“Gobbly gobby gobbos, watch out for the goblins!” Mia sang to herself while holding up her shining white card. She was so happy that they were finally on their way to adventure that she started skipping down the hall. They were going on an adventure for real, just like she’d always wanted. There would be goblins and fighting and saving people and making friends and being heroes! It was the best thing ever, and Mia was so happy it was all happening, and more happy because it had taken forever to get started!

Mia knew that sometimes waiting was important, but she had still been so upset when the big one said they had to wait and wait and wait! She was a little upset even thinking about it, because she had wanted to go so bad but everyone said to be patient. Mia didn’t want to be patient! But Mia was good, so she had been patient anyway while they did the loot the Invader, which meant to take its stuff, so that the big one could make Mea’s body better and to make Mia a whole new one! Mia did really like her new body a lot, so she understood why the waiting had been worth it and that helped the bad feelings go away.

Mia’s real body was almost ten, almost an adult, but she had always been so small and thin that it made her new fully matured body so much better. Now Mia was tall, and no one would make fun of her for being scrawny anymore! Mia even felt like she could think better, which was strange, but she was so happy about everything that even if her chest felt heavy now, and she was a little off balance sometimes, that was alright. It was even more special because now she was like Aur, with golden hair and silver eyes, and Mea looked the same only the colors were the other way! They were sisters now and that was amazing and Mia loved it.

Mia’s friend and sister and partner was so pretty and fun and smart that Mia was always happy to be around her and look at her. That’s why Mia didn’t understand; why would someone try to kill her?! She couldn’t remember the fight very well, it had all happened so fast. The Invader had flown around and chased Mea, so Mia had gone into the dark, into the ground below. She lurked and when the bad Invader came close she came out to strike and tear and claw and rip and feed. Mia liked her new body much better because she didn’t feel the hunger anymore.

Mea said that unhappy thoughts were unimportant thoughts, so Mia thought about something else instead.

“Mea, Mea!” Mia said, spinning around and taking her partner’s hands to dance them both around in a circle. “Goblins!” Sister laughed and ruffled Mia’s hair and told Mia to slow down. Mia wanted to jump and sing and run, but Mia was good, so she went back to skipping instead. She was still just as excited, because she was going to hunt them – goblins! – just like the best hero ever. Aur was the best adventurer who ever lived, and everyone knew about her. Even if they didn’t like to talk about her much, Mia wanted to be just like her! Mia even had her diary, and it was all about adventure and it was her favorite book ever.

Mia stopped for a moment because she was getting too far ahead. Even though sister seemed pretty excited she wasn’t skipping like Mia, but that was because Mea had lots of dig-ni-ty. Mia knew that word and she knew people had it sometimes, but she didn’t know how to get it. Mea said it would come with age, and her book said the same thing. That was fine! Mia was going on an adventure and eventually she would have dig-ni-ty and lots of other things too. She tried walking, like sister was, in case that would help.

Everyone on the mountain had gotten together and talked about what being an adventurer was really like, which was so exciting Mia couldn’t be sure she remembered everything properly. She already missed spending time with Brin, even though they mostly spent that time training so Mia could learn her new class and Skills. But even so, there had been plenty of time for hugs too! It was all so fun that she didn’t mind the parts that weren’t fun, though she did kind of mind having to do all the training again after getting her hero body. Especially since Brin didn’t want to hug as much anymore after that.

The clacking sound of Mia’s nice boots changed suddenly as she turned a corner and emerged from the long stone tunnel into a wooden room full of people. Mia couldn’t help her grin, because they were adventurers! In all kinds of armor and robes and with weapons and looking all gruff. Mia started feeling shy as they all turned to stare at her, but regained confidence when her partner came up behind and laid a hand on Mia’s back.

“Heh. So there really was a tavern.” Mea said, though Mia didn’t understand why. Mea said a lot of things that Mia didn’t really understand, but that was because Mia’s partner was so smart! Mia looked at all the interesting people and the colors of their clothes and mana and soon found that she was sitting next to her partner at a table. There was a big cup made of wood that had a handle on it, and whatever was inside smelled really good! She took a sip.

“Mea, Mea! What is this? It’s so good!” Her partner coughed into her own drink a little bit, and muttered something about cute, before setting it down and patting Mia’s hand.

“It’s an iced fruit water, made from something called a sticky spiceberry. It’s a type of juice basically. The waitress recommended it to me, but we should try all of their flavors eventually.”

“There are more things like this?” Mia’s eyes flew wide open at that. She’d never tasted anything so good before! It had so many flavors all at once that she didn’t know about, and it felt satisfying to drink, too. She smacked her lips a bit, still tasting it even though she’d only sipped it once so far. But as amazing as the juice was, and as amazing as other new flavors sounded, she wanted to go find the goblins even more.

“Yeah there are, but don’t worry about that yet. We’ve got goblins to hunt before we come back here again, right?” Mia didn’t even have time to ask about the goblins, but Mea was already on it! “I just wanted to sit down for a minute and think about the hunt. Make sure we have all the things we need.” That was why Mea was so smart! Mia thought they would just go there and fight them like in her book.

“Should Mia bring things too?” She wanted to help!

“Yeah, that’s what I’m thinking about. We have those wardstones from the Invader, but we haven’t attuned them to the town ward here yet. It would be way nicer to just use those to come back to town after the hunt, right?” Mia nodded vigorously. Everybody had said it was really easy to get lost at night and that an adventurer should find town or set up camp before the sun went away for the day. Even though Mia didn’t have any trouble with the dark she thought it would be better to follow their advice.

“We have our packs to store most things, but I can tell you like that juice so maybe I should see about a separate canteen for drinks.” Mia decided she wanted to take the tasty juice along with them and nodded vigorously.

“Maybe a few other things too. Mm,” she hummed, hopping up out of her chair. “Alright, stay put a minute I’m going to talk to the guy at the bar.” Mea turned, then made a funny face and grabbed her long skinny sword when it banged into the chair and made a loud noise. She walked away towards the long counter and the big man behind it, long silver hair swaying slowly. Mia just admired how cool she always looked.

Just watching her partner talk wasn’t very interesting so she started looking around at all the people while slowly sipping her drink. Sometimes they were looking back, so she waved at them. They all hurriedly looked away again, except for four shiny men in matching equipment who just glanced at each other before smiling at her. Mia thought that was really nice, and she was glad that her fellow adventurers were friendly. There was so much to look at, but just when sitting still was starting to make her feel a little restless Mea came back.

“Good news and bad news, Mia,” she said quietly, leaning close but not sitting down. “First, here,” she laid down a book and a few pens. “The good news is that, since this is the adventurer tavern, they do sell a few useful things like this journal you can write in.” Mia opened the book and found it was completely blank, with nothing on the pages at all. Now she could write all her own adventures, just like Aur had! It would be Mia’s hero diary, and maybe some day she’d give it to someone.

“The canteen is the bad news, though. The only type they sell here is called a skin, but I think that’s way too gross since it’s made from an animal stomach. I asked if there were any crafters like uncle Kos around so we could have some made from wood or stone or something, and he did recommended someone, but I’m thinking it might be too expensive for us right now.” Mia did think drinking out of a stomach sounded pretty icky.

“But... the juice!” Mia didn’t want to give up her new treasure, but Mea just smiled at her.

“Yeah, I figured. Well, I can go buy the skin if you want,” Mia shook her head, ringlets flying around and slapping her softly in the face, which was a funny feeling that she wasn’t used to since her old hair wasn’t like that at all. “Alright, I do have another way to bring it along right now, but it’s probably cheating. Up to you.” Mia thought about that.

She didn’t want to cheat on her adventure. Aur’s book said cheating was bad and that cheating to win was worse than losing in the long term, but when Mia looked at her drink, she wavered. It was a really hard choice! The juice was the nicest thing she’d had in all her life, and she wondered if it was really so bad to enjoy something so tasty? Mia opened her mouth to say so when she caught sight of a flash of gold in the rippling surface of the liquid. She reached up to touch her shiny curls and thought about her book again. Mia wasn’t just Mia anymore. Mia was an adventurer. Mia was a hero! She looked her partner in the eye and shook her head.

“Good,” Mea said instantly. “We can always get another drink, but we can’t ever un-cheat.” Mia’s eyes flew wide at that. Had sister just tested her? She felt something on her shoulder and realized it was Mea’s hand, and she was smiling big. “That’s something you should keep in mind. Cheating is easy and quick and always tempting, but anything you can do by cheating you can earn for yourself with hard work and time. So good. Good choice. We’ll just need to see that crafter and we’ll have a way to carry your juice around eventually, and since we have to pass by the guy’s shop anyway, let’s ask on our way out of town. Alright?” The smile slipped.

“I have one other bit of bad news, which is about the ward thing. I was told that the local lord has control of it, and it’s apparently really important and precious, so I don’t think we’ll be able to use that to get back. In which case we oughta get going, huh? I’m not even sure if or when they close the gates around here and I don’t want to get locked out in the dark.” Mia frowned; that was disappointing and she stared longingly at her juice.

“You can finish your drink, we’re not in that much of a rush.” Mea laughed, then finally sat down and grabbed her own cup, only to gulp down everything inside all at once. Mia wondered if she would get the tastiness of the juice all at the same time if she did that, but decided to try that later. She then tried to both enjoy the juice slowly and drink it quickly while Mea talked about getting a room to stay in once they got back, what they could do if there were no baths, and a bunch of other little things about adventuring that Mia had never thought about. She was always amazed at how much Mea knew about everything! They spent a few more minutes there as Mia wrote a little in her journal, about how juice was good and cheating was bad before they packed up and left.

She followed Mea out into the town just as the big tower in the middle started to ring with bells. Mia didn’t know the tune, but her home had always made chiming noises to tell the time so it was probably the same in the town. As they walked Mia stared around at the town, which was full of such funny buildings with so many strange decorations and colors that Mia was glad her partner knew the way, because Mia was already completely lost.

Mia had only ever lived in her home in the mountain, where everything was carved out of black stone and there was no dirt or colored buildings or carts in the street or sky. The Dungeon gave them water and food and games and clothes and kept them warm and cool. Mia didn’t know how to do all those things on her own, especially because there were things like money and taxes and special food for travelling and juice. Brin and Lleuli had shown Mia how to do the survival training but she had never done it by herself and it was all so much that she sometimes felt very lost and small, even though she was big now.

But Mea was with her, so everything was alright!

She kept up with sister while hopping between the red colored cobblestones, and singing to herself, and looking at all the people walking around, until they turned down a smaller dirt street. With no more red cobbles to watch out for, Mia noticed her partner seemed restless. She was looking this way and that, and then sped up so much that Mia’s pack started to bounce when she matched sister’s pace.

“Here it is. Lousy directions!” Mea marched up to a building that looked like all the others to Mia, but had a sign hung over the door with a funny symbol on it that she didn’t know. Mia stared at it for a moment before remembering what her partner had said about things like that.

“When confronted with something you don’t understand, search for any parts about it that you can understand and then work from there.” So Mia tried again. She realized that the picture looked a little like a rock with a branch growing out of it, which was just like the stonewood that grew in her new daddy Kos’s workshop, only it was so fancy it was hard to recognize. Sister said they were going to visit a crafter to make the canteen, so maybe it was the house of a stonecrafter like daddy Kos? Mia was excited by that, because she loved watching him work, and because she wanted to bring that juice along on adventures.

Mia looked at some of the other places with other kinds of symbols and wondered if that was how people showed what kind of work they did inside. She spotted a knife on one, and one had a hammer, and another had a fire on it, but she didn’t know what those meant.

“Come on!” Sister said cheerfully, waiting at the door while looking back at Mia with a smile. Her golden eyes seemed so bright in the light that Mia thought she looked very pretty. “Come on,” she said again, voice quieter. “Let’s talk to this guy about getting stuff made for us.” Mia hurried to follow her partner, and as they passed through the door there was a little jingle sound that spun Mia around looking for it. “Just hope that’s not going to be a problem,” Mea said, almost too quietly to hear.

Mia didn’t know why the bell would be a problem, but it sounded like her favorite person needed a hug — but later, because Mia was good. Hugs were not appropriate all the time, her new mommy Ena had said, because they could be embarrassing or could cause a bad impression. Heroes were supposed to make a good impression, and daddy Kos had also said that a hug meant more when given at the right time, so Mia would be good and find the best time.

“Welcome to my shop,” said someone that spoke slowly and carefully, with an older and refined and gentle voice that had a smooth strength, like a mom. Mia had always wanted a mom when she was small. One who sounded like that and was nice and gave her hugs. Even if mommy Ena didn’t sound like that, it was alright because she was nice and gave lots of hugs. She had a good voice too that Mia liked a lot, just not as much as Brin’s voice, or Mea’s, but it was good all the same.

Mia wanted to see the lady with the mom-voice so she followed after sister, who had already walked down the short entrance hall to where it split. There were stairs and a closed door if she kept going straight, but to the side the hall opened out into a big room where the voice had come from. Mia peeked around where sister was standing to find a full-figured kirol woman with long ashen hair done up in a bun. She was standing over a table covered in things, a slightly dusty cloth in hand.

“So tall!” She said, staring up at them. “Are the two of you twins? How lovely.” She went on without waiting for an answer. “Dressed like adventurers,” she said, looking them both over with a curious eye, “and so pretty, too. How unusual! What might I do for you?”

“Hi!” Mia waved at her. The mom-lady seemed nice!

“Ah, hello,” Mea said. “I hope this is the right place. We were looking for a stonecrafter because we need something to carry water in—”

“And juice!”

“—yes and juice, and decided that we’d prefer something better than a skin. They’re kind of,” Mea waved her hands around vaguely, “you know.”

“Icky!”

“Yes. That. We were hoping to buy canteens made of stone. Or wood, I guess. Metal would be fine, too. Would have to be something that didn’t oxidize too badly, though.”

“What’s oxidize mean?” Mia wondered. Mea was always full of strange words that Mia had never heard before!

“Oh, um.” Sister turned to look at Mia for a moment. “Rust. You know how iron turns red and crumbles? Like that.”

“Oooh, Mia knows about that!” She had seen that before, but didn’t know it had a special name. Mea sure knew a lot of things! The mom-lady laughed, and it was a really nice laugh! Mia decided she liked this lady.

“My, yes, I believe I know about that as well.” She tucked the cloth away into a pocket on her apron and moved closer. “I must apologize, I have never heard of a canteen. I will have to ask my husband about such a thing.” She lowered her voice and hid her smile with one hand. “I do not much like skins either, so if there is a better item then that does seem like a very good idea to me.” She paused a moment and the smile faded slightly.

“I am in charge of this shop and sell things to those who come, but I must apologize for it is my husband who makes the goods here and he is out on business at the moment. A custom order like that will need his input first before we take it, so I am unable to make any promises at present. Would you be willing to describe the sort of container you mean for me? He will be back this evening and I will relay any details you can provide to him, that way you may return tomorrow and I will have an answer for you.” She was so polite! Mia wondered if maybe she should try talking that way, too.

“Sure! Give me a moment and I’ll sketch it out.” Mea set her pack down and rummaged through it before pulling out a piece of paper and a special marking stick that the big one had made. Mia watched as the stick moved quickly and steadily across the paper and a strange slightly curved boxy thing seemed to slowly emerge. She had to reach in and touch it several times because it didn’t seem like it was flat at all!

“My, young lady, you are very good at that.” Mia thought so, too! Even if she wasn’t sure exactly what it was.

“Mm? Oh, thanks.” Mea didn’t seem impressed at all, but that’s just what made her so amazing! “Mm, okay. So I drew it about life-sized here. It should hold enough to survive a full day on without being too heavy, so the material has to be light and thin but strong enough to survive being dropped or set over a fire.”

“A fire, you say?” The lady seemed confused. Mia was too!

“Yeah. You should be able to use a canteen to boil water,” sister glanced at Mia for a moment, “or juice I guess. Not sure why you’d want to do that, juice is better cold. Ah, wine too, though neither of us would be drinking that. Anyway, it’s a convenient way to get liquids hot — oh soup too if we made the mouth wide enough! Err, well, that’s not really relevant. The point is, boiling water will help keep the inside of the canteen clean, so it doesn’t develop a nasty smell. You could also just set it near the fire to have a warm drink ready on cold nights.” That sounded amazing! Mia got a little lost thinking about warm juice; even if sister didn’t think it was good Mia still wanted to try it. “Ah, and you see the small top here? Oh, let me ask a question first. Do you know what a screw top is?”

“I do not believe I have heard that term before.” Mia hadn’t, either!

“Okay! Let me sketch that out separately, then.” Now some kind of twisty thing started to appear under the scratching of the stick. Mia had to touch that, too. “Right, so this is what the part you drink out of should look like. It’s got a cap and has to be made of something firm, but with a little bit of bend to it. Metal is good for that, aluminum would be best I think. Wood, maybe, though that could end up hard to clean. Can’t do plastic.” Mea seemed to drift off for a moment.

“What’s plastic?” Mia had never heard of that word before either.

“Something you don’t have around here,” Mea said, which made it sound like one of those things that sister would never explain no matter how much Mia asked. “Anyway, there are lots of options,” she continued with a shrug, “just not regular stone, no way that would work.” Mia didn’t know why it wouldn’t work, but sister was smart so Mia believed it. “So, the way these twist will hold the two parts in place and not let any air or liquid in or out. Um, I know you don’t do the crafting, but you’ve probably seen a lot of stuff so, any questions?” The lady picked up the paper and looked at it closely.

“I do wonder where you have seen such a thing before, but I believe I will let my husband ask his questions on the morrow.”

“Okay, that sounds good. Uh, did you want some kind of deposit as an advance on the work or consultation fees or whatever?”

“An advance deposit, you say? Such a thing,” the mom-lady trailed off, tilting her head to the side with a finger on her chin. “No, dear me, no. Such a strange idea.” Sister just waved a hand, as though it didn’t matter. “I will not ask such a thing no, though I do find it an interesting business idea, but let us leave talk of money for another time, if you please. Was there anything else?”

“Maybe eventually, but not right now. Depends on how well our hunt goes, I think. Right Mia?” The hunt! They were going hunting next, finally!

“Yeah!”

“Oh, I’m Mea by the way, and this is Mia.”

“Mia is Mia! Hello!” The lady laughed that nice laugh again.

“Such unusual names! They suit you well.” Sister got one of those strange looks on her face for a moment, but the lady didn’t seem to notice. “I am Liella, a pleasure to meet you ladies.” They talked a little longer about a few things, but Mia started poking her partner. It was time to go find the goblins! There were goodbyes and a time set for the following day, but Mia wasn’t really listening. Goblins! When Mea turned to leave her eyes seemed extra bright, like they had captured a candle’s light, but she was frowning and seemed unhappy. Maybe now was the right time for a hug? But Mea was too fast and walked out before Mia could make up her mind.

“Mea, Mea!” Mia called out as she caught up just outside the door.

“Yeah?”

“We still have time, right?”

“Hm? Oh,” Mia’s partner looked up at the sky but quickly shook her head. Mia wished she knew how to tell time from the sky! That seemed so useful! “ How does it make any sense at all? Try to ignore it, but there it sits anyway! Bunch of magic nonsense. Stars can’t even be green!” She was muttering to herself again. Mia never understood anything when she started doing that.

“Well, whatever.” Oh good! That was the magic word that meant Mea was done. Sometimes she talked to herself like that for a long time and used lots of words Mia didn’t know. Worst of all she never wanted to explain it!

“Yeah, it’s not even midday yet. Even if, for whatever reason, there happens to be some interference and some obstacles on our way out of town, we’ve still got plenty of time.” Mia didn’t even think about it and hugged her partner for being the best.

“You there! Hold!”

“Ah, here we go. Sure took their time, didn’t they? Been waiting for it.” Mea muttered in a voice so quiet Mia only heard it because they were so close together. She stepped out of the hug to find sister standing between her and the four brawny kirol men in matching shiny equipment that had surrounded them. Two of them had closed in on them from the front, and the other two were further back, blocking the street on either side. They seemed familiar to Mia.

“You two will need to come with us,” the same man said. He had his hand on his sword, and Mia realized they all did. Mia wasn’t sure what was going on, but her partner was calm and relaxed, so she tried to be too. The men smiled as they got closer and suddenly Mia realized why they seemed familiar.

“You’re from the drinks place!”

“Finally stopped stalking us, did you?” Sister said, talking over Mia. She never did that, so Mia wondered why she would now. “Mm. What’re you gonna charge us with?” Mea said in a mocking voice. The man with the shiniest armor who had been doing all the talking stepped forward really fast with an angry look on his face.

“You dare talk back to—” his armored hand flew, and Mia screwed her eyes shut. She waited, but there wasn’t any sound. “—me?” Mia cracked her eyes open to find the man’s wrist caught in her partner’s grip. He looked surprised, then confused when sister just let him go.

“Was that supposed to be a slap? Wow, that was really lousy form. Especially if you’re some kind of official guard or something. Though maybe those badges mean something else.” Mea was amazing! She just kept talking like nothing happened. She didn’t even blink! Mia wondered if she would ever be amazing enough to just catch someone’s hand when they were trying to hit her.

“You’ve already made enough trouble, now come along quietly,” the man said, having recovered himself, but Mia thought he seemed really upset now. The two men further back had even pulled their swords out! The way they were glaring reminded Mia of the way people looked at her back before the big one had come and saved her, back before she’d been adopted by her new mommy and daddy. Back when things weren’t nice and there were no hugs or smiles. She didn’t like it. She didn’t like how everyone seemed like they were about to get violent, especially sister.

“Mea!” She whispered, shuffling closer and tugging on her partner’s sleeve when she noticed that she was about to draw her sword too. Mia remembered the way her partner had attacked first before talking when a man had come out of the woods waving a weapon at them, in the days before they had reached the town. Sister had called him a highwayman with a big smile and put holes in him with her sword. She said that some people would attack others to try and take their things.

People had taken things from Mia before, but she’d never heard of a highwayman, so she wasn’t sure she understood. It sounded like a bandit, which Mia knew from her book. Aur had always tried to talk to them though, so even if he was a bad man, Mia didn’t understand why that meant sister had to kill him without saying anything. Maybe he wasn’t even a bad man! Mia also didn’t like all the blood and screaming, which the diary had never mentioned. It was scary, and she was scared and didn’t want that to happen again, but sister just put her hand on Mia’s and turned enough to give Mia a little smile.

“Don’t worry Mia,” she said quietly. “We’re in no danger from weak people like them. I don’t think these guys could hurt us no matter how hard they tried, because they’re just puffed up on unearned authority and that’s no match for actual strength. Even without my Ability that makes the world seem slow, they’d be no threat, so don’t be scared.” Mia wasn’t worried about being in danger, she didn’t want the men to die. But Mea let go of her sword and started talking instead so Mia was relieved.

“Hm-hm. I bet you’re working for some local noble brat, right? What’s his name?” As soon as sister said that, the men looked even more mean and upset, so Mia hid her face behind sister. But she could still hear them. How angry they were.

“You dare disrespect Lord Kuelli?!” The shiniest man was yelling so loud Mia wanted to run away and hide in a dark corner. But sister was there, and it wasn’t the same as when she was little. She knew it wasn’t the same, but she was still afraid. Afraid of them, of the way they were angry and afraid of the way they looked at her. But she was more afraid that sister would kill them. Mia had to stay, because heroes didn’t run away. Heroes tried to do the right thing. She kept her face buried anyway.

“Kuelli, huh? Thanks, I’ll try to remember that. Well, let me play a little guessing game,” she said, calm voice buzzing against Mia’s face where she rested it against sister’s back. “Let’s start with this: you’re all just thugs with no real training, so you pick on vulnerable people who can’t fight back and then rely on your backer to sort it out if things get tough.” The men grumbled and made threats against them, voices overlapping so much Mia wasn’t even sure what they said, only that it was angry. “Oh ho, strike a nerve, did I?”

“How dare you! You will not be so smug once we are through with you.” Mia couldn’t see the face of the man who was talking, the one with the shiniest armor who had tried to hit sister earlier, but he sounded the most angry of all of them and so Mia didn’t like him the most.

“Looks like that’s one for me, then. Next, hmm. You were following us for a while, looking for some legitimate reason to stop us, but couldn’t find one, and finally you decided you’d just wait for us to be alone so you could get us for ‘disturbing the peace.’ How close am I?”

“Hey Las, I have a bad feeling about this one,” said the man who was in front, but off to one side. Mia took a quick peek and saw that he hadn’t taken his sword out, and that he didn’t even sound angry.

“I mislike the look in her eye,” said a different man.

“Keep your silence!” The loud man said, ignoring his companions. “This wretch must be made to suffer for her affronts!” Suddenly Mea shifted slightly, moving Mia and herself out of the way of an armored hand that came flying harmlessly past.

“I’ll take that as my win, and now I’m two for two! Oh I’m good at this! Last, you’re mad that we’re taller than you and,” Mea’s voice dropped and became really scary, “you thought you’d abduct two attractive young ladies and, what, have your fun before selling us off somewhere?” Mia had never heard her partner sound like that before, and she didn’t like it so she pulled her face away from sister’s back.

“Oullas, please. Let us look elsewhere—” Began the man who’d kept his blade sheathed, Mia could just barely see him standing there with one arm raised toward the angry man.

“That’s ‘Lieutenant’ to you, Ral. The captain has allowed us to do as we wish with our prisoners! We need no excuses.” The shiniest man’s voice hadn’t stopped being angry, but it sounded really ugly now, too. It made her remember the people who hated her and the small dark places and the taste of bad air and bad food and bad water and the feel of the cold that crawled inside and never went away. She didn’t want to hear that kind of voice ever again!

“Hey, three for three. Or four, if I count the height thing. Mm, which I do. If you were honest enforcers of just and fair laws, I would have played along. But you’re not, and I have no reason to play with you lot any longer. Mia, let’s just go.” She said, reaching back and catching Mia’s hand in her own. But Mia didn’t want to just go. Mia didn’t understand why everything had gotten so bad, with everyone so upset. She didn’t understand what the men wanted, either.

But she knew that there was a problem, and that heroes solved problems. Even if they were scared! She knew that heroes never ran away, so Mia couldn’t either. Mia and her partner hadn’t done anything wrong, but the men were trying to force them to go somewhere anyway. Sister didn’t want to go with them, and Mia was scared to, but Aur said that heroes were nosy and investigated things that didn’t feel right, and the situation didn’t feel right to Mia at all.

“But Mia is a hero,” she whispered, holding on to sister’s hand and trying to communicate all those things. She trusted Mea. Trusted that she would understand, because Mia’s partner was so smart. Sister froze in place before turning to face Mia with a pained frown. She could see three of the men slowly advance to surround them, but Mea ignored them, and released Mia’s hand with a heavy sigh.

“You don’t know what you’re getting us in to, Mia,” she said quietly. “We’ll see things you won’t be able to forget, no matter how much you want to. We’ll have to do things we can’t undo later.” She huffed a humorless laugh. “And we won’t be able to go on our goblin adventure for a while, either.

“But heroes solve problems, don’t they?” she continued, patting Mia on the head while Mia was thinking really hard about everything. She was determined not to move until sister understood that they had to do the right thing. They just had to.

“So okay, we’ll do this your way.” Mia’s partner said, and with that her face went dark as she whirled back around.

“Well then. Much against my own judgement, it would seem we will be going with you.”

“Only sensible thing you’ve said yet.”

“One thing,” sister said with one finger raised between them and the men. “You won’t touch us.”

“Arrogant little—!”

“You see, Mia,” sister said, speaking loudly enough to cut the man off. “They wouldn’t dare to. Their boss would be very unhappy with them if we got hurt without permission. Isn’t that right, boys?” The man raised his sword, but the only nice one stepped in between.

“Hold there, Las!” The raised sword was turned towards the man. “Err, Lieutenant, sorry. But you know the Captain’s orders: no trouble on the street. If they come along peacefully then all the better. Sir.” The angry man spat on the ground before pointing his sword at Mea again.

“Very well. You will soon learn to make a much nicer face. I will make sure of that personally.” Saying that, he put the blade away, after which the other men did too. “Come then, wretch.”

“Mia,” sister said, talking to her quietly in one ear as they walked. “It’s important to remember that people, even bad people, have responsibilities and obligations. But as necessary as those things are, they are also chains, and by design chains are things that restrain people. If you tug on them then people can be reminded of their limits and not step over the line, but you shouldn’t tug too hard because you don’t know where those limits are. I was provoking them really hard earlier, but they didn’t escalate, they just made threats. So while I had no idea about their captain, or their orders, I did know they had a reason not to lash out, and by reminding them of that fact they were reminded that they have constraints. The most importantly thing to remember, though, is that you have those same chains too.”

Mia thought about that, then brought out her journal and wrote it all down as they walked. There was just so much going on that she was glad to have the journal so she didn’t have to keep it all in her head at once. She ended up just following along behind her partner in a daze as they went through the back alleys and side streets. Her head was whirling with all the things that had happened, and all the things from the hero book, and all the things that sister had said about how to be a hero.

She didn’t understand what the men wanted or why they were taking Mia and her partner away, and she was confused and a little scared about Mea’s earlier warning about seeing things and not being able to undo things. But that’s why it was important to always do the right thing, and that’s why she was going with the men. She felt that things weren’t right, but she knew that just her feelings weren’t good enough. Mia need to know why it wasn’t right, so she would know what to do so she could do the right thing.

Sister said to start with things Mia could understand, so she did. She knew the men were bad, or they wouldn’t be trying to make people who hadn’t done anything wrong go places they didn’t want to go. They knew they were doing wrong too, because otherwise they wouldn’t be so upset and secretive about it. That was enough for Mia to know she was doing the right thing by not giving up, and by finding out more and working to fix things. Mia’s hero book always said that being scared was a good sign because anything worth being afraid of was just an opportunity to get stronger.

Mia didn’t like being afraid, but sister was there so it would be okay.