Trailblazer Page 14

  He flushed. “I…just…” he coughed. “It’s just another word for something similar. That’s all.”

  She didn’t believe him. He was holding something back that he thought was dangerous for her. Should she push for a real answer?

  Was it worth the threat he perceived toward her?

  No, she decided. Curiosity didn’t always matter. She had a new name, anyway. Her past didn’t matter if all it served to do was hurt her. Right now was what mattered. That, and the future.

  “How did you make yourself Sally Strong?” he asked.

  She smiled slyly. “I got stronger.”

  He rolled his eyes. “You’re too smart for your own good, Sally. You always were.”

  “I’m as smart as I need to be,” she corrected him.

  “I’m worried about you,” he said. “The things you’re doing are a big risk. And I really wish you wouldn’t hang out with Sujan. That’s dangerous for both of you.”

  “Why?” she demanded.

  He didn’t answer.

  “If you can’t say, fine. But I will keep on.”

  “I can expand your vocabulary,” he said. “I meant to do that before. Actually, I meant to check in on you weeks ago.”

  He extended his hand again, but Sally backed away.

  “No,” she enunciated.

  “What? Why? Don’t you want to be able to talk more normally?”

  “I talk normal for me,” she said. “I learn as I go. I work. I earn. It’s mine. I don’t want to be given what I can earn.”

  She realized how coherent her last sentence had been and smiled brightly.

  He laughed, even though he looked entirely bewildered. “Okay, that’s fine. I don’t have to. I just thought you’d like it.”

  She shook her head. “Thanks but no thanks. I’ll do it myself.”

  He smiled ruefully. “I think you will. You’re going to turn all of us upside-down, aren’t you?”

  “I’m not fancy,” she said. “But I’m doing my best.”

  This time, he shook his head, adamantly. “No, you’re fancy. You’ve always been special. And you’re going to make them sorry one of these days.”

  “Who will be sorry?”

  He smiled as if making fun of himself, which was a very strange kind of smile. Maybe she’d interpreted it incorrectly.

  “Never mind,” he said, smiling. “Do what you need to do, Sally. I’ll try to help. But not too much, since you want to do it on your own. I’m guessing your new, very, ah, interesting décor is part of that?”

  She wanted to know what he meant, and she also most certainly did not want to know. He presented a strange paradox of knowledge and truth that she wasn’t sure she could handle. Not yet, anyway.

  At least she felt confident that he wasn’t going to change her against her will. She was now certain he could, if he wanted. “You represent what I don’t want to know, don’t you?”

  His smile turned sad. “For better or worse, yes. But you know what you want, so go do it. It’s what you were born for, really, and you deserve to see it through. I have to go now, but call me if you need me. I’m rooting for you.”

  “Call you how? And call you what?”

  “Right.” He nodded. He held his hand up again. An offer. “Call me Jin. Anything else would seem weird.”

  She offered him her elbow. He gently curled his fingers around it, and Sally felt a private communication bubble open between them.

  He took his hand away. “That’s permanent. Wherever I am, it will come to me. It might take me a while to answer, depending on where I am. But I’ll be on my way. I promise.”

  She nodded then blinked, looking more closely at him. He’d changed. He was no longer a hazy, unmemorable Westerner, but a dark-haired, symmetrically-featured Easterner.

  “This is you?” She examined his features carefully.

  “Yep.”

  “You’re cute.”

  He laughed. “Thanks. I won’t tell Sujan you said that.”

  “Why would he care?” Sally thought about Sujan knowing that she thought some guy was cute. She laughed at the idea that Sujan would even bother to notice unless it was to make fun of her.

  “No reason.” Jin smiled. “Be safe, Sally. If something gives you a bad feeling, get out of there immediately. As far as you can. Okay? And…it would be best if you didn’t mention me to anyone.”

  “Why?”

  “The more you self-learn, the more unstable you’ll become. Telling someone about what we’ve talked about might help you figure out things that are better for you not to know. Does that make any sense?”

  “Not really. But I’ll try to understand.”

  “That’s exactly what I don’t want you to do. Try not to think about existential things, or world mechanics, okay? Just try to live the way you want to. If you do that, then the rest doesn’t matter.”

  “Okay,” she said slowly. “Then I guess I’ll try not to understand.”

  He smiled an odd little smile that didn’t truly look happy. “Otherwise, give them brrlrrrwelloooo.”

  The last word came out sounding like a weird ululating squeal.

  “What?”

  “Sorry.” He chuckled. “Give them a steamin’ heck of a time.”

  “Weird. But okay.”

  He reached out slowly and gently touched her cheek. “I guess we’re all in now. Let’s make it fun.”

  Fun? Sally was indeed all-in for fun. She patted Jin on the head. “Let’s do it. But can I keep the lock?”

  “The lock?”

  She pointed to the door. “Things to do. Can’t always be here.”

  “Ah, right. It’s hard to rule the world from one tiny place, huh?”

  “No rule,” she said. “Just live.”

  “I guess we’ll see about that. But yeah, you live. The lock can stay. When it’s in use, I’ll make sure adventurers get a message about the store being closed for restocking, or that you’re off on a buying trip or something. I’ll make a few different messages to cycle at random.”

  Sally wondered what her customers would think of that development. “Fool.”

  “What?” He looked surprised.

  “Not fool,” she said. She focused on making the right sound to deliver the word properly. “Cool. That means good.”

  He laughed. “Right. Anything else?”

  “No. That’s all for now.”

  “All right. Good luck, then.” He faded from view, still chuckling.

  Strange. Sally stared at the empty space where he’d been. She didn’t know what he really was, or what he was protecting her from. But now that he was gone, she missed him.

  Which was just darn strange, considering she’d hoped she’d never see him again.

  “Are you sure about this?” Darthrok asked.

  “You think we came all this way to change our minds and go back to Pivot?” Essley scoffed.

  Sally didn’t pay their banter much attention. She was too busy enjoying her first bus ride. The two of them didn’t seem to think it was any more interesting than walking. Sometimes she thought they were a little crazy.

  Riding the bus was fantastic!

  She’d started out sitting, as they’d advised her to do. But after a walk from Pivot to the closest town that had transit, getting on the bus had been so exciting that she had trouble sitting still.

  Plus, she could see more standing up. So, while they sat, teasing each other, she stood, holding on to an overhead strap. She could much better feel the sway of the vehicle, sense its speed, and even enjoy stumbling a little when they hit a bump.

  She glanced over at her friends. They were missing all the fun!

  They pulled to a stop faster than she’d expected, causing her to stumble forward a couple of steps.

  “Whee!”

  A thug seated at the front looked at her like she was something on the bottom of his shoe. A sweet-faced trainer smiled at her.

  An adventurer who’d chosen to be a trainer. Interes
ting. What made him choose such an unpopular profession? She wanted to ask him questions, but as she tried to form a not-creepy conversation starter, the bus door opened and he left.

  Ah well. Maybe she’d see him again sometime.

  She proceeded off the bus and waited until Darthrok and Essley joined them.

  “It’s not far from here. Ready?” he glanced at Essley but focused his attention mostly on Sally.

  “Sure.”

  Their stop was on the edge of a small, rustic town named Reel. It looked like a little fishing village, but rather than moving closer to it, he led them along a path that led toward a pond.

  “I’ll lead so I’m the one who makes them mad,” Darthrok said. “Once they’re aggroed to me, you two can come in.”

  “You said this before,” Essley reminded him. “And once again, I’ll reiterate that I’m not helpless. You’re only a couple of levels above me now.”

  “It’s Sally I’m concerned about,” he said. “You and I have godsends. She doesn’t, and she says it’s probably not a good idea for her to try to get them. So, I want you to be able to protect her or drag her out, if you need to.”

  Sally felt a little thrill of fear. The way he talked, it sounded much more dangerous than the time they’d gone to hunt the clickers at the factory.

  “I’m not looking to die, either, for the record,” Essley remarked. “It would set me back too much. I’m almost up to level seven.”

  “Already?” Darthrok glanced at her in surprise. “You’re really cooking along. No pun intended.”

  “It’s the apprenticeship. It doesn’t help me with my actual botany skills, but the tertiary skills like bargaining and customer service are really boosting my overall entrepreneur ranks. And that actually helps, because the higher my level as a botanist, the more easily I learn overall skills.”

  He said, “You’re making me jealous. I want to apprentice with Sally now, too.”

  “Wouldn’t do you any good, unless you want to retrain,” Essley said.

  He quivered, faking a shudder. “And spend my life mashing up weeds or fiddling with tools? Nope. I’d rather keep hitting stuff with a pointy stick.”

  “To each their own.” Essley adjusted her backpack. “Hitting stuff was fun for a while, but it isn’t really any less repetitive than smashing and stirring. And I don’t need healing after, unless I accidentally poison myself. Which I’ve only done twice.”

  “Says you,” he retorted. “At least I get to break stuff. That’s way more fun. And I’d rather get some cuts and bruises than have to drink your horrible potions even when they aren’t poisonous.”

  Essley snorted, but when she didn’t say anything, Darthrok turned his attention to Sally. “So, any ideas about your fighting style? I’m really curious what you’re going to do.”

  “No ideas.” Sally was even more curious than he was. “Let’s see.”

  She hoped this little adventure wasn’t included in the things Jin had warned her about. She wasn’t trying to delve into anything that seemed to be “existential” like he’d said. At least she didn’t think so. She didn’t intend to try to analyze the mechanics of what happened. She just wanted to know what she could expect of herself if things got crazy and she had to defend herself. That seemed like something important to know.

  Or was that dangerous territory? She wished she could talk it over with her friends, but his warning about telling them about him kept her quiet. She wished she didn’t believe what he’d said. She didn’t even know why she did, but every time she tried to talk herself out of it, she concluded again that what he said made sense.

  She had to keep trusting herself. Even though, right now, she was heading into a dangerous situation with no known means of fighting off an attacker.

  The terrain changed as they went, going from an official road to a well-traveled path then to no path at all. The ground underfoot was muddy enough that Sally grimaced to think of her pretty boots getting sullied. She noticed a lot of deadfall, but few actual trees besides scraggly overgrowth. Everything looked dry, broken, and messy.

  She wasn’t a fan of this type of area, and made a mental note not to come this way again. She preferred sunny skies and happy, growing plants.

  At least, she imagined the plants were happy. She had no way to know for sure.

  “Okay,” Darthrok said as they entered a roughly circular depression in the ground. “You two wait out here, and I’ll see what I can bring out.”

  “Bring out?” Sally repeated.

  “Right.” He changed course and faced her. “Sometimes I forget that you have a lot of experience with some things, and none at all with others.” He thought for a moment, then continued, “There are mechies in there. This is an old mine, and it’s protected by bots to keep people from being able to steal the ore.”

  Hm. The last time she faced mechies, it had been the clickers at the factory. They, too, had been put in place to protect the factory. Which had also been abandoned. Sally sensed a theme.

  “So I’ll go in and honk the bots off, you know, make them mad. So they’ll aggro on me, meaning they’ll be mad at me and chase me. While they’re focused on me, you and Essley can run up behind them and poke them in the eye or something.”

  “They won’t have eyes if they’re mechanical,” Sally said, seeing a flaw in his plan. “Mechanical items don’t have mucous membranes. Too messy.”

  He looked surprised, then laughed. “Okay, you got me there. I didn’t mean a literal eye poke. Sorry. I need to be more careful about wording things. What I meant was that you can hurt them while their attention is on me. Since they’ll be engaged in melee with me, they won’t be paying attention to you. So you’re kind of doing a sneak attack.”

  Sally couldn’t quite reach the words sneak and attack in order to say them quickly. Instead, she said, “Eye poke. Got it.”

  Darthrok smiled. “Just be careful. If you damage them, they might shift their attention and aggro on you. If they do, you won’t be able to run away. But as long as Essley doesn’t have anything that has aggro on her, she could drag you out, if necessary. Does that make sense?”

  Sally nodded. “Poke eyes, run away, or drag. Got it.”

  She gave a thumbs-up for emphasis.

  Darthrok and Essley grinned.

  “Okay, let’s do it.” Darthrok disappeared into the cave.

  “Will he die?” Sally asked Essley.

  “Probably not. Believe it or not, he’s actually pretty good.” She laughed, drawing her short sword. “But what are you going to do? Any idea?”

  “None.” Sally considered her situation. “Can I have your stick?”

  “My bo?” Essley looked surprised. “Sure.”

  She reached to her hip, and snapped it off her belt. She extended it from its small, compacted size out to its full length of five feet. Each segment snapped into place as if it were one solid piece. That was a neat feat of engineering that Sally wanted to study.

  Sally accepted the bo, holding it first with her left hand then with her right. Neither felt appropriate, so she shifted to a two-handed grip, which felt like a minimal improvement.

  “You look all kinds of awkward.” Essley smiled kindly. “Want some pointers?”

  Did she?

  “No. Thanks. Let’s see what happens. Hope I don’t die.”

  Essley smiled again. “Not if I can help it, pal.”

  She shifted into a position that looked really cool. Like she was ready for trouble. Sally felt a little envious. She was pretty sure she’d look really goofy if she tried that.

  So she didn’t.

  She gripped the bo nervously, as if it were a broomstick, while watching the opening of the mine anxiously.

  “You okay?” Essley asked, still looking all poised and cool.

  “Yeah.” Sally didn’t feel at all poised or cool. But it was okay to be anxious. It was okay to be scared.

  It was okay to not know what would happen next.

  That w
as just how life happened.

  For a long, quiet moment, Sally stood, waiting, nervous, and accepting of whatever came her way. She was ready for whatever came her way, even if what came her way was something she wasn’t prepared for. She’d deal with it as it came.

  Then Darthrok came bolting out of the entrance of the mine like he had fire on his heels. “Heckin’ heckin’ steamin’ doot doot doot!”

  Essley’s deep inhale, then low utterance of “Oh, heck,” only underlined the heckness of the situation.

  Sally held her stick tighter, trying to figure out what was happening. She saw Darthrok running with four small things right after them, and then—oh. Yeah. The huge thing that followed the little things was probably the main concern.

  She had a feeling Darthrok hadn’t counted on the huge thing being a possibility.

  “Ess, engage the weevils to grab aggro. Try to knock them out, then come help with the scorpion. If I get below fifty percent, I’ll yell so you can disengage and drag Sally out of here,” Darthrok snapped, never taking his eyes off the machine flanking him, which was bigger than he was.

  The situation seemed to be subpar.

  Darthrok went into an evasive position as he faced the scorpion. A weevil snapped a lash-like mechanical antenna at his leg, causing him to suck in a breath through his teeth, but he didn’t look away from the scorpion. Sally suspected the weevil’s antennae were made of razor wire, from the looks of them.

  Nasty little mechies!

  The scorpion looked far worse. Darthrok feinted at it with his sword, apparently testing it out, and Sally could see how fast it was to react. Compared to the weevils, the scorpion was far more advanced technology. It had far more hinged joints that worked in tandem, allowing it the sinuous movement of a living creature along with great strength.

  Yeah, they were in trouble.

  Essley knocked a weevil aside, causing it to roll over then focus on her. Ignoring the advance of the first one, she did the same to the other two, using the hilt of her sword to bash the mechies aside, spinning them around. They, too, stopped tracking Darthrok and moved in on her.