689 First Ally

Imperia sat up and rubbed her head, brushing off the mud and leaves and... just... filth that was covering her. 

Without the thin layer of warmth, the sharp cold bit into her skin...

Someone had deliberately protected her while she was unconscious. 

But... who?

...Or what? 

A loud crack shocked Imperia into a state of hyper-awareness. Then she heard it again... clinking away with near-even repetition. 

Slinking away, she quietly lowered her body into the marshwater... 

It was cold.

She circulated her mana to keep warm... and to keep any strange swamp creatures from thinking she was easy prey. 

Swimming silently around the reeds, Imperia spotted a human girl in the distance. She was clumsily smashing a rock against another rock like a savage. 

What was she doing? If she was trying to make a fire, that... was not that way to go about it. 

...Was it the human child who had rescued her?