“Where are we going today, Aurora?” Dinky Di asked happily, glancing to her left as she hopped along the old cobbled road.
The finely scaled, lavender coloured kirin trotting alongside Dinky didn't respond. Aurora Gleam was momentarily distracted, as sometimes happened, by a phenomena she couldn't quite explain.
As Dinky leaned forward with her furry brown forelegs tucked together, her muscular back legs pushed powerfully against the cobblestones beneath her. As she thrust her upper body forward and skyward, her tail swept down behind her, and she was propelled through the air in a joyous leap!
Loose ribbons from the custom-made red dress she wore fluttered merrily in the wind. Reaching the peak of her trajectory, Dinky Di seemed to hang there for several moments longer than Aurora had thought was possible. Dinky turned happily to her perplexed, purple pal.
“Where are we going today, huh?”
Aurora shook her head to clear her mind of this contradiction to the conservation of momentum.
As Dinky continued to bounce along, Aurora did her best to follow the anthropomorphic kangaroo's light pink eyes with her own.
“Well, let's see: we passed through that hamlet, By the Way, yesterday... and we crossed the bridge over the Lost River not long after.”
In her mind, Aurora visualised the map that she had purchased when they had arrived in this land. They were following a trade route called 'The Way' from North to South. It linked the frontier town and associated farming communities of Tum with it's trading partner, the tent settlement of Heart's Desire.
Heart's Desire sat on the edge of the Glass Desert. It was a regional centre for commerce, and their current destination. To Aurora's puzzlement, neither the climate nor the landscape had seemed to change much as they headed South.
They currently were travelling through a flat grassland dotted with copses of trees. Aurora looked to the Western Horizon, where she could see the ominously named Devil's Peaks looming. To East, the morning sun rose gloriously through the clear sky.
Aurora knew that below that blinding orb, somewhere in the distance lay the Eldrich Woods. They were a mystery to most, and Aurora longed to explore them – but they were on an important mission, and she was not going to let herself be distracted.
Having confirmed their position on her mental map, Aurora continued. “We're making good time, so we should reach Heart's Desire by late afternoon. We'll have just enough time to find a place to stay before it gets dark.”
Aurora finished her statement with a content smile, and Dinky let out a cheer. “Yippee! I love new places!”
She demonstrated her enthusiasm by launching herself into an extra-high hop, rotating as she did so. She turned a full 360 degrees as she flew through the air before coming back to the Earth to continue bouncing happily alongside her friend.
Then her eyes went wide open with excitement, and her voice shot up ten Decibels and half an octave as she realised what their arrival might mean. “There'll be so many people to meet! And things to eat! And – Ooh! Do you think they'll have a funny-face-making competition? I looove funny-face-making competitions! Do you want to make funny faces with me? We can start practising now!”
Aurora was a little overwhelmed. She hadn't quite figured out how to respond to Dinky's somewhat manic behaviour just yet. “Uh–”
“Oh! What if they have jewellery made of candy! Or candy made of jewellery! Ugh, no, that would not taste nice. But they would be the prettiest candies ever! Like, ever!”
Aurora shook her head again, this time in amusement, as her companion continued to expand upon all different possibilities that lay in store for them.
I guess it shouldn't surprise me, she thought to herself with a small smile, that our Representative for Parties, Invitations, and Events can find so many reasons to celebrate!
Aurora looked back at her other companions making their way amiably across the flat, rounded stones of wide path they were travelling down.
To the left, skirting the thick grass on the roadside, floated an incredibly large, soft pink butterfly. It flapped it's wings slowly and gently, and it seemed to locomote as much by drifting forwards on the breeze as anything else.
Aurora smiled. Butterfly, their timid, kind Ecological Advisor, was an easy person to like. Hopefully she would be able to overcome her fear of social interaction so that she could extract some useful information from the ecologists of this realm.
That said, she seemed to be doing remarkably well just talking to the local... er, critters. Animals didn't seem quite the right term to Aurora for the spiky metal echidna, the pack of shadow hounds, and the ridiculously oversized hawk her team had encountered since leaving Tum. 'Wildlife' might be more appropriate.
Butterfly's wings spanned nearly two meters, but her manner was so unobtrusive that she seemed to occupy much less space. At a distance she could almost be mistaken for a much smaller insect – no larger than, say, a hoof. Or a hand, if you had one of those.
This illusion was complimented by the fact that, slithering along the other side of the road, there was an eleven foot tall rainbow-winged serpent-woman. Currently inspecting her manicure, and wearing an exaggerated pout which suggested that something was terribly wrong with the world.
The multicoloured metallic scales of Precious Gem's lower body gleamed as she slithered smoothly across the ground, propelled herself forward with elegance and grace. Her serpentine body curved up, away from the ground and back to meld seamlessly into her silk-clad humanoid torso. From behind her shoulders, broad, feathery wings sprang to frame her in a rainbow of colours. Precious could be a little prissy at times, but in their diplomatic meetings so far she displayed an unparallelled knowledge of what she called “appropriate behaviour”, or “conduct befitting ambassadors of Serimdor”.
Such things did not, apparently, include fangirling over the Mayor of Tum's immense and jaw-droppingly well organised personal library – as Aurora had been discreetly informed when they visited. Nor did it include releasing all the animals in the Mayor's private zoo, which Butterfly had apologised profusely for afterwards, even helping to coax them back into their enclosure with some reluctance. In her defence, Butterfly had just wanted to say hello. On the other hand, Aurora didn't even want to think about what had happened when Dinky Di had discovered the dessert table at the four-course buffet that night.
Fortunately, by following Precious Gem's instructions to the letter from there on in, and a bit of well placed flattery from the very same, and a generous amount of money as a 'token of goodwill', they were able to get out of there with their tails still attached to their rear ends.
Aurora conceded to herself that they probably could have fought their way out if they'd needed to. But that wasn't really the point of a cultural exchange mission, was it? she mused wryly. Things certainly could have gone better. With this thought in mind, Aurora turned her head to the last of the trio travelling behind her.
Alex-Jane walked amicably between Butterfly and Precious Gem, her long blond hair tied loosely behind her and her Stetson hat shading her green eyes. At least AJ, their Agricultural Advisor, has managed to learn a good deal from the shire-folk tending to the fields around Tum. Perhaps it was because she was a human, and a hard-working farmer herself, that she was welcomed so easily into those small rural communities.
Alex-Jane's steel plate armour barely clanked at all as she moved. Aurora was sure that the padding underneath it must surely be hot and sweaty, but AJ seemed as comfortable wearing it as Precious did her light silken blouse. Strapped crossways on Alex-Jane's back was a longsword, resting firmly in an unadorned leather scabbard.
Back home in Serimdor, the government had recognised that many simple farmers were, in fact, Heroes of Legend: strong, stubborn, and simply awaiting some kind of threat to their people before springing to their defence. Most of these heroes-to-be, however, would never meet a child-stealing ogre, fire-breathing dragon, or merciless tyrant.
Seeing this as a lost opportunity, the state now provides combat training to able-bodied men and women who work the land. As a result, when some kind of dire threat makes itself known on the borders of the magical kingdom, there are more than enough sword-swingers to go around, and everyone can be back home in time for tea and biscuits.
Serimite historical sociologists would later comment that it was serendipitous such a policy was enacted at the beginning of a period of time when major advances were made in agricultural techniques.
Had this not been the case, it was likely that when the new, less labour-intensive farming practises developed, the number of farmers needed to do the work would decline sharply. As a result, those looking for jobs would be forced to find hazardous and poorly paid work in overcrowded towns and cities.
Instead, what happened was that young farmers would go to train in one of the various fighting academies. When they graduated, they set off to find hazardous and poorly paid work as mercenaries, sometimes travelling to other planes to do so – like the one Alex-Jane was on now.
One of the luckier ones, AJ had got a job with the government. The rates were decent, she had better job security than most, and the life insurance package was really quite exceptional – considering her profession.
This, however, was not what ran through Aurora's mind as she looked back at her friend. She got about as far as wondering how often Alex-Jane felt the need to bathe, given that she wore plate armour all day long, when her train of thought was derailed by an exclamation from Dinky Di. “Hey look! Brash is coming back!
“Helloooo Braaash!” Dinky called out enthusiastically, despite the final member of their group being no more than a blob on the horizon at this point.
Within less than a minute, though, the blob on the horizon resolved itself into a winged figure, speeding furiously through the air. As she approached, the winged warrior who called herself 'Rebel Brash' was preceded by a whining nnnn which began to build in intensity.
The sound rapidly increased in both pitch and volume, and she got close enough that ,just for an instant, they could make out the determined look on her face. Then, before they knew it, a dark blur sped overhead with a thundering nnnnNNNNEEEEEOoo!
The noise receded again as Rebel Brash flew past.
Brash's aerobatics were not finished. Aurora turned her head to see Brash bank sharply around, and then turn upwards, throwing her wings back to catch the morning sun as she soared upwards. At this point Aurora noticed that Precious was pouting again, this time at Rebel's antics. Rebel Brash proceeded to drift leisurely down in a spiral, barely moving her wings, until she was just above Aurora and Dinky as they continued on their way. She hovered for a moment with her a smirk on her face.
“Wow, Brash, that's suuuper-tastic!” Dinky exclaimed.
“Eh, I try,” replied Rebel Brash with false modesty. She brushed some imaginary dust off her shoulder before coming in to land on her sharp rear talons. In the process of doing so, she stalled heavily with her wings, kicking up actual dust in the process.
Rebel fell into stride with Dinky and Aurora as the group moved forward, the kangaroo on her right and the kirin on her left. Rebel turned to Dinky with a cheeky grin: “Sometimes I just can't help how AWESOME I am, you know?”
Aurora raised her eyebrows, but didn't say anything as Dinky burst out laughing. Of the five companions she was saddled with on this journey, Brash was the one who was going to take the most getting used to. Rebel Brash and Dinky Di often hung out together, playing pranks on the rest of the group and each other, or just generally being silly.
Not that Aurora couldn't be silly when she wanted to, she reassured herself. She just didn't often have the opportunity – because she had important responsibilities, like this research mission!
She was the only one of them with the training and background necessary to represent Serimdor's Royal Institute for Sufficiently Advanced Magic. People often confused this with that other thing but, as she assured them, she knew how to tell the difference.
As Dinky and Rebel poked fun at each other beside her, Aurora tried to look at Rebel's presence in the group from a strategic point of view. That's part of what Rebel was supposed to be here for anyway, being Strategic and Military Advisor.
Aurora was a little sceptical of how seriously Miss Brash took her role sometimes. However, Aurora had told herself that she would give her new team-mates the benefit of the doubt, at least until she'd travelled with them a bit longer.
Brash was an exceptional flyer for sure. Her large black wings, with their glossy feathers and their blue and purple tips, had been tucked in, now folded flat against her back. Not only had she proven herself capable of impressive speed and acceleration, she had also demonstrated startling agility and split-second response times in her aerial manoeuvres.
None of which helps her cocky attitude one jot. Aurora breathed a long, drawn-out sigh.
Still, Rebel Brash had proven extremely useful in scouting the surrounding area. Her vision could best a hawk's, and she seemed to be able to process large amounts visual information at speed. In their previous encounter, when ambushed by shadow hounds, Rebel has also displayed her prowess for formulating battle plans on the fly – literally and figuratively.
Brash had sized up the situation in an instant, and her commands in the heat of the moment came clear and without hesitation. Thanks to Butterfly's surprising ability to pacify even the most aggressive of beasts, those battle plans hadn't been needed. However, Aurora had no doubt that Brash's confidence in battle, as in flight, came from long experience.
If only she had the maturity to match. Aurora surprised herself with the sharpness of this criticism. She supposed it was just built-up tension. This was her first major assignment, and she didn't want to let her mentor down. She hadn't slept well recently because of her nerves, and the debacle in Tum had only made her mood worse. Fortunately, the last couple of days travelling through the countryside had been relatively peaceful, and she felt a little better for it.
Being able to identify most threats ahead of time largely kept them away from trouble, and sometimes it kept trouble away from them. With forewarning, Aurora and the others could choose to hide, take a detour, or negotiate. Or, Precious could cast a glamour to make them appear so intimidating that any bandits hiding in the woods would probably need to head back home to change into a fresh pair of underwear.
Although, given Precious was casting the spell, Aurora thought that there was a chance they might just end up looking fabulous instead. Eh. In that case they might still be attacked, but at least they would be prepared to put up a good fight – and they could do it in style. Aurora wasn't sold on the concept yet, but the way Precious talked about it, getting mugged in style sounded totally worth it.
With a grin at this thought, Aurora turned around to gently nuzzle the green wyrmling curled up asleep on her saddlebags.
Although he was her number one assistant and her familiar, Aurora didn't consider Spork a member of the team. His assistance in her research was invaluable to her, and she cared for him like a little brother – but he didn't have an ambassadorial role like they did. After all, he was still very young. At least he didn't have to worry about inter-planar diplomacy just yet!
Watching the slow rise and fall of his pale green, scaly chest, she breathed out – not a weary sigh this time, but a contented one. She lifted her head to observe the childish antics of her companions with a wry expression. This time, though, there was also glint of humour in her eyes.
All may not be right with the world just yet, but at least some things were. And that was good enough for her.
She turned her head toward to the road in front of them, and focused her eyes and mind on what lay ahead.
Author's Note
Dinky-Di, Dinky-Di, or Dinky Di is Australian slang, meaning 'the honest truth'.
It's not used in modern Australian English, at least among people I know, but it is part of our cultural heritage. If you want give it a try, most Aussies will know what you're on about ;).
Alternately, you can say 'Fair dinkum!' or, if you really feel like it, “True blue, cobber!”
