Chapter Text
When Falin was younger, she remembers the day a deer unsteadily toddled over to her, its pupils dilated as it made its way towards her.
It was a fawn, possibly orphaned or otherwise, and it had had the potential for one of the best moments of her life. She had wanted to touch its little nose, to let it lick her hand and for it to recognize her as a friend.
She had fantasized in that moment about having a deer for a best friend, about how she would find a way to teach it to walk a bit better, instead of drunkenly stumbling towards her… and maybe even find a way to help its fur grow back.
Except Laios had pulled her away from the animal. "Don't touch it," he warned, his voice grave as he held on to her.
“But why?” she whined, puffing out her cheeks in some attempt at looking angry. This did nothing to deter Laios as he pulled her away, shaking his head.
“Because it’s sick. If it bites you or licks you, it might get you sick as well,” Laios had told her, his brows knit together with concern as he looked at the fawn.
The fawn looked back, panting heavily as it limped forward. Laios had gasped, taking a stick as he tried to scare it off.
The problem was, it wasn’t scared. Maybe that’s when Falin realized something was indeed wrong in the way that the fawn was behaving. Normally, even the little fawns knew to stay away from her. They may have curled up in the grass from time to time, their small heads poking out between their naps, but they often ran off, letting out wails whenever Anowtrid or Nussa went chasing after them.
This, however, was different.
Laios didn’t dare to let Fucci leave his side, and this seemed to be for the best. It was only when the fawn fell to the ground that they found it safe enough to run away.
Later, when they had caught their breath and Falin had cried over the poor deer, Laios had gently patted her back to try to comfort her. However, it was only after her sobs subsided that he suddenly became stern.
“I know that the baby deer” — “It’s called a fawn,” she helpfully supplied — “okay, the fawn was very cute, but… you can’t let that happen again. Wild animals are supposed to be scared of us, Falin. If they aren’t, it means they’re dangerous.”
When she looked at him, he carefully wiped away some tears and let Fucci tackle her to the ground with kisses.
“Wild animals that don’t fear us may want to hurt us, even if they don’t mean to. The fawn is sick. It could have killed you.”
It didn’t make sense to her. After all, what could a fawn do to her? It was just a baby! It made sense later, when they found the deer dead the next day, foam flowing from its mouth.
Not even the crows would pick at it.
Laios was soft, gentle even when he told her that there was a disease that wild animals could get that made them aggressive sometimes, but more often confused and seemingly friendly. If she had been bitten, she would have died.
Wild animals were supposed to be scared of humans, or at least somewhat aggressive. It didn’t make sense for an animal to want to approach a human being without clear incentive, may it be food or shelter.
Maybe that’s why Falin pulls Senshi away from the Kelpie, and why she shakes her head at him when he tries to insist that she’s friendly.
He’s named her Anne, as though she’s a pet.
She’s once again reminded of the golems, of how he had so carefully placed the cores back into those piles of dirt, and she grimaces.
“Senshi,” she begins, ignoring the way that Marcille insists that maybe, just maybe, this is alright, “I need you to tell me how you met Anne.”
Senshi raises a brow, tilting his head back slightly as he thinks, “Well, I first met her while fishin’. She likes t’watch me fish, and then she’ll often take the leftover fish guts and bones.”
It’s reminiscent of how humans domesticated dogs, in a way. However…
“Has she ever been scared of you?” Falin asks, furrowing her brows as she looks over the beast, “Has she ever run away from you? Has she ever shown any sign of hesitation? Any aggression?”
A scoff is all he gives at first, shaking his head as though she’s said something ridiculous, which… no, she really hasn’t.
“Falin, Anne is a good beastie. She’s gentle, and the most she’ll do is chew on my hair. If yer worried, don’t be. Anne would never hurt me,” he assures, and that is why she is worried.
Senshi has no reason to distrust Anne because he isn’t seeing her as a monster.
The next words need to be worded carefully, but Falin still asks, “Do you see Anne as a horse, or are you seeing her as what she is: a Kelpie?”
There’s specifically a memory that she’s recalling of Laios being reeled right in by a kelpie years ago, back when they were much younger, before he even had his current set of armor. She had to chase him down with her old flail, swinging the ball around quickly as she dashed after him and the beast.
She knows that she’s somewhat hypocritical. After all, she has Conte strapped across her back, and she’s been making sure to feed it regularly.
Toshiro and Chilchuck are both side-eyeing her right now, which probably means they’re thinking the exact same thing.
It just can’t be helped, can it?
Why does she have to fall in love with little invertebrates? At least this one doesn’t have the potential to kill her, unless it was to be struck by inspiration and motivate itself to maneuver the heavy sword.
Seeing as the sword was technically Conte’s shell, it wasn’t going to whip that around carelessly, unless it was trying to escape something.
“She’s a good friend,” Senshi finally responds after a considerable amount of silence, his rough hands gently running through her mane of kelp. Falin swears his voice is quieter, his eyes suddenly unfocused as he stares not towards Anne, but instead somewhere else, somewhere not quite… here.
“Senshi,” she starts again, placing a hand on his shoulder, “I know that you’ve spent a lot of time with her… but can you say that about any other monster in this dungeon that wouldn’t try to fight you?” That last part is important, because she doesn’t want him to bring up the golems, because they’re gardens, and they’re also never happy to see him.
Heaving out a sigh, Senshi turns away from her.
“Can’t ye let me at least try with her, Falin?” His voice is… unsteady. It’s alarming, hearing the way he speaks now. She’s never heard him sound so… emotional. A hand is offered to her nose, and Anne sniffs it, puffing out a snort. “I’m sure she’s not like the others yer thinkin’ of. I’ve known Anne for so long. It would be wrong to not even give her a chance. Surely we can give her a chance?”
This sounds like a recipe for disaster, but Falin doesn’t want to be the reason Senshi sounds like this anymore. It’s been difficult to read Senshi these last few days, what with the helmet that obscures most of his face and his general lack of reaction to… most things, really.
It’s startling to suddenly have such emotions so plainly and obviously being lain out for her. Even Chilchuck is openly glaring at her now, cocking his head towards Senshi when she looks at him.
“Give him a compromise,” Chilchuck mutters to her through gritted teeth, “because we’re not getting anywhere without at least a little help. You saw what happened with the water walk spell.”
Indeed, she does. It apparently wasn’t a trick of the light when she saw the way that her spells seemed to bounce right off of him.
“Well…” she trails off, tapping her fingers against her mouth as she tries to think. What would work best in this situation? “I guess the most I’ll allow is a rope around her tail. That way we can try to stop her if she attempts to get away with you on her back?”
She takes her rope out for example, stepping out onto the water’s surface without a hint of hesitation, quickly tying a loop and then tightening it around the end of Anne’s tail.
Senshi watches her, finally letting out a sigh. “I s’ppose a bit of caution wouldn’t hurt. Thank ye for at least allowing me to try, Falin.”
There’s that tone in his voice again, the tired, shaking way that he’s barely holding it together. It’s alarming, it sounds wrong coming from him.
Before she can really linger on that thought, however, Senshi is already hopping up on to the kelpie’s back, running a hand through her mane.
Falin doesn’t even get another chance to say anything to him as he suddenly exclaims, “Onward, Anne!”
No sooner than the words are uttered, the kelpie surges forward, her hooves pounding against the water’s surface as though it were stone.
Still, there’s a twisting in her stomach, uncomfortable and suffocating as she sees the way the water shifts at Anne’s feet.
“Marcille,” she suddenly urges, throwing her hat to the side and wrestling her outer robes off of her. It’s really Conte’s scabbard that gets in the way. She has the foresight to unsheath the sword and just toss both her robe and the scabbard to the side as she instructs, “Marcille, get that water walk spell off of me.”
“What?! Falin, it’s fine! Look, we just need t-” Marcille goes to tug on the rope, but it suddenly turns to horror as Senshi begins to sink beneath the surface.
“Hold on to the rope!” Falin calls over the pounding of her own heart. The smooth, too-clean tickle of the water walk spell dissipates on her skin, and she dives in with Conte tucked into the belt around her waist. It’s not a moment too soon, especially when Senshi completely vanishes beneath the water.
Please be a semi-aquatic species, please be a semi-aquatic species, please be a semi-aquatic species, she silently pleads to herself, hoping beyond any shadow of a doubt that Conte isn’t going to drown in this water.
She can hold her breath, but can her mollusk friend?
Okay, definitely not important right now! Technically it is, but also it isn’t!
Falin kicks like her life depends on it, her eyesight not doing her any favors as she makes her way down, down, down, even as her lungs begin to burn.
There are two moving shapes in the water, that much she can tell. One is far more graceful, and that flash of green she makes out confirms that this must be Anne and Senshi.
There’s a crunch, loud even with the dampening of these depths.
It has to be the mimic claw Senshi had offered her. She hopes that’s what it is.
Her arms reach outward, mind racing as she sacrifices precious air to try to cast a stun spell.
Sparks sizzle in the water, flickering around Anne and Senshi’s face. The dwarf freezes, and Falin does have a pang of sympathy, but she has no real other choice right now.
She just wants to scare Anne off for right now. It’s far better to just scare the kelpie off and try to forget this happened, right? She can cut the rope with Conte’s help, and Anne can just swim off.
Unfortunately, while Senshi begins to float upwards out of the way, Anne lets out a burbling sound that lets her know that it was not as effective as she was hoping.
The sudden, searing pain in her arm corroborates that realization as Anne tears into her arm. Air is sacrificed once more as she screams in utter agony.
Up this close, Anne is terrifying. Her long, sharp canines are half-visible as they sink into the delicate flesh of Falin’s arm while her incisors press, press, press into the bone, threatening to shatter it. The water begins to turn red as her blood flows freely.
Despite the pain, her other arm fumbles, desperately reaching for Conte.
Her right hand hits the hilt, and she quickly wrestles from her side. She can’t see, her lungs don’t have a bit of air in them, and she hurts.
Anne must be terrified, she realizes. Anne just wanted to hunt, wanted to eat her fill and mind her business.
I’m sorry for this.
The angle is awkward, and the drag of the water doesn’t help, but she still knows where the weakest part of the skull should be.
She knows the brain, knows the skull that houses it, and thus it makes sense for her to aim for the temple of Anne’s head, to stab through the pterion, right where the temporal, parietal, and frontal bone meet.
Anne’s jaw tightens around her arm, and she can’t even scream anymore. Instead, she sucks in water, and that is an awful sensation, isn’t it? There is an agony that shoots down her airway, burning and unnatural and wrong.
Anne lets go of her arm finally, and suddenly the kelpie is being pulled upward, and she can’t reach out, she can’t get her, she can’t she can’t she can’t-
A strong hand grabs on to her right arm, and suddenly she’s being pulled upward as well. She struggles against the arm, blindly scratching at it because what if it’s a threat, what if- what if it’s another kelpie? Even if this is a hand, not hooves, and there are no teeth sinking into her arm again, what if?
The water in her lungs burns. It spreads out like a burst of energy, filling her veins with the blood-soaked water, her own blood, and she’s overwhelmed by this sudden foreboding of doom.
Laios would have had a far easier time, she numbly thinks, even with the adrenaline roaring in her ears.
When her head breaks the surface, her world roaring with sound, her vision goes dark.
There's shouting, distant and muffled, as though she's still underwater.
Her head lolls back, heavy and alien to her as she simply lies there. Something pushes against her chest, rhythmic and dull.
Looking up, it's easy to see Laios. He simply hums alongside her. He's only in the clothes he wears under all that armor, simple and so very Laios in how it all just makes sense.
Light filters through her eyes like that tree from the surface, and she's facing him, looking at his features and simply trying to memorize them.
Something is pressed against her mouth, and she coughs as she holds a hand over her chest.
"It's alright, Falin. It's alright."
Something drips on her hand, and she suddenly realizes that she's crying. Once she starts, she just can't stop.
"It's alright," Laios says again, his hand rubbing soothing circles into her back.
The pressure against her chest resumes, rhythmic and more forceful this time.
She weeps, clutching the fabric of her shirt with white knuckles. Laios sighs, placing his head on top of hers, just like he used to do when they were kids.
"Just... breathe."
The world comes back to her the next second, far too bright with water gushing from her mouth. Chilchuck looms over her, relief washing over his face when she leans on her side to avoid getting a mix of water, spit, and bile on her clothes.
A throbbing pain lingers in her chest even after the water is gone. Her face twists with confusion as she gingerly places her hand over her chest.
“Did I break my sternum?” she rasps, cringing at the sound of her own voice.
Marcille is the next to speak up as she helps Falin sit up and hastily wipes her face with a cloth. “No, no! You were unconscious when you and Senshi surfaced with the kelpie. Chilchuck did some sort of…” Her face scrunches as she tries to find her words, ears twitching in mild annoyance as she instead stacks her hands and makes a pushing movement.
Huh…
Her gaze travels over to the man in question, who drags a hand down his face, his entire body slouching in exhaustion.
“I had to learn it a while ago. I’m not gonna apologize for breaking any bones, alright? I was in a rush to keep you from dying. You can’t exactly heal water in your lungs unless you’re dead. Ask me how I know,” he rambles, setting a rather harsh glare towards Marcille when she opens her mouth to ask.
Right. Okay, definitely a rhetorical question.
She paws around for her staff until she can wrap her fingers around it. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to be near her. It’s Chilchuck who hands it to her with great difficulty, and she doesn’t waste time in trying to mumble out a healing spell.
Except it’s unfairly difficult to do so when she can barely focus on anything but the pain all over her body right now.
Marcille gasps, grabbing Ambrosia and crouching next to Falin.
“I was so caught up in being relieved that I nearly forgot to heal you!” Dread suddenly creeps up her spine as Marcille closes her eyes and begins to recite a quick healing spell.
Emphasize on quick, of course.
A snap reverberates through her body as her sternum suddenly realigns itself, an inferno of terrible, burning agony deep within her lungs raging. The gashes in her left arm also close up with a searing misery that leaves Falin letting out a choked wheeze.
She would never admit it, but she hates when Marcille heals her. She doesn’t need to do it often, but it always hurts, as though there’s an explosion spell being hurtled right into her diaphragm and set off.
However, the pain does ebb away at last, and she’s able to sit up finally.
She’s struck by the thought that she’s… forgetting something.
Her gaze drifts over to Senshi, whose back is turned to them all as he looks over Anne’s body. Toshiro has joined his side, perhaps just to give him company. The kelpie could have torn her arm off, and she would still pity the poor thing rather than be angry. Everything would have been… mostly forgiven. That still would have hurt.
Either way, she drags herself to her feet despite Marcille and Chilchuck’s protests and hobbles over.
“Senshi?” she murmurs, noting the way he startles. When he looks at her, it’s hard to say what emotions he must be experiencing right now.
However, this is made slightly easier due to the fact that he isn’t wearing his helmet. Instead, he’s placed it to his side.
“I’m alright, Falin. I’m glad yer alive. I thought that…” he trails off, going completely silent as he stares at the holes in her sleeve. It’s still stained red there, a grim reminder of what could have been.
She takes a seat next to him, next to the helmet specifically, and shrugs. “It’s alright. I know that you really cared about her, so it’s hard to imagine that she was waiting for you to jump on her back. Laios once made the same mistake as well. I had to chase him down and yank him off!”
While she chuckles at the memory, she recalls the terror she felt in those moments, the way her lungs burned as she ran after him, the way that she had managed to throw a stun spell that startled the kelpie enough to get it to kick Laios off its back.
Now she knows: stun spells don’t work when the kelpie is actively aggressive!
“I guess it was just second nature to me, though. Laios once had to pull me away from a baby deer that had been sick. He… taught me that I always need to be cautious of wild animals that seem friendly. He may have forgotten his own lesson when he tried riding a kelpie himself, but it’s still an important one to me.”
Falin glances curiously at Senshi when she realizes that he’s been entirely silent this entire time. Has she said too much? She purses her lips, trying to gauge his reaction while also attempting not to appear too anxious.
Instead of replying, Senshi carefully dislodges Conte from Anne’s head and hands it to her. Then, she watches in fascination as he begins to drag Anne’s body onto their platform. When she moves to help, he simply shakes his head.
“Ye shouldn’t have to help. Let me do this. I want to do this alone,” he finally says, his voice quiet yet firm as he pulls out his knife once he’s settled.
Right… but it feels wrong to leave him when he’s like this.
Falin sends a desperate glance towards Toshiro, who is giving her an equally panicked look.
Taking a breath, she slowly nods. “Right. Do you want us to stay, or would you like us to leave you alone right now?”
Senshi gives a mild wave of his hand, as though shooing them, “No need to keep me company. I’ll be takin’ a while.”
Well… there goes any attempts at helping him. Falin meets Toshiro’s gaze, and she hums, rising to her feet unsteadily.
The worst part about needing to be healed to such an extent is that she’s still experiencing the phantom pain that comes from nearly drowning. Her lungs still burn, even if any damage to them was fixed. Toshiro offers an arm, and she gratefully takes it. Her steps are still unsteady, exhaustion creeping in as the adrenaline begins to wear off.
He leads her upwards, on to a steadier stone platform where she can sit down comfortably without having to worry about the ground giving way.
“Why did you do that?” he asks her softly, once the silence has lingered for a moment too long.
Her eyes meet his in confusion, so he continues, “I mean diving in after him. You didn’t have to do that. We could have pulled her back up, or…”
His own argument must sound ridiculous to his own ears, so he slowly trails off, pursing his lips in mild displeasure. Falin sighs, patting one of his hands and squeezing it. She knows he isn’t used to this, isn’t used to the contact, but it at least soothes her own worries.
He startles, looking down at their hands, before he offers a hint of a smile, a mild quirk of the corner of his lips. It’s stiff, uncomfortable, but he doesn’t make a move to flick her hand away.
“I couldn’t let him die down there. He trusted her, and I knew that I would probably have to go down there anyways,” she explains softly, though she does cringe as she adds, “I just thought the stun spell would work better than it did. I’ll have to keep that in mind for the future…”
Toshiro hums in agreement as he finally slips his hand away from hers as a pair of light footsteps approaches.
“Well, I guess we’re stuck here right now,” Chilchuck grumbles as he rounds the corner, brows pinched in annoyance as he stands on the platform alongside the two of them.
His nose crinkles as he scans over her, as though he’s actually looking this time.
“Are you just going to sit around in wet clothes until they decide to dry? You’re gonna catch a cold like that. You should at least try to dry some of your stuff or something. ”
Oh. Right. Her clothes.
Suddenly, she realizes that, indeed, they are still drenched. No wonder her body feels even heavier than it usually does after a round of Marcille’s healing.
“I didn’t even realize,” she mutters, squeezing some of the water out of her shirt before she casts a water walking spell just to make the entire process easier.
The water flings itself from her body and clothes and bounces off of Toshiro and Chilchuck harmlessly.
Right. They must still have Marcille’s previous spell in effect. Chilchuck still looks rather miffed, but he doesn’t say anything as he sighs.
“Right then. Like I said, we’re stuck here while Senshi and Marcille” — “What’s Marcille doing?” — “Hell if I know, but that doesn’t matter. She’s doing something with the fatty meat, I guess. Either way, they’re going to take a while with whatever they’re doing.”
Ah. That’s not ideal. “I don’t think I want to sit around and do nothing,” she murmurs, even if her body wants her to just lay down and sleep for a while. No, her mind is far too restless right now.
“I don’t want you pushing yourself right now. You nearly died, and I’m not going to let you nearly die again because you were being stupid,” Chilchuck insists, taking a seat next to her with a look on his face that makes her stomach twist with uncertainty.
Since when has he looked at her with such concern? He’s always been so guarded, so grouchy…
“I’ll be alright,” she insists, glancing over the edge of the platform to try to spot a blob of blue fabric. She finds it up near the base of this tower, which is a relief… but is a bit sad when she fails to make out any sign of her hat, “It’ll help to move around anyways. Usually the best recovery method after healing is to work the muscles that were injured in the first place.”
The reluctant acceptance on Chilchuck's face is clear as day, which is why she enjoys talking to him. It’s not hard to tell what he’s thinking most of the time… unless he’s been hiding something, which… well, then she would be a bit embarrassed.
“I think we should take a walk while Marcille and Senshi work. Marcille hates it when people try to help her when she has her mind set on something, and Senshi already told us he doesn’t need help,” she explains, dragging herself to her feet with nothing less than a bit of a struggle.
Reluctantly, Toshiro and Chilchuck join her. Chilchuck hands her her blue robes, and then they’re off.
Her muscles scream in protest with every step, but slowly the pain ebbs away as she continues to move, continues to loosen the muscles.
Toshiro suddenly makes a noise at her side, and she tries to look around quickly for whatever it is that has him reacting like that.
Chilchuck beats her to the punch as he himself looks around in alarm, “What? What is it?”
Toshiro instead motions forward rather than answering at first, his steps quickening as he moves towards whatever it is that caught his attention. “There’s a group up here. It wouldn’t be good if the monsters ate their corpses,” he provides.
Oh. That’s far better than what she was thinking, which was… well, something terrible, like a sea serpent or something.
Instead, they pad across the surface of the water, and Falin crouches down when she spots little gold specks in the water. Running her hand across the surface, she finds that it’s barley, fresh and plentiful beneath her fingertips.
I recognized your eyes. They’re gold, just like barley.
She can’t help the shudder that snakes its way down her spine and settles in her stomach. She rather quickly recoils, shaking her head. Nope. No thanks. Someone else can collect this.
“It looks like a complete wipe,” Chilchuck observes beside her, cringing with disgust as she quickly flips one of the backpacks over to check on the owner.
She’s surprised to be met with the face of a familiar gnome, eyes blank and unmoving as she stares.
“Huh.” is all she can really think to say, and she can’t help how her tone is a mix of fascination and pity.
Toshiro and Chilchuck noticeably seem to be having the same realization as they each begin turning over the bodies.
Falin is struck with some form of sympathy as she begins dragging the gnome up to a safer platform. “Seems that they managed to get ahead of us and weren’t able to stand up to whatever it is they fought this time.”
However, as she looks over the bodies, she realizes something… strange. Chilchuck had found a few dead merfolk floating around the area, which had to mean that they must have been the enemies this party fought.
So why did none of them have any puncture wounds? The merfolk usually relied on their teeth, claws, or tridents, yet none of these people had a hint of anything of the sort.
It isn’t until she’s looking over the dwarven woman that she spots small, zigzagging lines across her arms. They branch out almost like roots, littering the skin in such a mesmerizing pattern that Falin nearly doesn’t notice when Chilchuck begins to wander off.
The key word here is nearly, of course.
“Chil! Chilchuck!” she shouts, running down from the platform to tackle Chilchuck before he gets any further away. Okay, so maybe she needs to stop doing this whole tackling thing, and she very well could have broken a few of Chilchuck’s bones if she wasn’t careful, and yeah, her lungs and ribs really, really hate her right now, but it’s all worth it to keep her friends safe.
There’s a distant look in Chilchuck’s eyes that snaps away as soon as she shakes him, and he squirms beneath her body.
“I hate those stupid fucking sirens!” he shouts, shaking his fist from beneath her. She laughs, pulling him to his feet once she herself has regained her footing.
“Would you like some cotton or wax to stuff your ears?” she offers, rooting around in her pockets to find… nothing. Shit. “Nevermind. I must have lost it at some point.”
He waves her off, returning to the platform with a huff. “I don’t need it. I’m glad you at least caught up to me before something bad happened.”
They return to the platform just so Falin can look over the bodies a bit more thoroughly… which is to say she’s carefully checking the arms and legs of some of the party members to check for similar, branching wounds on the bodies.
Looking over the tallman woman’s staff, she finds the answer she’s looking for. Her fingertips run over the wooden shaft and find the same small, branching patterns covering it as though it had been etched into the very wood.
“It looks like it was completely accidental,” she concludes, placing the staff back at the woman’s side, “but this one may have set off a spell that killed the merfolk, her party, and herself.”
Toshiro scans over the group with an unreadable expression. “What kind of spell could do something like that?”
“Lightning!” she answers easily. When Toshiro and Chilchuck stare in bewilderment, she simply shrugs, “Not everyone knows that electricity and water don’t mix well. That, and sometimes people just panic, or they fall back on what fixes most of their problems. She definitely didn’t mean to.”
Her hand tightens and loosens around her own mace, looking over the party. “I kind of feel bad, to be honest. I can only imagine what the corpse retrievers are going to charge them for a revival on this level.”
Chilchuck sends her a look, very obviously not liking her line of thinking at the moment. “You revived the cleric last time. Why not just do that and not worry about it? They’ll figure it out.”
“But, what if,” she begins, “we ask them to help us.”
Toshiro and Chilchuck both stare at her as though she’s grown a second head. She pats her shoulder quickly just to check. Nope, still just one head.
“Think about it! We trade their time for the revival fee! They don’t have to lose out on funds and we have more help for fighting the red dragon!” she insists, waving her hands about.
Chilchuck scoffs, throwing his hands up in the air, “That isn’t how it works, but be my guest. You guys pay me upfront, so I’m not going to bitch.”
Toshiro, however, sends her a worried glance. “Wouldn’t that exhaust your mana? I don’t feel comfortable with you sacrificing that much.”
Now it’s her turn to wave him off as she reiterates, “We’ll have more help. I think it’ll be worth it! Besides, there are things I can eat to replenish my mana!”
Still not convinced, he finally points out something she didn’t even think about: “We’ve been getting by well-enough with our group. How are we supposed to feed this group as well?”
She opens her mouth to reply, and she does have the answer on the tip of her tongue, but she’s interrupted when she hears something plop against the water. And then again. And again.
And again.
“What the fuck,” comes Chilchuck’s deadpan response, staring down at the water below. She joins him, looking over to find what looks like an absolute massacre on the surface.
She should be disturbed by the amount of headless bladefish that sit atop the water’s surface, and it should be too easy , but she also cannot find it in herself to care.
“Well, that’s that problem solved!” she chirps, ignoring Chilchuck as he sputters and looks to Toshiro for support.
Instead of acknowledging that, she instead looks to him with a smile as she asks him to go grab the remains of the fish. It looks like whatever killed them only… well, only took the heads. “We could make risotto with the barley and fish, since they’ll be working with us. Add the mimic in as an extra option,” she suggests over her shoulder, glancing over to the merfolk with furrowed brows. Sure, it looks like a blue and green blob from here, but she wonders if the plants could be used in a dish, could be—
“I can hear you thinking up there, and the answer is no,” Chilchuck snaps, glaring at her from where he’s carefully collecting the barley into the sack that this party was using to carry it around.
“I didn’t even say anything!” she protests, clutching her mace a bit tighter.
Rather than answer, he points at her, shaking his head with a grave look on his face. “You didn’t need to say anything. I know that look on your face. You were thinking about it.”
She sighs, throwing her hands in the air just to piss him off a little bit, laughing when she hears him yell in protest, “Don’t imitate me! We said "no demi-humans”!”
“I was thinking about the plants on their head! Laios told me that” — “Well if Laios told you, it must be true,” — “It is! They steal the plants to look like hair!” It’s hard to hide the grin on her face, baring teeth before she can stop herself. Her stomach drops once she realizes it, but Chilchuck doesn’t even respond.
Instead, he goes back to his work, flipping her a rather elegant middle finger as he does so.
Jokes on him, of course. She can’t even see it. She only knows it’s the middle finger because what other finger would he throw up?
Evidently, this argument is over. “I’m just going to take the plants when you’re not looking!” she insists, if only so she can get the last word.
The middle finger is once again thrown her way, this time far more forcefully.
It’s odd to argue like this, but there’s a part of her that believes that Chilchuck isn’t actually mad at her.
She never could have spoken to her own father like that. He would have shouted at her, maybe even thrown her out of the house for the day to think over her actions.
Here, however, she isn’t with her father. Her mother isn’t here to start crying and insist she apologize, to grab her by her shoulders and demand she apologize.
Instead, she’s struck with a sudden feeling of fondness, maybe even genuine gratitude for having someone who was so prickly yet seemingly willing to allow her to mess with him. She’s never felt emboldened to do that, yet… yet she wanted to play along, to argue like a child.
“I’m not seeing a lot of healing up there, Falin,” Chilchuck calls from down below, reminding her of why she’s here.
Right!
She turns on her heel to now return to the dead party.
It’s going to be difficult to revive them all, so she won’t! Instead, she’ll revive the healer of this group like last time, except she’ll actually assist him in reviving the others.
Her staff glows as she softly recites the words, letting the orbs of light around her now float over the gnome.
It doesn’t take long for him to silently awake, dark eyes slowly opening and darting from the ceiling above to her.
“It’s you again,” he murmurs with a bemused smile as he sits up. The gnome wiggles out his fingers, tilting his head.
“Yes! We found you all again while walking around.”
He glances from his hands to her with a soft sigh.
“Sorry, I’m just wondering how you made this so painless. You must manipulate the spirits in some way, right? I recognize it. I know a few other gnome magicians who do the same thing,” he observes, narrowing his eyes slightly at her.
She shrugs, moving to now revive the kobold. She can’t help it, alright? He reminds her too much of Fucci back home, this one just has far pointier ears.
“I actually manipulate nerve endings and other bodily processes to make revivification and healing painless for the recipient. It doesn’t make sense to put someone through more pain, even if they’re going to feel better in a few seconds.” More like an hour if you nearly drowned…
The kobold jolts awake, letting out a whine as he looks over at the half-foot that lays two bodies over.
“The result is the same either way,” the gnome points out as he lazily spins a finger in a circle, applying it to the half-foot without any other preamble.
Sure enough, the half-foot jolts awake as though he’s been electrocuted. Well, electrocuted again.
“True, but I guess it makes me feel better,” she replies simply, placing a hand over the tallman woman’s forehead and allowing the light to consume her.
She wakes just as the dwarven woman does from somewhere behind Falin, as evidenced by the dreadful gasp of air that she lets out.
Maybe that’s why she does what she does. She hates to hear that sound. She hates to hear sounds of pain, hates to hear her friends gasp and cry whenever their bodies snap themselves back together.
Instead, it’s the gentle awakening she prefers, the soft, soothing feeling of a warm hug, or a breeze of cool air on a sweltering day.
It’s all worth it, she thinks. She knows it, sees it when she kneels next to the last member of the party, a dark-skinned tallman with black hair and allows her light to lay against him.
When his eyes flutter open, she offers a soft smile to him, hoping that she can be a comfort in this moment.
Golden eyes meet blue, and a smile matching hers grows on the man’s face.
“You’re one of the Touden siblings, aren’t you?”