Mission Pending Review

The battle was over, or at least that was what I wanted to believe. There was no way the chimera could have survived the nine-story stone tower falling on it, but I waited with bated breath anyway. As I did, listening to the thunder continue to echo into the distance, I could still feel the toxin of the beast's serpentine tail as it pumped through my body. Casting a detoxifying spell, I exhaled a relieved breath and pushed myself to my feet to watch the last stones settle into place as I waited for confirmation. And then, as the dust finally settled enough to see the huge paw resting limply beyond the rubble, I relaxed my body and sighed.

"Everybody good?" I called out, moving towards the triop who had gathered around the sorceress.

A collection of confirmations met my ears as I approached their group and glanced over everyone. More relief came to me as both Sharzin and Aesandoral appeared unscathed, which meant I had done my job well. Shifting to the last of the three, I looked over Rionriv as she stared at the mountain of stones she had created. An appreciative feeling washed over me as our tender moment came back to my mind.

“Thanks, Ri,” I spoke softly, reaching out and giving her shoulder a gentle nudge. “I appreciate you saving my butt back there.”

“Yeah, no problem.” She replied dully before snapping out of a trance and turning towards me with her usual zeal, “I just wanted to show you how it's done on the road. Smarten up. You freeze, you die. Got it?"

“Y-yeah, sure,” My soft tone becoming weak as the feeling of appreciation gave way to shame. "Sorry. I-I didn't mean to. The chimera—"

"Save it for now." The sorceress ordered me, looking around. "That thunder may have alerted those bandits you were telling us about. I’m going to see if I can find some forage with Sharzin before it's too dark. You and Aesandoral set up camp where we had our strategy meeting, ‘kay?"

Giving Rionriv a nod in reply, I watched her and Sharzin disappear into the nearby shrub with nothing but a simple light spell to lead their way. One of our two light orbs was officially gone, crushed beneath the stone with the chimera, where it would remain until someone bothered to clean up our mess. I stared over at the monster's corpse one more time, eying the faint outline of its motionless taloned paw.

I eventually called Aesandoral over to me before using my own light spell to guide the two of us towards our proposed campsite. There, we began setting up everyone’s individual tents and preparing a small fire to cook the previous day's harvested griffon meat. It wasn't until the flames had flickered to life and the wood began to crackle that I realized how cold it had gotten. Thankful for the fire, I warmed myself up for a moment before joining Aesandoral to continue camouflaging our campsite. Working together, we concealed the space well enough that, from a distance, it was hard to tell whether the tents were bushes or beasts. And, though I assisted, Aesandoral was the hero of this task, with her work looking significantly better than mine.

As we were doing this, Rionriv returned with various mushrooms and edible greens that she and Sharzin cooked up alongside the hippogriff meat. By the time we had finished our job, the meal was almost ready, the smells wafting our way and causing my mouth to water enough draw me back to the fire.

"Smells great, you two." I complimented them as I approached the logs that I had dragged into position for seats. "What'cha cooking?"

"Tennessee Fried Chicken," Sharzin remarked, pulling a charred slab of hippogriff from the fire. "Try it."

Handing the piece of meat my way, I blew on it for a moment before tossing it into my mouth. The rogue had seasoned the meal with the twelve herbs and spices she had purchased. This meant that it was in the wheelhouse of a proper knockoff, but, with the mixture off, it was still missing something.

"Not bad." I praised her.

"Yeah, but not good either." She grumbled, lifting a ladle from the adjacent pot. "And I don't know what's wrong with this."

I leaned over to look at the odd concoction of harvested roots and leafy greens floating around an opaque gravy. Taking hold of the utensil, I stirred the stew some more and looked at the sliced mushrooms that floated up from the bottom alongside the chunks of griffon meat. With a curious look over Sharzin's shoulder, I pointed towards the bowl of mushrooms to her side.

"Are those the mushrooms you used?" I asked, noticing a particularly curious fungus that I had once added to the story.

"Yeah. They're not poisonous, so I thought I'd add them."

"Do you know what they are?"

Sharzin looked down at the mushrooms and then back at me with a shake of her head.

"They're Kings Chew," I said with a smile and patted her head. "I'm surprised you found them here. They don't grow that well in Moal'aw."

"Kings Chew?" Aesandoral asked, as she approached and sat nearby. "I've heard of that. The Queen Matron eats one before the start of every meal."

"Of course she does, it's an old tradition." I turned my attention towards the elf and nodded. "Kings Chew acts as a powerful purifier. Nobles would start meals by eating one, so any food or drink that passed their lips afterwards would be purified of toxins or poisons."

"That's neat, I never knew that. I just thought the Queen Matron liked the taste. But why would they eat it before instead of after they were poisoned? Wouldn't it be smarter to save the mushrooms for when you need them?"

"Kings Chew doesn't work as well to stop a toxin that's already in your system. It's more of a preemptive measure. If you want to apply it after, you'll need an absorptive binding agent like a boiled slime moss or a, umm, Esserian Plains goatmilk."

I paused for a moment, noticing the triop staring at me. My cheeks began to warm and flush as I eyed their exceptionally beautiful faces as they focused on me through the flickering light. My heart skipped a beat before I looked down at my lap and gently rubbed the back of my neck.

"I, umm, so-yeah. The Kings Chew are probably doing something weird to the stew. That's why it's not coming out right. They don't mix well with other things. Or it could need more starch, I don't know."

"So you know how to handle royal mushrooms," Rionriv cut in, her words sharp. "But you didn't know the chimera was going to be in that tower?"

Everyone grew quiet for a moment as the time had finally come to have the conversation. Her words caused my heart to jump into my throat as a knot formed in my stomach. I knew from her tone alone that whatever was coming was going to be unpleasant.

"Rionriv, I'm sorry." I started softly, looking to her with as apologetic an expression as I could muster. "I had no idea it would be up here. It was supposed to be at the bottom of the dungeon."

"Then what's down there, Iz?"

"I..."

In truth, I had no idea what could have displaced the chimera from its nest. It could have been any number of worse creatures or environmental conditions. In fact, for all I knew, it could have decided that this was its vacation home and wanted to get away for a night. What I did know was that this was the chimera in question. The beasts, being extremely territorial with an exceptionally large range, would never let another of their kind within a hundred miles of their nest.

"I don't know," I confessed. "But it's at least bad enough to scare a chimera away."

The group grew quiet once more as they looked at me through the drifting sparks of the campfire. We would remain this way for a while, listening to the crackle of burning wood and the bubbling of stew. Until, finally, Aesandoral's weak voice spoke up.

"S-Should we turn back?"

"What?" Rionriv replied, shock in her voice as her head swivelled to her sister. "What do you mean, turn back?"

"We were doing this quest to kill a chimera, right? Well, we did that! So, can we go back now?"

"No," Sharzin spoke now. "We were doing a dungeon dive, and the chimera was the presumed monster at the bottom of said dungeon. We don't get credit for killing the chimera. We get it for completing the dungeon and bringing back evidence of that."

That was when I devised a new scheme. Something that could work for everyone and get them their winter credit.

"Exactly," I added, looking between them and gulping. "S-so, here's an idea. We've already dealt with the chimera, right? So let's harvest one of those claws as proof and stuff it into a bottomless bag. Then, let's do the rest of the dungeon, and if we get to the bottom and there is some ungodly horror there, we say fug it and bail."

"But that's cheating!" Rionriv snapped at me. "We'd be lying!"

"Would we?!" I pushed back. "What did your request for the solstice dungeon dive state?"

I watched as Rionriv clenched her jaw, looking to her companions before glancing back to me. It was easy for me to tell that she already knew what I was aiming for.

"That we'd be diving into a four-level dungeon, gathering ancient artifacts and concluding by slaying a—"

"A chimera!" I finished her statement. "You've slayed the chimera, you just haven't completed the dungeon or gathered the artifacts. That's what was approved. Fighting some other monstrocity, like a giant, a wyvern or a hag, isn't required for completion. Or am I wrong?"

At this point, everyone turned their attention to Rionriv, who had crossed her arms in silent protest. She remained in that position for several minutes, her eyes closed as she entered a state of deep thought. It went on long enough that conversations began to return to the rest of us as we divided up our portions of supper.

"Fine," Rionriv eventually spoke as Sharzin handed her a plate of food. "I will allow it, on the condition that we completely clear the dungeon and give serious consideration to the monster at the end. If we deem it too far out of our range, then we can retreat."

"That's all I'm asking," I replied, my shoulders relaxing at her decision. "And, come the end of the dungeon, if you think we can do it, then we'll do it."

"Mmmm, deal." She grumbled, shoving the food into her mouth.

I watched as her own shoulders relaxed and a soft smirk crossed her face. It was that little bit of relief that started my heart up once again, seeing the softness in her cheeks as she enjoyed the food as much as her sweet taste of victory over me. And, even though it was exactly what I had asked for, as long as she felt like she had won, it was a good talk.

The conversation of choice around the campfire as we ate was strategy. With the dungeon dive beginning in the morning and some things already awry, we found it necessary to go over everything once again. Focusing on the first day, we discussed how we planned to dispatch with the twenty-two bandits and four lieutenants waiting within. The name of the game had been speed and stealth, using our close-quarters sewer combat training as the method of choice. Withdrawing the small blueprints I had scribbled up for the group over a month ago, we ran over the first-floor rooms and the total number of enemies once more.

As we worked, I glanced at everyone’s concentrating faces illuminated by the campfire. They all appeared so serious, which was fair considering that I should have been just as preoccupied with planning as they were. Unfortunately, I was distracted by my racing heart. I couldn't help but slyly eye each of them longingly. The way each of them focused on the map, consumed by the moment and the memory of the recent combat, it wasn’t like anything I had seen from them on campus. They were just as strong and capable as I knew they were weeks ago. But what I didn't understand then was just how much more so they could be when the going got tough, and they really put in the work.

Unfortunately, I was a sucker for tough, independent women, and all three of them were that, if not more. And after these last few days, there was no doubt in my mind that even if I had never met them, they would have definitely found a way to solve their Al’Magi issue. Because, together, I now understood that the three of them could solve any problem.

But then there was the whole Rionriv teasing me thing—

My face grew warm as I looked down at my lap, my heart racing as I remembered her touch. The look in her eyes. The softness on her lips. This time, without a charm to aid her, she had made me fall even harder for her.

No, stop— I thought, grabbing at the sides of my legs to halt the developing awkwardness. I-I have contractual obligations. Don’t give Phyllis the satisfaction of a breach of contract.

Clearing my throat loudly as the conversation began to slow and move away from the map, I looked back at the three.

“Why don’t you all get some rest? It’s a busy day tomorrow,” I announced and waved them to their tents. “I’ll take the first watch.”

And take some time to think about things.