The group woke up close to the river and the air started feeling warmer. Blaine was thankful for learning some fire-based hemomancy as it kept him from being drained by the cold. While there were in the cave of the giant snow apes, he felt mentally drained as he had to expend effort to internally burn his blood without boiling it. Now he barely had to put effort as they had passed the blizzard that seemed to surround the mountain.

The night before, Meowlynn used her magic to help identify what the shit-eating druid risked his life and dignity over. The staff was able to transform into a giant snake that he could ride or constrict things as huge as those massive white-furred creatures. It would have been helpful a long time ago though it might the gryphlings if the druid wasn't careful while playing with it. Not that Blaine cared, he saw those pets that Astrin was pet sitting as a burden and waste of resources.

The gloves were magically enhanced to help swim as well as a fish or climb better than a monkey. The druid thought they were useless as he could morph into creatures that could do those things so he gave the gloves to Blaine. This brightened the hemomancer's mood because he also had no use for them but he could sell them for a nice price and perhaps buy something actually useful.

On their side of the river, the Jellybeans saw someone that shouldn't have been there, Ciylia. The woman seemed to be watching the horses on the other side. The elf probably relieved the Tally gal of her duties to do it. "Look who finally decided to show up," joked Blaine.

"Sorry," said Ciylia. "I was on my way back to Erend when I was surprised by wizard thieves and then I came here because I felt better."

"Wizard thieves," scoffed Meowlynn. "What that? A wizard who is a thief? A thief that kidnaps wizards?"

"I'm not too sure myself, but it seems to be exclusive to female wizards," shrugged Ciylia. "Perhaps you could join them."

"Maybe I will," hissed the wizard.

"That's not important," said Gene. "What's important is you're okay, we have what we had to get, and now we can return to warm climates."

"That would be wonderful," shivered Kira.

Blaine walked up to Ciylia and grabbed her by the arm, "Before we go back, let's play a prank on Gene."

"Oh? What kind of prank?"

"Go get Fern, I need him to help us," whispered the curse-blooded man.

Ciylia ran over to whisper in Fern's ear as Blaine walked over to Gene. "Gene, can you take out that gem you have?"

Gene produced the magical gem that he had his arm broken for, "What do you want to do with it?"

"Not me, Gene." A small smile formed on the hemomancer's face. "Don't you feel its power flowing through you?"

The night before the gem was also identified by the wizard, she told them that it was able to enhance some abilities though she wasn't certain which ones, as well as slow down or end curses depending on the curse's strength. He knew the monk was magically inept and was planning on using that as the base of his little joke.

"Not really," replied the monk.

"Try really focusing on the gem," instructed Blaine. "Feel its magic and power flow through you."

The monk closed his eyes and concentrated, Fern and Ciylia had giant grins on their faces as they know what to do so they could participate in the prank. When Gene opened his eyes the curse-blooded man continued talking, "Now I want you to focus all your power into your foot and stomp."

The monk raised his foot and stomped it into the ground as hard as he could. Blaine used a spell that would make boom loudly, Fern used some magic that made the earth soft and sprayed out from under his foot, and Ciylia wobbled and fell over, making it seem like Gene created some sort of earthquake with his foot.

"Wow," gasped Ciylia. "You're so strong now Gene."

"Odd," said Gene. "I didn't think it would do this."

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"Try to throw a rock across the river," urged Blaine.

So the monk found a stone and picked it up. Being the considerate guy that he was, the monk aimed the rock as far away from the horses as he could so he didn't startle them. Fern then came up behind him and touched him on the shoulder allowing some magic to enter the monk's arm.

With a slight running start, Gene hurled the rock as far as he could. Thanks to Fern's magic, the rock sailed past the far side of the river. Now was the time Blaine was waiting for.

"Gene, with all your amazing powers I bet you could easily swim across this mighty river, though it would seem feeble to a man of your caliber." The curse-blooded man was laughing on the inside which was making it hard to keep up his current facade.

"You right," responded the naive human. "Let's have a swimming contest!"

Blaine could no longer hide his laughter and burst out laughing. "That's a great idea!" Well, at least Blaine could use the stupid gloves before he sold them.

"Who will enter," asked the monk.

Every except Meowlynn, Kira, and Aliya raised their hands. Those three women walked up to the shore where the rope was still strung across. "If you would be so kind," snapped the wizard to Fern. The druid walked to the edge of the river.

"When we cross, we'll untie the rope on our end and I'll use my magical hand to put it on the other side," remarked Meowlynn. "Please bring it back with you after you are done your childish game."

Blaine laughed some more when he watched the wizard give the druid a sour look. He wasn't as afraid of the high-born elf as the other people were because curse-blooded people were supposed to have some resistance to fire. He knew he was but he could say for certain about others as he had only met and some were resistant to other elements besides fire.

The halfling tossed the raft into the Ardent River as made it bigger. The three women hopped on it and Fern turned into a shark to help them fight the current as they made their way across. Once on the other side, Aliya unwrapped the rope for the piton in the ground and Meowlynn conjured a magical hand to grab and move it to the other side of the raging water.

Fern returned back to the side of the shore with all the men and Ciylia. Blaine sauntered over to him, "When Gene starts being taking away by the current, be sure to save him."

"I figured," sighed Fern. "Don't worry, I won't let him die over some harmless prank."

With a smile and nod, Blaine returned to the edge of the river and took his position for the race.

"Could you make some lights with her magic," yelled Gene to Meowlynn. "Just so everything is fair?"

It seemed like the wizard did want to waste her breath and gave a sarcastic thumbs-up to her leader. The men and Cilyia took their positions, ready to jump into the water. While Blaine eyed up his competition as he placed his gloves on, he wondered how Ciylia planned on competing as she had no special way to swim across the river. Though she could have been a super swimmer from wherever it was that she came from.

Once everyone was in position, the wizard produced a flame in her hand and everyone set off. Fern jumped in and transformed into a shark, the obvious winner of the race. Ciylia knowing that tried to jump onto Fern but stumbled, this caused her to land on her hands instead of her feet which made her look cool. Blaine had never seen a person handstand on a shark before.

"I'm so amazing," chuckled the forest elf. As payment for her hubris, a wave washed over her and started pulling her downstream. Blaine didn't have time to worry about her, he wanted to at least get second place. He knew Fern would go save Ciylia after he won the race. Once Blaine entered the water his gloves grew up his arms to his elbows and became smooth and webbed like a frog's. Gene dived into the river and the race was on though, the monk had no chance against magical items.

Swimming had never felt easier for the hemomancer, he glided through the choppy water like a hot knife through butter. The closer he got to shore, the prouder he became. He watched the shark's tail slap against the other side of the river and then race off to go catch Ciylia before she got swept into the Stormclasp Ocean.

Gene popped his head out from under the current and reached the other side before Blaine. How was that possible? The only reasonable explanation was that he was actually a good swimmer, which is probably why he issued the challenge in the first place. It was obvious though that he pushed himself harder than he had to. Fighting against the current and the need to breathe was no easy task even for the curse-blooded man who had a magical item that helped him.

Both men climbed onto shore and went to relax by a fire Meowlynn had most likely begrudgingly made for the sake of the people who went for a swim. The two men went to dry off and warm up while they waited for the druid to rescue the thief.

"Gene, you know the gem isn't actually doing anything for you," confessed Blaine.

"Oh? It seemed like it was," shrugged the monk. It must have been a case where the power of the mind overcame the body's limits or the monk was naturally talented but Blaine chose to believe the former reason.

A few minutes later and shivering Ciylia joined them by the fire. "Are you alright," asked Gene.

"I'll be fine once I warm up," chattered Ciylia. Her jaw was shaking uncontrollably. Two hours had passed before the group was ready to finally head back to Erend. Everyone hopped on their horses and broke out into a full-speed gallop.

"Be careful of the pile of leaves," commanded their leader while they were riding. "We don't want the same thing that happened in that disgusting ice cave to happen out here."

"Don't worry," shouted Ciylia. "I already killed it with the help of some acquaintances."

"That's great to hear," smiled Gene.

"But what happened in the cave?"

"The short version," laughed Blaine. "Fern ingested literal shit."

Most of the Jellybean broke out into a roar of laughter, Ciylia crying from it. Fern placed his head down in shame and was like that until they got to Erend.