2 - A. Oh, My Goddess.

“I just don’t get it,” Melia says, pouting. Aura drops her weight, far enough that her nose almost scrapes against the grass. Tumbling forward, she rolls out of the way of Melia’s dive bomb.

“Agh, it’s so frustrating!” Aura picks herself up quickly and shifts sideways, clumsily guarding with her sword. Her expression is a little stiff as she backpedals from Melia’s incoming assault.

“What exactly is frustrating, Melia.” Ront’s voice calls out from Aura’s side as she grits her teeth. Wisps of flame tickle her cheek as she pulls further back, making as much distance as she can from Melia.

“Her! Miss Aura is so frustrating!” Melia slams her gauntlets together and jumps into the sky again. The first time she saw it Aura’s jaw nearly dropped, but now she’s used to that overwhelming athleticism. It’s Melia’s favorite move, after all - a dive bomb so terrifying, Aura wonders how the dhoka wasn’t child’s play.

By the way, hadn’t this cute little bear girl introduced herself as a mage? Mages were supposed to have canes and big hats and stuff like that, right? The books in the Silda library certainly gave off that impression. Aura glances over at Ront who sighs and shakes his head.

“Eternal spirits frozen in - ” Aura’s attention snaps back to Melia as arcing circles and geometric patterns form around her. Adrenaline rushes through Aura at the sight, driving her into close range. Her sword whips out, drawing a clean arc right to left, and dings uselessly off Melia’s raised gauntlet. The bear woman’s other hand reaches out and smacks her across the face.

“This! This is frustrating!” Melia huffs as she points at Aura, sprawled out across the ground. The hero’s ears are ringing and her vision is swimming, however, so she doesn’t hear it. Raising her hand, Aura signs a single word.

“Ow.” Ront’s barking laughter doesn’t help her bruised ego or face.

・

“Miss Aura…”

“Yes?” Aura tilts her head slightly, fingers twisting in small, constrained motions by her stomach.

“Um… I’m sorry. About your face.” Aura leans over slightly and offers a small smile, hiding her laugh with one hand.

“She’s the one who keeps sparring you. It isn’t your fault she’s lost 37 times in a row, Melia.”

“And I’m especially sorry about him,” Melia huffs, glaring at Ront.

“You two sure are close,” Aura signs, then wraps her arms over their shoulders and pulls both beastfolk into a hug.

“See? She doesn’t mind.” Ront escapes the hug a moment later and smoothes out his sleeves, raising an eyebrow. With her right arm now free, she wraps it around Melia instead.

Melia returns the hug, then extracts herself as well. Crossing her arms, she pouts a little and focuses her dark green eyes on Aura’s silver ones. Tilting her head, Aura gives her a welcoming smile. Melia stares back for a while, then shakes her head.

“It’s just unfair,” she mutters under her breath. Ront turns his head to the side, ears drooping. Aura glances between her two companions a few times, then gives Ront a small pat on the back. Stepping in front of both of them, she leans forward and smiles wide. Her hands move in wide, yet sly movements.

“Last one to the inn pays.”

“Hoh. Well then.” Ront’s ears perk up slightly.

“You’ll buy me as much fish as I want, right? Right?”

“If you win,” she signs to Melia, then turns around and sprints towards town. Melia’s thundering footsteps rush past her, leaving no trace across the ground. Ront’s quiet pitter-pattering steps pass her on the right a moment later, but not without a quick smack to her shoulder.

“Thanks.” He vanishes down the road in just a few moments.

・

“I’m stuffed.” Melia lets out a slovenly sigh and sinks into her chair, a content smile drifting onto her lips. Her ears twitch as a large map is unfurled in front of her, but she keeps her eyes closed. That is, at least, until Aura’s fingertips sneak into her hair and begin massaging her temples and the back of her neck.

“Uwah! Miss Aura! Personal space!” The perpetrator smiles innocently and points at Ront, who lets out a little ‘hmph.’

“I told you to wake her up, I didn’t tell you how.”

“But her eyes were closed,” Aura signs, then puts one hand on her cheek as cutely as possible. Thanks to her half-closed eyelids and cool gaze, however, she looks more sly than anything. However, her expression relaxes as she dips towards Melia. “I’m sorry. I’ll ask next time,” she signs, the warm curl of her lips accenting the sincere twinkle in her eyes.

“Muuu. Okay. As long as you understand.” Melia folds her arms, pouting a bit. Her ears twitch back and forth before relaxing in time with a long exhale. Aura is just like that, Melia thinks. Touchy-feely. More than eager to show her affection physically, but always quick to retreat and accept boundaries. She both is and isn’t pushy. Since the first time they spoke and she had asked Aura not to stare too much at her ears, Aura had never so much as brushed her fingers against Melia’s ears.

“Um… Excuse me, what are you two doing?” Melia turns her eyes up and blinks.

“Can’t you tell by looking, Melia? She’s massaging my neck, of course. It’s very good.” Ront’s expression is a little loose as he tilts his head forward, enjoying the sensation of Aura’s fingers digging into his skin. Ignoring Melia’s blank stare, Ront’s finger trails over the map.

“It’s about time we plot our next move.” Aura slumps down on top of Ront’s shoulders and rests her chin on his head, causing the jackal man underneath her to grunt. Her hands drift down in front of his eyes, signing so both her companions could see.

“Teach me.”

“About the map?” Melia pipes in, watching the familiar phrase come from Aura’s hands.

“Yes. Please.” Ront lets out another little grunt as Aura finishes signing, pushing her off his head. So cute, she thinks, sliding into a nearby chair instead.

“Alright, hero.” The jackal man’s nose twitches as Aura crosses her legs and rests her elbow on her knee, supporting her chin with her hand. “I’ll try to keep it brief,” he mutters, pushing one hand into his hair and huffing. Where should he even begin?

“You’re overcomplicating it. It’s not a lesson and there’s no test,” Melia chides. “Look, that’s north, that’s south,” she says with a bemused smile and a raised eyebrow, her lower lip jutting out in a way that makes her look a little smug. Aura’s eyes move to the map and she raises an eyebrow as well, a little less bemused.

The north and south parts of the map are completely dark. If she was being a bit less courteous, the entire southern half of the map is a big blank, but the poles were crosshatched to look dark.

“Wait, ah… Miss Aura, you do know what north and south are, right?” Melia’s easy-going smile flattens for a moment as she glances over at Aura fearfully. I’m not going to hit you, sweetie… Why do you look so scared? Aura blinks and waves off her worries, turning her eyes back to the map. She knows the basics after spending a few weeks cooped up in the library and eavesdropping.

“Shuren is here, Silda is there,” Ront continues, sliding his finger right to left. “And we’re here, traveling down along Gwyndolin’s Tears. We’re heading - Aura, are you paying attention?” The hero snaps her head up, then nods and huffs.

“As I was saying. We’re heading south along the river, since we can’t take you into the forest. Not until your rank rises higher and we can take you to the forest embassy and get you registered with us.” How political. However, the rules of the forest kingdom were the rules. It’s not like she could complain to her companions about it. To sacrifice and put themselves at even more risk for her… That sort of thing shouldn’t be repeated. Her expression darkens a little, bangs sliding forward.

“And then, as you can see, there are various other countries laid out here and there. Shuren and a few other countries are very human centric, which means discrimination for the… lesser races,” Ront finishes in a sarcastic drawl. “Without getting too deep into it, there’s a great number of races. Careful what you call people. Some folk don’t care, but in a lot of places, calling someone a ‘beastman’ is an insult.”

“People are people.” Aura signs back.

“...Exactly. People are people.” Ront lets out a tired sigh and smiles, covering his eyes with one hand. “Not like I had to worry about you. Never met anyone so pushy, yet conscientious. So stressful. How is your hair not gray yet,” he jokes, a barking laughter leaving him a moment later. Aura pinches her silver hair and pouts. Rude.

“I’ll finish up,” Melia chimes in, seeing Ront refusing to continue. Clicking her tongue, she points to the map again. “It’s not like she has to know about every bit of politics. Right, let’s finish this in one go.” Melia takes one big breath, then runs her mouth at full speed.

“Seasons are suuuuuper long and pretty intense, so people cluster towards the equator - that’s the big scar in the center there. South of that is the demon alliance, which opposes the northern alliance, or the demihuman alliance.” Ront scoffs at that, demihuman, though Melia keeps charging forward with her explanation.

“Because of how the planet spins, our twenty hour days can get pretty dramatic. Long days, long nights. And then there’s that cursed red moon, which makes the undead stronger, orbiting like this,” she continues, drawing a line with her finger north to south.

“So, well… there’s a lot of places that aren’t safe. Everyone clusters close to the equator if possible. It’s either too cold or too dangerous or both. Since Shuren is hostile to you, we’re taking the long way where we can.” Aura stares down at the map. There are a lot of holes in that explanation, but explaining geopolitical conflicts between demons and demihumans would take more than a night. One thing is clear, however. A big part of the map is just dangerous, which makes everyone territorial. She rests her index finger against her lips and her thumb against her cheek, squinting.

“Too close. The alliances.” She points at what looks like a line drawn horizontally across the map. Magic existed in this world, her spars with Melia had proved that daily. With magic, couldn’t someone have launched magic into the enemy camp, flown over, or even built some kind of earth bridge? She isn’t sure if any of those are possible, but she has doubts that no such magic is possible. Her finger lifts up in an arcing motion from Shuren to the unknown demon continent, imitating the sound of a boulder falling in her exhaled breath. Psssshhhhchhhuuuu.

“Oh. Sorry. That entire area repels and dispels any kind of magic that goes through it. You can’t even teleport. Everything inside the chasm is a dead zone. Both sides just leave it alone.” That sounds ridiculous, she wants to quip, but at the same time it was an explanation that made sense. It was the most temperate, stable region, and the only threat was across an impassable chasm. Plus, with both sides sporting alliances, one quick strike wouldn’t be enough to cause chaos. Reinforcements would struggle to arrive. The tenuous, nonverbal agreement to just not pass over that area would be broken forever.

“Trying anything there is basically like committing a war crime. You’d have to be completely nuts.” Ront chimes in, stretching his shoulders. “Think that about settles the explanation though.”

Aura stares down at the map, then up at her two companions. Her eyes drift back to the map as she signs.

“Last question, please. What kinds of gods are there?” Her guild card is supposedly thanks to a divine blessing. The church had levels, measured by some sort of sacred orb… Gods were real, but she had only heard the human take on it.

“I’ll keep it brief. Basically everyone agrees that there wasn’t a bunch of gods and then there were. The planet suddenly became filled with them.” Hey, Melia… Isn’t that too brief? Aura tilts her head. Only the planet?

“Then, is there a star g-”

“Oi. There’s no such thing.” Ront’s voice cuts in harshly as he glares, causing Aura’s hands to freeze in place, then drop to her sides. Her expression cramps slightly as she tilts her head down, smiling and looking back at the map. Melia’s ears droop as she uncomfortably looks to the side, biting her cheek. After a moment, the jackal sighs and his ears droop as well. “Sorry. Let’s go to bed. I think our planning meeting is done.”

Desperate to improve the atmosphere, Melia perches on her seat with her legs drawn in. Turning to her companions, she pipes up.

“We’re heading south anyway, so how about we go to a dungeon?”

Excuse me, Melia dear, what’s a dungeon?