Extra Story: Mileela’s Damon

Extra Story:
Mileela’s Damon

 

THE SUDDEN ARRIVAL of a kraken in the town of Mileela robbed us of our ability to go out to sea. The only highway to other towns was overrun with bandits, so we couldn’t travel along that either. The rich had left.

In a month, the seaport had a food shortage.

After talking with my family, I decided to climb over the Elezent mountain range to buy food in Crimonia. My wife Yuula and I climbed the steep mountain to get there—we heard that it was possible, despite the danger. But as we got closer to the summit, a strong snowstorm obscured our vision until we couldn’t see in front of us.

Every single step was a nightmare. We grew numb and couldn’t walk. There was nowhere to avoid the storm…and then something fell down behind me. Yuula had collapsed. I shouted to her over the roaring storm, but she didn’t move. I tried to carry Yuula on my back, but I was too weak.

My body was at its limit too. I thought of the children. It was no use. Bit by bit, darkness swallowed me.

 

When I woke up, I was in a warm house with…a girl in a bear outfit? She gave me something warm to drink and something to eat. The food was delicious, and its warmth spread through my shivering body.

All of that was shocking enough, but then I found out the house itself was in the mountain range.

The girl in the bear outfit split her provisions with us. She said that showing her around Mileela would be thanks enough for her, so we ended up going back the way we came down the mountain.

We went down on bears, of all things. Apparently, these were the bear girl’s summons. The bears easily clambered down the mountain we toiled so hard to climb. It was downright dreamlike.

After days of mountain climbing, we returned home in less than a day.

 

All kinds of things happened after the bear girl came to the seaport. Food appeared. The bandits on the highway were subdued. On top of that, the trade guild master was implicated in a plot with the bandits.

We could travel on the highway, so a caravan headed out to buy food. Sure, it would take time, but we had hope. All thanks to the bear girl…

 

Since there was a kraken in the ocean, I’d been staying at home—no point in a fisherman like me going out, after all—when all the fishers were instructed to gather under old man Kuro’s name. Many fishers were already gathered at the rendezvous point by the time I arrived.

Old man Kuro came before us and told us we were to stay at home and not go near the ocean under any circumstances the day after tomorrow.

“What’s going on, old man Kuro?” I asked.

“You know what you need to know, lad. Under no conditions are you to approach the ocean on that day, hear me?” We were already avoiding the ocean on account of the kraken, but it was odd for old man Kuro to go out of his way to give us one specific day to especially avoid it.

“For better or worse,” he continued, “the seaport’s fate will be decided then. If the worst happens, I will take responsibility for it. But on that day, do not approach the ocean.” Stubborn old Kuro bowed his head low, looking pretty serious for a man who had just told us to keep doing the thing we’d already been doing.

“Old man Kuro,” I said, “we understand, so please raise your head. We have no idea what’s going to happen, but we trust you. We’ll follow your instructions. Right, everyone?”

“Yes, that’s right.” We vowed to old man Kuro that we absolutely wouldn’t go near the ocean on that day.

Still, I found myself so troubled by old Kuro’s words that I couldn’t stay cooped up in my house that day, so I went for a walk around the seaport to distract myself.

Even walking around town, I couldn’t help but wonder what was happening with the ocean. I didn’t have to go near it to see what was going on. Just a little closer, and…

Odd. The adventurers’ guild staff were standing in front of the seaport exit gate as though they were blocking it. I tried talking to them, but they stonewalled me. “We’re not letting anyone through today.”

Just what was going on? Did it have to do with old Kuro’s warnings?

 

I tried a few other angles to get a look before, suddenly, a commotion broke out at the gate. At the center of it…was the bear girl, collapsed on her white bear.

What had happened to her? The adventurers’ guild master was trying to go in with the bear, but the gate guard seemed troubled about whether to let the bear through.

Huffing and furious, the guild master quietly scolded everyone: She said that the bear girl had defeated the kraken.

Hold on, she’d defeated the kraken?

That was ridiculous…right? But she said that the girl had defeated the kraken on a cliff just a little way from here. But the bear girl had used up too much mana fighting the kraken and collapsed.

It couldn’t be real. I mean…could it?

Well, the guild master told us we’d see it if we headed over. Several men, me included, ran to the cliff to check if our seaport was saved.

When I got to the cliff, panting with exhaustion, a terrific amount of steam rose all around. I was sweating something awful, but where was the steam coming from? I followed it…several gigantic bear statues appeared from the steam, rising from the ocean and surrounding a dead kraken.

I couldn’t believe that the girl in such a cute bear outfit could’ve done this. I mean, people talk about not believing something till you see it with your own eyes, but even seeing it wasn’t helping much. Still, the kraken that had tormented us was unmistakably dead in the boiling ocean.

Something rolled down my cheek. Oh, I…I was crying. I hadn’t even noticed. Flustered, I wiped away my tears. I wasn’t the only one crying, though—the others who ran over with me were sobbing too.

The kraken lay below us, defeated at last.

 

I headed to Deigha’s inn where the girl was staying.

She’d apparently collapsed from exhaustion from her fight with the kraken. The guild master, Atola, asked us to let her rest, since she was sleeping so peacefully right now.

I understood, but I wanted to thank her—we all did—and before long there was a crowd of townspeople gathering around the inn.

Atola and the innkeeper Deigha finally addressed us: “If you want to help, bring rice for her. Even a slight amount would be fine. Out of all food, that one will really make her day.”

Murmurs all around, then. “Rice, you say?”

“Will that really make her happy?”

“Yeah, I bet it will. When she wakes up, I’m sure she’ll be over the moon.”

“Right. Better than making a ruckus and waking her with it.”

We all headed home—it sounded reasonable—and I told my family about it. We picked what little rice we had for her (there was nothing else I could offer), and I brought my daughter with me to the inn so we could give her the gift.

There were already several other townspeople there, pouring the rice into a giant barrel that it looked like Deigha had prepped. Limited as our food supplies were, everyone was still eager to bring the girl rice from their limited food supplies.

My daughter poured our rice into the barrel too. “Dad, do you think this will make the bear girl happy?”

“Yeah, I’m sure it will.”

She smiled. “Thank you, bear girl.” My daughter held my hand and said her thanks. I really wanted to thank the bear girl in person, but this was all I could manage for now.

The girl had battled something so nightmarish, so incredible, that I couldn’t even imagine the ordeal. She had probably risked her life in that fight. I mean, I’d seen her collapsed on that white bear.

She deserved a good rest.

 

The next day, I headed out to the ocean. The sway of the boat, the smell of the sea—it was like coming home. A smile snuck up on my face—and not just mine. All of us sailors were smiling. It’s hard to explain to an outsider, what the ocean means to us.

After I caught fish and headed back, I was asked to come to the nearby beach, since we’d be harvesting the kraken. The bear girl and old man Kuro waited for us there.

The waves had hidden just how massive the kraken was. We ended up splitting the work to harvest it.

I’d heard that the kraken materials were all going to the seaport—the bear girl had done that for us too. No way I’d believe somebody would do that…or I never used to think somebody would. She could have asked us for an inordinate amount of money for her deed, but she didn’t ask for a thing.

If I weren’t here—if any of we townspeople hadn’t seen it with our own eyes—I don’t know if we’d have believed it.

 

The girl in the bear outfit really was a mystery.

The townspeople were grateful to her, but things started to get hectic after she saved the seaport. The feudal lord of Crimonia came by: They’d discovered a tunnel connecting us to that town. They said that the bear girl had come across it, but I didn’t buy it. If any tunnel like that had existed, she never would’ve gone out of her way to climb up the Elezent mountain range.

She’d slain the kraken. I wondered what else she might be capable of…

Since the tunnel had been discovered, we were going to have food delivered from Crimonia, but we’d need to secure a route for the carriages to travel along. It was all pretty urgent, so the new trade guild master Jeremo had his work cut out for him.

Heh. It cracked me up, thinking about that dawdler becoming guild master, but…he was an all right guy, all things told. With him serving as guild master, the trade guild would do well for us all.

 

Now, after all of that, I had business at the trade guild—with Jeremo, specifically.

“Heya, Jeremo! Looks like you’re busy.”

“Is that you, Damon? Looks like you’ve got time on your hands.”

“Ha! No, I was out working in the ocean today, as usual.”

“Sounds like fun. I’d like that.”

“If you ever come along, be sure to thank that girl again for opening the waters to us. And now we have so many orders for fish from your trade guild.”

Jeremo rubbed his temples. “You sure do. We’ve had it rough here. I’ve got to manage the food coming in from Crimonia, the distribution of the seafood—and—why’d I end up in this mess?”

“Because that’s the kind of man you are. You work your butt off for the seaport.”

Jeremo snorted. “I work hard? News to me…and to all the people who talk about me.”

“I also know you’ve been kind to the townspeople.”

“Bit of an overstatement.”

“Oh, shut it. You’re a good guy, Jeremo, and you always seem more surprised about it than everybody else.”

Right then, Anabell—the guild worker from Crimonia—appeared. She seemed like a…hmm. How do I put it? Let’s call her a thorough and inflexible woman.

Jeremo jumped. “Anabell?”

“You do try to skip out on work,” she said, “but the townspeople like you. The moment I dropped your name and said you needed help, the lot of them were willing to lend a hand. They send you things, you know. Yes, I feel like I understand why the elders chose you to be the guild master.” She tilted her head. Inexplicably, I thought of knives. “But I do wish you would stop skipping out on your work.”

Jeremo offered a sheepish smile. “Uh, could we call this a break?”

“How many hours has it been, now, Jeremo?” Yep, that was a knife-look. “The future of this seaport rests on your shoulders.”

“My delicate frame, you know, ah…” He cleared his throat. “I don’t know if I could carry something quite so heavy.”

“Then you’re fine with the seaport going to ruin?”

“No, no. I’m simply saying that it could be someone else who does this. You, for instance.”

Anabell shook her head. “If I were to do it, the seaport’s revival would take ages. After all the disasters this place has suffered, they need someone they can trust. We both know that I’m not that person.”

“And we both know that I’m not the greatest of—”

I broke in: “Quit it, Jeremo. You know who else trusts you? Me. Since I know it’s you, I can entrust the fish I catch to the trade guild—no, to everyone here in seaport, working in harmony—without worrying.”

Jeremo turned to me, bleary-eyed. He must’ve been pulling some rough all-nighters. “Damon, come on. Do I look like I’d actually be motived to work just because you said that?”

“Heh. No way.” Jeremo and I burst into laughter.

He didn’t look it, but Jeremo was a guy who got things done.

 

Later that day, I headed out to the ocean. A few other fishers sailed along with me—by coincidence—and on the gentle waves, we drifted past the place where the girl had slain the kraken. The gigantic backs of the bear statues loomed, and we sent our thanks.

The sea waited, with all of her bounty, and my heart swelled with gratitude that we could visit it once again in peace and safety.

 

Thank you.