The Thirsty Girl's Guide To Summoning (Fate/Isekai)

Chapter 16

"Mommy, time to wake up." A small hand shook Ren's shoulder and she opened her eyes to pre-dawn dimness. For a moment she stared blankly at the little girl in front of her, wondering who she was. She'd been so deeply asleep and then she fell—

Memories of the previous day came rushing back, vivid against the emptiness where her prior life should have been. She'd come here intending to help. She'd summoned Servants, special familiar entities called Heroic Spirits, and they were a lot more troublesome than she'd expected.

"Jack," she said softly, and the girl's face lit up.

Oh yes, and today she was going to throw herself at death without any survival skill other than the ability to fall well. Why had she thought this was a good idea? She no more wanted to die now than she had falling from the sky a day earlier.

"The Lancer and the Caster are cooking you birds on a stick," Jack informed her, scrambling up on the bed beside her. "After that we have to go for a walk. Ritsu's still asleep."

Right. Ren wanted to help Ritsu, and this was the best plan she'd been able to invent. At least if she failed she wouldn't be making anything worse for Ritsu or her world, right? That was a bright thought.

Ren was starting to suspect she wasn't a morning person. She mumbled, "I wonder if there's any tea left."

Jack's eyebrows drew together. "The Caster made a cup a little while ago and then didn't bother drinking it."

"Oh good," Ren said, and dragged herself to her feet, assisted by Jack's Servant-sized strength. She ached all over and felt so hungry that hollow was a better term. By the time she made it to the kitchen, the smell of sizzling fowl powered her just as much as the thought of tea.

"Aww," said Merlin, far too chipper. "Somebody else woke you up first. Here, sit, drink and eat. You've got some hiking to do and we can't help you."

"Wha...?" Ren managed, before burying her nose in the fragrant steam coming off the tea.

Patiently, Merlin said, "If you look like a Servant just dropped you off at the camp gates, it's going to raise suspicions. Given how hapless you were in the forest yesterday, I figured you'd need the breakfast."

Cú set a small pan in front of her containing sizzling bird parts skewered by a sharpened stick. Ren stared at it faintly. "Aren't there any more berries? Maybe with some... milk? Yogurt? Pancakes? This isn't breakfast..."

"Aren't we the picky one this morning," said Cú, and ruthlessly pushed the bird parts off the stick. "Eat."

Ren glanced around, meeting Merlin's friendly lavender eyes, Jack's concerned green eyes and finally Cu's mocking ruby gaze. She had this vague feeling that she was supposed to be the one in charge, and yet somehow she'd been sent to bed early and was now being forced to eat barbecue for breakfast.

Probably some sort of revenge, she decided. Maybe she even deserved it. How would she know? Her personal memory went back one day, and she was far too sleepy to think about it reasonably.

So she ate her barbecued fowl and drank her tea and then the Servants took her to the wall Artoria had shattered and showed her the path of fallen trees that cut through the forest.

"Just turn right when you reach the end of that path," said Merlin. "Keep walking and, well, you'll probably be captured pretty soon. Once you get Artoria talking, I'll make my move. Good luck!" He grabbed Jack by her coat and they both vanished. Only Cú remained corporeal, watching her.

"I'll try to send you somebody to play with," she told him, and then made herself march away.

The 'path' was even slower going than the unmarred forest had been, but eventually, with new scratches and abrasions, covered in sweat and immensely grumpy at everything, Ren made it to the beginning of the Excalibur Morgan strike and turned right, into what looked like pristine forest.