I didn’t yet understand why Kimba thought she’d never see those friends again. She traded stories of adventure with them, of missions to disrupt powerful families from coup attempts against their country’s rulers, of lovers abandoned their beds in the night, of families and friends left behind to chase the thrill of always protecting someone or something.

They drank until the tavern keep switched shifts with another, until Kimba had so much grog that she stumbled when she rose from her seat and only had a few hours until dawn to get some rest. Her room at the tavern was already occupied by the time she got in. Two sets of single beds separated by dressers, with two of the beds occupied with sleeping forms. Kimba wasn’t as quiet as she thought she was when she came in, but the two nearly identical women she shared her room with didn’t let her know this.

The trio rose only a few hours later. Kimba moved slowly, like her limbs were weighted with thick tar, and the other two women chatted about nothing and everything as they packed their belongings.

“Nina, Rin,” grumbled Kimba. The twins halted their chatter. “We have a job, maybe.”

“Explains why you smell like that potable piss they serve as grog here,” said the thinnest of the three. Though her face was just as round, hair just as long and yellow as her sister’s, her eyes were lighter, and her frame favored faster footwork over powerful blows. Nina’s arms, however, hardly fit in her tunic. It was obvious which one owned the longsword leaning against the bed frame, and which used the sheathed daggers in their bags.

“Rin said that you were seen talking to a traveler before we turned in, got some sort of note.” Nina tied a knot at the top of her massive bag, and stood whilst swinging it onto her shoulder with the effortless strength expected of someone with muscles that size. Kimba finally managed to get out from under her burlap blanket. Though she looked to be in incredible pain, held her head tenderly with shaking hands, she stood with purpose.

“We’re going to Cudwi.” Her companions glanced to one another as a quick, silent conversation as Kimba grabbed her own bag. “The king and queen requested us for some sort of secret job. Just to hear them out is ten gold in payment.”

Nina scoffed. “What kind of job pays to be just heard? In a different country, no less?”

Her sister frowned. “The ones where not everyone comes back.”

“Ones where you can retire after if you survive,” said Kimba. From her duffel bag she pulled out her pieces of simple, leather armor: cuirass, bracers, greaves. As she donned her pieces, her comrades took the hint and put on some of their protective barriers.

“You looking to retire?” asked Rin skeptically. She pulled her long, golden hair to the side and began to put it into a quick braid, then secured it as a bun on the back of her head with a pin.

“No,” admitted Kimba with a sigh, “just tired of places like this. It’d be nice to get a good night’s sleep in a bed softer than the forest floor.” The sisters gave each other knowing looks, but neither said anything aloud.

Waiting at the stables was that same man in the same clothes from last night. He held the reigns of a black steed, and swapped pleasantries with the woman that kept all the horses.

“Ah, Miss Kimba,” called the man with a smile. He hesitated. “You’re bringing…friends?” He looked at Nina and Rin with a hint of worry.

“Where I go, they go,” was her reply as she reached for her own set of two horses.

“I—I see,” said the traveler without confidence. “Pleased to meet you both. I am Vashti.”

“Rin.”

“Nina.”

“U-um….” The traveler, as he swapped a few copper coins with the owner of the stables, looked to Kimba with uncertainty. “I wasn’t anticipating a group affair.” His smile had a hard time sticking to his face.

Kimba shrugged after she paid for the boarding of her three horses.

“Where I go, they go,” she repeated. “If your intel was any good, you’d know that.” Vashti faltered at her comment, stuttering even more, but no actual words came out. Kimba laughed. “It’s okay, good man. Can’t have brains and looks, can you?” Although I found it funny, it was a little cruel for all the women to laugh at him and start ahead to the road to Cudwi before he could gather himself.

But it was a fair impression for how the next two days went: Kimba made a clever quip, some sort of backhanded compliment, and while Vashti stuttered and tried to keep up, she’d laugh at him and move onto the next topic. He never seemed to know if he should be impressed, insulted, or whether or not the mad blush on his cheeks were appropriate or not. And just when poor Vashti seemed to get a handle on everything, their travel time came to an end.