They didn’t want to give off the impression of sneaking around so Copy screamed her greeting as she entered the clearing. The person shivered and dropped something. Terin couldn’t blame the stranger, her voice was quite grating.

“Ah, pizdec!” - the voice sounded like it belonged to a woman but it was very rough and could just as easily belong to a man. The person stood up and looked at Copy. - “What you want debil!”

Terin was staying back just in case it was a trap. He hoped Copy could deal with this situation without causing any more issues. But something told him diplomacy wasn’t her strong suit.

“Uhhhh, I just didn’t want to scare you.”

“I am not scared suka! I am surprised! Who yells when they sneak? Are you stupid?”

“I did it so you know that I don’t want to attack you.”

“Then why is your friend hiding? Huh? You think I am stupid? Come here and we fight!”

Feigning ignorance wouldn’t help. Terin broke through into the clearing and could clearly see the person in front of him. It was obviously a woman standing in front of him. But her body didn’t look feminine, it was large. It wasn’t larger than Terin’s but he wasn’t confident he could beat her in a strength contest. She angrily mumbled something and grabbed her sword. It was a katana, but much longer than he was used to seeing. He knew a name existed for it but he couldn’t remember.

“Wait, we don’t want to fight!”

“Idi nahui! I want to fight! I dropped my spoon! It has ash and grass on it now. How am I supposed to eat mayonez?”

“Wait, wait, wait! I assume we are both stuck here, we can help each other. Let’s just calm down and talk about it.”

She stopped her unsheathing and thought about it. After a while she sheathed her sword but was still angry.

“Pohui! Sit down and we will talk!”

She dropped her sword and went back to squatting. They didn’t want to anger her anymore so they say down on the ground around the campfire. She looked at them with disgusting and confusion. She extended her hand and said “Radojka”. Terin just shook it.

“Yobany urod… Do you not know how to introduce? Give me your name!”

“Oh sorry, it’s Terin”

Copy offered her hand and introduced herself. Terin was starting to get annoyed. He was too ill-informed about many things here and kept making mistakes. How was he supposed to know that was a name? He didn’t like it at all. It was time to focus and start making up for all his mistakes. First he decided to take a closer look at her.

From head to toe she was wearing clothes from the same brand. AdiBass. Completely black except for the 3 white stripes and the logo. Her sneakers and tracksuit looked normal and could be seen anywhere. But the top part was strange. It was an armor that Terin would commonly see in movies and video games about samurai. Same with her helmet. The logo and the stripes weren’t painted on top of the armor, they were engraved. He couldn’t understand how she managed to get this armor from a clothing brand. He heard that samurai are excellent fighters but he wasn’t sure she was one.

He was certain that she was a slav. Just like everything else they appeared out of nowhere and mostly in the eastern parts of sectors. Slavs generally had a bad reputation but most of them were nice people. The problematic ones were called gopniks. He was hoping that she wasn’t one of them.

She closed her jar of mayonnaise and put it in the bag she was carrying. It was a small bag and the jar looked like it will barely fit. Yet she easily put it in and then pulled out 3 shot glasses. Afterwards she pulled out a bottle of vodka. How that managed to fit in, Terin had no idea. All he wanted right now was for her to fill his glass until he is wasted. Ever since coming here nothing made sense to him. He didn’t want to think anymore. As she was filling the glasses Copy interrupted her.

“I won’t drink. Skip my glass, please.”

Her mood seemed to have improved as she wasn’t angry anymore and was laughing. She didn’t stop pouring.

“Haha chuvak idi nahui! Drink!”

They raised their glasses and everyone took their shot.

“Tovarishch! Now we can talk. Everyone here has bit of slav in them so now we can be friends!”

“We are lost, if you can show us the way to the city we can find a safe path to the AB while avoiding the horde.”

“I know way outside of forest. But there is scythe user chasing me when I leave and he teleports around. I can’t fight him at all! You help me kill him and we can all escape!”

Usually Copy would be the one excited about fighting but this time it was Terin. Nothing else made sense so far. Fighting was one thing he understood well. It was a nice welcome.

“What are we waiting for then? Let’s go!”