Amanda, a girl of fourteen, sat by the water's edge in her travel-worn red outfit. She let the cool current numb her aching feet, her large red witch's hat and a pair of small red boots cast aside behind her in a heap of exhaustion.
Berlynda watched her from the clearing, a soft, weary smile tugging at her lips. Beside her stood Aki—the girl in the white tunic and red skirt—as still and unreadable as a marble statue. Together, they had hauled their small boat onto the bank, the wood groaning against the sand.
Forty-nine days. That was how long the Ruby Team had been trekking, and they had only just managed to put the great river—the jagged border between Svartalfheim and Midgard—behind them.
Berlynda's gaze turned eastward. Her heart was set on Dark Asanee, the shadow-assassin birthed from Odin's lost spear. Her only compass was Enya, the High Elf Queen's sister, the woman who held the assassin's leash.
War had already ignited in Alfheim between the gods Modi and Vidar. It was almost certain that Enya was there, lurking in the smoke of the battlefield with her shadow-killer by her side.
But the road to the east was a long, cruel stretch. They would have to traverse the breadth of Midgard and cross yet another massive river before the spires of the High Elves would even appear on the horizon.
"Look! Over here! Orange fish!" Amanda's voice, bright and excited, broke the silence.
Berlynda walked toward her eldest apprentice, with Aki trailing silently like a shadow. Two vibrant, orange-scaled fish, nearly the length of an arm, were circling Amanda's submerged feet with a fearless, rhythmic grace.
"Lax fish," Berlynda identified them. "A common sight in Midgard."
Amanda's eyes widened, shimmering with curiosity. "Are they poisonous?"
Born and raised in the subterranean gloom of Svartalfheim, Amanda found even the most mundane creatures of the surface world to be wonders of high magic.
"Not at all. That fiery orange hue is because they are heavy with eggs. They swim against the current this time of year to entrust the next generation to the river," Berlynda explained, her voice rich with the wisdom of a seasoned traveler.
Amanda went quiet, her head tilting as she watched the orange arcs circle her toes. "So..." she whispered, her voice dropping to a conspiratorial level. "Can we eat them?"
As if on cue, her stomach let out a thunderous, unladylike growl.
Berlynda mimicked the girl's head tilt and chuckled. "We can. And I hear the meat is quite succulent."
Armed with confirmation, Amanda froze. She furrowed her brow in intense concentration, trying to figure out how to snatch a fish without moving her feet and spooking them. Her small frame rocked back and forth, a predator in a red dress—and a very clumsy one at that.
Snap!
The water's surface didn't just break; it exploded. In a blur of white and red, a hand plunged into the river.
Aki, who had been squatting motionless beside Amanda, stood up. A massive Lax fish thrashed in her bare-handed grip. Her face remained a mask of porcelain indifference.
Amanda blinked, stunned into silence, before bursting into a fit of giggles. "Haha! Amazing, Aki! Truly amazing!"
A small fire was soon crackling, birthed by Amanda's spark of magic. But the messy work fell to Aki. With a short blade, she scaled and gutted the fish with a chilling, mechanical precision.
The dynamic between them was a strange one. Amanda was the senior apprentice, yet she looked like a delicate porcelain doll. Aki, the junior, possessed the height and bearing of a young woman, making the "Senior" look like a lost child tagging along with her older sister.
Once the fish was skewered and ready, Aki handed it to Amanda and drifted back toward Berlynda, who was tinkering with the remains of their boat.
"Aki, where are you going? Eat with me!" Amanda called out.
"I do not require sustenance. Eat, Senior," Aki replied flatly.
Amanda watched her go, then turned her focus to the fire, carefully positioning the fish over the glowing embers.
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Aki reached Berlynda and tapped her shoulder. "State your intent," she requested in her monotone voice.
Berlynda jumped, her heart hammering against her ribs. Even as a former Valkyrie commander, she had failed to hear the girl approach. It was a bruise to her pride, though Aki was a special case.
"Oh!" Berlynda let out a nervous laugh. "I'm trying to fashion a cart out of the boat. I thought it might spare us some time on the road."
Aki looked at the "cart." It was a disaster of engineering. The boat had been halved to form a seat, but the wheels—hastily carved from the hull—were of different sizes and, more tragically, almost perfectly square.
Aki pointed a finger at the wooden blocks. "Are these... wheels?"
"Push them hard enough and they'll round themselves out eventually," Berlynda said, scratching her head with a sheepish grin.
Without a word, Aki knelt. She drew her knife and began to silently "shave the edges" of the wooden squares. Seeing the silent rebuke, Berlynda joined her. Together, the Master and the Junior sat in the dirt, painstakingly turning blocks of wood into circles.
Berlynda was building this for Amanda. Their progress was a crawl because the girl was human, small, and reaching the absolute limit of her endurance.
Meanwhile, Amanda sat by her fire, her mind sinking into gloom. She knew she was the anchor dragging behind the Ruby Team. Berlynda and Aki were forces of nature; they didn't seem to tire, or hunger, or even need the sun. And there she was—feet covered in stinging blisters, heart heavy with the weight of her own uselessness.
Suddenly, the acrid scent of smoke snapped her out of her trance.
The orange fish hadn't just cooked; it had caught fire. It was now a blazing torch on a stick. Panic flared in her chest as the flames leaped from the oil-rich fish to the hem of her cloak.
"Eek! Fire! FIRE!"
Driven by instinct, Amanda bolted for the only safety she knew. She charged toward the river.
But her blistered feet betrayed her. She hit a slick, moss-covered rock beneath the surface. Her legs went wide.
Sliiiiip... THUD-SPLASH!
She went down hard, face-planting into the icy water with a spectacular spray.
Berlynda and Aki dropped their tools and sprinted to the bank.
Amanda hauled herself up, dripping and shivering. Her voice broke into a pathetic, heart-wrenching wail. "Waaaah! My clothes! The outfit my mother made for me!"
Eventually, the chaos subsided. A new fire roared, fed by Berlynda's magic. Amanda was bundled into a thick, oversized blanket like a cocoon, her wet, charred clothes hanging nearby.
Aki caught a second fish and began to grill it in silence.
Looking at her reflection in the dark water, Amanda's tears started anew. "I'm a failure..."
"Everyone falls, Amanda," Berlynda said softly. "Don't be so cruel to yourself."
"Master..." Amanda sobbed. "I'm just... I'm no good. It's been fifty days, and we're still here because I'm slow and weak."
Berlynda went silent. She didn't offer a platitude; she simply sat and let the girl's grief breathe.
"I can't do it," Amanda said, pulling the blanket over her head, her voice muffled by fabric and tears.
"It's not that bad, Amanda," Berlynda tried again.
"It is! I walk like a turtle. I can't carry anything. The sun makes me dizzy. My nose is always sunburnt. My ears hear ghosts. My hands break everything. I trip over flat ground. I'm always, always hungry. My legs are like jelly. I'm scared of bugs, I'm scared of the dark, and I..."
The dam had burst. The self-loathing poured out in a frantic stream.
"I can't cook! I'm lazy! I'm messy! I'm just a... a burden!"
Berlynda listened to the list grow longer and more ridiculous. The more Amanda complained about her "mishearing ears" and "sun-hating nose," the more Berlynda felt a bubble of laughter rising. Finally, she couldn't suppress it.
"Pfft... Hahaha! HAHAHA!"
The laughter echoed across the river. Amanda went stiff, lowering the blanket to glare at her Master with watery eyes.
"Haha! Well!" Berlynda wiped a tear of mirth from her eye. "Since you know you're that terrible, you'll just have to work twice as hard to improve, won't you? Haha!"
In that hollow pit of shame, Amanda's hand went to her neck. She felt the cool metal of the Kólr-Akr necklace. It was a tether to home—to the West Witch Gate, to her mother. One word, one surge of magic, and she could be home. Safe.
She gripped the necklace, her knuckles white. She looked at Berlynda, her lip trembling. "Master... I... I want to go back to my mother..."
Before the sentence could fully escape her lips, a perfectly grilled, steaming fish was shoved directly into her face.
Aki stood there, holding the skewer like a peace offering. "Senior. Eat this and sleep," she said, her voice a calm anchor. "Tomorrow morning, Master and I will finish the cart. Your short legs will no longer be a strategic disadvantage."
Amanda froze. She looked into Aki's eyes and saw no mockery—only a terrifyingly blunt sincerity. She snatched the fish and took a massive, angry bite, mumbling through the scales, "Counting on you then!" She gave a shaky thumbs-up; it was the best fish she had ever tasted.
By dawn, the "vessel" was ready.
Aki wheeled it over with a rare, almost imperceptible twitch of a smile. It was an ugly thing—a boat-turned-chariot with lopsided wheels—but Amanda saw the love in every knife-stroke on the wood.
"Go on, test your new throne," Berlynda urged.
Amanda climbed in, feeling like a queen for all of three seconds. Then...
CRACK-THUD!
The axle splintered. The cart collapsed, sending Amanda tumbling backward, her boots waving in the air in a display of utter defeat.
"Strange..." Berlynda muttered, scratching her chin. "I had Aki sit in it while I test-pushed it last night. It held up fine."
Aki helped a fuming Amanda to her feet. "Senior appears small," Aki observed with her usual deadpan delivery. "But your mass is... significant."
"AKI!!" Amanda shrieked, her face turning a vibrant shade of scarlet at the jab about her weight.
"Well, that's that. No cart," Berlynda sighed, eyeing the splintered wreckage.
Amanda's heart sank. Her hand went to the necklace again. She couldn't do this. She was a weight they couldn't carry.
But then, Aki knelt. She turned her back to Amanda, her shoulders broad and steady.
"The cart failed," Aki said firmly. "Therefore, I shall serve as the transport. Get on."
"Aki..." Amanda whispered, her eyes welling up with a different kind of tear.
"However," Aki added, her face remaining stoic. "Once the sun sets, Master must take the shift. I have my limits, and carrying this little piglet all day will surely test them."
"Oink!" Berlynda chirped, mimicking a pig's squeal with a mischievous grin.
"YOU TWO ARE THE WORST!" Amanda screamed, though she climbed onto Aki's back nonetheless.
And so, the Ruby Team moved on. Driven by a Valkyrie's grit and a junior's iron back, they did the impossible. They crossed the vast, wild expanse of Midgard from West to East in a mere twenty-eight days.
It was a legendary feat—though it was achieved primarily because Amanda had gained nearly half her body weight in grilled fish and lack of exercise by the time they reached the other side.