After getting the much needed confirmation about Micheal's spirit mark the group made their way out of the Mages Guild and back onto the streets. It was a little busier now and all around this old quarter people seemed to be rushing or finding places to hide from the dark clouds that were suddenly overhead.
Everyone eyed the sky with curiosity. It hadn't looked to be raining or storming today when they left the guild hall and the women all mentioned just about as much. Pelanna said a prayer and stopped a few times to ease a child's coughing with a spell or to grant a blessing to an old couple who walked the streets or huddled in an alley in the crowded city. She did so easily and would go out of her way to see the children held by farmers or their wives and wash their sickness away with a soft prayer and a wave of energy.
When the priestess talked to people that way she wasn't shy at all. Her voice was clear and lovely, her smiles open and friendly to everyone she approached. The group followed the somewhat narrow and twisting streets of the old parts of town further into another much larger and very solid stone building.
It had arches and columns and solid single piece wooden doors that displayed their fine carving and excellent stained sealed finish. The architecture of the building was that of the Parthenon but built in the gothic design in the details and facilities like the French had renovated old Greek buildings without replacing whole elements of either designs. The large doors were unlocked as they came to them under the cover of the fluted columns of gray stone that held up the impressive overhang. The only problem was that they wouldn't let Jack inside; a stern priest of Alpharian declaring that no beast, no matter how familiar, was allowed inside the holy temple of the Eight Gods. So with indications that he would get a tasty reward later the big pup was told to sit and stay next to the doors outside.
Inside everything was white marble from floor to ceiling high above unless covered by some banner or tapestry. Marble tiles lined the walls and held relieves of scenes of faith and worship all along the walls. Solid, well sanded and finished wooden pews lined the great hall of worship in seemingly countless numbers leading up the large open room to a grand monolith altar that contained a statues depiction of all eight Gods of the Pantheon standing together as one. Columns and pillars ran down the length of the room, and cushioned seats lined the upper walks of the open second floor looking out onto the floor of worship. Breaking off to the left and right from the main aisle and filled with their own smaller pews as well were dedicated lesser halls to each of the eight Gods individually. There were walkways between the massive arched openings, and the wooden dividers that hung from heavy duty runners had been pulled away to leave the hall totally open while services weren't being held.
The Hall could likely hold at least two thousand people comfortably just in the main walk, but each of the side temples could hold as many as five hundred at once. Banners of light and color hung from the ceiling and the rafters everywhere. Wonderful works of art depicting a God or Goddess in their chosen forms as they appeared throughout the ages hung in the spaces in the walls to either side. Priestesses in training and Squires in multitude worked to clean every inch of the place even as they came down the aisle to stop at the first cross section of the temple.
Micheal looked about and saw the love of the Pantheon's followers in every part of the temple. People sat here or there holding babies or children, some coughing and sick, others ill with something less obvious to the eye or ear. Senior priestesses came out and walked them to the altars or to back rooms, and still others brought out blankets or food for the people who came to the gods for aid when no others had aid to give them. It filled him with a small sense of hope that tried to grow in his heart. Maybe all that he wrote was not all bad, but this scene couldn't last. The Order, and the Pantheon were doomed to split and separate.
What really worried him about that specifically was the changes, and the Goddess Olivarch in particular among others. He had never settled on what he wanted to name the Goddess of Earth and Civilization, but he looked upon her statue now and part of him was satisfied. She looked as though she was a roman light armored legionnaire even with a laurel wreath hung over her ears instead of some kind of helmet. She held in her hands something like a Spartan's round shield, wore a short thick bladed sword at her belt, and was guiding a horse by the reins with her free hand. The statue's expression was one of hope and her depiction mid stride gave a sense of moving forward toward some hopeful destination. She even had a heavy pack on her back filled with details that told him at least the artist had been on a journey a time or two himself.
Pelanna came to his side smiling.
“Some call her the Goddess of Adventure along with her other names. I think the stone mason's had that in mind when they made her this statue here in Mayonn. It's a good likeness too!” She said excitedly.
It struck him as a little odd how easily the group had taken in hand that he wasn't from around here, and while Pelanna was excited to explain, just that brought attention and strange gazes upon Micheal.
Micheal gave her an appreciative glance.
“You've seen her?” He asked knowing full well that the Gods and Goddesses would make themselves known to their followers even if most of that would be simply to speak to them in answer to prayer or worship.
Pelanna nodded happily. “I know not everyone gets the chance, but I've met her and always hear her voice when I pray at her altar. She loves what I've been doing and always thanks me for my work. She's always teaching me and pushing me to get better.” Her eyes shone with the light of faith and love.
She looked up at him smiling, but her eyes always drifted back to the statue of her Goddess in the side temple. “She loves her followers so much, and worries about us when we must act as her instruments throughout the world, but always makes sure we're prepared and doing the best that we can where its best to do it.”
Julia came to her side, taking her hand, not sharing, but appreciating her friend's powerful faith.
“It was after I first spoke with her that I decided to become an adventurer like you all instead of staying with the church under her protection and guidance. She introduced me to Forgen who was the one who taught me to be an adventurer of faith, trusting and serving my friends and partners in the guild to help meet out the fates of their marks.” Pelanna explained, again suddenly not bashful at all now that she was doing something with her faith. Though, she did blush looking at Julia and slipped her hand out from hers with a remorseful glance about her again.
“My place is with the Unbroken Guard now as our healer and strongest support member. Whatever you choose or learn to do, Micheal I'll be behind you to help you do your best.” She said after smiling at Julia apologetically.
“Thank you Pelanna. That actually means a lot.” He said absolutely meaning every word while feeling a little nervous at the prospect of meeting any of the Gods.
She nodded and gave him a small bow before she and Julia trotted off toward the altar of Olivarch keeping a distance between them that seemed to weigh on them both. He trusted Pelanna to do as she said believing her eager and not quite zealous faith, but not for the Goddess to do everything she claimed or had told the girl.
That was when he spotted someone in the rafters moving in the corner of his eye. That in itself so high up was a curious sight, but he didn't call out or shout. The person up there was an elf, and she watched Pelanna go to the altar and then turned her gaze back to people below. She spotted him looking up at her as she stood in the shadow of the upright as she used it for balance.
Her face split into a smile and she brought one finger to her lips to ask him for silence. She was garbed in robes that moved as though they were weightless, and airy yellow and white like silk ribbon made thin as mist that still somehow obscured her form. She wore a white gown of more silk beneath and her face was as lovely as Vivian's in the slightly alien way of High Elves and her bright azure eyes were full of life and energy. She wore mythril bracelets and anklets that made no sound as she moved and lightly stepped from rafter to rafter and deeper into the shadows above.
Vivian took his hand as she watched Pelanna go and tugged him along down the main aisle to another of the side temples. Here there were no priests or priestess's waiting and no one in the pews. The Goddess of Wind and Freedom stood with open arms in statue form, her eyes shining even in the white stone with the welcome gaze of a mother welcoming her children home. Eva broke off to go to the main altar, and Luna stayed with them as they approached the altar.
“Vivian we could always ask the followers of another God for reprieve.” Luna said gently. “No one is on duty today to take your request.”
Vivian shook her head and held Micheal by the hand as she went up to the altar looking a little miffed. She knelt at the steps and guided him to do the same. Micheal hesitated looking up at the statue. If the likeness was right there was no mistaking it. He glanced up at the rafters around them before he looked back to Vivian. This temple seemed taken care of, it was just as clean and spotless as the rest, but open green and yellow banners hung undecorated where in all the other temples others held stitched artworks of the goddess they hung before.
“If I can't pray to her myself then what's the point?” Vivian asked in a harsh tone, and Luna winced.
She patted her dress however and came to Vivian's other side to kneel by her. Vivian watched her kneel beside her and she turned her gaze to Micheal.
“I'm not sure how it was in your world, but here the Gods whether we worship them or not are a part of our lives. Windreah is..” She hesitated frustrated for a moment as she struggled for the right words.
“Well she values choice. And the choices we all make. It's our choice to come to her first—well..” She tsked and shook her head. “I should have asked you before I brought you here. She might not answer if she thought I didn't have you make your own decision.”
“I think she will.” Micheal said absently. “I just have to decide if she's the one I want to ask.” He added as he stared up at the Goddess's statue.
She, or at least her original incarnation, was supposed to be dead. He wondered how different this world really was from his writing, but he supposed he should be glad that the events that would take place after her death weren't in effect or had been mended. That also left open that he was here when those events would take place. Jakcova wouldn't have known of Yggdrasil if it hadn't already grown from the corpse of the goddess to reach out from the plane of death and the end of time to spread out over all existence. Windreah wasn't what he had named her in his world building document or the Dungeons and Dragons campaign, but it was her from what he could see. But maybe then again it wasn't. Perhaps Galenda had died. And Windreah, possibly one of her daughters, had taken her place and a new name to go along with it. Song maybe? Or one of her sister's Micheal hadn't named?
He felt so inattentive all of a sudden. Like a father who hadn't the time to name all of his children. A strange guilt settled over him paired with a desire to meet the demigods he had planned for the setting. Those poor kids…
Another longing grew in his heart to believe there was something more. There would be if this place was like his writing. Maybe the Christian God made this place a reality as his own personal mix of heaven and hell for not believing in Him. Maybe the world he had written about was just as real as he was in his old life. Maybe thought meant more to the soul than the people of Earth had known. Maybe he was just laying in a hospital bed trapped inside his own mind. There were plenty of parallels to his experiences here that could be interpreted as his mind reacting and trying to make sense of outside stimulus, but then again the world around him had substance and consistency more so than his own limited imagination and wild dream states could imagine. Would he remain in this place trapped inside a world he only half created to explore what else had been made to fill the gaps or was it all just some insane dream? Maybe the consistency he perceived was just his own twisted mind forcing it to make sense.
No. Not that. He couldn't question what was in front of him. The wool rug at his feet was rough and as solid as the stones under it in this manner of speaking. He stepped forward and touched the altar before the large marble statue. There were no offerings here; only a golden candlestick sat on each end that was probably just used to weigh down the silk cloth thrown over the stone table.
Having any kind of faith in the gods he had written was almost as shocking a concept as it had been to talk to one of his own main characters. How could he pray to something that he knew was both real as the two women beside him thought it to be, but then again an entire fiction. That of course just looped around again to the fallacy loop opposing what lay right in front of him. He had to choose to believe he was really here or descend into madness.
For the longest time in that camp he had wanted this world to be a cruel imagining. He knew that even if his memories of the whole experience were still coming back to him. His own mind might be interpreting the pain his body was in after the accident at work, but now...He began to put it together. The Goddess herself was here, and waiting for him. She would come down and certainly offer the reprieve Vivian wanted, but would she offer something else?
The sound of his father's voice echoed somewhere in his memory. His nephews shouted his name in another. He clenched his fists against the altar, and fought off the desperate home sickness he felt. If this was real...if the people here had yet to face what he had made a future for them…
He looked back at Vivian with tears trying to fill his eyes. He thought of the questions he might have asked Jakcova. If Windreah was truly the Goddess of Freedom would she offer him a chance to be free of these shackles or not? Like then, he could ask, but Micheal had been too afraid to ask the powerful mage.
Vivian looked up at him worried half way up from her kneeling position as she watched him and what he was doing. She looked in his eyes and revelation came over her face. She stood smoothly and stepped forward to him without saying a word. She took his hand and only then did he realize that he was shaking. She touched his face and looked into his eyes seeing his pain, but not the direct cause. She knew of course of his time in the camp, but there was no way she could tell what he was thinking.
“What's wrong?” She asked softly as she stood close and wiped tears from his eyes.
“It's just that I..” He stopped after he realized he had started wrong. “It's nothing. It's nothing Vivian.” He told her, but she didn't seem to buy that.
Vivian stared into his eyes not totally comprehending what he meant. Of course she wouldn't though. She did care for him though. She loved him even. Her hands certainly felt real and soft and they filled his heart with a contentment that tried to push away the turmoil in his mind.
Luna gasped, but neither of them looked away from each other. Micheal's eyes filled with tears as he fought through his memories of this place, the place he had written for a story of love, despair, but mostly adventure. Things he had in some ways or in others always wanted to experience in his previous life perhaps foolishly, perhaps wrongly led by stories of fantasy and video games he had read or played all his life. He leaned his head down against Vivian's and she gently ran her hands over his cheeks as she wiped tears away. He ignored the presence behind him and what she might be waiting for him to ask. He could see her hovering there, waiting patiently, in the corner of his vision with a smile of understanding on her face.
Of course she at least had an idea of the battle going on inside his head. To stay and answer for the things he felt so much guilt about, to face down the world he had made, or to abandon them? A choice. Abandon Vivian, her love, and all his new friends to face the terrors he had made into this world alone. Could they do it without him? And what about Jack? He couldn't be sure. Perhaps it was wrong, but he felt he owed them. He owed these Gods who maintained this temple, and all the people in it and beyond for what would come. For what was already here, for the lives monsters of his creation had made, and for the horrors to come.
Indecision turned to blessedly solid resolve in his mind.
“I will stay with you Vivian. I owe you and everyone else that much. I can at least see you through what's to come. This world is wonderful enough for me to do at least that much for it.” He said fighting to keep himself from getting any more emotional than he was. As terrified as he was.
Things were peaceful for now, but clearly he had been put here and given a chance to make a difference. The resolve he felt had been solid, but now he had acted upon it somehow making it more real. The Mark of Adventure on the back of his hand seemed heavier too all of a sudden, but he knew that was just in his head.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Vivian wiped his tears and pulled out a hanky from her belt to wipe his nose. She smiled at him with that look people got when they had no idea what you meant and then jumped as she finally noticed the person who had floated down from the rafters beside them. Vivian had been about to speak until shock stole the words from her mouth as she turned to face the Goddess.
The tall Goddess smiled and took them both in her arms without saying a word. Vivian shook nervously and was a little wide eyed, but then looked suddenly very aware. She stared at the Goddess and then at Micheal somehow making the connection. Her arms darted around him.
“You can't!” she said in a surprised cry after a long moment of thought that took in his lack of reaction to seeing the Goddess appear there. She hugged him and held him tight suddenly crying and sniffling. “You can't choose me. You'd be safer there with your weird dogs, your cat and parents, and the other things you've mentioned. You..How...” She hugged at him as the Goddess leaned in against them as she broke into sobs she tried to fight down.
Windreah kissed both their heads before pulling away with a few smiling steps like a dancer stepping on the wind. She waved a very startled Luna over to her and kissed her head as well before gently pushing her toward Micheal and Vivian.
Luna looked at the Goddess and heard what Vivian had said. She stared at Micheal and Vivian.
“But the camp.” Luna said. “You could end up in the camps again. I wouldn't wish it on anyone, but if you were away... You could die here.” She said skipping from thought to thought as the import of her words carried on without her aid.” Your mark is silver even. It's dangerous...” She said to him with a shocked and emotional look in her eyes. She watched the Goddess as she looked around at the roof of the temple above.
Then with a sudden roar it began to rain in a crashing downpour almost as if Micheal's decision had brought the rain finally crashing down or maybe just the Goddess had been holding it at bay. Priestesses and squires fought shutters closed in a panic as banners and tapestries flew high and wild about the temple in the sudden harsh wind. One of them tripped as she passed them to the stairs leading up to the second level at the back of the altar and the Wind Goddess went to the girls side to help the red robed priestess of Ynneria by taking her hands. The girl of thirteen or fourteen stared up at her wild-eyed as the Goddess calmly fixed the girl's braided bangs back into place with the pin that had come loose.
Then without so much as a care for her gaping the Goddess took the girl by the hand and led her upstairs to help her close the shutters.
Vivian almost angrily wiped at her eyes and pulled away from him as she got her emotions back under rein as the storm raged down around the temple. She took him by the cheeks and glared into his eyes with tears still trickling from hers.
“You've known me a week!” She said with her voice shaking. “You can't choose my world and my struggles after knowing me only a week.” She wiped her eyes as they continued to shine with emotion. She pulled him in and kissed him in spite of what she just said. “People just don't fall in love like that. Sure you would be with me and sleep with me and say you cared about me, but not this. You had freedom right there. You could have...” She broke off and covered her nose and eyes with her sleeve as she wiped her face, but couldn't seem to reel it back in after.
“Gods curse it all.” She swore as she pulled him into another fierce hug.
He buried his face in her arms and neck and held her tight feeling more certain than he had before. Whatever this world was, it wasn't all his making. Whatever it was he would choose to be here rather than go back to the equally uncertain and magic free world he used to live in. Global Warming, Climate Change, a completely mundane and uninteresting life. There was no magic, no secrets, and little freedom left in that world for him any longer compared to this. --And there was no telling what shape he would be in after the accident if he didn't just magically appear whole or something, but he somehow doubted that being how it would have happened.
He missed his parents and hoped they were okay after his death or after he went missing or whatever had happened. He hoped his cat Dennis was somewhere safe and warm, but now he had to say goodbye to his old life. As far as he knew there was no going back now and the people here.... He wanted to be here. He needed to be here. Somehow he understood that. He wanted to be with Vivian through the bad and good. He wanted to live in a world full of magic and monsters that he had helped create and see all the things in it. He would have to explain to her somehow what he knew and why he had made this decision. Even if it was a little at a time. He wanted there to be nothing to drive them apart. He would tell her everything and find a way to prepare the world for the fate he had written for it. He couldn't put all these people through the same pain he had been.
It was an effort, but he could say at least this much now. “I've been keeping something from you Vivian, and I suppose Luna too, but mostly from you.” He said, still holding Vivian tight. She still held on too, but she was listening closely now. “I don't know how to explain it right now. Not and make any sense. Even if I say it right it probably won't make sense without a great deal of proof which I don't have. I didn't know if you'd believe me before, and I couldn't think of how to begin at all. But I love you and I think you need to know because it might make you very angry at me.”
Vivian's grip on him shifted and grew even tighter. “I don't know what you could mean by that. What haven't you told me?” She asked. “If it's about your world it doesn't matter what happened there. You can tell me about it or not, it doesn't matter. You're here now...”
“Maybe.” He admitted.
Enough was changed and his writing so incomplete that he thought it might not actually matter at all. He really only had a few rough drafts, a few outlines, and his world building documents to go by outside the loads of material he made for the campaign. Maybe. Just maybe it didn't matter, but he still had to tell her.
“But I think it's still something you should know. Just give me time. I'll figure out how to explain it so it will make sense and then I will tell you. Maybe I will even find some way to prove it.” He said with certainty in his voice. The decision he had just made firmed his resolve somewhat.
Vivian just shook her head in the embrace.
“I think I'd rather not know.” She said laughing softly. “Especially if you think it will make me mad. I won't ask about it if you can't find a way to tell me. Not unless its going to come up later or something.”
Micheal sighed and thought about that.
“It will. So I'd rather you know. Maybe Jakcova could help me explain it.”
Vivian pulled away enough to look at him. She tilted her head at him and her eyes and nose were red. Her ears were wilted and droopy. She kissed him. And then again. And then put her nose up against his. She closed her eyes and slowly began to let go. The wind on the shutters and the beat of the rain on the stone roof was incredibly loud.
“Is it something that complicated?” She asked.
Micheal nodded.
“It might be easy enough to just say, but I need to understand the whole of the problem first. I care about you too much to risk it being a problem, but like you said it might not actually matter. I will make some time to talk to your friend about it since I think he would understand what I would try to explain better than I could explain it to anyone else.”
Vivian looked curious and a tiny bit worried. “It's something to do with magic then?”
Micheal nodded again.
“More or less. Maybe it’s more along the lines of my nature as an outworlder and Elder Kin I guess. It has to do with how I might interact with this world later and all those bindings he was talking about.”
She gave him an open wondering look. She touched his hands and searched his eyes. Then her eyes went a little soft. She turned, red faced and embarrassed and looked down as she whispered what she said next to him.
“It doesn't really matter if you're not able to get me with child. I will still love you even if we can't have them.” Even her ears turned red as she finished whispering that to him and his heart began to pick up the pace.
His thoughts kind of flew off track from where they were in his head too. He was suddenly worried about what Jack was doing out in that rain and wind and if he was alright, but God, or Gods, had she really just mentioned having children?
He just barely kept himself from gaping like all the little men in his head that were doing just so now instead of helping him think of how to respond to that.
The Goddess came back downstairs behind them, and made as though to laugh though she made no sound as she girlishly covered her mouth with one hand. The wet priestess beside her held out her soaking wet ceremonial robes completely mortified by the state of them until the Goddess waved her hand around her. Gusts of high pressure wind blew about the girl and water flung down and away from her and the Goddess to rapidly form a puddle.
“It's uh...” Micheal said watching the display the Goddess made with the blow drying magic. It distracted him from the absurd thing Vivian had just said. “It's nothing to worry yourself about, and I don't think it's anything you would guess. Like I said, it doesn't really make sense.”
Vivian looked at him, but nodded as she too noticed the Goddess as she approached them once more. She stepped back and fixed her shirt. She cleared her throat and stood to her full height. She even curtsied for the Goddess. For that matter Luna looked about to drop to her knees, but when she saw Vivian she did the same instead. The Goddess smiled at them both and came close to Vivian again without saying a word.
The Wind Goddess took Vivian's hand and placed her other palm onto Vivian's abdomen and tilted her head in question. When Vivian just stared, a little too unsure of what the Goddess meant Windreah looked between the two of them and made the gesture again with a firmer touch at her lower belly. Vivian's eyes went wide and Luna seemed to get it too.
Vivian twitched as if she was about to bolt, but glanced at him before she whispered to the Goddess so quietly that he couldn't hear what she said over the sound of the rain and beating shutters. The Goddess shook her head once, and Vivian whispered what must have been a question before the Goddess nodded and Vivian took a long breath. After a moment Vivian said something to the Goddess again and then suddenly was standing on her toes and stepping back from her close place with the Goddess. The Goddess smiled at him and Luna and then made her out into the main temple aisle to the surprise of many of the clergy.
Vivian's face was beat red, but she beat it down as she came back to his side brushing hair that didn't need fixing back behind her ears and adjusting how her braid lay over her chest. She took his hand and leaned in close.
“So that uh...” She gulped. “That won't be a problem. It's just not happened yet. My cycles are not in full swing yet frighteningly, but the Goddess gave me a blessing that will make it a little more bearable.” She said with another gulp. “She offered something to help with...babies...too I think, but I turned her down. I don't mean to make this sound bad after what I said, but I think I would like to hear what you have to tell me before we umm...have any..or uh...try to have any. More than we have been already at least. Like you said, we aren't exactly careful.” Vivian said, sounding uncharacteristically bashful to match her bright red cheeks and the way she avoided looking at Luna.
Luna tripped on the carpet behind them and looked away fast with her ears held in both her hands and pointed away from them. A startled innocent expression was clear on her face as she stared at the walls of the temple as she walked.
Vivian wilted with embarrassment for a moment, but buried it and pulled herself straight up and away from him a little before they met with Eva, Pelanna and Julia again. The group went to the doors of the temple to look outside at the storm that had very suddenly rolled in off the lake. There were a few young squires and priestesses doing the same and doing their best to avoid the waves of rain as they rolled in through the open doors as people rushed inside from the street.
“We should have seen this storm coming for days shouldn't we Eva?” Pelanna asked worriedly as they looked outside at the sheeting rain and all flinched back at a close raking burst of lightning that shot through the clouds. People were running in the streets heading for the church with cloaks and hoods drawn up and totally soaked through despite the few minutes of rain so far. It was an absolute downpour. It was pretty difficult to see very far down the street through it.
Julia nodded and they stayed together as the priestesses opened the doors wider for the people running inside and the squires ran off for blankets. Eva looked perturbed by whatever she saw out in that storm and its sudden appearance.
A priest nearby overheard them and walked their way to speak.
“There are many forces in our world that affect nature, the Gods most among them, pray that we have not stumbled upon their anger or...” He cut off with a croak as Windreah came past and into his cone of vision. With flat eyes she glanced at him and his stole dedicated to Alpharian in gold and black designs fitting for the God of Kings and waved to the party pleasantly as she stepped out into the rain.
She looked about the town as the rain parted around her in a wide dome. People ran inside and stopped or stumbled when they saw her, but she waved them inside and put a hand up her eyes as if she were looking at something far away, even standing on her tiptoes. Being outside on the wet pavement really seemed to make obvious her bare feet which Micheal hadn't noticed before even with her mythril anklets sparkling atop them.
This was the first Pelanna and the others had seen of the Goddess apparently since they all gaped or blinked in confused recognition. That went double when Jack wiggled his way from behind an off side column to the Goddess's side. She smiled down at him, knelt down into a crouch, and blew the water off of him with a flick of her hand. Jack shook with visible pleasure and she actually let him lick her face and she laughed, though again, the Goddess made no sound.
His tail went wild and put his big head under her hands and embraced every pet she gave him. The Goddess for all appearances was completely taken with Jack and Jack with her. She even rubbed his belly and kissed the top of his big head.
“What beast dare..” The priest roared suddenly coming back to life to only cut off like a wet bottle rocket and slowly bring his gold and black staff back down to sit limply in his hands once more. He stared wide eyed as Jack's back leg went wild as the Goddess of Wind and Freedom found Jack's favorite spot to be scratched.
Eventually Windreah pointed to Micheal for Jack and the Bear Dog happily followed her command and loped over to the party. The priest just stared as the creature entered the temple at the Goddess's command. His mouth worked, but no sound came out. The squires and priestesses near him either held doors open with cracking controlled expressions or moved away from the man as he struggled with himself, each of the trainees doing their best to control the giggles coming up from the Goddess's actions.
Pelanna was hiding a smile behind a too blank face, and Julia was hiding her muffled giggles behind her hands, either of them being only a small of a handful of years older than the squires and youthful priestesses in training about them. Eva just stared at the Goddess blinking and wide eyed. She hadn't gotten over her appearance yet and seemed a little star struck.
“Not to discount the appearance of a Goddess, but are we going out in that?” Luna asked with a dreadful look at the wet clothes of the people running inside. No one answered her as they watched the Goddess as she stood out in the rain with her hands on her hips looking out toward the lake far down the river. Every now and then she tilted her head this way or that, almost like Vivian did when she found something interesting.
The rain went on for a little while and the lightning flared in the sky until as suddenly as it had begun the sun broke out and the rain stopped. The Goddess turned and looked to the party over her shoulder. She made a gentle shooing motion to them while glancing up at the angry sky.
They all got her meaning and broke into a run down the empty streets.
The group made it through the gates of the Adventurer's guild hall just in time for it to begin pouring once again. The women and Micheal himself laughed and shouted and stumbled on slippery stones in the mad sprint across the forty or so yards of the walk up to the building and they crashed inside barely managing to stay upright. The wind and rain threatened to force the doors to stay open, but with two or three of them on each of the heavy wooden doors they managed to push them shut much to the relief of the clerks inside who were already chasing after loose papers blown free from their desks.
Wet and cold they went up the stairs from even brief exposure to the frightening amount of rain everyone but the Captains and Micheal returned to the apartment. Forgen met with them laughing at their state, mostly it seemed, to poke at Eva's haughty nature. He asked how things went and with Vivian's and Eva's approval of him he agreed to to be the third of the Captains to sign him into the guild Charter.
The same old Bunnary woman produced the book Vivian had checked in with and enacted the small ritual to add him into the book with a controlled smile on her face as she took in their soggy states. It even put the seal of a cracked shield in the top left of his mark's outline. With seemingly no more ceremony than that they welcomed him. Forgen clapped him on the back and said in his coarse commanding voice; “Take care and watch her back for us.” Indicating Vivian before heading back into an office beyond the clerks desk.
They went upstairs to find everyone back. Even Dexter, who was down to just his trousers and even those didn't look all that dry. He was trying to fend off Jack's attempts to win over his affection and tell Luna off as she uncorked a white pottery jar and began applying the white cream inside to Dexter's rash like outbreaks near his scales. He shivered like she was putting ice on his back every time she applied her fingers to it, but with Jack's head buried in his lap and Luna practically over top him behind he gave in.
The three Bunnary boys were counting out coins from what looked to be a reward bag. Julia and Pelanna approached them with a small parchment menu listed with food items and dishes and were going to send an order down to the kitchens to be sent up to the room. Micheal picked out a dish that Pelanna said had fish, rice, and eggs in it and went with that when it came his turn to choose. Vivian ordered a plate of greens with a large side of meat that turned out to be a turkey sized drum stick from a lizard creature. Dexter asked for a smoked haunch made of some great bird, Eva ordered a small side and then another as if by idle thought, and Ted James and Fredrick argued over meals until Micheal was in the room he shared with Vivian.
She took off her wet dress and hung her boots over one of the chairs. She wore a light white shift that was a little damp and didn't quite cover her bottom completely. So she was wearing just that when she drew one of her short swords from the belt she had hung over the end of the bed and walked to the window with it. She checked the edge with her fingernail and twirled it once in her hand while watching the rain come down silently in sheets outside. If one looked hard to the left one would see the river and the lake, but mostly their view from the window was of the river Northwest of the lake, the bridge that hung out over it and the marshy flatlands that turned to rolling hills out and off into the horizon.
He stripped, lamenting that it was his last pair of clean clothes.
“Wear your pants.” She said with a shrug. “We can ask for a laundry service when the meals come.”
“Won't the others think it odd if we're dressed like this though?”
She turned her head and gave him a flat look over her shoulder.
“We all bathed together last night and you're worried about being seen in your pants?”
Micheal made a frown as he thought about that. He had seen Luna and all the other girls nude in fact. Even Dexter. He had never thought about what a lizard man type humanoid has for parts down there, but he had his answer after that. He hadn't even really meant to look. It was just one of those things that a person noticed once it was out there. Like Luna's athletic and shapely...He blinked, focusing himself on getting his dirty clothes together from the floor.
Vivian tilted her head at him holding the suddenly very sharp looking sword where he could see it. She had a very curious smile on her face that made a small cold pit grow in his belly.
He sniffed and wiped his nose meeting her gaze. To look away now would be to admit guilt. He kept an innocent face and matched her gaze until her smile started to grow. She tried to keep the serious face, but he tilted his head a little and batted his eyelashes at her until she finally gave up and laughed aloud.
She went to the bed and slapped the sword back home with an easy practiced motion, and then came to him. She picked him up off his knees from his crouch near his pack by touching her hands to his face. She gently slapped either side of his face as she looked up at him shaking her head with a smile still on her lovely face.
“Maybe I'm not the horny one.” She said teasingly as she backed him onto the chair without half their clothes hung over it. She straddled him and the chair, and threw her arms around his neck. She leaned into him and they hugged for a time the skin contact warm against the cool of the rain.
“There's a practice hall inside in the basement on the other side from the baths. We train with it in the winter and it should be empty or almost so now.” She mumbled into his neck as she relaxed against him. “We should fool around before we eat, eat, and then go down there and teach you more polearm and maybe start on swords or something else one handed so you have something if you lose your staff.” She laid her head against him as she spoke.
“We haven't been practicing that much I guess. Polearm I mean. You play with my staff all the time, but that's--” He coughed as she brought her legs together up against his ribs. She stayed that way with her back arched pinning him with a measuring look.
“I'll bite you again.” She threatened.