Dedication (Nina / BlueSlime)

[Guan Yu]

Re: Dedication (Nina / BlueSlime)

"Shouldn't be anything wrong besides her being tired, we've been going double days and resting only few hours here and there, her own idea. I can handle that, since I have a lot of energy in this big body, but she is more susceptible to the effects of fatigue." Isaku replied as he slurped down the remaining liquids of his stew. "But yeah, not too much to tell really. Been around the surrounding lands, defeated some bandits and predatory animals. Did some mercenary work and menial tasks to keep ourselves fed when necessary, though usually nature was a kind enough lady to give us some of her bounty to sustain ourselves with." the big guard kept the story short, getting up from his spot and heading towards the wagon. "I'll see if she can't join you on watch, been a long nap, this one."

After the meal had finished, the group moved into the wagons to sleep. Some time into her watch, Nina was joined by Lynette, who was mostly quiet once she took a seat near the fire.

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Dedication (Nina / BlueSlime)

"Hi Lynette," Nina offered the tired head maid and outstanding acrobatic combatant a warm smile, though it was tempered by wariness that Lynette might bear Nina a grudge for having been safe all this time.

"I guess Isaku told you everything by now. I know you've been driving yourself so hard to find me, I feel guilty for not having been trapped in some tower somewhere, guarded by fell beasts." Nina watched Lynette's eyes, hoping her mild attempt at situational humor would make the normally dour woman a tad bit happier.

"The way I felt when I woke up all alone in a distant land, having unknowingly skipped ahead in time two months, I would have done anything to have a familiar face like yours turn up and show me the way home. It turned out I had to get back to the estate myself, but... I feel it's made me stronger, being able to do it by myself. Iliana was a mess when I got back but... she started to get better, and then once the doctor I'd met on my return journey managed to wake Iris up, it was like the mistress just came back to us, out of the dark. We had our family back... or... we almost did."

Nina looked up at Lynette, gazing into her eyes if the assassin was willing to look back at the green haired girl. "I've missed you. You and Isaku both. I would have felt worse about it, but I knew that you at least had him by your side and I thought well, with the two of you having each other, neither of you would be alone like I was, so I wasn't worried about your health. You two can obviously take care of yourselves. I just - I just wanted the entire family back. And now we're all here." Nina crept towards Lynette and if the assassin wasn't opposed to it, slung her arms around her shoulders to hug her. "I'm so glad. I may have gotten a bit better at taking care of myself but I've still got so much more to learn. A little maid like me needs a head maid like you to make sure I learn all the ropes."

 

[Guan Yu]

Re: Dedication (Nina / BlueSlime)

"Yo." Lynette replied to the initial greeting, seeming pretty much like herself, if sleepier than normal. "Yeah, he did give me a small briefing into the occurrences that have gone on during my little nap today." the head maid went on after Nina had gone through her first lines of stuff, not really caring about the joke. After that, she didn't really say anything, letting Nina express her thoughts and feelings as she looked and listened from the other spot. When the desire to hug came over the maid-knight, she was allowed to do so. "Hmm, maybe you do. Depends."

After the green-haired girl had enough hugtimes, Lynette leaned back on her spot, looking into the sky. "Looks like we are back to the usual again, even though a bit better than before. Still, feels like such a waste, being away for this long and for no reason at all..." she said, sighing.

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Dedication (Nina / BlueSlime)

"No reason at all, huh?" Nina raised a brow. "What about Isaku? The two of you were together all this time. You had a plenty long journey together, away from your usual duties and concerns. I'm guessing there must have been some good moments in there, hmm?"

 

[Guan Yu]

Re: Dedication (Nina / BlueSlime)

"Kinda on the edge about that. I don't want to be away from my duties, but I had to do that in order to get the place back to normal. I'm sure the big lug feels the same as I do." the head maid replied, getting out one of her knives and starting to idly carve a small bit of firewood. "We were so focused on the task ahead of that there was no time for us to think about other things..."

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Dedication (Nina / BlueSlime)

Nina sighed. "So you're saying all you ever thought about for these past months was just finding me? Every waking moment? Just so you could get everything back in order at home? I'm touched if that's the case, but I'm also a bit shocked. You deserve to have more of a life than that, Lynette. Please, for my sake, and for the lady's, have a little fun."

The grassy haired girl smiled crookedly. "Just let loose. I'm found. Things are mostly good. You can celebrate."

 

[Guan Yu]

Re: Dedication (Nina / BlueSlime)

The head maid remained quiet once more, carving up her wood bit and slowly forming it into a decently accurate wooden copy of the one she was forming it up with. Having done that bit of handiwork, she chucked the carved wood knife into the campfire. "Maybe I will..." Lynette said then, dropping down onto the grass behind her. "We just need to get home..."

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Dedication (Nina / BlueSlime)

"We will, Lynette!" Nina said cheerily, trying to keep up the head maid's spirits - which at this point was becoming a bit tiresome. "We'll be there in just a couple of days. All we have to do is stay watchful and make sure nothing bad happens until then."

Saying this, Nina took a look around her, then stood up, stretched her legs and patted her sword sheath. "If that immortal creep comes around again, I'mma cut her heels and make her crawl after us if she wants to keep threatening us. Honestly, you'd think she'd have something better to do with her eternity."

 

[Guan Yu]

Re: Dedication (Nina / BlueSlime)

"Should be there tomorrow, if the trail is good and doesn't hold us up with obstacles..." Lynette told what she knew, reminding Nina that she had indeed returned along this same path earlier, and gotten to the town during the second evening. With all the forwardness about dealing with Ethelinda coming to the fore, the head maid remained contently on her patch of grass. "Not sure if I'd give you the opportunity, might just decide poke them with this knife until the ability to operate any limbs went away..."

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Dedication (Nina / BlueSlime)

"Mmm, well as long as one of us does it," Nina sighed, dropping down beside Lynette as she played idly with a random rock she'd found nearby. "I guess I must still defer to your seniority on the matter, so first stabs go to you. It's the least I can offer after all the trouble you've gone through over my silly behind."

 

[Guan Yu]

Re: Dedication (Nina / BlueSlime)

"I suppose I could live with that..." Lynette replied, proceeding to flip her knife through the air in high arcs.

After a minute or two of idling, Nina felt a sudden, soft poke on her cheek. Taking a quick look in the poke direction, she could see a large-ish spider next to her on the grass, one leg extended and being pulled back from the poke she just received. It was a beautifully patterned creature, gray, white and black making up it's color palette. It was not a big-butt terrestrial spider, but a sleek, small-bodied and long-legged tree-dweller of about seven inches in legspan. After getting her attention, the animal backed away from her, waving two of it's frontal feet in an upwards v-pattern, going back and forth with the motion. It was almost as if the arachnid wanted her to follow it somewhere.

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Dedication (Nina / BlueSlime)

"Hrm?"

Nina rubbed her cheek from the poke, looked around, settling her eyes on the spider.

"Heeeeekkkk!!" Perhaps to some honored few, the sight of a strange, colorful spider an inch away from one's face in the middle of the wild would not be a cause for concern, but the green haired maid knight fell into the more common majority of people who get a little skittish instinctually when they see a big spider.

Fortunately, she didn't lash out, but rather sat up instantly and backed away several feet. She put a hand over her mouth to keep herself from squeaking again, and simply watched the offending arachnid for several moments. Upon seeing its odd way of moving its front legs back and forth, her terror turned quickly to confusion, followed by curiosity.

"Are you... are you trying to tell me something?" She said, creeping closer on her hands and knees, getting a better view. Yes indeed, those legs were making very understandable gestures. "You want me to follow?"

Nina looked around to see if Lynette had woken up and was seeing this.

 

[Guan Yu]

Re: Dedication (Nina / BlueSlime)

"Well... now that is something I've not seen before." Lynette commented, alerted to the scene from Nina's earlier reaction. "Not a spider like that nor behaviour like that. Really does look like it's suggesting for following." the head maid too realized what was happening, and the spider made it all the more apparent. It still did the same movements, following the maid-knight's reactions and stepping back a step here and there.

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Dedication (Nina / BlueSlime)

"Eh... erm... okay I guess..." Nina looked up to Lynette. "You keep watch on the mistress and the others. I'm gonna follow the mystery spider."

As the little guy scuttled off wherever it wanted to lead her, Nina crept along slowly behind it, curious and looking on in wonder.

 

[Guan Yu]

Re: Dedication (Nina / BlueSlime)

"You don't have to tell me." Lynette replied, standing up from her previous relaxed form, now looking much more like the royal assassin and warrior that she was. It was not as concerning to leave the camp with her focused like that. After the spider had confirmed that Nina was indeed coming after it, the animal turned on it's tracks and began to travel forward at a more brisk pace, leading the green-haired girl into the forest.

After what she estimated to be about a ten-minute venture into the night-time woods, the spider reached it's destination, leading Nina to a steep hole on the forest floor. When she looked in and focused her gaze, the maid-knight could make out a human form at the bottom. It was deep pit, almost 40 feet in depth.

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Dedication (Nina / BlueSlime)

"Hey... someone's down there." Nina said peering into the pit. Quickly she looked around, worried of someone watching her alone out in these woods. She kept her body prone as she looked over the rim of the pit so that no one could easily come up from behind and push her in. A fall that big could easily kill her, and certainly break her bones.

"Hello?" She called down to the human figure. "Are you alive? Can you hear me?"

 

[Guan Yu]

Re: Dedication (Nina / BlueSlime)

"Huh..." was the initial reply to Nina's words towards the human down below. But after taking a look up, they realized that there was something up at the surface level. "Heeeeeeey. I'm kinda stuck down here, can you help me get up?" the trapped individual spoke up, the voice belonging to a female. "I kinda fell in here when chasing a few poachers, and now they caught be instead of an animal. The roots broke my fall, so I'm not all that hurt. Still, kinda hard to get up. Good that Miranda managed to find someone."

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Dedication (Nina / BlueSlime)

"Yeah, all right. Just sit tight, I don't have a rope on me at the moment. I'll go back and see what I can find with our caravan. Be back in a bit." Nina said and then hurried back to camp.

"Hey Lynette! We need a rope. Someone fell into an animal pit and they need some help up. Let's rummage through the supplies and see what we can dig up."

If Nina found any rope or other useful objects to help the fallen individual out of their predicament, she'd gather them up and run back to the pit, where she'd alert the girl below and send the rope down after having secured it to a nearby tree trunk with a good, solid knot.

 

[Guan Yu]

Re: Dedication (Nina / BlueSlime)

"Alright, I'm not going anywhere." the trapped individual spoke up, waiting up until Nina returned. The spider climbed up on Nina's shoulder, where it remained for a bit further and helped the girl around with pointed directions.

Back at the camp, Lynette still remained on watch, but was willing to help the maid-knight when it came to searching for supplies. They didn't have to take long with the looking, for it was easy to look under the lid of Dusty's driving seat, which had most usual necessities hidden in there. One of them was a long coil of rope, which Nina could use. Soon she was off again, with the spider guiding her around the forest.

With the help of the rope and a bit of pulling from the green-haired girl, she was brought face-to-face with another green-haired girl. The rescued person had a similar color on her head, though this one seemed to be an elf, with the usual ears one could assign to them. "Thanks, not sure if I'd have made it without you and Miranda." she told Nina, the spider jumping onto her arm and up the shoulder now that they were both out from the hole. "I'm a druid, kinda. Apprentice really." she told, looking the part with her leather & fur style of dress.

 

[BlueSlime]

Re: Dedication (Nina / BlueSlime)

"Oh, nice to meet you. Ah, you mean Miranda is the... the spider? Oh, well, I guess that makes sense. That's a smart spider you've got there actually." Nina giggled, then extended her hand in an offer of a good natured handshake.

"My name's Nina. I'm a shield maiden for House Einzbern. And also the occasional maid, too. We take pride in role flexibility! Come on back to the camp with me, you can stay up with my friend Lynette and tell us you're story."

Gathering up the rope, Nina led the elf and her spider back to the clearing where the rest of the caravan was camped. She waved to Lynette to let the assassin know there was nothing to be alarmed about.

"Say, I know your spider's name, but not yours. Mind sharing?" Nina asked, just before they got to the campfire.