"That's a heavy breakfast, hon," Sabs said with another chuckle.
"It's more like, uh, lunch for us right now," Beth replied with a shrug. "I'm gonna hangout in the room all day and chill. Whatever you're up to today, I'll be around."
"I need to train more. Do you know what the status of the kobolds is? We haven't been down in a few days."
"They're still slowly increasing in level. Most of them on the left side should have respawned by now, as well."
"I think I'll train with John for a while and then come back down this afternoon. If you're gonna spend a lot of time with Baelvyr, then the rest of us will spend the time trying to level up. Between the kobolds and the dungeons by the house getting stronger, we should be alright for leveling for a long while."
"Just let me know if you guys need any help," Beth replied, getting up to take the now empty dishes out as the second round of food was just finishing heating up. She walked back in the main room with plates in her hands to see Sabs finishing suiting up for the day. She put the food down for Blood and herself before walking over to Sabs, picking the short girl up and giving her a firm kiss before setting her down right in front of the door.
"Have fun today," she said with a smirk.
Sabs, flushed, replied, "I'll see you later," before darting out the door.
Beth spent the rest of the day laying on the soft carpet of the living room with Blood and watching various arena fights on the big screen. She was specifically interested in fights at around her level, watching fighters like the kinds of opponents Baelvyr had unlocked for her on the arena floor. She was curious about the average level of fighters, browsing a large number of fights between different fighters throughout the day.
Her conclusion, by the time Sabs was returning in the late afternoon, was that she was a little behind the average in terms of arena fighters around her bracket. She wasn't quite as skilled with her chosen weapons as what the average seemed, and it appeared that many of the combatants were more used to using their abilities during battle than she was. Her biggest deficiency was still experience, and more training with the experts she had access to all around her would help her refine her technique.
Beth spent the rest of the evening with Sabs, watching TV and getting plenty of time in cuddling together. Beth really enjoyed plenty of physical contact and was glad that not only did Sabs seem not to mind, she also seemed to enjoy it well enough. The two of them eventually retired for the night, leaving Blood sleeping on the plush carpet of the living room as they retreated to the bedroom.
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The next week passed by in a blink, Beth almost entirely unaware of the days passing as she focused on extremely intensive training with Baelvyr. He worked her hard every day, starting from even before the crack of dawn as the days grew shorter, they would train and fight until well after the sun had set. Beth would drag her exhausted body back down to her room, where she would bathe before eating whatever Sabs put in front of her. She wouldn't last much longer on the couch before blearily picking the older girl up and carrying her to the bed, where Beth would usually simply collapse on top of her, entirely passed out.
It was the eighth day of this that Sabs stopped Beth in the morning before she could troop up to grab Baelvyr. The two had been snuggling a little early in the night on the couch before Beth collapsed on top of Sabs for five or six hours of totally blissful sleep, but hadn't spent any other time together.
"Beth, how about a little break today?" Sabs asked before Beth could get geared up.
"I really need to stick to the training. I know it sucks, but I'm already seeing results," Beth replied with a slight frown.
"You're such a meathead," Sabs said in response, letting Beth know she didn't mean anything bad by it by laughing and shaking her head. "Why don't you come with me to the neighborhood today? At least for the morning."
"I don't know…" Beth replied, worrying at her lower lip a little as she stared at Sabs.
"Come on, all work and no play makes Beth a dull girl," Sabs said with a bit of a teasing lilt in her voice, though she did blush as she finished.
"Fine, I can take a hint. But I still need to gear up," Beth replied with a bit of an exaggerated sigh before moving over to the corner with all their equipment.
Sabs had to work hard to suppress a giggle as Beth went through pulling on her equipment, rolling her eyes as the taller girl clearly over-emphasized the movements to show off her body. Once they were all suited up, they made their way up to the lobby first so Beth could tell Baelvyr that she was taking a little break. She expected the ogre to be a little cross or annoyed, but he just waved her off.
"I told ya, I ain't tryin' to work ya for a hundred days straight with no rest, girlie. You got somethin' else to do then go get to it; leave me to drink in peace," he rumbled at them, his massive mug and assortment of bottles appearing on the table in front of him as he waved them away.
Beth and Blood followed Sabs, who seemed eager to lead the way, through the building into the lobby. Tazeen was alone at the counter and gave them a nod as they passed through the lobby, exiting the building into the light of a late dawn. The three moved back towards the neighborhood, able to cover the ground at a rapid clip with liberal use of Swift. Sabs seemed to have been working on her skill levels the last week or so, as she had no trouble keeping up with Beth's use of the skill.
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The neighborhood appeared before them as the sun was just starting to fully light the frost-coated ground around them. It had progressed to the point where it was getting quite cold at night, already having dipped below freezing a couple times in the past week or so, and all three of the young adventurers' breaths frosted in the air as they approached the gate into the neighborhood. The gate, as well as the wall that had been hastily constructed, had seen some improvements over the last few weeks, with the doors of the gate built thicker and taller. The walls were thicker and in several places had small stands, some of them quite makeshift, that allowed someone to climb up to a platform to be able to see over the wall while remaining inside it.
"They shut everything down at night now?" Beth asked, arching an eyebrow at Sabs. The older girl was frowning while staring at the gate and took a moment before replying.
"They do…but there should always be somebody on watch. There's supposed to be somebody at the gate and at least one other person patrolling around at all times. It's easier during the day because everyone's up and about, and it's not like people have classes or work. Or it would be school still for some."
"Well, maybe they're asleep?" Beth asked astutely, receiving a shrug in response. With a shrug of her own she simply vaulted the wall, landing with a thump on the other side to find a young lady asleep in a camping chair, head lolled back and drool on her cheek. Blood and Sabs landed next to her a moment later, with the older girl sighing and shaking her head.
"Well, at least they're here," Beth said, trying to find a bright spot in the guard's failure.
"If they're gonna sleep, they might as well do it inside where they don't have a chance of dying of goddamn hypothermia," Sabs grumbled, walking over and grabbing the young woman's shoulder before giving it a shake. "Wake up, Chris."
The girl gave a loud snort before sitting up and opening her eyes, blinking blearily at the group in front of her. It seemed to take her a moment to process what was happening, and the sleep still seemed to have a hold on her, as she noticed Blood and let out a strangled cry of "Wolf!" before half-standing, half-falling out of the camping chair. Beth rolled her eyes while Sabs just sighed again and grabbed the woman by the shoulder a second time, giving her a slight shake to focus her.
"Yes, it's a wolf, Chris, and if you paid attention, you'd know that it's my girlfriend's companion and perfectly polite," Sabs said in a bit of a cold voice.
"I-, but-, what-?" Chris mumbled before giving herself a shake and looking around. "Sorry, it got cold so I bundled up and I guess I fell asleep."
"And I'm sorry, but I gotta tell Zack about this," Sabs said without mercy, continuing as the woman started to protest, "You know what he says. This is important, Chris, and if you were having trouble you should have either done some light exercise or got somebody else, either to help you stay awake or replace you. If a pack of wolves strong enough to jump the wall had showed up, you'd be dead first, as well as a lot of others."
"Look, can you just say I wasn't paying attention? I'd rather get a small lecture than a punishment duty…"
"Maybe if you had had a less important duty that you failed at, but guard jobs are too important to lie about. I'm sure he'll just make you stand watch over some of the people still trying to level for a couple days."
"If you say so…" Chris, as was apparently her name, mumbled as Sabs turned and led the other two deeper into the development.
"What was that all about?" Beth asked once they were out of earshot.
"Zack isn't forcing people to do stuff, but he has recruited volunteers into something of a guard force. If you sign up, he expects you to do certain tasks and jobs, and he runs a tight ship. He's told your sisters and I to keep our eyes open if people are not performing up to his standards. He hasn't had to fire anyone yet, but he has given out some pretty rough punishments once or twice to people who were majorly fucking up."
"I see."
The three made their way to Beth's house, with Beth retrieving the spare key from the small lockbox to let them in before re-stashing it. They entered through the back door so as to shed their boots in the mudroom, also dropping their weapons and Beth's backpack, before they moved into the rest of the house. They hadn't had any breakfast yet, and so they started to prepare enough for not just themselves but the rest of the household as well.
The other four members of Beth's family filtered into the kitchen over the course of the next twenty minutes or so, Beth's parents likely woken by Soph and Kim being up and making noise. Since Kim's room was right next to their parents' room, and the two sisters still often fought over their shared bathroom, the noise would regularly filter through the wall and wake the Bell parents shortly before their alarms. Everyone looked fairly well put-together apart from Soph, who was doing better, but would just never be a morning person, whatever her stats may be.
"Sorry that we can't have a party today, sweetie," Thomas said, looking at Beth as he finished eating.
"A party?" she asked, staring at her father with a furrowed brow.
"It's your birthday, Beth," Rachel sighed, rubbing her temples as Beth goggled.
The rest of the room laughed, with Sabs reaching over to shut Beth's gaping mouth, even more laughter ensuing. Beth blinked and scratched the side of her head above her ear for a minute, blushing faintly at her forgetting of such an important day. She had officially turned eighteen and was now a full adult, not that she felt that it would change a whole lot. She had already taken quite a few steps down a road towards shaping her own future, and being an 'adult' wasn't going to really alter that at all.
"No party does kinda suck, but it's fine. We don't really need to do anything," Beth finally said.
"Your mother and I would give you some money but, well, that doesn't really matter that much right now. We might have to take a raincheck on your present," her father said.
"That part’s more than fine. You know I kinda don't really like getting gifts that much."
"Well, I'll still have a present for you," Sabs chimed in as they cleared the dishes.
"Oh, you do?" Beth asked.
"Later, Beth," Sabs said and, seeing the blush on her girlfriend's cheeks as she cleaned up, Beth could only reply with a quite intelligent, "Oh!"
"Get a room," Kim scoffed.
"Already taken care off," Beth replied with a smirk, causing Kim to huff and stomp out of the kitchen.
"What's up with her?" Soph asked with a sniff.
"Hormones," replied Beth, still smirking. Everyone else in the room just stared at her until she held her hands up in surrender and backed up to the wall near the door to the hallway, leaning against it while the cleanup was finished.
"So, is there a plan for today?" she asked as her mother got a drink.
"Even though we can't throw a particularly great party, we wanted to know if there's anything in particular you wanted to do," replied their father.
"I mean, we can't really go anywhere; not that any place would even be open," Beth answered, tapping her chin. "Maybe we could play that trivia game? We do have a couple of those old board games. It would be nice to chill for a few hours."
"We can do that," her mother said. "We don't have anything to drink right now but water, unfortunately. Turns out a mini-apocalypse isn't great for production and distribution."
"There's only water and a kind of sports drink at the CRA Hall anyway," Beth replied with a shrug.
"There's more than that," Sabs said with a small frown.
"Wait, there is?"
"Yes, Beth," Sabs said with a sigh. "Sometimes I really wonder about the things you pay attention to."
"There's nothing but water and sports drinks in our room," Beth replied defensively.
"Because you haven't asked for anything else, hon," Sabs said with a shake of her head. "There's other stuff in the cafeteria, and Jaq also sells all kinds of things to drink as well."
"Oh, well…" Beth replied adroitly.
"Come on," Sabs said, taking the taller woman by the hand. "Let's head into the living room."