Victory - The First of Many, Or Only?

A great flying mass of moss and a winged horse slowly descended on the outskirts of Trunsit.

Fiona, who had long since lost her voice from screaming, kissed the ground the second they landed. “Oh thank you thank you thank you thank you!”

“Wow,” Meredith gasped. “If you were afraid of heights, why didn’t you say so earlier?”

Fiona wanted to scream.

Abagail and Kari dismounted their horse, its wings starting to vanish into the air in a wave of spent mana. Booby was perked on her shoulder, a complete sphere of ice that was slowly starting to thaw out.

“We should be close to his village,” Abagail told Meredith. “Assuming it’s still there and we’re not too late.”

“I should think we still have time,” said Kari. “I think I see some people approaching.”

From down the road, they could see a whole mass of peasants hefting large logs on their shoulders. Tied to those logs were several of the Prince’s men, struggling against their bonds. The peasants were in a mix of cheering and chanting, marching past the women to the edge of the forest. One by one, the logs were thrown into the forest to the sound of even more cheers. After the last log was thrown, one of the peasants tossed a small knife to the last person attached to it so they could slowly work themselves free and return to Castle Zoroman.

“Yes!” One of the peasants cried. “Now that’s what I call being ‘run out of town on a rail’!”

Another shook his head. “I thought that’s what Kyle called it.”

“But that’s what I call Kyle calling it.”

The other peasant rolled his eyes. “What even is a rail, anyway?”

“…Whatever we just threw into the forest!”

The peasants marched right past the women again, a few recognizing most of the women. Apart from pleasantries and such, they seemed far more occupied with celebrating their achievement in lumber tossing with a cool drink.

Meredith was impressed. “I guess your friend’s town is still around. We should go see what happened.”

“Oh sweet sweet ground I’ll never betray you again I swear I will never I swear it!”

----

When the women entered town, it was the strangest kind of party they’d ever seen.

Abagail had seen the men drink before, but they were going full-tilt after what had happened before. The women were dancing with the men, and there were even some rudimentary attempts at playing live music.

“Dang. For a party budget of zero gold pieces, they’ve got the spirit of it down,” she commented.

Fiona had grabbed a full glass of ale and chugged half of it down before seeing a familiar face or two. “Benny! York!”

The blue-armed bandit and the dwarf came over, surprised to see Fiona back so soon. “Weren’t you off in some swamp or something?”

“I hitched a ride once I got wind of trouble,” she grinned. “What the heck just happened?”

York recounted the tale. “Oh, the Prince tried to tax these people out of house n’ home. Yer boy Kyle absolutely merc’d two of ‘em, and now we’ve got a few longswords to work with.”

Abagail interrupted. “Did you say Kyle killed two of them?”

“Aye.”

She grabbed York and started shaking with an uncontrollable blush. “I need details, dwarf! Copious amounts of details!”

Meredith peeked over. “Are you sure you’re not related to me by blood?”

“LET ME HAVE THIS!”

Fiona barged in, pulling at York. “NO, YOU’RE TELLING ME FIRST!”

Kari sighed, looking to Meredith. “…I’m think I’ll hear the full story later. Would you like to see if Sir Kyle is well?”

“Seems faster than this. Lead the way, Princess!”

----

Kari and Meredith opened the door to Kyle’s cottage, with Meredith letting out a low whistle. “Oh, Abagail’s done some redecorating!” She ran inside, then back outside. “Decent spellwork, I’ll give her that. And…” Meredith saw a strange contraption – a metal bowl with a hole in the bottom and a metal hose-like thing hovering over it. “What is this?”

“I believe Sir Kyle called it a sink,” Kari explained. “Twist one of the knobs.”

Meredith did so, jumping back once water started pouring from the faucet. “Where’s the water coming from? Did he pack a water elemental crystal in here or something?”

“N-No, they built an aqueduct to bring down water from the mountains. He invented a way to pressurize the water to come out like that.”

Meredith put her hand under the water, and immediately pulled it back. “It’s hot! How is it hot?!”

“That one, I believe *is* magic,” Kari said. “If you’re surprised at that, you would be amazed at the ‘shower’.”

Without another word, Meredith sped past Kari into the bathroom. “Ok, that part is Abagail’s handiwork…” She entered the shower and reached for the knobs. “Let’s see what this does….”

Seconds later, an absolutely soaked Meredith emerged from the bathroom, shaking off the shower water and trailing all over the floor. “I’m not sure what else I was expecting from a device named after a light rain. And you’re telling me this Kyle guy invented it?”

“He did,” said Kari.

A look of absolute and terrifying joy came into Melissa’s eyes. “I have to speak to him! There’s so many questions, I have to know how he did it! Where is he? This is supposed to be his home, so where is he?!”

The sound of snoring came from the bed as a bloodied Kyle lied still on the bed.

“Oh, he’s fast asleep. I see. Well, when he wakes up…” Meredith trailed off. “Kari?”

“Yes?”

“May I ask why you’re taking off his shirt?”

Kari stopped with Kyle’s shirt half over his head, a hand already on his bare and exposed midsection. “Um…”

“Is it necessary for the healing spell?”

“No. It is not.”

“Then why are you doing it?”

“…I must concede, Meredith, at this point we have done this to Sir Kyle so many times it feels wrong at this point not to disrobe him when this happens. Please do not think less of us for it.”

“Less of you?” Meredith’s smile took on an edge. “My dear, for the sake of magical research and consistency it would distort our results not to take off his clothes!”