First Companion

The loud sigh Thorny suddenly exhaled caused a couple of birds to fly away from the road they were walking on.

“Are you still sulking about that?”

Nona’s tone had been as gentle as usual when talking to Thorny. But somehow, she had managed to say the wrong thing again, because Thorny’s small wings started to flap furiously.

“No, I’m not ‘sulking’. I’m ANGRY! I can’t believe you gave up on that stone so easily.”

“Come on, it’s not like we were using it anyway. And it was just taking space in the bag.”

“ Oh, so you are telling me that the super-rare-and-for-sure-valuable gem occupied space in your inventory but those damn shells that are completely useless did not?!”

“But those shells are super pretty! I’m sure my sisters will love to see them when we come back home.”

Thorny sighed even louder than before.

“What did I do to be stuck with such a fool?” Nona was opening her mouth to answer when Thorny started moving his little arms up and down in exasperation. “ Don’t you dare to answer. It was rhetorical !!”

Nona remained silent for a few minutes while continuing walking through the paved path. When noticing that Thorny’s wings were moving at a more normal speed, she decided to talk again.

“Look, I know that the start of the trip was a bit more turbulent than expected. And I know you’d have preferred to avoid trouble with those knights–”

“They are not just ‘knights’, you dummy,” Thorny interrupted with a still grumpy tone. “I already told you before you decided to face them the first time that the Order of the Pink Daisy is not something you want to have as an enemy, especially where we are going. And not happy with ignoring me the first time, you decided to go and fight them again last night!”

“But they were trying to charge those poor traders an exorbitant sum of money just to cross a bridge that was not even theirs to begin with. And last night–”

“Yeah, yeah, I know, they were not being nice with that woman either and were abusing their authority and blah blah blah. But guess what: the real world is not the awesome, little village where you’ve been happily living until now. So if you want to have a slim chance to fulfill your mission and not die in the process, you better start being more selfish–”

Their conversation was interrupted when a shriek of fear invaded the area.

“It sounded around there!” Nona exclaimed, not wasting time running towards the source of the sound, which was deeper in the forest.

“Seriously, do you ever listen to anything I say?!” Thorny exclaimed while reluctantly flying behind Nona.

It didn’t take Nona much to pinpoint the owner of the emitted shout. A young man in his early twenties was on the top of a tree, after being cornered by a wolf pack. By basing on his patterned cloak and the grimoire he was sustaining in his trembling hands, for sure he was a mage.

“Good morning!” Nona’s greeting caused the six wolves forming the pack to turn around to look in her direction. After an initial assessment, they exchanged glances and focused on the mage once again, deciding that the man was an easier prey. “Do you need some help?”

The mage tsked from his spot on the tree. “No, I’m right where I want to be.”

Nona nodded, satisfied. “Perfect. I’m glad you are okay. Have a wonderful day then!”

She amicably waved her hand towards the astonished mage and turned around to leave. She had barely given a couple of steps when Thorny exhaled a patient sigh and pulled at one of her multiple rebel strands of hair, making her groan.

“Ouch! What was that for?”

“Do you remember our conversation regarding irony and sarcasm?”

Nona blinked, slowly, before an expression of understanding appeared in her face.

“ Oh . So do you think he was being ironic and actually needs help–?”

“OF COURSE I NEED HELP!!” The mage practically cried from the tree, because now the wolves seemed to be preparing to jump to the branch where he was.

Nona burst out laughing.

“You could have said that before!” She left her overflowing, bulky backpack on the ground and approached the wolves with unconcerned steps. Once she was close enough, she started making a shooing movement with her hands, causing the mage’s eyes to be about to pop out their sockets. “Come on, guys. Leave this man alone. He doesn’t want to play with you.”

The six wolves stopped their attempts to climb up the tree. However, after exchanging a new look, they howled at the same time.

“Oops, it looks like they are calling for–”

Thorny was still speaking when Nona rapidly crouched while jumping to the side, avoiding the lunge of the bigger, white wolf that had suddenly jumped from the closest bush.

“Cowards. They called for the boss,” Thorny commented as Nona continued avoiding the wolf attacks, while having the encouraging howls of the wolves and the mage’s occasional shrieks as the background soundtrack.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” Nona warned the wolf with a gentle tone, crouching in time to avoid a ferocious bite that was aimed at his head. “But if you don’t behave in the following three seconds, I will have to attack as well.”

The wolf huffed, as if he was offended by the warning, and jumped on Nona again, forcing her to do a cartwheel to avoid it.

“One…” Nona started counting calmly.

The wolf huffed again, and lowered his head while starting to walk back, clearly getting ready to attack once again.

“Two…” Nona said, placing her hand on her scabbard where she kept the short sword that she had inherited from her mother.

The wolf lunged against her, causing Nona to let out a short, apologetic sigh.

“I warned you.”

The wolf pounced on Nona with his mouth open wide, but the girl effortlessly avoided it while rapidly unsheathing her weapon. With a swift movement, she used the pommel of the sword to deliver a powerful hit to the top of the wolf’s head, causing this one to exhale a rather undignified whine while dropping on the ground, unconscious and with his tongue sticking out.

The wolves’ howls stopped instantly when seeing their boss defeated in one hit. They looked towards Nona, then towards the knocked out wolf, and finally towards Nona again. And then they sped up, running away with their tails between their legs while Thorny snickered and threw some small fireballs at them.

“Hehehe, serves you right!” he mockingly shouted before staring at the fallen wolf with his eyes shining. “It’s a pity you don’t let me get animals’ pelts. This isn’t a normal wolf, so for sure you could sell it at a better price.”

In the meantime, Nona sheathed her sword and approached the tree where the astonished mage was still hiding. She looked up and smiled at him, raising her arms.

“It’s safe now! Do you need help coming down?”

The mage gulped and shook his head. “N-No. No. I can do it on my own.”

It took the mage his good five minutes and a few curses to go down, since his cloak was stuck on the smaller branches a few times before the young man was on the ground again, blushing from effort and embarrassment.

“Jeez, it took you a while. How the hell were you able to go up there so fast?”

“I don’t know.” The mage blushed even harder before starting to look around at the ground. “Those beasts started going after me and I just ran as fast as I could. Damn where are they?”

“You mean this?” Nona said, crouching to recover a pair of glasses at the foot of the tree.

“Oh, yes.” The mage took the glasses that Nona was handing him and put them on. After that, he cleared his throat and made a short bow towards Nona. “Thank you for the help. I would probably be dead if it weren’t for you.”

“You’re welcome.” Nona smiled and extended her hand towards the mage. “My name is Nona. And this is my friend, Thorny.”

“I’m Adish,” the mage made a small grimace when Nona shook his hand effusively. “By the way, you look a bit young to be using boosters already. I know they can come in handy in battles, but the younger you use them, the sooner their effects will lose efficacy, not to mention the health issues a continued use can cause.”

Nona blinked, confused. “Uhm, thank you for the advice, but what do you mean with ‘boosters’?”

It was Adish’s turn to blink, even more confused. “Wait, are you telling me that you are that strong and fast without boosters? How is that even possible?”

“Well–”

“A woman always has to be prepared when travelling,” Thorny interrupted Nona. “And speaking of travelling, we should proceed. Have a nice day, four-eyes.”

Thorny started flying without looking back but Nona remained next to Adish, who had poorly concealed a gulp.

“Do you want to come with us?” she offered without hesitation, causing Thorny to stop in his tracks and throw a look at her. One of those looks that meant that he wasn’t agreeing with what she was doing.

“Where are you going?” the mage asked instead.

“To Hairur's Fence.” Nona cleared her throat, made a theatrical pause, and continued. “My poor aunt is really sick and alone and has no one on her side but her small, grumpy kitty, so we are going there with the only, not-dangerous-at-all purpose of taking care of her.”

Nona looked towards the imp with a wide smile, hoping to see the imp nodding with approval, or at least giving her a satisfied thumb up.

Thorny just facepalmed instead.

Nona frowned, confused. She was pretty sure that she had recited the story that Thorny had made her memorize without a single mistake. Okay, maybe she had added a couple of details, but it was to give the story more credibility to make sure the mage wouldn’t suspect anything.

“...You are making all that up, aren’t you?”

“Wait, how did you deduce that?! Can you read minds or something?” Nona exclaimed in shock, looking at Adish with admiration before repetitive thumps started to sound. Nona turned towards the sound and gasped. “Wait, Thorny! Stop bumping your head against that tree, you are going to hurt yourself!”

“A-Anyway,” Adish talked while Nona rushed towards her fallen bag to recover some food, “my destination also happens to be Hairur's Fence, so if you don’t mind, we could travel together.”

“Awesome!” Nona said while rapidly offering Thorny a small muffin, which instantly caused Thorny to stop hitting his head to devour it instead. “I have never met a mage before. You could show me one of your spells.”

Adish chuckled nervously while hugging his grimoire against him.

“Y-Yeah, sure. But let’s leave this area first. I wouldn’t like those wolves to come back seeking revenge from their leader.”