Chapter 3
After her conversation with Sarah, Kris tried to let go of her worries. Both the ones about bringing trouble to the village and the ones about her missing memories. She knew there wasn't much she could do about either until, or unless, something changed. Instead, she focused on becoming a productive member of their little community.
It was only a couple of days after the conversation that she was asked to help a group of women with younger children. She wasn't allowed to teach, but most days, the women with children that were younger than school age let them all gather and play, at least for the first half of the day, while they finished their work. Kris was happy to help and found that it didn't take long for most of the families to become familiar with her through their children, at least. After less than three months, the worry about where she was from had all but disappeared.
While that work kept her busy for the first half of the day, her afternoons were still mostly free. She started trying to find odd jobs to help the villagers, as well as to support the Fairs since she was still living with them. Even with that being the case, more often than not, she found herself assisting Zack with his chores. With both of them taking care of things, they managed to get them done faster, and much to Zack's delight, they had more time for exploration. Kris was impressed with the boy when she realized that it wasn't just so he could get away. Although that was part of it, he also used his time to see if he could find anything worthwhile to bring back and sell or use. There were several times, once summer rolled around, that they both came back with baskets full of berries and other wild fruit.
Kris had been with the Fairs for nearly six months when something unexpected happened during one of their forays into the woods. They had brought their baskets with them and headed straight for one of the patches of berries they had checked just the week before. They had been not quite ripe the first time they checked. They hadn't been picking very long when they heard a loud rustle in the underbrush nearby. Kris was the first to notice, and she stood to see if there was anything she could see. When she did, she realized that they had backed themselves up against a cliff that was nearly twice her height. If something was coming at them from the woods, they were going to have difficulties getting past it.
Her worries were brought to life when a giant lizard-like creature slithered into the little clearing. It was apparently after the berries as well, but as soon as it saw the two of them, it stood up on its hind legs and spread a membrane out around its head. Kris had no idea what it was, but she wasn't going to take the chance of it attacking. She didn't say anything before she grabbed Zack and shoved him behind her. He started to protest, but she ignored it. Her voice was low but hard when she whispered back to him. "I'm going to get its attention and try to run past it. As soon as it turns away from you, I want you to run back to the village and get help."
He started to protest, but she cut him off when the lizard took a step forward. "We don't have time to argue! You know you're faster than me anyway!"
He made a noise like he wanted to keep arguing, but when the lizard took another step forward, Kris ran towards it with a yell. Her sudden movement seemed to confuse the beast for a split second, and that was the only thing that saved her. As she was racing past, it let out a rancid blast of breath. It barely missed her, but she still caught a whiff of it, and it made her gag. Even though her heart was nearly racing out of her chest at the near miss, she was glad to note it had turned to follow her. She allowed herself a single glance back. When she saw Zack still standing there, she yelled. "Go!"
The look nearly cost her as the lizard prepared to blast her again, but she caught a low hanging limb as she raced past and managed to use her momentum to help her swing into the tree and hook her knees around a nearby branch, so she could pull herself up. She ignored the pain of the bark scraping her palms and legs as the breath barely missed her. She climbed up farther to distance herself while she tried to think of a way out.
She managed to get up several more limbs and turned to see where the lizard was. It had stopped at the base of the tree and looked like it had tried to reach up for her. When it realized she was out of reach, it opened its mouth to blast her once again. She panicked when she realized she didn't have anywhere to run, and she was still within range of the attack. She grabbed another limb near her head to try and scramble out of the way when it gave and broke off under her weight. At the unexpected loss of support, she found herself falling back towards the waiting monster. She still seemed to have luck on her side when she landed right on top of it and managed to both break her fall and stop the monster from attacking.
Her landing managed to daze the monster, but it hadn't done any favors for Kris either. When she landed, the monster's mouth had been opened, and her left arm had scraped painfully across the fangs. She was only lucky the beast hadn't bitten down at the same time. One of her ankles had been twisted in the fall as well, but it still managed to hold her weight, even if it was screaming at her.
She managed to make it to her feet before the monster did, luckily. She knew running was no longer an option, so she grabbed the limb that had fallen with her. It wasn't much, but it had to be better than nothing. Once she had it in her hands, she was surprised to find that it felt familiar, or at least like she had used something similar before. It was a weird feeling, almost like a memory, but not quite. She was further surprised when the monster finally stood and lunged for her, and her body seemed to know exactly how to handle the makeshift staff.
When it got close enough, she spun on her good ankle and landed a blow against the side of the monster's head that knocked it back. By the time it stood and faced her again, she was already in position for another strike. It was angry by that time and lunged at her while preparing for another breath attack. She couldn't dodge it, so she ran towards it, and the breath passed over her. At the same time, she brought the staff around again and managed to daze the creature once more. While it was down, she was close enough that she could strike it again before it had a chance to get up. The thick branch she had been using broke on impact, but she also heard the sickening sound of the beast's skull cracking.
She watched it twitch for a moment before it went still. She didn't want to take any chances, though, so she backed up slowly and grabbed the larger portion of the branch that had fallen. It was more like a little club by that point, but she felt better with something in her hands.
She jumped when she heard crashing through the underbrush again, but when she saw it was Zack with several of the men from the village, she fell onto her bottom. Her knees suddenly felt like jelly and couldn't seem to handle her weight. Zack was by her side in an instant and had his canteen out to help clean her arm. Her attention was drawn by one of the village councilmen that had come with the group. His voice was slightly hard when he spoke. "I'm glad to see that you're both alright, but how did you manage to handle this thing by yourself?" He paused when he saw the limb she still held in one hand. "You fought with a stick?"
She tried to answer him, but she found that her tongue felt like it was taking up too much room in her mouth suddenly, and her eyesight was getting blurry. She managed to get something out, but it was slurred. "I'm not sure how, but it felt familiar."
That was all she could manage before she started swaying, even in her seated position. When she nearly fell, Zack realized that the cut he had just cleaned, must have been poisoned as well. He turned to the men with wide eyes. "We need an antidote! Does anyone have one?"
One of the other men that had been inspecting the downed animal, and verifying it was dead, hurried over at his yell. "Here. It looks like it bit her. It wouldn't have been so bad otherwise, but this should help enough that she'll be fine with rest."
Zack didn't waste any time in leaning her back and tilting her head so that the antidote would go down. She had just enough presence of mind to swallow. Once that was down, he laid her back and looked her over nervously for any other injuries that might have been missed. He didn't get far in his inspection before he was interrupted by the councilman. "Zack, why don't you accompany the men back with that gagighandi. You know, one that size will fetch you at least 200 gil with the merchant. You take care of that, and I'll take Kris back to your house."
Zack looked like he wanted to argue with the man, but he didn't say anything right away. When the man realized he was wavering, he chuckled and spoke again. "Do you think I can't get her there by myself? Don't worry so much. Besides, it's obvious that she is made of pretty stern stuff. She's just out because of the poison. It'll be out of her system by the time we make it back, and she'll be fine with some rest. Since she can't take the monster to the merchant, you'll have to. Although, I would advise you to split a little bit of your profit with the men that are helping you."
At his words, Zack finally perked up again, although it was easy to see he was still worried. "Alright. I'll make sure it's waiting for her when she wakes up. And don't worry, you know I would never forget to repay someone that helps me! We got this!"
His grin made the gathered men laugh as he rushed over to help them rig a way to drag it back to town. Once he was busy, the councilman picked Kris up. He headed straight for town, but his frown didn't go away. As personable as the girl was, the fact that she could handle taking down a monster nearly twice her size made all the questions that came up at her arrival seem much more valid.