Chapter Thirty-Seven - Crickets In the Dark

:>

Or, as one might even say...

:3

***

Watching Rosario--from hiding, because she wasn’t that sort of fool--beat the stuffing out of a few third-tiers was quite good for her little bug heart. 

Of course, once it was well and truly established that she had them beat, Cricket did step out from behind the other adventurers. She was working on her [Jester] skills, after all, and spooking the idiots by appearing behind them and making fun of them was just good sense.

“Looks like your toughest got stirred up! Hah! Now, imagine if the lovely elf wanted to fork your boys, now you’d truly be gone, and hopefully we won’t see you so... spoon!~” 

That last one was just bad enough to earn her some glares, even through their evident fear.

Cricket made sure to add insult to injury, with many blown raspberries, some farting noises, and by smacking her own bum while the dejected group moved on to find their own campsite for the evening.

The rest of the night, unfortunately, was not more exciting than that. Lucky had a million questions over their evening meal, which was reheated hardtack and barley porridge with some salted beetle meat and dried beans. It was rather a mish-mash of their travelling rations, but they did have a bit of cheese to go with it and some olive oil to sprinkle atop the whole thing, which made it one of the less-bad meals she’d had while travelling.

She slept like a little clown baby, which is to say, the cheese and her insides had a natural reaction and she tossed and turned all night. 

The next morning, Lucky packed up their tents and gear and then they were off. An early encounter with a level 17 [Stone Golem], the second tier evolution of the little [Pebble Gremlins] and the like they’d been fighting make the walk a little more exciting, but for all of its strength and toughness, even a low-Dexterity newbie like Lucky was able to manage the big guy’s aggression.

Cricket didn’t mention it, but she did hit level 29 at the end of that fight. She didn’t want to overshadow Lucky’s own accomplishment of hitting level three. And just in the morning too! 

Then again, early levels were usually rather quick. Not this quick, but Cricket had heard stories. In times of war and great strife, entire communities gained levels in new jobs extremely rapidly. It was just the nature of things.

Or maybe the nature of things wasn’t quite that? Rosario seemed to have her own thoughts on how things worked, and as much as Cricket liked to tease her (it was very fun) she did acknowledge that the woman probably knew more about levels and such than most living beings.

They fought a few more monsters, had lunch, met a caravan on the road and walked past it, then the caravan caught up when Rosario decided that they had to stop to spar some more. 

That went well! Cricket was still far speedier than Lucky, and more experienced, and she was also learning how the young horsegirl moved. Lucky’s entire arsenal of tricks was rather limited, even with Rosario occasionally giving her vague advice. 

Cricket might have also maybe been learning a little herself. She wasn’t gaining levels as quickly as Lucky, but she was gaining some, and they were for a second tier job, that meant twice as many stats per level. 

Lucky was gaining those early levels faster, so the lead would shrink... and Cricket was admittedly lazier than the hardworking girl, so there was that too. But for the next few months, Cricket was smugly certain that she could beat Lucky ninety-nine times out of a hundred.

In fact, she started keeping count, taunting the [Soldier] with her win score at the end of every bout. 

When Lucky started winning, Cricket would quit before she ever got ahead! 

In any case, the spar finished with another victory for Cricket. They were 7 to 0! Cricket did a little jig, though she stopped and pouted very much when she discovered a new hole in her shirt.

“Can I see?” Rosario asked as she came over.

“The hole?” Cricket asked. “If you want me to remove my shirt, thou must only--”

“Yes, the hole, raise your arm,” Rosario said.

Cricket laughed and did just that, bending to the side slightly so that Rosario could take a look. The elf pinched the fabric around the hole and hummed. “It wouldn’t be hard to sew back together. It tore along the grainline. But it might not be worth it. Your arm pinches the fabric here, and here, when you move. Is this linen? I suppose it has to be to keep this lightness. Well, it’s made decently well, but worn out.”

“I can hardly carry around changes of clothes,” Cricket said. Her inventory was near to bursting already.

“Hmm. We’ll see if we can’t fix that once we get to Bramsloekr. I don’t recall that city having any good tailoring resources, but they must have something. I have a bit of cloth.”

“Is it pretty?”

“Plain blanks and whites,” Rosario said.

Cricket pouted. “Well, if you can make it checkered, then I will graciously accept your tailor-y assistance.”

“Is Master Thorn a good tailor?” Lucky asked. 

“I have 48 levels in [Seamstress],” Rosario said casually.

Cricket couldn't help the smile that came upon her at Lucky’s poleaxed expression. “You do?”

“Of course. Crafting your own things is satisfying. And the stats are good as well. You can’t always be fighting. But the Dexterity I gained from the [Tailor] line is useful. The Charisma as well, I suppose. If you want to be a well-rounded character, you don’t want to leave any one stat too low. If you’re mostly focused on fighting, then leaving your Cha or Wis or Int low isn’t that bad, but it’s not ideal.”

That was a strange way to shorthand the name of the stats, Cricket had never heard it before, but she understood, from context.

In any case, they continued on their way after Rosario added a quick patch to Cricket’s blouse. 

Luckily for Lucky, they made it to a town at a weird time. They could have kept on going, but then they’d have been camping only a little ways out of the town in an hour or so, which would be a little awkward when they had the option to sleep in beds and eat tasty tavern food right here. 

The town was just a podunk little place, a stop along some of the main mountain roads with a nice overlook and a few goat farms and some caves where they grew mushrooms for potions and the like. There was only one big building in the whole place, and it was the local inn. A few caravans were stopped for the night already, which led to the enviably fun situation they were in.

“Only two?” Rosario asked.

The [Innkeeper] nodded. “That’s all I’ve got left. Full up otherwise. Sorry? They’re not big rooms, but the beds can fit two. Or we can drag a mattress over, if you want. We’ve got some blankets to spare in storage? We keep them for the cold season.”

“No, we’ll make due with two rooms,” Rosario said.

Cricket’s antennae flicked. “We will?”

“We’ll draw lots,” Rosario replied. “To see who has to sleep with you.”

“Oi, wait a moment,” Cricket said while Lucky did her best to keep in a laugh.

For once, however, it was Cricket who was the lucky one, and Rosario drew the small stick.

“So... This is a new thing, but I sleep in the nude as of today, and I’m a real cuddler. But don’t worry, I saw what you did with the spoon the other day, but I do want to point out that I’m the big spoon, no matter the level difference.”

“You won’t be trying anything,” Rosario said.

“Trying? I plan on succe--” 

Rosario flicked Cricket on the forehead.

Naturally, Cricket flipped over, crashing to the floor with a hard thump and playing dead. The flick hadn’t even hurt, but Cricket couldn’t pass up the opportunity to do some pratfalling! 

Lucky was blushing quite fiercely as they were guided to their rooms. Not that Cricket wasn’t blushing a little as well.

She had been sending Rosario plenty of messages, but it was possible that Cricket was a little too subtle. She was even planning to make her interest clearer. Possible with song and dance. She had figured out the proper hip gyration frequency, but was still a little uncertain about the song part. Just how direct could she be with the elf?

Unfortunately, before bed was food, and drink, and some general merry-making in the inn’s main floor where Cricket couldn’t help but volunteer for a bit of rabble-rousing and joke telling on the small stage they had set up in the corner.

It was well past late by the time she snuck into their room and discovered Rosario already there, sitting on the edge of the one bed in the room.

“Let’s... talk, Cricket,” Rosario said.

Oh no... talking was not what Cricket wanted, not at all! 

***

I'm... debating whether I wanna do lewds or not?