By the River

"Not again," Kaily sighed as she knocked Kiln to the ground with a well-placed hit of her quarterstaff. "Kiln… how much more obvious do I need to make my openings? At this rate, you'd be better off learning magic from Bug."

The young woman leaned down and offered her hand to the golem. Kiln took her hand and pushed herself off the ground. "I am aware of that," she said as she took a few steps to where her training staff had landed. "But I did not ask you to teach me how to fight so that I could hurt other people. Defense is all I need in the event that we encounter ruffians in Concord."

Kaily groaned. "That is probably true, but outside of the cities… who knows what's waiting."

"It's still hard to believe that there could possibly be bad people in the wilds," Kiln replied. "I've only seen the wolves, and they were just following their instincts."

Bug mumbled, "Yeah… their instincts to eat." Kaily shot the imp a look that would freeze a thousand charging bulldogs. Bug gulped and fumbled for the group's backpacks. "I'll… um… just go and… and… fill up these waterjugs. Yeah… I'll go to the river and –"

Kiln whisked the three canteens out of the imp's hands, replacing them with her training stick. "Don't bother; I'll fill these up. I need a rest from fighting."

"B-but you don't get tired!" Bug yelped.

"Mental rest," she said as she walked away, slinging her own quarterstaff over one shoulder. "It won't take more than ten minutes."

Kaily sighed as the golem walked away. "She still doesn't know how to recognize innuendos… I hope she learns soon that logic isn't everything."


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Kiln walked straight through the trees until she found herself by the river. It wasn't a raging river like in the mountains, but it was still strong enough to pull a young child under. Kiln was very aware of that fact, so, after rolling up her pants, she kept careful not to get too far into the water. For all that concentration, though, she was left without awareness of her surroundings.

"Hello there."

Even though it was just a simple greeting in the common tongue, the small golem jerked up at the voice. She glanced around… worried that she had done something wrong.

"I'm sorry; did I frighten you? I didn't mean to."

Kiln turned around to see an unusual woman coming from upstream. She had a fairly dark complexion in both skin and hair, quite unlike the sooty faces in Cinder City or Kaily's fair one. That wasn't the oddest thing, though; the woman was dressed in a jumpsuit made of some sky-blue material and had glossy, yellow boots. Kiln had never seen an outfit quite like it, and that made her quite curious… after she had gotten over the momentary 'shocked' factor.

"Don't assume so much," Kiln said. "I was surprised, not scared. Anyway, what are you doing here?"

"Right to the point, eh?" the woman replied. "I must've guessed correctly, then. You're Kiln, aren't you?"

The golem nodded. "I am. I can't say I've ever heard of you, though; I think I'd remember that outfit. Why were you looking for me, anyway?"

The woman put her hand to her chin. "You deduced all that from what I've told you? You're quite clever, and you are right. I was sent by a priest to find you. For some reason, he thought that you would be a better candidate to help him than his own church."

"'Priest' is a pretty vague word. Do you have a name?"

"He was in really bad shape when I left him, but he did tell me that much." The woman paused for a moment, tilting her head as if to recall a fine detail. "I believe he called himself 'Adrian.' Does that ring any bells?"

Several 'clunks' sounded at the priest's name, all of which were from the canteens hitting the riverbank. Kiln hardly noticed; she waded out of the water and next to the odd woman. "Adrian? Is that true? He can't be alive."

"That's what he said when I found him," the woman replied. "He couldn't believe that he wasn't dead. Then he asked me to look for an orange golem by the name of Kiln, who would definitely come to his aid."

"Where… where is he?" Kiln asked, stuttering for only the second time in her life.

At that question, the woman pulled a metallic ball out of a pouch and offered it to Kiln. "This is a teleportation device that will take you to him. Just press this button and you'll be there."

The golem took the ball from her in what seemed like a daze; never had she dared to dream – not that golems really dreamed – that Adrian had survived in Cinder City. Her mind was so much elsewhere that she didn't notice the tinge of sadness cross the woman's face. "Just… press the button? Thank you…"

Without thinking too much, which she rarely did, Kiln pressed the blue button on the Yarn Ball and vanished.

The woman sighed and began walking back the way she came. "Sorry about that," she said, "but I really didn't have a choice."