Militia

Chapter 3: Conflict

A few years had passed since I started my prayers. I still looked the same, with a small body and black hair. My clothes had adjusted with me so I had no worries, but making new clothes wasn't as easy. I kept up with my small area that was slowly being developed. In that time I gathered and polished some nice stones that could be used to create a small building. I used those to work on a house. I wasn't very happy with my current house in the cave so I started work on a foundation. I used magic to flatten the ground, and keep it level. This created a foundation for me to set up my main pillars. I stacked up stones tightly for the walls until I had somewhat solid walls. I packed clay into the small gaps and then used fire magic to dry it. I cut planks to use for the inside floor and then worked on the roof. It was a two story house with a long triangle roof.

After I finished making the house I made the rooms. There was a bathroom, bedroom, storage room and kitchen / dining. I had a spare room that I left empty for now on the second floor. I made various tables and chairs for each room, along with counters and a bed for sleeping. I made shelves and crates to store various wood and food objects so they were more easily accessible. I stored various tools that I planned to one day farm with on racks. Fitch got his own small bed in each room, which he loved seriously.

I was still kind of lonely, not having met anyone in my rather brief time in the woods. Despite Fitch being there with me, I still got lonely not having anyone to talk to. I spent all my days building recently, making things such as a house. It took a few months to finish, but when it was down it stood two stories tall. It had a lovely stone brick base, with the main calls being wood from there up. The roof stood tall in a triangular prism, allowing an attic for storage. The house stood tall, but was still slightly hidden within the tall trees.

As I stood, revelling in my hard few months work, loud noises came from within the woods. Beasts could be heard roaring in the background, as large strays of magic flayed into the air. A large explosion was seen, rather close, before a figure appeared out of the forest into the small clearing near to the house. It was a stunningly beautiful girl, long blonde hair and clear blue eyes. She hobbled along injured, with a majority of her left arm missing, dripping blood. I ran over to her and she looked exhausted.

"Please . . . help . . . me," she stammered, having difficulty speaking due to a lack of breathe.

"What kind of beast is it?" I asked her, however she had lost too much blood to speak. I pulled my rifle off my shoulder and help it up. I ran into the woods in the opposite direction of the beast and climbed a tree. I waited for the beast to come, patiently and silently. Finally, a large wolf emerged from the woods. It brandished four eyes, and stood over one meter tall whilst on all fours. I looked on shocked at it's stature, as it looked for the injured girl. I knew that my standard rifle wouldn't be able to do anything with my simple Arisaka. Despite it's high stopping power, it was obvious by it's size that it was a strong beast.

I racked my brain for a few seconds before coming up with a solution. I summoned a magic circle and started tinkering with some of the bullets. I added some magical buffs, such as those of fire magic. I added a large explosive power, as well as making the bullets move faster with a larger explosion from the firing pin. Due to this larger explosion inside the gun, It was reinforced with magic so it wouldn't be blown to pieces, and the shrapnel wouldn't kill me. After the tinkering was finished, I pulled the rifle up to my shoulder once more. The wolf hadn't found me or the girl due to a stealth magic I had applied to the both of us.

With the wold in my sights, I laid my finger on the trigger. I made sure to take perfect aim, and squeezed the trigger. The first shot fired with a loud bang due to the higher stopping force. The bullet pierced deep into the wolves head, stopping him in his track of a brief second. I quickly racked the bolt back, and readied another shot. I fired another three or so, and the wolf dropped quickly to the floor. I used ice magic to freeze the blood inside the wold just in case, and headed towards the now unconscious girl. Her arm was ripped to shreds so I got to work repairing it. I stopped the bleeding and then worked on reversing the state of her arm. Because I didn't have the arm, I couldn't stitch it back on. It took roughly an hour, but the arm was finally remade. The nerves were all connected along with all the veins. I took her inside and placed her on the bed.

The girl woke up around sunset.

"Hello?" she called through the house.

"Just a second," I wailed back as I walked up the staircase with some food. I walked inside the room and set the food down "How are you feeling?" The girl was still a bit stunned, taking a moment to adjust.

"Did you save me?" The question seemed rather inquisitive compared to a normal one, which could be due to my young age.

"Of course, hopefully you don't mind." Fitch, who was previously on my shoulder, jumped down and went to the girl to snuggle with her. "So, what's your name?"

"My name is Arya, I am a 17 year old Elf. Thank you so much for saving me." She had an earnest tone in her voice, thanking me with sincere gratitude.

"I'm Rei, and the cats Fitch. I'm 13 and he's my summoned familiar." I guessed my age was roughly 13 based on my appearance, and seeing as I didn't really know my birthday or age, I could make up whatever. "Feel free to stay the night if you would like. I will be downstairs if you need anything." I passed the food over to Arya and headed downstairs. 

Later that night we went to sleep. The only issue was the lack of an extra bed. There wasn't enough material to fix up a second mattress, so the bed was shared. I didn't feel anything by it, but Arya had a flushed expression.

"Well, goodnight," I said as I rolled over. I went to sleep easily but I could tell Arya didn't. Life was about to get a lot less lonely, which was absolutely fine by me.