Chương 2: 2. Ren Smells The Flowers
The newly named Ren's eyes narrowed as she stared at Merlin, self-proclaimed cheater. Something else tickled her memory, and slipped away as she realized how close his face was to hers. He'd called her young lady like an old man, but he didn't look old. He had the smooth fresh skin of a child, at odds with the faint laugh lines around his mouth and those luminous eyes.
"Serendipity," Merlin whispered. His breath puffed across her lips and she smelled flowers.
Ren jerked away and sat bolt upright, blurting, "Trash mage!" and then covering her mouth in shock and embarrassment.
Merlin pushed himself up, fumbling for his staff. "I see my reputation precedes me!"
Dropping her hands, Ren said accusingly, "I remember something about you. Merlin, the most untrustworthy of allies."
"Aw," said Merlin, rising to his feet and leaving a patch of wildflowers blooming in a little crater behind. "I stopped you falling, didn't I?" He held out his hand to Ren: an offer to pull her to her feet.
Ren scowled. Luck came in two flavors, and she was starting to suspect she was the bad kind of lucky. What else could it be when practically the only thing she knew in the world was that she couldn't trust anything her companion said?
And yet, he did have a nice smile…
She grabbed his hand.
Merlin's long fingers closed around hers and he hauled her upright with a careless strength. "Did that jolt shake anything loose in that pretty head of yours? Like what you're doing here?"
Flushing, Ren shrugged, yanking her hand away and hiding it behind her back. "No. Though I think I'm here to do something, because in stories there's always a purpose to summonings and I clearly didn't get here naturally."
Merlin said thoughtfully, "It's true, when you think of it a certain way. I mean, entities like me don't just show up randomly to irrevocably alter young women's lives—hey, hey, hey, why are you looking at me like that, Ren? Oh. Oh, I see. You know, I did say randomly. I at least had the good manners to bring a destiny that one time." He winked at Ren. "Anyhoo, that's my point. Entities are summoned for a purpose, even if that purpose is just sipping sodas together. So you're probably right!"
"Wow," said Ren dryly. "It took you four times longer to say Good idea than it took me to share the idea. Do you, Mr. Cheater, have any idea what I'm here to do? Or who might have summoned me?"
Merlin looked around. "I saw a village before we hit the forest. We could go and—hsst!" Mid-sentence, Merlin lunged toward Ren, catching her around the waist and dragging her deep into the underbrush away from their landing site. "Someone's coming!"
A moment later, Ren heard them too. Merlin tugged her into crouching behind some leafy bushes, pulling his hood up and flinging the hem of his cloak over her head.
"Your cloak is bright white," muttered Ren.
But Merlin only said, "Hush!" as a half dozen people burst into the new clearing. Ren immediately identified them as either bandits or survivors of some fantasy apocalypse, because they all wore different scraps of armor and clothing made from a variety of materials. And they smelled like none of them had bathed or even walked in a refreshing rain for weeks.
The slender figure who followed them into the clearing, however, wore a complete set of matched light armor in red and gold, including a helmet. She put her hands on her hips and said, "Well? Where's the sunshard?"
The bandits all looked around and shrugged.
"Argh!" said the figure in red and gold. "You and you, go guard the prisoners. Eleron!"
And a glittering black dragon bigger than a horse tromped up behind her and nudged her shoulder like a friendly dog.
"There you are," scolded the armored woman. "Sniff around, find what fell. If a piece of the sun fell, it could burn the whole forest down!" She caught herself as if she'd said something wrong, glanced around, and then said more loudly, "It'd also make a fantastic weapon in service to my lord!"
Obediently the dragon began to explore the little clearing. As it found the crater with the wildflowers that the bandits had apparently been too oblivious to notice, Merlin's hand slid around Ren's waist, tugging her very close to him.
Ren stifled her instinctive screech at being grabbed, but the dragon's head whipped around toward their bush anyhow. It trundled closer, stretching out a long ridged neck until it gazed at Ren and Merlin from only a few feet away. Merlin held Ren even more tightly, the cloak falling over her naturally so she could only see out through a crack.
"Hi," whispered Merlin. "If your mistress is looking for another Servant, I'd be happy to volunteer."
The dragon's eyes narrowed and it turned away with a huff to gallop back to the armored woman. "Rrrrgghhh," it rumbled, shaking its head.
"Really?" said the woman, looking disappointed. "Oh well. Good boy. Now let's get those stupid villagers back to our camp so we can find the last summoner in this district." She laughed a mean, humorless laugh. "That one's completely incompetent, though, so capturing her should be easy as soon as we find her."
A moment later the bandits had vanished, and Ren fought her way free of both Merlin's cloak and his lingering arm. "What the hell was that? Why did you offer to go work for her?"
Apologetically, Merlin said, "I'm not one of those mages who can wave a hand and intone, This isn't the thing you're looking for, move along, so I had to give the familiar a reason to do it himself."
"Oh," said Ren, digesting this. Merlin was definitely untrustworthy, but also, unfortunately, clearly useful that way.
"Anyhoo, now hopefully you have some answers to those questions you asked earlier! Shall we go find this village and see what else we can learn?"
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