Chapter 3 : Forest

“How much further?!” Ryoko shouted as she leaned against a nearby tree. The two had been walking for quite some time now. The small village of Trudid was long behind them, they had begun the process of walking towards the foot of the nearby mountain range.

“According to this map.. Not too much further.” Ren said as he unfurled an old looking piece of parchment and stared at it for a few moments.

“This is us.” He said, pointing to a red dot which blinked in and out of sight at a specific point on the map.

“And here…. Is the tower.” Ren said, sliding his pointer finger along the map to a blue dot as he did so.

“So another hour or two?” Ryoko groaned as she took a seat near the base of the tree.

*At least there’s some shade now..* She thought to herself. Now that the sun had moved on from overhead the heat was somewhat manageable. Moving up the mountain also provided a cool breeze occasionally.

“UWAH. A princess should not be made to walk!” Ryoko protested as she fanned herself. She could feel her feet beginning to ache. She was not amused!

“Alright, alright. I’ll keep it in mind, that my sister is such a delicate flower.” Ren said, walking towards her before he put the map away and knelt down.

“Here, come on.” He said, offering his back to Ryoko.

“What? Get real. I’m not a kid..” Ryoko said, her ears twitching slightly as her voice lowered.

Ren just chuckled upon seeing his sister’s reaction, before adding, “Of course you’re not. You’re a delicate flower, a princess without her carriage. Your humble servant requests that you use me as you see fit, princess-sama.”

Minutes later the two continued their trek up the mountainside wilderness. The carriage would never make it up the constant incline and uneven path -- if this could even be called a path, thus they were forced to walk the rest of the way. The “path” was little more than a trail surrounded by rock, brush and occasional trees on either side.

“Ryoko! You are the navigator.” Ren said, prompting his sister to pull the map from his pocket. She used one hand to hold it where both could see as she hugged him tightly. In this way the two proceeded, undisturbed , along the mountain pathway for quite some time. They talked about various things, nothing of particular importance but still relevant to them due to their shared bonds.

Finally --

“Ren.” Ryoko said suddenly as her grip tightened against Ren’s chest. Her ears perked up at the sound of distant shuffling in the nearby bushes.

“I noticed. Are you ready?” He whispered as he knelt to let Ryoko down. He kept a close eye upon the nearby surroundings as he did so, anticipating the arrival of -- something.

“Mhm.” She said, raising her hands to a peculiar position, as if she was holding an invisible item in them.

Ren did the same, instead bringing his right hand forth and pointing it towards a nearby patch of trees on a ridge several meters to their left.

“One..Three..Six…” Ren counted.

“No. Eight.” Ryoko said, correcting him as she turned around, her back now pressed against Ren’s.

“They’re here.” Ren said as a sparkle issued forth from his gloved hand. Large, cube like particles appeared en-masse and eventually began to take shape. Within an instant a pistol appeared , but it was not a normal gun. The same happened for Ryoko, though her weapon was shaped like a rifle. Each resembled a gun in shape and appearance, but the weapons had what appeared to be circuits running through all parts and pieces. The siblings gripped the triggers as their aggressors, a pack of wild wolves skulked into view from various locations.

*Ryoko was right, there’s definitely eight of them…*

The creatures had already surrounded them, something that became more apparent as more and more of the wolves stepped out and proceeded to inch towards them, forming a circle as they did so.

“I don’t want to hurt you. If you leave now, I won’t kill you.” Ren said loudly as he materialized a large cartridge with his free hand. The cylindrical component resembled a D-size battery in shape and appearance. The only difference was that the material was transparent, an orange flame flickered gently within the center of the object as if contained by an unseen force. This caused the cartridge container to pulse with energy, reddish orange in color.

*Ah.. You ruined my carriage ride.* Ryoko thought to herself as she too conjured a similar cartridge, only hers contained a blue spark of lightning. They both inserted these cartridges into their weapons, causing their A-Guns to pulse with energy as the magical circuits began to feed energy into various parts of the weapon.

The wolves snapped and snarled as Ren and Ryoko took aim, preparing themselves for a life or death struggle. They snarled, moving ever closer as they sought to intimidate the pair before them.

“Be careful. Don’t let them get you.” Ren whispered as he took aim at the wolf nearest to him.

“Ditto.” Ryoko said as she raised her rifle and took in a deep breath. She lined up her shot and without a moment’s hesitation she decided to kick things off.

In an instant the battle began, Ryoko taking the first shot and nailing a grey wolf in the face with a bullet made of pure lightning. The creature yelped in pain as it’s body rolled and skidded several meters down the pathway. The other wolves pounced instantly, rushing forth from all directions the moment one of their own was injured.

“Tsk.” Ryoko said, clicking her teeth as she dashed forward, quickly bridging the distance between her and the nearest wolf. Without missing a beat she punt kicked the creature with enough force that it’s ribs cracked from the blow.

“Don’t kill them if you can help it.” Ren said as he too began to do battle. With three of the creatures heading his way and Ryoko at his rear, he decided to hop-step backwards as he unloaded three well placed shots. Two of the creatures went down, their bodies engulfed in a roar of flames, the third was struck but ignored the damage altogether.

“Persistent.” Ren said as he took aim and fired two more bullets, this time downing the creature as it struggled due to the overwhelming pain it was now facing.

In the short time that Ren managed to defeat three of the creatures, Ryoko had also taken down two more. She was now leveling her rifle at the one whom she believed to be the pact leader.

“This ought to do it.” She whispered as she focused her mana, making sure to condense the lightning bullet forming in the chamber before she fired. The result was two fold, the bullet struck and shocked the alpha wolf with a surge of electricity. Next a lightning strike from above struck down, rendering the creature immobile.

Seeing their leader wounded, the other wolves slowly began to back off and one by one they slinked away with their heads down.

“I said..not to kill them if you can help it…” Ren said as he glanced around at the quick but deadly exchange.

“I didn’t.. At least not the last one..” Ryoko asserted as she hid her gun away once more.

“Let’s go, servant.” She commanded, her arms folded in the most regal way possible as she awaited Ren’s offer to piggyback her once more.

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“This is a dump. Absolute garbage. We walked so far for this? Take me back to the capital, now.”

These were Ryoko’s unkind words as she gazed upon the destination they’d walked three hours just to find.

The tower, or more precisely a wooden spire that only reached ten meters into the heavens. The roof and sides of the building were badly damaged and in need of heavy repair. The door barely hung onto its hinges and Ren swore he heard a draft whistling through the bottom floor of the structure as he drew near.

“Yes.. this is my tower!” Ren said proudly as he flourished his hands.

“Our new home. The castle of princess Ryoko. Lightfoot Manor!”

“Baka.” Ryoko said as she sighed.