As they were about to exit Castle Town, Applejack paused. "Ah get th' feelin' that we should see that feller agin.... what was 'is name?"

Naofumi responded, "The slave merchant? Beloukas, I think."

Applejack nodded. "Him. We might need ta... expand our party agin."

Taking Applejack at her word, that was their next stop.

Beloukas was in awe as he examined Raphtalia. "Amazing! In such a short amount of time, you made a sickly little thing into a fine young lady, I see! You could possibly get... 20 gold pieces for her now; even more if she was a virgin."

Raphtalia looked offended. "I AM a virgin!"

"35 gold pieces!" the man countered.

Naofumi said, "Tempting.... but no."

Beloukas frowned, but dropped the subject.

Applejack noticed a box with a bunch of eggs in it. "What's with these eggs, here?" she queried.

The merchant grinned, seeing another opportunity. "Ah, those are monster eggs; for familiars, like bears, various monsters, Filolials..."

Naofumi looked confused. "Filolials?"

Raphtalia was quick to respond. "You know, those birds pulling the carts and such? More often than not, they're beige or brown, but can also come in shades of red, blue, yellow, silver or gold."

"And," Beloukas continued, "If you get REALLY lucky, you might win a dragon!"

Naofumi raised one eyebrow. "So this is kind of like a gacha game?"

Raphtalia and Applejack echoed in unison, "A 'gacha game'?"

Naofumi shook his head. "Nothing. Never mind."

Going over to the box himself, he looked at the selection of them. "How much?" he asked.

"For you? Only 300 silvers." the pleased merchant replied.

Naofumi looked to Applejack, who nodded. "Seems fair."

Passing over the agreed amount, Naofumi chose a bright bluish egg. "By the way... how durable are these? Out of curiosity."

Beloukas smiled at that. "A sledgehammer wouldn't so much as crack it. Your prize will hatch when it's good and ready to."

Applejack passed over the same amount and attempted to pick one up... which disappeared in a puff of smoke, much to everyone's surprise. Beloukas most of all. "That's never happened before. Select a new one. This one's on the house."

At that, Applejack selected a dark orange one, depositing that in her Inventory. Before her eyes, a notification appeared, likely indicating her having learned a new skill.

{Beast Form/Natural Form}; {Acquired Monster Egg}

Showing no sign of surprise at all, she was the first to exit the tent.

They decided that they would make their way Southward again. In this case, they walked. The nearest village wasn't THAT far, after all.

Right?

Arriving shortly before the evening (turns out it WAS that far), they rented a large room for a few nights. The special for dinner was a hearty soup, with mostly vegetables, but Applejack noticed a few pieces of some kind of seafood were in there, too.

Noticing Applejack's searching look, the... waiter for the night replied, "Clam chowder. Heavy on the vegetables."

Applejack briefly raised her eyebrows, then (after saying Grace for the meal) dug in.

Naofumi raised one eyebrow, giving Applejack a questioning look. "You didn't strike me as the religious type, AJ."

Applejack shrugged. "Well, Ah'm more... spiritual than re-ligious like; Comes from havin' goddesses fer rulers, Ah s'pose. Still, foreign lands means foreign deities, right? All are still deservin' of our re-spect."

Finding no argument to the contrary, Naofumi went back to his meal too.

In the morning, Applejack's sensitive hearing picked up a sound coming from Naofumi's area of the room. Cracking.

She got up, noticing that Naofumi had already awakened.

"Psst! Raphtalia! Applejack! They're hatching."

Sure enough,the first to hatch was Naofumi's. It was a pure white Filolial, of exceptional quality. It chirped excitedly and took a place on Naofumi's head.

Raphtalia was excited. "Aww! It must think you're its mother!"

Naofumi was far less enthused. "Great." he commented drily.

Shortly thereafter, Applejack's hatched, revealing a golden coloured Filolial. Which took a position on her head.

Raphtalia fairly squee'd. "That's so adorable!"

"Well, this is gonna be... interesting." Naofumi deadpanned.

"Definitely." Applejack concurred, not even needing to use her Purview to verify that.

The chicks grew quickly over the next few days, even eating what their owners didn't want to eat. As it turns out, Filolials are omnivorous, and not particularly picky, much to Applejack's continual discomfort.

Before long, they both neededed pens.

Raphtalia said, "I'm surprised that they've grown that fast."

"Probably due to that 'Rapid Growth' Skill that we have." Naofumi percieved.

"Ayep." Applejack agreed, having inferred that long before. "Ah'm more surprised that we both have that Skill."

"Still, they seem to be fine with that." he continued, "Right, Filo? Loiosh?"

"Kuah!" the birds agreed in unison.

"Wait, 'Filo', as in Filolial? Isn't that a bit... on the nose?" Raphtalia queried.

"Yeah, but she seems to like it." Naofumi said.

"And 'Loiosh'? Where'd you dig that up?" Raphtlia asked Applejack.

"Eh, from a book Ah read. Figgered t'was appropriate." she replied curtly.(1)

Anyway, from that point came training the two large birds. They learned fast, and ran even faster.

But then one day....

In the morning, the three Heroes and their mounts awoke to the sounds of a commotion going on outside. So, they went to investigate.

Outside, they noticed that the villagers werre gathered and someone was giving a speech. Moving closer, they discovered the cause of said commotion. The princess giving out a decree, backed by Motoyasu and a contingent of guards..

Applejack frowned. "Oh. THAT drama queen." she growled under her breath.

"-And so there shall be a fee for entering and exiting the village of 50 silvers; both ways."

"But that would ruin us!" one villager complained.

"You dare defy a royal decree?!" she replied scathingly.

'I've had enough of this already' Naofumi thought before speaking up. "Yeah! You bet!"

Myne frowned. "Shield Hero. What are you still doing here?"

Naofumi snorted. "Hmph. Oh, I'll be happy to leave, but I doubt that the people here will be quite so pleased. Motoyasu! Do you know how muc it costs to stay here?"

"Um, actually..."

Naofumi raised one finger. "ONE silver a night; FOOD INCLUDED. You're charging the equivalernt of 100 nights, just to enter and exit the village! Do you realize that!?"

"An' asides that," Applejack put in, "Y'all coulda just drafted that up yerself on th'way here!"

The crowd was in agreement. "Yeah!" "What she said!" "And besides, it was the Shield Hero's party that defended us against the last Wave!"

"You dare defy a royal decree!?" The guards nearby readied their weapons.

Naofumi and Applejack said in unison, "I suggest that you all (Ah suggest that y'all) KNOCK IT OFF!"

Suddenly, a half dozen or so cloaked figures arrived, alighting with one knee bent.(2)

Myne was just as surprised as everyone else. "What?!"

One of the figures passed her a scroll. "For you. From the queen."

"Who are those people?" Naofumi wondered aloud.

Raphtalia unexpectedly had the answer. "I think those are the Queensguard. Also known as the Queen's Shadows. Her Majesty's personal messengers/defenders."

"So they're kind of like ninja?" Naofumi queried.

"Ninja?"

"(sigh) Never mind." Naofumi said, rolling his eyes.

Upon finishing her reading of the scroll, Myne snarled. "Shield Hero! I challenge you for the ownership of this village!"

Naofumi frowned. "I decline. You shouldn't have the right to do what you plan to do anyway!"

After some pleadiing by the villagers (and another eye roll from Naofumi), things were set up shortly thereafter. Also, it turns out that dragons (Like the one Motoyasu had apparently drawn) and Filoloals notoriously don't get along.

The challenge would be a race around the village, three times.

Upon the word "GO!" from the village elder, they were off. Filo looked to be getting a lead. Suddenly a hole appeared in the ground in front of them. Filo was able to avoid that, but overbalanced and fell, allowing Motoyasu's dragon to get the lead. That was brief, because Filo was quickly back to her feet and running with even more determination than before.

As they came around for the second lap, they were kicking up a fair amount of dust, much to Myne's discomfort and Applejack's amusement from further back.

On the second lap, Filo had once again gained the lead, until suddenly a Slowing spell was cast, cutting their speed by about 1/3, allowing Motoyasu to once again take the lead. Filo, however, wasn't done yet and was soon running even harder to make up.

On the third lap, another hole opened up, but this time Naofumi was ready for it.

"{Air Strike Shield!}" A green kite shield made of energy covered the hole. Filo launbched herself from that onto the dirt wall of the track, leaping back over a moment later to be neck and neck with Motoyasu's dragon. Three voices shouted out with their determination as Filo just barely won the race, to the cheering of the townsfolk.

Naofumi was about to congratulate his mount on their victory, only to find that she'd transformed once again, becoming much... bulkier, at least in appearance.

Myne snarled. "The Shield Hero must have cheated!"

One of the QueensGuard members shook her head. "Earth and Curse magic were used during the race, but the Shield Hero's purviews are Healing and Support magic. There was absolutely some cheating, but it was not his doing."

"Yeah!" said one of the townspeople. "And that Filolial only changed AFTER the race was over!"

Myne snarled again. "Fine. We're leaving. But don't think this is over!"

As the Dark Clouds were about to leave the area, Applejack called out, "Motoyasu! Care to double that bet we made again?"

He returned, with a determined look, "You're STILL on!" before he turned on his heel and they stalked off.

The village elder thanked Naofumi profusely. "Thank you, sir Hero! Thank you soo much for saving our village?! How can we repay you?"

Naofumi thought, "Well..."

Filo poked Naofumi a couple of times before pointing at a nearby cart.

Naofumi thought for a moment more. "Why not?"

Author's Note

1: Cookie for those who know what that's a reference to.
2: