§
I am tiny. I already know that. But it takes situation like facing three soldiers from the Mountain Troop of Pendor’s First SAS squadron for me to grasp just how tiny I am.
The term “Mountain Troop” means a troop specialized in mountain fighting, doesn’t? Why did it feel like it actually means a troop composed of human mountains of muscle?
They rushed out to meet me when Lady Serera brought me to Kosto’s headquarters tent in the morning, and for a moment, I considered panicking and running. But Serera had her arm behind my back and I couldn’t escape. I felt like she was making me face a cattle stampede. This, despite the fact they had politely whipped off their berets and held them in their hands.
“It’s her!” the one in the center exclaimed, then, to Serera, “My Lady?”
His sudden, late recognition of my companion was almost comical. Really? They had locked on to me so fast that they didn’t see the fairy knight?
I had to tilt my neck back pretty far, because all three had wide shoulders, thick arms and stood at least 8 spans tall. Well, Tiana’s husband is almost 8 spans tall, so that’s not strange, but with three of them that size, forming a shoulder-to-shoulder row in front of me, they seemed to become impossibly large.
General Kosto appeared from behind the mountain of meat, along with a captain wearing SAS markings who was nearly as large.
The captain immediately frowned upon seeing me and demanded. “This child is the adventurer who took out a Class B monster by herself?”
“Macla,” Kosto rumbled quietly, and the captain clamped his lips shut. The general turned his dark eyes toward Serera and pursed his lips with a bunched-up brow.
“I have no intention of doubting Lady Serera, Captain,” he declared. “If My Lady says that Miss Hiléa came to my men’s defense, then you will accept it as fact.”
“Yes, Sir,” the captain replied.
Serera gave him a sweet smile and noted, “The way you worded that might make me think you don’t actually believe me, though?”
Kosto twisted his mouth, then admitted, “If you weren’t the one saying it, I would have trouble believing it, My Lady.”
“Permission to speak, General!” piped up the middle of the three behemoths who were still standing there, a little too close while looking like they wanted to grab and hug me. Which felt like it could be fatal to me.
“Speak,” the general replied.
“This is definitely the little miss who killed that monster, Sir!” he confirmed. “Did you say that her name is Hiléa?”
“That’s correct, Corporal,” Kosto confirmed. “Narses sent her out as a wilderness guide. You men didn’t know her name yet?”
The corporal looked embarrassed. “Well, she stays out in the woods, so we barely ever see her. We’ve just been calling her the ‘little miss’.”
The captain nodded and added, “They did tell me it was the ‘little miss’ who stopped the monster. They didn’t know her name. I thought they were talking about one of the fairy warriors.”
Then he turned to me and demanded, “Are you a mage? You should have told us. They said you used a strange spell they’d never heard of.”
I scratched my cheek, growing embarrassed. But I couldn’t say, No, that was Durandal, so what should I say?
Serera immediately came to my defense. “Captain, she may be half fairy, but her mortal blood is halfling. Isn’t it conventional wisdom that halfling resent those prying into their secrets?”
He scowled again. “If we don’t know her capabilities, we don’t know how to fit in around her.”
“I’m not here to be part of your fighting force, Captain,” I answered. “Just leave the area beyond your perimeter to us and fight however you normally would to defend the civilians. And speaking of which…”
I turned toward the men in question, putting my fists on my hips. “What were you doing, going to the river before we declared it safe? If Lady Serera hadn’t noticed you heading that direction and warned me, I wouldn’t have made it in time!”
Sen cautioned in the back of my mind, <Lhan, they’re grown men and soldiers, not children.>
<Still!>
The corporal looked contrite. “We got to the campsite late, right? The sun was gonna go down and we needed to fetch water.”
“You needn’t worry about the daylight when you have us, corporal,” Lady Serera lectured. “If it grows dark before we declare the area safe, we can simply escort you. Night-time is not an impediment to either we fairies or Miss Hiléa. Some of the adventurers are skillful in the dark as well. Miss Brigitte and Lady Ceria both should have excellent night vision. It makes no sense to take such a risk just to fetch water.”
Sen observed, where only I could hear, <These guys are accustomed to being self-reliant, and they have their pride as men to defend. They won’t care to be told they have to count on the women.>
But I had to agree with Serera. I told them, “If that happens again, have somebody find me. I’ll be happy to help guide you in the dark if it’s too late for your eyes.”
I could see in their eyes that Sen was right. This idea didn’t make them happy. But they nodded. “We’ll count on you, then.”
“This region is the worst case when it comes to mountain wilderness, gentlemen,” Serera persisted. “And it only grows more dangerous, every mile further we travel into it.”
Sen said, <Lhan, stop her. She’s not helping anything by rubbing their nose in their mistake.>
“My Lady,” I told her. “I think they already understand.”
Serera gave me a slightly sour glance, but nodded. I could see in her eyes that she had wanted to lecture them longer. But she nodded and stated, “Well, then, Eí onar lâ, gentlemen.”
With that, she just walked away. I struggled not to bite my lip as I found myself alone with all these big men.
“Is there anything else, General?” I wondered.
He raised an eyebrow, then shook his head. “Not for me, Miss Hiléa. But I believe these men want to thank you. Good day.”
With a nod, he and the captain withdrew back into the headquarters tent, leaving me at the mercy of these three massive beings.
Who actually drew a bit closer as they surrounded me, giving me the feeling of being at the bottom of a deep well.
The corporal declared, “The general’s right, Little Miss. You really saved our butts!”
“That was amazing, though! I got to see that shot you fired!” added the private on my right.
“Were you okay firing that? It looked like it took an awful lot out of you,” worried the private on my left.
The praise was embarrassing, and what actually ‘took a lot out of’ me was my high speed run to reach them, and my nerves after facing that nasty monster. But they had seen me fire a powerful attack and then practically collapse, so his assumption made sense. Lady Serera and a couple fairy warriors were the ones who rescued the boys from the net, because I didn’t dare move. I had to save my strength for defending them against any further predators that showed up, so I left freeing them to the others.
But it wouldn’t harm to let them think I had used everything I had on that attack. The less they thought they could depend on me to save them, the less reckless they would be.
I answered, “I can’t use it very often. Please don’t assume I’ll be able to do it again when needed.”
“Right,” the corporal nodded.
“It was an amazing spell, though! That was just level two magic, right? How strong a mage are you?” the private on my right probed.
As I hesitated, the corporal hit the private on the back of the head. “Didn’t you just hear Lady Serera? Don’t pry!”
“And never mind that,” I said, shoving the subject aside. “You guys understand now, right? This is a horribly dangerous place we’re going through. Mortals don’t survive for long around here unless they are very smart. Be smart from now on!”
They had odd looks on their faces as they looked down at me. Then the corporal scratched his head.
“Yeah, it’s kinda ahrd to hear that from a little miss like you, but I guess you’re more like a fairy than a mortal, right?”
The living Lhan was very much a mortal, although I apparently had a fairy grandparent I never knew about while I was alive. That’s what Fan Li figured out, anyway. So it was weird to hear them say that.
But I’m really not a human anymore. This me actually wasn’t mortal. I’m made of mana, so I certainly have more in common with fairies.
I twisted my mouth and shrugged. “I’m just what I am.”
“And it’s Miss Hiléa, right?”
I nodded. I was getting used to my ‘fairy name’ so it didn’t feel as much like a lie anymore. “That’s right.”
Sen corrected me. <It isn’t a lie at all. Most actual fairborn have entirely different mortal names, but even Tiana has somewhat different names. Semöan Cenole Tianà instead of Tiana Pendor.>
She emphasized the difference in stress between how she said ‘Tiana’ in Fairy and mortal languages. The stress goes on the third syllable in Fairy, because the ‘na’ is actually a separate Ancient Fairy word. It goes on the second syllable around mortals.
Sen continued, <Anyhow, a fairy gave you that name, and you have no other name they can pronounce. That makes it your real fairy name.>
“Miss Hiléa, are you one of the fairy warriors?” the slightly calmer private on the left who had worried for my health pressed. “Is that how you came to be on this expedition?”
Twisting my mouth in a timid way that Sen doesn’t like, I shook my head and said, “The Fairy King sent them to beef up your defense. Narses sent me to guide you through this place. Anyway, I’m a fairborn, not a fairy.”
Again, I told another weird not-a-lie-if-you-squint-hard-enough. My body is a projection from Lady Tiana’s spiritual vessel, and I am technically her, and she is technically a fairborn, although normally a fairborn’s father is a mortal.
<You’re worrying about it too much. They would never understand your actual nature, so no harm letting them see the nearest thing in their understanding.>
“I heard that you’re a wilderness guide,” the lefthand private nodded. “But the idea that a young little thing like you working as a guide in this dangerous place is hard to imagine.”
“I heard someone say you actually grew up here though,” the right hand private mentioned. “How does something like that happen?”
I scratched my cheek. “Well, I grew up in my father’s village here in the Highlands.”
Now I actually was telling lies, but I had no choice. At least, before she came up with the fib about my origin, Sen already knew that halfling villages actually do exist in the Kasarene Highlands. It seems there are several of them, which is a good, because if we stumbled across one, it would be bad if it was the only one and they didn’t recognize me.
The corporal scowled. “You two are making her uncomfortable again. Stop pressing her for information. Miss Hiléa, the boys want to ask you to come eat breakfast with us before we break camp. It should be ready by now. How ’bout it?”
I was about to apologize and refuse when Sen said, <Do it. You should forge some goodwill while the opportunity presents itself.>
<But…>
<Fan Li went to the trouble of inventing a way for us to ‘eat’ in case the need arose. We might as well use it. And she promises you’ll have a proper sense of taste.>
We can’t eat, but we can fake it. It’s a little gross, since we need to go off somewhere and get rid of it, pretty much by dissolving the image and returning to the formless [Blood Effigy] while leaving it behind. In the meantime, it’s stored in the second [Mustard Seed Technique] storage that Fan Li wove into the constantly evolving effigy technique, occupying the place where my stomach ought to be.
I looked at the three mountains eager to be on friendly terms with me and sighed. Then gave them a smile and a shrug.
“Sure. Why not?”
