After our meal, I offered to let Tooly take a bath first, but she was very adamant about going last… So I helped Mochi, checking her back one last time and washing her hair again. Thankfully because of my treatment last time, she said the pain was completely gone, although there were still scars. At any rate, Kesh was too large to fit inside the bathtub, but he could use water magic, so he found a way around it, borrowing the room for a while while I dried Mochi’s hair. Then I went, and finally Tooly.
I was a bit confused at first as to why she was so insistent on going last, but after waiting for her to finish for over an hour I decided it was the right call. ‘I was under the impression goblins preferred warm, humid climates… How can she sit this long in a cold bath… I bet most of the ice has melted by now. “Should I check on her?”
Kesh raised his eyes from the intricate knot he was tying and thought for a moment. “Better you than me.” He said gruffly before continuing with his project.
‘I guess that’s probably true…’ I knocked on the door and heard no response, after I tried again I opened it and carefully walked in, closing the door again behind me. She shaking so badly I could hear her teeth jittering. I didn’t even bother asking before I grabbed her and pulled her out, causing her to squeal until she realized what had happened. “Are you trying to kill yourself? How long have you been shaking, your skin and hair color even changed, is that normal for goblins?” I asked, as I quickly wrapped her up with a big soft towel, covering her head with another one. ‘Her hair is soaking too, so she must have kept dunking her head in the water… For an hour?’ “Hey, are you gonna answer me? Forget it, just hurry up and dry off. Then we can–”
Her body suddenly collapsed as she passed out. ‘Why can’t I be the only weird person I know…’ I sighed sending mana through her body. Somehow her internal temperature was actually still normal, it was just her skin that was ice cold, so she wasn’t in any danger or anything… But… ‘I don’t think she had a storage item on her… And her clothes are pretty dirty from traveling…’ I sighed. ‘Can I just leave her like this? No… That would cause problems later for sure right? Hm… Well. Ok, I’ll change into my armor, and I’ll give her my clothes…’
After I was done I brought her out and tucked her into bed, explaining what happened.
“Sounds about right. She was likely planning on staying in there until the water warmed up.”
‘That’s… Why…’ I shuddered. Taking a deep breath and letting out a long sigh I scratched my head. “Right, tomorrow. What will you two be up to? Are you going to get some work from the guild?”
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“Yes. I’m sure she will be eager to get going as soon as she wakes up. We will most likely find work first and plan accordingly, then we will come back and help you with what you need of us before heading off.”
“Sounds good.” I tucked Tooly in under the blankets and Mochi curled up in the corner of the room and closed her eyes. “Seems like a good time to get some sleep then,” I said softly, stretching out my arms. ‘Sense I’m wearing my armor I’ll just sleep against the wall tonight, I always end up with some kink in my joints when I sleep in a bed in full gear.’
Kesh slowly stood up. “Verry well then, sleep well.” He said gruffly before heading outside.
‘I knew it… He’s sleeping outside… I need to find a real house soon…’ I sighed, looking out the window as I sank down against the wall. ‘It’s not enough yet. I want more than this…’ They hadn’t given me a reason not to trust them, but just to be sure I still used a basic awareness spell. ‘It’s been a while since I’ve felt the need to do this…’
After sorting through my thoughts and remembering the spell, I scrolled to it in my mind. ‘Another benefit of storage magic is that it really helps me keep track of all these random spells. Some of them overlap too… In this instance though I think… Right. Echo magic, Tier 2, Echo of thought.’
I closed my mind and focussed on Tooly since she was closer and asleep, meaning her guard was down. The spell reverberated through the air like a sound wave that continued to bounce long after the sound had dissipated until it reached her mind and I began to read her past thoughts.
‘Forgive me for not trusting you completely… But even if I haven’t sensed any hostile intent… I won’t be able to rest easy if I don’t do this.’
The spell began imprinting her thoughts into my mind, and to avoid collision I emptied my head while I traced through every thought she had from the time we met to the moment she fell asleep. In just a few moments I quickly realized the betraying me… No… Anything related to me in general, was literally the last thing on her mind.
In fact, most of her thoughts were a lot more related to how attractive Kesh was without his shirt on… There was a brief period of time where she was wondering how she should repay me… A very brief period of time… For the most part though it was just her nervously yelling at herself to keep it together until she dunked her head in the cold water, at which point she finally seemed to calm down, focusing mostly on how painful the cold was and then drifting to her father of all things, who apparently was the one that taught her how to fight, and from there her thoughts were all basically a thick jelly that was too jumbled to see through until she fell asleep, at which point her thoughts all suddenly cleared and she started dreaming about punching a hog in the face and then befriending it and riding it around...
When it was all over I found my breath quickened and my face slightly flushed, but since they weren’t my thoughts, the effects quickly wore off as I didn’t dwell on them. ‘Other people's minds are… Scary…’ I took a deep breath slowing my heart rate again and quickly splashed some cold water on my face with magic after I stood up. ‘Well… For better or worse they aren’t bad people, it seems like she does actually want to repay me, rather than wrong me somehow… Even if she wants other things a bit more…’ I sighed again relaxing against the wall. I guess there’s no reason not to trust them.