Lilit wasn’t sure what time it was. The sun never seemed to move. It felt like she’d been walking for hours though, and the beacon didn’t appear to be any closer. She’d probably only walked several miles toward it though with all the backtracking and going around obstacles that she had to do.
She had poked around in her Delver earlier until she found the quest log. Lilit hoped maybe it would give her a hint, like maybe she had to defeat a certain number of enemies. Nothing like that was the case though. All it said was to find the tavern.
She decided to stop and dig around in her pack for something to eat. She was starting to get hungry. As soon as she had her pack off, before she could go digging in it, she heard voices yelling in the distance. It was the first time she’d heard something other than bullywug croaks and hisses. Maybe it would be an adventurer like herself.
Lilit threw her pack back on and hurried off in the direction of the noise. She continued to hear yelling. It was getting louder as she drew closer. Soon she began to hear the csh of weapons as well. Lilit hurried her steps.
She felt like she was right on top of the voices when out of the fog she stumbled upon a vilge. The buildings were all short, and made from hardened mud adobe with grass roofs. Some were round, some had more angles to them, all were squat.
Lilit slowed her steps, not wanting to run into an ambush. All that she’d found living out here so far had been bullywugs. She was fairly certain that this was a bullywug vilge. Lilit crept closer. The fog slowly unveiling more and more of the vilge.
The cshing of weapons was getting louder. Over that and the voices yelling Lilit could make out angry croaking and hissing. It seemed that someone else hadn’t been as cautious as her and had walked into an ambush in the middle of the vilge. She could take advantage of it and sneak past unscathed, or she could lend a hand to her fellow adventurers.
Lilit had never been one to shrink from duty. She readied her mace and crept from building to building until she came upon the scene of the fighting.
In the middle of at least a dozen bullywugs stood an armored giant. On one arm hung a tall shield. In the other hand was a broadsword. Every time the giant tried to make an attack with their sword the bullywugs would rush in and shove against their shield, keeping the giant off-bance.
On the far side of the conflict a smaller figure jumped into and out of the fray. They swung a pair of axes and would deliver vicious attacks. They would fell a bullywug and leap away before the attention of the group could nd on them.
Lilit pulled forth her prayer book and flipped open the prayer for a ward. She recited the prayer while focusing on the giant. If she could free them for a moment they would be able to attack the bullywugs harrying them.
The next time the giant attempted to swing their sword, the bullywugs ran into the ward before they could come in contact with their intended target. This allowed the giant to finally swing their sword out in a deep arc, cutting through several bullywugs at once.
The giant, as if sensing Lilit across the square from them, looked up. She couldn’t see their face through the helmet covering their head, but she felt their eyes upon her. The giant inclined their head in a silent salute and waded back into the fray.
The skirmisher on the opposite side seemed to realize events were shifting. Instead of leaping away they too waded into the mob of creatures, their axes now abze as they swung through the air.
Not to be left out, Lilit strode forward and began attacking bullywugs from behind. It wasn’t long before a pile of dead bullywugs y at their feet. Everyone stood panting for a moment.
“Well met. I imagine I have you to thank for the assistance back there?” The giant’s voice was raspy, but definitely feminine. Lilit stared as the giant removed her helmet to wipe sweat soaked hair from her face.
Standing closer, Lilit decided she wasn’t much of a giant. She was decidedly taller than her and the other person panting beside them. Maybe just over six feet, she was never good at judging that.
Her face was pale with shiny, red blotches scattered across her cheeks and down the sides of her neck. Moving closer, she thought they looked like small scales, but they just added to the beauty of her stunning features. She had high, sharp cheekbones and full, pouty lips. Lilit felt like she could drown in the forest green of her eyes. Sticking out of her scarlet red hair, just above her ears, were a small pair of bck horns.
When the rge woman smirked at her, Lilit knew she’d been caught staring. Her face heated with a blush. What had she asked again? Oh, right! “Y-yes. That was me. I cast a ward on you.”
“Again, thank you. We would have had it handled, but your help eased the burden and quickened our victory. I’m Awenda.” She gestured to the figure just starting to rise beside them. “That is Rana. Who might you be?”
Lilit’s gaze flicked to Rana and back to Awenda. Then what she saw registered with her brain and her eyes slid back to Rana.
Rana was a little taller than Lilit. She was also wearing stiff, leather armor like Lilit’s. She had no tabard though. What really set her apart was the dusky, grey fur running across her body and the fact that her face was that of a jackal with the tall ears sticking up. Gold highlights seemed to peek through the dark fur as the wind rippled it. Lochs of dark hair were pulled back into a thick ponytail high upon her head.
Lilit felt her mouth sag. She suspected that not everyone she met would be human, but it hadn’t prepared her for actually meeting someone quite so different.
Rana chuckled. “She must have good taste. My beauty has truly entranced her.” She nudged Awenda in the ribs pyfully. Her voice was sweet like strawberry wine. Her golden lips quirked in a grin. Lilit wondered if it was cosmetic or her natural skin tone under the fur.
The disconnect between that musical voice and more animalistic features kept Lilit unbanced. She blinked and tried to come back to herself when she noticed the other two ughing at her expense. Her cheeks heated even more.
“I-I-I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to stare. I just have never seen anyone like you before and it took me by surprise.” Lilit tried to expin.
“No worries. We’re ok, for now. But don’t go thinking that because I look different that you can treat me with any less respect.” Rana’s chin rose up in challenge.
“No, of course not. God, I would never.”
“We have given you our names. It’s only polite that you give us yours,” Awenda reminded.
“Crap. I am just stepping all in it.” Lilit muttered under her breath. She caught Rana’s ear twitching in her direction though and wondered if she’d heard her after all. “My name is Lilit. It’s nice to meet you both. Oh, do either of you need any healing?”
“Are you a healer css then?” Rana asked.
Lilit nodded her head. “Yes, I’m an acolyte. What are you two?”
“First, I do have a small gash here,” Rana lifted her arm to show a long, shallow cut along her ribs. The bleeding seemed to have stopped, but this was a great chance to try out her healing spell.
“Alright.” Lilit closed her prayer book and concentrated on the healing spell. She reopened it and focusing on Rana, read the prayer.
“May the light guide you,
May the light heal you,
Burn away the sickness,
With cleansing light.
My the light guide you,
May the light heal you,
Wash away your hurt,
With cleansing light.”
Lilit looked up in time to catch Rana’s golden skin knitting itself together before her dusky fur grew over top. That answered a few questions.
“Thank you.” Rana said as she twisted and moved her body around to check for soreness and mobility. “And second, I’m a hexbde. Awenda over there is a guardian.” Awenda waved in response.
Thinking back, those csses could be pretty powerful. With Awenda pying tank with her heavy armor and shield, and Rana acting as DPS with her duel wielding axes wrapped in elemental damage, and Lilit acting as healer they might make a well-rounded party.
She wouldn’t be allowed to enter any of the dungeons on her own, and having a party you could trust would be paramount. She could give working with these two a try and see how things went. If they didn’t vibe she could find a new party at the tavern she assumed. That would be a logical pce to look for new party members if she was setting something like this up.
Nodding to herself she made a decision. “Do you two want to join my party? We can see how well we work together at least until the tavern. We’ll make a decision about whether to continue together or go our separate ways once we’re there.”
The Delver on Lilit’s arm vibrated and pinged. She pulled her arm up and a new message appeared. Invite Rana and Awenda to your party? Y/N A red and green light fshed on her Delver to indicate what to press. Pressing the green button she sent out the party invite.
She looked up to see Rana and Awenda having a quiet exchange several feet away. Both kept sneaking occasional gnces at Lilit as their discussion became more animated.
Lilit took the opportunity to pick up the loot bags from the bullywug’s she’d killed.
“Woah! What do you think you’re doing?” Rana thundered.
“Ummm…looting?”
“Those were our bullywugs. We –”
“I’m only grabbing the loot of the ones I actually killed.” Lilit tried to pcate Rana who seemed to be fuming over the idea of Lilit “stealing” their loot. “Besides, if we’re going to be a party we’ll need to learn how to split the loot moving forward.”
“Yeah, but we weren’t a party when those bullywugs were killed. We were the ones that started the fight. We risked our necks to fight all of them like that. We had everything perfectly under control. You just came in at the end and started killing our bullywugs.” Rana stepped closer. Lilit could feel Rana’s hot breath on her cheeks.
“You know what. On second thought.” Lilit pulled her Delver back up and navigated through deleting her invites to Awenda and Rana. “I don’t need to deal with hotheads. Best of luck dies.” Lilit tucked the unopened loot pouches in her bag. Or tried to. They kept sliding off an invisible barrier before they could pass the opening in the pack.
It appeared that you couldn’t stash loot bags to open ter. Shrugging her shoulders she slipped her bag back onto her shoulders and carried her loot bags in her hand as she reoriented herself on the beacon she was headed toward. She’d open them and deal with the contents once she was further away from these two, especially Rana.
“Wait!” The smoky voice of Awenda shouted after Lilit’s retreating back.
Lilit kept walking, flipping them the finger over her shoulder as she walked away. It might not be universal enough for them to understand exactly what it meant, but she figured they’d get the gist of it based on context.
Lilit heard rapid footsteps stomping toward her as she walked away. From beside her Awenda tried again, “Please. We would like you to join our party. Rana is sorry.” Awenda looked behind her, “Aren’t you Rana?”
Rana heaved a deep sigh. “Yeah, real sorry.” It was probably the least convincing apology Lilit had heard.
“See. We can make this work. If this size group showed up this far from the tavern imagine what we might run into the closer we get,” Awenda said.
Lilit stopped walking. She hadn’t thought about the mob like that. Even in tutorial levels foes tended to get stronger or start ganging up toward the end of the level. She turned around to give a hard gre to Rana. “You’re not sorry.”
“Not really, no. Those were our kills.” She sighed again, “But I guess we could part with the loot you already took.” At least Rana was honest. Lilit could work with that. Probably.
“Fine, but moving forward everything is split equally no matter who kills what. Deal?” Lilit thrust out her hand toward Rana.
Rana looked hesitant at first. After a few silent, tense moments she reached forward and csped her hand around Lilit’s forearm. Lilit grabbed Rana’s forearm in turn. Rana’s fur , just past her bracer was soft and downy under her fingers. They shook their grip up and down once before breaking apart.
Lilit queued up the party invite link again and sent it out to Rana and Awenda. She better not regret this ter. She didn’t normally give out second chances so easily, but Awenda seemed earnest and sincere. Rana was at least honest about her opinions as well. Considering some of the people she had to put up with in her previous life, she could deal with these two.
It didn’t hurt that Awenda was strikingly gorgeous and Rana had a kind of exotic beauty to her. She wouldn’t mind getting to know them better. Lilit prayed that she wouldn’t live to regret this.
