric, struck a table, and Azeneth let go of me. My blade hit the floor so hard that I couldn’t make out anything ahead. I heard glass breaking and one last, heavier thud nearby.
When I managed to focus, I was looking at a bench leg.
[Durability: 200/250.]
Fifty points. We’d lost fifty points because my wielder had decided to take a nap in midair. I tried to turn before another notification appeared and scraped my edge over some splinters. Azeneth lay beside the overturned table, a ponytail across her face. Her staff had ended up under the bench.
“Azeneth?”
She snored softly.
I moved close enough to check that she was breathing easily. She had dust on one cheek and still hadn’t opened her eyes despite the noise. I didn’t know whether to be grateful she was sleeping so soundly or try shouting her awake. I chose the latter until someone dragged a chair behind me.
I raised myself upright, my tip hovering above the floor. There were tables, bottles, and a counter at the back. A man seated at a piano kept playing. Everyone else was looking at us. None of their faces encouraged me to ask for help.
A guy with a scar on his chin booted a piece of shutter aside.
“Look what dropped in.”
Another crouched beside Azeneth and touched a ponytail.
“She’s got some nice things.”
I moved toward him. I didn’t know what I could do if he tried touching her again, but I couldn’t stay still either.
“Get your hand off her!”
The man looked at my eye and pulled his fingers away.
“The sword talks.”
“And you listen. We’re off to a good start.”
The scarred man crouched in front of me. He looked at my blade, then at Azeneth’s hand, still lying open on the floor.
“This could cover part of the damage.”
I backed away until a table leg stood between us. I’d wanted to protect her by getting his attention. Now they’d noticed me. I tried to see Azeneth’s face over the edge of the overturned tabletop.
“Azeneth. Wake up.”
“Stooop!”
Everyone turned toward the door. I moved around the leg to see a short, slender girl with cropped hair. Apart from her enormous ears and bushy tail, she looked human. Her tail swished behind her.
Her ears and tail reminded me of a fennec fox. She looked around, pausing on Azeneth, then the man crouched beside me. Her ears stood even straighter. I assumed she’d demand he back off.
The man at the piano took his hands off the keys.
“And who are you?” the scarred man asked.
The girl planted her feet far apart, bent one knee, and stretched her arms in opposite directions. Then she turned sideways, crossed her wrists in front of her face, and pointed at the ceiling.
I waited for her to finish. She changed poses yet again.
“I am Ferny of Anymalia! The legendary warrior of old, awakened from her long slumber to rule this world!”
She threw her head back and burst into laughter. Then she waited, one hand on her hip. I looked at the men, then at her ears, standing perfectly straight. Nobody said anything until one of them snorted.
The others all burst out laughing at once.
Ferny lowered her arm. One ear drooped, but she immediately straightened it again.
“What’s so funny?”
“Are you going to rule us now or after you finish dancing?” someone asked from the counter.
She pointed at him so forcefully that her tail swished behind her.
“I won’t allow villains to take advantage of the weak!”
I was glad to hear it. I preferred not to think too hard about which of us looked weak. Azeneth was still asleep, and the man who’d wanted to pick me up had just found something much more entertaining to do.
“I’ll give you a chance to surrender,” Ferny announced.
“Where’s your weapon?”
“I don’t need one! I can cast spells without incantations or catalysts.”
I forgot about Azeneth for a moment. The shopkeeper had just explained the exact opposite to me. I watched Ferny slowly raise her empty hands as though expecting everyone to move aside.
She twisted her body, extended one leg, and thrust both palms forward. Her hair shifted with the movement. So did her ears. On a table, a bottle finished rocking and settled. Read this novel at NovelPing for the best experience.
Nothing else happened.
Ferny looked at her fingers. She opened them, closed them, and pushed at the air again, this time with a short, angry gesture.
“Why isn’t it working?!”
She sounded so bewildered that it took me a moment to stop looking at her hands. She seemed to have genuinely expected something to happen.
“Zaelia…”
I turned at once. Azeneth had lifted her head and was trying to get a strand of hair out of her mouth.
“Where are we?”
“In a tavern. You fell asleep while we were flying, we crashed, and we need to leave.”
She sat up, looked at the broken table, then the window. She rubbed one eye, still not letting go of the strand.
“Oh.”
“Yes. Oh. Get your staff. We’re leaving.”
She pulled it out from under the bench and stood, leaning on the table. I moved closer to her boots, watching the men who were starting to lose interest in Ferny. Azeneth looked toward the counter and froze.
There was an open bottle of wine.
“No,” I said.
Her face lit up.
“Look!”
“I saw it. And I told you no.”
She reached out with her free hand. The scarred man grabbed her wrist before she could reach it.
“That’s not yours. First, you’re paying for everything you broke.”
Azeneth looked down at the fingers holding her.
“Let go.”
“You pay or you stay here. The sword too. Then we’ll see how much more you can get us.”
She stopped smiling. When she lifted her head, she was frowning, her fingers tight around her staff. I recognized the change too quickly to find a calm way to intervene.
“Azeneth, wait…”
Ferny appeared beside her and kicked the man in the side. He let go of the wrist, stumbled into a bench, and fell onto his back. The bottle remained intact on the counter.
“I already told you I won’t let the strong take advantage of the weak!”
Ferny planted one foot on the bench and beckoned them closer.
“Come at me, all of you, if you dare!”
The men looked at each other. One smiled and set his mug aside. Another slowly stood, cracking his knuckles. They started surrounding her while Azeneth watched with her mouth hanging open.
“This is our chance,” I told her. “Let’s go.”
She looked at me, closed her eyes, and smiled with a calmness that worried me far more than the men did.
“Don’t worry. This looks fun.”
I asked her to put me on a table beside the piano. At least I’d be able to see from there without dodging boots. Azeneth lifted me, set me down carefully, and leaned her staff against the wall behind the instrument. Then she turned toward Ferny and dusted off her hands.
The first punch caught Azeneth on the shoulder.
“Hey!”
Azeneth grabbed a chair and shoved it at the man. She didn’t seem to hit where she’d meant to, but the chair legs caught between his knees, and he ended up on another table. Ferny ducked under an arm and punched someone in the stomach. An elbow sent her into the counter.
I moved to the edge of the table. I wanted to see whether Ferny was getting up, but someone’s back blocked my view of the counter. I found her a moment later, clinging to her attacker’s shirt. He was pulling to get her off him, and she was shoving her palm into his face, baring her teeth.
The pianist started playing again.
I looked at him. He kept his eyes on the keys as a mug sailed over his head and shattered against the wall.
“Seriously?!”
He played faster.
I straightened up again on the table. Azeneth was wrestling over a bottle with a man a head taller than her. She pulled at it, lost her grip, and kneed him in the thigh. He shoved her into a bench. Azeneth landed sitting down, laughed, and threw the contents of a mug in his face.
Ferny took the opportunity to jump onto the bench and ram her shoulder into him. All three ended up on the floor. I tried to follow them between the furniture legs until a hand closed around the edge of my table.
A bottle rolled toward Azeneth. She caught it, tried to get up, and someone yanked her dress. She lost her balance again. This time, she stopped laughing for a few seconds and struck the fingers of the man who wouldn’t let go. Ferny had to pull her out from under the bench.
A guy was climbing onto my table to jump.
I backed away as far as I could. His boot landed where my blade had been. When he lifted it again, I moved behind the salt shaker and waited, concentrating on keeping my edge away from his leg. He launched himself at Ferny and vanished from my view amid a thud and several protests. This chapter was taken from g.com without permission.
“Watch out!” I shouted, no longer sure which of them I meant.
Azeneth looked up. Her lip was split. Ferny said something I couldn’t hear, and they both burst out laughing.
I stared at them. I’d tried to warn them about danger, and they seemed to be sharing a joke.
A man grabbed Ferny from behind. She stamped on his foot, twisted, and caught his arm. She couldn’t bring him down until Azeneth appeared with the bench, shoving it against his knees. He fell on top of them. Ferny complained that someone had stepped on her tail.
“Then move it!”
“It’s mine!”
Azeneth took a punch to the cheek as she turned. She answered with a clumsy punch, shook out her hand, and ended up grabbing the attacker by his clothes to throw him into a chair. Ferny got up with a bottle in each hand. She used one to knock an arm aside, and the other shattered against someone’s shoulder.
I’d seen Azeneth destroy a fortress. I’d never wanted a fight to end so badly.
I looked for the staff behind the piano. It was still where she’d left it. If she went for it, I’d ask her to get us out before she remembered how she’d dealt with the fort. But Azeneth didn’t even glance at it. She ducked another mug and went back to Ferny.
Then the big guy appeared.
He pushed his way in from the back, moving a table aside with one hand. Ferny tried to punch him in the stomach and got shoved hard enough to slide to Azeneth’s feet.
“That one’s big,” she remarked.
Ferny got up, rubbing her side.
“I noticed.”
The man advanced. Azeneth threw a chair at him. He knocked it aside with a swipe, but he had to turn. Ferny jumped onto a bench and leaped at him from the side. She hooked an arm around his neck and hung from his back.
He tried to reach her. Azeneth crouched, grabbed one of his legs, and pulled. The man held his ground long enough for me to start looking for somewhere to land if he crushed our table.
Ferny swung backward. Azeneth pulled again.
They fell with a crash that drowned out the piano. My table jolted, and I had to lower my tip to keep from toppling.
When I looked up, the big guy was lying among the remains of a chair. Ferny crawled out from under his arm. Azeneth stayed sitting on the floor, brushing her hair out of her face.
One man still tried to get up. He saw them looking at him, leaned against the counter, and decided to stay there.
Ferny offered Azeneth a hand and helped her to her feet.
“Not bad.”
“You too. Though that magic of yours…”
“That requires an explanation.”
“Later.”
Azeneth picked up the bottle she’d wanted from the beginning. Ferny found another unbroken one. They clinked them together, drank, and burst out laughing again.
I was still waiting for one of them to realize how close I’d come to having a table fall on me. Ferny wiped her mouth on her sleeve, and Azeneth showed her an empty bottle, which they both examined as though it were the day’s greatest tragedy.
“Play something cheerful!” Ferny called to the pianist.
He changed tunes without question. Azeneth took her hand, and they started dancing between the overturned benches. They had to go around the big guy. Ferny almost tripped over him and turned the step into a spin.
I watched them, still too frightened to share their enthusiasm. They’d hit people, taken hits, and seemed ready to stay until they’d finished every bottle.
Whenever one of them raised her voice, I looked toward the men on the floor. Some had sat up against the walls. Others were still lying down, groaning. I didn’t want to give them a reason to get up again. Azeneth, meanwhile, had just offered Ferny a drink, her feet still keeping time.
I let out a sighing sound.
Great, now there are two of them!
Anyway, I then asked the system about my condition.
How’s my Durability?
The system appeared on the piano, violet flowers swaying above the keys.
[Durability: 200/250.]
I used Healing I. Ten points of mana were enough for warmth to spread along my blade and the marks from the fall to disappear.
[Durability: 250/250.]
[Mana: 45/70.]
I kept looking at the notifications. I could repair myself, but I didn’t want to spend the rest of the journey checking how much of me was left after every decision Azeneth made.
The door burst open.
The pianist stopped playing. An enormous man had to duck his head to get through the doorway. He stopped inside, looked at the ruined tables, then at the two girls, still holding hands.
Ferny lowered her bottle. Azeneth stopped dancing.
The newcomer stared at Azeneth. She tried to hide her bottle behind her back, but his gaze dropped to it before she could finish.
I looked at the big guy lying on the floor, then at the newcomer, who was even bigger.
Please, not another one.