The morning sun found us walking through the streets of a small town that, fortunately, was on our way to Norimoa.

"It's a good thing this town was here," Ren said. "Otherwise, Naori would have had to go without clothes the entire trip."

Naori, walking beside her, adjusted the new yukata she'd been given. "It's a lovely yukata."

"Why did you choose that one, by the way?" Ren asked curiously.

"It reminded me of one my mom wore when she was my age," Naori replied with a wistful smile.

"Well, it looks great on you."

"Thanks."

When they returned from their walk, I was lying in the back of the wagon, trying to escape the stifling heat. I had placed a cloth bag over my face to block out the sun.

"Hey, Natsu, where's Nagi?" Ren asked as she approached.

"I don't know, he went looking for something," I replied, my voice muffled by the fabric.

"What on earth are you doing?"

"I'm so hot."

"So why did you put that bag over your face?" she insisted. Upon closer inspection, she recognized the bag. "Hey, Natsu... that's my bag of clothes."

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

Ren ripped the bag from my face. With it, a pile of her underwear fell on me, completely covering me. Instinctively, I grabbed a pair of her panties and started chewing on them.

"Food... so delicious," I muttered, half-delirious from the heat.

Ren's face went from white to red in a second. "Natsu, you idiot!"

She lunged at me, and we started fighting in the back of the wagon, a tangle of screams and underwear.

"H-hey, guys, please stop," Naori pleaded, not knowing what to do.

Just then, Nagi arrived.

"What's going on?" he asked with his usual calm.

"Natsu touched Ren's clothes and they started fighting," Naori explained.

Nagi stared at us for a few seconds. He climbed into the wagon, grabbed each of us by the collar, and separated us like we were two fighting puppies.

"I'm taking Natsu. I need to talk to him," he said, dragging me along.

"Okay," Ren huffed, "but I'm not letting this go."

The rest of the day passed in a tense calm. As the sun began to set, turning the sky orange and purple, our wagon left the village, heading back out onto the road.

That night, the silence of the forest was broken only by the crackling of the campfire. Nagi and Naori were already asleep. Beside me, Ren's sleeping bag was empty.

Suddenly, Naori began to stir in her sleep, her face twisted in an expression of pure terror. A nightmare had gripped her.

(Naori's Nightmare)

Nao was sitting at the table next to his wife, Rina. His head fell onto the wood with a thud.

"I can't stand this anymore."

"What's wrong, dear?" Rina asked, worried.

"I'll talk to the others tomorrow."

"Darling, what's wrong?" she insisted, her tone a little sharper.

"Ah, I'm sorry, honey. I just can't stand the fact that those two are controlling us anymore. I can't bear to watch someone else die."

"Then we'll do something tomorrow. But we have to get everyone together."

The scene changed. Now, a crowd of villagers gathered silently near the village chief's house. Inside, two towering figures loomed over little Naori.

"Naori-chan, you can come here," said the female chief's sweet, cruel voice, accompanied by a shrill laugh.

Naori's shadow appeared in the window.

"Could you tell us why you wrote this?" the male chief asked, holding up a piece of paper.

"Uh... that's... f-for practice..."

WHAM! The female chief slapped her, knocking her to the ground.

"WHY THE HELL DOES IT SAY 'HELP, HELP, HELP'?!" she roared. "TELL ME, YOU STUPID GIRL!"

She lifted her foot to kick Naori, but just then, someone knocked on the door.

Knock... Knock...

The male chief opened the door slowly, but no one was there. A rock crashed through the window, distracting them. In that split second, Nao burst into the room, his sword seeking the chief's neck. The man flinched, receiving only a small cut on his cheek.

"He's making the pack rebel against the alphas," the male chief said with a crooked smile.

"And they think they can beat us?" the female chief laughed.

"Of course. Wolves fight for the alpha position, but that's not what these wolves want."

The female chief summoned her staff, which was topped with a red gem. Spikes of rock erupted from the ground and shot toward Nao. Despite his age, he dodged them with incredible agility, but the spikes pierced several villagers entering behind him. A battle broke out. The villagers rushed at the chiefs without regard for their lives, but the male chief slaughtered them effortlessly. That's when Rina, Nao's wife, appeared from behind and stabbed him.

"YOU IDIOT, YOU CAN'T GET RID OF A FEW FLIES!" the female chief shouted, throwing Naori against a wall.

The female chief's hands enveloped her in a blue aura, and she launched herself at Rina. Their weapons collided, creating a shockwave that threw everyone into the air. Little Naori hit her head on a rock. Rina's emerald dagger met the chief's blue aura, but with his last breath, the dying male chief threw a small rock spear that pierced Rina before her husband's eyes.

"R-R-R... RINAAAA!" Nao's scream was a flood of tears and despair.

Rina's eyes lost their beautiful ruby glow, and she fell to the ground. The female chief, with a terrifying smile, approached Nao, grabbed his left arm, and severed it with her sword.

"DIE, YOU DAMN SCUM!"

But Naori, though almost fainting, was consumed by fury. She appeared from behind and pierced the female chief with her wolf-like claws. Nao, despite his injury, kicked the chief's dropped sword into the air, caught it in his mouth, and sliced her from bottom to top. As the chief's body fell, Nao grabbed her staff and crushed it into tiny pieces.

Naori's eyes slowly began to close...

(End of Nightmare)

"AHHHHHHH!"

Naori woke up with a start, a couple of tears rolling down her cheeks. She quickly wiped them away.

"It was just a dream..."

She got up to clear her head. She saw Nagi sleeping peacefully by the campfire, but Ren and Natsu's sleeping bags were empty.

"Ren and Natsu aren't here..."

She walked through the forest until she came to the bank of a river. The crystal-clear water reflected the starry sky like a mirror.

"How beautiful..."

"KYAAAAAA!"

The scream startled her. She ran toward the source of the sound and found an unexpected scene. Ren was in the water, trying to cover herself, while I was a few feet away, also in the water.

"Natsu, you idiot, what are you doing here?" Ren yelled.

"I just wanted to cool off a bit."

"Idiot, but don't come jumping in without warning!"

"How was I supposed to know you were here?"

"Never mind, I'm leaving."

"Hey, wait, let's talk for a while."

My face reddened slightly. "I just wanted to tell you something."

Ren, seeing my expression, hesitated, her own face reddening slightly. "Okay."

The two of us sat in the water, leaning against a large rock. Despite being naked, the atmosphere had become strangely serious.

"Hurry up, this is embarrassing," Ren said quietly.

"Okay, well, it's just..."

"Please don't beat around the bush."

"Alright... tell me, do you have a boyfriend?"

Ren stared at me, her face burning. "U-uh... I guess not."

"Okay... i-it's just that, do you remember the p-p-promise I made you?"

Excitement flashed in Ren's eyes, and without realizing it, she leaned very close to me, making my face turn even redder.

"Well... the thing is..."

"Yeah...?"

"In order to keep it, we have to be a couple..."

"Ahhhhhhhh!"

SPLASH!

Naori, who had tripped on the shore, fell heavily into the lake. Ren and I turned to look at her, frozen.

"I-it's not what you think," Ren stammered.

"Calm down, I'll leave you two to continue talking," Naori said, embarrassed. "Hey... where did Natsu go?"

Behind the rock, I was trembling, one hand on my chest as if I were about to have a heart attack. Damn it, Nagi, I can't do this, it's too much for me, I thought. I grabbed my clothes from the shore and ran off into the woods.

"Uh, uh, uh... where did he go?" Ren asked.

"I'm so sorry, Ren. It looked like he was confessing to you," Naori said.

"Were you listening?!" Ren exploded in embarrassment. "It doesn't matter. Even if it was a confession, I wouldn't have accepted it," she lied. "Now let's get out of the water, I'll dry you off."

"Okay, but I can use wind magic."

"You know how to do that?"

Once out of the water, wrapped in towels, Naori used a gentle breeze to dry Ren's hair.

"Ahhh, that little breeze feels so good. Hey, how do you do it?"

"All demi-beasts have some connection to an element. I have the power of air."

"Oh..." Ren closed her eyes, satisfied. "Hey, why were you two bathing at this hour?"

"With Natsu, I have no idea, but I was training and got really sweaty."

"What if Natsu just came to tell you that?"

"I don't think so."

"Ren-san, do you like Natsu?"

"Uh... how did you know? It was pretty obvious, right?"

"Yeah."

"I've liked him for a long time, but I don't think Natsu sees me that way."

"Honestly, I think you're wrong."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"That's true!" Ren exclaimed, exploding with embarrassment again.

Naori let out a small laugh.

The next morning, we arrived at another small town. In front of us was a stall belonging to a traveling guild from Norimoa City.

"Excuse me," Nagi said to the receptionist, "do you have any quests we can do in this area before we get to Norimoa?"

"Sure. Here are three quests. You can complete them if you continue along the straight path toward Norimoa."

"Thank you very much."

A little later, we were in an open field.

"What a flat field. Can we really hunt goblins here?" I asked.

"We'll have to go deeper into the forest," Nagi explained. "We'll camp here for the night, but now we have to go hunt those goblins."

After setting up a small camp, we headed deeper into the forest and found what we were looking for: a goblin tribe with swordsmen, archers, and a commanding chief.

"Their chief is scary," Ren said.

"Yeah, really," I agreed. We both blushed a little, remembering last night.

"Hmph," Nagi grunted, noticing the tension.

"Hey, if you want, I can go," Naori offered.

"Are you sure?" Ren and I asked simultaneously, and we blushed again.

"Are you really sure you want to go?" Nagi asked.

"Yeah, leave it to me."

Naori slipped into the bushes. An orange-red aura enveloped her body, covering her ears, tail, and feet. Sharp claws sprouted from her fingernails. She sprang from her hiding place and lunged at the tribe. She moved like a wolf hunting rabbits, a deadly predator. When the chief's turn came, he tried to attack her, but she dodged his blow, climbed up his arm, and smashed his head in one clean motion.

"They weren't very intelligent goblins. That's why they were so weak," she said, dusting herself off.

"Wow, that was amazing," Ren said.

"Thanks."

"How did you do that? The aura around your body," I asked.

"Well, I just gather mana and wrap it around my body. It's normal for demi-beasts; it's our starting power, but it's very tiring."

"How do you know so much about goblins?" Nagi asked.

"In my old kingdom, I was a goblin hunter."

"Wow," the three of us said, impressed.

"The last thing I expected was for you to be a princess," Ren joked.

"Actually, I am."

"WHAAAAAAT!"

My stomach rumbled like thunder just then, breaking the tension.

That night, around the campfire, my stomach grumbled again.

"Nagi, please, how much longer?"

"So, you're really a princess?" Ren asked Naori.

"Yes."

"So why did you and your parents run away to that village?"

"I don't know. The next day, when I woke up, we were already outside my hometown in a carriage."

"I see..."

"The food's ready," Nagi announced.

"FINALLY, give it to me!" I shouted, lunging at the pot.

"Hey, Natsu, wait a minute, you'll knock over the food!"

"But I'm starving!"

Ren and Naori looked at each other and burst out laughing.

The next morning, Nagi pointed toward the horizon.

"Look, there it is. The city of Norimoa."

It was immense. Much bigger than I had ever imagined.

"Wow, it's gigantic," said Ren.

"I bet they have new foods I've never tried!"

"Hey, is all you think about food? You're going to get fat."

"Look at that large structure," said Naori.

From the roof of a huge building in the center of the city, a ray of sunlight reflected off a giant crystal, casting a beam of light into the sky. The sound of distant bells reached us.

We stood on the hill, just outside the city, a cool breeze blowing against our faces. This is a new beginning, I thought.

A smile spread across my face.

"Let's go."