Book 2 Chapter 45

The two of them were back on the road, Rotter rumbling along the dirt path they were on as he went.

Willow looked to the horizon, thinking back on his time in Yeobaek with some mixed feelings. On the one hand he’d learned a lot while he’d lived there, but there was a lingering feeling of dissatisfaction. He hadn’t learned all that he could’ve from the Madame, and the speed with which they’d left made the farewells more bitter than he felt like they would’ve otherwise been.

Madame Park had accepted their departure with surprisingly little fanfare or argument. Merely expressing some annoyance at future plans for Willow’s instruction going to waste. However he had sensed a flicker of sadness when she’d been given the news, but it had gone by so quickly that Willow was unsure if he’d actually sensed it or if it’d been wishful thinking on his part.

She had also told him he was welcome back at any time if he ever wanted to complete his training with her, but said that his current knowledge and demeanor were ‘acceptable’, and that he’d do her proud.

Which was high praise from the steel haired woman in his experience.

Likely picking up on her apprentice’s despondent mood, Mu tried to cheer the boy up.

“The next town we’ll be stoppin’ at is famous for the cheeses they produce, so there are a ton of tasty treats for us to try out!” She tried to blatantly bribe him with food since that was usually a surefire way to make him happy.

Willow gave his mentor a halfhearted smile. “Yeah. That should be fun.”

He hadn’t tried cheese before travelling with Miss Mu since his little clearing hadn’t had any dairy animals. While Willow wasn’t the biggest fan of the few milk products he’d tried, it was still a novel enough experience that he’d try whatever variety his mentor recommended to him.

Sensing that the boy still wasn’t particularly enthusiastic, Mu scratched at the back of her head while puffing away on her pipe, the smoke quickly dispersing due to their travel speed. “Is something in particular botherin’ you right now?”

Willow gave Mu a more genuine smile this time, happy that Miss Mu cared enough to ask. “Just thinking about how we left Yeobaek and Madame Park. Does it ever get easier to move on from a place?”

Miss Mu rubbed at her chin with a gloved hand, thinking the question over. “It’s never been particularly difficult for me to move on. I’ve got all I need with me as I travel!” She spread her arms out as if to encompass all around them.

She then began to list things with her fingers. “I got my spirits and Rotter, I got whatever research subjects I can find, and the beautiful sights of nature as I travel around. I now even have a precocious apprentice. What more could a wanderer want?”

Willow perked up a bit, he hadn’t heard that word before, and was always excited to fill the gaps in his knowledge when he could. “What’s precocious mean?”

Mu chuckled, happy to have distracted the boy from his moping. “Means you act older than your years. Which is both boon and curse from my personal experience.”

He hummed to himself. He wanted to argue, but still didn’t have much of a frame of reference for other children his age.

Something he decided to vocalize to his mentor. “I don’t really know how people the same age as me act. Only really had Remy to compare myself to, and we didn’t play together much for a good chunk of that time.”

Miss Mu puffed away on her pipe again. “Well then I suppose you have to fix that while you train in Acerorazon. Think of it as another part of your trainin’ if you have to.”

Willow grimaced. “But won’t I have to leave them behind anyways?”

His mentor smiled. “You’d be surprised how often you cross paths with past friends. Despite being massive, the world has a funny sense of humor and tends to throw people you met before back into your life at unexpected times. As an example, I never expected to meet your father or his beast ever again, but then I found him in the arse end of nowhere over a decade later and got an apprentice out of it.”

She looked wistfully into the distance. “I wonder who else I’ll bump into.”

Mu shook her head to clear it. “Point I’m tryin’ to make is that you gotta try to make connections when you can. Who knows what’ll come of it!”

Willow thought over what Miss Mu had to say, but a problem kept cropping up in his thoughts. “Doesn’t it still hurt to say goodbye to people?”

Mu grinned. “The trick is to never say goodbye! Say you’ll see them again, or wish for your paths to cross once more. If you treat every partin’ as temporary there’s no need to feel sad about it.”

He wasn’t sure it worked like that, but guessed it didn’t hurt to try the next time he made a friend.

And, as always, he had another question for his mentor.

“What about other Wanderers, are any of them friends of yours?” Which made him consider another oddity. “You’d think we would’ve bumped into more of them as we’ve travelled.”

Mu snorted. “I’ve been tryin’ to hide you from the others, remember? I’d rather my comrades not ask too many questions about what makes you so special that I’d take in a random child as my apprentice. It’s been relatively easy to jot down where everyone’s currently stationed and chart a path to avoid them.”

She gave a considering look to the horizon. “However we’ve also been inordinately lucky in that regard since that information isn’t always accurate due to how free spirited the majority of us are. We’ll probably run into some of the others in the next couple of years. If we do then just try to look adorable and not raise too many questions.”

Willow nodded, unsure how he could make himself look adorable, but also not wanting to cause trouble for his mentor.

Though he noted that she hadn’t answered his first question.

His eyes narrowed. “You don’t have any friends either, do you?”

Mu feigned offense, but Willow could tell she didn’t really mind. “I’ll have you know I have more friends than I can count, boyo!” She lied.

She then slouched a bit as the wind was taken out of her sails. “I get along with most of the others in my organization just fine. We just don’t often have reason to interact with one another unless somethin’s gone catastrophically wrong. So I can’t exactly count the other Wanderers as friends. Comrades or siblings in arms, sure, but friends?” She trailed off in thought.

She shook her head and brightened back up. “Do as I say, but not as I do for this one. You should make some friends whenever you can. I’ve heard it’s important for social development or somesuch. It’s probably far too late for me, but I got my beasties and research to keep me occupied.”

Willow nodded hesitantly, but was taking her advice with a pinch of salt. Getting advice on human friendship on someone who had next to no human friends felt doomed to fail.

He did still want to correct her on one final thing.

He gave her a grin. “You also have me!”

That made her pause for a moment before she returned a softer smile.

“Aye, I suppose I do.”