Falcon was stringing a bow at the table when Julia woke up. She stretched and rubbed her face before greeting him. “Morning.” Pulling on the repaired boot he set beside her, she got up and made the bed. “Tell what’s-her-name thanks for me.”
“Akira. And she says you’re welcome. She gave us some corn cakes with honey, too.” He nodded to the plate on her side of the table.
“Mmm,” Julia murmured happily. “Sweet.”
She sat across from him in a now sturdy chair. When she noticed he had fixed it, he nodded to her look of gratitude.
“Patched boots and yummy food, must be a good friend.”
Smiling at her insinuating tone, he teased, “A little early in our relationship for jealousy, isn’t it?”
She rolled her eyes. “Oh yes, I’m positively green.”
“And I think her husband wouldn’t approve.”
She just nodded, and they fell silent as she ate the still warm cakes and he continued messing with his bow. Once finished, she set her fork down, and asked, “So, how can I get money around here?”
He shrugged. “I’m broke.”
She bristled. “I never asked you to spend anything on me in the first place. And I’ll pay you back… when I… uh…”
He looked up from his task, meeting her gaze. “Relax, Jules. It’s fine. I was just stating a fact, that’s it. And you’re not paying me back.”
She calmed down. “Okay, well… thanks again.”
“Stop thanking me already.”
“No,” she said. He chuckled, and she smiled. After a moment, she sighed. “Well, I have to think of something. I can’t get a job and save up; I’ve already been in this world too long.” She stood and crossed the room to grab some papers from the top of the dresser, then sat back down. “I’ve made a list of things I might need for this… quest thing.” She handed the paper over. “What do you think?”
He smirked. “Always the secretary, huh?”
“Yeah―Oh! I have the fireball spell, so you can cross off the matches.”
He shook his head, setting his bow down and looking at the paper. “No, you should have a backup. You only have so much mana at a time.”
“How do I know how much I have?”
“Next time you practice, just keep casting until you can’t anymore―see how long it takes. And different spells might take up more mana than others.”
She nodded. “So, what is mana, exactly?”
“Didn’t the Guild tell you?”
She shook her head. “I didn’t stay long enough to find out. They were all high and mighty.”
"Yeah, seems most mages are," he agreed. "Well, it's a kind of energy―like how you have the energy to jog, but you can only do it for so long before you become exhausted. But if you do it every day and push yourself a little, you can jog for longer and longer. Mana is like that. Spells use mana―I'm not sure if it's physical or mental energy, or what, but if you use it every day, over time you'll be able to cast more before needing to rest."
“Okay. Cool.”
“Your list here isn’t half bad,” he told her approvingly. “I’ll pick these up for you.”
“You just said you’re broke,” she reminded him.
“I can put it on my tab at the store and pay it later,” he said easily. “Won’t be too much.”
She frowned. “Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why are you helping me… again?”
“No idea, really.” He shrugged. “I just want to. And if you’re seriously going to go out there, I can at least help get you prepared. Maybe prolong your inevitable death.”
“Thanks,” she mumbled.
“What’s wrong?”
“I feel bad.” She sighed. “You keep giving me so much, and I can’t give you anything in return.”
He smiled. “You can give me something.”
Her eyes widened slightly. “What?” she asked quietly.
She looked sweet and childlike, and it tugged at his heart. He grinned. “What you already give: good company… at least until you leave.”
“Sure you won’t come with me?” she asked softly as she picked at a loose sliver of wood on the table.
He chuckled and shook his head. “You go from worrying that I’m doing too much for you, to asking me to risk my life for you within seconds.”
She pouted. “I didn't mean it like that. I wasn’t even thinking of… I just… you’re the only person I know here, and… well… I’m not exactly looking forward to being alone.”
There was that tugging again. He ignored it and returned to the bow. “So… you’ll still need some money. You should get a few healing potions.”
“I have a healing spell.”
“Still, you want backup. Never rely on just magic.”
“Okay. How much will I need?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know, but it’ll be pricey; magic always is.”
Suddenly, she thought of something, and her eyes lit up. “Oh! I can just sell my bracelet and ring. I traded my earrings for the guild initiation fee, and that was 300 gold pieces.”
“Good. But you should go to a bigger town to sell them. You’ll get more.”
“Okay, like where?”
“I’ll take you,” he said without thinking. He could have rolled his eyes at himself―he was already helping enough.
She smiled. “You’ll come with me?”
“Only to help you sell your jewelry,” he clarified. “I make deliveries to Glendale for Cadin at the Lark Trading Company once in a while. I can see if he needs me to take anything for him any time soon. That way we can use his wagon. Otherwise it’s walking because I don’t have a horse.” He stood. “I’ll talk to him later today.”
“Falcon?” she asked hesitantly, fidgeting with a piece of her hair. “Can I hug you?”
“Of course.” He set the bow down and pulled her into his arms as soon as she stood up. She rested her head against his shoulder and slid her arms around his waist. He didn’t move, he just held her, letting her stay there as long as she wanted.
Finally, she stepped away. “Thank you,” she murmured, looking at the floor. “Not for the hug―the hug too, of course―but I mean thank you for everything.”
“You’re welcome. Glad I can help, honestly.”
She glanced up and smiled warmly. “You’re strange,” she told him, shaking her head. “I’m not used to people like you. You’re so… nice. I wish I had gotten to know you on Earth. We were strangers for two years when we could have been friends. At least I got to know you for a little while. It’s been nice here with you… considering.”
He nodded. “Yeah, I think so, too.” He smiled a little and gave her hand a fond squeeze. “Well, get ready.”
“Why?”
“I’m taking you hunting.”
She frowned. “Okay, I’m suddenly not liking you as much.”
He chuckled. “It'll be good for you. I’ll show you how to use a bow, and you can practice killing things.”
She sighed heavily as she headed into the bathroom to get ready.
__________
Falcon had Julia practice shooting at a large pine tree for a while. It took her nine tries before her arrows even made it as far as the tree, and eighteen tries before she actually hit the tree. She was not a natural at archery; quite the opposite. By shot number twenty-seven, she was complaining that her arms were exhausted, but he got her make it an even thirty.
“It’ll get easier with practice,” he promised.
“I don’t want to practice. Why shoot arrows when you have fireballs? I know, I know! Back up. I just don’t like the idea of shooting something with one of these.” She held up an arrow. “What if I can’t do it right? What if I make the animal suffer? I can’t do that,” she whined.
“Keep shooting till it’s dead.”
“I don’t care about killing it. I just don’t want it to be in pain.”
He shook his head at her. “You need to get over that, if you’re going to make it very far once you’re out there. Come on, I’ll show you how it’s done.”
“Really not liking you,” she grumbled as she followed him. “Isn’t this the way back to the village?”
“No, we’re going parallel to Bear River. The one by the village. It forks a little ways north, and we can follow the smaller river to the east. Deer need to drink too.”
They continued in silence as the forest thickened around them and they had to walk around more trees and through underbrush, mainly ferns. When they turned at the fork, Julia spoke again, musing out loud. “It doesn’t feel like a different world here. It looks like we’re just in a forest on Earth.”
He smiled at the hint of disappointment in her voice. “I’d think you’d be happy to feel like you’re back on Earth.”
“But I’m not. So, it’s like going to a museum of stuff you already have in your house.”
He laughed. “Or you can appreciate being in a beautiful place, in the fresh air. Or did you spend so much time in the forest on Earth that it’s boring?”
She caught his tone and rolled her eyes. “I do go into the forest, you know. I even went camping this summer.”
“RV or cabin?” He asked, but didn’t let her answer. “Unless you’re sleeping on the ground, it’s not camping.”
She crossed her arms over her chest and ignored him. He held in a chuckle, and they fell silent again.
No more than ten minutes passed before she asked, “How long does it take to find a deer?”
“Hopefully there’s some up ahead,” he answered. “There’s berries they like to eat there. So it’s a good time to be quite and try to walk softly.”
“Okay,” she whispered.
Several minutes passed. “Do deerskin jackets help?” she asked quietly.
He fought to keep a straight face. “Yes. It’d be very helpful if you’d bend over slightly and nip at some leaves. They’ll think you’re one of them.” He glanced sideways find her glaring at him. He chuckled. “Sorry. No, it doesn’t. Now shhh.” He nodded ahead of them.
“What?”
He pointed to a medium sized deer. It was still some 40 yards from them. “Through those trees. Near the water.” He motioned for her to follow and he walked slowly closer. When it got within range, he held up a hand to stop her, then took off his bow and nocked an arrow. Pulling back, he breathed in and held it as he aimed.
Suddenly there was a crash next to him, the deer spooked and sprinted away. He let out his breath in a sigh as he relaxed the tension on the bow. When he looked over, Julia was picking herself off the ground and brushing off her clothes.
“Sorry,” she mumbled.
He nodded. “You okay?”
“Yeah.”
He put the arrow back in his quiver and slung the bow over his shoulder again. “Come on.”
It took a couple of hours to track and get close enough to another deer, this one slightly smaller than the last. When Falcon stood ten yards away, he nocked an arrow and shot, then quickly nocked another. The first arrow hit its mark and sank into the chest. The animal staggered, then fell to the ground with a thud. He waited a minute before he relaxed and put the arrow away. The deer was dead.
When he looked over at Julia, he couldn’t help laughing―her face was scrunched up and her eyes tightly shut. She opened them now to glare at him. “What?”
“How are you going to fight any monsters if you can’t even watch me kill a buck?”
“Monsters are bad,” she answered defensively. “Deer are beautiful and good.”
“Yeah, good to eat.” He set down his bow, then shrugged the pack off his back, before unsheathing his knife. He noticed her staring at the blade with dread. Knowing how she couldn’t watch him cut into the rabbit and pheasant he had brought home, he suggested, “Why don’t I meet you back at the house later?”
“Don’t you need help carrying that?”
“Nope. Just follow the river, and you won’t miss the village.”
She nodded and left without hesitation. He shook his head. She was going to get herself killed within a matter of days. He sighed at the thought and at the protective feeling it invoked in him. “Stupid, determined woman,” he mumbled to himself.
__________
While Julia waited for Falcon to return, she messed with her spells outside the shack―thankfully, no one was around to watch. She learned a couple of things pretty quickly about her fireball spell. If she conjured the fiery orb into her hand and held it, then she couldn’t throw it; there was nothing to really hold on to. She could drop it or toss it, but if she wanted to shoot it, she had to pull the energy into the center of her being and then quickly throw it out through her palm, as if throwing a baseball. The fireball didn’t appear until she opened her hand at the end of the movement; then it would fire like an arrow, straight and fast, until it hit something or fizzled out after about sixty feet.
Another thing she discovered was that she couldn’t make the fireball―or any of her other spells―go back inside her once they were out. She could hold a fireball until it died out or toss it at something, causing it to burst into flames. Even if she just had the spell ready to cast, the power pooled within her, she had to cast it. It was like trying to hold back from urinating―she could for a while, but then she would feel like she would explode if she didn’t let it out.
The ice shard spell was one she didn’t like that much. When she cast it, she felt cold pull through her body, and she really didn’t like cold.
She tried using her healing spell, but nothing seemed to happen. She guessed it was because she wasn’t actually wounded, but she wasn’t about to hurt herself just to test it.
Her shock spell was strange feeling. It felt like a large amount of static electricity when she cast it. It made her feel jittery for a minute, as if she had drunk too many espressos. Plus, that one she wasn’t able to throw like the ice shard and fireball; it seemed to be a hands-on spell.
Later that day, when Falcon returned from dropping the deer off at the butcher, she was sitting on the bed. She looked up from the fiery orb she was tossing back and forth, from hand to hand, when he entered the house.
He closed the door behind him and shook his head at her. “Can you not do that in the house, please? This place might not be much, but it’s all I have.”
She sighed and tossed it into the fireplace. There was a small burst of sparks, and then it settled into the flames that were already there. “I wouldn’t drop it,” she mumbled.
He raised a challenging eyebrow. “No?” he asked, looking pointedly at her boot.
She just rolled her eyes.
“Anyway, luck is on our side,” he announced as he sat down beside her. “Cadin needs a delivery made. We leave tomorrow.”
She smiled. “Perfect.”
