New disciple (1)

She dozed off for what seemed like seconds but in reality, were hours. When consciousness came to her, she could see behind her closed eyelids everything tinged orange, a sure warning that she shouldn't open her eyes. However, she still did it, trying first with just one before shutting it again fast. The merciless sunrays had greeted her, making her brain scream an acute buzz-like sound. Without an option, she lay sprawled, too heavy, and sore to move. Her mouth tasted like someone had just used it as a latrine and hadn't flushed it, and when she ran a hand through her hair, she wished she hadn't with how oily and dirty it was.

What had happened yesterday?

It took her a while before she could remember the events that led to her current state. She was supposed to be dead, but apparently, her soul found this body to inhabit. How did her soul transport itself into another world, she didn't know. What happened to its previous occupant? She didn't know either.

Not that she had the time to worry about it. She knew that when the people who contracted those men realized their cargo wouldn't arrive, they would send someone. And that someone would have an easy time finding them as she left the carriage and the dead men in the middle of the road.

F*ck. Why didn't she think of that before?!

That woke her up instantly. She sat up, glad that aside from the first bout of dizziness, her headache was nowhere to be seen. She looked around and after seeing Amycus sprawled across the dirt, she sighed. Taking advantage of this, she did the seven mudras to stabilize her internal energy.

It took her quite a while as she had to move her prana from the base of her spine to her hips, then below the naval to the heart. When she managed to pass it through her throat, she sighed in relief, though without lingering she directed it to her Third Eye before finally resting on the crown of her head. She repeated the cycle a couple of times, making sure to do their respective hand signs before she proceeded to wake Amycus up, feeling much better than before.

She almost cooed when she saw him yawn while rubbing an eye in a stereotypical fashion, but she didn't as it wasn't the time.

"Take out the map, Amycus," she said after seeing him more alive. "We've to go away. I just realized that people would send someone to look after those guys when they didn't meet up with their bosses."

That woke him up. Though before he could stay anything, they heard a growling sound. She instinctively put her guard up for a second before realizing the sound came from her, more specifically, her stomach.

"Right," she murmured, her cheeks heating up. It had been a couple of days since she last ate. And the reason why she didn't eat anything yesterday was that she didn't think she would be able to stomach any food without throwing up.

She nodded once without looking at Amycus. "Let's just eat while walking. We can decide our next step afterward."

"Okay," he freaking chirped, the humor practically dripping from his tone.

She sighed. Today would definitely be a hard day. She glanced at her wrist and when she saw its dull gray color, she hung her head. Definitely a hard day.

"It doesn't matter," she said aloud, slapping lightly her cheeks. She looked at Amycus, grabbing one of the bags with food and giving him a piece of dried meat, while she grabbed another. "Take this and let's look at the map and decide where we can hide. We can eat at the same time we plan."

Tilting his head in thought, he bit the meat and said slowly, "Well, we're near the high mountains. We could go to the border. I don't recommend it to go deeper because everyone says there are magical beasts."

She thought hard, biting her own meat without grace, her eyes squinting as she looked at the horizon. "Wait. I thought Valand wasn't known for its magical beasts, unlike Cethos."

He gave her a weird look as if questioning her intelligence. "Yeah, but that doesn't mean we haven't got any, just not the more powerful ones. And we're still known for our taming skills even if we haven't got a lot of magical beasts, you know? Not to mention that we're the best in alchemy and blacksmithing!"

His puffed up chest was a funny sight to see. Apparently, he was proud of his country.

"I thought Zadria was the best in Alchemy," she needled him, pointing at him with her piece of meat, mostly for fun.

"Yeah, sure! But! They focus on agriculture and, unlike us, they've got loads of medicinal herbs. We fight for the first place even when they got an unfair advantage over us. Not to mention, they have got the Medicine Hall there, so they think they're better, tsk tsk tsk."

She couldn't help it, she laughed out loud.

"Hey, what are you laughing about?! And why so loud, it's so unladylike!"

"Sorry, Amy. Let's just look over the map and decide where our next step will be," she said, patting his hair. He moved away easily enough.

"Humph! Okay, but really, you're a weird girl. And don't touch me that you're dirty."

Feeling her eye twitching, she grabbed him from the shoulders and proceed to give him a noogie. "Who are you calling dirty and weird, you little kid?!"

"Wait! Wait! You stink! Agh, your hand smell of meat."

They kept playing for a couple of seconds before going to their previous seats. They looked at each other and nodded as one and said at the same time, "We need a bath."

- -

Stinky Alula really needs a bath, like right now. Thought to be fair, she's been inside a cage for so long.

PS. Listening to Marina and the Diamonds, what about you? What's the last song you listened to?