Chapter 93: Rosa’s Days in Evon

Rosa woke up before everyone else.

Eren knew this because he heard the front door close while he was still in bed with Emily’s arm across his chest and her face buried in his neck. By the time he got up and looked through the window, Rosa was already walking toward the slime field with Nimbo trailing behind her carrying his shield.

She’d been doing this every morning for almost a week now. Up before sunrise, grab the hunting knife, walk to the slime field, kill until lunch. No complaints. No drama. Just showing up and doing the work.

Emily appeared behind Eren at the window. Her hair was a mess and she smelled like sleep and the pillow.

“She’s getting better,” Emily said, watching Rosa walk.

“You’ve been watching her train?”

“Sometimes.” Emily turned away from the window and started pulling on her hunting clothes. The fabric stretched across her back and Eren’s eyes went exactly where they shouldn’t have gone at six in the morning. “Her knife work is bad but she reads slime movements faster than Nimbo does. She called out which direction they’d come from before they even started moving.”

“She’s always been good at reading people,” Eren said.

“Slimes aren’t people silly.”

“Same principle though. She watches long enough and figures out the system.” He grabbed his boots. “She used to destroy me at every board game we played. I won maybe twice in three years and both times she was sick.”

Emily looked at him. “She beat you when you were healthy? Every time?”

“Every time.”

Emily narrowed her eyes. “I’ll play her next.”

..

Eren spent the morning working on the south barricade with Thadric. He could see the slime field from there and every now and then he’d look over to check on Rosa.

She was efficient. Not fast and not skilled but efficient. She positioned Nimbo where she wanted him and directed him with short commands. “Left. Two coming.” Or “Wait. Those two move together, push the back one first.”

She’d figured out that slimes near the log pile always moved in pairs and the ones from the pond came in threes. She used that to set up positions where Nimbo would herd them into her instead of chasing them everywhere.

It was basic stuff for a real fighter but Rosa had been here less than two weeks.

She’s already thinking like a Strategist.

By lunch she walked over to the totem.

Eren watched from the barricade as Rosa put her palm flat against the bark to check her stats. Without direct system access like him, the totem was the only way for unawakened people to see their exact numbers.

Rosa stared at the tree for about thirty seconds. Then she pulled her hand away and looked down at her own body like she was trying to match what the numbers said with what she felt.

She walked over to Eren at the south wall.

“Level 8.” She held up eight fingers. “My stats are all eights and nines except Intelligence which is ten. Ten.” She said it like she’d just gotten a bad grade on a test she studied for. “I’ve been killing slimes for a week and my Strength is still just eight.”

“Getting plus one to all stats per level is normal for someone without a class,” Eren said. “Once you get a class, you’ll start getting extra free points to distribute and the numbers will jump.”

“When do I get a class?”

“Level 10 minimum. Sometimes 15. The totem offers it when it decides you’re ready.”

Rosa looked back at the totem standing in the village center. The leaves at the top were yellowing more every day. “And if the totem dies before I reach 15?”

Eren didn’t have an answer for that.

Rosa nodded like she’d expected silence. “Then I’d better kill more slimes.” She turned and walked back toward the field.

Later that afternoon, Eren found Rosa and Mel at the training area.

Mel had both daggers out and was throwing one at a wooden post from different distances. She caught the returning blade mid-spin each time.

Rosa picked up the practice dagger Mel had wrapped in leather for her. She held it the way she’d hold a kitchen knife.

Mel walked over and moved Rosa’s fingers one at a time without saying anything. Thumb here. Index here. She guided Rosa’s arm through a forehand slash and Rosa’s wrist rotated wrong and the dagger almost flew out of her hand.

“Again,” Mel said. “Slower. Feel how the weight shifts at the end. Like turning a key in a lock.”

Rosa tried again. Better.

“Again.”

Rosa tried five more times. The last one looked almost like a real slash.

Mel stepped back and crossed her arms. “You’re getting there. Your wrist is still too stiff but that’s because you choke the handle when you’re nervous.” She tilted her head. “What’s a school like? You said you had thirty of the little humans in one room?”

Rosa put the dagger down and stretched her sore wrist. “Thirty five-year-olds in a room with colored paper and paint and toys. I taught them letters and numbers and how to share things without biting each other.”

“Did they listen to you?”

“Sometimes. Mostly they drew on the walls and cried when I told them not to.”

Mel grinned. “I would’ve drawn on the walls too.”

“I know you would’ve.” Rosa sat on the ground and Mel sat next to her. “I watched a lot of shows back home too. Stories that play on a screen, like moving paintings with sound. Some of them have women who fight with swords. You’d love those.”

Mel leaned forward. “Women fighting with swords? In a story you can watch?”

“And books. Paper ones, light enough to hold in one hand. There are stories about warriors and love and adventure. I’ll bring you some next time Eren opens the portal.”

“How many can you bring?”

“However many fit in a bag.”

“Fill the bag.”

Rosa laughed. Sitting in the dirt with a nineteen-year-old elf girl talking about TV shows was the most normal she’d felt in two weeks.

A bit later, Emily appeared near the training area and shoved her old backup bow into Rosa’s hands. “Try it.”

Rosa had never held a bow. She held it upside down at first and Mel had to flip it for her.

She nocked an arrow, pulled the string back, and aimed at the wooden post ten meters away before releasing.

The arrow left the bow, wobbled violently through the air, and hit the dirt about two meters to her left.

The training area went quiet.

Emily stared at the arrow, then at Rosa. “How did you even do that?”

“Wind,” Rosa said without hesitation.

Emily looked at the trees around them. Not a single leaf was moving. “There’s no wind, Rosa.”

“There was wind when I shot.”

“There wasn’t.”

“Emily I felt wind.”

“You felt your own arm moving. That’s not wind.”

Nimbo had his shield in front of his face because he was laughing and trying to hide it. Mel was sitting on the ground holding her stomach. Even Thadric who had walked over to check on the noise was biting his lip.

Eren had been terrible at archery when he started, missing targets by meters and hitting trees he wasn’t aiming at. But failing that badly from ten meters was an achievement he’d never unlocked.

Emily took the bow back. She didn’t say anything but the corner of her mouth twitched and Rosa saw it. It wasn’t a smile but it was the closest thing Emily had shown around her since she arrived in Evon.

That evening at Selena’s restaurant, Rosa practiced her Elvish with whoever was around. Selena was patient with her pronunciation and Kelion corrected her grammar between sips of his herbal drink.

Nimbo came to find her when the sun was going down. He was standing near the garden gate with his hands behind his back and his ears turning red. Eren recognized the body language instantly. He’d been that exact teenage boy once.

Nimbo held out a small white flower with five petals and a faint blue center. “For you,” he said in simple Elvish.

Rosa took it carefully. She’d been expecting this since Eren warned her two days ago.

“Nimbo.” She held the flower carefully and searched for the Elvish words. “You… good. Very good person. You are…” She pointed at herself, then at him, then made a gesture that was supposed to mean brother but probably looked like she was describing a fish. “Family. Like brother. Not…” She waved her hand vaguely. “Not the love thing. Understand?”

Nimbo’s ears went deep pink. He nodded fast. “Understand. Brother. Yes.” He smiled but his mouth was shaking at the edges and he turned away quick.

Rosa watched him go and put the flower in her pocket.

One crisis handled, at least.

Later that night, Emily went to bed early because the pregnancy was pulling her energy down by sunset. Griks was curled in her corner sleeping instantly the way she always did.

Rosa lay on the couch with her phone plugged into the power bank. One earbud in, music barely audible. Thirty-one percent battery. She was rationing it carefully.

She’d overheard Eren and Emily discussing the evacuation plan last night. Moving elves to Earth if the village fell. The logistics were insane. Where would they live? How would they hide pointed ears on a public bus? Could Selena cook with Earth ingredients? What would Thadric do in a city?

And Mel. Rosa was already planning how she’d help them adjust. She was a teacher. Helping people adapt to new environments was what she did for a living. She had a few more days before her combined sick leave and school holiday ran out. After that she’d need to decide whether she was going back to Earth or staying here.

She thought about Mel trying to use a phone. Thadric in a supermarket. Emily discovering that Earth had a whole industry built around swords and archery and women who looked exactly like her.

She was still smiling when she fell asleep.

Eren came inside an hour later from barricade work. He saw Rosa asleep on the couch with her phone glowing against her chest and covered her with a blanket.

Fury had reported that the orc tracks on the south path were fresher than yesterday. They were getting closer to the village and leaving like smoke before the patrol could catch them.

He looked out the window into the dark.

He was going to send Rosa with a bunch of trusted Elves to Earth in two days at most.

I really need to get those walkie-talkies and drones before whatever is out there stops watching and starts attacking them like there is no tomorrow!

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