The Girl Who Fell From the Heavens

Without Jesper

Yula sat by the edge of the campfire. It was nice and warm. The others sat around her. The two men whose names she didn't know seemed uneasy around her, but Jiro seemed okay with her. At first, he had wanted her to remain in the carriage. Yula didn't like the carriage. It was cold, dark, and lonely. She had slept restlessly without the sound of a heartbeat lulling her to sleep.

She had called Jiro over and had him sit with her. He had a good heartbeat, but his armor made for poor resting material, so she had shooed him away. Still, restless as it had been, she had slept through most of the day. It was night and she was not tired.

"We'll have to stop to replace that sword," Jiro commented to the man whose sword had broken attacking Yula.

The man looked pointedly at Yula and nodded.

"Yes," he said, "we will."

Yula didn't understand why he was upset. She hadn't broken his sword. He had attacked her and the sword had broken. Completely different.

She popped a piece of chicken into her mouth. It was rather bland and Yula would have much rather had beef.

Yula spent the rest of the night listening to the men talk amongst themselves. Nobody seemed to be interested in talking to her. Not that she minded. She didn't want to talk to the people that had made Jesper's mother scared of her. She was only going with them for lack of anywhere else to go.

They talked about swords and armor and what they were going to do when they returned to Igiri. Yula didn't find it very interesting, but she had nothing else to do.

Eventually, all the men went to sleep and Yula was alone with her thoughts. She thought about Jesper and his mother. About her own family.

The next day, they stopped in a city called Dirun to buy the one man a sword. Yula was impressed by the number of people in the city, but otherwise it was plain and a bit too noisy for Yula's tastes. The man was picky and refused all the ready swords the blacksmith had, so one had to be forged. Yula didn't know a lot about swords, but she thought he was just being picky. Yule sat outside the smithy and waited while the man was inside, inspecting every step of the forging process to make sure it was to his liking.

Jiro walked out of the smithy and decided to talk to Yula.

"How do you like Dirun?" he asked.

"Noisy," said Yula.

"How did you get the name Yula?"

"Jesper gave it to me. I didn't know what a name was, but he gave me one."

Jiro smiled.

"It seems this boy was quite nice to you. Such a shame he rejected you so quickly."

"Jesper didn't reject me. His mother did."

"At that age that's not too far off. I wouldn't be surprised if she turned him against you after you left."

Yula shook her head. She didn't think Jesper would sway so easily. He was unlike the people her mother had described to her. Jesper had not only not been frightened by her true form, but had liked it. He had called it "cute" and "beautiful." Even if his mother called her a demon for the same reasons, she was confident he would feel the same.

"Well, it doesn't matter much either way," said Jiro. "You'll never see him again anyway."

Yula nodded and looked at the ground. It was a very interesting piece of ground.

Jiro fell silent after that. It seemed he had run out of conversation topics, and Yula had none.

They waited for the sword to be finished

When it was, they set out once more.

"Why can't we stay in an inn?" asked the man who had needed a replacement sword.

"Remember the story we heard about Yula in the inn back in Suja?" Jiro replied. "The last thing we need is Yula picking a fight with some drunk bastard."

Yula tilted her head and blinked.

"He started the fight," she said.

"The point is we don't need a repeat."

Yula nodded.

"Let's go."

Yula got in her carriage and they set off. She started drifting off to sleep. She had a dream of someone calling her name. She was roused from her slumber by shouting.

"Halt, who goes there?" exclaimed one of the men.

"Yula!" yelled Jesper.

Yula leapt out of the carriage, knocking the door off its hinges, to see Jesper sitting on a horse and breathing heavily.

He got off the horse when he saw Yula and ran over to her.

Yula rested her head on his chest. Bum-bum. Bum-bum. His heartbeat was still good and strong. He smelled of exertion but not of fear.

Yula turned to the others.

"This is Jesper," she said.

"Is that supposed to mean something to us?" asked one of the men.

Yula nodded.

"It's her friend from Suja," explained Jiro. "Go home boy."

"I wanted to see Yula," Jesper said.

"You've seen her. Igiri is no place for you and you'll worry your mother."

Jesper's brows furrowed. Yula had seen the same expression on her mother but never understood its meaning.

"Jesper is kind and strong and his heart has a good sound," said Yula.

Jiro sighed.

"I suppose he can come," he said. "So long as he doesn't cause any trouble."

Yula practically dragged Jesper to the carriageso she could sleep with him. Jesper stumbled at first, but eventually caughthis footing and followed. Jiro gave a slight laugh and the other men looked onin confusion. Yula didn't care. Soon, she slept.