Chapter 28 Further onward.

  After resting for the final day of our week-long training session we left the town, now walking on stone paved roads towards our next destination. Salin the port city. It was rather large, with half a million people, and governed by a viscount, apparently this was only an average sized city. We picked up a few things before we left. Derrick wanted to sell them for a profit like merchants when we arrived.

  The journey would take us a month on foot, while it wasn't snowing now, it was still late February, snow could happen at any time, slowing our progress immensely. We hunted when we could, mostly finding small game to maintain our supplies, but on the second week a harsh blizzard rolled in, forcing us to make a dirt home from earth magic for shelter. We spent 3 days cooped up before the storm passed. Sarah had grown a bit bolder during our time stuck. And by the end of the second week me and Sarah had a talk where we ended up dating. She was ecstatic, I felt like I had set a death flag for one of us.

  She was the first of the group back when we were kids to support me and spent time playing alone with me. She was a bit more precious than anyone else in the party. While it goes without saying that Jean would be the first sacrifice should push come to shove-i mean this jokingly- the others were dependable friends. Nothing truly changed in the party, except for Alice getting a smug look when Sarah openly cuddled with me now instead of hiding beneath the blankets cuddling my tail. The next week we came across a few goblins brandishing clubs, nothing we couldn't handle. By the end of the month we were only a day away from Salin. As we made camp for the night Derek spoke up.

  “Salin…has problems… pirates and cutthroats…caravans said… the black swords… troubled them…they're mercenaries…without honor….”

  Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

  “Well we should be fine as long as we keep our heads down right? We get a contract or two, train a bit more, find a mentor if we can for Alice and get out of there.”

  Nods from all around, we weren't peacekeepers. Our job was to work for coin. No heroics beyond keeping our own safe. Jean speaks up as we eat some wild game he had hunted.

  “Think we should start spreading our name on request boards and such? We had a lucky break with that baron needing us then and there. I've even made a design for us.”

  Jean pulls out a small paper with a shield, a staff, a sword and a tail all behind it.

  “I never knew you could draw Jean.”

  Sarah chimes in.

  “Well, my dad was a mercenary too, you know? He trained me to be a cartographer so we could map the rest of the continents, he's responsible for our continent and the archipelago islands being so well mapped.”

  Jean brings out a few maps he's drawn of our travels. I always wondered why he insisted on getting a bird's eye view when we traveled.

  “I've gotten the skill ‘advanced cartography’and ‘drawing’. I'm probably the best choice we've got for making designs.”

  Jean says, puffed up with pride. We all say our piece about the drawing, Sarah only asking that the tail have my distinct Grey ring on it. Jean edits the picture and we all like the design. It incorporates all of us in a good way without being too flamboyant while the tail would certainly prove an identifying sign with it being pretty obvious it was based after my own. With nothing specific being based on Alice she had no issue with it, saying that technically the staff represented her as well as the tail. We had our night watch in 4 shifts, with me and Sarah taking the first. As we sat down on a small log we had felled, keeping watch I asked Sarah something.

  “Sarah, why me?”

  Sarah looks at the small fire we had burning for heat as she thinks.

  “Xion… do you even have to ask that? You're amazing, you're strong. You're cute, your tail is so fluffy it's like floating on a cloud in heaven. I've always liked you, even since we were kids. I only just gained the courage to tell you, and Alice wouldn't stop teasing me…”

  She says the last bit with a cute angry pout. We cuddled for the remainder of our watch, keeping our eyes and ears open even as we held each other close. Then when it was time for sleep she cuddled my tail just like always. We woke the next morning and resumed our travel to Salin, we would make it around midday should nothing else waylay us.