“Wow, the scenery sure looks different,” I said.
Within minutes of leaving the basin of the waterfall, the terrain changed from mossy stones to short grass, and the air brushing against our skin went from humid and damp to light and refreshing.
“Whoa, we really did get out of the forest!” I added.
Filia responded with a long, relaxed, “Yeah!”
And why not? The green earth stretched on farther than the horizon, and there was a kinda “we made it” feeling to the air itself. Yeah!
“Don’t get me wrong, Yuri, I do love the forest—of course I do—but don’t you just feel more secure with a wide-open view? No real chance of a monster surprise attack! Just green and green and green!”
“Huh. Guess so! Hey, sorry to ask Filia, but can I have some water?”
Now that we were out of the trees, I was feeling thirsty, maybe because of the exhilaration. I wish I’d taken a drink back at the basin, but my mind had been elsewhere. Filia didn’t look at all displeased or reluctant, and she poured some water into my hands. I cupped them and sipped.
“Thanks.”
“Oh no, it’s nothing.”
The cold water trickled down my throat. It felt as though as I was being completely healed from the core of my body.
“Ohhh, come on! Even though magic can’t touch you, you can drink water produced through magic? All right, now that’s just unfair. We can both agree that it’s unfair, can’t we?” Filia folded her arms.
“You think so? Well, it’s not like my body is invincible or anything.”
Sure, magic rarely if ever made an impact on me, but that didn’t necessarily mean I could like, disable it wholesale or anything. Like all magnificently massive muscles, mine could only withstand so much. If I were to take on arcane whatnot more powerful than my potent pecs, I’d no doubt be preternaturally punished. Not that I’d ever suffered any such damage before. Not thus far. I had faith in these muscles!
“What are we going to do now?” I said, after a silence. “Are we splitting up? Or traveling together?”
“You know, I’ve been wondering that for a few days now. If I’m not imposing, could I accompany you a little while longer, Yuri? The road is long. I would hate to be bored,” said Filia. “Besides, Yuri, you’re funny.”
And here I was thinking she was the funny one.
“Furthermore, we elves are rather…insular. That is to say, we don’t often leave the forest. My people are quite beautiful, as I’m sure you’re aware, and that means we are highly valued by slave traders. Obviously, I could more than manage such a threat if necessary, but a little more protection never hurts. And I would… I’d like that. The protection, I mean,” said Filia, blushing a little and squirming.
“What’s in it for me?” I asked.
“What’s in it—why, you’d be traveling together with a cutie like me,” Filia replied, placing a finger on her soft cheek, as if my very question must’ve been a joke.
“And that’s a benefit?”
“Of course it is, no matter how you look at it! Besides, I wouldn’t feel any heartache or guilt or anything for using others to get cute little me to safety!” declared Filia, brimming with energy. She must’ve had hidden secret reserves of smugness because she could always turn it up another notch farther than I thought possible.
“Did you really, actually, in reality just say that right in front of me?”
Seriously, what? She seemed intelligent, but was she really an airhead? Well, I guess being around an airhead would be more bearable than hanging out with a certain kind of egghead. And she was pretty good in a fight, too.
“Ah, also, with my Telepathy I can see you don’t have a hidden side, Yuri. You’re the kind of person who just says whatever they think, just like yours truly. I do think you’re a pervert, but you’re tolerably perverted. At any rate, I’d say that I’m in the position of asking you for things.”
Before I knew it, she was talking as if the matter of her accompanying me was a done deal. Maybe she did speak her mind a little too much? I let out a deep sigh.
Well, I supposed Filia was the reason I’d left the forest at all. I probably couldn’t just refuse her request out of hand.
“Do whatever you want,” I said.
“It just so happens that what I want is to accompany you! A satisfying conclusion, he he.”
“Ah.” I stopped moving.
Filia stopped behind me. “What’s the matter?”
“Filia, do you know where the town is? I know I saw it when we were falling down the waterfall, but I don’t remember where I saw it.”
“A town? That you saw? At that speed, at that time of day, falling from the top of a waterfall?”
“Yes?”
“But you can’t tell me where?”
“No.”
“Th-that’s amazing! Unfortunately, I wasn’t really paying attention when I got lost in the woods, so I don’t even know where we were in the first place. And I had my eyes closed when we were tumbling down the waterfall. All I know is that humans are said to be the most prosperous people in the world.”
“Seriously? What’s that have to do with it? Jeez, you really don’t know a thing.”
“All right, Mr. Human, what about you? Shouldn’t you know the exact location of the town?” responded Filia, throwing my question back in my face.
Hmph. How foolish. I answered her with a full, broad smile. “Do you really think someone like me, secluded in the forest ever since childhood, would know something like that?”
Filia gave me a curious squint. “Do you need to sound so…proud of that?”
I guess she had a point. Ignoring Filia, who was still looking at me with narrowed eyes, I peered around for any clues that might tell us where the town was.
“Oh wow, we sure have good luck. We don’t gotta worry anymore,” I said.
“What do you mean?” She tilted her head, confused.
I extended my arm and pointed into the distance. “There it is, the castle wall from earlier. The one I saw when we were dropping off the waterfall.” Real lucky that I could see it from here, too.
“A…castle…wall?” replied Filia, furrowing her brow. Apparently Filia couldn’t see it. “Yuri, you really have good eyesight, don’t you?”
“Well, I’ve trained them.”
“You trained your…” She rubbed her temples. “Sorry, you trained your eyes? What does that even…?”
In any case, we started for the castle wall. It was a long walk, though, and soon enough my companion was noticeably bored.
“Yuri, do you have any hobbies?” she asked.
Hobbies? Well, the number of things I could do were pretty limited in the forest. Let’s see, what did I do for fun? Oh, right!
“Heh, I just love training my body. Muscle training, stuff like that.”
It hadn’t occured to me right off the bat because it was less a hobby and more a lifestyle, but I just adored training. Inside the forest, where visibility was poor, there was always a danger of being hit with a surprise attack from behind. If you didn’t train constantly and got caught unawares, you’d be on the slippy-slide to the afterlife with a crushed skull and no embarrassing story to tell on account of being dead and all.
That was why I made sure to train everything I could possibly train. Eyes, nose, ears, muscles—the whole chiseled enchilada.
“Come to think of it,” said Filia, “even when we were in the forest, you were pretty much constantly talking about muscles and stuff. Like how because you’ve trained, magic is ineffective against you, and other weird stuff like that. Hmm, but…” she stared at my body a little rudely, doubt creeping into her voice, “I can’t really see much muscle on you.”
It was certainly true that my body didn’t appear muscular. While I did look more robust than say, Filia, I probably came off like a normal man, if with a little extra girth.