Fairyland Chronicles - Character Side Stories

[Validon]

"Urgh..." The huntress awoke in a daze as she clutched her side. Mae, who had been resting on her chest, awoke all aflutter. "Sorry, sorry... ohh… what happened… oh right..." She remembered the previous day, and how she was watching the fight between Cynbel and Ezekiel. Partway through the fight, Cynbel used several explosive spheres in an attempt to bring Ezekiel down, and she and Catherine had gotten caught in the crossfire. The knight took the blows rather well, but she... did not. The last thing she remembered before passing out was dragging herself to a portal Cynbel had opened up back to the fortress.

She slowly got up, looking around. It seemed like she was brought to her little corner in the audience room, but she also seemed to be alone. Ezekiel was probably planning, the two fey were probably off somewhere, and Summerstream was... somewhere else, according to Cynbel. That left Mae and herself. She limped to the entrance of the castle to see what time it was outside. It seemed the sun was rising, which meant she'd slept through the night. "...Well, at least I got some good rest... phew..." She began to walk back inside, before remembering something. "...Wait, Summerstream's peco..."

Before his fight with Ezekiel, Cynbel had approached Seikakuna about Summerstream's peco, Vinda. As she herself was missing for the moment, the huntress was to take care of her until Summerstream's return. She had easily accepted, as she remembered a little advice Summerstream had given her on handling Vinda, but she had wondered something. Was Summerstream okay? Cynbel had told her, Ezekiel, and Catherine not to worry, but the tone of his voice expressed a bit of concern. Did this have something to do with the seal Summerstream had told her of, and about the attempt to remove it she had overheard about a few days prior? With no one to ask, she had to set aside her questions and focus on her morning. Before she could take care of Vinda, she had something else to do first.

As usual with her mornings, she took the time to grab her bow, some arrows (fire-enhanced, though with little fire-based materials on hand it was becoming difficult to continuously make them), and a small knife, and trekked outside, searching for one of the Savages (a type of boar) that tended to roam the wastes between the fort and Rachel. It was a decent walk away, but she was able to find one, a male adult. It huffed and puffed and roamed around, minding its own business and leaving itself wide open. Drawing two arrows from her quiver, she took a breath, concentrating on the Savage, before quickly firing the two arrows one after the other in a miniature salvo. Two direct hits to the side, the Savage fell without even realizing it.

"...Sorry," she muttered to the now dead Savage as she walked over to its corpse. She struggled to push it to its side as she began to carve the corpse, slicing off the edible meat and putting it into a bag she used for holding anything she found while hunting. Once she finished, she quickly ran back to the fort, using the small kitchen to prepare a meal from the boar meat. She may not have been taught how to handle dealing with others and the dangers of the world, but she did learn how to hunt, feed herself, and supply herself for the hunt.

The meal was simple, just roast boar with a few spices Seikakuna had found lying around, but satisfying. Grabbing a couple of oranges from behind the castle’s bar, she went around the castle, looking for Summerstream’s peco. It did not take long for her to find the peco in the small garden, near the castle’s entrance. The peco seemed to be resting near a corner, a small pile of objects behind her. Seikakuna took a brief look at them, noticing weapons and armor of an Amatsuan ninja and the book she had found at Summerstream’s home in Louyang, amongst other things. She left it all alone, instead turning her attention to the resting peco. With orange in hand, she walked up to her, kneeling down in front of her.

“Hey, Vinda~. I’ve got something for ya.” The peco looked up at her, at first not recognizing her and getting up in a huff, before calming down at the sight of the orange, and a recognition of who she was. Vinda guzzled the orange down, while Seikakuna stroked her head. She wasn’t too knowledgeable on how to take care of pecos, but she did know how to take care of falcons, so it couldn’t have been that different, right? “Good girl~. Come here, let’s take a walk.” She led Vinda outside with a second orange, while Mae (who of course was following her master around) perched on Vinda’s head.

“Scree...” Mae cried, almost a little jealous of the attention Seikakuna was giving to Vinda. The huntress merely chuckled, and gave Mae a quick pat on the head. “Hey now, Cynbel said I had to take care of her. I’m not going to forget about you or anything, no worries~.” Mae pecked at her hand in a huff, which only provoked another chuckle from Seikakuna.

Before long, Vinda would come to a stop outside, giving a look back at the huntress. Seikakuna rubbed the back of her head, blinking in confusion. “Eh? What’s the matter, Vinda? You can’t be scared of going forward, are you?” Vinda didn’t seem scared, persay, moreso as if she were waiting. It took Seikakuna a few minutes to realize what the problem was. “…Oh, do you want me to ride you…?” No obvious response from the peco, but no sign of denial, either. “…Well, okay, here goes…?” She breathed out, getting on top of the peco and trying her best to sit properly. She had never ridden a peco or any sort of mount in her life. She could only try her best to remember how Summerstream and Catherine rode. Settling into the saddle, and taking ahold of the reins, she nodded. “Let’s go, Vinda…?”

The peco seemed to comply, and began to run forward in a full gallop. Seikakuna almost lost her grip right off the bat and struggled to hold onto the reins. She didn’t realize how fast pecos could really run. “H-hey, Vinda, s-slow down a bit…!” Unfortunately for her, she was not exactly knowledgeable on how to make a peco slow down, and so she was carried on a wild ride across the wastes surrounding the fort. She tried to hold onto the reins as tight as she could, but eventually she tumbled off, rolling into the dust and dirt as Vinda finally skidded to a halt, her rider having been thrown off. She moaned, brushing herself off as she stood back on her feet, a little unsteady from the rough fall.

“Oof… that’s pretty rough…” She took a moment to regain her balance before walking back to Vinda, who had sat down patiently. “S-sorry, I’ve never ridden a peco before…” she muttered, almost as if to Vinda. Mae, who had perched on Vinda’s head, simply flew back to her usual resting place on Seikakuna’s head, giving a loving pecking while she was at it.

“Eheh, at least you won’t throw me around violently,” the huntress exclaimed to the falcon, who “scree~”-d in delight. At point, she decided she wouldn’t be taking any more peco rides any time soon, at least not without any kind of training or help. She’d ask Catherine about that, but given her peco, Cookie, seemed… a little strange, she figured it would have been best to keep away and figure it out on her own. With that thought in mind, she led Vinda back to the fort as best she could, wondering how the next few days with the paladin’s peco would go.