Dealings With Deities

Chapter 6 - Her hero

Her hero was a jerk. He wore his stupid headband, read his stupid book, walked stupid slow and didn't look at her stupid face.

Wait no, she felt stupid for thinking that, why is her face stupid and why does she care if he looks at it. Shaking her head, she had to get rid of these thoughts. Concentrate on the quest, it's the whole reason she's here.

The older elf had introduced himself as Goras and was explaining the situation. "What we fought were only a few of what attacked us before. When our camp was attacked we were forced to split up from the main forces, I don't know how many creatures there were but they outnumbered us greatly."

"So those weren't all of them?" asked the human.

"No that wasn't even a fraction of what we had encountered the first time."

"Hmm, bothersome." And I liked this forest too. Dejectedly he stared into the distance, noticing a thin sheet of fog was beginning to form the human frowned.

The afternoon sunlight let golden rays of light through the forest canopy coating a select few locations with a calming bastion of warmth. One bastion was on a higher root, defensible, dry, clean and out of reach of the fog. A welcoming place to rest.

"EH? Where are you going the settlement is this way." Shinoko stated, surprised at the human's sudden change in direction.

"It's late, I'll go to town tomorrow."

"The settlement is two days away!"

"Your welcome to keep going, if it's two days away for you I will wait for you there." He calmly remarked while scaling the root.

"Well you can't decide where we camp anyway that's my job!" she shouted running after him How did he get so far away while walking that slow?

"What do you mean 'we'?"

"Our party." she grunted struggling to climb the root he so easily scaled.

"Your party." He quickly corrected "We are only going to the same place because you owe me a debt."

"Fine!" Shinoko pouted "Then we are going to camp too." scrambling half way up she missed her footing, slipped and fell.

Before she could even start screaming a hand flew down grabbing her by the hood of her cloak and pulled her up. Looking at her with a neutral face of annoyance was the human as he held her with ease dangling above the ground. Sitting her down on a flat section he let her stew in her embarrassment while he walked back to the side of the root.

"How dare you touch her with your filthy hands human." Kento'rel yelled. For Kento'rel walking near her was a small sin that had to be accepted but touching her is beyond reason.

"Aye, and I'll do it again too if you annoy me." The human replied while pulling Goras up.

Hearing this caused Shinoko to blush and her mind to wander He wants to touch my stupid body?

By now Goras had made it to the top and the human turned his back to the edge in time to spot a red-faced elf girl, shaking her head muttering "stupid, stupid, stupid" under her breath.

He wisely chose not to comment on this.

"Hey! Why are you not helping me up!" Kento'rel called furiously.

"Sorry I don't want you to touch my filthy hands, I'm sure you can find a way up," He replied leaving Kento'rel to angrily climb by himself.

*Rumble*

Shinoko had barely sat down when her stomach rumbled loudly.

How embarrassing she was starving, they all were. None of them had eaten properly since they were attacked, no supplies and a lack of sleep had taken its toll.

"Here." The human was offering the last sandwich from his backpack.

It was FOOD! Glorious mouthwatering food. Reaching out for the breaded salvation Shinoko's hand hesitated.

"Don't worry this one's on the house, it's PB&J" Pushing the sandwich into her hands he sat down next to her leaning on the tree before throwing a lunchbox to Goras.

The old elf was the first to speak "Thank you again if it weren't for you we would never have made it this far so thank you sir."

Taking the initiative Shinoko finally had a chance to talk to him "Yes thank you for everything hu.."

She went silent at the realisation.

"I'm sor.. uh, Mr human. Could you please grace us with your name?" Her cheeks had just discovered a new shade of pink. He had saved their lives and they didn't even ask him his name.

"Call me Kaiho." He replied, smiling reassuringly. This was not a made-up name to fit into a new world it was originally a nickname, Kaiho quite liked the name and it was close enough to his real name to count.

"Kai-ho?" Shinoko was glad her hero had a name and happily bit into her sandwich. "mmmm!" Either this was the best sandwich in existence or hunger made everything taste better, at this point she didn't care.

Stomachs and curiosity sated, exhaustion took over. Quickly the two young elves feel asleep, Kento'rel sleeping with an angry scowl dreaming of today's attacks against his honour. Shinoko, dreaming of amazing music she had never heard before, mind racing to give shape to the instruments creating it. Meanwhile, Kaiho who's arm Shinoko was resting on was rapidly tapping away, playing a rhythm game on his phone waiting for Goras to return with firewood.

Half an hour later Goras had returned carrying wood and set about starting a campfire.

Once the fire was burning steadily Goras sat down opposite Kaiho, inspecting a makeshift staff he had collected with the firewood.

"Human may we talk. I need to ask you some questions."