I awoke with a bit of a start. Laying down with gray above me, my mind shouted tent before I could leap straight into blind panic. Soaked with sweat, and my heartbeat racing. Back in my underwear and shirt, I half expected the pig-faced kidnapper to appear over me. As if I had been drugged and the escape was all a dream.
A shadow loomed over me and I flinched, before the long hair of the elf fell over my face.
“Oops, sorry,” she said softly, and brushed it out of the way. “Are you okay, Max?”
“I drifted off in the sling. Fill me in.” With the blanks painted over with the proper play of things, I’d be able to determine my current status.
“We arrived in camp. Ruby took Quinn, gave me something for your fever. Wolf brought you to the tent while I had some terse words with Fiona about their lack of care. Then I came back to play nurse, again.”
No sharp edges in her expression as she told me that. Although it was more likely that she had stripped me of my suit, I found it more amusing to imagine Wolf trying to do the task without tearing me to shreds in frustration. Why that was the most important thing for my mind at present was perhaps worrying.
She could see the furrowed brow. “It’s late evening now, you haven’t had a full night’s sleep.”
“Balls,” I said, deflating into the bedroll. Some manner of permanent camp, and they couldn’t even get proper beds. I’d complain to the manager if it wasn’t likely to end in bloodshed. What didn’t though?
As if to answer my errant thoughts, Ren laid down beside me and put her arm across me, her fingers drumming gently on my chest.
“Moon is out, huh?” I asked, a smile across my face.
She sighed, her breath buffeting my bare shoulder. “Dickbag.”
“Go on, though.” Consistency was key, and I had learned to read when the darkness would bring out her softer side.
A few seconds passed before she responded, her fingers pausing their intended tune as the words found their way out. “Sometimes you scare me, Max.”
“The whole purple eyes and demonic energy?” Considering the System had given her a demon destroying skill, that wouldn’t be surprising. It made me wonder if the world had prepared us for the possibility that we’d become enemies, instead of… what we had now.
“No.” She squirmed a little, trying to get more comfortable.
“My ability to kill without care?” It should certainly be concerning that I could put a den of people in the ground and not bat an eye.
“Not even that.”
I stared up at the gray of our tent, the fading light of the day causing our interior to be dim. The large shadowed shape of Wolf was outside the front, already sleeping. Maybe I got three guesses. I wasn’t sure if she was waiting for it or if I’d never find out if I made another incorrect guess.
“It’s because…” she eventually started to fill the silence, “you give me hope.”
My brow furrowed, and I turned my head to face her. “That’s a bad thing?”
“No.” She moved closer and pressed the end of her nose against mine. “Just scary.”
“I’d like to call one of those somethings that you owe me.” I smiled widely at her.
She narrowed her eyes and moved her face slightly away to get a better picture of me.
Before she could fill in the blank with assumptions, I turned away from her onto my side to face the opposite side of the tent. “Could you put your arm around me?”
“Asshole,” she whispered, but I could hear the smile on her face through it. She moved up close behind me and put her arm around.
Not quite as comfortable as Wolf, and I was too exhausted to ask if they could swap. If I were Ren, I’d be more worried over the fact that I was one bad day away from becoming what we sought to destroy. Even the happy campers here could see it, as if we had flashing danger signs over our heads. Kill, struggle, strengthen. The showman act allowed me to put a heavy blanket over the fact that I could be something a lot worse.
“Max?”
I opened my eyes to the bright light of day permeating through our tent. Morning already? Sleep had hit me harder than… I turned over to see the elf already dressed, kneeling beside me. Her hand cupped my face, and she leaned in for a kiss.
“Survive the day and you’ll get another,” she said as she moved away.
Tongue-tied, I nodded and tried to put the pieces of my waking brain back into working order. Not that I wasn’t planning on living through the day anyway, but that was as good a motivation as any.
“We have a guest,” she continued, gesturing to my current lack of presentation. “Wolf has been hosting, but he is at his limits.”
A brief amount of awkward stumbling around the surprisingly enclosed space, and I was fully dressed and ready for the first audience of the day. Why Ren had stayed to watch me rather than join the bear, I wasn’t sure—but it made the process of clothing myself feel more complicated than it needed to be.
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But then, outside the tent I strode, dazzled by the morning light. The soft warmth was even more pleasant than the stage lights I was used to. I turned with a smile to see the rather bored looking bear sitting beside a man with wavy black hair. An outfit of yellow and amber linens, encased with a plain leather breastplate. Black eyepatch and his arm was bound with a splint and bandages.
“Max!” He smiled, his accent hitting some manner of familiarity that I couldn’t place. “My humble thanks for saving my life.” He stepped toward me and then kneeled, bowing low to the floor. “I am forever in your debt.”
“It’s nothing,” I waved him off with a grimace. Fans were one thing, but that was a little bit too full on. “Luck smiled down on both of us yesterday.”
Ren exited the tent to stand beside me as the man rose back to his feet. His good eye looked between her, me, and then to the bear, before back to me.
“Never in my time here have I seen such a beautiful Party. Truly inspirational.”
I could feel Ren’s disdain radiating from her even without glancing to see what expression she held. “Thank you?” I ventured.
“The great Doctor Ruby has told me I must rest until my Trauma status has gone, but if there is anything I can do to repay you, please.” He gave a slight bow again. “I am at your service.”
A wry grin went up the side of my face. “There is something, actually.” Ren shot me a sharp glare before I leaned over and whispered my plan in her ear. She nodded her acceptance, even if her expression didn’t budge.
“We are often short on receptive audiences,” I began, moving to stand behind the elf. “If you could just stand and observe, and give us your thoughts after, that would be a great help?” I grinned widely and put my hands on Ren’s shoulders.
“Sure,” he shrugged, perhaps a little disappointed the task didn’t involve putting himself in mortal peril to pay back the life I had apparently saved. Maybe I was reading too much into his confusion—we were a lot on the best of days.
“Perfect.” I walked beside Ren and passed her over a thick gray blanket from behind me. We could really do with a silk sheet, or something velvet? Once she had it, I walked over to the pair waiting with apprehension, and stood behind them. “This is our first try, so allow us some lenience,” I murmured.
Ren cleared her throat and then took a deep breath. “I’m not doing the whole introduction thing,” she grimaced. “But…” She extended her arms so that the blanket was beside her, before it unraveled to the ground to create a curtain. “Here’s… Max!”
She swooshed the blanket to the floor to reveal… me! With a flourish of my hand, I bowed.
Dazzle icons on both Quinn and Wolf, as they turned to look to where I had been—the faint mist of the unsummoned dove barely noticeable behind them. “Not bad,” I murmured to the elf, as I unclipped the small perch from the back of her waistcoat, straight into my Inventory.
“Did it work?” She whispered, unable to see the icons.
“Like a charm,” I said with a smile. “We’ll cut the bits that make you uncomfortable, though.”
“Sure?” She raised an eyebrow.
“Always.” I turned and walked back over to the man who was trying to get an explanation from the bear. The show worked best if you played to your strengths, the passion and drive more believable that a fake smile. Not that the latter didn’t help, of course.
“Impressive magical skills, Max.” Quinn turned to me. “Some manner of teleportation, perhaps?”
“If I told you, I’d have to kill you.” I grinned. “Which would make saving you pretty pointless, huh?” Although I had checked the reports and the curse had been lifted, my normal patience for people hadn’t returned. The camp had me on edge, and my eyes scanned around as Quinn fumbled for a pleasant response.
“Ah—of course, I didn’t mean to pry.” He gave a smile and nodded to us all. “I really must be resting. I just wanted to give my thanks first.”
I nodded in return. “You can repay us by being a good person.”
“Meat, too,” Wolf added.
Silence, as I had expected Ren to add something like ‘information’ or ‘staying out of our way’, but as I turned my head, it looked like she was busy in her own head with something.
“Stay safe, Quinn.” I turned back to him.
With another bow, he turned and went back amongst the groups of tents towards his own, I presumed. His eyes lingered on the distracted elf for a few seconds longer than I felt comfortable with, and I watched him depart, my smile faded to an impassive glare as he disappeared from view.
“There are a lot of bad smells in this place,” Wolf began, as he watched the man depart. “But he is not one of them. Talks way too shitting much, though.”
I gave the bear a pat on the shoulder, still unsure if that was demeaning or not. “Let’s get some food in us, and then find something to kill.”
He looked up at me, a grin across his large mouth. “Now those are my kinda words.”
The sound of sizzling meat hit my ears, as the elf had brought out her grill as soon as I had said the word. I turned to her, and despite the turmoil the day was sure to bring us, there was some amount of contented calm in her eyes.
----------------------------------------
“You’re leaving already?” Fiona crossed her arms. Ruby stood beside her, looking a lot less put off by our intentions. In the slight background, Magnus was leaning against some crates.
“Why would we just sit around?” Ren frowned and crossed her arms in response. "Max was kidnapped from here yesterday, and you said undead attacks are regular."
I chose to sit this one out as much as I could. There was still a little part of me, hiding away in the pit of my stomach, that wanted to murder everyone in the camp. Just in case. Not exactly the most mentally stable of thoughts, so the less I could rile myself up, the better.
Ren was right to be annoyed, though. Apparently Fiona hadn’t exactly been as enraged and surprised to hear of the kidnappings as she should have been—according to the elf. There was a pool of apathy and passiveness that enveloped this valley, and we didn’t want any part of it. Although the equipment from the black market den was reasonable, we hadn’t gotten any experience, and were already under-leveled for the area.
We needed to grow, not languish.
“It’s dangerous,” Fiona worked her jaw. “You don’t know what’s out there.”
I could see Ren seething, and now, knowing the history between the two, it put the conversation in a much more awkward light. Whether Ruby could see the nuance or not, she didn’t appear bothered. At first I had considered that two of the camp might want to join our group for leveling, but that thought soured at record speed.
“Well, we are going to find out.” Ren shrugged and turned away. I followed suit, while Wolf gave Magnus a glare before following alongside us.
Fiona grumbled and complained to the goblin, quiet enough to be out of my hearing.
“Is it us, or them?” Ren asked me, as we walked up the hill towards the rock where the road split.
“We are removing the tumor that is draining the life from this world.” I shrugged. “But we’re using a ballista to do it.”
Not that I wanted to start debating the morality of utilizing wholesale cold-hearted murder to solve the issues plaguing the System. When the alternative was the Shadows doing the same, we were a necessary evil. Assuming the first area was now blooming with normal Players, the proof of our methods effectiveness went without question. Fiona hadn’t seen what we had been through.
I shook the gloom from my head as Ren looked like she was still chewing her own thoughts.
“Let’s find a repeatable Quest,” I said. “I need to feel in control again.”