Chapter 37: Cheep!? 36

*Sorry for the late post everyone! I want to put notice that Chapter 32 has been modified for the ending, giving a great deal more information for the subsequent chapters. I felt that it wasn't clear enough about what was happening, leaving too much to open-ended interpretation that ultimately harmed the reputation of the story a bit. That's been corrected. Thanks for reading!

*Don't forget to rate the story if you're enjoying your time here! I'm looking at comments, but I don't often reply to them. Further notes in post chapter! Enjoy!

 

 

Cheep!?

Chapter 36

Skye had just finished setting up Ronald’s oven in camp - it was an expensive piece, all things considered, but Ronald had insisted that the group go in on the essence stove. The six-legged box of iron itself wasn’t very large, and when disassembled the components could all fit together in the same space an iron ingot would occupy. It was one of the middling quality devices, and at the time Skye had thought it was a waste of money.

Considering how often they stayed in the wilderness, she and the rest of the party had since changed their tune. Having warm food without fussing with a full fire was just convenient, and the essence pattern on the bottom plate meant that they could just set kindling beneath it and funnel the heat more efficiently into the box. Cooking on top of it was easy at that point, and since it wasn’t a bad model, it ran partly on ambient essence instead of fully on whoever was using it. 

That person right now wasn’t Ronald, but instead Dachna. He fussed over a collection of roots and tubers that Skye had collected as they walked through the forest. Mithel had added a handful of mushrooms to the mix, and Ronald surprised them with a bit of heavily peppered jerky that he’d purchased for times like this. Reese offered some of her dried rations, but they weren’t put directly in the stir-fry, the hardtack made for decent texture variety if nothing else. 

“Don’t you dare,” Skye stopped Dachna just before he was about to dump a bright red sauce from one of Mithel’s flasks into the meal. He grumbled with Mithel, muttering about how spiciness was good for you.

They both tapered off at the flat expression she gave them. 

While the pan was metal, the bowls were simple wood with wooden utensils. They could even lose them and it wouldn’t be a big deal. Skye whittled the utensils herself, two pronged sporks that would do a little bit of everything. They weren’t bad by any means.

“You do well with basic stock,” Reese praised, “I’ll admit, I usually just eat hardtack while I’m on the road. This is a nice change of pace.”

“I picked up a few things when I worked at a tavern for a while,” Dachna chuckled as he poured a line of bright red sauce across what looked almost like potatoes in the firelight. “I still burn bread, but I can do everything else just fine.”

Skye smiled at that, while still not looking too much in Reese’s direction, before she knelt down and grabbed the side handles of the essence stove. In one smooth motion, she picked up the half a meter tall metal box on legs and slid it backwards closer to her. The moment it wasn’t sitting over top of the campfire the flames brightened, freed from whatever it was the oven was doing to it. Skye could guess that it was a directed essence pattern, but she’d never learned engraving, so whatever sigil work was going on was far outside her expertise. The only ones she knew were druidic ones, and even then she had never made one.

“I’ll pack it up after it cools off.” Ronald said as he dragged out a bundle of blankets from his pack and sat on them, facing the campfire.

Mithel caught the flask from Dachna before spreading some of the red sauce over her own food. Skye shook her head as she then offered her some, and Ronald only just barely managed to keep from grimacing.

“Sure? What is it?” Reese caught the flask, eyeing the liquid curiously.

“Spicy,” Mithel grinned, “It’s not bad, if I do say so myself!”

Reese nodded, just about to tip the flask over onto her food when Skye cleared her throat, loudly. As much as she didn't know how to feel about the woman, she was trying to play nice though, and Mithel’s concoctions were rarely tame. “You may want to try a smaller amount first.”

The paladin blinked, frowned, and then nodded. She put a small amount on the edge of her plate, to which Mithel only stuck her tongue out at Skye and shared a conspiratorial grin with Dachna. When Reese dipped a bit of root into it and ate it, she immediately went wide-eyed with an expression Skye was all too familiar with.

She toughed through it, face reddening rapidly as she fanned her mouth, “What in the the gods na–” she coughed, quickly bringing a waterskin to her lips and drinking from it, only to physically open her mouth and fan her tongue as all hint at propriety fled her, “How are you eating this!?” 

Mithel smiled widely and ate some of her food, only reddening slightly, “Oh, yes. It’s really good stuff. Once you get a taste for it, regular food just doesn’t do it for you anymore.”

“Probably because you scorch your tongue,” Ronald grumbled before slicing a decent chunk of white cheese from a wedge he carried in his food-sack. “Here, dunno why, but milk and cheese helps.”

“It’s because of the capsaicin– Bah, nevermind, you’ll forget it again.” Mithel waved him off, “I guess it is a bit strong.”

Dachna only grinned as he kept eating steadily, but Skye could tell from the way both of them were sweating that they were putting on a good show. They were also doing what they could to not let the atmosphere get too heavy. Skye was grateful for that fact.

But that didn’t mean she would go easy on them, “You’re both on first watch, I hope you know that,” said Skye with no small amount of exasperation; she was not looking forward to being in the same tent as them that night after they ate spicy food.

“Works for me!” Dachna declared, before eyeing the cheese wheel that Ronald had pulled out. The big man smiled, innocently, and only wrapped the cheese up and put it away.

Dachna put on his best ‘starving orphan’ pitiful expression, and Ronald couldn’t help but sigh good naturedly and pull the cheese wheel back out. He cut a portion out for him, and then one for Mithel.

“That’s good cheese, is this local? I didn’t see any cows.” Reese blinked at the rich cheese, granting blessed relief from the devilish concoction that Mithel had created.

“Goat,” Ronald nodded, “Goats don’t need the land cleared, and the males help knock the block off any Greenwolves that come too close to the city.” He paused and then gestured with his hand, shifting it back and forth, “Well, eh, they’re good enough. Greenwolves don’t kill indiscriminately, so the males either win or the wolf gets a meal and leaves.”

“That seems… risky?” Reese frowned, “Greenleaf doesn’t hunt the wolves out?”

Skye was the one who answered, “Too hard. Greenwolves are based out of the Eldergreen-” she paused, “-that’s the older parts of the Evergreen, the deep part, but not quite the Primordial. And then they’re also based out of the Daurghast, so either way they’re too much of a pain in the arse to go look for.”

“Most are essence tier two, anyway,” Dachna scraped up bits of food and spoke with his mouth full, “So they don’t bother much with the lower tier stuff. The pups do, but they’re on their own.”

Skye briefly stared at Dachna as he stuffed his face. High society considered it rude to talk with your mouth full. But, if Reese was offended, she didn’t show it in the slightest, instead only nodding thoughtfully. 

“That makes sense. Have you all been adventurers in Greenleaf for a while? You seem to know your stuff.” Reese asked, before offering to take Dachna’s plate from him. He blinked and then nodded with a small thanks.

“A year and a half for most of us,” Skye decided to answer, “We’re just about ready to move on. Though, some teams stay for two or three years without needing to move up, but it doesn’t take that long to increase to tier two.”

Reese hummed and asked, “Do you need to move up?”

“Not officially,” Ronald spoke up, passing his plates to Reese when she gestured as well, “Though, we’re all nearly at peak tier one, so there’s not much reason for us to stay here. Once we condense our second patterns, we’re thinking about leaving.”

Mithel handed Reese her plates, before Skye followed. The woman’s hands glowed briefly, before the various bits that had clung to the plates came off and flew into the fire. 

“Oh, that’s handy,” Skye commented, “That's a utility pattern?”

Reese smiled, “Something like that. I wanted something more practical for my tier two pattern. This helps out a lot. Have any of you laid any groundwork yet?”

Dachna nodded, “Yeah, I’m planning on going with something with more power this time. My first one was mobility, and I’m probably going to shore up some of that too.”

“Defensive.” Ronald said as he packed up the now cool enough stove, “I’m gonna try to remake my first one, too.”

Reese visibly flinched at that, “You have a spotter for that, right?”

He chuckled, “Yeah, and I’ve done some training for it. Shouldn’t be a problem.”

Skye’s estimation of the woman rose a few minor degrees with that show of concern, at least. It wasn’t exactly common knowledge, but patterns could be remade at every threshold, but they became increasingly difficult to change. Empowerment was easy, but completely remodeling one meant that you had to do an entire separate essence pattern nearly simultaneously with another. Some savants made them interwoven with one another, creating a complex but multifaceted ability as they grew. 

Those same savants usually died at higher tiers when they inevitably messed up and caused a feedback loop in their own essence channels. That was not what Ronald was planning on doing, though, so they weren’t quite as worried. It would still be difficult to make two essence patterns at once, but not impossible at this level.

“I’m going with the Omni formation,” Skye then held up a hand to preempt the paladin as she watched Reese open her mouth in a posture she’d seen dozens of times before, “I’ve had extensive teaching on the subject, so I should be fine. At worst, it’ll slide off to the physical side of things and I’ll eventually end up with a very, very durable and regenerative body.”

Reese chuckled, “Oh, I tried that one. Ended up immediately failing it and going with the physical reinforcement side.”

Surprised, Skye was about to immediately start asking questions about how that process went; very few people were ever comfortable sharing details about their patterns, but with well known ones it wasn’t an overt faux pas in society. Distantly, she also realized that was why Reese no longer had a hole in her stomach or had a concussion from when Skye had punched her in the side of the head. 

Skye immediately stuffed food in her mouth to keep her expression busy doing something other than cringing.

Mithel spoke up next, “I’m in the same boat as Ronald. I messed up my first one, I was trying to make electrokinesis, but it ended up not quite working. I forgot a few things about electro-” she stopped immediately, shaking her head, “-well, I figured out what I did wrong. So I’m going to try to remake that one into true electrokinesis and something like control of acid.”

The paladin uttered a quick, “Huh.” Before sitting back and thinking things over. Mithel watched, obviously hopeful that the paladin might have some information, but was disappointed when she finally said, “I honestly don’t know how electrokinesis works? The only one I know that has it at all is the Grandmaster, he was hit by lightning for it. Some people learn by speaking with lightning elementals, but they’re…” her mouth hovered over what Skye would guess was ‘psychotically violent’ before settling on, “Temperamental.”

“Ah, yeah, I… guess that’s true.” Mithel shifted, but quickly diverted topic, “Is acid control a rarity?”

“Very much so, I’d say, considering I’ve never even heard of it. Most people would probably go with water manipulation in some form, but that’s dangerous because the early patterns need you to be in contact with it. At least, based on common knowledge-” she gestured in the air and a light pulse of essence moved from her hand to the ground where she picked up a stick without touching it, “-but some people are good at certain things. So, if it calls to you, try it.”

“Damn,” Dachna stared at the stick, “I heard that telekinesis was a hard one, would you mind if I asked you how you managed that one?”

Reese grinned, “I’ll have to keep that one in my pocket, but I don’t think my method is… orthodox, in any case. I’m told by my seniors that anyone else who used my method tended to lose skin whenever they used the pattern. Skye may be able to pull this off, if she can’t already.”

Dachna shivered at the image that conjured, “Right. Guess pickpocketing with my fingers will have to do.” But, Skye didn’t miss the hopeful look he cast to her, which she returned with a fractional shake of her head. She had no clue how to do that with her essence pattern. She wasn’t even sure if that was a control thing, or a personal flavor of her essence.

The rest of the group had turned to him with varying degrees of amusement and deadpan expressions.

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“What? It’s an honest trade in some parts of the world.”

They exchanged friendly banter on the topic after Reese joined in good naturedly. Much of the earlier animosities to the paladin were reduced, mostly because the Greenhorns naturally didn’t dredge it up. Mistakes of all kinds happened in their line of work, but when they were on mission, they’d keep things professional at a minimum. So long as malicious intent wasn’t the driving force, issues could be forgiven, though not forgotten. In all, though, Skye had to admit that Reese Snowe was a very down to earth paladin, one who certainly embodied the aspects of her god in the protection of common folk more than beasts, granted. As Dachna told some tales, she didn’t even have a particularly averse response when Dachna suggested that he’d been part of a street gang or five in his youth. If anything, she took rather warmly to when he spoke about stealing bread and getting into mischief. 

Skye didn’t dig any further into her reading on Reese, though, mostly because she didn’t want to know the woman better. Accepting her help might not even happen, and as far as Skye was concerned, if they never worked together again, that’d be okay, too. 

“Alright, you two are on the first watch. Don’t forget the wail-stones this time!” Skye called out to Mithel and Dachna as she ducked into the tent, secured with a few foldable iron rods. This one was set to lean against a tree, secured with a few ropes, but not much else. It gave them enough space to sleep without being bothered by bugs. 

Not that such was as much of a concern this time of year, but they’d be better served in getting used to it ahead of time. 

Skye settled into her sleeping bag, her pack set under her head and with her short sword laying above it. Ronald lay on the far side of the tent, opposite of the two of them, and was currently fussing with his shirt before glancing towards Reese, only to note that she’d already shed much of her armor and climbed into bed. 

He stripped off the shirt as covertly as possible and put it aside. 

The man would sleep nearly nude if it were just their team here, but not when there were others in the tent that weren’t a part of their team. If it weren’t for the possibility of bugs, Ronald wouldn’t even be wearing his undergarments. 

Skye didn’t even bother removing her gambeson, but she did take off her boots at least. In reality, they were only as lax about certain things like this because they were in familiar territory. Even so, they kept their weapons near. Reese herself still had a long, broad blade that would have been cumbersome in most people’s hands beside her bed. 

Besides, the wail-stones were perfectly functional and suitable for their area. If anything crossed their boundary without being cleared then–

A piercing wail resounded from the north eastern side of the camp, forcing Skye to jolt hard enough to hurt. 

‘Yup, that’s working then,’ Skye thought to herself, but her professionalism took over immediately. She swept her blade up but abandoned her boots and left the tent in a ready-to-dodge posture. As she did, her eyes swept across the camp, first to the opposite side of the sound to confirm that they weren’t being snuck up on, and then to see what it was that disrupted them. 

Dachna and Mithel were already at the ready, and before Skye could fully realize what was going on, she shouted out, “That’s close enough! State your name and declare your intention!”

That’s when Skye’s eyes locked onto the edge of their camp, just past the trees. A man stood there, posture utterly stiff and wide-eyed, very clearly ready to flee at a moment's notice. His eyes were a little sunken and his skin was pale, and seemed to be exhibiting all of the tell tale symptoms of dehydration. 

“E-” the man started to speak, voice hoarse, “Eustace Quillfax, water, please.”

Mithel and Dachna traded glances, before Mithel looked back to the man. 

The man tried to clear his throat to speak clearer, looking for all intents and purposes exhausted beyond measure. “Water, please,” the words came again, worse and rougher this time.

Skye recognized him, and so did Dachna and Mithel if their glance had anything to say about it. Dachna moved forward slowly, unclipping his waterskin, “Here, friend, you look like hell. Come over by the fire, drink some water.”

The man winced, and Skye noticed a strange tattoo around his neck that flared briefly before a portion of it visibly crumbled from his skin. Eustace moved forward with as much balance as a newborn doe, and took the waterskin in his two shaking hands. He struggled with getting the cap off, before Dachna moved him closer to the fire and helped him remove the cap. 

Mithel nodded to Skye, before moving over to her own pack for her alchemical goods. The man needed medical attention, Skye realized, if the shoes saturated in his own blood said anything. ‘Did he walk his feet ragged? Tephone’s mercy.’

Skye turned around, seeing a half dressed Ronald and armed Reese who currently wore an amulet around her neck with Advarica’s symbol on it. None of them needed to exchange words, but Reese moved closer to the fire after resheathing her blade, and Skye retrieved her boots. Ronald moved in to get fully dressed once more, but did so quickly.

When Skye returned to the fire, the man was slowly drinking, forcing himself to take small sips and repeating the words ‘thank you’ far more times than necessary to both Dachna and Mithel. 

“I’ll get the stove out, we’ll make a thin soup,” Skye said, “Ronald will be out soon.” The words were directed to Reese, who nodded, knowing the group would want to be all present for the man to hear what had happened.

Skye could see the whites of Reese's knuckles as she stared at the distorted tattoo around Eustace’s neck. She turned her attention away from that, performing her perfunctory checks of the stoves bits and pieces before assembling it again and loading on more wood for the fire. 

When Ronald sat down across the fire, Skye noted that Mithel had the man's foot over an improvised stool. Large blisters that openly bled were being treated, though the man barely even flinched under her ministrations. It was then that she noticed that Mithel had broken out the good ointment.

“Eustace, we’re going to get you sorted out,” Reese spoke, before gesturing to her symbol, “You will be protected in this camp, on my honor as an Advarican Paladin.”

Contrary to what Skye expected, the man only stiffened at the proclamation. Reese noticed, surely, but she didn’t comment. He touched his neck, feeling at the upraised lines of the Oath mark that lay there, before he realized what he was doing and forced his hands back down.

“We’re from the guild,” Dachna spoke next, catching the man's attention, “We found out what happened out here. One of you Oath Sworn, a guy named Dane, managed to get back to town. Guildmaster Maul is aware of the situation.”

With that, the man relaxed more, before almost slumping over in exhaustion. “Thank you, again. I thought for a while there I was… I wasn’t sure what I’d do…” the man shook his head in a choked laugh, a few tears falling from his eyes now that he had water, “Just, thank you.”

The man openly wept for a few minutes, and the Greenhorns took their care of the man slowly and seriously. They wrapped a blanket around him, while ensuring that his other wounds were taken care of. There were many, but they were small, as though he’d had to walk through bramble bushes far too many times. Skye wasn’t sure what to make of him; there was plenty of food and water in the forest, and anyone who had to work out here was required to take at least a primer course on survival basics. The Evergreen was a popular rookie area because it was a gentle place to learn the basics for most of the year.

Slowly, he started talking, “It was a whole shit show,” he laughed, “I couldn’t even use magic! I fucked up.” 

No one said anything, the man shook with something between rage and shame, but Mithel was the one who stayed next to the man, just close enough to be comfortable, but not so much as to crowd him. She gently administered a few more bandages, one of which she caught his arm for, forcing him to be still under gentle admonishment. Oddly enough, that seemed to actually center his attention.

“We had a getaway attempt, I don’t even know if anyone survived that, I know one guy didn’t. There were three, but two of them were stopped because they hadn’t blocked their ears, so they heard the order to stop. I think, anyways, I didn’t stop to look.” He gestured to his ears vaguely, “I stuffed mine with cloth, and hummed loudly. But I wasn’t fast, so I-” he shuddered, “-I tried to use my magic, dope my body, push harder. Nonaggressive magic shouldn’t have been stopped, but Saratasha knows why it freaked out then. The Oath just… straight up locked me into running in one direction. I couldn’t turn, couldn’t take a step off the path.”

“So, I just… ran. And then when the juice started to drop off, I realized I was-” his jaw worked around a word and decided on another, “-it strained my body a lot more than it should have because I couldn’t direct anything. If I didn’t run across the river, I’d have just straight up died of dehydration.”

“Did you feel it was unsafe to wait at the river?” Mithel asked, pointedly not asking why he didn’t wait at the river. Skye nodded to herself privately; it was better to not frame a question where it could be misconstrued to be inflammatory for someone freshly through trauma.

“I didn’t know if the poachers would just come for me, and it was out in the open, so…” he shook his head, not finishing the statement. 

They half carried him to the tent, Mithel taking the time to check him over one more time before giving him a mild sedative. He’d eaten, relieved himself, and they’d gotten a bit of information from him.

“At least we don’t have to go crawling the forest tomorrow,” Ronald joked as everyone sat around the campfire, the light sounds of snoring from the tent were all that broke the monotony. 

“That brand is nearly erased,” said Reese, “Probably started to fail hours ago. It might be gone entirely by the time we get him back to town.”

“Tomorrow, right? He’s in no condition to move right now. A bit of rest will do wonders.” Mithel inclined her head to the tent.

“Of course, I have no reason to move him right now.” Reese rested a little bit easier now that they’d found the missing Oath-Sworn.

Skye stretched, turning her gaze around camp, now wide awake not unlikely to be getting any sleep. Ronald was putting the stove away, while Dachna stared absentmindedly into the fire.

“Pick your brain for a coin?” Skye said to Dachna, who blinked his attention back to her dumbly. 

He snorted, and with a smile on his face said, “I never should have taught you that slang. It feels like you’re going to take it literally.”

She put her pointer finger and thumb just barely apart, “Only a little.”

Dachna smiled before it faded, “I was just thinking about what he said about his magic.”

“Ugh, I can’t imagine how it’d feel to have my magic capped like that,” Mithel shivered, “I don’t have much, but I like what I can do.”

“Oh, I don’t much care about that part,” He responded, thus earning a scowl from Mithel, “I mean that he said he doped his body. What’s that mean?”

The others didn’t answer, and had no real clue, at least until Mithel tilted her head, “Hmm… Quillfax? Maybe…” She stopped herself and shrugged, “Nope, not sure.”

Skye didn’t miss the way she subtly glanced away when she said that. Probably a lie, but Skye doubted it was an important one.

“Well, If you’d like, you guys can retire, and I’ll take over until it’s time to wake up Ronald and Reese.” Skye offered, “I don’t need much sleep, anyways.”

Mithel and Dachna immediately pounced on the offer, but Reese frowned, “Are you sure that’s fine?”

Skye blinked at her flatly and didn’t manage to keep a bit of annoyance out of her voice, “Yeah. I literally need less sleep to function.”

“Well… if you need another set of eyes or someone to keep you awake, wake me up.” Reese put on a strong front, and sure, Skye figured she could go for as long as she needed, but also that she clearly would have preferred sleep right then.

“Get some shut eye, guys. I’ll wake you up later.”

At that, the others turned in, leaving Skye poking the fire with a stick. 

“Samut, I hope you dealt some proper revenge for all of this.” She murmured, allowing herself to be mesmerized by the coals before she forced her attention to the forest around her.

All the while, another set of eyes watched back.

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