Lilian's Party

I blinked stupidly as I looked around, taking in my new surroundings. I was in a sort of fiery place. The sky was a dark grey interrupted with wisps of black smoke. The sun shone a kind of dull white, and you could almost stare directly at it. Open lava pits abounded and it was from them that the whole place was cast in an unearthly reddish orange glow.

Before me stood four adventurers: Leo, Lilian, one of the warriors who I assumed was Kyle, and a tall girl I had never seen before who looked like an elf.

“What are you doing here? How did you follow us?” Lilian’s eyes gleamed purple in the firelight as she brandished a wand at me.

“Follow you? I didn’t follow you. Pasqual sent me here.” I tried to raise my arms, but of course I couldn’t.

“Why would he send you here unless you were already here? How long have you been following us?”

“Would you knock it off about following you? I didn’t follow you. I should have been sent back to the mountain with Ori. I have no idea why I’m here.”

“Let’s relax,” said Leo, lowering Lilian’s wand with a nervous laugh. “I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation for what’s going on.”

“Whatever, it doesn’t matter,” said Lilian. “Let’s just leave him here.” She turned and started walking away.

“We can’t do that with the imps everywhere. And what if he runs into the manticore?”

“Manticore?” I repeated, growing more and more fearful.

“What if we run into the manticore tagging this guy around? If he gets hit by those spines he’ll blow the rest of us up.”

“Actually he has a lot of HP. He had 250 at level one and now he has–” he looked at me.

“Oh, 250.”

“250. Wait, really? Are you still level 1?”

“I’m leaving,” said Lilian. This time the other two turned to follow her.

“What do I do?” I said, looking desperately at Leo.

“Just follow us. It’ll be fine. I’ll talk to her.”

Leo jogged to catch up while I lagged a little behind, trying to stay close enough for protection but far enough to be safe from Lilian’s barbed tongue.

Now and then they came upon a band of imps, which looked like small blood-red goblins. It was obvious watching them, even against a weaker foe that they were a well organized party, positioning with Kyle in the front, Leo and the tall elf girl at middle distance, and Lilian in the back. They handled the fights so cleanly that it made the imps look much weaker than they really were. It wasn’t until I noticed they were capable of withstanding quite a few attacks, that I appreciated the strength of their opponents. For the most part they approached each fight the same way, and it was only the elf girl whose role in fights seemed to vary significantly. Lilian was often giving orders during their battles and it took me a while to catch on to the fact that all these orders were for the elf, who she called “Paelyn.”

It wasn’t long before night came, since the sports event had gone well into the afternoon. As the party set up camp on a bit of raised ground away from the punishing heat of the open lava pits, Leo waved me over.

“Let’s make our introductions, guys,” he said. Lilian looked at me spitefully but said nothing, opting to go into her tent while I met the others.

“Hey, the name’s Kyle. Nice to meetcha,” said the warrior indifferently. He had a mop of sandy blond-brown hair which curled up at the ends.

“It’s nice to meet you. I’m Paelyn,” said the tall girl. “I’m sorry to hear you’ve been separated from your party.”

“Thanks, I’m sorry to trouble you guys.”

“That’s alright,” said Paelyn. “If I got separated from my party, I would hope to be shown the same kindness.”

I nodded. “I hope I can be of some assistance,” I said, “but at the very least I’ll do my best not to get in the way.”

“Oh, and don’t worry about Lilian, it isn’t you, I’m sure. She’s just upset about losing out in the competition to Leo.”

“That’s nice of you to say,” I said, thinking, but it probably has more to do with me than you realize.

“Wow, where did you get all this camping stuff?” I asked, as they started unloading their equipment, including two tents.

“We just bought it in town, why? Where do you sleep?” asked Leo.

“We were sleeping in beds anywhere we could find them, but lately we’ve just been sleeping outside.”

Suddenly Lilian’s voice piped up from inside the girls’ tent. “You mean you took that poor girl into the wilderness and made her sleep on the ground?”

“It’s not like I dragged her out there or anything. Besides, I was sleeping on the ground with her. I mean, not sleeping with her! Just that I was out there too.”

“Pathetic excuse for a man,” Lilian mumbled.

“You know I can hear you right?”

“As I said before, don’t pay attention to her. The rest of us are happy you’re here,” said Leo.

“Eh, more like indifferent,” said Kyle.

Lilian came out of her tent and locked eyes with me. “Are you just gonna stand around while everyone is working?”

“Really, I’d give you a hand if I could!” I said.

She sighed. “Go stand watch or something. It seems like there aren’t any imps around here, but it’s possible they roam.”

“On it,” I said, almost jogging to get out of there quicker.

I surveyed the country all around us, but there was no sign of any imps. Still, I decided to wait out there rather than go back to camp. It was about forty minutes later that Leo and Kyle came to find me.

“Hey, come on,” said Leo. “It’s time to eat.”

“So between you and Lilian, which one of you is the party leader?” I asked, as we walked back.

Kyle laughed, scratching his head. “We wish we knew.”

“I would say I’m more of the analytical leader and she’s more of the tactical leader. No, that’s not right. I’m more of the strategic leader and she’s more of the–”

“Literal leader,” said Kyle.

“–literal leader. Hey! That’s not funny,” said Leo. He tackled Kyle, and they began to roughhouse. I could see they had grown close. It made me think of Ori. We had grown close too–maybe too close.

“Mmm, that smells amazing,” I said, as we made it back to camp.

“Lilian is practically a chef,” said Kyle.

“Yeah, we really lucked out. She always cooked for her three siblings at home,” said Paelyn.

Lilian’s eyebrow started to twitch with all the compliments. “Can we please just eat?” she said.

They had set the meal on a large table-like rock. I sat down to join them before remembering that I couldn’t easily feed myself.

“Is there something wrong with the food?” asked Lilian, threateningly.

“No, it’s just. I don’t have hands to eat it.”

Kyle choked on the food he was chewing. “So how do you eat?” he asked, coughing.

“Ori…would feed me…” I confessed.

“Well, you’re not getting that treatment here,” said Lilian, getting up.

She walked around to where I was sitting, grabbed my plate, and placed it on the ground.

“There you go, doggie,” she said, going back to her seat.

“Really, Lilian?” said Paelyn. “Was that called for?”

Lilian shrugged. “How else is he gonna eat it?”

Paelyn picked up my food and carried it to another rock away from the others.

“Sorry about her. I’ve never seen her like this. Here, you can eat in peace without everyone staring at you.”

“Thanks,” I mumbled, feeling embarrassed.

I ate hurriedly and rejoined them, anxious to put the awkwardness behind me as soon as possible. While they finished eating, we talked about the strange situation of my being sent back with them.

“Have you tried reporting it as a bug?” asked Leo.

“Oh, Lilian already did that,” said Kyle.

“Thanks, Lilian,” I said, laughing to hide the pain.

“Don’t mention it,” she said, glaring at her companion.

After dinner the group decided they would have someone on lookout throughout the night, and I volunteered to take the second shift, assuming it was the worst one. Kyle had the first shift so Leo and I went to the tent to get some rest.

“I wanted to say thank you for standing up for me,” I said, as we were lying in the tent.

“Of course, we couldn’t leave you out there,” said Leo.

“I don’t just mean today. I mean at the orientation too. I know you pretended not to see the obvious solution.”

“Why should you have to make an unnecessary sacrifice if there was another way? Even if there wasn’t another way, what right had we to ask that of you? Honestly, I’m embarrassed when I think back on it. The only people who I thought really behaved admirably were you, that girl of yours, and Lilian.”

“She’s not my girl,” I said, sheepishly.

“Sorry, remind me of her name?”

“Her name is Ori,” I said. “It’s funny to me that you approve of both Ori and Lilian’s actions. I don’t think they saw eye to eye at all.”

“True, Lilian had no qualms with letting you act as a sacrifice, but that’s kind of why I respect her. How do I say this? Ori thought letting you be a sacrifice was wrong and took action to stop you, Lilian thought it was reasonable and didn’t try to stop you, but I thought it was wrong and yet I didn’t do anything to stop you. That’s why I think both Ori and Lilian were more admirable than I was.”

“I think you’re really hard on yourself,” I said. “For what it’s worth, you got my vote in the survey.”

“Well, I appreciate that,” he said. “I voted for Lilian for taking charge after I lost my wits, but since then I have wondered if I made the right choice.”

“I don’t see anything wrong with that vote. I think she probably saved a lot of lives that day.”

“Yeah, she’s quite a woman,” said Leo.

I realized I hadn’t checked the survey since inputting my vote and looked to see if it was still there. It was and a few more votes had since come in. I saw Lilian was up one and Leo was up two. Then I saw my name.

Sebastian - Goblin Petard 1 vote

For a moment, I stared at the screen in disbelief before rolling over and burying my face in the bedding, awash with thoughts and emotions. Ori, you’re way too good to me.

I’d barely gotten to sleep when Kyle shook me awake. I got up feeling groggy and with my head pounding.

“You’re up. Rookie move taking the second shift,” said Kyle, crawling into bed. “Ugh, it’s warm!”

I didn’t say anything. I stumbled out of the tent and looked around. Apart from the absence of the dull sun, the landscape looked almost exactly the same as during the day. Perhaps the grey clouds were a little darker. I climbed onto a rock which gave me a decent view of three sides of the camp and sat down. The night was no cooler than the day, but I did notice there was a slight breeze which hadn’t been the case earlier.

I don’t know how long I sat there. Every so often I would climb down and walk across the camp to make sure trouble wasn’t brewing at the other end–as well as to stretch my legs–but there was never anything to see. It must have been at least a couple hours, as even when I thought I’d watched for long enough, I couldn’t bring myself to go and wake Leo in case I was mistaken. At last, when I was beginning to feel too weary to stay awake any longer I went and roused him. The morning, for so I took the hour when the party rose to be, came much too soon in my estimation.

“Is it really morning?” I asked plaintively.

“I don’t know, but I haven’t been able to sleep very well here,” said Lilian.

“You should try sleeping in the party tent. This guy comes in–it’s like sleeping next to an ox cart,” said Kyle. “I kept bonking my head on his stupid barrel.”

“I’ll pass,” said Lilian.

“Sorry about that,” I said.

“Yeah well, I take back what I said about being indifferent. It’s nothing personal, you just really ought to have your own tent.”

“Tonight I’ll just sleep outside.”

“Don’t listen to him,” said Leo.

“No, I think he’s right,” I said, trying to laugh it off.

As we set out, Kyle went to walk with the girls, and Leo hung back with me. “Hey, don’t worry about them. I didn’t really hit it off with all of them right away either. They can be kind of a prickly group, so don’t clam up ok? Just keep talking to them and I’m sure they will open up.”

“Thanks, Leo,” I said.

Leo smiled at me. “Do you have any other party members besides Ori?”

“No it was just us.”

“I guess that put all the pressure on her. So what is Ori’s class?”

“She’s a priest or priestess, I guess.”

“What? How did a priest and a guy who blows himself up manage to survive out here?”

I laughed, “it wasn’t always easy.”

“I bet not. We’ve had our own share of scrapes and I think we’re a really well-rounded party. Kyle can take a beating, and Lilian is really good about knowing when she has to use her abilities and when she can afford to conserve her mana. I bring DPS with my throwing abilities, and Paelyn is flexible, offering us whatever the fight demands.”

“It looks like she’s an elf?”

“That’s right.”

“I saw she has a bow, but I was having trouble understanding her role.”

“That’s because it’s the most complicated. She is pretty good with a bow, though not as good as a ranger. She also can use a short sword, but her HP is on the low end so she has to be careful when she does. On top of that she has some supporting abilities too. She has a heal, though I’m sure it’s not as strong as Ori’s would be. All of that put together means she needs to be making quick decisions all throughout a battle, and they need to be good decisions too, accurately assessing the battle state and reacting accordingly. She’s getting better, but she isn’t quite there yet. That’s why Lilian is always giving her orders. Ideally I think she would be the ice elemental and Lilian would be the elf. Well, maybe not though. She might have trouble saving her abilities the way Lilian does. I know it’s corny to say but she really does have ice in her veins.”

“I’ve noticed that about some other people too. Do you think the classes we’re assigned influence our behavior? Or did they somehow know us well enough to match people with classes which suited them. Or is it just coincidence? If Lilian was a sage we’d call her wise, if she was a paladin we’d say she was steady, and so on?”

“I don’t know. That’s an interesting question, but I have to say I haven’t really thought about it. Maybe because I’m a thrower and that doesn’t really have the same kinds of connotations as some of the other classes. Hey, you don’t think there’s a connection between–never mind,” said Leo, breaking off awkwardly.

“You mean between our classes and the way we died? I’ve wondered that myself–if my being a petard is some kind of punishment for how I died. I know most religions tend to frown on suicide, but honestly I don’t think I would do anything like that. Not that I remember.”

“You still haven’t remembered how you died?”

“No,” I said. “I’m thinking it must have been a freak accident. Something I didn’t realize was happening. You?”

“I got an infection. Before they could figure out what was happening it basically wrecked all my organs.”

“Wow that’s awful. I’m sorry.”

Leo laughed. “Why? Everyone here had something like that happen to them.”

“I suppose that’s true,” I said, but I kept thinking about what Pasqual had said, “the Panacea won’t work on you.”

Suddenly I noticed Lilian dropping back. Leo and I fell silent, waiting for her to speak what was on her mind.

“According to our directions, where we need to go is pretty much straight ahead past that mountain.”

“Okay,” said Leo. “What were you thinking?”

“Just off to the left there is a slope of some kind. It's there, sort of standing out in the light, I was thinking we could climb up that. It would save us a long walk around.”

Leo shook his head.

“Why don’t you like that plan?” she asked. I was surprised to hear no irritation in her voice.

“I’m worried that slope will have larger and looser rocks than it looks from here. It could also be surprisingly steep.”

“Perhaps best to just go around to the right then, through that gorge,” said Lilian.

“That would be my counsel,” said Leo.

“Alright, I’ll let the others know,” said Lilian.

“That’s okay. Let me,” said Leo, jogging off before she could argue.

“Very smooth, Leo,” said Lilian without looking at me.

I laughed nervously. I waited a beat to see if she would initiate conversation. When she didn’t I searched for something to say. “I’m surprised how well you and Leo get along.”

“Why? Because you think I’m an egomaniac?”

“Not at all. I just wouldn’t expect you to be so open to his critiquing your plan.”

“I basically asked him to,” said Lilian.

“I know. It’s just–with how smart you are, I wouldn’t expect you to hear that so easily.”

“The only reason for someone smart to disregard the advice they get from other smart people is because their ego gets in the way. Leo is smart, he knows some things I don’t. Therefore, it would be silly not to use him as a resource.”

“That makes sense. I guess I just never thought of it that way. I wasn’t trying to imply you are an egomaniac or anything.”

Lilian made no reply.

“Hey, I don’t know how we got off on the wrong foot, but if there’s anything I said to offend you, I’m sorry. I know I end up putting my foot in my mouth a lot when I’m around you–see there, now I’m mixing metaphors–but I think that’s because…” I took a deep breath, “you’re the prettiest girl I’ve ever met, and I just want you to like me.”

“So you apologize for saying stupid things to me and follow it up with that?” said Lilian. “Was that your way of coming onto me?”

“No, no, I don’t have any delusions about you wanting to date me or anything,” I said.

“I would hope not,” said Lilian.

“Really? That’s all you have to say? I can tell you don’t like me. Can you just out with it, so at least I’ll know the reason?”

Lilian exhaled loudly through her nose causing her nostrils to flare slightly. Her nose was petite and perfectly symmetrical–something I’d never noticed before, so distracting were her scintillating eyes and her collective loveliness.

“Listen, I’m only going to say this once so pay attention: I don’t hate you. I don’t especially like you, but neither do I especially dislike you. However, for whatever reason, you were given a class which renders you completely irrelevant to this competition. And since I am determined to win the Panacea I can’t afford to invest any energy into someone who seems to have been brought here solely for a kind of sadistic comic relief. Maybe you expect pity from me because I’m a girl, or because I’m good looking, but I’m just not a very empathetic person. If that’s what you’re hung up on, I hope my recognizing your unfortunate situation can give you closure about whatever it is about me you don’t understand. Now I ask, kindly, that you stay out of my way.”

“Okay, but that doesn’t really explain why you get so bothered whenever I talk.”

Lilian grimaced. I could tell she was becoming truly angry. “You really want to know what it is? Fine, I hate how obvious it is that you’ve given up. You aren’t even trying to win for yourself. You might as well have blown up that door and made yourself useful if you care so little about your own life. It pisses me off!”

The rest of our conversation had been quiet, but in her temper Lilian had apparently forgotten she was trying to keep her voice down. I glanced up at the others, just in time to see them turning bashfully away.

“Alright,” I muttered, trying to keep my voice steady. “Thank you for being honest with me,” I said, swallowing back tears.

Lilian didn’t say anything.

I slowed down to allow space to come between us. Paelyn slowed too, to join her friend. So we walked all that morning: boy, boy; girl, girl; goblin.