Chapter 6: The Caravan

Even after that, Nalia still spent most nights together with Elise, only going into her Room (that was what she started calling it) once in a while. But after a few days passed, Elise told Nalia about a new training plan involving it.

“Practicing moving in and out of the Room?” The fairy spoke doubtfully.

“Yes.” Elise confirmed “It would be a pretty useful technique in combat. You’d be able to dodge dangerous attacks by moving into the mindscape, and then coming back out to resume the fight.”

“Is it really possible to do that?” Nalia asked.

“Yes. There’s records of contractors doing such in battle. But it seems to be pretty difficult, given that only a very small fraction ever learned that skill.” She shook her head “None of them left behind instructions on how one would do it either.

“It’s easy to just go in and out in calm situations, it is harder to do it in dangerous conditions, and even harder to do it fast and accurately enough to be worth using in battle.”

“So we’ll have to train and train, slowly getting better at it until we reach that level, right?” Nalia said “I don’t think this is the sort of thing that would require instructions.”

“You’d think so, but if it was easy more people would have figured it out. Maybe it’s just really difficult and most contractors would prefer to spend their time training their partners directly, maybe there’s some special trick, perhaps related to the connection between real and mindscape or something.”

“I guess we really won’t know until we try it.”

“Yeah, and this isn’t the only contractor skill I want to learn, but the other one is something I have to work through myself.” Elise replied.

“What is this other skill?”

“Healing.” Was the answer “I should be able to slowly heal you while inside the mindscape.”

“That sounds… Like something that would be really helpful.” Nalia said.

“Yeah, and thankfully there are even instructions on how to learn it, but…” Elise said.

“But?”

“But learning something isn’t the same thing as mastering it.” She shook her head “The most basic level of this skill is only enough to heal scratches, and while it is possible to get better with practice, that’s not the only factor in play.”

“So, what else is required to master that skill?” Nalia asked, genuinely curious.

“No one really knows, and that’s the problem.” Elise sighed “A lot of research was done by a lot of people, but no one managed to reach a satisfactory conclusion. Some people manage to become good enough to heal even deadly wounds in just a year or so, while others can never manage anything more than medium injuries after a lifetime as contractors.”

“And no one knows why that is.” Nalia understood.

“Yep. And when those who mastered it are asked about this, they all say that they never did anything special, just normal practice. And that happened enough times that they couldn’t all be lying to conceal something.

“And people often just say that this is due to talent, but it’s not like talent is some sort of intangible, incomprehensible quality that just makes you do better than normal.” Elise started getting worked up “Talents are individual characteristics that match well with whatever activity you’re ‘talented’ at.”

“What sorts of characteristics?” Nalia asked.

The conversation was just getting more and more interesting for her. And it was clear that this particular subject was something her big sister was very passionate about.

“If you want some specific examples, there’s my sisters: Miona is a pretty obvious case of a physical characteristic giving her an advantage, as she has a special pair of eyes that can perceive and analyze the world on a deep level, while Larina’s talent was a mental characteristic, she was simply good at understanding the state of her own body, allowing her to come up with the best way to train her physical abilities.” Elise sighed.

‘And she was also crazy enough to actually go through with it.’ The girl thought to herself. She decided not to say it since that tangent had already gone on for too long.

“The point is, no one has been able to figure out which traits could be responsible for someone being talented at healing contract partners. Regardless, I’ll just have to do my best to get better at it. If it’s not working, then I’ll think of a solution.”

“I understand.” Nalia replied “Then I guess we should start training now.” She understood Elise enough to know that’s what would come next.

She could ask more about the subject of training later on.

+0+

As expected, there wasn’t much progress over the following days. Both of them understood that it was going to be a long term project. Nalia also asked Elise about the method to learn the healing skill, since the girl hadn’t actually mentioned it at the time.

The reply was that one simply had to focus on their contract partner inside the mindscape and will them to become better, while also trying to provide energy for such. It was indeed a very vague method, but it was enough to allow any contractor to learn the skill, if not master it.

Nalia also asked whether she would need to be injured for Elise to practice it:

“Thankfully no.” The girl smiled “The small scratches and fatigue you get from training are already enough to practice on, and it will be easy to tell I’ve learned it by paying attention to your physical state.”

“You can heal the fatigue from training?”

“Not completely, but I should be able to help with it.” Elise replied, still smiling.

Nalia smiled back at her, thankful for the consideration. Then she had a sudden thought and smiled wryly.

“Something wrong?” Elise asked.

“I just realized that I’ve completely forgotten to ask you where we were going, even though it’s been weeks.” Nalia replied.

“I don’t blame you. We’ve been training really hard this whole time.

“The place where we’re going is called Forest of Theremis. I asked around the village and got information about this region, and that was the place that interested me the most out of all the possible destinations nearby.”

“What made you interested in that forest?” Nalia asked.

“There are supposedly beastkin of all kinds living there. I thought that maybe one of them could become my second contract partner, and even if that doesn’t happen, it will still be interesting to explore.” Elise said.

‘So that means Elise wants to get more partners…’ Thinking of that, Nalia felt… Glad, honestly. She understood that the path Elise wished to follow (and which she had agreed to go along with) was a very tough and dangerous one, so having more comrades to fight alongside with would make it easier to face the trials on their path.

‘And Elise wouldn’t need to take on a direct role in combat, meaning it would be less likely for her to be injured.’ The more she thought about it, the more Nalia found herself liking the idea.

“I guess I should prepare myself to get a little sister.” She joked “By the way, how many partners do you want to have?”

“I don’t have a specific number in mind. If I find someone who could be a good partner on our journey and who would be able to get along well with my other sisters, then I’ll offer her a contract.” Elise said.

“I think we’re gonna end up having a lot of people around, then.” Nalia said.

Elise had managed to gain her respect and admiration in less than a day, and her offer to join on a dream far bigger than Nalia could have ever imagined was tempting enough for the fairy to choose to leave her old life behind.

And ever since accepting the contract, Nalia had seen Elise’s sheer dedication to that dream, and to her partner. The fairy was sure that there would be others who would be charmed by Elise in the same way.

“That would be nice. I’m sure my sisters would be happy to have a bunch of new people joining them at once.”

+0+

The days passed, and the duo finally left the forest and emerged on what was unmistakably a well-traveled trail.

“Are we gonna join a merchant caravan?” Nalia asked. The fairies traded with such caravans pretty often.

“Yeah. I even got a few things in the forest to trade for it.” Elise replied “Unusual herbs and flowers, mostly. They’re rare enough for merchants to be interested.”

“Makes sense. So are we going to stay here and wait for one to come by?”

“That’s the plan. We still have a lot of training to do, so it’s not like we’re gonna be bored.”

“I don’t think I’ll ever be bored while I’m together with you.” Nalia spoke with complete honesty.

After that, Nalia used her magic to put down a good amount of large red stones at regular intervals on the edges of the trail. That was the traditional way the fairies of her village used to signal that they wanted to do business with passing merchants.

After that the two continued their training together while waiting. They didn’t even have to wait long, since that was a popular trail, and it took only four days before they heard the sounds of something coming closer.

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They had been doing their training pretty close to the point marked with the stones, so they had time to move towards the middle of the trail before the origin of the sounds had even become clear.

It was the noise of dozens of heavy animals carrying heavy cargo rushing through the trail at a higher speed than one would think possible for beasts that weighted so much. And soon enough both Elise and Nalia spotted them in the distance.

They were quadrupeds who were as tall and large as two men stacked together, their faces were lizard-like and had mouths big enough to swallow people in a single bite, their legs were thick and strong, as they had to support their massive bodies, and they were carrying tons of people and cargo.

Those animals were called Venuros, and one could imagine how strong they were from the way their movement speed was as fast as the galloping of an ordinary horse, despite the burden they were carrying, and they could maintain that pace for around two days in a row without needing to rest.

They were the most famous beasts of burden in the world because they were also fairly docile and easy to train, so one could see them in the employ of numerous groups all over the world, and they were considered important strategic resources for the countries that reared them.

The merchant in charge of the caravan spotted the red stone markings and told the man currently guiding the Venuros to stop, because there was business to be done. He was a tall, black man who was wearing fancy, but still travel-worthy clothes.

The caravan slowed to a stop as Elise walked up to it and began to speak:

“Hello. My name is Elise, and she is Nalia. I wish to join this caravan for a bit, and I have goods to trade in exchange.” She spoke concisely.

“I am Liros, the merchant in charge of this caravan. What sorts of goods do you have?” Was the reply.

“I have rare plants from the center areas of the Forest of Dawn.” That was the common name of the forest they had just left, which the fairies simply called ‘Birthplace’.

“I believe this Blue Crystal Flower would be enough to pay for transport. And I have other goods of a similar rarity that I could also trade with interested parties.” While speaking, she pulled out a beautiful blue flower with a crystal stem and held it up.

Knowing what she wanted, Nalia used her magic to lift said flower from Elise’s hands and slowly float it over to Liros.

The merchant examined the floating plant without touching it to confirm its identity. The Blue Crystal Flower was something that the fairies of the forest traded sometimes, so he was well aware of it.

Said flower was not a common sight, even for the fairies themselves, so trades involving it were far from enough to meet the demand, as the Blue Crystal Flower was valued not only for its aesthetic beauty, but also for having many practical uses, mostly in medicine.

It was certainly enough to pay for the right to travel on the caravan for a long time.

“I accept.” Liros decided and opened his hand.

Nalia deposited the flower on it, and then the merchant told one of his subordinates to find their new passenger a place to sit.

Elise quickly rushed towards the caravan and went to the right side of it under the direction of said subordinate (who was a woman with blueish skin). A small two-step staircase-like platform was unfolded to help her climb onto one of the Venuros.

Now that she was up there, Elise could see that they were all tied to and carrying a huge flat platform, something that could be likened to a palanquin, said platform was covered by a red mat. The passengers were being carried atop of that platform, along with most of the cargo (while some of it was on sacks hanging on the sides of the beasts).

The woman (who introduced herself as Alissa) guided Elise to a spot in the middle of two heavy crates that were secured by large ropes. It would be too small for an adult to comfortably sit on, but was just right for the young girl.

Once she was seated, Liros commanded the caravan to resume its travel, and soon enough the Venuros had accelerated back to their regular traveling speed.

The whole exchange had taken less than five minutes. Everything was done quite efficiently, because having passengers join in on merchant caravans to move from place to place was quite common, Elise not even being the only such passenger in that caravan at the time.

Their transport secured, Elise and Nalia had taken a large step towards their next adventure.

+0+

The caravan’s pace was quick as they traveled on the trail, but there would be stops three times per day in order for the Venuros to be fed (and the people would eat too), during those times Elise could move around and interact with the other passengers.

She did do some trading, but not that much. She bought a few traveling rations, since it would be much harder to scavenge for food now that they were out of the forest and she didn’t want to eat her food pills unless it was an emergency. She also bought a tiny purple crystal shard that Nalia wanted.

Besides that, Elise mostly just talked with the other people, hearing their stories and sometimes taking note of places she would like to visit in the future. No one asked about her background during those conversations (which seemed to be an unspoken rule) but they did ask what she was currently doing, to which Elise honestly replied that she was on a journey to improve as a contractor.

Some people had already guessed that she was a contractor based on the fairy accompanying her, so that didn’t really come as a surprise to them.

Besides stopping to eat, the caravan would also stop once it got dark, mostly because it was a bit dangerous to travel through that area while visibility was low. Most passengers would take that opportunity to sleep, and the caravan guards who had the night shift would make sure nothing untoward happened.

Elise and Nalia also slept at night, but not before moving away from the caravan’s resting stop in order to do some magic training. The two would only come back after midnight, which resulted in the night guards becoming well acquainted with them. The duo still used the sleeping bag, just lying it down on top of their traveling “seat”.

Nalia would always cast some alarm spells, just in case. She had also used spells before sleeping while in the forest, but most of them had been simple anti-animal wards, while now she focused more on personal security stuff.

It was not like the duo only trained at night, however. They were still in that phase of training where improvements came steadily, so they were unwilling to waste training time unnecessarily. They also started going off to train when the caravan paused for mealtimes, whenever there wasn’t anything they wanted to do there.

They were even sneaking in training while the caravan moved, sometimes they practiced the skill to move in and out of the mindscape (which Elise called Mindshift), sometimes Nalia practiced small but difficult spells, like fine manipulation of numerous small objects, and sometimes Elise would work on trying to learn the healing skill.

Their days passed in such a manner as the caravan’s route took them ever closer to the Forest of Theremis.

+0+

Eventually, their route had a sudden interruption. The caravan had been traveling on a relatively narrow path in between a dangerous ocean cliffside and an extremely steep incline that was the base of the largest mountain in the region.

They had reduced their traveling speed while going through the area, which was proven to have been a good idea when, after a turn, they were suddenly faced with an obstruction on the road.

There had been a landslide, and even with their lower speed, the front most Venuros had gotten pretty close to it by the time they came to a stop. The pile of loose earth and rocks that was covering the path was almost as tall as an adult human, and while the Venuros were mobile enough to climb over it, that would be far too dangerous to attempt even with a single one of them, let alone with the whole caravan.

Liros had to resist the urge to swear. There was no way they’d be able to clear the path in a reasonable timeframe, so he was already trying to calculate the course of action that would result in the smallest loss of money.

Going back the way they came and taking an alternative path would cause a huge delay, plus the extra costs from additional days of travel. Calling for a specialist to clear the way would probably be faster, but it would be quite expensive, and it would still take some time for said help to arrive.

Realizing that the situation had gotten troublesome, everyone around started talking over each other, some of them complaining about it, others trying to voice ideas on how to deal with it and so forth. People started arguing with each other, and things were starting to get pretty heated when a calm voice spoke out:

“There’s no need to worry.” It was Elise, who had moved close to the frontmost part of the caravan platform.

Her words were filled with such certainty that everyone around stopped talking and looked at her at the same time.

Smiling, she pointed forward “Nalia will take care of it.”

Looking at where she was pointing, they could see the small figure of the fairy above the obstruction. She spoke some words that were too low for them to make out and a series of white lines shot out from her body and into the loose earth and rocks below.

Moments later the whole ground began to shift in a way that would have looked like another landslide, except that the earth was moving upwards instead. Little by little, the path began to clear as Nalia lifted tons of rock and moved it back towards the mountain incline.

Such a feat would have been impossible for the fairy a few weeks before, but the intense and harsh training had already given huge results, her power having grown considerably along with her magical skill.

None of the members of the caravan spoke during the minute or so that the process took, such was their astonishment, and even after clearing the whole path, Nalia still wasn’t done.

While still holding the mass of earth against the incline, she cast another spell, releasing a yellow beam from her right hand. The spell hit the earth and compressed it, forcefully fusing the loose mass into the incline to prevent the same event from repeating.

After that, Nalia flew back to Elise, said “Done” and sat down on her shoulder.

It took a few seconds for the other passengers to react, but then the air was filled with cheering and applause for the duo.

Liros did not join in with the cheering. Instead he turned to the girl and asked:

“Is there a way I can reward you for this?”

Elise nodded and replied:

“I want information about the Forest of Theremis. Anything and everything you can tell me about the place.”

She had thought of trading more of her goods in exchange for such information once they got closer to their destination, but there was no reason to wait now that she had such a good opportunity to get what she wanted.

“Understood. Then I’ll tell you everything I know.” Liros agreed to her conditions.

As a merchant, he understood well the value of information, but she had just saved him an immense amount of money, so Liros was more than willing to provide. He gathered his thoughts for a moment, then began to speak.

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