Session 61 – And so… the sheep stared
It felt so fucking amazing to wake up in a bed after three days sleeping amongst rocks on the side of a mountain. And even more amazing to be sandwiched between two gorgeous women.
Lily was spooned against my back with her arm around my waist as she gently snored in my ear. Probably it was a hard habit to break. Oh! Speaking of which, it was apparently morning, or so Lily was firmly insisting. It was really hard to ignore as my heart skipped several beats.
Cool. Cool cool cool. I just needed to very subtly shift away from her... and nope! Her arm tightened around me, pulling me even closer and that was so much more insistent!
I opened my eyes to find Hannah watching me with a hand over her mouth as she shook with laughter. Well, tra la la for her! It thrilled me that she was getting so much amusement out of my predicament.
"Lily, wake the fuck up!"
"Wha?!" She yawned into my ear and then jerked away. "Fuck! Sorry." Lily rolled over, her cheeks burning with embarrassment.
Fuck, indeed.
I gave a forced chuckle that was entirely too nervous and my voice pitched higher than I'd care to admit. "Hey, no worries. Old habits and all that. We knew this was gonna be difficult while we figure stuff out. And hey, no harm done." Other than making me ache for her all over again.
Lily slipped out of bed and pulled some clothes out of the Magic Bag of Stuff. She nodded with a weak smile. "That's good. I'm gonna go get cleaned up. Umm, no fun way to say this, but please don't go anywhere alone." Her eyes bounced between Hannah and me. "If you leave the inn, go with each other. It's too dangerous to be alone."
Wait. Was my girlfriend complicated friend telling me to go spend the day with the cute blonde who was crushing on me? Yeah, I could manage that. I gave her a sharp nod. "We'll keep that in mind."
She hesitantly reached out and rubbed my arm before... well, it would be unflattering to our ginger druid to say that she fled the awkwardness of our morning interaction. But she sure did leave the room at her best possible speed.
I turned to Hannah with a warm smile which she quickly returned. "Okay, so to-do list for today in no particular order:
1. Check on Xena.
2. Get a message sent to Cassandra.
3. Go shopping for some clothes for you to wear. Because mine would be a bit small, not that I would complain." She chuckled at that and nodded along.
4. "Get my arm healed.
5. Go clean up. Baths make me uncomfortable, so we can use the facilities at the waterfall and then take a swim after.
6. Replace your holy symbol that I accidentally broke. Too bad we were so busy last night, probably would have been easier to ask Iridatha, but the temple should work."
Hannah looked down and away. "At the time, I thought you broke it to punish me for some failing."
"Never. You are an amazing woman and I'm lucky to have you in my life." I stepped closer and pulled the taller woman into a hug. Which given our height difference and her lack of armor, kinda put my face right at level for... I quickly pulled away. To-do #7: Find a way to hug her that didn't set my gay panic off.
I grabbed the Magic Bag of Stuff and we headed out into Arcadia. It really was a very nice inn, Moira and Sterling had chosen well. Along one wall, the common area had a large hearth with enchanting smells wafting out of the pot simmering above it. Another wall held a large bar along with tables and chairs arranged for dining. We found Xena and Jacque relaxing in comfortable chairs by the fireplace and sipping at cups of some warm liquid.
"Miss! You have returned!" Xena leapt out of her chair, Jacque barely catching her discarded mug before it tumbled to the floor. The tall elf pulled me into a hug.
"It's nice to see you again, Xena. We had a magical incident and ended up stranded on the side of Mount Celestia." I went to gesture and winced when my destroyed arm complained very loudly.
"Miss! Your arm. Let me heal that." She very gently took my arm in her hands and then cast a series of spells.
Status
Hit Points: 28/28
Condition: F.I.N.E.
I removed the makeshift sling and stretched my arm out. "Thank you so much, that's much better."
"Of course, Miss. Always handy to have a real healer around. I assume this is the champion of Iridatha you mentioned before?" She gave Hannah such a smirk as I didn't know the elf was capable of.
"Yeah, yeah. Play nice. Check in with Lily, uh... Paz. She swapped names again. We had kind of a rough landing last night when we got back. Keep your eyes open for demons... we might be at war with a god." Xena's eyebrows rose significantly. "Hannah and I will be back later." The elf nodded politely and we left the inn.
"Where to first?" Hannah looked down as she walked beside me.
"Hmm." I tapped my fingers against my thigh as I organized my thoughts. I glanced up at the tall angel. Her cheeks flushed as she yanked her eyes away from my thigh and very pointedly looked at anything else. I decided not to tease her about it. For now. "Let's go buy some clothes for you and then get cleaned up. After that, we can send the message off to Cassandra and get you a new holy symbol."
"Sounds like a plan." She followed along beside me as we found our way to a shop.
Hannah had a good selection picked out, but it was missing something. I held up a soft, pastel-blue sun dress. "You need to get this one. It would look so hot."
Her eyes went wide and her cheeks turned crimson. "Alexis! On me, that would barely cover my ass!"
I chewed on my lip and couldn't help the smile pulling at the corners. "I don't see a downside."
She turned even redder and shyly nodded. I added it to the pile. We paid for everything and the shop owner was able to point us to a nearby building where members of the Ars Magika offered services to the public such as enchanting and spell craft.
Since it was on the way to the waterfall, we sent a message to Cassandra and Bethul'Dyr sent one back. The lich problem was even worse than they thought, so Cassandra had teleported away to help them with it. She was relieved that we were okay, and concerned enough about the demons to agree Hannah should stay with us. So... upside, I get to keep the cute blonde cleric.
Hannah and I made our way to the recently renamed Rising Falls, and that's when shit hit the proverbial fan.