POV: Sayaka
She didn’t think Baggage and Kai had done anything lewd because they were both in a bad mood when they got out of the carriage. They were still keeping a certain distance apart, though Baggage was trying to close the distance, bit by bit, as if she were getting into water that was too hot.
The only change in Kai’s behavior was looking behind himself more frequently. If that became a nervous tic that kept him from being surprised by others, Sayaka was all for it. His kids would think Kai was crazy, not violent.
Besides, and it was an excellent habit to have. Kai was going to need a job when he got back home and assassins were always needed. He’d be good at it. Maybe too tall, he’d have limited contracts.
Meanwhile, all three problem children were finding new things to argue about.
“Runa, you’re driving,” said Kai.
“That will leave me exposed,” Runa said evenly, as if Kai were an idiot child. “Have Baggage do it.”
“No,” she stays in the carriage.
“It’s fine, I can do it. I’ll try to help your injury more as we go.” Baggage said, she approached him as she talked, and was now in the ‘personal friend’ range of distance. Good, maybe there would be less drama.
“I’m going to tell you no and you’ll say you’re going to do it anyway, is that how you want this to play out?” he asked.
“I was thinking Runa could blast them from the carriage.”
He nodded. “OK. That makes sense. Just so you know, I'm not always going to do the movie thing where you say you’re going to put yourself in danger and I go along with it.”
“I-“ Baggage collected her thoughts. “We’ll talk about it next week.”
Kai nodded, “I’ll be more open-minded then.”
Outstanding. Next week they would be in different universes and that was the amount of distance those two needed to get along.
“Drama done? Good. We’re leaving.” Sayaka jumped on the air sled and hopped onto the roof with a lot of rope. Kai joined her.
The air sled’s warmth kept the snow and ice off. She and Kai looped ropes through the windows to provide what traction they could and a few loops so they could hang on while standing. They gave a few experimental steps and tugs to make sure it worked.
Baggage had gotten the shield. She had to wear it strapped across her back, because neither she nor Runa was strong enough to use it normally.
They set off. Baggage wasn’t bad with the air sled, but she took the turns a bit slow for Sayaka’s taste.
The trail was in lousy condition. A normal horse and cart woudn’t have made it. Gullies and ditches were everywhere. Runa had to blast a tree that fell across the path or trail or whatever it was they were on.
As expected, the wyverns came after them. It was anti-climactic at first, because they had to wait for the things to catch up.
“They aren’t smart,” said Sayaka, “a few of them will be controlled and the rest will be following them. The controlled ones will have a collar on their neck.”
Kai nodded.
That was all she’d get from him. Sayaka was not about to hold his hand and teach basics if he wasn’t going to show an interest.
The wyverns were almost on them. Sayaka threw a dagger, and they gracefully drifted out of the way. The beasts had plenty of time to react. She’d have to wait.
“Kai!” yelled Baggage. “Ask her who they’ll attack!”
“You know who they’re after?” Kai asked.
“You and the shield, obviously.” Sayaka shrugged.
“Dammit, Sayaka!” Kai shouted.
Did those creatures all have collars? Noteworthy. Sayaka doubted he’d notice.
“Did she tell you about the poison tails?” Baggage shouted.
A barbed tail swished near Kai, he lopped off the stinger on the end.
“What the fuck, Sayaka?! Poison?!”
She threw a dagger and it sank into a leg of another one.
“If those large barbed stingers hit you, then you’d die anyway. Stop whining.” she stretched out a hand and called the dagger back to her.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
He tried to slice at another which evaded him. One of Runa’s fire darts caught it in the wing, throwing the monster into a dramatic spiral.
“They’ve all got collars, Sayaka!” Yelled Kai.
Not bad. Paying attention was important. She threw the next dagger intentionally close to his head as one dove towards him.
“Bi- Dammit!” Kai swore.
Sayaka didn’t like being called a bitch. Everyone knew it was true. She let it pass this time.
Runa was throwing fire from both sides of the carriage. She must be running back and forth. Amusing.
Kai had staggered to the front of the air sled to protect Baggage. Of course. The woman’s nickname suited her.
He took an energetic, useless swipe at a wyvern.
“Kai! Stop protecting Baggage!” Sayaka ordered and tried to focus on the rear of the air cart.
Her dagger hit the one attacking the back of the carriage and its claws dug into the wood and ripped a small hole in it.
The air cart faltered then steadied.
Kai was stumbling and grabbed the same rope Sayaka was holding. He righted himself facing away from Baggage. Bravo.
He could hit the ones right as they were about to strike, but the sword didn’t have much reach.
“Use your gun!” Sayaka yelled, the wind was loud and bitterly cold on top of the carriage.
“What? No!”
Asshole.
“Kai! Kill them with your gun!” ordered Sayaka.
“How?!” Kai barked.
Sayaka held a rope under her arm, threw two daggers with her main hand, and screamed, “Bang! Bang! Idiot!”
Kai’s chest puffed out, his face enraged, and he screamed, “STUPID!”, he paused to turn around and chopped a claw off a wyvern. “CUNT!”
Sayaka called a dagger back and cut the rope they both held. The man could make a choice between fighting for real or screwing around. Then she reluctantly threw the weapon at a monster about to bite Baggage.
Kai was still fucking around with his sword. So, she was a stupid cunt, eh? She lashed out at Kai with a calf kick. It was like kicking a pine tree. There was not much give to him at all.
He sneered.
Shit.
“Stop! You said he could call you that! No! Kai!”, Baggage yelled, they both ignored her.
Kai brought down his sword as she caught her other dagger. She parried, deflecting down. Magically reinforced steel and tungsten alloy met enchanted bone that was one with her soul.
Her blood was everywhere. She loved her daggers. A memory surfaced, from when they were made.
The Forgotten Order had their clever jokes when they chopped candidates up. They had held up her legs. “Want to go dancing, Sayaka?”
She had spat, skimming the boundaries of consciousness, agony and humiliation pouring out of every nerve, “I pushed four children through ‘em, tiny prick! Tell me when the pain starts.”
They still called that guy ‘Tiny’.
… the pain she felt these days? It didn’t even register.
There were no sparks when the weapons collided. The dagger held, a gash appeared over Sayaka’s chest where no sword struck, and the katana had a small chip in the blade.
The air was thick with mutual anger and contempt.
“Kai!” Baggage, of course.
The idiot hero leapt to her rescue, batting away a wyvern about to attack her. Whoever was controlling them had used the infighting to focus on Baggage. Kai got there first, barely. Baggage was bent over, trying to hide completely under the shield a wyvern was clawing.
She left them to their fun and went back to killing the enemy. When Kai and Sayaka stopped trying to attack each other, things went more smoothly. She let him protect Baggage on his half of the air sled and she stayed on her half to do the work. Finally, they were done. Tempers were still hot. Kai glared at her and she glared right back.
Baggage applied healing to her, but once the wound was covered up, Kai told her to stop and get in the carriage with Runa. His eyes were like lightning. Baggage went inside. It was just the two of them now.
“You really want to do this, big man?” Sayaka asked.
“Yeah, I do. Baggage stay all the way inside the carriage, behind the window.”
“But-”
“Baggage! Do it!”
Well, now. That wasn’t nice. Sayaka looked at the ground. Snow and mud. Kai’s fighting style emphasized footwork and he wasn’t good on uneven surfaces. He had probably trained in a place with a smooth floor.
Sayaka shrugged. This hero’s story was about to come to turn to a bad page. Oh well.
“Ready?” Kai asked her.
“Yeah, bring it, Drake.”
He drew his gun. Of course on her and not the wyverns. Dammit. She flipped back and landed in a crouch with the daggers drawn and-
“What the fuck, Sayaka?” he was holding the gun by the barrel with the pistol grip in her direction.
Oh.
She put her daggers away and accepted the weapon from Kai.
“Keep it pointed at the ground,” he warned her.
Kai used his sword to chop off the branches of a bushy hinoki cypress tree until the trunk was clearly visible. He wiped the blade on one of his undershirts. Then he stood behind her.
“Don’t stand behind me,” she said.
“Annoying, isn’t it? I’ve been told that it’s no big deal to stand right behind someone and as of now it’s the safest place to be.”
“Why?” she asked, but she already had a good idea what was going on.
“You’re going to show me how easy it is to use that thing. Three shots to hit the trunk.”
“Kai, the last gun I fired was a flintlock musket.”
“You’re experienced then. Go for it.”
Fine. She leveled the pistol at the tree with one hand and pulled the trigger.
*Crack!*
She was prepared for the noise, but not the kick. The flintlock had made a lower sounding ‘boom’ and the recoil pushed. This small pistol had a sharp recoil that kicked her hand. Her shot went wild.
“That’s one,” Kai said, she could hear the amusement. Asshole.
She tried again with two hands like she had seen him do. The second shot also missed and she felt a small pain in the webbing of the hand that was higher up.
“Glock side-bite!”, a cheerful voice said behind her. “I’ve heard the newer models are much better. Try moving your grip down a bit.”
Sayaka had observed many times that there was always one person around who needed killing. She had a good idea who that person was right now.
She lowered her grip and held the weapon with both hands. The third shot went wide of the trunk. Some branches rustled.
“I said lower your grip a , Annie Oakley.”
Sayaka didn’t understand the reference, there was enough derision for her to catch the meaning.
Wordlessly, she handed the weapon back. This is where she expected taunting; to her surprise, he didn't make fun of her.
“Sayaka, I'm out of practice. I'm not a good shot anymore. I’ll need time we don’t have. I’ve been hitting targets that were either big, close, or part of a group and no one noticed I hit the wrong guy. I'm not going to hit a medium-sized flying target without burning through all my ammunition.”
Sayaka didn’t say anything. She assumed it worked like elven quivers for archery where the arrows grew back overnight. A silly thing now that she thought about it. Hundreds of years can build some bad habits.
She nodded, acknowledging him.
“Are you going to say you don’t know shit about firearms?” he asked.
That question had an obvious answer.
“No.”
