Chapter 98: Interlude - Rainier
"It looks like the next floor’s going to be another forest," Kordia said.
"Are we sure this is the right way down?" Lugh asked. "They almost lost us with that dead-end room when you couldn’t sniff them out."
"I’m not entirely convinced that was intentional," Kordia said, "and for the last time, foxkin aren’t known for our noses."
Rainier listened as they argued with each other.
Six floors beyond the outpost, they’d spend most of two weeks together now.
The Knight Commander and Professor Fayren were still ahead of them, but they’d pushed hard, and according to Lugh, their tracks were getting fresher and fresher.
Rain appreciated that Lugh was cooperating, despite not being allowed a weapon beyond his utility dagger. The human really was quite skilled, but there were so many wrong things with what Lugh thought about them both and Kir.
The fact that he was largely on the positive end of Lugh’s prejudice made him very uncomfortable. And it didn’t matter that Rain tried to argue he was just as normal as him, Lugh seemed to hold angelic blood quite sacrosanct and often seemed to express subtle jealousies that Rain didn’t know what to do about.
Just keeping everyone cooperating was the minimum he wanted for the group... and while he was seeing it so far... the little things in between were also wearing on him.
"Kordia, Lugh, please," Rain interrupted. "We need to get on the same floor or they’re just going to increase their lead." He rubbed at his jaw. If he’d had this many days on the surface, he’d have had another birthday... At least if Kordia’s math was correct.
His jaw felt rough. Rain wasn’t used to having facial hair. He didn’t like that his facial hair came in white while his hair was blue, but his razor had dulled too much and he needed his whetstone to keep his sword in shape for the monsters and dungeon beasts.