Stewart was taken off guard by the kiss, and more so when Flora pushed him into the room and slammed the door behind her. “Err, umm... okay. I take it you were having an argument?”
Flora's eyes were angry when they met his. “That is a mild way of putting it.” She shook her head before looking at him again, “Look, I know I asked you for this tonight, but can we skip it instead? I would rather just cuddle with you at the moment than deal with Tabitha.”
Stewart took her hand and led her over to the bed. “Flora, you asking what you did makes me hopeful. If you need another day, or even five, that is fine. We have all the time in the world, after all.” He sat on the bed, pulling her onto his lap. “If you want time for the two of us to cuddle, I am more than willing to give that to you.”
Flora sighed into his neck, “I'm sorry. We do need to find a middle ground so we can get our relationship healthy again. Tonight is just not the right time. After we kill Experiment 9, we can do it as part of the celebration, okay?”
Stewart nuzzled her neck, “As you wish.”
Flora giggled and pushed him back onto the bed, going with him as he held onto her. “Let's get comfortable and get our sleep in, okay?”
“Sleep sounds good,” Stewart agreed, not letting her go as he shifted them to lay correctly on the bed. “Is that all you wanted tonight, cuddles and sleep?”
Flora bit her lip for a second before she nodded. “Tonight, yes. After we finish this quest, we can see about taking a week off again. Maybe this time, we can spend it together instead of apart.”
A bright smile lit up his face. “As you wish, Flower.”
~*~*~
Stewart woke to Flora purring gently on his shoulder, his arm curled around her protectively. A small, happy smile creased his lips as he studied the woman he cared for. He had felt horrible about all of their arguments over the last year, but he couldn’t just turn his back on Tabitha, either. Now, he felt hope for both of them. If Flora was willing to take a big step toward their happiness, he should do no less in return. Flora shivered slightly as her eyes fluttered open. He leaned over to kiss her nose while she woke up and became aware of where she was.
“Morning, my Flower. Did you sleep well?”
She wrapped her arm over him, giving him a firm squeeze. “Yes, thank you. Are you ready to brave the world again today?”
Nodding, Stewart could only gaze back into her smiling eyes, “With you beside me, I can face anything.” He collected a real kiss from her before he disengaged himself to stand. “I’ll go collect some food. I’ll be back shortly.”
When he left the room, he became aware that the sun hadn’t quite made it over the horizon yet. He headed down the stairs to see if food was available this early and saw the innkeeper rubbing sleep from his eyes. “Greetings, innkeeper. Is there food available?”
“Yes, but only bread and cheese,” the innkeeper replied, finally lowering his hands and blinking his eyes. As soon as he made out Stewart’s red skin, the innkeeper frowned. “It will be a few minutes. Is there anything else you need?” he said, his voice betraying his mild distaste.
Stewart kept his pleasant smile in place, having long ago gotten used to the disdain his Half-blood nature engendered in others. “A pot of tea to go with it would be nice.” He placed a gold on the counter. “Please have it brought to my room once it is ready? Keep the change.” Stewart turned away, letting his smile evaporate as he headed for the stairs.
When he got to the top, Braxton was coming toward him, yawning. “Mornin’, Half-blood. Ye be ready to attempt to kill the beast?”
Nodding, Stewart replied, “Yes. Do you know when we are heading out?”
“An hour after sunrise is what the commander said. Got to get ale and food in me before tha’. See ye in a bit,” Braxton said, going past him.
Making it back to his room, Stewart found Flora meditating. Knowing this was how she centered herself for the day, he stayed as quiet as he could. He took a seat and watched her while she sat there, her legs crossed and her hands resting on her thighs. He marveled that anyone would be with him with the demon blood in his veins, much less a beauty like her. He wanted to reach out and trace some of her spots, but if he did, she would break out of her trance and he didn’t want that.
She smiled as her eyes opened. “You’re back, but where is the food you spoke of getting?”
As Stewart opened his mouth to reply, a tentative knock sounded. “That should be it,” he replied, getting to his feet to answer the door. He thanked the maid and took the tray from her, closing the door with his foot. “Here it is.”
Flora joined him at the table and poured the tea while he cut the bread and cheese apart for them. They had breakfast and made small talk, both of them feeling content now that they had a plan for going forward. When they finished, Flora got a kiss from him before she left to get her things together. Once she was gone, Stewart put his armor on, gathered the rest of his gear, and headed downstairs. The others all sat in the main room, having breakfast.
“Ah, didn’t know we were doing communal breakfast. Flora and I just finished ours,” Stewart said as he took a seat next to Alistern.
“Tha’ is fine, we thought ya migh’ be doin’ somethin’ like tha’,” Alistern replied between bites. “We got about half an hour before we need to assemble in the main courtyard.”
Almira got to her feet, “I’ll go get my armor on, then. Thank you for the food, Alistern.” She went back upstairs to get her gear together, passing Flora on the way. She paused, “How did the night go?”
Flora shook her head, “We decided to put it off until after this endeavor. We just snuggled last night. It reminded me of how much I missed him during our break.”
Smiling, Almira nodded, “Okay. Once you do what you said, let me know if it helped you.” She hurried off to her room to get her armor on, knowing that plate always took some time to get equipped.
When she got back downstairs, the group had finished breakfast. She got to the table as the others stood up, ready to go. Just when they started to head for the door, they heard the other adventuring group coming down the stairs. A few steps out of the inn and they had caught up to them.
“Well then, good huntin’ to all of us today,” Braxton said.
“Aye, may the loot be worth the effort,” Alistern replied, earning a chuckle from the others.
“Tha’ be what it’s about,” Braxton added as they got to the edge of the gathered soldiers. “At least we were nay late.”
Barely a second later, a horn sounded, blowing a quick rhythm. The men all fell silent, and the commander addressed them in a clear loud tone, “Men, today we go out to face one of the worst beasts known to roam the Dead Lands. Experiment 9 is our target. As of yesterday, it was reported that the creature was but a single day of travel from our Keep. We will search for five days, but if we do not find it, we will be calling off the hunt. If we encounter it, listen to your leader, obey his orders. If he falls, then listen to the next man in charge of your unit. If we all fail, we will regroup here for a day and then set back out. The only options are to drive it off or kill it. Now fall in and be ready to move out.”
As the soldiers fell into their ranks, a messenger came running over to them. “Sir, the commander asks that you follow behind the rest of the men.”
Alistern nodded, “Aye, we will follow his command.”
The soldiers started moving out and the party watched them go, counting a total of forty people. Each group of men was obviously set up as a unit, with one heavily armored person, one in vestments of the God of Justice over chain mail, and the other three a mix of casters and melee. Once the commander and his unit moved off, Alistern fell into step behind them with Braxton’s group trailing behind as the last group. The few remaining soldiers watched the small army head out to find one of the most dangerous monsters that Stein had ever created.
While the party marched, Alistern received a raid invite from Commander Solomon. He accepted
and a second box appeared just above his normal vision space, telling the raid party that the full team was now formed.
“Been a bit since we been in a raid,” Grimgar mused.
“The time we joined up with other followers of the Dark Lord to kill that rogue Demon Lord in the mountains,” Almira agreed.
“Oh. That was just after I joined you,” Flora chuckled, “That was tense. We even all died during that one.”
“Yeah, but we helped get the victory, even as weak as we were back then,” Stewart laughed. “Who ever heard of level fifties going on a raid? If they hadn’t been desperate for people, we never would have been accepted. With all the other churches telling their followers not to go, it freed up spots for us.”
“Iffin the Dark Lord had nay weakened it, we would nay have triumphed,” Alistern pointed out.
The group rehashed their other raid, smiling as they marched on. Six hours later, the commander called a halt for twenty minutes to allow the men a chance to have some food and a short rest. Flora handed out jerky, cheese, and tea to her group and settled down next to Stewart. They ate in companionable silence, then spent the rest of their break chatting.
“What do you think the odds are that we find it today?” Stewart asked.
“Low,” Almira replied first. “Why would it hang around?”
“Hmm,” Alistern mused, “Braxton thinks it mayhap have followed his group last week when they left the ruins. Iffin tha’ is the case, then it very well might be close.”
Grimgar grunted, “If tha’ be true, then we may find it before we camp for the night.”
“You’re all too gloomy,” Flora replied. “Everything will be fine.”
The others chuckled at her optimism. Everyone was back on their feet and ready to go when the commander used the raid message system to get them moving. A messenger came trotting back to them as they got started.
“Sir,” the messenger addressed Alistern, “the commander wanted me to give you this communications stone.” He held out a yellow shard to Alistern, “Per the commander, when we engage Experiment 9, he will activate the system so he can issue orders easily. You need to be holding the stone if you wish to relay information to him in return.”
Alistern took the stone. “These be expensive. Tell him I will follow his commands.”
The messenger saluted and headed for Braxton, obviously intent on handing out another stone. Grimgar watched him go, “Those go for about ten thousand gold, right?”
Flora nodded. “Yes, the materials to enchant them come from ruins in the Dead Lands. They are enchanted to communicate to any other stone within a hundred yards. The bigger ones can send to any stone, but the smaller ones can only communicate to the larger one. I am not surprised the commander had a set of stones. I think all the forts do in case of events like this.”
“Makes sense to me,” Almira replied. “My father told me about the Elven strongholds having sets, as well.”
“Aye, as me da’ said about our strongholds,” Grimgar added.
“I don’t know about my people, because I have never even seen the isle we hail from,” Flora said when they looked at her. “I was born and raised in Stormguard, after all.”
Stewart chuckled, “I remember, Flower. Who knows what the demons have in place? It’s not as if the Dark Lord would let it be known what defenses the Infernal realm has in place.”
They all laughed. The Dark Lord had crafted the Infernal realm after the other gods forced him from the heavenly plane of existence. It was rumored he was biding his time before leading an army to reclaim his rightful place in the other realm. Occasionally, the other gods would task their followers with raids into the Infernal realm to try to forestall the pending attack.
“Considering that the other gods send their followers after the Dark Lord, why has he never issued a raid on them?” Flora asked, the question having always puzzled her.
“That is not his way,” Almira replied simply. “Well, at least as far as I know. I’ve never spoken with him directly. His High Priest in Stormguard seemed very certain of it, though.”
“Aye, but he would,” Alistern laughed. “Just as I do nay think any of our minions would say anythin’ against him.”
Flora frowned, “Now that you mention minions, where is Lilith?”
“I told her she will nay be joinin’ us today as she can nay help control the beast. She asked to take part so she could use her healin’ on Theoliphius, and I told her mayhap. We shall see iffin we even find it today.”
Nodding, Flora smiled, “Your reasoning is solid. Thank her later for the advice she gave me.”
Stewart’s brow furrowed and he pondered what she had said, but didn’t speak up. He was still thinking when a message from the commander in the raid chat caught his eye.
Commander:
The Experiment was spotted by one of the scouts. It is currently a few hours away from us and moving in our general direction. We will stop here to wait for it. Party leaders, come to me so we can discuss the plan.
Alistern sighed with a shrug, “Be back in a bit.”
The others watched him go as they checked over their gear for the dozenth time, making sure it was in top shape even though they hadn’t gotten much use out of it yet. Stewart summoned two of his minions while they waited for Alistern to return.
“Waltrim, Illos, are you both ready for a fight?” Stewart asked.
“Yes, master,” Waltrim rumbled without hesitation.
“What are we fighting?” Illos asked, looking at all the soldiers.
“We are going to be fighting Experiment 9 again,” Stewart replied.
Illos blanched. “Can I take a rain check?”
Stewart laughed, “Unfortunately not. On the plus side, there will be a total of fifty of us, plus Alistern’s minions and you two.”
Illos sighed, “Fine.”
Flora gave a small laugh. “It will be okay, Illos. At least you shouldn’t be within thirty feet of it.”
Illos hooked a thumb at Waltrim, “Unlike stupid here, who gets to gag.”
“Master,” Waltrim rumbled, “did you note the healing debuff from the miasma it generates?”
Stewart blinked. “No, I hadn’t. I need to tell Al.” He grabbed his message stone and sent Alistern a message.
Almira frowned, “I hadn’t noticed either. Then again, I was busy being eaten alive by bugs. I vote we not be the first group it fights.”
Waltrim nodded, “I would like that, too.”
Stewart put his stone away. “The commander thanked us for letting him know. Seems we have a bit of time to kill. Anyone bring the cards?”
Grimgar chuckled, “I am sure we will be movin’ to get into positions soon.”
Stewart looked out at all the sand dunes, “Yeah, lots of places to set up an ambush.”
Flora snorted, “Stop it. He is just stating facts. It’s not like he picked the place to fight.”
“True enough,” Stewart replied, sliding over to hug Flora.
After a moment, Alistern reappeared. “Well, the commander has set his plan. We are to go to the far right of the formation. Two groups will be bunched here in the middle, with four sets to either side. Once the Experiment comes in, we are to swing around it, keepin’ just outside of the sickness aura it has. We will be tradin’ off groups as the commander orders. The plan is to give each party the chance to recover as the monster focuses on the next group.”
Stewart frowned, “Meaning one group will face the full brunt of it?”
“Aye. The first two groups will be at the most risk with the breath weapon it has. He seems certain his men will be able to last through the initial attack,” Alistern shrugged. “We will end up behind it and next to Braxton's group, who will be on the other flank.”
Almira shook her head slightly, “Fine. I take it the casters of every group will be doing damage the entire time, so it will just be the melee that hangs back until it's their group’s turn?”
“Aye,” Alis
tern nodded, “tha' be his plan. It will take time to whittle down all tha' health, even with all the people here.”
“Should we call Lilith and Tabitha then, so they can use Comforting Touch to heal?” Stewart asked.
“Migh' as well. It’ll help Flora keep the rest of us healthy iffin they focus on the Destroyers. Remember though, they will need to get in close to Essence Drain it to recover their own health after healin'.” Alistern said as he summoned Lilith to him.
Tales from the Dead Man Inn Page 5