Extra Story: Fina’s Mileela Trip

Extra Story:
Fina’s Mileela Trip

 

THE FIRST DAY.

 

While I counted the kokekko eggs with my mom and Shuri, Yuna came by. I wondered what she wanted, and then—out of nowhere!—she asked for permission from my mom to borrow me…and my mom said yes!

To “borrow” me? What, do Yuna and my mom think I’m just a thing?

When I asked why she needed me, she said she wanted me to go with her to Mileela. She must’ve remembered when I said I wanted to see the ocean. That made me happy. I wish she’d said that from the beginning, if that was what she wanted.

But…I had work, didn’t I? I wasn’t so sure, but Mom gave me a push. With Mom’s permission, I was going to go to the ocean.

“All right! Time to borrow your little girl, then.”

Mom laughed. “You can take her anytime.”

They were really toying around with me. Ugh, it made me so embarrassed! My little sister Shuri looked like she was jealous of me, though… she wanted to come with us. Shuri said so, and then guess what?

Yuna invited her, too, and now Shuri was coming with us! Yuna’s so nice.

 

We got on Kumayuru right away and headed out. Shuri made a real scene on top of Kumayuru. I understood why she was having so much fun, but it wasn’t nice for Kumayuru, so I told her to please calm down.

Kumayuru ran on the road really fast. Next, we ran through the path in the forest. There were so many people working there. Shuri gave them a big wave from on top of Kumayuru. They waved their hands back. It was nice to see!

When we got through the forest on the path, a really big bear statue was there to welcome us.

A bear? But…why? It was the same bear as the one in front of Yuna’s shop.

I asked Yuna about it, but she didn’t seem to want to talk about it. I didn’t mention it again, but come on…it was definitely connected to Yuna, wasn’t it?

 

The inside of the tunnel was bright from mana gems.

Whoa, this was the tunnel? Kumayuru and Kumakyu ran through it. We saw the same stuff for what felt like forever. That sure made me nervous, but after a while we found people in the tunnel. Apparently they were setting up mana gems. Seeing them made me feel a little relieved.

There weren’t any light mana gems after that, though. It was pitch black. Yuna’s light magic had to brighten up the tunnel, and the magic light was shaped like a bear head! It was super cute.

 

Once we got out of the tunnel, there was a really big pool of water that stretched out as far as I could see. It was really the ocean. Whoa…it was a whole lot bigger than anyone had told me. All water, on and on and on. Shuri opened her eyes wide, too, when she saw it, but no way we could open our eyes wide enough for all that water.

I never imagined I would see something like this, never ever…

 

Yuna asked us if we wanted to try going up to the ocean. Shuri and I nodded and smiled. As if we’d say no! The ocean water was real cold, and salty too. It was real-life saltwater. It made my throat hurt, so Yuna brought out regular water for us.

Whew, that really helped. Yuna laughed when she saw us like that. (That was kinda mean, Yuna!)

Then we headed to the seaport.

(We saw a bear partway there. We saw a really big bear. Apparently that was Yuna’s house, but why was it so big?)

 

When we got to the seaport, everyone talked to Yuna. She was real popular. Then she introduced us to a really muscly man at the inn named Deigha. He was almost as big as Ralock from the adventurers’ guild. And oh, apparently, he was real amazing at cooking!

Then Yuna told us why she came to the seaport. She wanted to dig up these thingies called bamboo shoots. Since it would be super lonely digging them up by herself, she had invited us. Huh? I thought she invited us to see the ocean!

But then again, we did get to see the ocean, so I decided to help Yuna…even if I didn’t know what these bamboo shoots were supposed to be.

Deigha seemed interested, too, so he was coming along with us to dig them up.

 

After we ate his food, we went to the bear house. It was big. I mean, it was real big. There were two bears! She made it so she could bring the orphans here, she said, but still. Real crazy big.

When we went inside, there was a giant dining hall. The second floor was a huge room too. Everyone would be sleeping here if they came over, she said. We went up to the third floor, where we would be sleeping. As for the fourth floor, it had the biggest bath I ever saw. It was split into boys and girls, of course.

It was a little early to take a bath, but we had to get up early tomorrow so we were going to take one and then sleep. We got naked right away and went into the bath, but there wasn’t any hot water in the bathtub. It was empty! Yuna had just come back home here, so I guess it made sense. Anyways, we washed our hair and ourselves while the hot water built up.

I washed up my sister and then cleaned myself. With that done, I tried to wash Yuna’s hair. Yuna’s hair is really long and shiny. She’s thin and her arms are all dainty and she’s pretty! Where did her thin arms get the power to beat up monsters from? Maybe it really was magic? But then again, she would also punch adventurers with her arms, too.

I helped Yuna wash her hair, but I kept wondering about it.

The second day.

 

The next day, in order to dig up this food called bamboo shoots, we headed out early in the morning. We slept early, so I wasn’t tired at all! When we got to the entrance of the seaport, Deigha waited for us. He had a hoe on his shoulder and was ready to go.

We got to the bamboo grove Yuna told us about. Were these bamboo?

They were like thin, green tubes. They made a hard noise when we hit them a little. No way we could eat these! Deigha seemed to think the same thing since he asked Yuna about it. But then Yuna dug the ground with magic and brought something up.

Apparently, it was gonna be a green tube when it grew up, but it wasn’t a tube yet. When I touched it, it was soft. This was a bamboo shoot and she said it tasted good. Yuna knows so many things!

But when it came to digging, Shuri and I had nothing to dig with. It was okay, though, because Yuna held up her bear puppets in front of her and Kumayuru and Kumakyu came out. I was going to dig with Kumayuru and Shuri would be with Kumakyu.

“Kumayuru, I’m counting on you!”

“Cwoom.”

We all went different ways and I worked with Kumayuru.

I went a little far away. Maybe this would work?

“Kumayuru, do you know what to do?”

“Cwoom.” Kumayuru crooned and dug the ground. Then, before I knew it, there was a hole and one of those things Yuna showed us was in it! Kumayuru let me do the last part, where I pulled the bamboo shoot from the hole. It was kind of hard to do, but I did it all right! It was weird thinking we could eat this, but I looked forward to seeing how it tasted.

I carried the bamboo shoot and headed back. One was done.

“Yuna, is this okay?” I checked in with Yuna while she was digging with magic.

“Yep. Do your best to get lots. I want to make them for the orphans to eat.”

“Okay, I’ll work hard.” I went back and got to work. Kumayuru would find the shoot and dig them up, and I would pull them out at the end and take them back.

When I was in the middle of carrying them, I ran into Shuri. “You’re so fast, sis!”

I won when it came to how many shoots I brought in, but we never saw Deigha.

When I asked Yuna bout that, she said she hadn’t seen him either. I guess that it really was hard to dig them up without Kumayuru and Kumakyu.

 

After that, we gathered lots of bamboo shoots and Yuna told us we were done. Shuri seemed sad that she lost to me, but I couldn’t let my little sister beat me. Shuri worked hard, though, so I made sure to be a good sister and say nice things about her.

Yuna went out to find Deigha since we hadn’t seen him, not even once. She came back right away, but Deigha only had one bamboo shoot. It looked like he couldn’t find any. Kumayuru was amazing for finding them so easily and digging them up for me.

 

When we got back to Deigha’s inn, Yuna started cooking right away. I tried to help, but she told me, “You’ve gotta be tired from working since morning, right? Take a load off, guys.” Shuri and I sat down on the chairs to rest.

After a while, Yuna lined the table with the bamboo shoot dishes she made. All of them looked good. When I saw the food, my stomach growled a little since I hadn’t eaten any breakfast…but nobody heard it, which was good. That would’ve been real embarrassing.

Shuri and I started eating. Shuri was starving, so she stuffed her cheeks full as she ate. Of course, I ate too. It was super delicious. Yuna was amazing for being able to make a meal that even Deigha, the big muscley cook, didn’t know about.

 

Then, since Shuri and I wanted to, we went to see the ships.

They call the place where boats line up together a “port.” There were lots of different ships floating in the port. They got on them and went to catch fish in the big wide ocean. Shuri looked like she wanted to ride a ship. I did too, but we couldn’t be selfish and say that.

While we were looking at the ships, Shuri found a big one and ran toward it.

“Shuri, wait!”

It was dangerous to run off, so I went after her.

When I caught her and calmed her down, people came out from behind the shadow of a boat. When they saw Yuna, they started talking to her. Did they know her? They did, and their names were Damon and Yuula.

Then (I can’t believe it!) Damon said he would let us ride his ship.

The ship moved on top of the water. First it went real slow and then it gradually built up speed. Shuri made a big deal about it. Yuna yelled at us not to fall out.

The ship went further and further away from shore. The cold wind blew on us. It was scary, but it was fun too. I think I probably wasn’t scared because Yuna was beside me. When Yuna’s there, I feel real peaceful.

Ever since I met Yuna, the scenery I saw changed a lot. She took me to the capital. This time she took me to the ocean. If I hadn’t met Yuna, I never would have seen this scenery.

Yuna…thank you.

 

The third day.

 

Once we got to the seaport, a pretty woman was sort of glaring at Yuna. She called out to her.

She was the guild master of this seaport’s adventurers’ guild, and her name was Atola. Yuna had helped out the seaport before, so she was kinda mad that Yuna didn’t come see her. That wasn’t good of Yuna. You really had to say hello to the people who helped you out.

At first Atola seemed mad, and I was worried she was scary, but then I talked to her, and guess what? She was nice! We talked about Yuna, and we even had a lot in common. Yuna saves a whole lot of people who are in trouble, doesn’t she? She’s so nice!

 

After that, we stuck with Atola. We went over to the market where they had all the fish they caught in the ocean. There were tons of fish I’d never seen before there. They were completely different shapes and sizes compared to the fish that swam in rivers.

There was also something that wriggled, but not like the fish. It looked a little gross, like it had a bunch of fins or arms. Could you really eat this? Yuna said that it was very yummy, but I think you’d need to be brave to eat something so slimy and wriggly.

 

The next place we went after the market was a place with shops, lined with food stalls. There were lots of different delicious smells coming from the food stands. When Shuri and I looked like we wanted to eat some, Atola and Yuna gave us money. Atola said it was a thank you for digging up the bamboo shoots.

“Yuna, thank you.” I thanked Atola, too. Then, I grabbed Shuri’s hand and we headed to the food stalls.

“Sis, let’s eat this one.” It said grilled squid on the sign. It smelled good! I bought one and Shuri and I split it. (We used to split small bits of food a lot in the past too.) It was a little tough, but it was good.

Since Shuri’s mouth got dirty from eating the squid, I used my handkerchief to clean her off.

Next up, we ate things with grilled fish and roasted vegetables. Shuri wanted to eat lots of things, but we couldn’t fit that much into our stomachs. The last thing we bought was seafood, and we had to try hard to finish it up.

I was stuffed. I couldn’t fit anything else in. Shuri wanted to eat more and more, so I just bought everything!

But then again, everything had been really good!

 

After that, we went back to Yuna, went to the trade guild, talked to people, and decided to go home tomorrow.

It was a very fun three days.

I do hope we come here again!