Chapter 28: The Mechanic and the Little Girl

Chapter 28: The Mechanic and the Little Girl

Daniel awakens from his nap in a secured hidden place he set up in one of the nooks of the massive castle he had stumbled across. It seems the little girl he rescued, in an attempt to attack him, lost her strength at the last moment once more and collapsed onto him. He knows this, since he was sitting against the wall of the shell shelter, and the same rusty and dented dagger/tiny sword that the girl was using to fight is now laying next to his leg and her hand.

Daniel ponders for a moment. It's true he's technically in enemy territory. The demon races are likely to easily recognize a human, and humans are generally the face of the eastern kingdoms and empire, meaning they are at war. A lone human wandering around is less than an enemy and an easy target.

Of course, a little girl with fox-like ears and a bushy black tail would be an easy target for someone like Daniel, it would seem, given how defenseless she is with her weakness. She's been unconscious for a while, and he didn't necessarily want to waste potations on a potential -and now apparently confirmed- hostile person, his weak heart continues to leave a guilty feeling in him.

Once more, he sighs in relation to the small girl.

Daniel carefully pulls the girl up into a more comfortable position and covers her with the blanket. He then puts his gloves back on and extracts his magic bag, then sorting through for the potation bag. He alternates some simple rations and a healing potation with water, slowly feeding the young girl in her unconscious state so that the healing potation will work, the food will put something on her stomach to offset the alcohol’s effects on her tiny body, and the water will help her rehydrate. She doesn’t seem to have any obvious blood-loss, so her gravest injuries appear to be internal. Daniel also decides to feed her an antidote, since it’ll both prevent her from getting drunk and help flush her own blood’s toxic effects from her body, as well as anything else that might be plaguing her from her pitiful state.

Once he allows her to sleep a little more and her stomach to ideally settle, Daniel decides he needs to do something about her pitiful outfit. It doesn’t bring him joy, but he has a lot of gear from the invaders that he doesn’t need, and if she moves too much as it is now, the parts of her body that should remain her secrets are exposed anyways.

Daniel sets the girl down on the bedding again, and then tucks her in, finding clothes and light armor that should fit her, as well as a much newer blade roughly the same size as the one she had. None of the invaders had shields, since it was the mages’ jobs to block any incoming projectiles.

Too bad they can’t think faster than sound. He scoffs lightly at his own internal joke. Technically, the bulk of the army was incapacitated by his land mines and being driven to retreat by the dragon and drake falling.

Daniel idly checks his revolver and rifle once more, making sure they’re combat ready, and he then extracts the dragon tooth he managed to finally break free of the dragon’s head after dropping the whole thing from the top of an extremely tall tree. Naturally, he recollected everything, and with the tooth shards, he worked to rework a couple of each of his bullets to contain the dragon tooth shards. It should be hard enough to penetrate the dragons, and his bullets can act as a sabot for the dragon tooth shards. If the dragon tooth shard can penetrate, and the metal of the rest of the bullet obliterates interior flesh the way the relatively soft metals are supposed to, the impact can be exactly as desired.

Afterwards, he begins cooking a small breakfast. He ensures there’s plenty for the girl, since he can store the leftovers in the magic bag, where time will be stopped, and it’ll be as hot as the moment he put it in there.

As he’s cooking though, he notices the girl stirring. She sits up, looking around. She notices the dagger and clothes. Instantly, she snatches the dagger and whirls to face Daniel, going on defensive instantly. She growls like a feral girl might, trying to intimidate him, but unclear about whether or not she can defeat him while he’s conscious.

Daniel states as gently as he can, keeping his hand on a blanket near him. “Let’s stay calm, Little Lady. I’m not your enemy right now. Let’s talk.” If she tried to pounce, he might be able to pin her down without hurting her too badly, but she obviously has at least some experience attacking with the dagger, given the blood that was on her old one.

However, his words cause her to hum in thought, even though she stays on guard.

He starts patiently, “Let’s get this out of the way. Can you understand me?”

She confirms with a nod.

“Alright, perfect. My name is Daniel. What’s yours?”

She shakes her head.

“No? Alright. Can you tell me why you’re here?”

She shakes her head vigorously again.

“A secret, huh? Alright... How about...” He hears her stomach growl, and she flinches, glancing briefly at the food cooking over the small fire Daniel has burning.

He grins. “Are you hungry?” She glares at him, and he plates some of the food; some kind of meat and a potato-like vegetable he got from the rations of the invaders. He’s had them both before, so he knows it’s good. “Here you go. Eat as much as you like. I can make more.” He slides the plate towards her, and she grips the dagger, glancing multiple times between the plate and Daniel. Daniel retreats to his corner of the shelter and plates a meal for himself, snacking on it.

The girl hesitantly takes a seat and snatches a piece of the meat with her free hand, keeping her eyes suspiciously on Daniel. She sniffs it cautiously, flinching in surprise. She nibbles it and squeaks in pleasant shock. She shoves the meat into her mouth and chews ferociously as the dagger leaves her hand long enough for her to begin shoveling food into her mouth. She has mostly sharp, shark-like teeth, rather than humanoid cutters and crushers, so they make quick work of the meat and ‘potatoes’ without a need for her to slow down much.

Just as she’s starting to lick the plate, Daniel hands her the rest of his own, and she flinches. She glances at her plate, and then his. She greedily snatches it from him and suspiciously watches him as she eats the second serving.

Daniel saw it coming. She looks absolutely ragged, so it was expected she’ll scarf down as much as she can get ahold of. Daniel makes enough to sate his own hunger, and he makes idle small talk -though, with a point-. “You know, your old dagger was pretty dull and worn out. Would’ve been pretty painful for me.”

She pauses her ravenous eating to stare at him. He states, “If you decide to try again, I ask you to make it quick and painless, if you would.” He points at his own wrists and shows her.

She glances at the dagger and then at Daniel. Finally, her gaze slowly trails down to her food, and she looks away from him. She slowly resumes eating, now refusing to make eye contact with Daniel. He finishes his own food and peeks through his scouting spots to determine if they are safe leaving.

The girl sets her plate down and sits on her knees, demonstrating a seemingly intentional posture that would prevent her from being able to attack him as effectively. She’s even sitting on the dagger, though she still won’t look at Daniel.

He says warmly, “Did that fill you up? Now then, behind you, there are some clothes and gear. That’s all for you. I hope you’ll wear it. It should keep you a little safer while we’re here.”

She glances at the clothes, surprised. She finally locks eyes with Daniel once more, and he nods with a smile. “Yes. It’s all for you. I had them, but they won’t fit me, so I won’t need them. Please accept them.”

She fidgets for a moment and then stands up, shedding her ragged coverings, and Daniel looks away.

The girl squirms into the clothes as best as she can, but when she gets stuck, Daniel sighs. He helps her get dressed, and when he’s finishing with the simple leather chest-plate to protect her chest, their faces are right in front of each other, and she looks into his eyes. He smiles, saying, “There. Now you’re a proper fighter.”

Her eyes water, and she looks away. Daniel sits back, and he asks cautiously, “Still don’t want to talk to me?”

She shakes her head, but then quickly stops herself, seemingly confused, and she begins nodding. But, her confusion grows worse, and she speaks at him, but not in Imperial Common.

“Ahhh... So that’s it. You understand me fine, but you don’t speak my language?”

Her eyes widen, and she nods quickly. She speaks again, but he says, “Sorry. I only speak Imperial Common, and I don’t understand any other languages. If you can understand me, though, that’s better than nothing.”

She hesitantly nods, understanding what he’s saying. After a moment, a thought seems to hit her, and she drops to the ground. She uses her finger to draw in the sand and dirt of the ancient castle. Daniel watches for a moment. As she draws, he recognizes the shape as either a dragon or...

He asks, “A... Feldrok?”

She snaps her eyes up to meet his gaze with astonishment in her eyes. She nods vigorously. She points at herself and then hits the drawing she just created with a fist.

“You’re... going to fight a Feldrok?”

She nods again with a grin, seemingly happy that Daniel is understanding. She then scribbles a castle and points at herself again, drawing a circle around the castle and humming triumphantly.

“I think I get it... You’re here to defeat a Feldrok and conquer this castle?”

She hums in approval, nodding happily.

Daniel asks skeptically, “Do... you think you can?”

She flinches, and her vibrance immediately dissolves. She looks away from him. She is silent for a long time.

BOOM!

Hekate yelps in terror as fire and thunder explode from the end of Daniel’s small tool, and the balinkon screams as it flops onto its back and shell, swatting its striking arms and legs around, but it seems to have lost all control of its own mobility and is simply flailing. For the briefest moment, the entire hallway of the Citadel that they’re in was lit up, and the most terrifying and painful sound Hekate has ever heard startled the life nearly completely out of her.

After a few moments of struggling in futility and flinging blood around, the balinkon finally stops moving.

Hekate blinks for a long time, staring at the lifeless body.

Daniel casually prods it with his boot, and it doesn't move. Thus, he withdraws one of his void bags from his shouldered void bag, and he stores the monster without another thought. He then looks at Hekate, asking softly, “You okay, Hekate?”

She nods with a stunned expression, still covering her ears.

She is terrified. She is stunned. She has many more questions. She is afflicted by severe confusion.

Daniel’s tool isn’t a magic wand. It didn’t produce any magic. And, like him, it doesn’t have any mana embedded in it except for trace amounts in some of the materials in its hollow construction.

And, regardless, it had killed a balinkon in a single blow. Balinkons armor themselves for a reason. It is part of their nature. They can take dozens of arrows, their speed at close range is greater than virtually any swordsmen.

And Daniel killed it with one blow.

Daniel pats the top of his head, and she realizes she’s still holding her hands on her ears. She quickly releases them, allowing them to perk back up, but they immediately flop down to the sides in nervousness. She hesitantly points at Daniel’s tool, and he looks at it, swinging it around rather casually, which causes Hekate to flinch. “This? Oh. Uh... Ah, no point hiding it, huh? This is a revolver. It’s a ranged weapon. Not bad, huh?”

She stares at him with her ears still low. ‘Not bad’? Is he broken?

Daniel then asks, “Is there anything else in the immediate area, Hekate?”

She flinches, looking around quickly. She shakes her head, saying, “No.” He taught her ‘yes’ and ‘no’, since they’re simple words and can help their limited communication, particularly if she’s outside of what he can see in the darkness.

“Alright. Let’s keep moving before anything comes to investigate.”

As if anything wants to find out what caused that noise... Hekate REALLY wishes she could talk to him. He’s fascinating and terrifying at the same time.

Their next encounter is a ‘Moss Crawler’, a centipede-like creature that camouflages itself with moss and clings to walls. It’s a surprisingly fast insectoid creature, but Daniel is able to avoid its attempts to corral him with its long body into its mandibles by jumping over its body and out of the way of its movements.

Hekate finds a good position to avoid harming Daniel while getting close to flank the creature from behind it. She chants her basic fire spell, “[Come forth, embers of the spirits! Bring forth the flames of your making!]” She channels her mana like normal. She makes the hand gesture like normal. She feels normal.

However, a column of fire blasts forward that incinerates the moss crawler.

Incinerates the moss crawler.

Hekate stares ahead in astonishment as only a few small, smoldering sections of the insect remain, crumpling quickly to the sandy floor as Daniel catches his breath for a moment and wipes the insect’s blood off of his sword.

“Wow! That was amazing, Hekate! I’m surprised you needed my help earlier.”

She looks at him with wide eyes, her hand still outstretched as her own disbelief still holds fast.

“[I... I’m not this powerful...]”

Daniel chuckles. “You look like you just saw a ghost. Next time, try to keep some of it intact. I don’t know if it can be useful yet. Though, it is a big bug, so I’m not that upset, of course.” He casually collects the remains in his monster storage void bag, seemingly oblivious to the fact that Hekate is still stunned.

“[I... I’m not this powerful...]” she repeats in her dumbfounded stupor.

“I’ll praise you, I’ll praise you. You don’t have to keep repeating it.”

He doesn’t understand her words, though she understands his words fine. He suddenly pats her head gently, and she flinches a little, finally tearing her gaze away from staring blankly and instead, staring up into his eyes as he smiles at her. “Good job, Hekate. You really helped me out again.”

She stares up at him in disbelief. She murmurs, “[I didn’t... I didn’t do that...O-Or... I don’t know... HOW I did it...]”

“Yes, yes. I’ll treat you to something tasty. How about we find a secure place to make camp for a break, huh?”

He doesn’t understand her. He’s treating her like a child. But...

She nods. She definitely won’t refuse a treat and a break. She still needs to figure out what happened.

They find a corner tucked into an alcove formed by fallen statues and furniture from the heyday of the castle, and he extracts his shell shelter, blocking the entrance once they’re inside. From there, he lights a small fire for light, which vents out of a hole in the top, and he begins searching through rations in a void bag. He has many void bags within his main two void bags, from the looks of it, and he dedicates some of his idle time to sorting the ones he still needs to sort, apparently. But, in the present, he simply cooks some food for them both and makes something special out of a mix of ingredients while Hekate enjoys her meal. She watches him curiously. She’s never met a human before Daniel, and she’s pretty sure he’s an actual human. According to the dragons that are her masters, humans are the third weakest sentient race in the world, only surpassed in weakness by goblins and imps. And, the dragons barely consider goblins sentient. That they can be organized into battle fodder is the only reason they qualify as such.

However, Daniel can single-handedly slay some of the toughest races and monsters in the known world. Some, he outsmarts with the terrain and traps of his own design, and others, he utilizes his terrible ‘revolver’ weapon, which ends even the most dangerous foes with no more than two thunderous attacks that can be used within seconds of each other.

And, although she can’t detect any magic in Daniel, just being with him seems to be making Hekate stronger.

Wait! Is it... because he gave me a name? O-Or... Is it the food? Is this the power of human food?

She looks at him as he toils idly, providing her plenty of food and a treat that sends a tingle through her whole body from the delicious and sweet taste. Tears find her eyes once more, and Daniel simply chuckles.

“Like that?”

She nods vigorously, and he chuckles, petting her head gently. Her whole body shivers happily. His presence, his touch, and his food; all of it is so comforting and reassuring. She knew when she entered the Citadel that she’d never win. She just wanted to try to survive long enough for the dragons to try and come, only to be killed by the Feral Feldrok. No one can beat a Feldrok.

Or, no one, except maybe...

Daniel is very attentive and caring, and he helps Hekate remove her armor down to just the clothes so that she can sleep, and he tucks her in with a blanket and bedding.

While she feigns sleep for a long time, she can’t fall into unconsciousness for a long time. After she suspects Daniel is asleep, she peeks over her shoulder.

Sure enough, he’s seated in his usual spot with his revolver in his lap. His longer, heavy staff is leaning against the shell next to him, which he keeps close to him at all times in spite of the fact that he hasn’t used it yet.

Either way, Hekate knows what she wants.

***