Tama

  Saki looked to be considering it for a moment. I watched intently after all, Saki was smart. She would know what to do!

  Saki's tail lashed back and forth, and for a moment I thought she was going to reject Tera. Instead, she asked another question. "Do you have any way to prove this?" she asked simply.

  She raised her eyebrow and crossed her arms, wincing as the pain was written all over her face. She really should not have tried to throw more rocks at me.

  Tera pursed her lips, looking uncomfortable for a moment, before she slowly walked over to Saki. I tensed, my left hand on Serenity's hilt. But Tera simply fell to her knees, bent over, and kissed Saki's bare feet. "I give myself to the royal advisor of Empress Tama."

  Silence filled the forest. I stood there stunned. I looked at Saki only to see she seemed as stunned as I was. We looked at each other for a moment. An almost imperceptible nod from Saki was all I needed.

  "Nya! Tama hereby declares Teranthia Tulip as personal servant and royal guard captain of Autumnal Sakilera!" My tail wagged back and forth, but my ears were still and my face was serious as I spoke.

  Saki turned to me and asked, "How did you know my full name, Tama?"

  I frowned at her. "Obviously it says your name above your head if Tama focuses on you!"

  She just stared at me for a moment before her eyes went wide. Then she said, "Wait, you can turn that off?!" Her tail stiffened and she looked indignant. "Tama, I have spent the last month seeing everyone's names above their heads! Even Grok's name is above his head, and until we became allies it was red! Now you just casually tell me I could have turned it off at any time?!"

  I shrugged at her. "All Tama has to do is will it off. Saki is super smart, she should have easily figured that out."

  Saki's face went red and she stuttered. "That's... well... you see... I was..." Finally, she just went quiet and picked up her stick. "Just fight me, Tama," she said finally, clearly wanting to let out her frustration.

  I grinned at her before winking and jumping into the air, twirling at her before blinking behind her at the last second. I managed to get two hits off on her before David swung at me. I simply ducked, jabbed him in the stomach a few times before twirling around and blinking next to Tera. I smacked Tera hard with the stick in the face and jumped, narrowly dodging Saki's stick.

  Tera giggled and stood, grabbing a stick from the ground as she did. "Let's get her, Saki!" she said with a grin as she got herself in a combat stance. She summoned a ball of fire.

  "Tera, no!" Saki said, trying to warn her, but she was too slow. I blinked to Tera, twisted her wrist causing it to break, then forced the ball of fire to explode in her face before blinking away from another swing from David.

  "What the void, Empress Tama!" Tera said indignantly, tears in her eyes as she held her broken wrist, her face blackened from the explosion of her own fireball.

  "Yeah, I tried to warn you..." said Saki, smiling sadly, even as she managed to deflect one of my blows, just for me to go under her deflection and get her in the back of the knee. "Oof, no powers, Tera. She punishes you severely for that."

  David just grunted as he pushed forward doing a hard swing, only for me to take his arm and pull him forward, knocking him off balance. Then I appeared behind him and kicked him into Saki, causing them both to fall over.

  "It's not fair you can use your element to blink but we can't use ours!" Saki said in irritation as she got up and swung her stick at me. I stood over five feet away as she swung and missed entirely, causing me to frown at the strange and stupid attack. I suddenly jumped in the air, narrowly dodging a swing from behind by Tera.

  They were starting to work together better. "Nya, Saki can use her secondary element if she wants to, but no primary!"

  Saki paused at that before frowning. "But I don't know how to use my secondary element." Her ears twitched.

  David and Tera nodded as well. "Most of my secondary skills only augment my primary element, Tama," David said with a frown.

  Tera simply shrugged and said, "My secondary element has been healing me this whole time, so that's fine. It wasn't really helping all that much anyway."

  I jumped back a few times before landing on a rock and looking down at them. "Nya! You all need to learn your secondary elements better! Saki, you can blink like Tama if you remove air resistance around you! Tera, your water can easily heal others slowly, not just yourself. The passive link could be regenerating Saki and David! You could also use it to coat your stick or your body to make yourself more slick and hard to hit!"

  "What about me, Tama?" David asked. He seemed very excited for some reason.

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  I looked at him for a very long moment. Then blushed. I had just imagined him using his fire, but all that did was make me think of heat.

  Thinking of heat made me think of how hot David was.

  I wasn't as bad as earlier, but David was still David. He was still super cute.

  After a moment I stated, "Tama doesn't know she can't think when you look at her like that!"

  David blinked in confusion, then realization seemed to hit him. He went down to his knees, making him only slightly taller than Tama. His 6'2" frame now down to around 5' 4".

  I watched as his belly jiggled aggressively while he did so, making my cheeks go crimson.

  "Is this better, Tama?" he asked curiously.

  I stared into his deep amber eyes and I felt my knees buckle. His jet black hair falling down either side. I couldn't take it.

  When we were fighting, it wasn't this bad. But this was too much. I could smell his breath. My vision blurred.

  I blinked away. As I did, I heard Tera and Saki laughing hard. "What?!" David asked, confusion obvious in his tone. "What did I do?!"

  "You really can't tell, can you?!" I heard Tera say. "It's so obvious!"

  "Give him a break, Tera. Men tend to be clueless about this stuff," Saki said, clearly trying and failing to hold back her laughter now.

  "But, I mean, why else would Tama be dating us!" Tera said with amusement strong in her tone.

  My cheeks reddened further and I felt ashamed. My nose began to bleed and I shook as tears filled my eyes. Why was I such a coward?!

  My tail curled around my leg and my ears drooped. After a moment I started taking deep calming breaths before dropping into my meditative state.

  It amplified my senses, so I made a point to hyper-focus all my senses inward. Breathe in, breathe out. The voices in the background are nothing more than empty noise.

  I felt my body relax as my mind calmed itself. I didn't understand why I felt the way I did, but I needed to get myself under control. What would sensei think?!

  I'm not sure how long I sat there, but a tap on my shoulder pulled me out of my meditation. Grabbing the dagger from its sheath, I brought it up and paused it at Saki's neck. Pausing, I quickly pulled the dagger away.

  Saki took a deep shaky breath before speaking. "Hey, Tama, how ya feeling?" Her voice sounded strained, like something had scared her.

  I realized after a moment it was me. I scared her. She came all the way to find me and I had pulled a dagger on her. I pursed my lips, not sure what to say.

  She looked at me for a moment before looking away. There was a moment of silence between us. Then she said, "You know, Tama, I'm probably not the best for this. I've never had a true crush. Most of the men I've seduced have been strictly business."

  She seemed to wince at her own words. She sat down, her tail on her lap as she seemed to pet it idly. She looked off into the distance.

  "I just... I need you to know it's okay. What you're feeling is normal. Many young girls go through it. Usually earlier than you, but they do." Saki continued, her voice measured as she picked invisible bits off of her tail and flicked them away.

  I said nothing, just watching her seemingly grab at nothing and flick it away, like she was trying to focus on anything else.

  After a long moment of her not speaking, I decided to say how I felt. I hoped Saki would understand.

  "But Saki, Tama is a ninja! She is not supposed to be scared or fearful. She doesn't understand why her body acts this way... it... it makes Tama..." I trailed off, unable to finish my sentence.

  Saki giggled, causing me to glare at her. She held up a hand and said, "Wait, Tama, give me a moment. I'm not laughing at you. It's just so sweet."

  I frowned at her. I didn't understand what this had to do with a food flavor. I opened my mouth to ask when I caught a very familiar scent. My nose scrunched and my eyes narrowed.

  Saki looked at me, puzzled. "What's wrong, Tama?" she asked. I ignored her and stood, walking towards the smell. Saki followed behind me.

  We made our way over to the top of a ridge. On the other side, around eighty feet down, the undead army marched.

  Rage filled me at the sight of them and I grabbed Serenity. I went to pull but was stopped by another hand.

  I twirled around, dagger drawn, only to once again see a panicked Saki with my dagger at her throat.

  Ashamed, I put the dagger away and made a motion to look, not daring to speak.

  Saki nodded quietly and looked over the ridge. Her tail curled around her leg and her breathing quickened. Her eyes widened as she looked down on the army.

  It was massive, though not as big as the goblins' numbers. Not that I could count that high in either case.

  Saki appeared to be trying to count them anyway. As far as I was concerned, the only good undead was a dead one.

  It didn't matter how many there were, only that we killed every last one and the monster in charge.

  We made our way back to camp quickly. I made sure to guard the rear in case any of those horrid creatures came.

  We made it back quickly and Saki spoke up. "Guys, we need to go now! The undead army is just over the ridge. They haven't even reached Drestor yet! If we hurry, we can get there before them and warn everyone."

  The reaction was mixed. "But we are still two days from Drestor. That means we might be able to jump in and disrupt them a bit. Get a few kills in!" David said, excitement in his tone.

  "Are you insane? They will outnumber and kill us. Unlike the goblins, I'm like ninety-nine percent sure Tama isn't best friends with their fucking leader!" Tera responded angrily. She clearly looked as worried as me and Saki had.

  "Actually, that might not be a bad idea," Saki said. She looked super thoughtful between the three of us.