Call of the Waylanders

XLII. Sari's Teammates

Sari woke up in a tent. If one really wanted to know, Sari would just have to guess for them that it was tent A-1. There were anywhere from fourteen to nineteen others in the tent, some leaning over her, and others off to the side, waiting impatiently. Her vision was so blurred she couldn't really make anything out, and her hearing, as per the usual, was in a similar condition. She tried to get up, but one of the people leaning over her pushed her back down and said something that sounded like "Oh eye gown." To Sari, it made sense, but she chose to lie down and let the leaning people lean.

Sari's vision slowly began to clear as another one of the leaning people poured odd liquids on her eyes and the rest of her head in general, along with dropping some sweet-tasting drink in her mouth every few seconds. Soon, Sari could see expressions of concern on the people's faces. What was with the concern? And what was with all the trouble they were putting into Sari? She had to be fine, right? Even if she died from fighting all those Scorch Knights by herself, the others--Rangers, Sari now remembered--were there in time, so they could have just saved her core and let her regenerate later.

"There," the person--a rather elderly woman--who had been dropping liquids finally said, "the damage to her core is now repaired. She should be shouting angrily at us in any minute now."

"What is going on?" Sari shouted angrily at them. "What do you mean, 'damage to my core?' They were just flesh wounds, weren't they?"

"Sure, they may have appeared to be flesh wounds," the woman replied at an opposite tone to Sari's, "but the burning power of the Knights' blades actually was able to reach deep within you. Similar things have happened to other Rangers on the battlefield, but few of them have been fortunate enough to have a witch as old as I am."

"Don't you mean 'calm and experienced?'"

"No, I mean 'old.' I don't know what the problem is with you children and your political correctness. You should be glad! If I hadn't been a trained witch since I was thirteen(which was a long time ago, mind you), your core would have been turned to ashes while your body was still intact, just like mana burn. Now, are you going to gratify me, or are you just going to sit there, amazed that they let me on the field of battle?"

"Um...thanks, miss?"

"The name is Kristina, or just Tina, as everyone but Ross calls me. Now, you kids get ready, because you weren't fighting for the last two days. You might just get rotated into battle today. Oh, and little aggressive child, your echo blade is on the card table there." Tina walked away and sat down on a chair, then promptly took a large leather bag out of nowhere. The bag contained a pile of yarn and two needles, which were soon put to use.

"Okay," Sari muttered, standing up and picking up her echo blade, sheathing it with one smooth movement. She turned to the other eighteen people in the extremely large tent.

"So, what are your names?" she asked the people.

"Well, that's Ross," a female Highland Ranger declared, pointing to an Outland Ranger with no mask, "but no one cares about anyone else's name. Heck, we just call our wizardess 'wizardess.' We made the decision that we're most likely going to die, so why should we care? Thanks to Tina's description of your actions, we're going to call you 'little aggressive child.' Got it?"

"Yes," Sari answered, not getting it. The Highlands Ranger nodded, then everyone dispersed. The wizardess sat down next to Tina the witch and watched her knit, but nothing else was notable, including the acrobatic sparring that two Woodland Rangers were doing. 

Soon after Sari decided she might want to sit down for a few moments, the tent door opened, revealing the leader of the Woodland Rangers, O'Naharu(also known by some as Ona).

"You people! Tent A-1! Get in the fray, don't give the Scorch Knights a break!" O'Naharu then disappeared, and the entire population of the tent followed her out, running around the tent and into the fray, just as the leader of the Woodland Rangers had commanded. 

The other many--seventeen, as the wizardess and Tina didn't run with them--nearly tripped over Sari's short and stout frame a few times, as running in a pack is hard to do gracefully, but the effect of the crowd still worked--Sari could hear the Knights shouting in panic as she drew her echo blade and traced her Marks. She was in the middle of the pack, making her pretty well disguised from any surrounding enemies. Henceforth, she would be able to leap out from the center and surprise those she decided needed some surprising. That was what little aggressive children were for, was it not?

She heard a sudden cacophony of clashing sharp metal things and felt the pain of her surrounding allies getting pushed into her, so she knew that she had entered battle. There was no looking back now, except perhaps by accident. 

Sari leaped from her protective circle of taller, more mortal people and looked for an opponent to decapitate. She found a Scorch Knight right between her left and straight ahead and chopped them straight in half, cleaving through the core, as well. A Highland Ranger on her right caved in the head of the Knights behind her own victim while Sari landed on their shoulders.

"Say, you're an Asmerian, aren't you?" the Highland Ranger asked, seemingly unfazed by a little aggressive child standing on their--her, Sari found--shoulders, swiping at enemies she herself could not see. "How old? you've gotta be thirteen decades, I guess?"

"Hmm. Closer to fourteen. I'm thirteen point seven."

"Ah. Still young enough to be anal about the exact year, eh?"

"You bet. Why does it matter? You're the one that told me no one cares about anyone else's name, I see. Why ask about my age or race?"

"I want to make small talk while we kill warriors made of fire and magic. Trust me, it's a normal thing in our tent."

Clearly, Sari would have to learn a few customs before the war was over.

She wondered how the others were doing.