Chapter 14 - Call of Nature (Patreon)

For a moment, I was lost in thought, looking at Greck's retreating back, when Darya popped out from behind a tree right next to me. She said something, but it was lost in the sound of me swearing in shock. I took a moment to regain my composure and then enunciated quite clearly: "Don't do that. Seriously, is it possible to get a stroke in here? Because it damn well feels like I almost had one."

She chuckled and continued as if I hadn't spoken at all: "That was Greck. But what happened to his voice?"

Oh damn. Of course, I was probably the only person in the village who knew that he wasn't just the town drunk. "Yeah, today was an uncommonly good day. It's like politicians. You have to get to them late enough in the day that the hangover's gone, but early enough that they're not too drunk to function. I swear, he hardly even growled at me."

She looked at me but didn't comment further. Darya really was a woman of few words. I indicated the path before us, and we set off without any discussion. I was slowly getting the hang of interpreting her silences now. This one was the good kind - more a companionable silence - and she seemed well at ease as we walked along the path. We spent a couple of hours like that, walking at a decent pace along the path with few words exchanged. At one point, she held up a hand, and we froze in silence, as she pulled out her bow and nocked an arrow. She cupped her ear, indicating that she'd heard something and pointed at a spot among the heavy upper branches of a tree. Straight to where Atlas was.

"Right…" I said out loud and rubbed my temple. This was going to be interesting.

She looked at me with a furious look on her face like "What the hell?"

"I'm really sorry Darya - the last day has been pretty stressful - there's somebody I'd like you to meet. Atlas?" I sent him a request to "Reveal" himself, and moments later his scaly form appeared. I couldn't be sure, but it looked like he was grinning.

Darya's reaction was not what I expected. Honestly, I imagined her to either take a shot at him or squeal in horror. And while she did make a noise that was pretty close to a squeal, it was of the sort usually reserved for babies or puppies. "Oh my. Is he yours? Can I talk to him?"

I didn't even get a chance to respond, before she was off into the foliage. I followed, and could hear a babble of words coming from her that was completely out of character for the Darya I knew.

"…So beautiful. And strong too. And those teeth are marvellous. My, what an impressive predator you are."

I asked Atlas to come down, and he complied quickly. Clearly, she was making a good first impression.

She turned back to me. “Companion?”

I nodded.

”Damn. Beneth is making me wait until I’ve completed my next class quest. Something about succeeding without any outside interference at all.”

“Benneth? Ah, Sourpuss.”

She frowned. “Don’t call him that to his face. Pisses him off. And he’s an all right sort really, below all the posturing and grumbling.”

I wasn’t going to argue with her right now – this was the most chatty I’d ever seen her, and it was like a completely different person underneath her usual façade. “He’s a Dawnlight Chameleon. Evolved to be perfectly at home in forests like these.”

She nodded. "Marvellous camouflage too - I've heard him a couple of times, but haven't spotted him once. What does he weigh in at? 80 kilos maybe?”

We chatted back and forth for a while, and I lured Atlas down to say hello – not a difficult task, really. Atlas was instantly taken with the brawny half orc. Before I knew it, she was scratching his scales and I was almost overwhelmed with sensations of bliss. He even joined us on the road for a while, walking beside us like a dog – a scaled, hulking beast of a dog, but still – while Darya admonished me that I’d have to apply some sort of ointment to his scales to keep them from cracking. She admitted how she had always wanted a reptile for herself, but never had the opportunity. The center of attention, Atlas, trotted back into the woods at some point and eventually our conversation simmered down to a regular level. Darya still wore a slight smile though, and our hike was easy and untroubled.

We were approaching late afternoon, when I called a halt. "We'd better talk directions. The first part of the trek's pretty easy, but at some point we'll have to veer north and leave the path. Heh - you'd better make the call on that one. Now, I haven't played around with the map a lot, but I should be able to…ah, there. You seeing this?"

"Yes, I just received a pop-up with the map." She sat down cross-legged on the path, mumbling to herself for a while. Then, with a final nod, she stood back up, dusting off her clothes. "Now, how do I - oh, there we go - have your data now." She looked at me. "How are you with maps?"

I shrugged. "Jon Snow, pretty much."

She snorted. "Fair enough. Good part: We know where we're going, and I have a general topographic map of the area."

That was good news. My map was pretty much grey area and hearsay, with a lone red dot being our target smack in the middle of it.

Darya continued: "The not so good: The map was old. Mrs. Bertinga bought it off an explorer maybe twenty years back. Also, the area around our target is unexplored. Still, let's stay on the path for a couple more hours and camp for the evening. Tomorrow's off-road trekking all day."

I nodded, and we continued our hike. At a sudden impulse, I asked Darya if she could tell me if we passed by any plants or trees that were dangerous or poisonous. It's not like I was planning to stay in the forest forever, but I'd probably be better off if I avoided having my leg swell to double size from some infection.

Fortunately, she had no objections, and she started pointing out plants and trees as we passed by. Surprisingly often, too. Sure, most were only dangerous upon ingestion, but a decent number of plants or bushes had thorns with weak poisons. I'd been pretty damn fortunate to not become inflicted by something the way I'd been bumbling about in the woods to date. It was good to hear that my Luck stat was worth something.

Just like that, the day flew by, and before I knew it, Darya was pointing out a likely camp site. I'd suspected from the beginning that I was going to feel relatively useless compared to her once we reached the wilderness, but this…this was ridiculous. I just stood and stared as she bustled about, coaxing the camp place into doing her bidding, every single movement planned and purposeful. She prepared a fireplace, erected a number of wire traps to alert us if anybody should sneak up on us and even started in on preparing two separate lean-tos.

Eventually, I was forced to admit defeat and approach her. “Sooo – anything I can help with so I don’t just stand around, fiddling my thumbs.”

I bowed dramatically and went to work. Of course, she’d brought rope. Later, when we had everything erected and a cozy fire going, we dove into the contents of the lunch box I'd received from Gillem. As always, he delivered. Rations for traveling that'd keep well - hard bread, harder cheese, cured ham and a small sack of mixed salted nuts - and a feast of an evening meal. He'd provided everything to build the perfect sandwich, and even included a bottle of dark beer for each of us. The mood was light, and though we didn't talk much, I was really happy I'd asked her along.

Over a mouthful of sandwich, Darya asked: "Are we in a hurry to get there?"

Suddenly, my suspicions woke back up. She did threaten to figure out the truth. I kept my face composed. "Not as such. Why?"

She shrugged. "My class quest will probably come soon, and there's a few skills I'd like to practice on the way. So, if we can spare a handful of hours tomorrow…"

Oh - that was harmless. "Sure - not a problem. I'll help where I can."

"I - no offense, but I should better go alone - I will need to be quiet and your sneaking skills…" She let the sentence trail off with a helpless shrug.

Wow. So, that was a bit emasculating. Sure, I knew I wouldn't be of much help in the woods, but damn, woman. I faked a smile. "No problem. I just got a new skill I'd better try to improve as well." The silence stretched for a bit, but eventually I felt my fingers itch. "Erm - stupid question, probably, but - are we safe here?"

She tilted her head. "Should be. Alarms are up, no tracks nearby, animal or otherwise, and we're far enough from the track that no-one should come across us by accident."

I raised my violin. "Does that mean I can…?"

Her laughter was loud enough that it caught the attention of Atlas, and she nodded.

I called out: "Come, Atlas. Music." and held up the violin for him to see. He plodded closer and eventually found a spot right between the fire and Darya, for all the world like a large dog.

She scooted a bit closer to him, and started scratching his scales, practically making him coo in delight. "He understands speech?"

"Yes. Well, he's learning to, at least. He's a clever giant."

"That he is. Aren't you? Oh yes you are."

As Darya's speech center dissolved, leaving only baby talk, I shut out everything but myself and the violin. With the past couple of days finally behind me, I felt the need for some comfort music - music that I've played so often that I needn't even concentrate. The violin sonatas of my namesake most definitely qualified, and I promptly dove into the first sonata - a joyful piece that changes tempo a lot throughout the song.

I cannot claim that classical music is my favorite music. There are too many skilled, self-trained violinists out there that, in my opinion, produce music that can compete with even the best of the classics. I will, however, attest to the fact that I'm profoundly satisfied with having been trained classically. Otherwise I might have lost out on so much knowledge - such as being able to appreciate how the plays of Arcangelo Corelli altered the standards of violin music both during his life and afterwards. These thoughts were very much in the background, however, as were both my companions. The overriding emotion was relief - both at playing and that of feeling marginally safe again. When I was coming down from the euphoria of reveling in the music, I opened my eyes to find Darya looking at me intently, lips slightly parted. When she realized I was watching, she rapidly looked down, though.

I finished playing, and we arranged ourselves for sleep with few words. Atlas was already conked out right next to the fire. I arranged my bed roll under the primitive lean-to, pleased to discover that everything was comfortable and the bed-roll thick and cozy. For a while, I just lay there, listening to the night sounds of the forest and enjoying the fresh air surrounding me. If only real life were like this, I might end up becoming an outdoor person.

Whatever the reason, I slept late and woke to find the sun already baking down on our clearing. At my rustling Darya also roused, her myriad of braids rustling about her face and sleep still in her eyes. I was quick to realize a horrible fact about my new traveling companion: She was a morning person. Within a minute, she was active, whistling as she went about rummaging through the sack, selecting a healthy portion of items for her breakfast. I grumbled over the lack of coffee, but a couple of hard, fluffy rolls along with hard-boiled eggs, rashers of bacon and sausages slowly transported me to the land of the living.

Breakfast done, Darya approached me with a strangely wary look. “Hey, erm - can you do me a favor?” 

“Sure?” 

“I’m going hunting for a few hours, but we’re getting a late start. Would it be all right if Atlas joined me? I could really use a hand with spotting the quarry, and neutralizing them, like you said he could.” She was actually wringing her hands - weird to see her like that. A single day, and she was already trying to win over my companion. She was probably going to coddle him too, but…I didn’t want to come off as selfish. “Of course you can. Mind you, I'm not entirely convinced that I can explain properly what you'd like him to do, but I'll do my best. And of course, he is a clever rascal. With how fast he's taking to you, I'm convinced he'd grow wings and fly, just to earn another handful of scratches."

Darya gave off a brilliant smile. "Thank you. I'll treat him well."

I searched for Atlas, and quickly found him nearby. My mouth quirked up. "Does that treatment include a shower? He's wallowing in mud right now."

She laughed. "Sorry, showers are extra."

I called out to him, and within a couple of minutes, he and Darya were off for whatever shenanigans they could rouse up. While I was feeling slightly left out, I really didn't mind the additional time to train. I hadn't really spared any time for training back in the village - after the initial period where everything was a matter of urgency, I hadn't really felt the need to push myself. "Serves me right," I thought. By now, playing Jrpgs should've taught me that an extra grinding session is always a good idea.

"Ah well, no time like the present," I mumbled to myself and got to work. My Sonic Buffer sprang into existence flawlessly, and my mana started ticking down. "That's going to be a problem at some point," I thought "but practice might reduce the cost of Multicasting and my buffer both." Now that I'd gotten used to the placement of the swirling waves, I could tell that the weak spots in the buffer were fairly large. Nevertheless, as long as I didn't just stand stock still and await the attacks, I should be able to use the armor proactively and guide the attacks into the waves. It wasn't going to be easy though, and I would need far better combat control than I'd mastered until now. I got to work, and started playing, conjuring forth a Sonic Push at the same time. To my astonishment, with limited strain the spell pushed into being straight away, knocking over the pile of stones I'd stacked as a target. Oh - of course it'd be easier without the distractions.

I paused for a moment, considering how best to approach my training. Essentially, I had two choices. Either cultivate Multicast remorselessly, and hope that the payoff at level 10 would be worth it, or train Multicast slowly and raise Concentration at the same time. Not much of a choice, from where I was standing. So far, the rewards I'd received at level 10 were decent, but not life-altering. Lacking for Concentration at a crucial point and having the wrong spell fizzle, however - that could alter my life, in the gory sense of the word. Decision made, I got to it. If I stopped to think, I’m dead certain that I would be laughing at myself for how I looked – with good reason. I was jumping, bopping and weaving about in the glade, dodging the imaginary attacks of make believe foes. All the while, I was fighting to maintain control of my shield and fight back with a Sonic Push. Regardless of looks, it worked. The strain increased threefold as did the toll on my concentration. It’s hard to explain exactly where the challenge lay but…picture singing the chorus to Love in an Elevator. Easily doable, yeah? Then you just have to do the exact same thing while jumping around like crazy and killing an end boss in Dark Souls at the same time. When my mana depleted for the first time, I checked out the progressions to make sure, and yeah. Minor increases to Multicast, Concentration, Sonic Buffer and Sonic Push, with Sonic Buffer increasing the fastest. Wonderful. Now I just had to keep it up. An hour and a half later, I dropped to the ground, exhausted. There was no way I could keep this up. Now, it wasn't all bad. Multicast and Sonic Buffer had already increased twice, and Concentration and Sonic Push once. However, the process was extraordinarily draining. Not only was it mentally taxing, but constantly having your mana reduced to near zero also took its toll. I felt like I'd been put through the wringer, and my concentration was flaking. Additionally, when I was training with Greck, the actual risk of injury - or at least humiliation - did a difference. Compared to the day before, my increases were at least halved. No surprise there - training in a safe environment just wasn't the same as when your life or health was on the line.

I needed a distraction - but what? In the middle of the woods with nobody to talk to, I'd have to deliver my own entertainment and - well, I'd never know when I next had some time entirely to myself like this. Maybe I didn't need to take a break from the spells, but just from the multicasting and constant draining of my resources. That'd probably work. Mulling it over, I had been in dire need of some additional spells over the past days - especially when it came to pure damage output. Sonic Wave and Sonic Missile did a great job of finishing off the enemies when they were at a safe distance, but the moment they focused on me and came in for the kill, they were somewhat lacking - and I'd lost count of the number of times that both spells had been on cooldown, leaving me without damage spells. The conclusion was easy. I needed an additional damage spell. Something with a fast cast time and a high damage output. What else? Hmm – there was that time where I’d missed a monster that was running straight for me. Something easy to aim as well. No fireball-like spells for me either. For one, I had trouble enough with collateral damage as it was – especially on my stun spell. Furthermore, I wouldn’t have a clue how to make that work with sonic magic working like it did. A short mental plunge into the history of my all-time favorite games quickly came up with something that should work. Basically I'd need a flamethrower-like spell. Yeah, that should very well do for the image.

What about the music though? I'd need something crazy fast, that went from 0 to 100 right off the bat. That excluded pretty much all the classical songs I knew and most folk and pop songs too - hell, and most other genres really. Fast and furious weren't really standard in a lot of genres. I'd have to turn to heavy metal for this one. Gah. It was still a tall order. The only song that sprang to mind - well - even with my imagination at max, I just couldn't figure out how to portrait the furious growls of that Pantera song on the violin. I was just about to let it rest, when I recalled all the hours I'd spent playing Violin Hero. There was the most difficult song of the lot, that I'd never managed to complete flawlessly on expert. It fit the bill though, and I started my attempt. Soon, I felt transported back to my old living room, cursing at the difficulty of the song - and this time I didn't even have the notes on the screen before me, guiding my hand. At my twelfth attempt, however, I was finally met with success, and the sight of a wide stream of sonic magic streaming forth from my hand in a rapid current to the tones of Through the Fire and Flames brought a smile to my lips. I spun full-circle, and as I watched the jet spray out into the entire clearing, I finally allowed a roar of laughter to escape my lips.

The pop-up was exactly as I hoped it would be.

"Congratulations. You have learned a new spell: Stream of Songs

This spell launches a continuous stream of sonic energy that damages anybody in its path. As long as the spell remains active, the caster can alter the direction of the stream mid-cast. The stream will continue for as long as the bard retains his focus and has mana and carries a minor push-back ability.

Properties:

Range: 8.0 meters 

Cast time: 0.5 seconds

Mana cost: 10 mana/second

Force of stream: Minor.

Damage: 5-10 damage/second

Stat: Charisma

Wonderful. While the damage seemed horribly low, it was actually quite a bit higher than my other damage spells on average, and with the damage bonuses from Charisma, it'd be perfect for taking down those enemies I'd already injured or stunned. The only downsides were the low range and high mana cost. I could foresee a future where I'd have to throw points into Intelligence, just to keep from running out of mana. But - nevermind - I had a sonic flamethrower! Calculations and calm consideration went right out the window as I jumped around the clearing, playing with my new gadget and sawing down imaginary enemies. Needless to say, that's when Darya decided to rejoin me, walking out from behind a tree with a huge smile on her face. I froze for a moment and felt a huge blush creeping up my neck - how long had she been standing there? And then I decided to not let that spoil my fun. I shrugged, said: "new spell." and went back to my shenanigans.

A couple of minutes later, I was out of mana again, and walked over to Darya, out of breath and with a smile on my face. She was cross-legged on the ground, watching the free show. I smiled in greetings and said: "Now you know how my day's been - how about yours?"

She put on a sad face. "No magical flamethrowers for me, alas" and then grinned. "But I got us dinner. And breakfast. And snacks." She pointed back to the tree, where she had tossed a small burlap sack, displaying an assortment of sprouts, mushrooms and other greenstuffs. Next to it, on a rough tarp lay the corpse of a deer. From the looks of it, she'd brought it down with a single arrow to the mid-section.

I whistled, impressed. "Nice catch, Darya."

She looked at me, assessing, and then cleared her throat. "Actually, it's pronounced 'Dare ya.'"

I stared at her. "What. Are you serious? Do you mean to tell me I've been saying it wrong this entire time?"

"Yeah."

"Gods, I'm sorry about that. Why didn't you correct me? Or clip me around the earhole?"

"At first, I didn't much like you, you know. And then - well, it was just never the right time to tell you."

"Oh. Well, thank you for clearing that up." Silence fell over the clearing. "So. Dare ya. Is that your real name, or is there a story to the name?"

She raised an eyebrow. "Are you seriously fishing for information, mister oh-so-secretive Arcangelo? Yes, there's a story to it, but I'm not telling you until you tell me something about yourself."

"Well, that's fair, I guess. I'm a Sagittarius?"

She rolled her eyes at me.

"I'm an absolute sucker for antiheroes in stories?"

She threw a handful of grass at me. "Me too, but I'm never telling at this rate."

"All right. In real life, in a huge nerd from Denmark."

She tilted her head. "That was a whole lot better. But it's still a nope. Give me something real, and I'll tell you."

I considered it but - I really wanted to appease my curiosity - but it just wasn't worth it. My personal security was worth more. In the end, I made a sorrowful gesture and bypassed the point entirely. "Sooo. Did Atlas help you any?"

She gracefully didn't dig any deeper, but her smile told me this wasn't over. "Very much so. The only reason he isn't here to beg for snacks is probably that I already let him have the entire quail I got earlier. Seriously, he is a gift. I'm making something special for him."

I laughed. "Go right ahead and spoil him. Sounds like he earned it. Erm - do you even know what to do with that thing?" I pointed at the deer?

She shrugged "In theory, at least, which is actually the reason why I wanted this half-day. To try out how these things work in practice."

"Makes sense. I'll leave you to it and get back to training. Just tell me if you need anything." I glanced at the animal again. "Are you actually going to prepare the entire thing now?"

"No, I'll just prepare it somewhat - do a field dress and skin it, quarter it, trim off the worst of the fat and wrap it up nice for the inventory and then I'll cook it properly tonight." Her confident tone waned. "Again, that's the theory - it shouldn't take more than an hour, I hope."

"We could just cook it now, travel later on tonight?"

She shook her head with a fixed expression. "I don't want to waste most of the day with cooking, and I did promise just half a day of delays, right? It's no big deal - Strength isn't exactly my dump stat."

Walking to the other side of the clearing, I returned to my training. My concentration was still feeling shaky, and the toll of the earlier challenges were making their presence known. However, knowing that it was just the matter of a limited period, I might as well use it for something useful, and I went back to my all-round training. Since neither of my remaining spells were close to the level 10 bonus, I alternated between casting Sonic Push and Stun Blast. And that brought me straight back to the grind. By now, I had the rotation pretty well in hand. I needed a bit of mental breather in between each spell I cast, meaning I wasn't casting as quickly as I could, but still, I believed I was keeping it pretty well together. A few things were slowly falling into place - like how I should step to avoid falling on my behind when dodging. Or how dodge rolls are a plain no-go when you're toting a violin. I tried my best not to glance too often at Darya during my mana regeneration breaks, but I really couldn't help myself. First off, I had nothing better to do, and second, she was an eye-catcher in all her blood-covered glory.

At some point, I lost track of the time, and got caught up in the process of repetition. I didn't realize that Darya had finished until I collapsed to the grass, just to see her standing right next to me. Between gasps for air, I asked: "Are we ready?" and she nodded. I looked at the time to find that two hours had passed - but didn't make a comment, as she looked the worse for wear.

And just like that, we were off. Everything was already packed, and the impromptu camp we left as it was. The noon sun was blessedly hidden away behind a cover of clouds, but the day was hot and stifling. After a short detour to a nearby stream, we started the day's march in earnest. Or - well, "march" wasn't the exact word I was looking for. Somewhere in between "hike" and "climb" was more like it. The terrain was getting increasingly difficult and we were undoubtedly off the beaten path. Now and again, we'd have a breather as we followed one path or another - animal paths, according to Darya - but we'd inevitably be forced to leave the path again and force our way through the wilderness again. Apart from draining what little resources I had left, however, the hike was pretty uneventful. The most exhilarating moment of the walk came and went with a trio of birds suddenly exploding from the foliage right next to us - and then it was back to trudging. As the hours ticked by, the hike was increasingly taxing on my endurance, and we had to make stops more and more often. Darya refrained from making any comments over my lack of stamina, but she did grow increasingly impatient to get going again.

It was early evening, when she finally let her pack drop from her shoulders with a sigh and said. "This'll do."

I was too tired to say anything right then, and just dropped my pack, leaning against a tree. "Thank God - or whoever's listening at the moment." The mood was more subdued this evening. I was tired from the hike, and Darya looked like she had the entirety of her attention devoted to the evening meal. She delegated the preparation some of the greenstuffs to me, while she prepared the camp before going to work on the deer. I fetched water, sliced sprouts and other unidentifiable plants and cleaned and sliced mushrooms. Then at some point, I had to stop and see what Darya was up to, as she began dragging branches into the camp.

I watched in fascination as she got to work. There was no chance that I'd ever get to do something like that myself, and I didn't really feel the need to try either, but…full disclosure: I was 36 years old, had been single for most of my adult life, and the closest I'd ever come to watching a cooking process as elaborate and old-fashioned as I was right now was when I visited a local pizzeria with an old wood-fired oven.

First, she amassed several handfuls of wood of different sorts and sorted it. After arranging wood for a fire on the ground, she proceeded to use a few long, straight sticks to create some sort of large tripod over the fire wood. She used twine to tie sticks horizontally at all three sides at about knee level. "Benneth would insist that I create my own twine from natural fibers, but…he's not here, right?"

I laughed. "Yeah. Practically a holiday, right? Sorry for staring. I'll stop - it's just - city boy, you know?"

"Don't worry. It's a first for me too."

She then started lashing thin saplings of another sort to the horizontal framework of the tripod with a slight distance in between each one - and all of a sudden, we had us a basic, wooden barbeque.

Following this, she produced a cast iron cookpot from somewhere in her large backpack and placed it in the middle of the barbecue. All the greenstuffs went into the pot along with several liters of water and some salt. Honestly, Darya came more well-prepared for the trip than I did. I was given the important task of stirring the pot while Darya created a bunch of huge steaks, placing them reverentially around the cook pot.

"So, you've chosen the Cook class? Wait, I thought you were a Scout."

Her hands were working non stop as she smiled. "I almost did choose Cook. I like camping alone though, and that made the decision for me. Good thing about this game though - you can still create whatever you feel like if you know how - you just won't get the bonuses."

She sprinkled salt on the steaks, brushed off her hands and stood up. “That should do it. I’m glad meat doesn’t spoil inside the inventory, or tonight could prove – well - interesting.”

I snorted. “Squatting in the bushes interesting? No thank you.” I looked at the two remaining piles of meat. One pile looked tidy and neat, and the other like… “What’s the rest for?”

“One pile is for Atlas, like I promised him. The other for jerky.”

"You're seriously going to create deer jerky yourself?"

She nodded.

"Are you American? I've never had jerky myself, but I had a few American online friends with a serious jerky problem."

"Not leading up to a pun about jerks, are you?"

"Gods no. I'm not Chertog."

"Good. And no, I'm Dutch. Never even tried it, but it looks really unhealthy and chewy. And addictive."

The next few minutes were hard to endure, as the food over the fire slowly started spreading a mouth-watering aroma. I asked: "Do you do this kind of cooking in real life as well? I'm pretty certain I'd manage to burn everything to char."

She shook her head. "I like it, but I don't cook often. I have to…I rarely have the time."

How she changed that comment seemed a bit off - I wondered what she was about to say. Ah well, I sure as hell wasn't going to mess with her private life.

Dinner, when it was finally done, was heavenly. The steaks were done to perfection - medium rare with a pleasant smoked taste from the wood - and the contents of the pot had boiled down to a mouth-watering mushroom gravy. We shared it with a leaf of dark bread from the lunch pack and shared anecdotes about cooking. Mine were mostly about accidents. When we were done, I cleaned the utensils while Darya got to work preparing the jerky. When I was done, I hesitantly approached her. “Darya. You’ve been invaluable already, and I shudder to think how I’d be doing at this point without you. At least allow me to entertain you a bit.” And I started playing.

It was a beautiful, flowing, uplifting piece, one of my favorite pieces by Schumann. There are moments, where it feels like the emotion of the song flowed naturally, instead of being composed of separate notes, and tonight was one of those moments. A glance at Darya broke the trance however. She was standing frozen, blushing, staring at the ground like a doe caught in the headlight. Oh. I had a hard time continuing to play unperturbed, as I dimly recalled that the song was actually called ‘romance’. Geez - I hadn’t figured her for a fan of classical music. When the song tapered out, I instantly changed for something lighter, more humorous and in the corner of my eye I could tell that she loosened up some. Soon, I was completely bushed. The entire day had been taxing, and my body wasn't taking any more. Darya distractedly said good night, meticulously placing yet another piece of meat just so over the barbecue. I enjoyed the soft warmth from the coals before sleep took me. 

My sleep that night was undisturbed, except for when I awoke to see Darya removing the jerky from the sticks. I mumbled “ That’s dedication to crafting,” turned around and promptly went back to sleep.

The next day, I woke up to see Darya already up. She was sitting on her heels next to the fireplace, apparently deep in thought. I couldn’t help but gaze at her. At almost all times, she had a calculated, guarded expression - as if she were prepared at all times to fend away the rest of the world. Right now though, her demeanor was relaxed, unguarded - and she was gorgeous. Even with her tusks, she had a proud, classic look that I found wildly attractive. Her hand reached down to one side, and emerged with a thick piece of… “Jerky for breakfast?” She didn't even deign to react, just chewed on, unbaffled.

The silence grew until I caved. "…Can I try?"

She handed a piece over, and it was exactly like I'd imagined. Chewy, salty and - "It's horrible, and I need you to hand over every piece you have." I said in between chewing. "Also, a pint of Gillem's dark ale would really go down well with this."

"I can't do that Dave." she countered. "I'm on my fifth piece, and I'm addicted. Agreed on the ale though." She stretched, outlining her brawny figure against the morning sun. "Good to go in ten?"

I yawned, but gave her the thumbs up. No need to postpone this.

The days march started out just the same as the day before. Tough going, dense foliage and terrain that made it really hard to plot a clever course. Following a two-hour slog, however, Darya stopped and breathed a sigh. "There. Now the worst part is over with."

We were currently wading through a thick layer of shrubs, interspersed with thorns here and there. At the end of the field-sized area, however, we could see a glimmering surface. “A river?”

“Yup. Offshoot from the Jagged Rush. You might have noticed that we’ve been going downhill most of the time. From here on, there should be a simple path following the edge of the river until we reach the final plateau.”

My relief at not having to trudge through the undergrowth anymore dimmed somewhat. “So it leads straight to Nerit? Greck adviced that we’d better avoid any kobolds until we were actually there. Any tips?”

“All right. We do it like this…” From that moment on, we marched on with an increased sense of caution. Atlas was our vanguard, staying ahead as far as possible while still allowing us to communicate. I just hoped he got the message. “move”, “watch” and an image of a kobold had better translate into the right idea. Meanwhile, Darya was keeping an eye on our rear and removing the worst of our trail. My task was reduced to keeping up and not making too much noise. Fortunately, the path did improve the ease of our travels. The terrain went ever-so-slightly uphill with the river roaring along next to us, and the simple wooden path was a welcome change of scenery. Our mood was positive, right until the first encounter. An urgent sensation of alert from Atlas had me scurrying for the bushes with Darya right behind me. Moments later I lay facedown fifty meters inside the forest, following the progress of a single kobold jogging along the path through Atlas' eyes.

It was the first time since my class quest that I got to lay eyes on a kobold other than Greck, and there was no denying that this specimen was far more impressive than the rest of them. Physically, he was no different than the rest of them, but even at a glance, I could tell that the quality of his equipment was way above the kobolds in the dungeon. Not a single piece of equipment was out of place among the darkened leather and metal he wore, and he wore his short spear and bow with confidence. Even when he passed our spot, I couldn't hear his progress, and yet again I praised Atlas' senses - I'd never have noticed the reptilian before it was too late.

We waited a good long time before shuffling out to continue, and from that point on, we moved with excessive caution. And it was a wise decision too. As the day progressed slowly, encounters were more and more frequent. Most of them were single runners - probably scouts, hunters or the like - but one time, we had a full party of dangerous-looking and well-armed reptilians marching right by us. Both Darya and Atlas proved their worth several times over, and I even gained a point in Spot myself, finally bringing the skill to Apprentice level.

Congratulations: Your skill Spot has reached Apprentice rank. In addition to existing effects, your eye sight will be slightly better at long range.

That was pretty great. Hell, spot was mostly useful at long range for me anyway, so granting me that extra little chance to pick out the enemies before they spotted me was a nice little reward.

Only one time we did come too close to being discovered. Late afternoon, a trio of heavily armored kobolds came strolling along the path carelessly, chatting in their coarse language. We'd spotted them in good time, only at this point of our travels, the far side of the road was a steep incline which we had no chance of climbing in time without being spotted. We could probably have backtracked, except traffic was increasing, and the thought of being sandwiched in between two groups wasn't appealing. The result of this was Darya and I lying just ten meters from the group, trying our best to become one with a tiny ditch right next to the swirling river. Fortunately, the group were deep enough inside their conversations that they failed to spot anything and we could continue without further incident.

At this point, the path was slowly making its way up a long rise and the forest was slowly giving way to a more open rock-covered landscape.

Darya made her way to walk alongside me. "We should enter the plateau soon."

I sighed in relief. "Thank you for keeping us all safe."

She was about to respond, when she looked behind us. "Hold that thought. There's a group coming up from downhill.”

A quick glance proved her right. I could already tell the improvement to my Spot skill, as the presence of a tiny cluster of figures was apparent quite a way down the hill. We increased our speed and before long, I was struggling to keep up. The path had also narrowed, limiting the chances of our hiding while the group passed by. Darya caught me flagging and dropped back to my side again.

“What’s the matter?”

“Endurance…” I huffed. “It’s my dump stat.”

She looked behind us while jogging and responded – without missing a beat: “They haven’t spotted us yet, or they’d be gaining on us. Can you keep it up for a while longer?”

I almost stumbled. My vitality was slowly ticking down towards zero and there was no relief in sight. I relented and used Second Wind, instantly gaining an extra 100 stamina. Straight away, I could feel the effect. My gait returned to normal and I didn’t have to gasp for air. “Now I can – just hope this damn hill stops soon.”

We increased our speed slightly - of course, neither Darya nor Atlas had any problems keeping up the tempo - and managed to pull slightly away from the tailing group. By this time, odds were that one of them would've spotted us, but as long as they didn't realize that we werent' kobolds, we were probably safe. The hill eventually faded out with us entering onto what Darya said was called the Splintered Plateau. The name was pretty self-explanatory. Over the past couple of kilometers, forest slowly gave way in favor of the flat, rocky tableau before us. The outskirts of the plateau, however, were a sombering view - a twisted mess of broken rock and utter devastation - as if a god's finger had reached down from the sky, flattening the plateau and leaving widespread destruction surrounding the finger. If one were to look at it that way, it probably also provided a great natural defense, complicating access by foot with the only visible easy access point being this path.

We wasted little time taking in the sights however, as we finally got a clear view of where we were going. The plateau itself was devoid of adornments except for a short, tough grass covering everything, and in the center lay Nerit. In all honesty, I'd expected some sort of wooden village in the middle of a swamp - not this. A tall, rough stone wall obscured direct view of everything, but even so, a number of large stone buldings towered over the wall, indicating the size of the village. It was clearly no metropolis, but at the very least it beat Grant's Crossing in size. All these thoughts lay in the background, as we followed the path towards the entry gate. Only problem was…my endurance was running out again, and this time I had no easy remedy, meaning we had to take occasional brief breaks to avoid running out of stamina. We were getting close though. At this point, I could see a couple of figures standing next to the gate who had to be guards. Unfortunately, we weren't the only ones who were closing in. A sudden shout from behind made me lift my weary head, and I looked at Darya. "I'm out - nothing more to give. Get the guards."

She looked at the guards and back to me. There was no way she'd be able to get to them before the pursuit had caught up to me. "Not going to happen," she growled and moved up to me, Before I realized what was going in, I was upside down in a fireman's carry, bouncing up and down on Darya's back. I internally debated telling her to stop, looking at the pursuit and a whole slew of other actions before I realized my best approach. Lie still and make carrying me as easy as possible for Darya - my time would come shortly. I did just that, and tried not to think about exactly how emasculated I felt at the moment.