Day 3

I woke up next to Sofia. Not wanting to wake her, I quietly grabbed my things and stepped out of the tent. Fully dressed now, I walked off into the woods and did my business. While I was going number 1, I heard grunting, as well as repetitive thud sounds. Following the noise, I found Lucille, her sword in her off hand, as her right arm was still in its splint. She was repeatedly swinging her blade at a tree, chipping away at it.

“I don’t think you’re gonna cut it down with a sword. An axe, sure, but probably not a sword,” I said, walking up behind her. She jumped, startled.

“Ah, Flynn, it’s you.” she said, relaxing. She struggled to sheath her sword with her left hand, but eventually managed it.

“What are you doing out here alone so early?” I asked.

“Training,” she replied. “If I cannot fight, I am of no use. I cannot merely be a burden to you all. Thus, I must learn to fight with my left hand.”

She drew her sword again, after some trial and error. Then she resumed her practice swings, missing the target spot on the tree more often than not. It was getting painful to watch.

“Hey, stop that for a second.” I said. She did, turning back to me. “You aren’t a burden, Lucille. You’re our precious friend and a member of our party. You could never be useless. So how about instead of running yourself ragged like this, you teach me how to properly use a sword instead?”

“T-thank you Flynn,” she blushed. “Alright. I will teach you. But be warned, I won’t go easy on you. You may find my teaching to be a bit more than you can handle. Are you okay with that?”

“Yeah. After seeing how you handled yourself against those bandits yesterday, I knew I’d need more than just luck to keep on winning fights like this. Proper instruction is just what I need. So I won’t back down!” I declared. She smirked and picked her sword back up.

For the next hour or so, she instructed me in the basics of swordplay. By the end of the hour, I had swung my blade more than I ever have. My arms were burning. My legs were sore from going through footwork exercises. My back ached from her constant realignment of my posture. In short, she was right.

“I think we can leave it there for now. You’re improving rather quickly. We can continue tonight after dinner,” she said. I sluggishly nodded, following her back to camp. The others were awake and had already prepared a light dinner.

“I’m all out of ingredients,” said Flora. “This meager breakfast was all we could muster. Sorry everyone.”

“No, no, it is more than enough. Thank you, Flora,” said Lucille.

“We should try and do some hunting as we go on today,” said Sofia, biting at her food. “We only have so much dried meat left.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” I said. We peacefully ate our meal and packed up camp.

“Everyone,” said Flora. We all turned to her. “I was thinking last night...and I decided that we should all just head back to Regnus.”

“Huh? Why?” asked Sofia.

“L-Lucille’s arm. It’s horribly injured because of me,” said Flora. “We’re still a few days from our destination. We should just turn back and get her to a healer.”

“But, we’re kinda low on time here,” said Sofia. “And not just us, so are you, Flora! You need to deliver those goods to Hearthvale soon, or you’re gonna go under!”

“Who cares! The health and safety of everyone is much more important than-” Flora started.

“Than what?” Asked Lucille. “What about your parents? They rely on you. If you can’t send any money home, then what happens? They’ll be in trouble as well. I’m fine. It isn’t life threatening. We should head on.”

“But what if you get attacked again? You wouldn’t be able to fight back, and then they’d-”

“If we get attacked, my friends will help protect me,” she said, placing her full trust in us. “Besides, I’m not completely useless without my right arm. Anyone fool enough to come at me will be in for a surprise.”

“L-lucy!” Flora began tearing up, hugging Lucille.

“There there,” Lucille said, patting her on the head. Lucille gave me a smile, which I returned.

“Alright. Now that that’s settled, let’s keep on going. I’ll take the front now. Sofia take the rear, Lucille, stay next to Flora.” I said. They all nodded and we began to continue on, following the river upstream. After a few hours of walking, we happened upon a man standing at the riverbank, holding a fishing rod in the water with a bucket full of fish beside him.

“Hello, sir!” Flora called out.

“Hm? Ah, hello there travelers!” the older man called back. “How’s the day find you?”

“We are well, sir,” said Lucille, formal as ever.

“Well that’s good to hear. These woods have been getting dangerous of late, and by the looks of it, you all weren’t spared,” he said, reeling in a new fish before grumbling and tossing it back.

“Ooh, Flynn!” Sofia said, rushing up to me. “How about we rest here for a bit?”

“Sounds good to me,” I said. “It’ll give us a chance to redress Lucille’s arm. Plus, fishing seems like a great way to restock...”

“I’ll help Flora with Lucy. You just handle the old dude,” she said, trotting off to the other girls who were already down by the riverbank, letting the mule drink. I walked down the bank, next to the old man.

“You wouldn’t happen to have a spare rod, would you?” I asked.

“You kiddin me? I always keep a spare handy. All fishermen worth their salt do,” he said, handing me the spare fishing rod.

“Thanks,” I said, casting my line out into the river.

“You ever done much fishing?” he said, casting his own line.

“I used to go with my dad back when I was little,” I said. “Seems so long ago now.”

“I feel you there, stranger. These days seem to be going by so quickly. Ever since good King Uther died, the world’s been sliding down a path I don’t quite like. And with the rise in monster attacks, it feels like even the Demon King’s defeat isn’t gonna last.” he sighed, dumping his fish in the bucket.

“What do you mean?” I asked. “The demon king was killed, wasn’t he?”

“Aye. Least, that’s what they say. But in my experience, bigger monsters becoming more frequent can only signal that something is behind it. And usually, it’s a demon king,” he said, casting out again.

“Wait, is the demon king isn’t just one demon?” I asked, patiently holding my rod.

“Eh? Don’t they teach kids anything anymore? Bah. A demon king is just the term for a powerful leader of monsters and your typically, er, less sociable races,” he said, reeling in another fish.

“Hm...so that means there can even be multiple demon kings at once?” I asked.

“Naturally,” he said. “Ooh, look! You’ve got one!”

“I do? I do!” I exclaimed, quickly reeling it in. The old man eagerly coached me through the process, and before I knew it, I had my first fish.

“Good work,” he said, congratulating me. “Here, tell you what. Go ahead and take the rest of the fish in the bucket.”

“Huh? Really!?” I asked incredulously.

“Yeah, go on. I see you all need them more than I do. Besides, I can refill that bucket in an hour anyway,” he said. I graciously accepted his generous offer, and he even let me keep the fishing rod, saying, “give a man a bucket of fish and teach him how to catch them, and he’ll...er, how’d it go again? Bah. Whatever. You know what they say.”

With Lucille’s arm rebandaged, we bid the old man farewell and good luck as he went back to fishing. After a few more hours of travel, we came upon a stopping point at sunset once more.