“A Metal Crest! But there’s going to be so much competition for that, and it’s about a week away,” Tianna wailed.
“Keep your voice down! I said going to. They haven’t decided to open it yet. But I heard it's just getting worse, so they will have to let in Crest Hunters. We can head there now and be one of the first groups to enter the dungeon when they do announce it.” Emizra grinned at Tianna, her amber eyes flashed in the tavern torch light.
“Oh, and our Class Seer said that his cousin in Copperjack Climb is an NPC expert, that would help Dee. By the Kingfisher who finds fortune, it’s a sign,” Tianna said.
“We can kill two birds with one stone,” Dee said. They all stared at him.
“You kill birds with stones?” Tianna said. She frowned at him.
“Arrows are easier,” Arjelica muttered, picking meat from her teeth.
“It’s an expression. It means solve two problems in one go,” Dee said.
“We say: Two crests in one spell,” said Yuri.
“What a wonderful exchange of poetry. Are we going to Copperjack or not?” Emizra said.
“A Metal Crest, oh what a wonderful thing,” Yuri whispered. Her eyes went misty.
They talked a bit more. Dee listened to the talk and tried to make more sense of the world. He was tired now, all this new information and thoughts about his own class burned through his brain. He sipped his beer and tried not to fall asleep.
The girls were obsessed with finding Crests, and obviously there were levels. Darok had shown no interest in a Water Crest, but a Metal Crest was really powerful. Treasure meant nothing, apart from getting equipment and supplies. Tianna was evidently a lone voice of budgetary reason. More than gold or gems, crests were everything. Bragging rights, a gateway to personal power beyond even class abilities. And only PCs could bond with crests. NPCs would only ever have their own abilities to use.
Arjelica was particularly quiet, but she continued to drink and eat with gusto. She noticed Dee watching her, and winked at him.
She is really happy. Getting your first Crest is really important. It’s all about the Crests. And she actually looks more tired after the Temple than adventuring. I guess bonding with Crests is really hard work?
Eventually they decided there was no better idea than going to Copperjack Climb.
“If it’s Copperjack, then I have more shopping tomorrow,” Tianna said with a smile on her face. “Oh, I know just what to get.” She looked around the table at her companions. “Oh, I forgot! None of you care about deals, do you? I’ll just have to keep this to myself. Well, you’ll see, oh you wait and see!” She threw her head back and laughed, a high-pitched, slightly maniacal laugh. She tapped her little hands on the table as her laugh died down into a self-satisfied chuckle. “Oh, by the Kingfisher's bright plume, you unbelievers will see all right,” she muttered to herself.
The others looked at each other and shrugged. They would indeed have to wait and see what she was on about.
Dee yawned. He was about ready to fall asleep right here at the table.
“We should rest up then,” Emizra said. Only the hardcore drinkers and gamblers were left in the tavern now, mumbling or roaring at each other. A huge orc had fallen asleep across a table, his dwarf companion napping against his shoulder. Elsewhere a group of card players were fumbling with gold coins and cards, trying to make sense of numbers with alcohol and fatigue numbed brains.
“Where do I sleep?” He had a weird paranoid thought that they were going to make him sleep in the stables with the canyon runners. Why do I think these things?
“You can sleep with me!” Yuri said. She stroked his arm, giving him goose bumps.
“We paid for his own room. He’s not a pet,” Arjelica said.
“That’s no fun, you want to sleep with me, don’t you?” Yuri said.
Arjelica glared at Yuri. “He’s part of the team; he’s earned his own room.”
They both looked at Dee.
How do I say I want to sleep with her without sounding like a creep?
Tianna was giving him side-eye as well. “Are you going to give up a paid-for room?”
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“Umm.”
Arjelica grabbed his arm. “Come on, sleepy.”
They all said goodnight and Arjelica led him firmly to his room, a small one right at the top of the tavern.
“Get some proper rest, we have a long journey ahead.” She stood in the doorway, as fierce as a guard dog.
“Yes, sir. Ma’am. Umm- good night, Arjelica.”
She shook her head and thrust the door closed.
Only the muted sound of the late-night hubbub below came through the wooden floor. The room was cosy. It was tiny and the wooden bed was old and scratched, with greying wood. But it was still cosy.
“My first night in a real tavern,” Dee said to himself.
An oil lamp by the bed gave off a warm light. Outside the city was mostly dark. Guards and citizens walked with hand-lanterns, like glowing ants crawling through a maze.
The temple was bright, its forges still working and spilling light and smoke into the night. The spire was intricate in every detail. Curved flanges of metal stood out from the main spire, decorated in sharp lines and curves, as if an armoury of weapons was bursting from the earth and dancing together to make a building.
Eight bridges from the temple stretched out to the walls, like spokes on a wheel. A few lights patrolled back and forth on them, like slow motion beads of light.
Dee put his hand on the small window, the glass was cold.
It still doesn’t seem real.
But the feeling of cold glass was real. The noise from below was real. The temple with its artisan curves, shining like a dagger in the dark, was real. Stars in the night sky, white spatters with sharp red and blues mix in, were real. It was a realness that promised escape, from the reality of home and boredom and depression and anxiety. That was worth it even if it was a dream.
How did he get here, though? And was he in danger of being dragged back into his old, crushing life? He shivered.
He grabbed his book and sat on his bed, just like he did with rulebooks in his bedroom. There was nothing better than settling down with a new novel or RPG, knowing that a whole world was there.
But this was a world out of the pages of an RPG. When you finished reading a book, you were always left with a strange yearning to explore. A hole had been opened up, where there was nothing before. You pined for more of something that finished the moment you closed the last page. Here was his chance to explore past the pages of fantasy. If only he had the first clue of what to do or plan for.
“How do you work?” he said to his campaign book. “Do you fill up with helpful secrets? Maybe you can save me from being killed. Or is it like a psychic power that I have to beam ideas into you?”
He flicked open the book, and there was a new entry, a short one about Goldmeadow.
Goldmeadow
Trade Town
Population: 1800.
Demographics: Human, Dwarf, Pook, Tempesti.
Lvl 1 Temple to Solani the Shaper
Most visited for its honeymetal forges, deep inside the temple. By day mana bees bumble and browse over the metal nodes outside the town walls. At night, under the cover of darkness, the guards take shipments of raw honeymetal from the sleeping hive to the temple of the Shaper.
“How do you know this, book?” He shook it a little, but there was no more writing.
“Are Tempesti the really tall, hairless guys?”
A knock at the door interrupted his pondering.
“Hello?” he said.
The door opened and Yuri slid in.
“Wow,” he said.
She was dressed in a long black silk sleeping-gown. No gloves, no hat. Just her white flesh against the simple dark of her robe and hair. Her gown hung in a way that accentuated her breasts and hips. If she looked any silkier the fabric would have dripped off her like hot chocolate.
“I wanted to see if you needed anything?” She raised her eyebrow, so dark and fine, like a calligraphic question. One arm leaned up against the door frame and she sighed.
The simple thoughts in his head imploded. He should just say ‘Yes, you.’ in a nonchalant tone. That’s how it worked in stories. Was that too cheesy? There was no reason not to try it.
She was staring at him, soft dark eyes.
He had to say something. He was going to say it, act all cool. See how it would go. But his nerves were ahead of his brain. “What?” he blurted out. Idiot.
“You look a little tired.” She pouted. “Perhaps I should come back another time.”
“No!” he said. “Don’t come back. I mean. Don’t. Come back!” His heart was racing and he thought he was going to faint. His anxiety was destroying his first chance at sexy time with a witch.
“Oh, you want me to stay! O-hohoho. My charm is irresistible.”
She stepped forward and stroked his cheek. He had seen her naked in the sauna, but it was better to be here in a room with her. Nobody else, just them and her nighty and his raging insecurity dividing them.
He tried to say something encouraging. “I like you.” What the fuck are you saying man? Be more flirty. “You are sexy.”
“Is this human flirting?” She leaned into his ear and whispered. “I’ve never been with a human before.”
“Ye-,” he muttered as ASMR tingles whooshed down his neck and into his body.
She pushed him gently onto the bed. Blood rushed to his head, he forgot to breathe. The bed bounced again as she leapt over him, her knees either side of his legs. Her hair draped down around his face, locking them together in an intimate tent of night-black. Her eyes were wide with curious wonder, fixated on his lips.
“How much mana do you have in there?” she whispered. She trailed a finger around his mouth, teasing him. When she finally stroked his lips it sent a shiver of excitement through his whole body.
“Uh,” he said. Great pillow talk, keep it up.
“I think you’re a little bit scared of me.” She smirked and pushed her face down lower, their noses almost touching. Her breath, warm like a summer evening breeze stroked his face.
“That’s true,” he blurted out. He was scared of what was going to happen. Or not going to happen. Any moment now he was worried he was going to wake up.
She put her lips beside his ear. Hair trailed across his face, tickling him. “You should be scared. The things I’m going to do to you, my little human,” she whispered. She nibbled his earlobe with her teeth, then stuck her tongue into his ear. It was kind of gross but also erotic. His leg twitched.
“Ah, ha ha,” he gasped. He grabbed her waist, the curves, the curves.
Their breathing was in sync. She kissed him. Soft, delicate and tender. The smell of her. He had dreamed of this, the touch of a woman, her kiss. But he had never thought about the smell, warm and soft and erotic. It summoned an electric charge in him ready to go off.
His heart thumped like a cannon going off. In fact, the whole building shook like a cannon going off.
“Oh!” Yuri cried. She leapt off him and ran to the window. “It’s a pirate attack.” More shots sounded. There was a cannon going off outside.
“Fuck!” Dee said.
“No time for that now, my little human.” Yuri said wistfully.