Chapter Twenty-nine

 

The soft kiss that woke Stern had him smiling.

 

“Are you awake, princess?” Trish snickered.

 

Stern groaned, opening his eyes to find Trish leaning over him. “I knew mentioning that story to you was a mistake.”

 

“How did it go last night?” Trish asked, sitting on the edge of the bed.

 

“He didn’t drink as much,” Stern chuckled.

 

“Okay. Did something happen?”

 

“He flirted with the barmaid and moderated his intake so he wouldn’t be a fool.”

 

“Really? Was she cute?”

 

“She was pretty good-looking. The tavern’s a nice place. The owner helped keep people calm about me. The drinks were good and the snacks— they don’t do full meals— were decent. Vulk loved the pretzels.”

 

“What’s a pretzel?”

 

“A type of bread with salt. It was different, but good.”

 

“Did he open up at all?” Trish asked.

 

“Not about his pain, but we were doing good when we came back here. I think he’s more receptive now.”

 

“He didn’t mind you being there?”

 

Stern chuckled. “I was his shieldbearer for the night.”

 

“Oh, so you helped him with the barmaid?”

 

“Broke the ice for him, since he couldn’t bring himself to do it. Once it was broken, she was interested. Made him promise to come back after we finish the dungeon.”

 

“Hmm… maybe a crew night to celebrate our ascension up to the next tier?” Trish suggested.

 

“Could be, if we give him room to be approachable.”

 

“I’m more than willing if it helps him,” Trish said.

 

“Not sure he’ll really do anything,” Stern said slowly. “He’s shy, reserved... uncertain? He’s not going to rush forward to her.”

 

“Odd, considering his fighting style.”

 

“I think it might tie back into his family.”

 

“Oh, I can see that,” Trish nodded. “They didn’t have a father. Anyway, time to wake up. Cyra went to get breakfast, and Cammie’s already up.”

 

Stern reached over and pulled her down to him, kissing her. Trish let out a happy, surprised sound and returned the kiss for a bit before she broke it and stood up.

 

“Okay, time to start the day,” Stern said.

 

“Going to start being assertive with me, hmm?” Trish asked as she went to the door.

 

“I want to initiate things a little with you,” Stern replied. “We’re easily past the point where kisses and light affection can be given without problems.”

 

“That’s a fair point,” Trish grinned. “I’ll look forward to it. Don’t take too long.”

 

She left the room and Stern started to get dressed. Today, they were going to do maintenance on their gear and get their stuff ready for the following day. He ran through an idea in his head as he got his boots on, thinking it might be a better choice than the celebration after.

 

When Stern entered the main room, he saw that Cyra was back with the food. Trish, Cyra, and Pawly were at the table, but Cammie was missing. Before he could ask about it, Cammie came out of one of the bedrooms.

 

“He’s awake,” Cammie said. “Be out in a few. We can start without him.”

 

“We should wait,” Cyra said. “They have covers, so they won’t chill quickly.”

 

“Good morning, Cammie,” Stern greeted her as he took a seat at the table. “Did you three have a good night?”

 

Pawly huffed.

 

“You four have a good night?” Stern corrected.

 

“It was relaxing,” Trish said.

 

“We just talked, mostly,” Cammie said, looking down at the table.

 

“We had girl talk,” Cyra said, “and we petted Pawly.”

 

Trish opened her mouth, but Stern beat her to it, “Don’t…”

 

Trish gave him a raised eyebrow then smirked. “Yeah, it was an easy one to spot coming.”

 

Vulk’s door opened. “Sorry for the delay,” he said.

 

“It’s fine,” Stern said.

 

“How about you two?” Cammie asked. “How was your night?”

 

“Fine,” Vulk grunted, taking his seat.

 

“Today, we’re doing work on our gear and getting ready for tomorrow,” Stern said. “I was thinking that we could take a break this afternoon and go to a tavern for a quick bite to eat.”

 

Vulk’s head snapped around to look at Stern. “There’s no need for that.”

 

“What?” Stern asked, going for misunderstanding. “The pretzels there are amazing. Trish likes dark ale, so she’d probably like what you had last night.”

 

“But…” Vulk began, then trailed off before nodding. “So just a quick break?”

 

“Well, if we finish our gear up before we take the break, I’m sure we’d all split apart to take care of our own things.”

 

“Sounds good,” Vulk said, taking the cover off the plate in front of him.

 

Cammie frowned, her attention going from one of the guys to the other. She caught a slight shake of the head from Trish and let her expression fade. “What’s a pretzel?” she asked instead as she took the lid off her food.

 

Stern tried to explain as he uncovered his meal. His plate held scrambled eggs, biscuits and gravy, and some sausage. The aroma coming off the food made his stomach growl, but he finished explaining before he dug in.

 

“Sounds interesting,” Cyra said. “Were they better with the cheese or the mustard?”

 

“Mustard,” Vulk said.

 

“Cheese,” Stern said almost at the same time. “We agreed to disagree on that last night,” Stern added.

 

“We’ll just have to try them both ways and see which we like,” Trish grinned. “Breakfast, then gear.”

 

~*~*~

 

When breakfast was over, the quintet assembled in the front room. Armor, weapons, and other odds and ends covered a majority of the floor space. They sat on the floor, spread out so they all had plenty of room.

 

“Trish, I need you to see if you can patch some of these for me,” Stern said. “There are no major problems right now, but they might turn into major problems if they’re not touched up.”

 

“Set aside the ones I need to look at. I’ll have to get to patching after lunch.”

 

“Because it takes time?” Cyra asked her.

 

“Yeah. I’ll have to pull out my tools.”

 

“Can you toss the oil over here?” Cammie asked. “I just need to touch up a few spots on mine.”

 

Cyra tossed her the closed bottle. “I’m glad I was able to heal your knee.”

 

“Saved us the temple and the potion,” Cammie smiled. “It’s something to keep in mind for later.”

 

Vulk stopped sharpening his axe and switched to oiling it to help keep the rust off. “The rune helped with the wolves. I’m looking forward to seeing what the bigger runes can do.”

 

“They can have a significant impact, or be worthless if we’re fighting the wrong monster,” Stern said. “At our tier, the elemental runes are the best we can reasonably get. Later, though, they aren’t as sought after.”

 

“Because the dungeons can have an elemental affinity, and that can hinder us if it’s a bad match,” Trish added. “Of course, if we have the right weapons, it can make it that much easier, too.”

 

“Very true, though most crews at that point favor boosting runes. Making you faster, stronger, or more agile has a better overall effect. Get a heroism rune, and you can become a force to be reckoned with.”

 

“Isn’t the rate of that working low?” Trish asked him.

 

“It is,” Stern nodded, “but if the person using it is a fast attacker, the chance it procs is increased. It would work for you, Trish, but it’d be better for Vulk or Pawly.”

 

“What does that rune do?” Cyra asked as she worked on her crossbow.

 

“A little bit of everything. It increases your entire being— making you faster, stronger, and so on. It’s a marked difference, too. The thing is once you get it to proc, you can almost keep it going if you keep having monsters to kill.”

 

“Proc?” Vulk asked.

 

“Chance runes,” Stern said. “My dad calls them ‘proc runes,’ and the effect of the rune activating a proc.”

 

“Sounded like you’ve seen the heroism rune in action,” Cammie said.

 

Stern was silent for a second before he answered, “I did once.”

 

“When?” Vulk asked, stopping his work to look up.

 

“Years ago...” Stern said softly.

 

“We don’t mean to pry,” Cammie said quickly, seeing Stern’s distant look.

 

“Thanks. I’m sure I’ll tell you about it later, but not right now. Okay?”

 

“Of course,” Cammie said.

 

Vulk grunted, clearly a little peeved at Stern being unwilling to tell the story. After a second, though, Vulk felt like an ass. After all, he had plenty of things he hadn’t talked about. Wanting to distract himself, he asked, “What do you think the dungeon will be like?”

 

“Always a wide-open question,” Stern chuckled. “Anything is possible. Down here, it’s more likely to be animals or low intelligence monsters like bakruma. Normally, of course, because one can never tell with the dungeons.”

 

“I’m not sure if I’d rather have more beasts or intelligent monsters,” Cyra said. “We got hurt worse with the wolves than we did with the bakruma.”

 

“The openness of that dungeon was why, and it was also why we had wolves. We’d have been unlikely to see wolves in a normal dungeon,” Trish said. “The monsters normally fit the environment.”

 

“That is roundly true,” Stern said. “I’ve heard of outliers, but, yeah, it’s normally a good assumption.”

 

“Okay, let me ask it differently: what would you like to see?” Vulk asked.

 

“Lizrots,” Cammie said before anyone else answered. “They can make some traps, but not good ones. I sometimes feel like I’m not doing enough.”

 

“Says the person who found a treasure chest for us,” Stern coughed.

 

“Well, that was nice, but I haven’t really used my perks at all.”

 

“Tell that to the dark willow,” Trish grinned. “Woosh.”

 

“Exactly. I want to do more,” Cammie said.

 

“I don’t have a preference besides us all coming out alive,” Cyra said. “Uninjured would be good, too.”

 

“Agreed, Cyra,” Trish said. “I would like to see lizrots or similar, though, too. It would help us get ready for more organized foes.”

 

“I’d be fine with that,” Vulk nodded.

 

“Not lizrots,” Stern said. “They use their size to their advantage. Unknowingly, maybe, but they do. Having to worry about all the small tunnels behind you is less than great.”

 

“But I could trap them as we move forward,” Cammie said.

 

“Hmm… a good point. They wouldn’t sneak up on us that way.”

 

~*~*~

 

They continued to chat about monsters and fix their gear for a few more hours. When they were done with everything except what Trish would patch, the crew packed away their things and headed out to the Deep Mug.

 

It was just past noon when they arrived at the tavern. The only customer there was an angelic who was chatting with the bartender. The angelic startled when Stern walked in, but the bartender tapped him and started talking quietly.

 

“Thanks, Ruddy,” Stern said.

 

The dwarf waved to them as Vulk led them to the table he’d shared with Stern the previous night.

 

“Quaint,” Trish said. “Nice place. Locals mostly?”

 

“Almost exclusively,” Vulk said. “Turns out the Walker who told me about it is Ruddy’s nephew.” He was about to say more, but he went quiet and looked past Trish.

 

They found out why a moment later. “Oh, you brought friends,” Emma said. Her voice was a little cool, and her smile had gone from real to professional upon seeing the table.

 

“Let me introduce my crew,” Stern said. “Cyra and Trish are my girlfriends, healer and bulwark, respectively. Cammie there is Vulk’s sister— older sister— and our trap finder.”

 

“Oh...” Emma’s cheeks took just a hint of blush. “A pleasure to meet you all.”

 

“Vulk told us all about the dark ale and pretzels,” Trish grinned. “We had to come try them for ourselves.”

 

“He did?” Emma’s smile grew warmer.

 

“Very eloquently,” Stern nodded.

 

“If you count grunting as eloquent,” Cammie said, giving Emma a long look.

 

Cyra giggled. “He didn’t grunt.”

 

Seeing the group being friendly, Emma’s smile became real again. She blushed a bit more under Cammie’s stare. “So pretzels for the table?”

 

“Yes, please,” Stern said, “along with the dark ale for these two.” He pointed at Vulk and Trish. “Wine for the rest of us. Something that would work with the food, please?” He flipped her a silver. “And maybe some of the other food, too, as your mom gets a chance to make it? This is going to be our lunch.”

 

“Okay. I’ll be right back.” Emma left them at the table, happiness radiating off her as she walked away.

 

“The dark ale is made by Ruddy,” Vulk said, wanting to distract his sister from staring at Emma. “His personal batch of ale. He named it after the lead Rescue Squad team. They drank here before.”

 

Both Trish and Cyra glanced at Stern, who shook his head minutely side to side.

 

“Really?” Cammie asked, turning back to face her brother. “Did they like it?”

 

“I like it,” Vulk said. “I think the name was more of a nod to them. He likes to tell the story, according to Emma. We just didn’t want to bother him last night. It was packed in here.”

 

Cammie looked at the bar, where the angelic was chatting with Ruddy, then sighed. “Ah, well, I’m sure it was just them stopping in for a drink.”

 

Emma was back after a few minutes with their drinks before hurrying off.

 

Trish picked up the mug and took a sip. Her eyebrow went up and she sipped it again. “This is damned good.”

 

“Right?” Vulk grinned. “So good.”

 

Stern took a sip of his wine. “Not bad. It’ll work with the pretzels.”

 

“Do they take long to make?” Cyra asked, feeling hungry.

 

“Hopefully not,” Trish said.

 

“I’d say no,” Cammie grinned. “Here she comes.”

 

Emma carried a tray to the table and placed three baskets of soft pretzels down, along with a variety of cheeses and two types of mustard. “This is everything we offer with the pretzels. I hope you enjoy.”

 

Stern wasn’t watching the food like the women were. He obliquely watched Emma. Since he was, he caught the smile and wink she gave Vulk, and Vulk’s shy smile in return.

 

“We just tear a chunk off and dip it in the mustard?” Cammie asked.

 

“Yes,” Emma said. “Use the cheese with or without the mustard, as well. I’ll give you some time to enjoy it.”