Celias quest (2)-2 (1/2)

Madeline's wings snapped in the crisp mountain air as she descended toward the fire. She was small, as dragons went, only about ten feet long. But then she was made of wood and cloth, both painted in varying shades of red and black. A pair of upswept horns framed a distinctly sinister face, but the eyes were alight with merriment, not malice.

“I'm glad you lit the faiah,” she said, her odd accent a familiar and joyful sound to Celia's ears. “Theah's a whole lot of nathing out heah. Without it I would've been satching fah owahs.”

“Speaking of that,” Cagna growled. “Are you okay to do set out immediately to find the ship? They've got a day's headstart, and all we know is that they went East.”

“That's wheah I got you,” Madeline's grin showed a lot of sharpened steel teeth. “Garon's not just my husbahnd, he's my rulah. Threadbah's been sending Glub's coordinates to Garon via decree, and Garon checks them against the maps and tells me wheah they ah with his own decrees. And they ain't fah, dahlings. Oh not at all.”

“That's a lot of decrees!” Squeaked Fluffbear.

“Yeah, but it wahks,” Madeline nodded. “And if weah off a bit, we only have to correct a few decrees.”

Despite herself, despite her mood and the emotions that had been chasing around in the back of her mind, Celia felt her face twist into a smile. Felt a bit of her tension ease.

Madeline looked down in surprise as Celia walked forward and hugged her. “Thank you. For coming so far. For helping me, for being here for this.”

“Ah... ya welcome,” Madeline said, and folded a claw over her. “I'm sahry I had to make you wait an' all.”

“You were getting married!” Kayin burst out. “It's fiiiiiinnnne.”

“Is most important t'ing,” Zuula said, stomping forward, and looking the dragon up and down. “Besides, dey ran like bitches. Didn't miss nothing. Now we go and kick all de ass.”

“I was hoping ya'd say that,” Madeline said, and reached behind her, undoing part of a harness with a few quick tugs. “Get in the bag, and I'll land and let you out when I got eyes on the prize...”

The room was about fifteen feet by ten feet wide. It was made of black stone, with red painted dragons caught mid-flight hosing each other down with fire. It was the inside of Madeline's pack of holding, the result of a skill that made an extra-dimensional space capable of transporting any goods a Merchant would care to put inside of their enchanted container.

It was a simple skill, every Merchant learned it at level one. It was nice for keeping goods secure during trips, or even in longer-term situations.

It was an easy skill, both to practice and to level up.

It was an exploitable skill, that had caused the doom of the unwary, smuggled small armies, and toppled kingdoms.

It was so broken that the god of fairness himself had changed how it worked several times over the last few decades, and reportedly had entire courts of angelic beings dedicated to arguing, debating, and lawyering out every possible usage of the skill. Said courts were rumored to have not taken a break from their debate for the last seven years.

And it was a skill that Madeline happily used to carry all her friends as she soared into the night, confident that they were safe and sound for at least the next thirteen hours.

Celia put her hands on her hips as she surveyed the room, and watched her living allies lay out their bedrolls and turn in for the night. Bastien had tried to help her, Thomasi had helped her, and Cagna had mostly grumbled but been a solid team player all throughout this mess.

She owed them better. And she thought she knew how to do a proper job with that.

“What now? More hurry up and wait?” Zuula asked.

“Shhhh!” Fluffbear said. “They're going sleepies!”

“We can hear you,” Cagna growled. “And don't worry about us. Now that we're off that cold mountaintop I'll sleep through anything short of a parade.”

“A parade would be really fun right about now,” Fluffbear squeaked. “Maybe too short, though. Not enough people.”

“We'll have one later, when we get back home,” Celia promised.

“I get to throw candy,” Kayin said, hopping over to stand on Zuula's head. “So what do we do to pass the time?”

“We plan,” Celia said. Her eyes strayed to the massive form of the Muscle Wizaard as he stretched out, and enveloped Cagna in his burly arms. “The only way we're going to succeed against the pirates is if we play this as a team. So we're going to use this time to talk and figure out some good tactics, and after our new friends get some sleep we're going to bring them into the discussion and ensure everyone gets out of this alive.”

Six or seven hours later, as Celia was using a pointer to move pieces around on a small battlemap, Madeline poked a hand into the pack and waggled her claws.

“Finally!” Zuula burst out, and charged right into the clutching draconic fingers. “Enough talk! Now is the doing!”

Both hand and puppet vanished back into the darkness beyond the edge of the room, and Celia folded up the battlemap while Kayin collected the pieces.

“That one's going to be a handful,” Thomasi said, staring at the darkness.

“Zuula's hot-tempered, but she's wise,” Celia said, as she tucked the strategy kit back into her own pack. “And she cares about her friends far more than she cares about random violence.”

“I don't know about far more,” Kayin said. “Mostly more. Kinda more. A bit more, maybe?”

The hand reappeared again, and Cagna rolled her eyes. “I'll go make sure she isn't charging off before we get there,” the dog woman said and took Madeline's hand in her own.

“Your wife's a good one. Definitely a keeper,” Thomasi told the Muscle Wizaard.

And to Celia's surprise, the Wrestler blushed crimson, blood-red against his white beard. “We're uh... we're not married.”

“You're not married yet,” Thomasi said, and slapped his back. “If you need help finding a ring, let me know. Probably best done before we return, while we're still away from Chase and Greta. Getting hobb... halven involved with rings is a recipe for disaster.”

Celia and Kayin looked at each other as Madeline's hand returned, and both Thomasi and Bastien took their leave. And to her surprise, Celia felt a bit embarrassed at witnessing an intimate moment.

“Well,” she said, a bit too loudly. “Ready to go?”

To her surprise, Kayin stepped in and hugged her. “Always. And it's good to see you being you again, boss.”

“I...” Celia patted her back, then pushed her gently away. “Let's hope I can keep it up,” she said, trying to keep a note of worry out of her tone.

“You will,” Kayin said, giving Celia a nod. “Just got lost in the details for a while. I'll help keep you from getting stuck again.”

The dragon's hand came in once more, and the two of them held hands as they returned to reality.

It was dawn now; they had made good time. They were in a pine forest upslope of a river valley, with the smoke of civilization rising from a collection of buildings where a crescent of cleared land met the water.

But it was more than the smoke of civilization.

The black clouds of war billowed upward from the wreckage of a town wall, bombarded and breached.

They rose to blend with white smoke that poured ceaselessly from a point just northeast of Celia's own position, where a very familiar airship sat in a clearing, cannons firing raggedly at what looked like a roiling mass of black and gold liquid, a small river's worth of fluid that was rushing uphill toward the vessel.

It wasn't moving exactly like liquid though, and Celia decided a closer look was in order. And fortunately she had a skill for that—

—was what she thought, when she remembered her earlier discussions. Why waste sanity when there was already a superior Scout on the team?

“Cagna? What are we looking at, here?”

“Ground bees. Lots of them. There's a major hive here and the pirates kicked it,” Cagna sounded smug. “This makes things easy. Just have to let the pirates wear themselves down on the swarm and then we can swoop in for the kill.”

“I'm not so sure about that,” Thomasi said. “From what I've seen, if you sit back and play let's you and him fight too much, then the winner levels up and you end up facing them while they're stronger. And that's a lot of bees.”

“You know let's you and him fight?” Zuula said, surprised. “She was tinkin' dat only an orc game.”

“Oh no, It's pretty universal in any culture sufficiently evolved for treachery,” Thomasi said, squatting next to her. “I guarantee you elves were building dynasties with it or similar strategies long before humans or orcs were ever around...”

“We can discuss it after we deal with the situation,” Celia said, hauling out Kindness. “From this distance my activation shouts should be lost in the cannonfire. We'll come in hot, breach the ship, seize Threadbare and any other captives, and get back to Madeline, lift off and leave this mess behind. Everyone clear with the plan?”

“I've got a suggestion,” Fluffbear squeaked.