“What?”

The purple slime monster was shocked to see the girl who was just struggling for her life mere moments ago now stood before it, speaking full of confidence. The slime had slowly begun to consume the girl’s whole arm that held onto the lance she picked up, but she did not seem phased at all. Instead, she only smirked at the monster.

“Now it’s my turn to say it. You won’t even last a minute” From the arm that had been overtaken by the purple slime, a shining white light shone through and the slime was soon cut into hundreds of smaller blobs. Standing before the monster now was no longer the weak little girl, but a girl who was more powerful than before, and perhaps even more powerful than the monster itself.

“This is impressive, Tub,” the girl looked at the new weapon she held onto that allowed her to cut through the slime. In her left hand was the fallen captain’s lance no more, but a great, black longsword darker than even the darkest of nights. Contrasting with the black blade, the sharp cutting edge of the blade was a bright, shining silver. The cross guard was made of many spikes that curved in a way that mimicked the rotors of a pinwheel. The hilt and pommel were just as black as the rest of the blade, but tied through the loop of the pommel was a long, bright red string. While admiring the beauty of the blade, Nire had been distracted and had not noticed that the mysterious man had quite literally flown out of the slime monster’s mouth and was coming straight towards the girl at a high speed with a fist pointed out.

“Watch out, Nire!” Tub called out a second too late. By the time Nire was able to look up, the attacker had landed a clean punch on her face, sending her falling to the ground.

“That was petty,” Nire spat as she slowly got up, rubbing her cruising cheek all the while. “I wasn’t ready yet.”

The man dressed in purple was fully separated from the purple slime monster now. As if to demonstrate just how free he was, he began to float around and casually even leaned back, letting his tunic and face covering flow softly behind. “It was your own fault for getting distracted.” The man looked over at Nire and her blade carefully before speaking again, “I must hand it to you, though. I did not expect you to ‘awaken’ so quickly. That ‘Quip’ of yours...that sword...it can only mean one thing.” The man sat up and set his feet on the ground again, then swiftly turned around and started walking towards the purple slime that seemed to be awaiting it’s master. “But now is not the right time to discuss this topic.”

After all he had said started registering in Nire’s mind, she shouted at him, “Are you running away?”

“No,” the man called back rather blatantly. “I am simply giving you a chance to grow stronger before you return home. Nire, was it?” The girl stepped back slightly at the sound of her name coming from the man’s mouth. “As you are now, you are too weak. You cannot fulfill your role yet.” At that, the man put up his hand to beckon the slime monster towards him and when they touched, they bursted into a purple puddle which soon began to grow smaller and smaller before completely disappearing all together.

Nire, exhausted both mentally and physically, could only stand and watch. “This sword...this Quip…home?” she whispered to herself the words the man had said to her and then looked at the sword she now held in her left hand.

“Ngh!”

Nire turned her head over to see, still laying on the ground, half unconscious, was the captain who had been knocked out. “Why is it that there are always so many questions, but never any answers?” Nire asked aloud to herself as she slowly made her way to the captain. “But this guy,” Nire squatted down next to the captain and began to exude a childish energy that had almost been forgotten after everything she had gone through, “he looks like he has plenty of answers.”

Just then, two unknown voices came calling from afar. Nire turned over to see who they were coming from and a clean punch landed on the side of her face opposite to the side the man in the purple had punched previously.

“Stay away from the Captain!” a girl exclaimed as she landed the punch and sent Nire flying backwards and into the ground again.

“Again?” Nire laughed casually to herself as she once more helped herself up and rubbed her cheek in pain.

“I apologize for my sister,” a young man, Nire presumed, stepped up from behind the girl who had punched Nire. “She’s very protective of the Captain.”

Nire nodded at the two cloaked strangers standing before her. It was true, they were dressed in a similar fashion to their captain. A long, hooded black coat with red accents and trimmings, long, dark brown boots, a style Nire hadn’t seen before, and bright red sashes tied around their hips and waist, a style that was similar to Nire’s own. As Nire was making careful observations on the trio, the young man pulled down his hood and spoke up again.

“I’m Lang,” he said cheerily before his cheery and bubbly personality took a complete 180 and stood behind his sister squeezing her shoulder. “Introduce yourself to the stranger you just punched.”

“I’m Li,” the girl seemed to say through tears as she took off her hood.

Taking a good look at the two, it was clear to see the resemblance between them. Their hair was parted similarly with bangs flowing in the slight breeze through the early morning. Li, the younger girl, had lighter, more blonde hair, while the older man had darker, more brown hair. Both of them had long hair, but the girl wore her hair in two low buns, a cute style for girls her age, while the older brother simply had his hair tied in a low ponytail. They could be mistaken for twins, Nire noted to herself, if only the age difference between them weren’t so obvious. Personality wise, despite being the older brother, Lang seemed to be the more outgoing and childish one compared to the more reserved and serious natured Li.

Nire stared at the two for a minute or two before bursting into laughter. Li and Lang soon followed suit and began to laugh awkwardly out loud as well, before becoming more natural. She laughed at the strange siblings, the fact that the sun was now beginning to rise, the strange, neverending situations she kept finding herself in, and purely just for the sake of laughing. Nire couldn’t believe all that had happened to her ever since waking up from her sleep, but she felt that she needed a good laugh before continuing on again.

After her stomach started to hurt and tears began to flow, she stopped laughing and took deep breaths. “So,” Nire started, completely forgetting to introduce herself out of pure excitement, “this guy right here is your captain?”

“That’s right,” Li replied proudly.

“So that must mean you’re a part of a hierarchy,” Nire reasoned.

“It sure does.”

“Why are you asking?” Lang asked curiously.

“Take me to your leader!” Nire exclaimed, face beaming with childlike excitement.

Nire looked intently at Lang, hoping he would agree. Her purple and red eyes shone in the early morning sunlight, and her face was a rosy color filled with excitement that complimented her eye colors. Lang stared at Nire in disbelief and in awe for a moment. This little girl in front of him who had just undergone this ordeal in town and perhaps even more prior to their meeting, was practically begging to come see their leader even after seeing the type of work they do. Lang glanced at Nire’s red eye again and knew what he had to do. He chuckled aloud to himself then answered, “Suit yourself.”

Turning his back towards the black haired girl, he opened up a portal that resembled a large glowing black flame and began walking towards it. “Come on, Li,” Lang shouted back as the tiny blonde haired girl bent down and picked up their big, muscular captain.

“Coming,” she called as she followed her brother through the portal.

Nire stood by and watched the two step through the portal and was now filled with even more excitement. This was all so new and exciting to her, her heart began to pump even faster and her eyes began to grow even wider. She couldn’t hold back her excitement anymore. She picked up the captain’s discarded coat that he threw off earlier and ran full speed into the portal herself. “Let’s go, Tub,” she cried with glee and was soon enveloped in a shining white light.

“Welcome to the Sonnum headquarters of Hneev Taw,” Lang said full of pride once all three had stepped out of the portal.

Standing tall before Nire’s very own eyes was the largest and tallest tower she had ever seen. It was built out of old yellow-grayish bricks and seemed to go on up for meters and meters. The doors at the front entryway were just as large. They looked like heavy wooden doors and had emblems of all shapes and sizes carved into it. Paper talismans hung all around the door as well. There seemed to be hundreds of windows on all sides of the tower looking out in all directions. Nire wondered how far off she could see into the distance if she could make her way up to the top of the tower. Long green vines also wrapped all around the tower from the ground up and seemingly up to the top as well. The tower seemed to possess some ghostly beauty of oldness, yet still grand and elegant.

“The beauty of this place never gets old,” Lang said aloud contentedly.