image [https://i.imgur.com/PNFeMf9.jpg]
Charitybelle approached. “What has gotten into you?” Her hands fell on her hips.
I couldn’t believe she’d even asked the question. “What do you mean, ‘What’s gotten into me?!’ It’s him! He’s treating me like a child.”
“He’s treating you like a student.”
“He called me a baby.”
She gave me a long stare, showing she would not get into an argument. After considering her response, she softened and consoled me with a sympathetic hug. “You’re not a baby.”
The gesture struck me as maternal, and I resented it. I didn’t need a mother. My parents never had time for me, and I’d been fine raising myself. Maybe some guys liked to be patronized, but I found it emasculating.
“I know I’m not a baby! He’s the one who’s saying I am.” I gestured at the arena, and the gesticulation inadvertently shook Charitybelle off my arm, spilling her drink.
She backed away.
Not knowing why I felt so miserable and angry deflated me. “I’m sorry. He gets under my skin.” I moved to hold her, but she stiffened.
“Are you mad?”
“No.” Brevity belied her answer.
I tried to think of things to say. “Can we take it slow? With the training? I mean…” I couldn’t think of words to explain how threatened I felt about someone who charmed her.
Charitybelle spoke through gritted teeth. “I am trying hard to understand you. Your entire argument for the battle college revolves around me ranking up my skills. And now you don’t want to train?”
She slew me with my own words.
“Yeah, I know, but….” I pulled out the map and babbled. “Look! We can do this. We can investigate these coordinates. They somehow tie orcs to kobolds. And Fabulosa wants to do dungeons, and since we spent the last two weeks going to Grayton for the town, we could investigate this—and then focus on ranking up skills.” I finished my jabbering with a worried grimace.
A dawning realization softened her expression. She finally understood my jealousy over Dino. Charitybelle shook her head and relaxed her shoulders. “You know, you’re a real nerd. I forget sometimes you’re socially awkward.” The smile she gave me conveyed a mix of sympathy and amusement.
And yet a smile lay under all those layers. If romantic pity got me out of the doghouse, I gladly accepted. I sighed with relief and felt no shame.
“Okay, that sounds fine to me. You realize Dino can’t leave the arena, right?” She searched my face and enjoyed how the news filled me with relief.
“He can’t?”
Charitybelle shook her head and smiled.
“Oh, that’s a shame. Dino could be useful on an adventure, I bet.” Neither of us could keep a straight face while I pantomimed regrets.
“Yeah, he’s stuck in the battle college.”
I stood as close as possible. “Well, then, I guess it belongs to him, after all. So, you don’t mind heading off for another dungeon?”
Charitybelle leaned into me for an embrace. “No, let’s do this one together. We won’t need Dino anyway.” She leaned up for a kiss.
I shadowed her the rest of the evening, stealing kisses and hugs whenever I could.
When the party broke up, Fabulosa saw us and came over. She’d had her share of alcohol and looked like she would tease me about something. “I’m thinking that our gorgeous new trainer is going to….”
Charitybelle cut her off with an upraised finger and a single syllable. “Fab.”
It wasn’t the hardest stare by any means. Charitybelle wasn’t confrontational, but the warning in her eyes made it apparent to Fabulosa that my girlfriend defended me.
Fabulosa lifted her chin. “Okay, then. I’ll hush.” She smiled at me and didn’t look offended by Charitybelle’s interruption.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
I tried to smooth over the moment. “What about you, Fab? Are you okay with heading to kobold territory tomorrow to explore the coordinates? Or do you want to wait?”
Fabulosa crossed her arms and looked at the arena. “Nah, I’m good with it. The sooner we leave, the sooner we get back. I’m looking forward to training.” She bounced an eyebrow at Charitybelle.
The two giggled. Without another word, Fabulosa left us.
Romance hung in the air, and I had a strong premonition that Dino wasn’t the only one getting lucky tonight. Before we retired, Charitybelle pulled me into the barn for an intimate encounter. Our makeup sex made me forget about Dino Marcello de Piane claim-jumping my battle college.
After a brief discussion, we resolved to leave our horses at home. Mounts posed problems in many role-playing games, and The Book of Dungeons counted as no exception. We couldn’t hide them in the Dark Room or if we needed to enter a dungeon or infiltrate a camp. We couldn’t unsummon them like Familiars. Leaving them alone made them vulnerable, and they didn’t know Hawkhurst enough that they could find their way home. Charitybelle could technically make her mount a Familiar to summon it whenever she pleased, but her two-pet limit would force her to say goodbye to Chloe or Bruno. After getting the badger to wear his collar, she’d never give him away.
It would likely be a three-day trip, and much of the route fell on the same path to the lizardfolk temple, so at least we covered familiar ground. Chloe acted as our spotter and helped us avoid a sizeable porcupine-like dinosaur. At level 15, the monster stood no match for the three of us, so it wouldn’t yield many experience points, and when Charitybelle spotted quills in its tail, we decided it wasn’t worth it.
Since we avoided monsters, we traveled briskly and reached the illusionary rocks of the mouth of the demon cave by evening. We checked it out to see if anything else had changed, but nothing disturbed the entrance since we’d repositioned the battered gate. Kobolds hadn’t noticed our previous raid.
Atop a foothill, our vantage afforded us a glimpse of our journey’s end, albeit in the setting sun’s glare. Our objective awaited on the nearest peak in the Highwall mountain chain. Its hooked peak featured a severe drop on one side and a more gradual slope on the other. Pillars of smoke crested near its summit, but the thick billowing plume couldn’t have come from a simple campfire.
I marked our position and projected the coordinates the gnoll warlock had recorded. The smoke matched our destination. Someone had gotten there before us. In my heart, I suspected the gnoll thugs from Tully’s pub. I counted them as the only loose end as far as I knew.
Charitybelle sent Chloe for a flyby. She closed her eyes and described Chloe’s view. “The smoke is coming from a rocky fissure—the slope isn’t smooth, and the ground is uneven with giant boulders.”
Fabulosa and I waited for more.
Charitybelle shook her head. “Sorry. The mountain has too many crevasses. Even with Chloe’s eyes, it’s too dark to see into the fissure with the smoke.”
I peered westward. “You can’t see what’s burning?”
“Nah. It’s too rocky for a brushfire—it reminds me of the dwarven funeral pyre. And it’s all from one location. We’ll have to wait until morning to see what’s burning unless you guys want to travel at night. I told Chloe not to get too close. I don’t want her to get hurt.”
Fabulosa thumbed the hilt of her saber. “We won’t be able to reach the spot before the rats come out, so let’s see how close we can get before they do.”
Charitybelle shrugged. “It’s not covered with kobolds yet. Chloe doesn’t see anything running around.”
The chasm between our location and the opposite summit looked like a five-hour hike with significant elevation changes. Under the protest of our aching leg muscles, we crossed the valley. We hopped over the rocky stream at the mountain’s base and climbed until the sky darkened.
Chloe kept an eye open for kobolds, so when Charitybelle reported a line of them marching upstream, away from us, we decided we ought to turn in for the evening. We’d pushed our luck far enough. The hawk’s vision wasn’t as sharp at night.
Climbing into the Dark Room made us feel a little silly. Fabulosa and I reached level 18, and Charitybelle hit 12. Taking precautions against piddly little monsters contradicted the spirit of adventuring, but we didn’t want to waste any of our 24-hour cooldown powers if we could avoid it.
We climbed into the bunks and pondered how many kobolds came out at night.
Charitybelle settled in her bunk with her feet dangling down the side. She snacked on traveling rations and ate a salad we’d prepared yesterday. Between mouthfuls, she spoke. “You know, I’m glad we’re not traveling at night. Fab and I have been beneath both kobold and goblin nets. They worked pretty well against us.”
I turned to Fabulosa. “Do you think nets are effective against all high-level opponents? Maybe that’s something we should learn.”
“You’ll need open space, more people, and lots of practice. Nets get snagged a lot. We tried nets against biggins in Belden. RIP threw himself on top of an archaeodon, and it dragged him into the water. He hollered like a lunatic, and it almost drowned him.”
We all shared a laugh at Fabulosa’s memory.
Fabulosa slapped her leg and pointed. “C-Belle, were you there when we tried netting that boar patriarch?”
Charitybelle squinted her eyes as if she couldn’t recall.
“What a hoot that was. Pinky and RIP got the net half-on. It spun around, and they couldn’t finish the job. It pitched a fit and squealed like you can’t imagine. We chased it after it slipped out, but it lit out for the hills.”
Charitybelle laughed. “I don’t think I was there.”
Fabulosa wiped tears from her eyes. “We had no idea how to use them correctly. I still don’t know—I reckon you need a lot of folks to make nets work. Maybe it’s bigger nets or a weight-to-size ratio thing. Like nets wouldn’t work on an elephant, they might on a giraffe.”
Charitybelle shook her head. “Either way, can you believe we are still hiding from kobolds?”
Fabulosa rolled over. “It’s better than being in a net.”
Charitybelle kicked off her boots and climbed into her bunk. “When I rank up my nature magic, my next Familiar might be an owl. An owl could keep watch at night. Then we could sleep outside.”
Fabulosa laughed from under the covers. “Two birds, then? You’re growing into a crazy, old bird-lady.”