Corvayne woke and stepped out into the morning air. He almost ducked back into his tent the moment his whole body was goosed with a frigid breeze. If not for Kirae selling him her grandmother's goat blanket they would have found a frozen body in his tent. That and a snoring elf maiden. He turned to watch Hari roll over on the ground mattress and steal the rest of his blanket.
Looking at the patterned blanket, he was pretty sure it was a completely new one from a different village, but fleecing somebody seemed to make Kirae happy and they had entirely too much gold and nothing to actually spend it on outside of tower runs.
He took a moment and caught a steady breathing pattern between Hari snoring. Princess Bell was still asleep, and he wouldn't wake her until it was closer to The Spider's time to run. Corvayne pulled his cloak tighter and walked a little ways over on the rise, looking at the trio of moons as they started to set. The glittering one was catching the sun unseen sun and flashed in blazing orange lines against the purple sky.
Corvayne took a deep breath of clean air. If not for the cold he would be happy as could be staring at the long horizon of the plains, broken by bits of wall and little dips that the streams had carved out. The only better place to watch sunrise might be the peak of the source itself. Corvayne walked back towards the camp and flipped his fire-breathing dagger out along with some wood from his ring, let his shadow hands arrange it, then produced a camp kettle and got water boiling.
Lady Blood Claw emerged from her tent. She was wearing a sweater and wool pants and had silver hair tied up in a bun for once, letting Corvayne see that yes, she did have sharp ears. She noticed him looking and for a moment was dark blue before she went gray and produced a blanket and camp chair from a bag of holding she had found on one of the adventurers. In a moment she was settled in by the fire.
“Morning Corvayne.” She said, then pointedly looked over at where the sky was brightening. The clouds were tinged with maroon as they started catching the first rays of sun.
“Hey Lady. Thanks for helping, again.”
“I don't think she's getting better.” Lady Blood Claw tilted her head to the third tent.
“Rome wasn't built in a day. Give me another week, at least.” Corvayne took the kettle and a packet of powdered Coco Golem that Mosh had made. Once again, the team with Ears had risked life and limb and done something incredible when they dragged a literal chocolate golem out of the dungeon. It was odd to think of the giant pile of stones as their larder, but the results spoke for themselves. He produced another cup mixed some of his packet in, then offered it to Lady Blood Claw.
“I hate sweet stuff.” she muttered but accepted anyway, Corvayne assumed because the steaming beverage was hot.
Mister I wandered by the campsite, as did Grunt, both carrying fishing tackle. Grunt came over and Corvayne got a third mug out.
“Hey Grunt. You don't mind that we scare away the fish, do you?”
The big man mused, and with his free hand gestured at Mister I, then at Corvayne, and closed his eyes, looking satisfied, then sheepishly rubbed his head then mock glared at Corvayne: I enjoy it as much for the company as anything else, but don't go blabbing about that, got it?
Corvayne smiled, sensing the joke, then drew his pinched fingers across his mouth: my lips are sealed bud.
Grunt laughed silently then turned to Lady Blood Claw, and gave a sharp look at the third tent.
LBC sighed. “She is following the rules, so far. But the only time she can sit still is when we use Mend on her.”
Corvayne noted that other people seemed to receive more pronounced soothing effects from the divine power then he did. That or he didn't notice it smoothing over trauma. He chose to think that Mister I and Mosh's divine healing was more notable when a person didn't have as tight a grip on their feelings as Corvayne did. He sipped his drink as the sun rose.
“She gets very frustrated when she fails. Feels like a trope sometimes.” Corvayne had to be careful about Bell overhearing him, as he couldn't switch languages even though he knew them and could tell them apart. When he spoke, everyone understood him all at once even if he wanted to not be understood. Unless he picked specific words and phrases that Bell couldn't sift through.
Bell pushed her flap open and stepped out into the air, wearing thick rough robes. She put her chin up and ignored Corvayne and Lady Blood Claw, sitting at the other end of the fire as if they didn't exist.
“Good morning Bell.” Corvayne offered her a cup. “Hot Coco?”
She ignored him for a moment until he lowered the cup at a point were she could look without turning her head. “I don't drink muddy water.”
“It's sweet.” Corvayne wiggled the cup but kept his face and tone neutral.
“I don't need your charity.”
“I'll set it down on this rock here and ignore it for a while. Anyway, Lady Blood Claw, Bell... we're going to do our run, then fish for a while, then Spears will take over for me while I go with Wick to translate the murals they found in The Source's nose.”
Lady Blood Claw and Bell both chimed in with two different languages, “That's a dumb name.”
Corvayne shrugged, and tossed another piece of wood into the fire. “Blame Kirae. She came up with it.”
LBC sipped from her cup. “I'd need you as a go between to yell at her.”
“Or Mosh or Spears.” Corvayne added, pretending he didn't hear the scrape of the cup being pulled off the rock or a slight hiss suggesting Bell drank too fast and had singed her tongue.
“Are we going to forage for breakfast?” Lady Blood Claw looked back over at the source.
“I'll let Bell decide. Forage, boil a monster egg, eat with the group?”
Bell glared at him and Corvayne sighed. “I'm not asking you to stick your hand in a sand-wolf's mouth, I'm asking if you want to have hot breakfast.”
No response, so Corvayne sighed and decided for them. “Group then.”
Watching her gradually start to follow him and LBC as they walked back to the truck, he wondered if he was going bring her into the unit by forcing her to rub shoulders with people or if he was just going to bribe her with food the entire way.
He sat down at a table where he could sit with Hari, Wick, and Spears, with Bell at the far end. Their makeshift camp outside the black spire had expanded with lights, better tables made of stone, and exterior freezers made by Mosh and Varia and Horton from machine enemies that Growl-Whine had brought back.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
There was a row of stone pickets being put up, via earth magic, around the island in the streams they were on. There were gaps and ramps in the picket for the truck to leave forward or backwards. Lady Blood Claw had told him she was enchanting those pylons to help light up the area so it would be harder to sneak up on the truck. He could see a few glowing a faint purple.
Wick looked at him while peeling an orange that looked like it had a screaming face on the rind. “So, is it true what they say about red-heads in bed?”
Corvayne rolled his eyes. “Don't even joke about it.”
Spears looked between them. “Joke about what?”
Corvayne didn't merit the question with a response as he kept his eye on Bell and her fork, mostly to make sure she didn't try to lunge across the table at one of the girls rather than attack him. To her credit, she only glared at him a little and then settled into eating a monster omelet.
Hari pointed her fork at a bit of pepper in her omelet. “You know, we got these veggies from Growl-Whine's friend in the Tower? I think they are like monster versions of food.”
Wick thought about it. “That's from the dungeon that's a garden, right?”
“I want to see if we can do some agriculture in the lowest level, but I don't know if we'll be here long enough.” Hari said, putting a pinch of pickled pine needles on her omelet.
Bell narrowed her eyes. “Is she... eating quills?”
Corvayne nodded and swallowed the bite he was chewing. “They don't taste good. It's like eating soap.”
Hari laughed. “Corvayne, you told me stories about eating slimy monster parts in the desert to get water all the time.”
Wick leaned over and whispered something to Hari, and the elf laughed while Spears face turned red with embarrassment.
“What?” Corvayne asked.
Hari used a hand to cover her smile. “Nothing!”
Wick just wiggled her eyebrows. Spears was wiggling in her chair. “Corvayne, your wives are perverts!”
Bell looked between them all. “Are they all fawning over... YOU?”
Corvayne shrugged though she annoyed him a little by sounding incredulous. “I'm dating two of them. The watery girl grew up with me and may be my fiancee, but I think it was arranged under duress.”
Wick laughed. “Corvayne, you know she asked if she could sleep with you?”
Spears stood up. “Wick! Please don't give him the wrong idea! I fell asleep once when I was near him, and with the curse I can't usually sleep without getting drunk or drugging myself!”
Hari frowned. “What she said, also Seru would be a better person to let into his tent!”
Corvayne finished his meal and stood up. “Ahem. Let me know if I get a say about it.”
Wick sighed. “Jokes aside, I'm fine as long as one of us is there to keep you honest. Spears needs sleep too.”
Hari crossed her hands. “Him I mostly trust to not do anything.” She shot a look at Corvayne as if to say she was sorry about praising his self control, then turned back to Wick. “Can we trust you around her?”
Wick pointed at herself innocently.
Hari cried out. “Yes, YOU!”
Spears was hiding her face with her hands. Behind her, Corvayne saw Seru bringing her plate and camp stool over, perhaps having heard her name.
Corvayne looked over at Bell and rolled his hands. “If you don't mind eating faster...”
Bell looked at him, and seeing the girls had started arguing she curled her lips into a smile and started deliberately cutting tiny bits of egg off and chewing them slowly as possible while Seru sat down between them.
Corvayne signed. “Damnit.”
Corvayne stayed out of the bickering about his love life and motioned for Bell to follow once she tired of the act and finished eating.
“Going to lay your claim on me too now, you pig?”
Corvayne shook his head. “Your opinions of both me and your own appeal make me doubt you pay much attention to others, but... I was going to say that you were doing a good job being patient while trying to make me suffer through them arguing.”
“Hmf. I am my own master.”
“You are not. Catch some fish, and we'll see.”
“Why? It's stupid. We sit there. Getting stronger? No. Finding Treasure? No. Learning secrets? No. We sit there. Doing. Absolutely. Nothing.”
“Yes. It's perfect training for someone who has no impulse control.”
“Oh such dry mockery from the man who divides his heart to multiply his pleasures.”
Corvayne stopped for a moment and thought about it. “Indeed. I have my own problems with impulses when I'm tired or drunk. Which is why the girls were arguing about who to toss into my bed, when the answer for who else I'd want is 'nobody'.”
Bell snorted. “You cannot hide you bask in the slimy girls attention.”
“I'm trying to... reclaim a friendship and... she's alone. Everyone she and I knew is gone. What about you? Any friends going to come to your rescue? Don't give me that look, I'm really asking.”
“Hmf. When armies come marching on you, looking for your head... if you beg me for mercy now I might spare you.”
“I am really asking, do you have a husband... or a wife?”
“What did you say? WIFE? Do I look like an elf?”
“I come from a world where nobody really cares who you want to sleep with. I mean, given that they can agree to it.”
Bell laughed. “They still care, they just hide it I bet. Like elves do. Two girls than, with more around you. Do you have designs on the Drow too?”
“She's not an elf.”
“Sharper ears then your eyes, peasant.”
They arrived at the Fishing spot and Corvayne used the excuse to cut her off. “No, and it's time to fish. I want you to be quiet, calm, deliberate. I don't care if you want to glare at me. Just sit still doing nothing while you plot my death.”
She picked a rock on the far side from camp across the stream and mini-lake. She took a moment to look behind her, perhaps checking for wandering monsters but more likely thinking of if she could escape. Corvayne sat and put his rod in the water, letting his mind drift as he watched a cork lure bob. He hadn't bated his line yet as Mister I had enough meat to feed a hundred for a few weeks as-is. He instead let his eyes play across the ripples near where his line vanished into the water.
Grunt beat Mister I to the fishing hole, sitting next to Corvayne and pointing up and giving him a thumbs up to say: Nice weather. He was wearing a large shirt with a metal band logo on it that strained to keep his huge form contained. In his hands the rod he was holding looked dainty but he cast it expertly after attaching a worm and waited.
“Hey Grunt.”
Grunt nodded.
“Is this thing with Bell here a waste of time?”
Grunt shook his head. He gestured to the wide world, then back at the truck, and then at Bell. He reached over, and flipped a rock over and raised an eyebrow at it.
“You sort of told me to go with different girls before... I guess because you think it's good to meet lots of different people?”
Grunt nodded, and held up an arm.
“Oh, I know it will make me tougher... maybe because of stress though.”
Grunt pointed at himself and make his 'bad-guy' face. Then pointed between him and Corvayne and made a 'good guy' face.
“I suppose you're right, though I struggle to think of anyone who thinks you're an actual bad guy if they get to know you.”
Grunt nodded and pointed at Bell, who was looking around and fidgiting.
“Find the good in her, huh? Well, I'm trying, but it's like...”
Grunt made a full belly motion, then a cradling motion, then mimed holding someones hand. He held up a hand for a moment and started reeling in his rod, pulling up... an empty hook. He shrugged, then started again up to miming chewing bubble gum and rolling his eyes.
“Calling her an angsty teen, or like, a kid I have to raise? She's a middle age woman though. She's a white elephant the adventurers guild dumped on us.”
Grunt motioned to his skin. Then tapped his head and his heart. Corvayne nodded. “I'll look inside, but maybe get Mister I to mend her?”
“Sure!” Mister I chirped, startling Corvayne a moment as the older man had managed to sneak up on him. Mister Icariii was in full fishing gear, a smile plastered on his face as he tipped his fly-lure adorned hat. “I'd like to see if it affects her personality given she likely acts like that from either trauma or attention deficit disorder!”
Grunt made a hand motion as if he was cranking something. Corvayne tried to guess. “Something outdated?”
Mister I tisked. “I only have very old copies of the mind-fixing books Grunt! They call it something nicer now. But yes, I think it's a good exercise for you Corvayne! I'm surprised you decided to do it on your own!”
He felt a little embarassed now that it had come out in the open with Grunt and Mister I. “I should have asked you two for help.”
“Yes! The lesson was learning to ask.” Mister I said, already pulling his rod back with a little fish monster attached. He looked at the fish, then Corvayne. “But before we help you...” He pointed one of his hands to the next bank of a stream, where a wet Bell was running with poor form away from camp.
Corvayne looked at his fishing line as it jerked from a nibble, then back up at bell. “Huh, I should probably catch her.”