After getting something to eat I made sure that the lock of hair from Rulan was still braided securely, it was still there to my relief, but it seemed to be on the verge of falling off, with hairs sticking out in different directions. That dream, or whatever it was, had been a grim reminder of my duty to my people, it was true that they might be suffering while I had a pretty easy time here comparatively. Although I couldn’t be sure of that, I still felt guilty and wanted to get back there as soon as possible.

Either way, I needed to find a safer place to keep Rulan's braid, I untied it and held it in my hand to look at. It looked worse for wear, the braid having started to unravel and full of dirt and leaves, if it was this dirty how must I look?

“What’s that?” Lilian asked from my side, having walked up to me without me noticing.

“It’s from someone back on my island, someone very special. Gave it to me so that I would have something to remember them by, my people,” I said trying to hide how she had startled me. Lilian stared at it in wonder, as if it was some great relic holding secret knowledge.

“Like your husband, or your wife I guess?” She looked embarrassed about her slip up, but we were from two different worlds, so I didn’t blame her.

“We don’t have the concept of husband and wife back home, but she is something similar, like family.” She looked amazed at this, was it truly such a big thing, not wanting to tie yourself to another for the rest of your life.

“But what of love, wouldn’t you want to spend the rest of your life with that person?” She rallied quickly and came back on the offensive, this seemed important to her.

“You mainlanders are so strange, although I suppose I must seem strange to you. Are your hearts truly so small that you can only love one person? Everyone I know back in my village is part of my family and I love them all. I couldn’t choose only one of them to be with, not even the one who gave me this braid.” I sad and held it up for her to see, she grew quiet after that, contemplative and I sighed before I said. “It doesn’t matter, I’ve come to realize that the Naga are a very different people compared to others. We have a long way ahead of us, so it’s best we get going.”

She had brought her clothes and put them on and was handing me my own for me to put on. They looked worse for wear too, not having been cleaned for my entire stay here on the mainland, with small holes and stains on them. Perhaps we could swing by the river to clean them and ourselves on our way to the coast, but that would take time, time that I didn’t want to waste now that I was on my way home. If only there was a faster way to deal with this, some way to make clothes as good as new. It struck me suddenly that I had common sense-defying powers and a gem in my navel that could absorb and store things within itself. I cursed myself for a fool, but it was a hard thing to get used to.

“Hold on a moment, I want to try something to make the journey a little more comfortable before we leave,” Lilian looked at me curiously, but didn’t say anything as I thought about what I wanted.

Red, do you think you could hold on to this until I find a better place for it?

Affirmative

Came the reply in the form of words in my vision, they faded as the little braid in my hand also disappeared, absorbed by the gem. Lilian's eyes widened at that, if she thought that was impressive she would be in for a surprise if my next idea worked.

Well, can you do it? Can you clean me and mend my clothes?

Purpose unclear

Define clean

Just, remove any dirt or things that are not supposed to be there from my body and my clothes. Also, if you could mend my clothes, somehow that would be great.

Initiating process cleaning

Removing foreign materials

Restoring “Clothes”

A ticklish feeling spread out from the gem throughout my body and I watched as the stains on my clothes disappeared and the holes in them closed as if by themselves. The feeling stopped and I examined myself with my hands, I felt fresh. Lilian's eyes were even wider now and I smiled at her expression.

“With your permission, I’d like to do the same for you, may I?” Lilian looked a bit uncertain but she nodded slowly and I approached her.

Well Red, can you do what you just did for me but with Lilian?

Touch required

Suffusion in aura required

I took that to mean that I needed to touch her in some way and that she needed to stay close so that Red could sense Lilian.

“I need to touch you, and I need you to stay close to me if this is going to work, is that okay?” I asked I didn’t want to scare the girl by doing something she wasn’t ready for.

“That’s fine,” she said, and I placed my hand on her neck as she stepped closer to me.

“That’s good Liliana, now this might tickle a bit.”

Initiating process cleaning of individual Lilian

Removing foreign materials from individual Lilian

Restoring clothes of individual Lilian

As the words faded from view the core started vibrating, why were clothes different when he did this for me? It didn’t matter, but I watched as Lilian squirmed slightly and I assumed it was working. Her clothes looked brand new and she looked down at herself before saying in a quiet voice.

“No more washing clothes.” I didn’t really hear her, it was as if she was speaking to herself.

“What was that?”

“No more chores,” she said louder this time. “MAGIC IS AWESOME!” She practically screamed this, and I laughed at her before I said.

“Yes, yes it is.” She seemed to realize that she had been shouting, but she was not the least bit embarrassed as she looked to me with excitement.

“I need to learn this stuff, when will you teach me?”

“Right now we need to get moving if we are going to make good time, but I promise to start with your lessons once we have made camp for the night,” she seemed disappointed at first, but she accepted it quickly as she nodded. The camp got absorbed and I brought out my bow if we ran into some game on the way I might as well do some hunting. I wanted to swing by the river, if not to clean ourselves, but to fill our water supply. About halfway there Lilian asked a question.

“Can I have a bow as well, I don’t know if I told you this, but I’m a pretty good shot,” she glared at me after saying that, as if daring me to contradict her.

“Of course you can, you just need to find some good wood to make it out of, and I’ll take care of it,” the answer seemed to surprise her at first, but then she grinned widely before she looked around. She went around in the little clearing where we had stopped and felt the different trees with her hands. She eventually stopped at a rather small tree, I slithered over to it and took a closer look. It was only about half as tall as the other trees in the clearing with blackish bark, the branches grew densely together and looked stiff with wicked looking spines on them. There were what looked like small green berries growing in the branches among the leaves, they looked and smelled unripe.

“This is the type of wood you want?” I asked and Lilian nodded, “what do you call this tree anyway?”

“It’s a Blackthorn,” she answered. “They normally don’t grow big enough to make bows out of, but when they do, I heard they are a joy to work with.” She turned around and grinned at me, and I chuckled.

So Red, how should I do this?

Touch required

Suffusion in aura required

So same deal as last time, got it. I made my way up to the trunk and bade Lilian back up a bit before I placed both hands on the trunk. It was good that she had chosen a smaller tree, it would be a bit of a waste of wood to choose a big one just to make a bow for her, although I suppose Red could just store the leftovers for later. This seemed to be taking longer than usual, was it because it wasn’t fully enclosed in Red’s aura, hadn’t Lubus said it extended out for about fifteen feet. I didn’t actually know how long that was, did it refer to the feet of a person? I tried to imagine fifteen feet stacked on top of each other, but before I could get very far, the tree shook and disappeared.

I almost lost my balance by the sudden lack of something to hold on to, and I waved my hands in the air to right myself. All that was left of the Blackthorn was a stump close to the ground. I turned around to Look at Lilian and she closed her mouth quickly as she noticed I was looking at her. She had been looking on in amazement, she seemed to be doing that a lot lately.

“Your, that’s, you must be very strong Eshanai,” Lilian said. I felt a bit guilty, even if I hadn’t lied to her I had still withheld the truth. She deserved to know if she was going to travel with me, at least part of it. I don’t think she would react well to learning I had a bond with a dungeon.

“The truth is I had a bit of help,” I said, and lifted my shirt to pat the core, her eyes shone with understanding before she looked back up at me.

“It’s some kind of magical item then?”

“You could say that it helps me with different magical things. It’s what allows me to store things so easily, and it’s what I’ll use to make your bow,” at the mention of her bow her eyes lit up with excitement.

“Ooohh, this is going to be so great, can you make it now?” I nodded and held out my hand to her, without needing to tell red, a smaller version of my bow appeared in my hand along with a quiver full of arrows, being able to read my mind probably helped. It was already strung, and the wood came out much darker than on my bow. I nodded at her to take it, and she snatched it up in a hurry. She fastened the quiver correctly on her back, and grabbing an arrow she fastened it to the string. She brought up the bow and pulled the string back as far as it would go, her arms shook slightly before she let fly. The arrow flew quickly through the air to bury itself halfway up its length in the tree she had aimed at. She seemed slightly surprised at the power, before running and trying to pull the arrow out. I slithered up behind her, she pulled mightily on the arrow but it was stuck fast.

“Here let me try,” I said and Lilian stepped aside to give me some room. I grabbed the arrow with one hand I braced myself against the tree with the other before giving the arrow a quick yank. It came out with a crack, I had broken it, the head was still stuck in there.

“Oh well, nothing to be done,” I said as I bade Red absorb what was left of the arrow. Lilian looked at me strangely and I asked her if something was wrong.

“No nothing’s wrong, it’s just that I never really understood how strong you are,” she said and looked down at her bow. “You could probably pull this easily and hold it for a long time,” the look in her eyes was very complicated, part frustration and part anger it seemed to me.

“You have nothing to worry about from me, I’m your friend,” I said, trying to reassure her.

“I know,” she said and looked up at me, she tried to give a smile but it seemed forced. She continued walking towards the river and I followed after her, I tried to cheer her up by teaching her a bit about hunting. She may not have my superior smell or heat sensitive, but there were still things she could look for. Such as tracks for one thing, but there were less obvious things too, such as staying upwind so your prey couldn’t smell you or looking for broken branches where pray might have passed if ground tracks were hard to spot. Lilian's mood improved and she showed me what mushrooms and berries were safe to eat. By the time we made it to the water's edge we had gathered a hefty amount of forage and I had bid Red store it away so it wouldn’t spoil, so convenient.