Extra Story: The Rookie Adventurers Part Three

Extra Story:
The Rookie Adventurers
Part Three

 

“I’M HEADED OUT.”

“Miss Yuna!”

“I’m going to take the bears and go in there to get Brandaugh and the others real quick.”

“It’s too dangerous! Tigerwolves are different from the forest guardian. They are ferocious!”

The chief was genuinely worried for me.

“That’s right. The guardian just ate all our crops when we did nothing, but tigerwolves will actually attack people.”

“Yuna, it’s dangerous.”

The villagers were genuinely concerned for me.

“Though it’ll cost some money, we’ll put up a quest at the adventurers’ guild, so please don’t be worried.”

Couldn’t they see they had an adventurer right in front of their eyes?

“But chief, what should we do? Who should we have go to the town? We can’t just wait for a merchant like last time.”

“And we need to do this quickly.”

“We should figure out what to do about Brandaugh before any of that, shouldn’t we?”

“I will say this as many times as I need to, but we will not go save Brandaugh. We just have to hope that he will make it back to the village.”

The village felt gloomy at the chief’s words. No one wanted to fight the tigerwolves. They knew they would die if they did. Was my only option to stay silent? I mounted Kumayuru.

“Miss Yuna?” said the chief.

“Just going out for a little stroll,” I replied, since persuading him of anything would be a pain. My eyes met with Marie’s.

“I’ve got Kumayuru and Kumakyu around, so I shouldn’t have any problems going out on a walk.”

I hoped my bears gave Marie some peace of mind.

“But…”

“I’m just going for a walk, so you don’t need to worry about me like that.”

“Yuna…” Marie said, looking at her feet.

“Miss Yuna,” the chief said in her place, “please do what you can.”

He bowed his head very low.

“I don’t know what you’re asking for. Just going for a walk.”

“Miss Yuna…”

“Okay, going to go for a bit of a stroll. Sorry Fina, but you wait here.”

“Yuna,” Fina said as she rushed over, seeming concerned.

“It’ll be fine. I’ve taken them down before.”

“Yeah, but be careful.”

 

I rode Kumayuru hell-for-leather. Kumakyu kept pace.

Bear detection revealed a lot of wolves, but no sign of Brandaugh. The tigerwolves were getting close. I needed to hurry, or things would hit the fan.

“Kumayuru, Kumakyu, mush.”

We thundered through the forest. I detected five people nearby. I wondered if it was the rookies and Brandaugh. If I sensed them, they had to still be alive. It looked like I was going to make it in time.

 

“Run, Horn!”

“Shin! A wolf went that way.”

“Where is the tigerwolf?!”

“Brandaugh! That’s dangerous.

“You guys go on ahead!”

“But—”

“This forest is my expertise! I’ll figure something out. Actually, you’d all just get in the way!”

I could hear their voices. It seemed like they were in a tight spot. Kumayuru ran faster. I caught sight of them; if I could see them, that meant they could see me.

“A bear!”

One of the boys pointed his sword at Kumayuru.

“You idiot, look closer!”

“It’s Miss Bear!”

I fired an ice arrow, drilling into the forehead of the wolf that had been chasing them. My second volley cleared out the others looming in the brush.

“Whoa.”

I realized they were that party with the guy who’d bopped my head yesterday. Fortunately for them, now wasn’t the time to get all bent out of shape about that.

“Kumakyu! You take over.”

I left Kumakyu to guard them and ran over to Brandaugh. He was standing on top of a pretty high rocky outcrop, his bow at the ready. I followed his sight line and spotted a tigerwolf weaving through the forest. He’d been laying down a curtain of suppressing fire on it.

Honestly, what was that man thinking? That whole thing about nice guys finishing last was true, apparently. Pulling that kind of move was a sure way to get mauled.

The tigerwolf slipped between arrow after arrow, veering to the left and right as it bore down on Brandaugh.

“Kumayuru!”

Kumayuru sped up, closing with the tigerwolf in an instant. Its body slammed the tigerwolf as it readied to pounce. Kumayuru took the impact well; I didn’t so much as move in my seat.

“Miss!”

“Long time no see, Brandaugh,” I said, raising my bear puppet to greet him.

“Why are you here?”

“I’m going for a walk,” I answered, my attention locked to the tigerwolf. It slowly stood up and looked in my direction.

“Miss, make a run for it!”

There was no way I could run with my target right there, regardless of what he said—that was my precious, precious pelt, after all. I got down from Kumayuru and confronted the tigerwolf.

“Miss,” said Brandaugh, “it’s dangerous.”

“Dangerous for who? You just had a baby, so you shouldn’t be putting yourself into danger anyway,” I said, not shifting my attention as I scolded him.

We didn’t have time to hold a long conversation. The tiger wolf glared, grit its teeth, and growled. If I didn’t have my bear gear, I’d be cowering around now. I closed in and loosed an air cutter. The tigerwolf detected the change in pressure and flipped clear of it in a very un-wolflike show of acrobatics.

At the same time, though, dodging wasn’t the same as acting of your own volition. It was something that your opponent forced you to do. I ate up the distance its dodge had built, fortified my body, and smashed it square in the side with a bear punch. Its body scraped against the ground.

Oh, I thought, maybe I hit it too hard, until the tigerwolf tried to stand back up. An arrow flew past my head and struck it straight in its right eye.

“Brandaugh?”

“I didn’t think you needed my help, but I saw an opening.”

The tigerwolf stood with the arrow still stuck in its eye.

“That might have made things worse.”

Brandaugh’s hand shook as he readied his bow. I could feel the aura of pure murder rolling off the tigerwolf’s body, too. I didn’t know whether it was a buff from the bear gear, my experience gaming, or just a security blanket thing, but I didn’t feel the kind of dread Brandaugh was feeling.

“It’ll be fine.”

The tigerwolf and I kicked off the ground simultaneously.

Even with one crushed eye, it avoided all of the bear cutters I fired. Still, Brandaugh had given me a blind spot to exploit. I juked right and caught it in a hail of compressed water bullets. The tiger wolf let out a scream as it collapsed, but rallied seconds later. It opened its gigantic mouth, like it wanted me intimately familiar with all its teeth. When it presented me with that opportunity, I shot an ice arrow straight down its throat.

Just when I thought its one-eyed glare meant it still meant business, it collapsed on its side.

“Did you kill it?”

It didn’t get back up.

“Seems like it.”

Brandaugh relaxed his bow.

“Miss, you saved me. Thanks.”

“I said it before, but I was just taking a walk, so don’t worry about it.”

“You’re so modest, even after saving my life.”

Brandaugh patted my head through the top of the bear hood, and I heard the bushes rustling behind us.

“Brandaugh, are you okay?”

The rookies had turned up.

“I’m pretty sure I told you all to run away.”

“Sorry. We were worried about you. Thank you for what you did earlier. If you hadn’t caused that diversion, we would have been…”

“Don’t worry about it. I just happened to be around at the right moment. I just happen to know more about this forest than you all do.”

“So were you the one who handled that tigerwolf, Brandaugh?” the rookie asked, looking at the arrow sticking out of the tigerwolf’s eye.

“Nah, this young lady took down the tigerwolf. I just took advantage of an opening she made.”

The rookies looked at me.

“This bear did that?”

Just as one of the boys mumbled that, I saw the girl next to him elbow him.

“He means thank you for everything you just did.”

“Thank you very much. You saved us.”

The four rookies politely bowed their heads.

“So what should we do with this guy? I’d like to take it back, but…” Brandaugh asked, looking at the dead tigerwolf.

“I’ll carry it.”

I went up to the tigerwolf and put it in my bear storage.

“Amazing as always. This has been bugging me for a while now—what’s with that white bear?”

Come to think of it, this was the first time Brandaugh saw Kumakyu.

 

When we got back to the village, the men were armed and the entrance was closed off.

“Brandaugh! You’re safe! And so are the adventurers!”

“Yeah, she gave us a hand.”

“Is that right? What a relief. You only just had a baby, so don’t make Marie worry.”

“Sorry about that.”

“So what happened to the tigerwolf? Is it nearby? If it isn’t, we were talking about going to the adventurers’ guild in town.”

“Oh, the tigerwolf’s dead. She killed it.”

“…Wha?”

All of the men had the same reaction.

“We’ll be fine now.”

“Is that really true?”

No one seemed to believe Brandaugh.

“But the tigerwolf is on another level compared to the guardian.”

“What good would lying about something like this do? I’ll explain the details later. Anyway, let me go to the chief so I can give my report.”

The men parted to the right and left to make a path. Brandaugh and I headed to the chief’s house together. Kumayuru and Kumakyu followed behind us, and the rookies trailed at the very end of the procession.

 

“Brandaugh, you’re back?!”

The chief and Marie came out from the chief’s house. Fina followed behind them.

“You’re not hurt?”

“I’m fine.”

Relief spread across Marie’s face.

“Well then, Brandaugh, what happened to the tigerwolf?” the chief asked.

“She killed it.”

“Is this true?!”

I thought it would be faster to show them the actual thing than explaining it, so I took the tigerwolf out of bear storage. They looked at the body in disbelief. When the chief saw it was dead, he bowed his head.

“Miss Yuna, thank you very much. You have my sincere gratitude for rescuing Brandaugh and going so far as to defeat the tigerwolf. Though it doesn’t amount to much, please allow us to pay you as thanks.”

“I just happened to be on a walk, and I just so happened to discover Brandaugh and coincidentally beat a tigerwolf. I don’t have a reason to take money from the village.”

“But…” the chief seemed like he wanted to say something, but he couldn’t get the words out.

“Plus, with the baby just being born, I couldn’t let Marie become a widow.”

“Yuna…” Marie smiled at me, wiping her tears away. Right then, Yuuk reached out his arms as far as he could get them from within Marie’s arms.

“Yuuk?”

Yuuk was reaching out towards the tigerwolf’s corpse. Marie sunk down to her knees while still holding Yuuk, and he grabbed the tigerwolf’s fur.

“Yuuk?”

When Marie tried to pull Yuuk’s hand from the fur, he started to cry. When she got flustered and let his hand go, he latched onto the tigerwolf’s pelt again.

“Yuna, I’m so sorry. I’ll make him let go right now.”

When Marie pried Yuuk’s hand away, he really started crying. She rocked him to the best of her ability, but he just wouldn’t stop. It seemed like he just really liked the pelt.

“Marie, please accept this tigerwolf as your son’s late birthday gift.”

“But…I can’t accept that. I’ll get him to calm down.”

Nevertheless, Yuuk wouldn’t stop crying from within Marie’s arms.

“Why won’t he stop crying for me?”

I ended up laughing watching Marie working her hardest to soothe her baby.

“Ha ha. Marie, please take it. Chief, the pelt is for Yuuk, but the village can use the meat any way it sees fit.”

“Are you sure?”

I nodded.

 

After that, we had Fina butcher the tigerwolf. The villagers were pretty shocked at how quickly she worked. We divvied up the pelt and meat as we’d agreed.

 

While I was watching Fina’s butchering operation, the rookies came over.

“Um, do you have a sec?”

“What is it?”

“Thank you very much.”

They lowered their heads.

“If you hadn’t come when you did…”

“We might have been goners.”

“Also, I’m sorry we were rude to you at the adventurers’ guild.”

“Um, please forgive Shin. He didn’t mean it badly. Everyone told us that you were terrifying and violent, so when we saw you were so cute, he thought it was a practical joke.”

“We had no idea you were that strong. We’re just rookies; we figured it was a hazing thing. If you’re at all like the rumors say, please just take me. The others didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Could I ask you something? What did they tell you at the adventurers’ guild?”

“Well…”

They told me the same thing Helen did. But as for what the other adventurers had told them… It looked like I had some punishment to dole out when I got back to Crimonia.

 

“Are you really going home? It’s already late, so please stay the night.”

“It would be fine if I was alone, but I’ve got this one here,” I said, and put my hand on Fina’s head. “We came here without telling her parents. I don’t want to make them worry.”

“Yes, you’re right. We certainly can’t keep you. Yuna, thanks again for everything you did this visit.”

“I’ll come again on another walk.”

“Yeah. I’ll be waiting. Please come again at your own leisure too, Fina.”

“Yes, I’ll look forward to it,” Fina said, and smiled at them.

The rookies were staying for a while to keep wolf hunting. I mounted Kumakyu, Fina mounted Kumayuru and we hurried back to Crimonia, but by the time we got there, the sun had set and we ended up getting in trouble with Tiermina.

Fina, sorry for getting you involved in this.