Michelle

  Before the group finally left Elsanth, there was one last thing Michelle needed to take care of, which was to have Luna kill something small.

  In this new world they’d found themselves in, traveling between cities and towns meant facing danger and acquiring food by killing monsters as you went. Very few people would travel from one place to another and only eat travel-ready meals the whole way.

  The other aspect was survival. They were merely a group of four, and one of them was only a young girl. If she couldn’t handle killing a monster under controlled conditions, then she would do even worse should a situation arise where someone can’t help her quickly enough.

  Elsanth was an unforgiving place for them to stay, and Michelle had decided on a destination for them anyway, and the others had already agreed that it sounded nice.

  “How are you feeling, Luna?” Michelle asked her.

  It was obvious that the girl was nervous, but was trying to hide it. The locals loudly complained about all the awful idiots passing through their town, and that included Luna. Even to a little girl, they would call her things like an obnoxious, useless, waste of space, just because she was from Earth.

  And they even had the gall to call me a bad parent for bringing her to this world. As if I knew this would happen!

  “I’m okay,” she lied.

  “It’s okay if you’re nervous or scared. I’ll be here to support you, and so will the others. We’ll help you get through this.”

  “B-But… What if I can’t do it? What will happen to me?”

  I’m so mad at those people for making her think she’s useless.

  “It’s okay if you fail. We’ll still be with you, and we’ll help you succeed. I’ll always love you no matter what, okay?”

  “Okay… I can do it…”

  She still seemed scared, more of failure to kill a monster than monsters themselves, but she was feeling a little better than before.

  “That’s my girl,” Michelle told her. She gave her one more hug before they began walking toward the forest.

  They didn’t go very deep, as they only had to find something small. It wasn’t even an hour later that they came across a group of four monster rabbits. Even though they were monsters, they still had some sense of self-preservation, and wouldn't risk attacking four beings that were so much larger than themselves, so it was necessary to take them by surprise.

  They carefully sneaked toward the rabbits, and once they were close enough, Amber created earthen walls on the back and left sides of them, and Michelle created ice ones on the front and right sides.

  The ice walls Michelle had trapped them with were frosted, so the rabbits couldn’t see the group approaching them. But they knew something was going on, and were panicking. Thunking and splashing noises could be heard, sounding like two or three of them had earth magic, and at least one of them had water magic.

  Weaker monsters like these rarely ever had modifiers, so more complex types of magic weren’t something they would often have to worry about. Though, unlike people, modifiers on monsters didn’t produce obvious coloration patterns that indicated what type of magic they had, so it was important to always be careful.

  As soon as they reached the walls they had made, Michelle and Amber created ice and earth to hold them down. Catching them was tricky because of how fast they could be, but it didn’t take very long.

  With all four of the rabbits captured, the two women entered their containment area and killed three of them. The last one would be for Luna. She wasn’t going to fight it, just kill it. Michelle made sure it was entirely restrained and couldn't see them coming. It was desperately flinging bits of dirt in every direction, but the attacks were weak, not solid or even aimed at anything.

  Fuck, this feels horrible.

  “Luna, take out your sword,” Michelle commanded.

  The young elf girl did so, holding it just like Michelle had taught her to. The look on her face was incredibly tense.

  While still keeping an eye on the rabbit, Michelle put a hand on her daughter’s stiff shoulder. “It’ll be fine, Luna.”

  The girl was trembling slightly as she stepped forward. She stared at the rabbit for several seconds, then, completely forgetting everything she had learned about how to hold a sword, lifted it up high and slammed it down as hard as she could. Dirt and a small amount of blood sprayed out, but it was a surprisingly clean cut.

  “I… I did it…” Luna muttered.

  “Yes, sweetie, you did,” her mom said, hugging her. “I’m proud of you."

  She hugged her back and quietly replied, “Thanks, Mom.”

  Luna seemed to be a combination of shocked, happy, and a bit uncomfortable.

  She’s not crying, so maybe I’ve underestimated her? She’s already seen several monsters killed by this point, so it’s not like this is completely foreign. Is she just trying to be like me?

  Deciding to get moving, she asked Luna, “Would you like to try taking it apart?”

  “Y-Yeah… I want to help.”

  While Amber and Sarah worked on the other three rabbits, Michelle walked Luna through the process.

  ———

  It wasn’t even noon when they made it back to the city. Since that was the case, they decided that they would leave today instead of tomorrow. They had already bought everything they reasonably could in preparation for this, but still ended up buying some last-minute things on their way out.

  The last-minute purchases included another set of sewing needles, one more blanket, and a bit of preserved food. Everything else, they had already prepared. They would hunt and forage for additional food as they went.

  Since there was a little spare money, they also picked up some blank books; partially because they might need to write or draw something, but also because Sarah had been itching to get back into writing.

  They already had other blank books set aside for the purpose of teaching Luna. In the absence of a school, the three adults had taken to teaching her what they knew. When it came to history, geography, and anything else related to this world, they made sure to not rely on their game knowledge at all, and double-checked everything as much as they could before teaching it to her.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  They estimated it would take about a week to get to their first stop, a city in the southern direction. There was actually one that was closer to Elsanth than that one, but that one was to the north, away from their destination.

  Once they were outside the walls, they all got into their seats aboard Michelle’s ice motorcycle, and at long last, put Elsanth behind them for good.

  There was room for all their belongings, and Michelle and Luna would take turns supplying ice for a compartment meant specifically for keeping food fresh.

  Michelle could comfortably drive for about three hours before needing to stop. That was a good point to stop at anyway, so everyone could take a break from all that sitting and stretch their legs.

  They could even travel a bit further just by walking, to further give them a break from sitting. Unlike on Earth, they wouldn’t be leaving a vehicle behind when they did this.

  Michelle wouldn’t completely drain her mana before stopping, as she needed to be able to help fight off anything that attacked. If she had been driving on a straight, flat road, she could go on longer, but she had been adding bits of ice onto the road where necessary to make it a smoother ride.

  It was a goal of hers to eventually be able to make a road made entirely of ice underneath the motorcycle at all times, as that would make driving so much easier. She already gave all the road ice she made a rough and bumpy texture for traction, and being able to have perfect traction at all times would help greatly.

  She also didn’t want to leave a big trail of ice wherever she went, so she was making it vanish behind her. If she simply cut off her magical connection to it, then it would become ordinary ice that would remain there until it melted.

  As their journey finally began, Michelle found that she couldn’t keep her motorcycle out as much as she thought she could, so they spent a bit more than half the time walking as a result.

  Even if it meant that it would take longer to get to their first stop, everyone still greatly appreciated not having to walk the entire way. Being able to cool the air inside the motorcycle was something everyone was glad for, even if Amber didn’t mind the heat. The weather would begin cooling down soon as winter approached, though.

  Everyone played with their magic a bit as they moved, an act which most people couldn’t do, as they didn’t have the mana to spare for playing around like that. Most people also didn't feel the need to increase their mana pools so much, as they didn't travel extensively. They were still careful about how much mana they spent, however.

  At night, the three adults each took a turn on watch for around two hours. Their camp was stone walls surrounding three stone tents. Carefully placed gaps allowed them to see what was on the other side of the walls.

  Something about Torneltha that everyone could appreciate was the incredibly fresh air and gorgeous starry sky. Nature here was vast and mostly untouched. Trees as tall as skyscrapers could be seen regularly, and it was easy to feel small compared to the expansiveness of the world around them.

  Torneltha also had little to no pollution from what they knew so far. Neither the research base nor Elsanth had had any problems. Magical waste disposal and ventilation kept things clean.

  ———

  The group was currently taking a break. The adults were sitting in the shade of a giant tree while Luna played with a giant-sized Diamond nearby, though nowhere near as large as the tree, of course.

  Diamond could become as big as a car if Luna put a lot of her mana into it. Right now, the wolf was big enough to ride, but making it large enough for two riders and maintaining that size was still too much for her.

  I want to ride it, too! Luna, your mom has an incredible need to ride upon the back of a giant wolf.

  Michelle’s mind came to an abrupt, screeching halt. She felt the need to look at her hands for some reason, and just stared at them as she tried to process what had just occurred.

  “What’s wrong?” Amber asked.

  “I just… just now, I thought of myself as Luna’s mom. Her mom. It’s gradually shifted over the past several months from dad to parent, and just now, it was mom. And I just… Ugh!

  |

  “For a brief moment, that’s who I actually was, and it felt totally and completely normal! But then I noticed the slight change in word choice, and now I’m freaking out!”

  Taking a long breath to calm herself down a little, she continued, “At this point, I want it to actually be normal for me already, to not think about it every single time something like this comes up.

  |

  “And it also kind of feels like I’m making a big deal out of nothing? Like, it’s a word. My personality, my interests, my habits, none of those have changed much, I don’t think. I’m still the same, but I’m also not.”

  After Michelle’s rant concluded, Sarah spoke up, “A word can have a lot of power, you know? Why do you think trans people choose pronouns and new names for themselves? It’s because just one word can be deeply affecting.

  |

  “So I don’t think it’s weird for you to freak out over that.”

  She sighed. “Yeah, I get that, but actually experiencing the change is something else. I still don’t really know how to feel about what happened to me, but I guess I can finally conclude that I’m probably genderfluid or something.

  |

  “Like, I was perfectly happy with my body before, but this one never felt wrong, either. So I guess it’s like my gender matches my vessel? Or maybe I just never cared as much as I thought I did?"

  Amber said, “I can’t imagine what it’s been like for you, but I’m happy you’re figuring things out.”

  “Yeah,” Sarah agreed. “And hey, at least you don’t have a tail that you keep accidentally closing doors on. Or sitting on. Or having to clean. I even have to brush and wash this thing!” she finished, her tiger tail twitching irritatedly as she complained about it.

  Michelle replied, “Sure, but I still bump my boobs into stuff sometimes. These things are sensitive! I bump my hips, too. I’m actually glad to be wearing armor a lot of the time, because I would keep damaging myself otherwise.”

  “That’s fair, but at least you get armor! They don’t have tail armor in our price range!’

  Amber joined in, “I’m working on it! Creating armor from scratch is hard, but once I’ve got it basically made, I can use my Gift to rework it into something that works better.”

  “How does creating real tail armor compare with making something similar for cosplay?”

  “Entirely different, since I have to keep in mind that it’s real limb. That means taking into account its weight, flexibility, how it will be used, and making sure the fur won’t get pinched and pulled.

  |

  “Can’t help you though, Michelle. Or maybe wearing fantasy boob armor would help you be more aware of them?”

  Michelle retorted, "No thanks, I don't need mental damage on top of physical damage."

  Amber huffed in fake irritation.

  Seeing Luna bouncing around on Diamond’s back as she ran around, Michelle yelled, “Luna! Try creating a saddle! You’ll be able to hold on better!”

  “Okay, Mom, I will!” she yelled back.

  Sarah commented, “That’ll tire her out quickly. That’s a lot of magic for a kid to use.”

  Michelle replied, “If she can grow her mana pool just by playing around, it will only be beneficial. The kids of this world have a head start on her.”

  Amber said, “I think she’s already surpassed them, though? Other kids don’t play around with magic as much as Luna does because it’s not a novelty to them. And she hasn’t had much else to do for the past five months. Having a Gift helps, too.”

  “Yeah…” Michelle said sadly. “In a city where we aren’t obviously Earthlings and when we have some money or even just a little time to spare, I really need to take her out for something fun. I also need to get her some decent clothes. I know she’ll like that.”

  “You too, for that matter.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean that you shouldn’t forget to take care of yourself. You’re right to focus on Luna, but you can’t completely ignore your own well-being.”

  “Yeah,” she nodded. “I haven’t actually thought about getting, like, just regular clothing yet. What’s the jeans and t-shirt equivalent in this world?”

  “You don’t want more variety? New world, new body and all.”

  “…I’ll work myself up to it.”

  “Well, from what I’ve seen so far, clothes don’t seem to be as gendered as they were on Earth. The sheer variety in body types and anatomy probably plays a part in that.

  |

  “Torneltha’s equivalent of ‘jeans and a t-shirt’ as you put it, would probably be a loose tunic, pants, and boots. Comfy clothes, basically. Though I’m sure preferences will be different depending on what region we’re in.

  |

  “But there were plenty of people wearing things that were more fashionable or showed off the body.”

  “I should really pay attention more…”

  “Well, yes, but we’ve all been sort of busy. And I had an interest in it.”

  “Right. Well, now that we’re finally moving on to whatever the hell the rest of our lives will be, we can actually start doing stuff again soon.

  |

  “I hope it’s not too difficult to get blacksmithing training.”

  “Me too. I can’t wait to create real fantasy armor!”

  Turning to Sarah, Michelle asked, “Did you think about what you want to do yet?”

  Sarah nodded, “I did. Someone mentioned alchemy several months ago, and I’ve been considering it ever since. I want to try that and enchanting. The two fields are really intertwined, but there seem to be plenty who specialize in one or the other. Learning those things would mean I could help you create enchanted armor."

  Amber exclaimed, “Yes! That sounds awesome, Sarah!”

  Michelle laughed. “Well, let’s get moving again. Can’t craft anything here, after all.”