Instead of shattering Rad's dreams of one true love that awaited his return, Faith did her best to help him out. Now that he was actually a relatively decent person, she felt even more inspired to lend a helping hand.
With joint efforts, they managed to figure out the foreign culture they found themselves in, relatively quickly. This world, at it's basic, was similar to their own world only with no magic and with a lot of violence.
The thing they couldn't figure out was how to work the strange contraptions called 'electric devices', but neither could some humans so that was fine.
The perfect answer for everything they didn't understand turned out to be "I am not from around here." Then people would explain everything in an extremely slow fashion. They explained things in a way they talked with a small child or a person they considered a bit dense.
Soon enough, Faith and Rad realized that if they acted dumb, they got a lot more leeway, and they did their best to take advantage of that.
In a few weeks time, they were already well versed in the basics and ready to survive on their own. At least they hoped they were.
Having that in mind, they decided to visit the so-called countryside and look for any traces of magic they could find.
The reason they thought they might find some were strange stories Jack told them about the things that happened there. Although they were not sure if any of the stories were actually true they didn't have any other clues, and they had to do something.
However, since Rad was powerless, he couldn't very well use the tracking spell like he usually did. Instead, they had to use strange pieces of paper that the humans called maps.
At first, they were told they should use GPS, whatever that was, but upon realizing that they were a bit slow, they were given a map.
Also, shocked as the humans were by the fact that they couldn't 'drive', they were kind enough to show them to the nearest place where other means of transportation could be found.
Both Faith and Rad were shocked when they found out that the transportation was done by a dangerous looking contraption made of a strange firm material that had an unnatural feel to it.
Although it looked very unsafe, they had no other choice but to get in.
Their human friends told them that they should say the magic word 'ticket' and give green pieces of paper Jack gave them.
It was odd, but it worked and soon enough, they were sitting on uncomfortable seats that didn't seem to have been washed in the last century.
As the 'bus' as they learned the contraption was called started, there were strange, loud sounds resembling a giant with a terrible cold violently coughing.
Faith jumped up in her seat, startled. To help soothe her nerves, Rad put his hand over hers gently squeezing her hand, silently telling her everything would be okay.
His hand on hers did help calm down her fears, but it also had the adverse effects of making her heart beat faster and making it hard for her to breathe properly.
His face was close enough that she could feel his breath on her skin. That made her skin tingle, and it made her heart flutter with unrequited love.
Bunch of confusing emotions tried to overcome her, but she managed to rein them in, for the time being, and focus on the situation at hand.
"I am fine," she assured him as the bus started slowly gaining speed.
During the whole ride, there were strange scraping sounds and the whole bus was constantly shaking. The human passengers didn't seem disturbed by it all, so Faith and Rad assumed those were normal sounds the contraption produced.
The person who was in charge of controlling the beast seemed to be struggling since often times the bus would turn hastily to one side or the other.
That caused Faith and Rad to bump into each other quite often and that made Faith blush from head to toe. Their proximity made her feel very nervous, but she couldn't in any way influence the way the bus jostled them around.
Sometimes, they bumped into the seats in front of them, and they never could guess which way they would go.
It was ridiculous how no matter how much they were bumping against each other and how much they collided with the seats, the humans didn't seem to be disturbed in the slightest. Some of them were even dozing off, their heads swaying gently from side to side, never hitting anything.
It felt to Rad as if they had some secret magic that he couldn't detect that helped them stay so undisturbed by the violent ride.
Seeing their reaction, Rad assumed it was an everyday occurrence, and he couldn't understand how someone could get used to such things, when it wasn't smashing him around, disturbing his peace and safety, there was the foul smell of the bus.
He couldn't determine what it was, but it was strong and suffocating. It left a bitter taste in his mouth and made breathing pure torture.
The farms he had visited when he was a child were flowery meadows in comparisons to the bus's horrible smell. At times, it was so strong that he could barely breathe. There was something unnatural to it, but he couldn't put his finger on what it was.
All he knew was that they needed fresh air, but when he tried to open the window someone told them it didn't work, none of them did. So they were stuck to stew in that disgusting odor for who knew how long.
Rad couldn't wait for the ride to be over.
He saw how primitive the humans were since they first arrived, but this was just too much for him to bear. Back home, travel was a pleasure and not a choir and here, it was pure torture.
Once they finally reached their destination, Rad let out a sigh of relief. That was until he noticed where they were.
It seemed like they were in the middle of nowhere with a small wooden building as the only sign of life.
Although Rad despised the city, the deserted area they reached had an eerie feel to it that he didn't particularly like.
Having no other choice but to go on, they went into the building that seemed to have been built a long time ago, when the human world was yet young and unskilled in making stable structures, and realized it was a kind of market-like place.
Once again they used those funny green papers to get food and water, and then they just stood there, enjoying the view of the countryside that was undisturbed by those gruesome things they called 'buildings'.
Although Rad didn't like feeling so exposed and vulnerable, he could still appreciate the beauty of nature that was here on full display for everyone to see.
"What now? Where do we go from here?" Faith asked, still feeling sick from the transportation they used.
"I am not sure. Maybe we should play dumb once again and see if the person who takes care of this place would help us out. It's your turn." Rad said.
He would have spared her the humiliation, but spending time with humans, they also realized that they were much kinder to silly girls than they were to the guys who seemed a bit slow.
They both knew it wasn't only about it being her turn, but also that they would get more detailed and accurate information if she was the one to ask the questions.
Without saying anything, Faith went back inside while Rad stayed outside breathing in fresh air and trying to get rid of the terrible smell that still clung to his nostrils.
Soon enough Faith was back.
"So what did he say?" Rad asked impatiently.
After all, it had been a very long day, and they needed a place to stay.
"There is this guy, Hermit he called him, who comes to this place every night for food, and he needs some help at the farm. He was looking for two able bodies, one for cooking and one for farm work.
"As far as I could understand what he didn't say, the guy was looking for someone to take advantage of, someone not too bright." Faith said.
"We can do that. It seems like that might be similar to what we know from back home. And in our free time, we can search the area for any traces of magic." Rad said satisfied.
"How are you so sure that you would be able to even notice any traces of magic?" Faith couldn't help but ask.
"I will, and so will you. Magic calls to magic. Even though we don't have our powers we are still of magic, it's in our blood," he said.
"If you say so." Faith said.
She wasn't sure she believed his logic but at that point, she was too exhausted from all the novelties to care about anything.
"Now, all we need to do is wait for the guy and convince him to give us the work." Rad said.
They both settled down on the soft grass in front of the store waiting for the Hermit to arrive and hoping he would give them a place to stay.
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