The lake was cold.

Maria broke the surface of the water, gasping for air. Her skin felt prickly, and her hands and feet almost felt like they were burning. She hugged herself, shivering as she kicked to stay afloat. The pale light of the fractured moon glistened on the water, while it’s reflection rippled in the wake of Maria’s dive. Her nipples were instantly hard. “God damn, it’s way colder than I thought it would be.”

“It’s a lake, what were you expecting?” Tanalia asked from the shoreline. She was naked, her clothes returned to her inventory. Chariot sat behind her, stripping off her armor.

“For it to not be this cold,” Maria shivered and turned to brazenly watch as Tanalia walked along the length of the fallen tree over the water. It was mesmerizing, the way she walked, moonlight shining against her perfect elven skin. It was almost enough so to distract Maria from the freezing water. Tanalia reached the end of the fallen tree, and dove in so perfectly that she barely made a splash. As soon as she surfaced, Maria splashed her with water.

“Ah! Hey!”

Maria only giggled and turned back to watch Chariot. “Come on, hurry up.”

“I’m not in a hurry to swim in ice-cold water,” she replied. When she finished stripping off her armor, she climbed up the fallen tree, covering her nakedness with her arms. She kept her pendent for the Church of the Lunar Goddess on, however, leaving it to hang between her breasts. She hurried to the other end of it before leaping into the icy cold lake. Water splashed against Tanalia and Maria. They both waited for her to surface before splashing her as well.

“Hold on, wait!” she laughed, fighting back. The three swam around in the deep water, splashing each other and hurling playful insults. Frogs serenaded from their hidden perches harmoniously with the gentle song of crickets— And in the distance, the faint call of owls and rustling trees blew with the wind.

After some time, the ice-cold water felt more like a rush of warm tingles, and it wasn’t so bad. Chariot swam over to more shallow water, at least to where they could all stand. Tanalia opened her inventory, and a wide bottle materialized in her hands. She uncorked it and started chugging.

“What’s that?” Chariot asked.

Tanalia held up a finger and kept drinking before pulling the bottle away and sighing in relief. “Silverleaf ale.”

“Where in God's name did you get that?”

“The market down by the docks. I purchased it a week ago, and figured now would be a good time as any to drink it.”

“Can I have a taste?” Maria asked.

Tanalia held the bottle out to Chariot. “Hold this.” The warrior took it, and Tanalia removed two more bottles from her inventory before passing them to Maria and Chariot. “Enjoy.”

“Oh, thank you,” Chariot said softly.

“Drink up, I bought a couple of them.”

“How many?” Maria asked. She uncorked the bottle and took a whiff of the ale. It was sweet and slightly fruity. It didn’t taste half bad— There was a tangy aftertaste.

“Nine bottles,” Tanalia shamelessly said.

Chariot almost coughed up her drink. “Nine? How much were they?”

“Only two hundred gold, it wasn’t bad.”

“You paid twenty-two gold per bottle?”

Tanalia nodded and continued drinking.

Chariot only scoffed, and sipped at the ale. The three eventually swam towards the bank and sat on the shallow sand to where they could still keep their shoulders above the water.

==========================================================

The Following Scene is Exclusive to Patreon

==========================================================

“So, what’s the plan from here?” Chariot asked Maria.

“Well, we need to find The Ringmaster again. I doubt he’ll be at the theater again seeing as… well…”

“Oh, right,” Tanalia laughed. “That was fun.”

“We nearly died,” Chariot said.

“But it was fun.”

Maria rolled her eyes and chuckled as she drank more Silverleaf ale. “We’ll have to find him again.”

“Why don’t we let him find us?” Tanalia suggested.

“Find us?”

“Yes, and we’ll be waiting for him.”

“That’s— Okay, no, that’s not going to work,” Maria chuckled again.

“Then why don’t we ask the Oracle?” Chariot suggested.

Maria glanced back at Chariot suspiciously. “Are you sure you’re not drunk?”

“I’m serious. We should ask him.”

“After he betrayed us? He’s not going to let us anywhere near him.”

“I know. So let’s get him.”

Tanalia started to chuckle softly. “Ooooh, am I smelling revenge on your lips?”

“Yes,” she said straightly and took another sip of Silverleaf ale. “He betrayed us. We put our trust in him, and he lied to us, and turned us into that madman, and for what? He’s a disgrace to the church, and I will see him brought to justice for it.”

“We should give Chariot alcohol more often,” Tanalia giggled.

“It’s not the alcohol talking,” Chariot said. “I have a higher tolerance than you it seems.”

“Do you really though?”

“Y- Yes?”

Tanalia scoffed and finished drinking her bottle. She returned it to her inventory and retrieved a new one.

Chariot rolled her eyes. “I want to bring him in. We’ll corner him, and bring him to the proper authorities. From there, we can interrogate him on where The Ringleader is.”

“You think he would tell us the truth?” Maria asked.

“I don’t know. It’s worth an attempt, is it not? Regardless, The Ringmaster has the Oracle on his side. He gave him that staff. We don’t know what kind of power he has beyond his ability to see others form anywhere in the world.”

“Hmm, that’s a good point,” Maria muttered. “What if he’s been watching us and keeping The Ringmaster updated on our movements?”

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“There would be no way for us to know.”

Tanalia drunkenly chuckled, and shot out of the water, splashing the two. “Well if he’s watching us, then we should give him something to look at.” She stretched her arms into the air, raising her chest. Maria stared wide-eyed back at Tanalia as she drunkenly laughed.

“Tanalia, sit down,” Chariot said with a sigh.

“Fine, fine,” Tanalia slowly sank back into the water.

“No, I think she should keep standing,” Maria said.

Chariot splashed her with water. “You’re such a pervert sometimes.”

Maria couldn’t help but giggle. “I can’t help it,” she said and took another sip of ale.

“Anyways,” Chariot continued. “Regardless if the Oracle knows we’re coming or not, we should eliminate him as a threat. I’m not saying we should kill him, we should incapacitate him, remove him from the picture.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Maria said. “Without him, The Ringleader would lose a strategic advantage. Speaking of the Church of the Lunar Goddess, we need to go to one.”

“What for?” Tanalia asked. “You want to get down on your knees and pray?”

“No, I think we should reallocate our skill points. I’m going to settle mostly on fire magic. Maybe down the line as I level up more, I can put some points into some other spells, but for this fight, I need my spells to be as powerful as possible. So, I’m going to take the points that I put into lightning magic and move them into fire magic.” Maria then turned and looked at Tanalia. “You now have duel blades, so I think it’s a smart idea if you take some points away from your other skills, and start investing them into that.”

Tanalia sat there, finishing another bottle of ale. She took a moment to respond, almost looking disgruntled to hear that. “Maybe you’re right.”

“It’ll help in the long run. And Chariot, you should put some points into shield skills. If we all invest in our builds, we can only grow stronger. It’s not permanent, we can change it up at any time, but for now, for this fight, let’s stick with these builds, and go kick some ass.”

Chariot nodded. “Yes. Let’s kick him in the ass!”

“That’s the spirit!” Tanalia raised her bottle of ale. “Let’s get some revenge!” she screamed.

“Get back the map!” Maria yelled.

“Avenge your master!” Chariot added.

“And— I don’t know what else!” Tanalia screamed.

The three laughed and raised their bottles in the air before chugging the rest of the sweet ale.

Maria smiled, and grabbed the two of them, pulling them into a group hug.

“We can do this!” she yelled.

“Maria,” Chariot said, “remove your hand from my breast.”

“This is just a group hug,” Maria said.

“Maria!”

“Ugh! Just try to stop me!” Maria leaned towards Chariot and played with her shapely breasts.

“M- Maria!”

“I’m just feeling ‘em.”

“Don’t touch me there! What if people see us? Tanalia, help me!”

Tanalia laughed, and grabbed Maria, pulling her off of Chariot. “Come on.” She pulled Maria back to shore.

“H- Hey, wait!” She shivered as the cold air struck her.

==========================================================

The Following Scene is Exclusive to Patreon

==========================================================

They relaxed and sat quietly against the bank of the lake. Maria couldn’t help but smile. She certainly didn’t think things would ever go this way, but after a month of training, she was ready to get back out there. She was going to get that map back from The Ringleader. She was going to find the demon king's treasure— But for now, she was going to rest and enjoy the moment while it lasted. It felt good to spend time with friends, not adventuring, working, or traveling. Just living in the moment.

“Oh!” Maria suddenly perked up. “You two never told me how things went at the tower. Did I miss out on anything fun?”

“I wouldn’t say fun,” Chariot chuckled. She looked over at Tanalia and grinned. “But she and I talked and we worked some things out.”

“That’s one way you could put it,” Tanalia said.

“What do you mean one way? That is what we did?”

Tanalia chugged down another bottle of Silverleaf ale. “It was more like reluctant acceptance.”

“Ugh, never mind,” Chariot chuckled. “I still want to beat her over the head.”

Maria looked between the two, and a devilish idea came to her mind. A wide smile pulled at her cheeks, and it quickly caught the attention of both her party members.

“What is it?” Chariot asked.

“You know what you two should do? I saw this one in a movie—”

“A what?” Chariot tilted her head.

“A… oh, a play, sorry. It was these two characters who couldn’t get along, but they had to for the sake of their family. So, one of their family members had the idea to just let them fight. He let them just beat each other until they let out all their frustrations— and by the end of it, they were as good as friends.”

“You’re suggesting Tanalia and I fight?”

“Yes, right now.”

“Right now?”

“Mhm,” Maria nodded her head.

“... naked?”

Maria nodded her head faster. “It’s perfect! No clothes or gear to alter your stats, no weapons, no nothing. Just hit each other like you’ve been wanting to.”

Chariot stared back at Maria, unamused.

“I’m serious, just fight each other up here on the bank. Have fun with it!” She looked over at Tanalia, who had the same expression. As she finished another bottle of Silverleaf ale, however, she stood up out of the water. Her wet, golden hair clung to her shapely body.

“Alright,” Tanalia climbed out of the lake. “Come on you saintly bitch, climb on up here.”

Chariot scoffed in disbelief, blushing. “I—”

“Go on, go,” Maria urged her on excitedly. Her hands were shaking with excitement.

Chariot glared back up at Tanalia and shook her head. She rose out of the lake and climbed back up onto the shore. “It’s even chillier,” she shivered and finished drinking her Silverleaf Ale.

“Afraid of a little cold?” Tanalia taunted her.

“You’re cold too.”

“I’m not.”

Chariot smirked, crossing her arms over her chest. “Your nipples could cut through diamonds right now.”

“At least they’re firm.”

“At least I have breasts.”

Tanalia glared at Chariot and got into a fighting stance. “You saintly bitch.”

“You already used that, pointy—”

Tanalia lunged at Chariot.

==========================================================

The Following Scene is Exclusive to Patreon

==========================================================

When it was said and done, Chariot and Tanalia both limped away and slowly settled into the cold water on either side of Maria. They were both breathless, their chests rising and falling at the speed of a galloping horse.

“Soooooo?” Maria looked at them. Chariot had a black eye, and several bruises and contusions along her body. Her lip was bloody, and her skin was covered in small scratches. Tanalia wasn’t spared. She was marred with the same injuries.

Chariot leaned forward and glanced at Tanalia. “I think I’m done…”

“As am I,” Tanalia sighed.

Maria grinned happily, summoning two healing potions from her inventory, and passing them to the two. “So, we’re ready to commit to working as a team?”

Both Chariot and Tanalia nodded as they drank their healing potion.

***

“I would say I hate to see you leave, but I’m finally going to have some peace,” Hargrim said.

“Admit, it, you’ll miss us,” Maria said. She stood on the front porch of the enchanter's cabin. Chariot and Tanalia were over by the cliff, leaning over the wooden railing and gazing out at the town of Lakeside Village one final time.

“No, I won’t,” he chuckled. “But if you ever need help with anything else, you know where to find me.”

“Chances are we’ll be too far away for a proper visit, but I’ll be sure to send you a message.”

“I’ll keep an eye out for it.” Hargrim gave Maria a soft smile. After a moment, however, his face flipped, and he lowered his voice. “Let me tell you one last thing. I may not know where your father is his treasure, but I do know about the map he made for others to find it. He placed the map inside a small golden cube.”

“That’s what The Ringleader has,” Maria said.

“Mhm. He can’t open it though, can he? There’s only one way to open that cube. A device. I’m not so sure what it is, or how it works, but it’s built deep within a dungeon long forgotten. I don’t know where, or what you can do to find it, but if you ever do get that map back from him, you need to take it there.”

Maria nodded. “We’ll find it, I promise you that.”

“Be safe out there kid, and do me a favor. Kick that pompous bastard's ass for me.”

“Oh, we will,” she smiled. Maria backed away and gave the enchanter one final wave before meeting back up with her party. “You two ready to leave?”

“Mhm,” Chariot said. “Back to Berlington?”

“Yeah. There are just two stops we need to make before going after the Oracle though.”

“Two?” Tanalia said.

“The church, for one. We need any church, it doesn’t matter which one, and we need to stock up on potions.”

“Good idea,” Chariot said. “I am running low. I’ve used quite a lot in the last month we’ve been up here.”

“Yeah, and I know just the person to get them from.”