Hit the Road, John

As I slowly lift my hand off Luna's head, I leave it hovering a few centimetres forward to gauge her reaction. She has her eyes closed, and her head follows after my hand as she pushes her head into my palm. I give her a few more scratches behind the ears. I finally remove my hand from her head, and she looks up to meet my eyes.

"I don't mind if you want to rub my head, Master, as long as you are gentle..." Luna abashedly admitted. Shooting her back a quick grin, I decided to cut to the chase and discuss what our next steps were.

Luna took a seat on the bench, facing away from the fire as I directed her to, while I stood on the other side of a piece of a large stump that I had positioned between us to act as a table. Upon the table, I placed a map that I had requisitioned from the merchant's belongings. I smoothed it out and pulled up my AR Map as well. As I compared the two, I watched my map get slowly filled out with a copy of the physical map's info. Now the surrounding area had outlines and places marked on my map. The difference between the areas I had discovered and learned from this map was quite stark. On the map, locations I had travelled to personally looked like a photorealistic satellite image, with an overlay of routes and names of forest, towns, water bodies, and mountains. In contrast, the areas added from the physical map were brown like parchment, with handwritten borders, names and illustrations.

"Luna, this is where your help is needed the most," I explained to the girl sitting across from me. "I have no idea of any of our surroundings. Our first course of action is to find more info about locating a dwarf with the skills needed to remove your brand." Luna's eyes twinkled as she realized how serious I was about freeing her. "I think we should first head here," Luna pointed to the second closest marked town on the map. "This is the town of Moero. We should register with the adventurers' guild. I have heard rumours that they provide services for their members, including connecting them with skilled artisans. They would be the best way to find a dwarven craftsperson that has the knowledge we are looking for."

"Tell me more about the adventurers' guild?" I posited.

"They are an international organization that is in all but a few of the nations of the continent. They focus on the organization of requests submitted by individuals up to nations and find the properly suited individuals amongst their ranks to complete these quests. My previous owner would often contract adventurers to take us between towns if we had to pass through forests or other dangerous areas. We had a party of adventurers accompanying us this time as well. But they were only an E-rank party, as we were not expecting to come across anything more than wolves or skeletons."

"How do you know if someone is an adventurer?" I questioned Luna, as it must be necessary for people to know if you are officially part of the guild. "They will have a magical identification tag on them. I don't know more than that. My old owner dealt with that part of interactions."

I told Luna that we would pack up our campsite and then stop by the bodies to check those tags. I was about to quickly show Luna how to disassemble the tent when I realized I could store it as it was. I also quickly pulled in the trunks, bench, sleeping bag, and every other little item we had around. Only the firepit was left, which I smothered with water from the endless waterskin. I also showed it to Luna, as she was concerned about my waste of water. I also used it to fill up a couple of the decoy ones.

"Master, we may want to carry some of our stuff as it will look strange otherwise." Luna pointed out. "Good catch." I gave Luna a thumbs up. We each equipped a couple of waterskins at our waist and a dagger each to complete the look. I pulled out the rucksack and filled it with a few essentials. Then Luna helped me roll the sleeping bag and clip it to the bottom of the sack. Without asking, Luna immediately put the rucksack on her back. Our campsite was now just an empty patch of earth. Ready to leave, I remembered one last thing I needed to have Luna carry.

I handed Luna a small leather pouch, held closed by a drawstring. "What is this master?" She asked, and as she took the purse, we could hear the clinking on coins. She arched an eyebrow in confusion. "This is some coins for you to hold on to. I have plenty more in my storage. I permit you to use these as you see fit, without my further express permission for any individual purchases." I had gathered additional coins from the bodies when I had searched them previously. The bag I had given Luna contained 10 Gold, 10 Silver and 100 Copper. Luna loosened the strings on the purse and glanced inside. Gasping as she saw the contents, she redrew the drawstrings and immediately checked her surroundings at lightning speed. Having taken a step closer to me and gripped the purse with both hands to hide it from sight, she shout-whispered, "Master! Why have you given me so much?!"

Scratching my cheek and trying to look nonchalant, I ask, "Oh, is it a lot? I was unsure of how much you would need... It is only about a fifth of what I have on me..." "A-a-a... Only a fifth!?!?" Luna shouted, aghast at the situation, no longer whispering at all. "Yes," I confirmed, awaiting an explanation to help me understand my apparent lack of sense.

"This amount you gave me would be enough for you to buy between three and ten slaves or a couple of village houses. Master, you must not ever show this much coin. You will be targeted immediately. Most persons would keep anything more than a few Gold as Guild Bonds." Remembering some sheets of paper I had collected from amongst the possessions hidden in the carriage, I withdrew a sheaf of paper, "You mean like these?" In my hand, I held several sheets of gilded parchment. Now that I paid closer attention, each said they were worth 100 Gold. I let out a low whistle as I counted them. "Dang, I got like 1200 Gold worth of Bonds here! Good thing I didn't use them as kindling while you were unconscious!"

Luna, finally seeming to understand the true depths of her Master's naivety, pressed her palm against her forehead and let out a sigh that encapsulated just how much trouble they may have to contend with going forward. "Master, I hope I don't have to say that those must stay hidden as well..." Grimacing at the strain I was putting on her well-being, I quickly banished the papers to the void realm.

Grabbing Luna's hand, I interlaced our fingers as I guided her to the pit. Upon arriving, I jumped down and rifled through the clothing of the adventurers. I found a Silver Badge, about the size of military dog tags from Earth, on a chain around each of their necks. I collected these, washed my hands and returned to Luna's side outside the pit. "Any last words?" I asked Luna. Luna spat onto the corpse of her long-time abuser and captor, "Yeah, burn in hell."

Caught slightly off guard by the anger on Luna's usually gentle face, I inquired if we should bury the bodies. "Yes, thought the bastard doesn't deserve it, we should perform a burial to avoid having them plague the forest as undead." Slightly shocked by the revelation, I followed Luna's instruction. A few strikes of my gauntleted fists closed to pits around the bodies.

"You ready to go, Luna?" I asked as I touched her shoulder, pulling her back from the reverie she had found herself in.

"Yes, Master, lead the way," Luna replied, shaking her head to dispel the negative emotions before smiling up at me.

We set off down the trail, passing back along the lake I had found myself by when first awakening on this world. I have experienced a lot in the day and a half since I first arrived here.