The Side Character's Apprentice

A FRIENDLY FOE

The air around us was still. We could all tell that were we not alone, but that was the best we could manage. No one could pinpoint the number of people or their positions either.

"Hey, you stay here all the time. Is this normal?" Anak beckoned. She was by far the most reckless of the four of us that were present.

"You don't seem worried. Are you that confident that you can escape?" Eric goaded.

"No. I'm actually worried that I would be blamed if anything happened to you. These mountains can be dangerous," I said. But somehow, Ara could see through my façade. He knew me really apparently. His expressions said that much.

"What are you scheming, Jayden?" Ara asked.

But before he had could receive an answer, what looked like a bear in humanoid form popped out from right behind him! Ara was startled and instinctively went for a kick, but the bear was at best slightly taller than Anak, so ducking to evade his kick was easy. Eric reacted quickly as he dashed towards it, giving Ara enough time to step back. Eric attacked relentlessly, but his opponent was too swift and graceful for him to land a single hit. Normally, you would associate bears with strength and toughness. But this one was agile. Agile enough to evade attacks from Eric, Ara and Anak who joined to suppress the opponent that was before them, but to avail. The bear was too quick for any of them.

"Won't you do something?" Eric yelled.

"What do you want me to do? The three of you are enough. If you guys can't do anything, what makes you think my input will make any difference?" I responded.

The truth was, I knew the bear well. And I also knew that they stood a better chance of catching me, than landing a hit on that bear. It toyed with them. Popping up between them, causing them to collide, laughing incessantly as they failed to catch it, the bear enjoyed the three's company. Finally, they stopped trying. It became clear how far apart they were.

"The bear does not wish to harm us, does it?" Eric asked.

"Of course not. She just came out to play," I replied.

"She?" they chorused.

"Well, yes. There's a girl under there. She just covered herself with bear hide and wore a bear's head."

"Why? You can't even find bears around anymore. It's been years since we spotted one," Ara said.

"I don't know. She doesn't talk much," I said.

"And the head?" Anak asked.

"She doesn't take it off either."

The boar hopped merrily around them, making jolly noises as she did.

"What's her name?"

"Sayla!" the boar exclaimed in a very light-pitched tone.

"I thought you said she didn't talk?" Eric asked.

"I said she doesn't talk much. She talks."

Sayla pointed in a direction that led deeper into the mountains. The four of us looked at each other, and we came to a conclusion without saying a word.

"What are you doing? Lead the way behind her," Eric said as I tried to stay behind them all. It would be a bit difficult to run away if I was the first to be exposed to any danger. Well, there was no saying that the danger would not come from behind if there was any at all. I grudgingly accepted, all in an act to not expose my reason for doing so. Ara, being the big brother that he was, stayed behind with Anak before him and Ara before her.

We walked some distance in silence until Anak decided to open her big mouth. "If I had known you left the base to see your girlfriend all the time, I wouldn't have been worried," she said.

"Firstly, she's not my girlfriend. Second, since when have you been worried about me? No one ever is," I said, but I didn't realise how depressing a statement it was until I uttered the words.

"Well, you make life difficult for everyone. I mean, look at us now. We're walking in the middle of the mountains to God knows where," Ara said.

"But you know that's not true. Everyone is trying to force me to conform, to act as they would. If they simply left me alone, everyone would be happy. There's no need to worry about my well-being. I'll be okay. I've always had been, long before Master Imin found me here." I said.

"Wait? You lived in these mountains?" Eric asked.

"Something like that."

"So, that's why you're always here. It all makes sense now. Why you have such speed and stamina too," Anak said.

"You're a member of the Corps. You have to conform and we have to worry about you. Always remember that," Ara said.

"You are about the most normal person I have met in this town, much less the Corps," Eric said.

"You came here looking for normal? You are far away from it. Jayden here is the closest thing to normal and even he is far away from it," Ara said.

"How so?" Eric asked.

"Would you consider people who rush towards danger, or just blindly follow a girl in a bear mask in the middle of the mountains without asking a single question normal?"

"Good point."

Luckily, we didn't go through the mountains. That would have been arduous. We had no idea where she was taking us, but for some reason, we felt we need to find out. Sayla led us to a pass that led out of the mountains, one I had never seen before despite how long I had been around.

"Did you know about this?" Eric asked.

"Not at all. This is my first time seeing it," I replied.

We went through the pass to enter a village that I wasn't sure of its name. Neither were the other three.

"Where is this?" I asked Sayla.

Instead, she pointed at two horses not far from us and exclaimed, "Horse!"

Without saying another word, she ran towards them and hopped on one in an instant. In an instant, she was off. I looked to the other three. Who was going to follow her? And once again, we made a decision without uttering a single word. Their glares pointed fingers at me once again. What a day I was having.