Joe put the issue on the ‘to do’ list but put it aside as he knew he could at least alleviate a bit of Kilniara’s agitation now, “Hey! Look who’s beside the dungeon gate.”
Kilniara looked up at Joe with some confusion before glancing up at the gate to see Gwenvair standing there. She shouted and took off from Joe at a run, “Gwenvair!”
Joe laughed even as the two boys grumbled when she pushed her way between them and she slipped through the crowd easily to arrive at Gwenvair’s side. The two girls began talking to each other, Kilniara excitedly happy and Gwenvair seeming a bit uncomfortable and withdrawn. Despite that, the two seemed to hit it off with each other quite well and the two were soon in deep conversation, giggling with one another, and closely interacting in quiet whispers and meaningful glances. Well… that… makes a lot of sense. Guess we’ll need to find another girl to join our group. That’ll help Kilniara out a lot, I think.
The three boys caught up with Kilniara and Gwenvair, both of whom quickly silenced when the boys drew near, although they did look up at them meaningfully before giggling between themselves. Joe rolled his eyes, recognizing the behavior, but finding it a bit… immature, considering their age… but then again, so was the behavior of Garnedell and Zilnek, well… no… Garnedell makes sense… but not Zilnek… He… Zilnek seemed to be just a bit… younger… or more immature than he expected a guy to be by that age. It was an … incongruous feeling but not something that he really became bothered by because he’d already found that differing cultures on Earth often had differing understandings of maturity and had to struggle with meeting some people who appeared to be very immature to his cultural sensibilities. He also had to struggle in the opposite direction, working on controlling various aspects of his personality and actions that were considered acceptable in his home culture but not where he was living then. It wasn’t… easy.
The two boys waved and said hi when they reached the girls and Joe offered his own hello a few seconds later when he got there and they were all soon in line. This time, they were able to settle in line without making a splash, hiding Gwenvair within the line so that the people there didn’t feel pressured to allow her to go in first. The fuss started when they made it to the front of the line and the guards recognized Gwenvair, all of them in the area quickly bowing towards her when one of them noticed and quickly called out to her. Gwenvair took it well enough, but Joe grimaced and stayed back. Gwenvair ignored it, however, and simply looked at Joe.
Joe sighed, rolled his eyes, then waved at the entrance, “Let’s just go!”
Kilniara giggled at Joe’s actions and Gwenvair actually seemed to have to hide her shock a bit before also joining Kilniara’s giggling. They escaped into the spiral staircase, the boys chuckling after catching the giggles from the girls before all of them were laughing quite loudly as they rushed down the stairs. Joe sighed, shaking his head and said nothing, but that only made Kilniara giggle harder which triggered the rest and Joe had to just endure their laughter as they went ever deeper into the dungeon.
The made the safe area while still in the aftershocks of the giggle attack and Joe sighed again while those in the safe area stared at their laughing group. Joe shook his head and smiled back at them, directing them to the edge.
“Alright… alright. Come on. Let’s go before everyone thinks you’re all crazy!”
This renewed the giggles and they crossed the floor with Joe clearing a path for them until they reached their corner, Joe dropping their bag and food before letting them all rest and recover. It took another couple of minutes or so for the giggles to run their course and Joe’s attempt to start the day almost always just started the giggles again and Joe finally sat down and just let it pass naturally.
When things had calmed down a bit, Joe looked at Gwenvair’s new weapon, asking to see it. He quickly glanced over it before handing it back to Gwenvair, “A new half-staff?”
She nodded quickly, smiling, “Yes. It was a bit harder to find than I thought.”
“It was?”
“Yes. We had many weapons for our guards and warriors, but half-staves are not something we keep, often.”
Joe nodded, “Well, they are rather useless as weapons. A staff would be much better. Are you able to use a staff?”
“As a weapon?”
“Yes.”
“No.”
Joe grunted, grimacing in disgust at the system before sighing at letting it go. He’d had to come to terms with this issue quite a while ago, but it still wasn’t something he really enjoyed. As Joe considered quietly, he heard a soft shuffle to his side and looked over to see Gwenvair looking at him. Joe cocked his head.
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“Yes?”
“I can… use a sword.”
Joe blinked, knit his eyebrows, then sat forward and a little annoyed, “Oh. Why didn’t you... say something about that," Joe took a deep breath and calmed himself, "Sorry about that...”
Gwenvair shrugged, “There is no need for an apology, but I thank you for it. As for the sword, you seemed to be focused on the half staff.”
Joe shrugged then grimaced, "I... was assuming that's all you had... mage and all that..."
"Ah... I see."
Joe stifled a groan and shook his head, “Umm... Please.. Just assume I know nothing and am an idiot. I’m not going to know until you tell me.”
Gwenvair stared at him with some thought before she nodded, a soft smile coming to her face, “Like a brother.”
Joe grinned even more, “Including smacks to the back of my head.”
Gwenvair’s laughter was genuine this time and Joe nodded as he continued, “Good. Then make sure to bring your sword next time… and your half-staff. It’s not a bad idea to learn both… if you can.”
“You are willing?” Gwenvair asked, her smile returning.
“Sure,” Joe offered back.
Gwenvair nodded back, holding his gaze for a moment before turning back to Kilniara and returning to her conversation with Kilniara. Joe noticed and allowed their conversation to go for a bit longer, glad to see their relationship grow and Joe didn’t push to move on. But, after a bit, he couldn’t wait any longer and stood.
Finally, everyone seemed to have calmed down, the boys taking a bit longer than the girls, and Joe called to all of them to get ready. They all nodded, standing for their daily grind. This day went more smoothly with Gwenvair integrating quite well with the groups. This time, Gwenvair did not start off with her mages spell but stepped forward to engage in melee. Every once in a while, she would fire off a quick wind spell, a wind blade similar to yesterday, but only a single one and much more spread out over the course of the day. About half way through the day, Gwenvair had proven much more capable in melee combat and Joe decided to include her into the rotation between the groups after she had shown she could solo the goblins herself.
When Joe had first offered it, Gwenvair had been quite distressed and unwilling to do so, but Kilniara had taken her aside to speak with her softly for a few moments and whatever Kilniara had said had shocked Gwenvair to her core as she seemed quite rattled. The loud shouted ‘what’ had also been a big hint that something was up and Joe turned to look at them as he’d waited for their return rather than pull a goblin for himself.
“What’s wrong? Everything OK?”
Gwenvair turned to stare at him but said nothing as Kilniara giggled beside her and waved away Joe’s concern, “Don’t worry! I just talked to her about some things.”
Joe’s eyebrows furrowed but he nodded and turned away, this time deciding to fight a couple goblins as the two girls seemed to be deep in discussion and Joe had grown tired of waiting. He fought a couple goblins before the girls returned. Joe finished off the one he was on and turned back to Gwenvair and Kilniara. Kilniara was smiling brilliantly, but Gwenvair seemed a bit tense and pale.
“Hey. If you’re not ready to do this, we can skip it. I just thought that you would want to try? The other three were very excited to be able to fight the monsters.”
Gwenvair glanced up at him then over at Kilniara before she nodded. She opened her mouth to say something but then stopped, shaking her head. Kilniara came forward to place a hand on her shoulder, offering her comfort and encouragement.
“Don’t worry. It’s quite easy and Joe will keep you safe.”
Gwenvair glanced at Kilniara and sighed before she looked up and Joe and nodded, face firming in determination even as the fear remained, “Alright. I am willing to attempt this.”
Joe hid a smile at Gwenvair’s stilted speech as it appeared her natural defense was to speak quite appropriately. Joe didn’t bring it up and simply nodded, “Right. I’ll smack a goblin and have it run towards us. All you have to do is start hitting it. When you do, it will probably turn towards you. Just remember what you’ve seen and what I’ve taught; defend when you see it hit, then hit it back. It will take you a bit to get it, but these goblins are pretty dumb and easy to fight once you find their pattern. Ready?”
Gwenvair looked up at him, staring, and almost seemed to be frozen and Joe simply waited before her. She remained frozen for a time before she shuddered and finally nodded her head. Joe smiled, attempting to encourage her, before nodding and turning towards the nearest goblin, using his favorite goblin calling tool, a stick.
The goblin, as usual, screeched in rage before picking up the stick and charging at them all. Joe stepped back and to the side so that Gwenvair would have a clean shot before raising his spear, preparing to defend. He’d almost been hit the first time he did this as none of them seemed to have the right reaction or timing to smack the goblin off of him. He ended up having to defend a couple strikes before the others had stepped in to hit it. It didn’t seem that Gwenvair would be much different.
The goblin came and began to swing its stick wildly at Joe. Joe blocked a half dozen strikes before looking over at Gwenvair to see her standing there frozen in a bit of fear. Joe continued blocking the goblin before he finally called out to Gwenvair.
“Hey. Hey! It’s OK! Look. Does it look like I’m having a hard time with this?”
Gwenvair didn’t respond, but glanced up at Joe then seemed to actually focus on the fight. Joe, seeing that she seemed to actually be aware of her surroundings now, began to act up a bit, putting on a bit of a comedy routine so as to calm her.
“See? It’s not that hard,” Joe said as he did a rough pirouette before just barely blocking another swipe of the goblin’s stick. He then began to dance while blocking and ended up doing some really, really ridiculous and downright foolish movements that would have gotten him killed in almost any other situation, but hopefully would calm Gwenvair. Joe’s antics, however, seemed to only amaze Gwenvair, and not calm her. As Joe continued, she seemed to only become more concerned, not more relaxed. After another few moments, Gwenvair did not calm and Joe finally stopped as his concern for her reaction grew. Finally, Joe stopped blocking and just let the goblin beat on him. Joe hid his grimace when the stick slapped across his thighs, leaving a slight sting which quickly disappeared as his system HP took the damage. He quickly looked at his status and saw that the damage was quite minimal, his HP already climbing back up. It didn’t reach full before the goblin hit him again and he noticed that he was losing about five HP per hit, but was regaining three or four before the goblin could hit him again.