Abnormalities.  Tunnel-vision. Ever missed something in plain sight?  Something, that when you sit and think, you feel wierd to have missed it in the first place? Especially when your in a hurry or in a high stress situation, somethings don't add up but you brush it aside for something more important. Sometimes we become oblivious to the obvious.

Eian's day was pretty shitty. Alex had been tasked with the role of guarding the entrance first, battle ready while everyone rested. Sarah had lit a leg of an extra table and Alex had replaced one of the burnt out torches on the wall with it. Sarah was sitting on wooden chair with her head on her arm, on the tome-table in-front of her. Jessica was laying down on a table with one of the wizards only two pillows, she was covering her eyes with her arm. Sarah had the annoying habit of tapping the table with a finger on her spare hand and Jessica was moving her body, adjusting herself to be comfortable on her table every minute.

Eia felt full of engery, his tattoo reading body had finally normalized and he thought that was the source of energy as first. His head hurt, but he felt that was left-over injury from his cracked skull. His arms ached badly and when he moved them, he realized that they were slightly numb. As the most injured member of the group, he was told to lay in bed. He had removed all the uncomfortable leather he had been wearing. Alex had healed his injuries own quickly, the ratio for self healing was truly unfair in Eian's mind.

"Alex, pass me some food please." Eian asked, his belly was starving, maybe that was it.

"Sure thing man." Alex said and he hastily grabbed some meat and took it to Eian.

Maybe he needed water now? Eian lay in bed and once more closed his eyes attempting to sink into sweet oblivion. Nothing. Nothing happened, he felt his head throb, but couldn't fall asleep. Was he stressed or something? That seemed likely with all his injuries and experience.

Thinking over it how had he been able to keep going for all that time. The fights were so stressful, quick, but stressful. Like an intense sport that tires you out in a few minutes. Not that he ever did much sports, but when he did he was usually dead tired in the first hour. Was it the tattoo's tranformations making him more athletic? Did it increase him stamina reserves so much?

"Ah. Fuck." Eian muttered aloud.

"You too?" Sarah asked.

"What's up?" Alex asked off-handed.

"Ugh. Be quiet please, Sarah your tapping is annoying." Jessica muttered from her table.

"mmmm" Sarah said.

"You all okay?" Alex asked.

"Shh... Please I'm trying to sleep." Jessica moaned.

Silence stretched for a while, half an hour passed.

"People. Gather up." Sarah ordered.

"Ugh." Jessica moaned.

"What?" Alex asked.

"What?" Eian asked as well.

"I don't think we can sleep." Sarah declared, Eian stayed silent.

"What? Why not?" Alex asked, perplexed.

"Are you in a hurry to be somewhere? Because believe me, I want to get out even more than you." Jessica said.

"No. I mean, I don't think any of us can physically drop asleep." Sarah declared.

Everyone took that in.

"I was asleep a while ago." Eian said furrowing his brow, which caused his skull to throb.

"You were knocked unconcious. That's likely different." Sarah said.

"What exactly do you mean?" Alex asked, unsure as to what she meant.

"You think we're sick?" Jessica whispered slightly worried.

"No. I mean Magic's real. So maybe we don't need sleep anymore." Sarah explained with some confidence.

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"I don't feel very tired, either." Eian put in.

"But. I have a power that heals being tired. What's the point if we can't get tired?" Alex asked perplexed.

"Maybe it's for normal people." Sarah said unsure.

"What about me? I don't have magic?" Jessica questioned, confused.

"You have the tattoo's, maybe thats it?" Sarah replied waivering.

"So. Your saying I'll never dream again?" Eian asked horrified at the possibility.

"I'm more worried if we can keep it up and not die. I'll ask my guide next time, she didn't seem too worried." Sarah said strangely.

"Don't worry if anything. I can just heal our brains or something, to make sure we stay healthy. It doesn't matter, look at the bright side, now you can do so many things you've always wanted to do instead of sleeping." Alex said smiling.

"Maybe we can use knockout gas or some type of magic to get some sleep sometimes." Sarah mused aloud.

"So... what do we do now?" Eian asked, feeling horrified to never dream of grilled lobster and other more ....fantasic-stuff.

"Me and Alex still need time to get back some of our 'spiritual stamina', but after that we should eat and then go." Sarah said.

Eian took that advice to heart. He was munching every few minutes ever since his red tattoo stopped glowing. His muscles definately looked very muscular now and he though he might even be a bit above Alex in muscle mass. He had zero fat now however, he could see abs, which was a massive boost to his ego. None of his muscles felt wobbly or watery, everything was tough, defined and manly. A couple more and he'd give celerities a run for their money.

Appearently Jessica's mind tattoo also stopped glowing sometime. Eian had to wait for Alex to heal his skull and his arms a while too. It all took an hour to full recovery. Eian was tasked to using his magic for utility, as it had no direct combat use at the moment. Eian dug a small rough latrine just outside the room and they covered it with some of the tables for privacy. Magic tomes, appearently did not matter in the face of natures needs, much to the delight of everyone, especially Jessica.

The only thing was they needed to go out to collect water dripping from stalagmites nearby. The whole group went as a whole armed to the teeth for any encounters. Eian crafted a bowl to catch it in and a few stone gourds to store it. The gourds were a handful to carry, though it wouldn't matter. They used a piece of leather, as a stopper to prevent them from leaking. The whole thing took Eian about two hours of light but continious labor. Alex had helped throughtout, simply moving stones or carrying things.

"Eian. Could you reinforce this area?" Sarah asked pointing at the doorway.

"Sure. I don't see why not, but aren't we leaving?" Eian asked.

"Yes, but I want to at least have a place to recover, incase we can't get out soon. Make a barrel for water too." Sarah said.

Eian quickly reinfored the door, making the opening so small, they could only comfortable fit sideways. The barrel was inconsequential and he did it in a few minutes. Eian took stock of their equipment: two winged long-spears, two short-spears, a dagger, two shields, Sarah's death staff, his ring, a shirt stuffed with cooked meat, another bloody shirt with nothing, and the two make-shift leather suits Eian and Sarah wore. They decided to rest and recover for an extra two hours.

"So Eian man. Do you party?" Alex asked Eian out of the blue.

"Huh? Where did that come from?" Eian asked.

"Just wondering. I'm bored man." Alex said.

"Well...yeah. I do, but not much. My mom and I emigrated, so we're kinna paranoid of getting in trouble. Plus I don't dance." Eian explained.

"Oh thats cool man. Maybe I'll take you out for a beer sometime." Alex smiled.

"..Thanks. As long as it's not to anything crazy." Eian smiled at the thought.

"Nah. I feel you might like James, everyone likes James." Alex said and his smile looked nostalgic.

"You boys planning your wedding already?" Jessica joked.

"Screw you." Eian laughed along with Alex.

"You wish." Jessica rolled her eyes.

"What about you guys?" Eian asked them.

"I do with my friends." Alex said.

"Only with a lot of friends." Jessica answered plainly.

"Almost never." Sarah declared.

"So what do you do?" Eian asked Sarah, wondering at her silence.

"Read." Sarah said simply.

"Cool. What do you read?" Eian continued.

"...A little of everything. Fantasy, Mystery, Science." Sarah elaborated.

"Comics?" Alex asked.

"No." Sarah responded.

"Romance? Drama?" Jessica wondered looking at her.

"A little..." Sarah replied looking uncomfortable.

They stopped chatting and an awkward silence ensued. By the end the two hours they packed everything and set out towards the part of the last fight. Sarah lit two green-fire balls, the slightly bigger one clearly hovered over her new staff. They passed the jail and arrived at the large open space. It took them rougly half an hour. The many bones were still distinctly creepy. Shortly afterwards a they heard a howling.

Eian braced himself and took the brunt of the regular-sized dog-eared albino monster's tackle. He was pushed back, but he bearly managed to stay on his feet. He stabbed at it randomly constantly. Alex circled around and sent a few stabs its way. It turned to face Alex, when Eian saw a green-fire-ball collide into it visibly sending it staggering sideways. The second blew it to the ground in an impressive impact.

Eian was almost slaw-jawed, but remembered it wasn't dead. Even if it was charring up quickly and howling in pain. It attempted to get up and Eian stabbed at its skull, silencing it. Eian looked at the dead cooked monster. He quickly kicked it's skull, petty? Maybe, but who cares. They encountered the alpha-beast's corpse partly eaten on the ground, where they had left it.

"The green fire-balls are definately more effective." Eian said happy he had better fire-support literally.

"The staff definately had an effect on the second on too." Sarah smiled.

"Good job, Sarah." Alex said congratulatory.

Jessica stayed silent. They encountered a passage-way continuing the main tunnel and another veering off to the left. They kept going foward.