Em'brel woke up with a start. Something was definitely different from what she was used to. This wasn't her bed.

Slowly, everything from the night before came back to her. As everyone had gone their separate ways, she'd started to panic. Sare'en stayed to talk with and calm Em'brel. When she began to leave, Em'brel panicked again, so instead, she'd agreed to stay and keep an eye on the younger woman through the night. Then Em'brel joined her and Grim on the floor and finally fell asleep. It hadn't been what Em'brel would call a restful sleep, but it was a far cry from being kept awake all night by fear and anxiety, so she'd gratefully take what she could get.

However, now Em'brel was alone. Both Sare'en and Grim had disappeared, leaving Em'brel alone in the tangle of blankets and pillows she now found herself in.

Much to her shame and annoyance, Em'brel felt her fear spike again. She started belittling herself over her weakness, but her thoughts were interrupted by the clatter of cookware from the other room. Liberating herself from her self-imposed entanglement brought on by tossing and turning, Em'brel climbed out to see what was happening to create such a ruckus.

In the common room were Sare'en and Grim. The woman was lecturing the sheepish-looking wolgen near a mess of pots and pans. "Now, what did I say about winding around my feet while I'm walking? I dropped everything, and you got scared by the loud noise, but you did it to yourself! You can stay nearby, but stop trying to trip me!"

Em'brel wasn't sure how much Grim could understand, but he seemed to somehow recognize he was in the wrong. She was certain Sare'en had things well under control, or at least she did before a very angry-looking S'haar practically kicked down her own door, sword in hand and bedsheet bunched up in front of herself. "What happened? Is everyone alright?"

As she looked around the room at the now cowering Grim and Sare'en, S'haar sheathed her blade with a sigh. "Ah, sorry, didn't mean to scare you. I just wanted to make sure..."

Her apology was interrupted by Ger'ron launching himself out of his bedroom, wearing what could only be his version of pajama pants and a spear in hand. "What's going on out here?"

He looked around at the scene before him, evidently putting two and two together and relaxing his posture. "Ah, well, I suppose I might have overreacted just a tad...."

He looked over at S'haar standing in her own doorway, weapon in hand, before grinning. "Guess we're all a little tense around 'ere, huh?"

Both Jack and Fea'en showed up behind their respective partners to see what the commotion was. Jack had a blanket more carefully situated around his midsection, Fae'en not so much. After a quick glance around the room, Jack grinned. "Ok, it appears that everyone is safe and accounted for. Now what say we all take a few moments to get ourselves cleaned up and have a proper breakfast, rather than standing around awkwardly in our sleeping attire?"

Fae'en grinned deviously while Ger'ron did his best to block most of her from view. "Or lack thereof."

Em'brel sputtered, then laughed at the ridiculousness of it all. Jack gave her a wink as S'haar tried to cover herself better while ushering Jack back inside while Ger'ron did the same thing with Fae'en. Knowing she was surrounded by people ready to charge to her rescue despite their current attire was a relief. Eventually, the two couples were shut back into their respective rooms, presumably getting ready for the day, leaving Em'brel, Sare'en, and Grim in the room together.

Em'brel had never really changed into sleeping attire last night. She'd need to clean herself up a bit before going about her day, but she was still hesitant to be alone despite the recent stress relief. So instead, she sat on a bench near the fire while Sare'en and Grim recovered from their startlements and resumed breakfast duties.

Eventually, everyone rejoined the common room, better dressed this time, and enjoyed a pleasant breakfast together. Jack and S'haar especially seemed cozy together again, and it warmed Em'brel's heart to see it, even if it was a little awkward for everyone else present.

As the meal ended, Lon'thul burst into the lodge as if he owned the place. "Hello, hello! How's it going this lovely morning?"

Everyone stared or glared at him with expressions varying from amused to annoyed, but the hunter didn't pay any of it any mind. "Alright, what's the plan? We've got an assassin to torture, an expedition full of people that need tending to, a camp to run, and an Em'brel to help. So who's doing what, and are there any leftovers from breakfast I can have?"

Apparently, he'd been expected, because Sare'en had a plate in his hands barely a breath after he finished his question.

S'haar sighed. "Well, that sounded like a list of things I need to tend to, but I'm not sure I have time for all of that..."

Jack shook his head and patted S'haar's hand. "That's what delegating is for. Ger'ron has been mostly running this camp for you the last couple of weeks, and unforeseeable assassins aside, he's done a great job. He can do it for one more day."

The human looked at Em'brel thoughtfully and continued. "As far as the last two things on the list, I think we can kill two birds with one stone by having myself, Em'brel, and Sare'en see to the expedition's members. Doing something helpful and productive is an excellent way to restore a feeling of control in one's life. Also, the three of us are possibly the three most thoroughly trained and/or experienced rehabilitators on the planet. And finally, it'll be good to have Grim socialize some more. The more he acclimates to being around different people early on, the easier he'll adapt to life here. Also, it'll be a good idea for the camp to get used to seeing him around."

Jack looked at Lon'thul. "That just leaves..."

The hunter looked up from his plate, his eyes a little wilder than usual as the juices dripping from his mouth further added to the image as he spoke, finishing Jack's thought. "The torture! I'll help out with that one!"

The hunter turned to S'haar with a satisfied grin. "See, you can just sit back and relax today, if you need to!"

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

S'haar grimaced and shook her head. "No, as lovely as that sounds, I can't delegate everything. Besides, I don't trust you not to get too excited and kill the assassin. We need more information, and this needs to be done right. So let me finish up here, and we can go see how our prisoner is doing."

That put a bit of a damper on the breakfast, and when everyone parted ways to go about their various duties, it was with a somber tone.

-

S'haar was tired. As if running this camp, then being in charge of that nightmare of an expedition hadn't been bad enough, she'd come back to this mess. At least Jack had stopped acting so weird. He'd been so back and forth on so many subjects lately, it had been hard to keep up. Not that it had been entirely his fault; he'd been through more than enough to break a man since he'd crashed into S'haar's life, but it had been just one more stress at a time when S'haar was already feeling pushed to her limits.

Now to make things worse, S'haar was at war with herself. Sitting before her was the worm who'd cowardly attacked the person he'd thought weakest in the camp, and S'haar had him completely at her mercy. A part of her wanted to just tear his throat out and be done with it. Let justice be served and call it a day. But this had most probably been the third attempt on Em'brel's life, one of which had involved mobilizing an entire camp of raiders to action. They needed to know more before there was a fourth.

The other part of S'haar reveled in torturing the would-be assassin. She took great joy in the smell of blood and every scream that came out of his mouth, but she wanted to be better than this. Not just because Jack thought she was better than this, and a part of her wanted to live up to his image of her, but also because she couldn't help but wonder if this wasn't what every male who'd ever tormented her had been feeling at the time. She even feared this is what her father often felt like...

At least she wasn't alone in here. Lon'thul's presence helped, if only because S'haar refused to show weakness in front of the younger male. Keeping her usual stoic expression in place took enough concentration that it helped distract her from the bloodlust she was feeling.

She was caught in the middle. Wanting to draw this out or shut it down but unwilling or unable to do either. With a grimace, she grabbed the pliers and resumed her duty, trying to ignore how much she was enjoying herself as she did so.

-

Jack was keeping his eye on Em'brel as he changed the bandages of one of the guards. All but the most severe injuries were healed to the point they probably didn't require this level of attention, but Jack wasn't about to let a complication like infection slip past him by foolishly trusting in probability.

Grim was doing his best to be underfoot at every opportunity, though he was occasionally distracted from his chosen task by scritches from the guards he'd gotten used to on the journey home. But he was so excited to see everyone all at once that he never stayed seated for long, weaving back and forth between everyone present at random.

Jack was relieved to see Em'brel was as thorough and diligent as ever. However, he didn't like how she flinched back from every unexpected sound or movement. Luckily, he wasn't the only one who seemed to notice. Sare'en proved herself invaluable, popping over to ask Em'brel for help or advice at just the right moments to remind the younger girl she wasn't alone. It was evident to Jack that it wasn't coincidental either. More than once, he met the gaze of the herder girl as she briefly acknowledged his attentiveness.

For his part, Jack was following up on both girls' ministrations. Of course, he was also using the whole thing to make sure Em'brel and Sare'en were being heaped with well-deserved praise to bolster their spirits.

That was when Jack got to one of the particularly young guards that had been with them. As he pulled back the wrap around his injured shoulder, something about the wound nagged at his mind. Then, as he inspected it closer, he realized he'd seen a wound like this on an argu'n once before. It had been surrounded by many other injuries at the time, on the dead raider he'd failed to save.

Jack wasn't sure how long he'd sat there lost in the past before Sare'en came over and lightly tapped him on the shoulder. Jack jumped slightly before turning and looking at what she'd brought over for him to see.

She had a slightly soiled wrap in her hands as she explained her concern in a soft, halting voice. "I...um...wasn't sure, but there's no sign of discoloration in this, is there? I just wanted to be sure there was no infection, is all..."

Jack looked at the cloth carefully, wondering what had sparked her concern, but couldn't see anything even remotely out of the ordinary when he realized the question had been for his sake, not hers. She'd done for him the same thing she'd been doing for Em'brel and used an innocent question to nudge him back to the here and now.

With a sheepish but grateful grin, Jack shook his head. "No, that looks clean to me. Just clean him up and rebandage him like the rest."

Sare'en nodded. "Thank you. I'll do that."

Jack nodded in return, catching her gaze a moment longer to express his gratitude before returning his attention to the guard he'd been patching up. It was a good reminder, though. For all his knowledge and experience, all too often he was still the blind leading the blind down here, and it was a good thing to keep in mind.

Jack shook his head at himself, then looked around to see what needed his attention next, only to realize they were done. With the help of both women, it had gone much quicker than he'd anticipated, despite Grim's best attempts to slow their progress. As he helped Em'brel and Sare'en clean up, Jack grinned. "Well, we finished earlier than I thought we would. What say we take Grim out for a walk? I'm sure he'd enjoy stretching his limbs a little.

The murder puppy, as Jack referred to him in his head, probably didn't understand the words any better than any other animal might, but he did pick up on the suddenly upbeat energy and started hopping around excitedly. Jack wondered if the pup had any idea how much his youthful exuberance brightened the moment for everyone present to see.

-

Lon'thul stood there in disgust. He wasn't overly shocked, but it still wasn't pleasant to hear. For her part, S'haar just looked tired. Not as tired as Ral'fen, who looked like he might not make it through the night, but tired nonetheless.

S'haar dumped the last tools in the bucket to be cleaned and stood up. She motioned for a guard who came over. "Alright, we're done here. Try to keep him alive through the night if you can. He's still got one more purpose to serve."

The guard bowed in acknowledgment and allowed S'haar and Lon'thul to exit the cage before stepping in to see to the prisoner. As S'haar walked out, she spoke to Lon'thul. "Get Ger'ron, Fea'en, and Tel'ron. I'll go get Jack and Em'brel. We will need to sit down and talk about what we've learned and decide where to go from here."

Lon'thul shook his head. "What can we do? This isn't as simple as removing some raiders from our territory. Any action we take could have some serious consequences."

S'haar's eyes hardened a little further. "Yes, they will. That's why I'm not going to decide this on my own. We'll talk more once everyone is gathered. Until then, keep your mouth shut. We don't need to be dealing with rumors or misunderstandings. I want everyone to hear it simultaneously, so there's a clear understanding."

Lon'thul nodded. He was surprised S'haar was handling this so calmly. In truth, he was surprised he was, as well. More than a small part of him wanted to gear up and solve the problem before another attempt could be made, but he supposed taking the time to do this right was the best thing they could do right now. Still, he wondered what was running through S'haar's mind behind that inscrutable face of hers.