The kid hopped to her feet. “Ready?”

“Yes,” Chaele said. “I already said time to go, let’s go, I don’t have all day.”

She blinked. “Why not? Got homework?”

Chaele scowled. “Not everyone is fourteen, you know.”

“Ah,” the girl said, nodding sagely. “Twelve, got it.”

Chaele made a rude gesture with her hand, then turned and stomped back the way they’d come. She’d only gotten a few yards when Kodish stopped walking.

“She’s not following me,” he huffed.

Chaele gestured at the kid who was standing nearly on her heels. “What are you talking about? She’s right here.”

“Yeah but she’s just following you,” Kodish told her, sending the kid a side-eyed look.

“We really should be walking,” the girl chirped.

Chaele gave her an annoyed look, took a step forward, which the girl did too, then stopped again. “We’re going to the same place, Kodish. It’ll be fine.”

Kodish turned more fully toward the kid. “Are you going to give me credit for helping escort you?”

She made a point of looking down at his feet. “I don’t want to catch your cold.”

“I don’t have a cold!” Kodish exclaimed. “See, Chaele? I’m telling you, the brat isn’t going to tell them I was involved! We have to take her back to the start — to the back, I mean — of the cave. Then she can come with us both.”

Chaele gave the girl a scrutinizing look. “Well?”

The kid smiled sweetly. “We really should be walking.”

“Oh for — get back there,” Chaele commanded. She ran back too, Kodish with her. The girl stayed where she was for a moment, then gave a dramatic sigh and joined them once more.

“Okay,” Kodish said. “Let’s start from the beginning. You want out of the cave?”

“I’ve been hoping a brave adventurer would dare the treacheries of the cave, but I’ve been worried nobody would come,” she told him, her voice bored. “I’m scared now. Are you going to take me home?”

Stolen novel; please report.

“Both of us will,” Kodish said. “You have to agree that both of us will.”

“Just stay a good distance from me,” she conceded.

“I’m not — oh fine!” Kodish growled. He took his axe off his back and stomped ahead.

“Not too far!” the girl said, not moving.

Chaele looked between them. “I think she wants you closer.”

Kodish backed up a few feet and the child started walking. The three began the trek out of the cave. Halfway through, three spiders suddenly loomed out of the semi-darkness. The girl screamed loudly and cowered against the wall.

“Save me! Save me!” she cried.

“Shut up,” Chaele told her, stringing an arrow. She shot one in the butt just before it reached the girl. It turned and scurried her way instead. Just before it could launch itself onto her face, Kodish swung his axe with all of his extensive weight and for the spider, it was critical — it’s head caved in and down it fell, dead.

Kodish wheeled around, swinging his axe at the second. The kid was screeching worse than a banshee with a bad hair day, so Chaele took aim at the third spider and fired.

Since Kodish was busy, Chaele yanked her knife out again and began the lengthy task of cutting at it until it fell away. It bit her several times during, and by the time it was dead, she was bleeding from a dozen different paper-cut sized wounds. She pinched one closed and announced, “I need to eat, that was exhausting.”

“Right now?” Kodish asked, looking at the girl, who was now humming to herself. “With the brat waiting?”

“If more spiders come, do you want me to bleed to death?” Chaele asked, taking bread from her bag and dropping to the floor to munch on it.

“No,” he told her, blinking.

“It was a rhetorical — nevermind. Just… watch for more spiders,” she said between mouthfuls.

The girl looked over from her humming. “We really should be—-”

“If you say walking, I’m going to feed you to the spiders myself,” Chaele warned. She licked the crumbs off her fingers, saw she was still bleeding some, and said, “I’ve got to get better food. That wasn’t very good.”

“It was stale to start with,” Kodish pointed out, lumbering forward again.

She and the girl followed. Twice more they were attacked, and twice more she and Kodish fended off spiders while the kid yelled and screamed and then played after while Chaele recovered.

When Chaele and Kodish eventually saw the cave entrance, they excitedly high-fived, then the orc headed toward it, while Chaele bent down to check their latest kill.

Aha, it had her silk! She stuffed it in her bag, and saw the kid sprint past her, feet nearly a blur.

The girl then paused long enough to blow the orc a kiss. “Thanks for everything, Kodish! Don’t forget to stock up on kleenex!”

“Did she…?” Chaele stared.

“Run through all the spiders like they were nothing?” Kodish nodded. “You know what? I hope she got bit on the way.”

Chaele snorted laughter despite herself and clapped Kodish on the back. “You’re good at smashing spiders, but these kinds of things take patience. Finesse. You can’t be good at everything, Kodish.”

Kodish looked at her, looked at the way the girl had gone, and grinned. “Yeah, but she didn’t thank YOU, Chaele. In fact… you stopped to get silk, and I think she decided not to give you credit at all.”

“But — wait! No! That brat!” Chaele forced herself to think about the dragon, and the long journey ahead. She made another rude hand gesture and told Kodish, “Just wait here.”

On her way toward the back of the cave, she kicked at a dead spider’s body. It disintegrated just before her foot connected and she hit the wall instead. She was about to curse loudly but then she heard it. The sound that made it all better. From the front of the cave, Kodish was sneezing.