Elijah awoke to find Avery back in their makeshift camp, asleep on a petal. David was snoring off to the side. At some point in the night, he had changed into pajamas covered in small cartoon dragons, which he had apparently deemed as critical adventuring gear.

Beck was nowhere in sight. Both she and her belongings were missing. Elijah instinctively felt at his pouch where he had put the new fancy core. It was still there. A small frown creased his face, but he just sat back to relax a little longer. Elijah wasn’t particularly concerned with what happened to Beck.

Over the course of the next few minutes, the rest of the group woke up.

“What does everyone want to make for breakfast?” David said, yawning and stretching his arms. “I’ve got some sausages in my bag we could heat up with that knife of yours, Joe.”

“Actually… sausages sound pretty good,” Elijah replied. “By the way, do you know where Beck went? She seems to have disappeared.”

“Now that you mention it, everything does seem more pleasant,” David laughed, rummaging through his pack for sausages.

“She said that something had come up and she needed to leave the dungeon,” Avery said, walking up to the other two. “It’s just gonna be us three from now on.”

“What? When did that happen?” David asked, eyes wide.

Elijah cocked an eyebrow at Avery, who replied with a tiny twitch of her shoulder that nobody else would have recognized.

“I ran into her last night while I was on watch. The frog really scared her, I guess. She was in quite the hurry and insisted that I not come along with her.”

“Aw, geez,” David said. “She was a little… brutish, wasn’t she? I much prefer when my leaders gently tell me what to do. I don’t really like much confrontation. I didn’t think she’d just up and leave, though.”

“No loss. She was basically useless in that fight,” Elijah said. “Ah… she did have the map, though.”

“Don’t worry. Beck gave it to me on her way out,” Avery said. “We had a little chat before we left, and she felt very bad about how she’d treated all of us. Since we were already close to the entrance of the dungeon, she just gave this to us so we could continue.”

“How kind of her,” David said, shaking his head. “I knew there was some good in everyone. You just have to have the right circumstances to bring it out.”

He let out a content sigh. “So, how about those sausages?”

Elijah whipped his knife out. Its blade shimmered, making the air around it waver slightly as it heated. David dug the sausages out of his bag and they started to cook them.

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

“How did you keep these safe?” Elijah asked. “Do you have ice in there too or something?”

“Safe?” David asked, cocking his head to the side. “They’re sausages. How are they going to hurt us?”

“Food poisoning? I don’t want to be shitting my guts out in the middle of a fight,” Elijah said, laughing. David just stared at him, befuddled.

“Why would I poison my own sausages?”

If it had been anyone else, Elijah would have assumed they were playing him for a fool. But David’s eyes were full of sincerity and genuine confusion. He let out a heavy sigh.

“Never mind. I’m sure the pocket sausages won’t kill us.”

“You’re welcome to try them first. You look famished,” Avery said. “Be sure to tell me how they taste so I know what to look forward to.”

Elijah rolled his eyes. He and David finished preparing the sausages a few minutes later, and the three of them all ate in surprising silence. Once they’d finished, David stood up and wiped his hands off on his pajamas.

“Welp, I got to go water the rocks,” David said, patting a flap on the front of his pajamas. “I’ll be right back.”

He strolled over to the corner of the room, as far away from them as possible. Whistling, the warrior unbuttoned something. Elijah and Avery both turned away.

“Damn, I’m jealous,” Elijah whispered. “You offed her already? I thought you’d have more patience than that.”

“What, you don’t believe me?” Avery asked, smirking. “She just left, you know.”

“I don’t suppose we’ll be running into her in the near future when we visit the city again.”

“No, most likely not,” Avery agreed. “I’m sure she’s in a better place now. But, on her way out, she opted to take a little something with her.”

Elijah’s eyes flicked down to the pouch where his core was. “Seriously? I didn’t even notice.”

“You slept straight through it,” Avery said, shaking her head. “Pretty pathetic, honestly. I’d have expected a lot better from you.”

“You try getting thrown headfirst into a wall by a ten ton frog,” Elijah grumbled. “I’m just amazed I survived that. These new bodies of ours are something else.”

“Quite,” Avery agreed. “It’s no matter now. I took care of the problem. And look bored, David is coming back.”

Elijah turned away as David ambled over to them, fiddling with the front of his pajamas. “You guys ready to keep going? Actually, is it wise to? I know Beck wasn’t very useful, but she seemed like she knew what she was doing. Didn’t the Goldwings say it would be a lot more difficult to do this with just three people?”

“We handled the frog with essentially three just fine,” Elijah said with a shrug. “And Beck disregarded our talents completely. She was a miserable leader that somehow managed to make the party weaker. Jane is a fairly competent strategist, and I don’t think Beck even had an ounce of experience.”

“Fairly?” Avery asked, cocking an eyebrow.

“Barely.” Elijah grinned. “But nonetheless, we’re much better off without Beck. And we can always just turn back and leave if anything proves too difficult. Of course, you’re welcome to head back too if you want to. We don’t want to force you to do something you don’t want to.”

“Nah, if you two think we can do it, then I do too. I saw how you fought that frog. You’re some tough cookies. Let’s do this!”

“Lets,” Elijah said. “But first, maybe put your armor on? I don’t think those pajamas are going to stop much more than some poor monster’s innocence if something gets caught on that giant flap.”