Several days into the horse ride and my body started to become constantly sore. My arms, which were usually able to carry my shields, began to feel weighted and heavy. Thankfully I hadn't had to use my legs yet because I wasn't quite sure if I would be able to stand properly. And that's not to even mention my butt. It was probably taking the brunt of everything, and I was finally thankful I didn't have a voluptuous chest but had a nice butt instead. I couldn't even imagine having a too lithe body now, and I would... attempt to not complain about women with better assets than me.

When I saw the sun cresting over the hill, the sky darkening, I noticed it wasn't the yellow sun I had known my whole life. It sent a shiver up my spine that the man, F.S., sent us to a completely different world. Sure, time travel would be fine but this?

The man whose name I gathered to be D'rte, noticed. His head turned to the side and his eyes, Oh god those eyes, looked confused. I shook my head a second later. He sighed and continued riding. I hoped we would stop moving soon, this new heavy-clothing-and-riding setup was getting exhausting, and I would just like to get out of these boots. I'd only ever lied down on the grass once so far, in the Forest of Silver back at the village, and even then I couldn't really get a feel for it.

Sighing mentally, I tried to review some things.

One, I was a Shielder; a class meant to protect and fight at the same time. Two, I was in another world, attempting to learn a language I didn't know. Three, F.S. can fuck himself. Four, my skills and traits are changing who I am, so only choosing what I know won't change me is the safest option for now. And five, magic definitely exists. The Cleric, Wizard and Magus classes clued me in on that. Was that how Dol'amer had his wounds healed? And how I wasn't covered in dirt when I was in bed the first time?

There was probably some people out there excited to be in a new world. I wasn't one of those people. I found this world was just Earth, with magic. People still raped and pillaged, and it burnt me inside knowing there were people I couldn't protect right now. Although that might be because of my class.

As I was thinking to myself, apparently we were setting up camp. It was beneath a tree that looked similar to a Willow, but with a few major differences. The fact that there were small motes of light swirling around some of the branches, and the leaves being bioluminescent, as well as curled like a pigs tail. My eyes were wide in awe as I stared up at the gorgeous sight. It almost made me cry if I was honest. D'rte looked at me with that confused face where his eyes narrowed, and he scanned my face with his lips slightly parted. I got used to that face of his. Whenever he said something to one of the knights I would look over his shoulder to his talking partner and ask their name. Not even the captain, who had pummeled me into unconsciousness, was safe from my question, and he would just give me that face.

There was Ma'glara, a dirty-blonde haired man in his mid to late twenties; he had several scars I could see on his neck and cheeks, and one over his forehead. He was decently clean-shaven, though I could see it starting to come back in. T'nagra was the resident "child" of the group it seemed. Being the youngest but also most energetic. He seemed to be a young adult, maybe eighteen or nineteen, and not a hint of facial hair on him. He had those eyes that seemed to contain nothing but joy. No pain in his life. I liked those eyes.

The remaining two were identical twins, it seemed. B'ran and B'roren were their names. Both had black hair, green eyes, and a distinctly royal air about them. Maybe it was just me imagining things, though. The captain, finally, was the only one I couldn't see. He had his helmet on the whole time, and I was never given the chance to ask for anything but his name. As such, I gave up rather quickly. My main goal wasn't friends, although they were something I would like to have in a new world; it was to get stronger and eventually meet my own people — From Earth that is — so I could get easy translations. That was my hope for now.

We began to dismount after I was lost in thought, and D'rte helped me off. I needed it, too, as my foot was caught on something on the saddle and I almost fell before he steadied me and sighed.

"Kholoji abuimäa ua."

Whatever he said sent a shiver down my spine. Every box was checked.

Sexy tone? Check.

The subtle roughness? Check.

The older-man sound? Checkity-check check!

And even with all of that, there was the rumble in his throat when he spoke. Just... ALL the yes! But I held back my squeals of fangirling and instead furrowed my brows. Righting myself after a moment on the saddle, I took a moment to collect myself before nodding. I lifted one foot and swung it over the seat to face D'rte, undid my other foot, and then was slowly let down. I held my hands out in a T shape for a moment, asserting my dominance. After a good while, I gained my bearings on the floor and relished the faces of my new servants!

If only...

I did stay standing, and eventually was able to walk, albeit sore in my lower half and back, until I got to the campfire the twins made. I smiled at them and sat down.

I listened to the twins talk to the others of the group, not understanding a single word, while watching this beautiful glowing tree.

We went to bed not long after, the Captain would take first watch.

While I was asleep, I could see again the blue sheet, small to start before I imagined it bigger. Why wasn't it magnified every time? Nonetheless, I looked at my sheet again. Not much changed, honestly. The Milestone section though, apparently I've gotten a few of those. Taking a look down in that section of my sheet, I was... surprised, to say the least.

- FOURTH FRONTIERSMAN

> Fourth to access the system

- SKILL ADEPT (FIRST)

> Create your first Unique (UN) Skill

>> [SHIELD DANCE]

- SAVIOUR (FIRST)

> Save one (1) sentient entity.

- GUARDIAN (FIRST)

> Save one (1) small settlement.

- FIRST BLOOD (FIRST)

> Be the first transmigrator to shed blood.

- IT WAS AN ACCIDENT I SWEAR! (FIRST)

> Kill one (1) sentient Entity.

- BLOODY BUT UNBROKEN (FIRST)

> Survive your first battle.

- KILLER (FIRST)

> Kill at least five (5) sentient entities

- NOVICE LINGUIST

> Learn at least ten (10) words from a native of any language or by yourself.

- TRAVELLER (FIRST)

> Be the first transmigrator to travel fifty miles away from your starting safe spot.

My mind went blank. then it cycled between anger, sadness, and confusion, until I eventually returned to blank.

I killed people... the thought still bewildered me. Sure, I'd hit and broken bones, although rare, but I'd never killed anyone. Until I got here, at least. That thought scared me. I was thinking about it less and less, and when I did think about it, It was always "So what?" Was this that bullshit skill "Desensitize"?

We — I — woke up early. Maybe it was knowing I was in another world, or maybe some other reason, I don't know. All I know is that I was awake before the others, and I never got my shift. Was it perhaps the benefits of me being a girl?

No. The Captain just never went to sleep is all. He stayed awake through the night and watched over everyone. The idea made my heart fuzzy. I exit my makeshift tent completely after that. I waved to the Captain with a smile and a quick "Good morning". I think he understood my intention at least, because he nodded. Before everyone else woke up, I decided to try something.

If dancing randomly gave me the skill [Shield Dance], what if I tried to do other stuff? I saw how when I first removed my shields, I could sort of pull them to me, at least from across a small room. So, with a determination for improvement, I threw my shield. I imagined it flying off of my wrist and through the air, and that's exactly what happened. It zoomed perfectly through the atmosphere, and it was beautiful. Or so I would say, if it actually was. It looked like I just tossed it away in a fit, and tumbled through the air until it landed on the ground ten-some meters away.

This was a bit awkward, seeing as I was an adult woman, in the wilderness, throwing away two shields the length of my arms and the width of my torso, ten meters away like they were balls of putty, but I was determined. I reached forward with both of my hands, and recalled what happened at the house, how my shields sprung back to me and caused me to fall... but without the falling on my ass part. I felt a wriggling sensation in my arms, like an itch that I couldn't scratch, before I closed my eyes. One... Two... Thr—

SWOOSH

With an opening of my eyes, I saw the shields fling back at me. REALLY fast!

"OH SHI—" Before I could lift my hands in front of my chest, the shields gripped the sides of my arms with some invisible power, and I was left to fly backwards, onto my ass and back, with my head on the grass.

"Mother fucker..." I took a breath. It was progress. Maybe start with one shield this time. Getting back up, I dusted off my butt and repeated what I had done before, but with one shield. With my shield now several metres away, I tried to think of it like a yo-yo. A strong string connecting it to me, where I could grab it, pull it, then it would come flying at me.

Imagining it and putting it into practice were two different beasts. I could imagine it perfectly, yes, that was much easier. However, I didn't understand how strong I had to pull, how I would control its return. Would it spin on an axis? Could I pull it back mid-air and, if I could, could I possibly swing it around?

Enough stalling!

I looked to my shield in the short distance, stretched a hand towards it with my fingers to the sky, felt the tingling sensation of a string being plucked, and clenched my fist.

As it began to fly towards me, I tried to not freak out. The sharp edge wasn't pointing to me. Trust in the process. But as it neared me, I willed it to slow down. With some sort of miracle, it did. It slowed down enough that my hand was hardly pushed back. Not only that, but there was a sense of completeness as I got it right.

And yet, just as it felt good, there was a disgusting sensation akin to being punched in the gut after eating at a buffet. I crouched down, planted my hands to the floor, and... well... I puked. A lot. There was a LOT of vomit there, and was that blood? Oh, no, that was just that strawberry-like I ate yesterday. According to D'tre it was called a Ose-Ibud, which sounded super cute to me for some reason. But that was there too!

Several seconds into my vomit-fest, there was a sequel! Vomit-Fest 2: Electric Boogaloo! Thankfully, I was picked up before I could faceplant into the mess I'd made. Looking behind me, I saw the Captain, and he looked like he understood whatever just happened. Also, he crudely shoved a small blue pill down my throat! HOLD UP SIR--!

And, with a bang, the bad feeling disappeared. I shuddered, wiping my jaw clean before I was assisted in being pulled back onto my feet. Once I was steady, he pointed to my forehead and spoke.

"Raeazte." Yeah that one made sense. It was either Idiot or Fool. One of the two. Owen did this to me a lot when we were younger, and always liked the word "fool." So I guessed that was it. The dopamine rush hit as well, so that told me I was right.

"I don't even know what I did! What the hell just happened?" I know he couldn't understand me, but I still felt like I needed to ask. He scratched his head, probably trying to figure out what I said with that same monotone glare. He turned off to the side and yelled out for D'rte and then left me to myself. Hardly ten seconds passed before D'rte was in front of the captain, one hand holding onto his shoulder while the other was at his waist. Is... is that how they salute? But without warning, the Captain brutally brought a fist down against D'rte's cheek.

He began yelling as D'rte got up like it was normal, and everyone else began waking up and watching what was happening. I could only imagine that it was an argument about how he was supposed to teach me, someone who didn't understand even beginner language stuff, how to be... whatever I was going to be trained to be. Which... why was I going along with this again?

I got brought to another world, I killed people, had my ass beat, and now I'm riding horses over magical plains. These were the most awkward weeks of my life and I was not fully prepared for it. But it was my only plan at the moment; Follow the knights, possibly join the knights, learn the language while I'm at it, and try to find others from Earth. Yeah... good plan, good plan.

It was time I asked D'rte to teach me the language while we ride. While I picked up some words from the village, literally only due to guessing and context clues, this would allow me to learn on the go as well... probably.

I walked to the both of them a bit anxiously, my attempt at not getting punched working so far. Just a couple steps away, I spoke and used the mighty power of body language!

"I..." I placed my hand on my chest, "learn..." I put two hands in front of me, spread next to each other like a book, "on move?" and I walked with two fingers across my other hand. The both of them stared at me for several long moments. The Captain finally sighed and walked off. Either he didn't want to deal with me right now, or he just had a really bad temper. I suspected a little bit of both. Meanwhile D'rte pat my shoulder and, as I looked at him, saw him nod.

"Thank you, please teach me well."

With a little bit of luck and a lot of effort, I would be able to learn a bit more of the language. I may talk very crudely, and worse than a child, but damnit I would learn it. But not right now, though. I had to train more, and I tried to tell D'rte this, showing him the progress I made with the magical pull. Anxious as I was to vomit once more, I had to prove that I made progress before I could have him suddenly leave. Like a child... I thought to myself.

I looked at him afterwards - without vomiting, mind you - and he had an expression that said "cool." I Wasn't sure if I should be happy that a knight was proud of my efforts, or disappointed I didn't get a bigger reaction out of him. It was magic! Magic! Actual magic!

After calming that thought process down a bit, I had to remember that, yes, although it was magic, it was likely commonplace for mages to be fought with and against. As such, his reaction would be quite... lackluster. Perhaps if I made more skills he'd be impressed.

My mind wandered for a few moments longer after D'rte left to go pack up his tent and snuff out the remnants of the fire. What did the Captain feed me? Was it magic? What made me puke? Did I overexert myself?

I had an endless amount of questions now, on top of the ones that already existed before I was here, and I wasn't sure I was going to find out any time soon, at least if I didn't begin to learn the language.

Speaking of, D'rte had just finished up his portion of the camp, and the others were just about done as well, so we would be setting off in a couple of minutes. I was somewhat giddy now, knowing I might actually have a way to grasp the language within an arms reach at any time.

We mounted up, I with D'rtes assistance, while T'nagra snickered as he saw it. I wasn't sure if I should smile back or not, so I ignored it. D'rte did the same.

We returned to riding and, along the way, I picked up some lessons from D'rte on the language. If I was still in high school, I would have wished I had him as my second-language teacher. He began with simple, baby-like explanations, without any language to compare it to, I didn't even know how to organize sentences.

All along the ride, D'rte was kind enough to try and understand me a little bit and, maybe he was just a genius, but he was able to convey things to me much easier than before after hours of riding. He taught me about the very basics of the language, how it was structured, and how to actually talk. Without paper, or anything to write on while we moved, there was no writing lessons.

Two more nights into the long ride, and D'rte was still patient with me. I'd begun to learn how to speak some basic elementary-grade sentences due to his teachings and, I had to admit, if I didn't think of him like a brother at this point, I'd probably be feeling some sort of way. Always had a spot in my heart for teachers. But, luckily, we seemed to have become what I can only equate to semi-decent friends.

I assumed D'rte had to have been a royal then because none of the people in the hamlet from before could apparently read or write. When I tried to gesture if they could, with books, they chuckled and waved their hands in front of their face dismissively. Understandable, I guess. Keep the lower-class people in line, while knights and nobles get an education. I wonder if this world has some sort of higher education for mages or the like. I... wasn't sure.

By the time we camped on the third day, he began to teach me how to write in the dirt. The script was unlike anything I'd seen before. Containing a mix of hard slashes, flowing swirls and dashes, it was as if it was meant to just flow. Something I learned was a simple practice sentence for children trying to learn, "Wind flowing through the trees" is read as "Xixa uxmeir deafuv yois" or "wind tree to flow through". It looks like an "I", with two small dashes from the top, and a swirl through the centre. If I understand it right, it's set up rather simply.

You have the main topic, which is your first inscription, in this case, the two dashes come first which stands for wind. Then you have the secondary topic, in this case, trees, so the "I" comes next. Finally, you have the action, flowing, where the swirl comes in. It turned out rather pretty looking when I got it down, but D'rte had to hold back laughter. The twins couldn't and I threw my shield between their feet. They hopped back and after a moment they tried to pick it up. When trying to move it, there seemed to be a small force that pushed their hands away. At least the shields couldn't be stolen! Also, it was funny watching them try to move it. the rest of the day passed by uneventfully as we rode further.

Another day passed, and I could hold simple conversations with D'rte, although it was extremely broken, and I was worse than a child a tenth my age. Several milestones passed in the blink of an eye; I was ecstatic. The constant rush of dopamine was hitting me like a freight train pushed me towards improvement. It was... addictive. I had to be careful.

We had passed by several large trees on either side of us, a hardly touched path lay before us as we strode across it. Life seemed much more pleasant than I remembered it being when I first got here. I looked into the canopy of leaves above us. It was absolutely enthralling. Small creatures that vaguely looked like small animals from Earth dashed from branch to branch, looking on in curiosity as we trot through their home.

"D'rte... dapö... Tabyai dewfuv?" "Dr'te... we go place?" I asked. Thankfully he understood. It felt strange to speak a new language like this, with a way of talking that was so strange and foreign. But he got back to me quickly so I couldn't think on it too much.

"Wuzyfa ytyai" "Spirit Home" It was a strange thing to call a city, but I suppose I've heard stranger things. Like Florida. Or California.

"D'rte... asuv reyfuv... t-täwaä. Kiphy vapalfuv?" "D'rte... me learn... book? Complete to ride?" The words hung on my tongue and the back of my throat. Why was book such a strange word? I had to say "air" twice. Why is it so needlessly complicated!

"Täwaä päfuv, ytyorai fuion." "Purchase book, in city." From what I understood of the language, it was still somewhat primitive, at least considering what I knew of languages back on Earth, which wasn't much honestly. We ended up resting in that forest for two days to let our mounts, which I learned were called Legged-Six Demons, rest. It was very dramatic, so I just called them horses in English. It was simpler, and it didn't seem like anyone cared.

The nights went by and the horses, I called mine Sir Grimbald the second, were sleeping peacefully. Why did I call him Grimbald the Second? Because I had a horse plushie when I was a little girl called Grimbald. I decided that Grimbald the second was his descendent when I saw how we got along. He was such a sweetheart, and apparently, he and D'rte didn't get along well most of the time.

He's a good horse. D'rte's a good man too - all these guys are. But I'd like to talk to another girl at least...