Tama

  But this was fine… I was getting used to being attached to this anvil holding me down…

  I wrapped my tail around her arm and tried to squeeze as I climbed up and tried to push off her legs. I didn’t budge and Talia rolled her eyes at me.

  “You know,” Talia said as she reached down and untied my tail from her arm. “You remind me a lot of the old man, if a bit more immature.”

  I glared at her and went to draw my dagger. No one insulted sensei. She smiled at me and squeezed my hand. The pain was extremely sharp and I instantly dropped my hand from my weapon. She loosened her grip.

  I growled at her instead, which she laughed at. “Don’t take it as an insult, your sensei was a great man. Honestly, I just wished he had taken me on a date even once. Instead he just stayed in the forest meditating and raising foster kids.”

  I froze at that and after a moment asked “What is a date? Tera took me on one with David at the goblin camp. She tried to take me to her room with David, but Saki told me we had to plan.”

  Talia seemed to freeze at that, then she leaned in after a moment and asked “Did Tera.. touch you anywhere she shouldn’t have Tama?” She smiled, but I saw an intensity in her gaze I hadn't seen before. I had a strong feeling Tera’s life depended on my next words.

  “Tama didn’t get to go, and David said he was busy with Jiggle. So instead, Tera came with us to do more planning. She let me sit on her lap and she petted my head!” Despite my words, I leaned away as far as I could from the menacing smile on Talia’s face.

  There was a cough and we both looked back at Richard “I don’t mean to interrupt the two of you, But I am assuming you have a reason for being here Talia, other than to show me the er..” He looked over at me and smiled before petting me. “World’s greatest ninja here”

  I purred as he petted me and Talia spoke up “Ah yes, we need to rally the forces, Tama and her group went to take out a few goblins, and they found out a massive Lich led undead army is approaching our town at an alarming rate, My guess is we have about two days at most based on..” She looked at me for a moment before sighing “All available intel. I’d suggest we send out scouts as well to verify their distance to us.”

  At the word Lich, Richard's face began to pale. By the time Talia was finished speaking the man could have been mistaken for a ghost. I should know, I used to keep one in my mirror. She tried to kill me a few times. Sensei ended up exercising her and she stopped showing up. I guess she really hated push-ups.

  Richard began calling out orders, it reminded me of sensei drilling me on combat forms except they were strange orders like “rally the guards!” and “Enchant the wall’s”.

  One of my favorites was one with a fancy word in it “Prepare the ballista bolts and set up the boiling oil!”

  I idly wondered what a ballista bolt was as Talia dragged me out of the large building and towards another building. Would this suffering never end?!

  We reached the large building and I felt I was probably close to being as old as sensei by now. It had a sign above the door, it was pretty and wooden.

  Talia looked down at me and pointed at the sign “Do you see what that sign says Tama? you need to be on good behavior while we are in here!”

  I stared blankly at her, then the sign. She sighed and facepalmed. “The sign says ‘City Hall ' Tama, it means this place is very important and stuff goes on here to run the city.”

  I continued to stare for a moment before asking “Tama thought Dresty was a Town? That's what Saki called it.”

  Talia stared back at me for a long moment, a vein above her eye seemed to be pulsing. Then she answered me “First, it's Drestor, not Dresty. Secondly Tama, Drestor is a city, not a town. Despite what Saki claims.”

  I nodded, clearly seeing Talia was in a bad mood. If I could have, I would have fled by now. But her hand holding onto my wrist was like steel. Actually no, I could bend and break steel. This was much heavier! like whatever Jiggle’s tusks were made of!

  We entered the large building that Talia said was super important and I immediately looked on in horror as a super long endless hallway appeared before us. Fear grasped at my heart and I knew it was over, Death had finally come to claim me. For I would never reach the end of this hallway.

  Talia dragged me along the endless hallway, forever my tormentor. I know not how long it took, most likely centuries. Civilizations had risen and fallen in the time it took us to walk down that hallway.

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  But finally, by some insane miracle, we made it to the end and to a large double door. Talia opened the door and we walked in. There was a fat man with a bald head behind a large fancy desk.

  He looked up from a paper as we entered and looked between us questioningly. Talia brought us up to the two chairs on the other side of the desk, she sat down in the left one, then pointed at the right one for me. I sighed and sat down as well.

  “What’s this about Talia, I have a lot of work today and last I checked it’s not bring your kid to work day. Actually, I didn’t even know you had children.” The bald fat man said, his voice indignant.

  Talia’s eyes twitched, but she spoke nicely “I am sorry for interrupting your work, but we have an issue. You see, there is an undead army, controlled by a Lich, coming to tear this city apart.”

  The fat man froze, and his face went pale. After a moment he laughed and said “Ah, Talia, that is a funny joke. But I really must be getting back to work so if you’ll excuse me…”

  Even as he said it, Talia stared at him expectantly. As she did, his words got quieter until he trailed off.

  “You’re… you’re not joking… are you.” He said, he swallowed loudly and then stood, he looked over at something on the wall. it made weird ticking noises and small little things that moved on it. It had numbers around the outside, there were only twelve of them. I know, since I could count to twenty! I was so smart sometimes!

  The long hand was at the six, and the small hand was at the two. I didn’t understand what that meant, but it was probably important.

  “Tama wants to know what that ticking thing is,” I said to the bald man. He paused and looked over at me before his brows furrowed. Instead of answering me he turned back to Talia.

  “Please explain to me why you felt it necessary to bring a child to this?” He snapped at Talia.

  Talia looked like she was holding back a smirk. “Tama is not a child chancellor, she is the adopted daughter and personally trained ninja of Reginald Torweather.”

  The man froze in place, and he started sweating a lot. He turned back to me with a very kind smile on his face. “Ah, I am terribly sorry dear, er, your name is Tama correct? That is a clock, it tells time!”

  I stared at it, as I did, the big hand moved once, and it was now slightly more to the left than it had been. I frowned. “Does time really move that slow? Tama thinks your clock is broken!” I turned back to the man, he looked at me like I looked at sensei after he told me I had extra training that day.

  “I assure you, Miss Tama, that the clock is working as intended. Though if you have an issue with it I will happily have it replaced for you. The man said, his voice strained and fear coloring it.

  I looked at Talia, she looked like she was holding back laughter. After a moment she managed to get herself under control and coughed, bringing the chancellor's attention back to her. “We need to deal with the Lich threat, that involves getting as many people out of the city and to safety as possible.”

  “Nya! It’s very important we save people!” I repeated Talia.

  The man looked between us then nodded profusely. “I understand, I will start the paperwork immediately” He said as he opened a drawer on his desk and began going through stuff in it. “How long do we have to handle the evacuation?” He asked as he looked over to me.

  “Around two days before the army arrives” Talia answered him. The man looked to Talia, then to me. Then he just fell onto the ground and stopped moving.

  Talia sighed and shook her head. She swore under her breath and said “Damn bureaucrats can’t handle anything.”

  After the chancellor passed out, Talia simply got up and left the man unconscious on the ground. I asked why, but she simply shook her head and didn’t answer. Afterwards, I had to once again trek the endless hallway of doom. Luckily, Talia finally let go of my hand. I was able to travel to the eternal enemy in less than a second!

  Once I was outside, I blinked over to the big building with swords and shields on it, the one with Richard in it and went inside. I found him and asked “What’s a ballista?”

  He looked down at me and asked “Where is Talia? Did you get lost?”

  I glared at him and said “Tama is 18 givings old! she is the best ninja ever!”

  Richard simply smiled kindly at me and handed me more candy. I took the candy, then remembered I left Talia back at the governplace that ran Drestor and blinked back to her. I reached the door right as Talia opened it and stepped outside.

  She looked down at me and sighed “Where did you get that lollipop Tama?” She looked irritable.

  “Richard gave it to me, I went to ask him what a ballista bolt was.” It was at that point I just realized he hadn’t answered me!

  “Tama, A ballista bolt is a really big dense arrow that goes inside of a really large bow. It takes four regular people to reload and fire the ballista, and its ammo is the ballista bolt.” Talia said matter of factly before continuing.

  “We are done with the preparations I needed you for. You are free to wander the city if you like. But do not, I repeat Tama, do not cause trouble for the people here!”

  “Nya! Tama would never cause trouble! Tama only helps people!” I said as I wagged my tail and smiled at Talia.

  “That’s what I am afraid of,” Talia said under her breath before looking back at me. “I’ll be at the guild hall if you need anything okay?”

  I nodded, and she took off walking as slow as Saki always did. Now that I was free, I didn’t care, if she wanted to torture herself, that was her choice!”

  As she walked away I heard her mutter “I don’t know how Saki handles her, Maybe that fox girl takes care of her as some form of penance?”

  Big Update Tomorrow!