PoV: Aurea
What a massive headache...
I'm inside an unfamiliar tent, alone. But at my side I spot my backpack and my sword. Which means I should be relatively safe, right?
If whoever brought me here had harmful intentions against me, they wouldn't have left my sword at my side.
Right?
In any case, my head is throbbing, like I'm having a hell of a hangover. Oh, my mouth is dry. I think I might be a bit dehydrated, so I conjure some water on my mouth to drink.
After some minutes, the headache seems to subside a bit. Yeah, dehydration was probably playing a role in it.
Now that I'm able to think a bit, I try to remember what happened before I passed out.
Right, I ate a fruit... and started having some kind of hallucinations.
Hmmm
There was a dream...
Oh.
Ohhhhhhh...
Right, Oya came to me in the dream.
Was that a hallucination, or was it something real?
No, it was real. At least some of it. Because I now have knowledge of the ancient language used for magic. She called it Draconic?
I feel like I'm missing something.
There's something else I need to remember. Something important.
But, before I can spare more thoughts on that, someone enters the tent.
:::
She's beautiful!
So cute... the first word that comes to mind to describe her is the japanese term "kawaii."
She's a fox beastkin teen. Probably around 17 years old, probably gorgeous enough to be the main romantic interest of an anime protagonist.
Her hair is yellowish orange, with forest green eyes and dark-tan skin. As with all beastkin I've met, she has mostly human features, with the ears and fluffy tail being the biggest identifiers of her beastkin blood.
"So you're awake. Good morning." She says, nonchalantly.
"Yes... good morning."
I'm lying on a makeshift bed on the floor of the tent, while she's standing at my side, which makes for quite the imposing scene.
I quickly sit up so I can feel a bit less awkward with the situation.
She sits down at my side, carrying two bowls of some sort of soup, and hands me one.
"You've been sleeping since yesterday when I found you. I imagine you're feeling very hungry by now. Here, this is a light soup that will help you recover."
I take the bowl in my hands. I indeed feel hungry.
"So you're the one who saved me. Thank you."
"No problem."
We stay there, in silence, for some time. Just focused on eating, neither of us daring to start the conversation. Until she breaks the silence.
"Say... that pendant you're wearing. Where did you get it?"
"A friend made it for me. She told me to look for her tribe in the north, that I could find shelter there."
A new awkward silence...
"Uh... was the name of that friend Mimby, by any chance?"
"Yes!" I almost leap when I hear that name. "She taught me some stuff to survive the Barrens, which was very helpful."
"Why... didn't she come with you?"
I look at her, surprised.
"I'm sorry... All I could do was run away. I didn't have the power to bring anyone else with me at the time."
She doesn't answer me. Instead, just stay there, looking at nothing, the bowl still in her hand.
"But I want to go back and rescue her, along with my mother and everyone else."
"Your... mother?"
"Yes. I was born in there; she was already a slave. But to rescue them, I had to escape and get stronger."
"I have never heard of human slaves before. I thought only beastkin were enslaved."
"I don't know much about that... but we were the only human slaves there. But there were also elves and dwarves, not only beastkin."
She looked at me like I had revealed a hidden truth of the universe. It was kind of amusing.
"It's true..." I reinforced, touching my collar.
"And... how did you manage to survive in the Barrens alone? You are so young and small..."
Is it pity I see in her eyes? I don't need pity. I need strength.
"I'm strong. Not physically, but I have strong magic. So I was able to kill some things."
I reach to my backpack and open it, taking the half-dried hides of some of the monsters I killed and showing them to her.
Her eyes widen in surprise. "Is this a sand drake skin? Did you kill one of those?" She is pointing to the hide of the serpentlike monster I called landwyrm.
"I don't really know the name of the thing... but it had the body of a serpent, with arms that had big claws, and the head of a dragon."
"Yeah... that's a sand drake. You really killed one?" She was looking at me, astonished.
"Hehe... I actually have already killed three of them."
"WHAAAAAAAT?????"
She was completely dumbfounded, muttering something to herself while she looked at the hides again and again.
But yeah, I killed them fair and square, with the power of my magic.
I got a lot of levels from them... Oh.
That was the thing I had forgotten. If that meeting was real, I should have access to the System now.
But I can't simply open it right in front of her. It would be unfair. I'll wait for when I'm alone and have enough time to think things through.
"I want a mock battle."
"What???"
"A mock battle. I need to see if you are really that strong."
"Wait, wait, wait. Why?? I don't want to hurt a person who just saved me."
"There's no need to worry. It's just a little practice."
:::
And that's how we ended up here.
We are in an open field near the oasis. In the way, I was able to take a bit of a look at the place. It's like a tent encampment, with several trees and a nice lake at the center. It felt really cozy.
There were several beastkin people there, but not just fox people. If anything, it seemed that the fox people were mostly women and children.
The other beastkin I spotted were some cat, wolf, and even one goat person. All of them were male, except for some of the children.
Yeah, that's something I'll have to ask about later. They are right now forming an audience at a respectable distance.
I look back again at the fox girl in front of me. I retract what I said, she isn't kawaii at all. She is terrifying. Still gorgeous, but scary.
Now that she is ready for battle, with a spear on her hand, her ripped muscles are unmistakable. And I can even see some scars here and there.
She's a warrior, without a doubt.
And I just noticed I don't know her name.
"Before we begin... I think we haven't introduced ourselves yet. My name is Aurea."
"I'm sorry about that. I'm Yaci. I hope you're ready."
"I am."
I am not.