“Hey” Roxie laughs out as she pushes the body away, so it stops dripping on her.
The young Tebrien man looks down to her before bolting into the forest.
Roxie doesn’t bother watching him go as she throws away the head “Zark, Luke, someone fucking help me out here”
Most of the group watching currently in different states of distress, some are stumbling away whilst others of staring at the corpse, two are currently puking onto the grass.
Roxie shouts out “Oi! Hey?” As wolf picks her up and moves her away from the body to the half-built house. He gently sets her down but as he stands back up, Roxie digs her claws into his shoulder and drags him close “Now, you're gonna fucking explain what the fuck just happened, and gonna tell me that you killed that bitch or I’m going to rip your throat out”
Wolf couches down next to her “I told them that, due to their consistent misbehaviour, they would be fired. They reacted badly because Free-works employed them by buying out their debts, and them being fired meant that all their possessions would be sold off to pay it”
Roxie nods but keeps her claws in his shoulder whilst looking expectantly.
“We didn't stop them, the boat has—” before he finishes, Roxie pulls her claws out of his shoulder to then punch him, delivering a heavy uppercut which he barely reacts to beyond raising his head.
Roxie clutches at her shoulder as she pulls something and hisses through her teeth.
Wolf slowly lowers his head whilst rubbing the point of contact with an impressed look “Feel better?”
Roxie stops hissing long enough to say, “Fuck no, what’s your fucking jaw made of?”
“I am a regenerat” He tersely responds.
“That didn’t tell me what, but whatever, what happened?” She finishes hissing and sets to idly flexing her hand.
“They had enough mages to counter Kizkrala’s magic and rebuff me, their magic also propelled them far enough that I couldn’t reach them. However, Kizkrala assures me the Joe has sneaked aboard and is going to keep tracking them”
“That doesn’t tell me what either” Roxie sighs and settles on massaging her knuckles “What are we going to do now?”
“Continue on, a second ship will come in a month” he stands up to leave.
Roxie adjust her position as she calls out “Grab my bag! I got blood on me”
Wolf nods as he leaves.
After a while, and some distress from outside, Kizzy stumbles in with Roxie's bag “Hey, how you doing?”
“In massive pain” Roxie gives a trying smile from the floor.
Kizzy kneels besides her and starts taking off the casts “You will be like that for a while”
Roxie looks between the breaks and takes a long look at the massive purple bruises over each one before sighing and starting to fiddle with the ties on the back of her shirt “Can you grab me the robe in there” Kizzy does as she’s asked and Roxie takes it as she slowly pushes herself up and presents her back to Kizzy “Mind undoing these for me” Kizzy undoes the ties to the flap on Roxie’s shirt that her wings go through and after a bit of swearing she gets it off to then start on her trousers “Hey, can you heal my leg?”
After a bit of consideration, Kizzy responds “Yes, but I don’t want too”
Roxie pauses and frowns at Kizzy’s before responding indignantly “And why not?”
“Because it would involve performing surgery to get to the bone and I am hesitant to do that here” she looks down and clasps her hands together.
Roxie pulls her robe on as she states “I think the sailors left enough alcohol for disinfectant and—”
Kizzy holds out a hand to stop Roxie “I have disinfectants but it’s painkillers I couldn’t bring, they require special licenses to carry and use that I don’t have”
Roxie grinds her teeth together and looks down to the massive purple bruise that marks her broken leg “I can handle it”
“I refuse” Kizzy says this with determination.
Roxie looks at her wide eyed before growling out “Why”
“If this was an emergency, then I would do it, but we have plenty of time for you to rest and heal. This island has no predators and food is plentiful—” she then quietly adds “So long as we get to it before the birds.
Roxie’s expression softens “Fine” she then shoves a finger at Kizzy “But, you better not expect me to sit idly by and do nothing”
Kizzy flinches back, but sighs relief “Of course, I’ll make sure you have something to do” She then stands and leaves, before immediately running back in and wrapping the splints on “I’ll make proper casts tomorrow when we get some more clean water” She then leaves again.
Roxie sighs and fidgets to get her tail behind her to use as a pillow and her wings spread out so she’s not sleeping on them, all before pulling a book out of her bag and waiting the time away reading before sleep calls her.
Roxie wakes with a start as the pain rushes back, then starts idly rubbing her chest on the spot that Kizzy touched to examine her; looking at it, she sees that a large purple bruise has formed. She sighs and lays back down to look up at the cloudy sky, then scoots out the door to the outside where the rest of the tents have been put up and a small fire is burning the shattered remains of the tables. Different people are currently roaming around, avoiding noise as others are sleeping.
Luke spots Roxie and wanders to her “Hey, how you feeling?”
“Like shit” Roxie quietly laughs to herself as she reaches the edge “What did I miss?”
Luke stops and looks around “We uh, gathered berries and nuts” He then shrugs.
“Bring me a chair” Roxie points to the ones littered around the fire.
“Sure” Luke jogs there and back before helping Roxie onto the chair.
Roxie hisses in pain as she threads her tail through the hole in the back.
Luke brings another chair over and sits next to her in silence “So” he tries to think of something else to say “So, what are you going to do?”
Roxie mulls the question over “Dunno. Pretty hungry at the moment, have we got any meat?” She then starts scanning around the clearing.
“Uhh, no. There’s not any game here—” He then cheerily adds “But we got nuts and berries” Then quickly loses his cheer “Lots of nuts and berries”
Roxie slumps, looking very disappointed “Mind grabbing me some?”
“Sure” Luke meanders off amongst the tents.
As Roxie waits she spots some yellow moving through the trees. She raises up to better look over the tents and spots a person creeping around the trees. It's the Tebrien that saved her yesterday, sneaking effectively, except for the fact that his carapace is bright yellow. Instead of calling him out she lowers back to a more casual posture and passively observes him, not trying to hide her interest; he crouches between tents and scampers around them eventually reaching the middle of the tents
“Hey” Roxie calls to him, causing him to jump and yelp.
Luke rushes over with a bowl in hand “What's up?” he then spots the Tebrien “Oh, hey S'tance”
S’tance freezes as much as his shaking allows, then turns around “Hey, how are… things”
“Alright, but what’s going on with you? You disappeared after killing that guy and everyone was worried” Luke passes Roxie the bowl as he talks to him.
“I. I was” he frowns and tries to come up with something.
“Well Kizzy wants to have a talk with you” Luke sits back down
“She does” his voice cracks as he falls back “What, what about?”
“I dunno” he reaches over to Roxie's bowl.
Roxie pulls it away as she shovels more into her mouth “Hey”
Luke pulls his hand back, looking a little disappointed “But she did seem concerned”
S'tance look turns distant, his antenna falling flat.
Roxie speaks up with her mouth full “Hey, probably going to be a talk about how you feel, if you're going to stop, stuff like that” she swallows what she's eating “So long as you did—” she pauses to think “Did not, not feel anything you're fine” she punctuates this with a wave of her hand.
“I. I felt terrible, absolutely terrible. Like I was going to be sick” S'tance puts a hand over his chest as his breathing becomes heavy.
“Congrats, you're not a monster” Roxie says this as very matter of fact.
Luke gives her a curious look “Want to put some more effort into that?”
It shouldn’t be something that’s, like, celebrated. He’s not a soulless monster, he’s a person. I was just saying it out loud to, I dunno, make him feel better” Roxie shrugs before continuing to devour what’s left in the bowl.
“Thanks” S’tance speaks up as he picks himself up “It does actually”
Roxie grins wide “Glad to help. Now help me and find me some wood, about as tall as I am”
S’tance tilts his head in confusion and slowly says “Ok?”
“I want crutches and I might as well make my own” Roxie answers his confusion as she forces the empty bowl onto Luke “Thanks”
Luke takes the bowl and only gives a tired sigh in return as he walks away.
“I’ll check the wood pile” S'tance meanders off, not paying much attention on where he's going. After a short wait, and after Luke returns, S'tance comes back empty handed “We don’t have any pieces that size”
Roxie sighs, then starts scratching her chin in thought “Got any table legs?”
S'tance looks back and raises on his tiptoes “Yes”
“Grab me a bunch of those then” Roxie shrugs as S'tance walks off and returns with an armful of table legs “Perfect”
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
Roxie then sets about shaping the legs with her claws, leaving S'tance and Luke in silence.
Roxie eventually looks up from her work and gives each a quick look “You don’t need to stick around for me, I’m not doing anything interesting”
“I’ve got nothing to do” Luke speaks up as he looks at a pocket watch.
S’tance meanwhile disappears and brings back his bag and sits down to maintain his sword.
Luke's gaze switches from his watch to S'tance's sword.
“If you continue being an adventurer, you will have to kill someone eventually” Roxie idly states when she notices his stare.
Luke's expression hardens into a frown “But why, why can't we just resolve things peacefully”
“Because some people don’t want too” Roxie brings a leg up to her face to check it.
Conflict covers his face as he thinks.
But S'tance is the first to speak up “Is it really that simple? Do some people just not want to do things peacefully?”
“Everything is simple S'tance, especially people, it's just the layers that make them hard to read” Roxie pauses and slumps back as she thinks over her own words.
“You speak like you don’t this before” Wolf’s voice interrupts her reflection.
She twists around to see him leaning against the wall of the house “I was often lectured about death and killing by my elders, because—” she waves over herself.
“What you are, doesn’t determine who you will be” Luke blurts this out and looks to Roxie with absolute certainty.
Roxie in response flicks his nose “I know that numb skull, I’m a living example” she finishes by giving him a genuine smile “Thanks though”
They return to what they were doing but with smiles on each of their faces, even wolf is brandishing a small smile. He however eventually breaks the silence “Luke” he then waits to have Luke's attention “Were going to clear more land today, when you think we have enough I want you to start a small farm with the rest of the Psychers”
Luke looks at him with confusion “But we don’t have any tools”
“Exactly, use your psych to make some” Wolf then turns to S'tance “Seeing as you've already started, I'm going to send you pairs of people and I want you to teach them to maintain a blade”
S'tance freezes and shakily nods.
“And you” He then passes Roxie a knife “When you're finished I want you to make some spears, tell me when you've made a couple dozen”
Before Roxie can snap around and argue, someone crawls out of their tent and Wolf is immediately on them with today’s plan.
She resumes her work as the camp starts to spring to life and people disperse in all directions. Except for Kizzy, who strides out of the treeline with all the confidence in the plane and places a large bowl of plaster on Luke's now empty chair.
“Alright, let’s get you some proper casts” she then proceeds to replace the splints with clay-soaked bandages. Halfway through wrapping the breaks in Roxie's wings, she says “Thank you”
“Huh” Roxie looks up and twists around.
Kizzy tuts and pushes Roxie back around as she carries on “For talking with S'tance”
“Don’t need to thank me for that, he was there and looked troubled” Roxie shrugs as she glances at S'tance who's currently teaching Zark and an elf.
Kizzy pauses her work, then continues with a smile.
After a bit, Roxie says “Thanks. By the way”
“You're welcome” Kizzy's smile widens even further.
She spends the rest of the morning waiting for the casts to dry whilst chatting to Kizzy who keeps her company as she finishes her crutch, afterwards she starts on the spears and Kizzy wanders off, mumbling that she should make some drinking water.
It doesn’t take long for her spot to be taken by the researcher, currently holding an odd shaped bush in his hands “Hello there”
Roxie first takes note of the twitching bush. Then realises that it’s a bird. Then her look turns predatory “You gonna eat that?”
The researcher blinks at her and processes the situation for a long moment before pulling the bird bush away from her “No! You cannot eat this bird”
“Well, are you gonna keep it as a pet then?” Roxie tones down the look and points at it.
He tentatively puts it on his lap as he sits back down “Not really, I was just looking at it” He then flattens and gently pulls the birds feathers, smiling as the rough green becomes a smooth ocean blue. He notices Roxie’s look of interest and after making sure that she’s not hungry again, starts to explain “The islands in the realm are too small to sustain life bigger than insects for long—” he then holds up the fat bird “So birds like this instead migrate between the islands when food becomes scarce”
Roxie this time is one to pause to processes what the other said “Then what the fuck are we going to do?”
“Good question, I believe that is what the farm is for, we have a follower of Mother sun who’s willing to endure benediction” he stands up and jerks his head for Roxie to follow “Let’s have a look”
Roxie shrugs and limps after him, her crutch creaking but holding.
The farm is currently being worked on by several people, each one either have a glowing slit in their forehead or a black gemstone sticking out of their head, each one emitting a coloured light that flows into the tool in their hands which is made of the same colour.
To the side is Luke sweating buckets with a few others in similar states. He weakly calls “Hey there”
“Hey. Working hard or hardly working?” Roxie jokes as she limps up to him.
Luke manages a weak chuckle “Hardly working at the moment, was never good with my psych”
“You just need a bit of time” Roxie smiles as she stops and sits on her tail like a stool.
The researcher, still holding the bird, gazes over the farm with a surprised expression.
“Yeah, but how long” Tiredness and impatience clear in Luke's voice.
“That depends on how much work you put in” Roxie pokes the side of his head to emphasise the ‘you' part of her wisdom.
“Speaking of work, this is impressive. I know that there's quite a few of you, but to do all this on psych alone, and in half a day is impressive” the researcher says this as he pries his eyes away from the large field.
“This is nothing really. Not enough to live off definitely” despite his humble words, Luke smiles proudly at the work “Just hope Laz gets here with those seeds soon, or there won’t be anyone left standing to sow them”
The researcher looks confused and asks “He did say it would take him a few days”
Luke's expression turns sour.
“Roxie” Wolf speaks up from behind her, causing her jump up and then collapse in the dirt as she clutches her leg.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck. Fuck you, you asshole, don’t do that” Roxie hisses and grinds her teeth as she calms down, eventually letting herself get picked up by Luke and the researcher.
Wolf asks “Have you finished with those spears” without a hint of apology.
Roxie swings her tail and smacks it into his shin “Fuck you”
Despite putting her pull force into it, she only manages to make him stumble a bit and mumble something.
“What was that?” Roxie demands, limping over to get into his face.
Wolf looks her in the eyes and says “Ow”
Relenting but still unsatisfied, Roxie gives him space and sits back on her tail as she massages her leg through the cast “I made twenty-one spears. That enough, or do you have more demands”
“Make ten more, then you're free to help. If you can” Roxie swears she saw him smirk as he walks off.
Roxie glares at him and grumbles “Help if I can, he did notice that my leg's fucking broken, fucking prick”
She roughly grips Luke's shoulder to pull herself back onto her feet and starts limping back to the shack, leaving the researcher and Luke behind, each not wanting to be targets of Roxie's newfound annoyance.
Her mood doesn’t improve until the next day where she wakes up to a certain smell which she immediately limps off to investigate.
“Stop drooling” Zark shows his annoyance with Roxies presence clearly on his face.
Roxie wipes away the drool from her chin before coming closer “So is it ready”
Zark frowns “This is for the people who actually do some work, you can have what’s left”
“Tell me, who the fuck carved those spears you used to catch these” Roxie’s sarcasm is practically dripping.
“Fine” instead of passing one of the fishes currently cooking, he instead tosses one of the raw ones at her.
She deftly catches it and immediately bites it’s head off and sets to crunching bones. Roxie spots Zark’s look of pure disgust and frowns herself “What?”
Zark just shakes his head and looks away, cringing every time that Roxie makes a loud crunch of bones.
However, Roxie’s enjoyment is short lived as she can hear the someone has awoken early today and is arguing with Wolf about how they should be focusing on leaving the island.
Roxie starts to get up but stops as Zark strides over and starts calming the person in Wolf’s stead.
Leaving Roxie alone with the fish.
She slowly leans closer to the pile.
But comes back to herself as the elf Zark was with yesterday takes his place.
He announces with pip and vigour “Glorious morning to you dear Roxie, how do you fair?”
Roxie starts leaning away from him “OK. Also, you need a bath”
The elf flinches back with a hurt expression “Do you greet everyone that way?”
“Seriously, you stink of sweat. A bath would do you some good” Roxie takes note that despite his vigour, his face shows signs of exhaustion.
Instead of arguing, he takes a sniff of himself and is clearly regretting it “You may be right, but theirs only the sea”
“Better than how you smell now” Roxie chuckles as she says this.
The elf laughs also “That is true”
They end up settling into a short silence as the elf hungrily watches the cooking fish, until Roxie asks, “You’re the one who's going through benediction for the seeds aren’t you?” She plucks one of the done ones off the fire and hands it to Laz
“Why yes but it is no trouble” He smiles happily, then guiltily takes the offered fish.
As he starts nibbling at the fish, Roxie starts prepping another one to replace it on the fire.
“You don’t need to give me any special treatment—” he gives Roxie a trying smile “This is something I would have to endure at some point”
Roxie gives him a confused sideways glance and speaks with half a fish still in her mouth “So? Still doing us a favour”
He smiles at this, before pointing to the sash at Roxie's hip “Are you capable of beseeching your god?”
Roxie chuckles and starts pointing the fish tail around “I don’t know. Besides, if we get struck by sudden winter I just need to carve a few more symbols, she isn’t picky who gets her boon against cold” she plops the fish back in her mouth and finishes replacing the other. She then notices the elf's confused look and immediately explains “Nezrilia, spider god of deathly cold, nice girl, if you can deal with her chilly attitude” Roxie feels a sudden chill take her which goes as quickly as it came.
This makes the elf chuckle heartily.
“What are you two joking about?” Zark returns, looking quite happily at the elf.
“Oh nothing—” he continues to chuckle “Roxie just seems to have an interesting relationship with her god that's all”
As the elf looks to Roxie, Zark gives her the dirtiest look she's ever seen, triggering her to reciprocate.
The elf, noticing her look, turns to Zark who quickly twists his face into a smile, he then looks to Roxie who doesn't let up as she finishes off the last of her fish. More than a little confused, he then proceeds to look between the two, looking for an answer they won’t give.
“So then team, what should we start working on?” Ihe situation is saved by the wolf who slams himself onto a chair and proceeds to devour a fish.
Roxie announces “Baths! Hot ones”
A few people peek out of their tents at her cry but grumble back inside.
“See, the others agree” Roxie nods behind her.
Wolf grabs his chin in thought “Right, but how would we do that?”
“I am afraid I have missed a detail—” the elf looks around with concern “Why would we focus on a luxury instead of the necessities”
Zark is the one to answer “Hot baths would be good for moral and hygiene”
Wolf nods “Right, I’ll have Kizkrala and the mages work on that. Anything else?”
The four go back and forth with suggestions for the rest of the morning until everyone has woken up and is fed, after which Wolf sets everyone to their tasks. Roxie is left alone to wander around for the day, then the next day, and the day after that too.
“I’m fucking bored” Roxie laments to Kizzy from the other side of the stone tub.
“Maybe you could practice your chi?” Kizzy shrugs from her end.
Roxie summons her chi to her hand which makes small arcs of red under her skin “Done. Need to start applying it which is hard because...” she raises her leg cast out of the water.
Kizzy looks around the small clearing before suggesting “You could teach the others something?”
Roxie stares in the distance for a while as she thinks, then thinks some more “Fuck. Sure” she then focuses on Kizzy “But not gonna spend all day teaching people about monsters, anything else?”
Kizzy continues looking around before focusing on something in the trees “How good are you with a bow?”
Roxie follows her gaze and spots a bird blending near perfectly in the tree “People were starting to complain about the fish. But after another hour in the bath”
After Kizzy dries her casts, Roxie sets up a board and sources some chalk and sets about drawing as many monster types she can remember then immediately sets about to hunt down someone to help her making a bow.
After half an hour of interrogation and another of making the bow and arrows, with most of the time spent finding lose feathers for fletching, Roxie is ready for her first shot.
She and the dwarf girl she pressed into helping her, stand below a tree with a suspicious ball of leaves on it “Right, you want to take the first shot?”
The dwarf looks up to Roxie “Sure” she then nocks an arrow and takes aim.
After a few moments of aiming she lets the arrow lose.
And it misses but the bird doesn’t react.
“Shit” she begrudgingly steps back as Roxie nocks her own.
Roxie spends less time aiming and it shows as the arrow flies far off from her target.
Roxie looks down to the smirking dwarf “What?”
The dwarf shakes her head then takes another shot which hits her mark, then passes through to land in the brush behind it.
The two look to each other before looking back up to the ‘bird’. The dwarf then picks up and throws a rock through it.
“”Fuck””
Taking the loss, they continue to trek through the forest and find several actual birds, some of which they successfully shoot.
They return with a small bounty, enough to at least vary up people’s meals today, and set to plucking and gutting them which draws in most of the camp that’s setup nearby. They chat with those that come near, despite them clearly trying to butter the pair up to get more in their meals, until Luke and the elf arrive with their own bounty of vegetables which becomes the cue to start pulling out every pot they own.
After roughly cooking the food and handing it out, Roxie then gathers as many people who are interested and starts lecturing them on monsters, going starting with goblins, explaining their threat and various quirks. By the time she's finished, everyone is looking tired but are still at attention, some are even taking notes as Roxie finishes running through everything.
“Phew, any questions?” Roxie looks over everyone as her tiredness catches up with her.
Wolf asks from besides the board "Yeah. Why would they actively search out people?"
"For their souls" As Roxie answers, a silence falls over the camp. Even those who were only barely listening pause what they're doing.
Kizzy breaks the silence "It's Long past bedtime. Ok everyone to bed, questions can wait” she then weaves her way to the now perpetually yawning Roxie “Well done, I hope you will be ok to teach tomorrow too”
“Sure. Just speak up next time I go too long” Roxie chuckles as she pulls herself off her chair.
“No promises” Kizzy takes her by the arm and helps her limp to her bed.
“What about him?” Roxie points to the dead asleep elf.
Kizzy was about to call to wolf, but Zark instead picks the elf up “I’ll take him” then walks off through the camp.