Henry requested the flowers, which Vega gladly made. And off he went!
Sasha was cleaning dishes. Using his new invisibility spell, Henry snuck her away to give her the flowers. She loved them. Sasha pinned him against a wall, making out in the open.
Menelwen found them, clearing her throat. "You know, a room would be better."
Sasha glared at her.
"I wanted to talk to you." She indicated Sasha.
"Oh?"
Menelwen gave her a large bag of Nararoot, explaining how it would prevent pregnancy.
"Where do I get more?"
"It's a big bag."
"Yes, but where do I get more?" Sasha asked. Menelwen answered.
"Oh, and I would like my whip back as well."
"I don't have it on me. I'll bring it to you. After I clean it."
Menelwen nodded, leaving the two of them to their business.
Vega returned to Thok and Theamen. He noticed the cat whiskers on Thok's face and decided to be a good friend and clean it off.
Thok came to with Vega crouching over him, holding a napkin
"No no Vega. Bad. No eating." He sat up. "What are you holding?"
"A rag?'
"No no no."
"Vega, put the napkin down." Theamen said, still enjoying his drink.
"Where's the boy?" Thok asked. Eventually Henry returned, a little shell shocked from the kissing. "Hey boy."
"Did she like the flowers?" Vega asked.
"Yes, she loved them."
"Oh yes. I saw how much." Menelwen said dryly.
"Hey! It's not just physical. We talk." Henry defended himself.
"Oh baby, oh baby more' is not a conversation." Theamen pointed out. Menelwen laughed.
Thok caught a glimpse of his face, the kitty drawing half cleaned off. It was obvious to him...Vega had been drawing on him. So he punched the druid.
Henry was home free. But then he spoke, trying to pass it off. Thok knew the truth but blamed Vega. He intimidated the boy. Henry peed a little. Just a little.
Vega paused, smelling the air. He knew that smell.
"Oh! I learned a new spell!" Henry told the group.
"Did Sasha teach it to you?" Theamen asked, grinning. He laughed.
The group sat together, figuring out their next move. They would call a meeting with the refugees about moving them from the keep to Red Larch.
But first...a well earned break.
Theamen passes Thok another drink. Thok passes out again.
Vega and Theamen bring Thok off to sleep it off.
Henry asked Menelwen to start teaching him Elvish. The pronunciation was really rough. She barely managed to hide her wincing as he butchered her native language. She downed the rest of Theamen's wine.
Theamen got to teach Henry the difference between inference and implications...
"Are you my girlfriend then?" Theamen asked Menelwen when Henry brought up the topic in regards to Sasha.
"Yup."
"Huh, when did we come to that?"
"The same time you said I love you." Henry pointed out.
Theamen rubbed his chin. "More like the first time we had sex, but we tempered it with conversations and you know, making it a real relationship."
The party split a bit to have conversations.
Menelwen and Vega got to talk about his significant other. The medallion he wears around his neck was actually made by her.
Thok woke to Theamen in his room, reading. They spoke. The general jist was that Theamen didn't care about the secrets he held so long as they didn't endanger the party, especially Menelwen.
After the party sobered a bit, they had the meeting with the council of elders.Sasha was pouring drinks. It was quite a shock that the keep and the people had been a first line of defense to a cult living underneath them.
Sasha's father glared at Henry.
Henry didn't understand why, he thought the man was friendly. He was excited at the prospect of being his girlfriend's dad's best friend. When in reality...the man was an angry bear. So when Henry tried to go over to him, Vega stopped him.
Thok spoke in Orchish to Theamen over Menny's head. "Kid's gonna die."
"If we need to defend him, we will. Otherwise we let this play out."
She stared at them, confused.
"Just keep an eye on Henry. Make sure he doesn't kill himself." Theamen told her.
Henry gave Sasha a look. She gave him a look of horror, and her father growled.
More Orchish phrases over her head.
They did come to the agreement that they would leave the keep in the morning by boat. But for the night, the party agreed to keep watch over the tunnel they came out of.
First Watch: Henry and Thok
Thok: Your girl, Sasha.
Henry: What about her?
Thok: Here's what you need to do. Next time you're with her...you need to say this. Exactly like this.
Thok taught him the Orcish phrase. It was much simpler than Elvish.
Thok: Only say it to Sasha. It will solve most of your problems.
He got up to leave. "Oh, and that dad if hers? He wants you dead."
"What?!"
Thok patted Henry on the head and left.
Before turning in, Henry went to find Sasha. She was bunked down with the other women. She came awake at his nudge.
"I just wanted to apologize for earlier..."
"It's alright. Just be careful around my dad. He's a little...protective about it." she told him.
"Does he know we've had...you know..."
She tucked her bag of Nararoot under her pillow. "We haven't been civil about it."
"Shit...I'm sorry." Henry apologized again. Before he went, he said the phrase from Thok.
"Aww..." she patted his face. "You should go."
Second Watch: Menelwen and Vega
It was a rather low key watch. They got to talk about home, Vega sharing the fact that he was indeed homesick. But he was enjoying the new experiences.
"So many new experiences...and tastes!" Thok called out from his barrel hiding place. Vega rolled him into the river. "It was worth iiiiit!"
Vega confided that as homesick as he was,m his circle would not take kindly to Henry, or any of the other males. They were matriarchal. Which explained his demeanor.
He was not bound to a deity yet either..
He told her a bit about his significant other, a girl named Velvet until the watch was over.
Third Watch: Menelwen and Theamen
He joined her as Vega turned in.
"Is he drunk again?" He asked, referring to Thok still calling one-liners as he went down the river.
"Maybe."
Their conversation was light, her asking him what she missed with the conversations over her head.
The night passes by.
Thok wakes and finds a note at the crack of dawn. (Fuck!)
Menelwen and Theamen join Thok and Vega at the table.
Sasha was working on serving breakfast while Henry sought her out.
"Hi. So ah, what were your thoughts on what I said last night?"
"It was very touching. Something about battling together, Thok's kind is big on the whole thing."
"How do you know Orcish?"
"Oh you know, you pick up a few things traveling from camp to camp." She returns to serving breakfast. She says something to Thok and continues on her way.
Two conversations ensue. Thok and Theamen in Orcish, Vega and Menelwen (who was tired of having languages spoken over her head) in Sylvan.
Whatever Thok and Theamen were talking about, got the paladin furious.
Henry: Thok...what exactly did you say?
Theamen: Not now. Thok, SHE'S 14.
Menelwen: What?
Theamen snatched Thok's plate away. "You are dealing with this now."
Thok rolled his eyes but got up to deal with it.
Vega and Menelwen start pressing Theamen to tell them what Thok said. He explained that it wasn't just the message, but the fact that who it was from got muddled. The message: "I would like you to fuck me until I am unable to move the next morning."
The party with the refugees started off down the river after breakfast was finished and everything was loaded.
Henry found Sasha after they set out.
"So ah, Menny's been teaching me some Elvish and I was hoping to test it on you."
He tried. But it came out "You resemble a thousand tree frogs."
Menelwen heard and saw Sasha trying her hardest to keep a straight face, "It's such a beautiful language but I don't understand it."
"Henry." Menelwen called him over when he left Sasha. She told him what he said and that Sasha had been trying not to laugh at him. There was something up with her that Menelwen was beginning to mistrust. She warned Henry, who walked off to Theamen.
Theamen, was shirtless and rowing.
"Really? You're already sleeping with her, do you have to row shirtless?"
He told Henry he wasn't going to row in full armor, and the shirt he wore underneath it was too hot for this kind of labor.
"That's not why I came over here though." Even though it seemed pretty important that he wasn't wearing a shirt. But Theamen promised to be supportive if Henry was to explore his options.
Henry was worried about whether or not he could trust Sasha.
"To be fair, you shouldn't have trusted her in the first place."
"But she wanted to have sex with me! That's never happened before!"
Theamen suggested taking time to get to know her to find out if she could really be trusted.
Henry goes up to the crow's nest for a bit before following Theamen's example of rowing shirtless. If he could get a hot elf chick, maybe there was something to it.
The night passed uneventfully.
The next day, Vega was feeling good! Real good!
The ladies were taking notice. Theamen and Thok spoke about Vega's workout routine, wondering where this increase in strength was coming from.
Eventually people settle in.
Menelwen borrows Theamen's spell book, studying next to him while he rows. Sasha dropped by and smiled. "You two are so cute. I hope to have that one day."
Under her breath in Primordial to Theamen as Sasha walked away. "I don't like her."
She turned and smiled.
"Something's up with her, to know so many languages." The spoke through the code they developed.
(Thok: Row, row, row *angry rowing *
Theamen: Thok, you don't need to say row every time...)
Vega tested several languages with her, then decided to ask a higher power for answers. If this girl was truly something to worry about.
Menelwen followed Vega to the cabin where he performed his Divination ritual.
Something went wrong. He contacted the wrong god, or rather, the wrong god answered. Malar, the lesser god of the high hunt answered.
"The girl is nothing to fear, not from me. I will hunt, kill, rule on a throne of blood and bone."
When the ritual was over, Vega was shaken. He told Menelwen and Thok who spoke with him. But when Thok turned to tell the others, Vega confided his fear in Menelwen.
"He said he owns me. That he owns my kind."
"Druids?"
"No. It seems different."
They make a plan to not worry the others but instead do more research when they reach Red Larch.
"You summoned a god to check out my girlfriend?!"
"Yeah."
"Put that way he sounds like an asshole."
That night, Womford started coming into view.
Moonlight was shining over the deck.
Vega turned, his body twitching, writhing. His teeth elongated until a wereboar, much like Grimjaw stood before them.
~To Be Continued...~
No comments:
Post a Comment