Corvayne woke up in an unfamiliar room in the apartment building. He got up from a few blankets thrown on the floor and looked over at where Hari had passed out on the bed, still wearing what looked like a shimmering silver cocktail dress. Whatever Seru had put her through, she had snuck into his new room and fallen asleep in between Wick kicking him out of her apartment and him taking a long jog to clear his head.
The entire run last night his body had felt stiff and it was the first time he could remember being tired after only a mile, but he toughed out running out to Dawn's Tower and around then back along the bay. He had spotted Dawn's sniper Nepthia up on a ledge six stories up. She had given him a little salute which he gave back, then ended his jog by the noodle stand, thanking Miss Ayame for the help in stopping Argyle.
The noodle lady had waved his thanks away. “Oh you of all people can't thank little old me! There was a thing Wick sent out, asking for us all to leave, and all about this Argyle fellow and you know, a bunch of us at first went along, but we met with some police officers who Miss Innas had spoken to over in Ko-Ban. She mentioned you too, and when I told her about the stand here she said she liked the food! The daughter of one of the lords ate take out from my noodle stand, can you believe that? Well, we all had this feeling that Wick needed help, and a lot of folks who had been running the dungeon came out and heard about people coming after Wick, and it was like all of Old Town just... we all just knew we were needed. Like, a gut feeling. We all went back, and it was weird because the whole time I didn't think I'd have it in me to fight. I mean, I knew from what you said that those monks were dangerous, but I got all worked up and it was like, we all knew what to do. After the whole thing went down I thought what I did was crazy! How nobody died last night was a miracle!”
Corvayne then had no choice but to accept a freebie, which extended in the next minute, through some sort of social Ju-Jitsu, to him offering to act as a ringer for her and some other people from Old Town who wanted to try a dungeon. He had been walking up to the door into the community center when Lady Blood Claw intercepted him, having come from the other direction.
“Are you feeling better? Are you ready to train?” She wavered between a teal and green skin shade and lemony yellow, which were colors he couldn't remember if he had pinned down or not, maybe a mix of concern and impatience to train.
Corvayne had taken a moment to breath in and out. “A bit. Not ready to spar... it would be a poor fight.”
She followed him into the center. “Is there something wrong?”
Corvayne stopped and looked back at her, and while he was trying to explain that he was angry and tired and felt like crap and really wanted to be left alone, she held up a hand.
“I know that look. I will not bother you until you are rested. When you feel a little better, come find me, alright?”
He was extremely thankful that she had enough awareness to cut herself off after three questions.
James Brines, on the other hand, picked right up before he could get into the apartment lobby from the center, and badgered him in a weird aggressively friendly way to agree to fill in, in place of Grunt, as a ringer for when he tried a dungeon with friends. Corvayne actually wanted to throw him through a wall when, after what felt like twenty minutes of being held hostage in the conversation, he realized Brines was going with Ayame's group and he had been hard-sold on doing something he was going to do anyway!
So, he wasn't entirely sad that Hari was asleep on his bed when he got to his new room on Mister I's side. He didn't want to try to welcome her back when he felt like garbage, and was tired, and sore, and surly. He just grabbed some of the spare bedding Mister I kept in the room, removed the wrapping and mothballs, then tossed on the wood floor so he could pass out.
He had been awake then a half hour before he stopped thinking about last night and Wick yelling at him, looking out the window at a mix between morning light and rain clouds. He turned and considered jumping into bed next to Hari and letting her own brand of 'waking up' take it's course, but the elf liked to sleep in and he was in a weird spot where he was waiting for some sort of party or celebration or catharsis triggered from beating Argyle and was getting frustrated that it was just Sunday and he felt like crap and he had pissed Wick off.
So he opened the fridge, saw there was nothing in there aside from a jar of sauerkraut that looked fossilized, and shut it. He grabbed his last non-torn shirt and a wad of credits out of his ring, then slipped into his well worn boots and took his spear with him, not that he expected trouble going to the corner market, but it just felt better to have it on hand.
The grocer who ran the store nearest the community center had a dozen monster eggs for about ten times the price of regular eggs. He was about to pay for a basket of ingredients when the man behind the counter mentioned he was looking to become a general crafter with portal materials and Corvayne felt the first turn around from a bad mood as he successfully haggled the man into accepting four of the mithral flechettes in exchange for breakfast. It brought to his mind the old saying: A good deal is one where both parties think they ripped the other guy off.
While Mister I didn't stock food in the spare apartment, he had plenty of lightly used cookware. Corvayne made eggs, bacon, and toast. Hari woke to the smell of bacon but acted like she needed help getting out of bed. The sneaky elf used him pulling her up to steal a kiss, but was successfully leveraged into breakfast before she demanded they test the shower in his new quarters. Rigorously.
Corvayne felt better after the shower. Hari's luggage had ended up in his room, which he didn't complain about as he watched her get dressed in a frilly tunic and a pair of more contemporary black leggings. She then slipped on an adventurer's belt with her daggers and grabbed a small leather backpack, then tied her hair into a bandana rather then braid it. He threw his own clothes on pretty quickly. He still needed to go shopping for something aside from his black slacks and shirt, but he didn't feel like it today.
“I was going to go visit Grunt at the warehouse, and just do something fun.” He only paused for a half beat. “I mean, another fun thing. I don't think she'll want to come, but I was going to ask if you and Wick wanted to come along.”
“Ah, wouldn't we get in the way if you're hanging out with your buddy?” Hari asked.
“I think you're part of my group of friends too...” He saw her look and held a hand up. “I mean, you are also in addition to being my...” Corvayne suddenly got embarrassed by how enthusiastic Hari was about him finishing that sentence.
“... Girlfriend.” He did not want to use lover for some reason, it felt awkward like grabbing a spear when someone was within arms reach with a knife.
Hari seemed pretty happy by what he said anyway, sweeping him into a hug and planting kisses until he got his arms free to guide her out of his room. He wasn't surprised Hari was a yes for coming along. Wick, on the other hand, didn't respond to him knocking two times. Hari tried pitching in too.
“Yohoo, it is your elvish lovebird, waiting for my little angry parrot to swing sweet songs into my cage!”
Corvayne saw her look a little sad that Wick didn't come out for her either. He stopped by the clinic to ask Mister I to check up on her, and the monk nodded and waved him off.
“She took some of my breakfeast so she's fine. Go out, she'll be there and probably better tomorrow when we sit down to talk.”
Corvayne and Hari made their way to the warehouse. The place was still a wreck, thought he could see someone had dropped off a pile of sheet metal to start patching holes in the walls. Corvayne didn't bother ringing, as the wrecked fence wasn't going to bother anything smaller then an elephant. The inside of his former home showed a basic effort to start moving rubble out of the main isle. He found Grunt by following rock and roll coming out of an old radio. He was starting the process of sorting out rocks, but he wasn't so absorbed that he didn't notice the two of them and smiled and waved.
Corvayne grinned back. “Good to see you Grunt. I was worried when I didn't see you during the fight that he had got the jump on you.”
Grunt just knocked his shoulder to say: I'm tough as heck.
Hari looked around. “You are busy? Corvayne to, ah, Corvayne wants TO hang out.”
Grunt smiled at her, then set a stone down and shrugged. He gestured at various messes including metal containers wedged at a 45 degree angle, broken sheets of Cascadian Jasper spilling out of another, huge holes in the wall of the warehouse leaking rain onto the concrete floor, a wrecked loader that looked like a crumpled up yellow spider, up at the broken window to the break room (which made Corvayne wince a little. Sorry Grunt!), and over at an office where a bamboo urchin had demolished just about everything. After sweeping his hand around, he made a fingers-walking-fast motion then followed up by crossed arms, then a shrug: I mean, this isn't going anywhere soon so, what's up?
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Corvayne pointed to the back. “If your bikes were okay, I was going to ask if we could ride them? I've seen some other people doing it.”
Grunt brightened, and motioned for them to follow. The garage was, it turned out, mostly intact. He had put a tarp over a hole in the wall, and Corvayne could see where Argyle had dented the roof trying to smash him, but all the stuff inside was intact and Grunt lead them over to his bikes.
Hari looked at them and nodded sagely. “I see. It's like a hover cycle but I don't see how it stays stable...”
Corvayne thought that was the natural reaction to seeing a bike, despite what Wick had said!
Grunt hefted one down and rode it in a circle, and while seeing his huge form on the bike was sort of amusing, it was pretty impressive how he rode without wobbling. Corvayne took a bike down, and tried to emulate what Grunt did but instead wobbled and fell over slowly enough that he had time to dart a leg out to catch himself. He tried a few times to ride like Grunt had, then stepped off the bike.
Hari looked at it and looked up at him, saying “What's wrong with this 'Hover bike'?” in elvish except the last word. Corvayne enjoyed her switch from the elves eloquent language to the more stilted Cascadian loan word.
“It's leg powered, and it doesn't have a stabilizer. It's a regular bike, without the hover.” Corvayne said, looking at the gears and wires that were connected to the pedal.
Hari looked at it, then Corvayne. “So you and Mosh will fix it?”
“No, I think people just ride these as-is here.” Corvayne got on the bike, and saw Grunt motioning for him to pedal quickly or speed up. Corvayne adjusted gravity a little and tried speeding up despite his sense of balance going haywire, and found he stabilized for just a moment before he started rocking and hit the ground, scraping his elbow a little.
Hari rushed over to help him up. Corvayne looked at the toppled bicycle then over at Grunt, who seemed very amused.
“I might add a stabilizer.”
Grunt called in a helper for the task of teaching them to ride a bike. Brines saw Hari and was shocked to recognize she was the girl on Seru's feed who looked like an elf.
“I am elf.” She stated and huffed a little, which set Brines to saying that he was sorry and didn't mean it was a bad thing and that it was really insensitive of him and it's not about race and it says something about his own experience that he thought of that first and so on.
Hari put a hand out. “Hari Silkbloom, of the Stillwater tribe. Nice to meet you.” Corvayne felt she spoke rather smoothly when it was a simple phrase.
Brines took the hand and shook it with both of his. “Oh! James Brines. Cascadian old money. Council member of Old Town too!”
Hari beamed. “Ah! Jimmy is very important!”
“Oh only my pals call me Jimmy, so please by all means!” He laughed. “So Grunt explained to me over the phone you guys need to learn to ride a bike!”
Corvayne stared at him until he mimed texting. Ah. Okay.
Corvayne nodded. “It's hard to watch what I'm doing and watch Grunt's hands and get what he's talking about.”
“Oh well I owe you a mountain for both the training and that you're willing to come with my group out of Old Town to act as a guide!”
Corvayne nodded. “Well, I was considering doing that to make credits. I enjoy teaching people after all, and I have very few skills aside from fighting.”
Saying that made him think of Wick urging him to never build a warp drive. He nodded a little. Yep. It definitely wouldn't have neatly solved their problem with Argyle to warp off world... He'd have to talk to Wick about it as they would need a way of skipping out on town without having to get beaten nearly to death at the dock or space port or running from bounties in the tower. Not that he was entirely blameless on deciding to stand his ground this time, as he had wanted to give his goal of protecting Wick solid progress. Maybe that hadn't quite happened with how close the battle had been.
He refocused when he heard Hari's high pitched cry and saw her wobble with Brines grabbing the back of the bike to try to help her stay upright. Brines actually was a pretty good instructor on the finer points of non-hover bikes, helping Hari first then Corvayne get confident at going quick enough to not fall over, then guiding them on how to use the breaks. After fifteen minutes it looked like Hari was just as confident as Corvayne was that they wouldn't slam into a wall. Hari pointed her nose in the air just as Grunt came back with a large cooler bag, the steam and smell teasing them with the promise of a greasy take out picnic if they could master their bikes.
It was turning into a day, as outside the rain had passed, leaving reflective puddles and a mostly sunny sky. They set out slowly, Corvayne less willing then Hari to trust that the device he was on could handle all the bumps and potholes on Old Town's poorly maintained roads. Grunt was riding a bike with much thicker wheels and just barreled through them, no worse for balance as he bobbed up and down.
Brines followed them a mile then veered off with a wave, having some other task to do in Old Town. That left the three of them to bike, riding on the intact side of the low bridge out to Ko-Ban and taking the ramp down to the lake path, grass still fried where the hell dog had incinerated the park. Corvayne was wary of riding through Bone Dog territory but there was no sign of the gang as they followed the lake shore path around to a ramp that gently pulled them onto a bridge running just under the freeway to the next island north. Mare island was a little less urban, but Grunt had them stay on the raised bike path under the freeway, letting them look at tree lined streets and little intersections where old steel and glass structures capped the corners. There was a crowd over by a park forming a line with little clumps by a stone stairway, probably the new dungeon entrance.
Grunt took a two minute break to pass out water at North Mere island, staying on the raised path, giving them a commanding view from about fifty feet up, only hedged by freeway and the ubiquitous train tracks winding along the roads. Corvayne watched the waves in the sound drift by until Grunt rang his bike bell, and they followed the bridge and tracks to Dolphin island, veering away from the freeway to a downhill section where the bikes built up speed alarmingly fast. Corvayne gritted his teeth while Hari was laughing, perhaps not as worried about all the trees and signs and benches they were flying by.
When his bike had slowed, Corvayne caught the glint of something black and shiny, and looked to the side and saw what looked like an obsidian building, near the top of the hill that formed the 'spine' of dolphin islands north side. It was maybe five stories tall, but the tower's black featureless form weirdly resonated with him as they caught the sun peeking through gray clouds.
He realized he had stopped to look, and that Hari and Grunt were looking between him, and the hill top questioningly, and he shook his head.
“I just thought that building was interesting, is all.”
Grunt gestured to his bike then made a winding finger moving up motion.
Hari shouted a little too fast. “No! That's too far up-hill!”
Corvayne put a hand up. “Yeah, why don't we keep going to wherever it was you were taking us Grunt.”
The big man nodded and only once looked back at the tower, eyes narrowing a moment, before he started riding at a relaxed pace to another ramp up a bridge. Ahead of them, Corvayne could see Barrier Ridge Island, and off to his right as he rode on the raised bridge was a view of the south sound, with Ko-Ban's Port on one side of the sound, and an imposing wall of pine trees rising up from a few fishing boats and small homes on the other.
Hari was pointing while riding, a bold move that Corvayne wasn't sure he'd do on the raised bike path even with the guard rails. “Mister Grunt, we can't ride up...” Hari had a moment where she just jabbed her finger forward, then made a complex finger motion. “Hill... hill... can't ride up mountain!”
Oh! Was she using her Investigator spells to help learn Cascadian? Interesting. Also, she was correct. Corvayne was going to say something then saw Grunt had been riding while watching Hari and was responding with one hand, which made him feel extremely uncomfortable just watching, given the distance they'd fall if they went off the side of the bridge.
“Grunt! Both hands!” He felt himself call out, then got embarrassed when the big man turned back forward and Corvayne saw his shoulders bobbing up and down in silent laughter.
The wall of green loomed as the bike path curved over the sound and off from the roadway to a path close to where the ground tumbled into the water. Grunt had them stop off to the side of the path under the bridge. Then he made a few hand gestures, making a circle in the air with his finger, then sliding his hand along a flat table.
Hari looked at Corvayne then Grunt. “So it's... flat? Easy?”
Grunt nodded. He gestured backwards at the concrete slope the path formed over the water, and wiped his brow. Then gestured down at the strip of concrete they were on, and waved at it dismissively.
“Okay, and I bet the views here are pretty good, right?” Corvayne offered.
Grunt beamed and nodded. He pulled his finger under his eye, made glasses with them, yanked on two extentions of hair he didn't have behind his head, then made a head shaking motion. He repeated this by squinting and making a round belly gesture, a fishing gesture, then another head shaking motion.
Hari was sweating. “Grunt... can't see well, and it's frustrating, and he can't fish here?”
Corvayne saw Grunt's face fall a little and stepped in. “Good guess, but there's a tempo to how he does the gestures, and he's saying he couldn't get Wick or Mister I to come out. I guess Dawn's a no go on biking here too huh?”
Grunt waved his hand. Sometimes, but rarely.
As promised the path around the island was pretty and nearly flat, with comfy looking cottages covered in moss built on the hill down to the sound, all of them with docks and stairs down. The trail gave him a view of a bunch of cranes on the mainland north of downtown, a section he hadn't seen populated by half finished skyscrapers, as well as the north side of dolphin island. The scent of pine and the green of the surroundings made Corvayne feel at ease, even as they rode along to a spot where the ground was too rocky and steep to support homes, instead being just wet mossy forest. Grunt had them stop at a picnic bench in a copse of trees next to a waterfall that poured a thin trickle of water into a pond. Hari ran over and took her shoes off, dipping her toes in the pond. Corvayne slapped a hand on Grunt's shoulder as the large man pulled out lunch.
“You picked a good spot, man. Thanks for sharing.”
Grunt nodded, and they ate the takeout he had brought, something like deep fried potato wedges used like buns with saucy meat and cheese between them, with a side of diced up steamed carrots with cheese and refried beans on them. It tasted amazing, but both Corvayne and Hari had to let Grunt finish their containers. He wasn't sure if Hari also chose to not finish because the food was too heavy to keep biking, but Grunt happily ate everything and stuffed the garbage into one bag. They started riding and Grunt stopped to toss the bag into the garbage bin in front of a random house, then used a few hand gestures to challenge them to a race.
“Are you sure? We could fall off into the water.”
Grunt shrugged, then turned and just peeled off, and Corvayne saw Hari look at him at the same time, then smile. He wasn't really sure who won given they kept stopping to look at the ocean, but by the time they arrived back at the garage he was tired and satisfied, maybe even ready to try to talk to Wick again. Grunt smiled and waved, then turned back to the pile of rocks waiting for him and Corvayne could swear he heard a whimper from the normally silent big man.