Birds are chirping, the sun is rising and the girl is still sleeping. Maybe I should step in and wake her up so we can continue the journey south. Now that I give it a thought it would be very unwise because she had more nightmare episodes and she still needs to rest.
"Mhhh" she started groaning and placing her hand on her stomach while sleeping. She is hungry most likely also thirsty. Luckily I still have a piece of meat from the rabbits I hunted for her couple of days ago.
"Portos." The portal opens and I pull out the last rabbit meat I had in there. I think it should suffice her. I quickly began setting up a fire with the fire magic
"Pyros." I let out small amount of magical essence so it wouldn't amplify too much and burn the whole forest. The torch amount is sufficient enough.
I pick up a stick next to the fire to stick into the meat for me to hold onto it, so it would be easier for her to eat without her burning herself. I began cooking the meat. A nice aroma starts to flourish from the cooked meat after a while. I wish I could start eating again this armored mask doesn't have a hole in it for me to eat through.
I went on for a couple of minutes and got the meat cooked enough to be edible for her tasting. She was awake and looking at me with a tired face. "You hungry?" I ask her and she didn't answer for a moment. Then she got up and put the cloth underneath her so she could sit next to the bonfire and stay warm. She slowly opens her mouth and gestures to me to put it slightly in her mouth. I oblige.
She takes tiny bite and eats it slowly. She isn't as energetic as she was before. I wonder if the nightmares effected her mentally. I slowly put the cooked meat in her mouth and start chanting with my other hand.
"Lightos" a glowing aura starts forming in my hands and she starts to lighten up and comes closer to me and asks "Mister can you teach me how to do that?" I myself I'm bad at teaching and this spell requires you to be honed with the arts of spiritualism. The light is coming from very small spirits forming up together to increase it's strength of whatever you want.
"Soon we can try when we settle in with your kind." I say it while trying to give her another bite of the meat. "I don't know any other villages and I don't even know the directions to my hometown." She said it while having a frowned face. She obviously is still a little girl so I can't expect her to know directions when we are lost.
"That is fine, we will be visiting an old comrade of arms of mine." I said it and try to hand her the stick to eat the meat alone. She grabs it and eats for a while. "The meat is dull" She says it after she fully eats it. "When my mom cooks meat she adds something that changes the flavor a bit, do you know what it is?" She questions it and tries to hold my hands.
If I recall correctly I think she means salt. While yes I agree with her without salt the meat is undone and wouldn't taste good. But I do not have any salt with me. "Salt? That I do not have." She gets up and hands me back the blanket where I proceed to put it back in my storage unit.
"Do you want to drink water?" I ask her while preparing a chant. "Yes that would be great." She looks at me intensely awaiting me to chant the spell to make her shocked.
"Hydros" A flow of drinkable water starts to flow out of my armored hands and I signal her to open her mouth. She had glowing eyes of astonishment. She drank enough and tried her best not to spill on her white dress.
"Let's move." I hold out my hands for her to grab and she proceeds to grab it without being a brat about it like yesterday. As we were on our journey we stumble on a river where I asked her if she wanted to bathe in it and she politely declined and didn't give me a reason for. She said something about 'Maybe next time' what is she implying? Is she shy about me seeing her naked? Well that doesn't bother me anyway so we continue our way.
She is a cheerful girl humming, singing, dancing and runs around me a couple of times as she tries her best to have fun while being with a grown up that she can't relate to or even know of. Although she puts her faith in me as her portecter and I will not break that trust, I don't want another instance of my old past to come out and break promises.
"Mister, mister do you have a name? I don't want to always call you by 'mister'." She grabs my hands as she tries to take a breather from all the running around she did.
"Rui." I tell her my real name, not my imposter name. "Wow, it's beautiful and my name is almost the same as yours!" She cheers up hearing that. "What is your name child?" I look at her trying to smile but I forget that the mask blocks my face and instead has a very haunting mouth-less face. "My name is Ari! My name is the short version of the spirit of wind Ariel. I hope you like my name Rui!" She smiles deeply saying that.
"I like it." I pat her on the head. "Ahhh Rui your hands hurt me.." I forgot that my hands have several spiked layers and it can hurt people. When I open my hands she takes the spike-less area and thats how she avoid getting herself hurt. "I'm sorry, that will not happen again." I stop while saying this for her to understand my words. "It's fine Rui, let's go meet your friend!" She was excited while saying that.
"Oh you didn't say who your friend was Rui? Is it a boy or girl?" I kind of wanted to keep it a surprise. Oh well might as well say it. "A girl like you. An elf." While saying that she jumped with happiness and said "Yayy I finally get to have more friends than just you Rui!"
That sentence hurt me a bit while hearing it. How lonely was she before she met me? Did she not have siblings? Sounds like she had it rough. I'm sure Galadriel would appreciate her company. "I'm looking forward for you to see her." I chuckle while saying it.
"I can't wait!! Come on let's go faster Rui!" she tries to sprint across but she forgets she is holding my hands and slips. "Awa Rui help me" She hurt her arm.
While taking a look it didn't do damage it just hurt her because she pulled hard. "You are fine Ari, let me heal you." I began to chant a basic healing magic that Galadriel taught me when we served together. "Hellia" a bright greenish light appears and after a moment when the light disappears, Ari sees this and says "Rui the pain is gone! Thank you mmph-" she kisses my armored cheek.
I try to pat her head again without hurting her and successfully manage to do it and we continue on the road.
After while I sensed something odd. Heard voices from afar. Smelled blood. As we were nearing our destination, my senses tingled harder and warned me of potential enemies. My senses were correct there was a battlefield outside the kingdom of revelation. Two opposing sides of humans, elves and undead were fighting. After taking a better look at the top of a mountain. I started to count the amount of soldiers that were fighting. 300, 400, 500 no 574 human and elves were remaining to the 700, 1000, oh 3000 risen undead. This does not look great for them.
I began to contemplate if I should intervene or not. On one hand, they might think I'm with the undead based on my armor color and my freighting look. On the other hand, the alliance would get devoured and their kingdom would fall. After giving it much thought a bright flashing beam appeared on the battlefield. No doubt about it. "Woah Rui look at that light it's beautiful!" She was admiring the view, while I knew that attack came from an old friend. "Let's go save those people like I saved you Ari." I looked at her and stretched out my arm for her to pull on.
"Rui I'm scared to go those people look very scary." She began to hold my arm with both hands begging me to not go. "Just hold onto me we will not do anything, we will just walk to the elves." She took time to get her courage up and said "Let's go Rui, please protect me!" I grab her whole body and take her like a baby on my arms while we go down slowly.
While going down some undead sensed my presence and stopped fighting and looked at me. While I'm getting nearer and nearer, they all began to stop fighting and take a look behind them. Even the alliance were shook. Step by step after getting near to the humans a familiar face approached me.
"It's been a while leader."