Reunited

JP with Lucian, Bandorchu, Lorem and Omni

Seeing the dead beast and its surroundings woke a small part of Tarmen’s curiosity. Joining Alexis in the rear, he did his best to control his questions this time.

“Where are we? I hardly remember that beast bein’ in the mines.”

“It’s a different entrance to the tunnels, two days on horseback from Aquilo. Apparently once upon a time the old Odenine had a vast tunnel system stretching beneath all of the Fang. It’s called the Ypogeos.”

Alexis quietly explained.

Tarmen snorted at knowledge that would have saved them far too much to be funny. Ofcourse this all was connected. Explained the ruins he saw when he first came here.
He did have a small knot that he had been holding onto for the entire trip and he wanted it said before anything else could happen.

“Listen, in the mine. We said things cause of the mold, but it wasn’t mind control. Made us agitated and cloudy, but still… us. Wanted to apologize to you for it.”

“You can stop right there. We know about the mould. No apologies needed. Gonyaul and I just got lucky that we didn’t catch it as well.”

The mercenary was not going to hear it. It hadn’t been their fault.

Gonyaul was able to appreciate the large room now that it wasn’t a death match cave fight. He suddenly veered off course and reached down to pick something up. It was Alexis’s shield. More accurately, what was left of it. Only about half was there and it was bent all out of shape.

He called to Alexis. “I find you shield.” As the others looked at him he clarified. “We fuck the shield.”

He was repeating what she had told him to do with the shield when he apologized earlier for losing it. He had no idea what that word meant and it was pretty obvious with how he misrepresented the word.

A slow smile crawled across Voah’s face. “You three managed to take down that big… thing? Goodness, it seems we’ve all been through it, nnn?”

Alexis’ shoulders had been shaking with suppressed laughter. Only Gonyaul.

She gave Tar a pointed look.

“Yeah. We three.” She said dryly.

Alexis’ tone hinted at a slight bitterness that was not lost on the sharp insight of the Arbiter. She need say no more as Voah understood the meaning. Voah wanted to apologize to them both too but she had already told Tarmen not to mention it.

Aside from her feelings of guilt, she was feeling very impressed by the strength and perseverance of the rescuers. Alexis, she knew, could handle herself well enough, but there was so much more she wanted to know about Gonyaul.

Readily taking Alexis’s word, he dropped it to raise a brow at Barrel Boy. He knew Alexis had it in her, but all he had seen so far of BB was a fun loving man child. Full of surprises it seemed.

He also noted Alexis’s harsh tone towards the newcomer and immediately took a disliking to him. He knew it took quite a bit to work on her nerves.

“Tell me, anythin’ happen when you kill it? We faced a… thing… that’s blood worked like booze, was quite the experience.”
He was gaining more of his jovial nature back and after everything, was more than happy to indulge it.

Voah sidled up to Gonyaul as they walked and slipped her hand into his.

“Booze blood.”
Alexis just shook her head.
“Freaking Arcadia.”

She gazed at the fallen beast.

“Nah. Nothing like that. Shame. Could have used a drink after that.”

“You want to HATCH those things? I think I’ll settle for ale, thank you very much.”

Alexis chuckled.

“Gotta be a bigger round of drinks by the way. Our friends are searching for you, too. Hopefully having a better time. Would be just our luck when the next people went missing…”