Rough Draft - Coye 4.3

Going to work on Coye for a few more chapters, just so that I'm ahead with one of the two books I'm working on.

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“I’ll ask just one more time,” Coye said. “Are you sure you’ll be OK if we do this?”

“Yeah, yeah. Why do you keep asking? It was my idea in the first place, dammit!” Byng insisted, staring distrustfully at the big brown horse they were close to renting.

The two adventurers were on the verge of heading off to do their quest, when Byng brought up the possibility of saving some time by renting a trusty steed from a nearby stable. It was just across the street from the Guild, and they made a killing from such a wise location. Coye had rented from the location many times when the need arose, but things were different this time.

Byng’s inherent distrust of mounted animals made her suggestion a rather out of place one. For whatever reason, though she wanted to see if they could get this quest done in a single day and they wouldn’t be able to do that if they didn’t have a horse.

“I’m just concerned after what happened the other day,” Coye frowned.

To prove she was OK with it, Byng approached the beast dwelling in it’s stable and extended her hand for it to lick. “It’s fine, I know these horse things that you guys use are more or less chill. They’re a lot better than Woodtreaders, anyway…”

Coye laughed at her embarrassment, and Byng paid it no mind. This did bring a question to the boys mind though.

“Are there any domesticated animals in Grurguhrohk? I know you talk about how dangerous it is there and how many monsters there are, but it’s hard to believe that there aren’t any mounts at all.”

“Oh, we have mounts back home. They’re just not really comparable to the friends you humans have. The stuff we use as mounts Will gobble you up hole if you don’t respect them, so a lot of tribes don’t even bother. As for other domesticated animals, yeah we have some simple livestock but even then…” Byng shrugged.

“Really? Interesting…” Coye nodded his head. The more he learned about his girlfriends homerealm, the more it intrigued him. Amid all the terrifying tales of fantastical beasts were snippets of a foreign culture that he never would’ve dreamed of, One that he was proud of learning more about by the day.

Coye raised his hand up to the horse as well, allowing it to inspect him with his tongue as well. He loved animals, with horses being one of his favorites. He looked over at Byng And gave the girl a comforting smile as he said, “just make sure you hang on carefully, and I’ll protect you from the big scary horse. Sound good?”

He was expecting her to get coffee over his teasing, but instead, Byng merely looked at him and tilted her head. She had a faint smile on her face as she observed, “you know, short stuff… you seem to be getting a lot more chill lately.”

‘Personally, I would say you’re getting sassier… But that’s just me,’ Shayla quipped.

“Do you really think so?” He asked. “I’ve just been being me, so it’s hard for me to tell the difference…”

“Oh yeah. For four days, you’re practically a different person. I mean, look at you! Cracking jokes with me like we’re best friends.”

“Aren’t we more than that?” Coye tilted his head with mock innocence.

Byng sighed and clasped him on his shoulder. “Never mind, shortstuff. You’re the same as ever.”

The way that his lover smiled stirred an interest in him, one that he normally wouldn’t have acted on given their public setting. However, he was emboldened today and he decided to show it. He moved it closer and wrapped his arms around Byng’s waist, then pulled her in for a short but memorable kiss before she even knew what was happening.

Shayla didn’t know whether to support him or groan, while Byng was much more approving and showed as much by kissing him straight back. Their love was interrupted by the owner of the stables who cleared his throat as he came up from behind them. “Are you two going to pick one out, or not? This is a reputable business, not some kinky hook up spot you damn brats!”

“Really?” Byng smirked. “Coulda fooled me. All the horseshit everywhere? Well if that doesn’t shout fuck me hard and fuck me faster than I don’t know what does!”

Coye blushed at the joke, especially when it didn’t land and the man continued glaring. He stepped forward, “Yes we’ll take this one, I’m sorry, she’s…”

Uninterested in excuses, the man simply told him, “150G for the day. 50G for every day you’re late.”

Coye and Byng each paid half, and The man took their rental steed away so that it could be saddled. It as brought back to them not much later, and then the adventurers were on their way after fastening all their gear to the mare.

Byng was noticeably uncomfortable as they began to trot, but Coye’s expert handling of the beast went a long way toward making her feel better about the situation.

“Got a lot of experience writing these things?” She asked.

“Yeah. You could say that.”

Coye smiled as they started riding west down the Trade Way. Riding was just another one of the many things that his father taught him during the years of training he’d undergone. It didn’t come as easily to him as other things had, mainly because of the horse he’d used to practice. That horse was his fathers, a hulking brute by the name of Karst.

Karst was a mean old stallion Who always seemed to have hatred in his eyes. as a child, he would always terrify Coye just through his presence alone. It wasn’t until he actually made the effort to try and befriend Karst by feeding him treats and brushing his deep black coat the Coye realized that the adventuring horse was just a big old softie underneath it all.

Coye missed Karst, just as he missed his father.

When they were about twenty minutes down the road, Coye spoke up. “I know a way to go faster if you don’t mind, it’s a riding art.”

‘Oh for fuck’s sake, not this shit again…’ Shayla was enjoying a leisurely pace as they went with the horse. She wish to avoid going as fast as they had with the Woodtreader, if at all possible.

"How fast are we talking?" Byng asked.

"This fast," Coye smiled and began pouring his energy into the horse using the reins as a medium. Although this steed wasn't trained like Karst was, she was still able to handle Coye's external influence with decent ability and they began to gallop off at nearly twice the speed they were going.

"Gah!" Byng exclaimed, tightening her grip around her lover, only to realize after a few moments that it actually didn't bother her as much as she thought it would. "Wait, hold on... this isn't actually so bad."

'She should speak for herself- ugh-' Shayla's stomach churned but even she was able to get used to the increased speed after a certain point.

"Maybe it was just the Woodtreader you had a problem with?"

"Probably," Byng spit. "Fucking feathered piece of shit..."

Coye laughed, and the three of them enjoyed the ride. They were able to make great progress at rapid speed, Coye's energy steadily supplying the beast stamina so that it didn't need to take breaks. They passed by a caravan and a few travelers on their way to Cransmere, but nothing could stop their pace.

They came across the spot that Suzette had indicated, and it turned out they didn't even need to keep an eye out for the hill with three trees in the distance to tell them they were there. The road was suddenly interrupted by claw marks, and on both sides of the path were scorch marks in the grass. Large splinters of wood were visible, too. A long, slithering trail zig-zagged from the grass to the southwest of their current location.

Coye reared the horse as soon as he saw it and the duo looked upon the site of the incident.

"This isn't good," he observed. "How are we ever going to find it? Oh, wait. It's a good thing I have such a skilled huntress here with me today, isn't it, Byng?"

The Gengaggi rolled her eyes and chuckled. "Pretty damn sure you know the way to go, short-stuff. Stop being a smart ass and let's go!"

The followed the trail in the grass a long way down to the southwest. Far enough that they could see the Gnarled Woods cropping up in the distance, but Not close enough for the woods to have any effect on him thankfully. It led them to A rather large hill that featured a tremendous Cave mouth which had to have been the monsters lair. Before onfronting it, Coye Doubled back a good margin so that they could tie the horse down far enough for it not to see the Lindwurm as the battle began. They left it there with a bag of oats affixed to her face.

Coye and Byng then crossed The distance on foot and returned to the cave entrance. They both studied it and thought about different ways they could go about this.

“Dorothy said we need to lure it out,” Coye thought aloud. “Do you think we have time to set up one of your traps?”

“Does it look like I brought all that crap with me?” Byng laughed. “It was a miracle I set up all that junk as fast as I did in the first place!”

‘The best I could do is make a pitfall, but I doubt it would work on the monster like this…’ Shayla said.

“Do you have any ideas?” He turned to Byng and looked for guidance.

“Coye, my man, I always have ideas.” She smirked and then started walking around the perimeter, her head buzzing with details and possibilities. She pointed up at the top of the hill. “I think you should wait up there while I shoot off a couple of arrows to smoke it out. I’ll join you as soon as it’s done. Once it comes out to check on what happened, then you can jump down and fight it while I stay up here and work on support!”

“Not bad,” Coye nodded and cupped his chin.

‘I would’ve thought of that eventually…’ Shayla insisted.

“There’s just one thing I’m curious about. We don’t really know how deep the cave is. What if it doesn’t work?”

Byng shrugged. “If it doesn’t work, then we’ll come up with something else! It’s not like it’s the only idea I have swimming around up there.”

Coye felt that was good enough for him and he went up to the top of the ambush spot as Byng got into position. He drew his sword and watched her next moves. Byng prepared three arrows which Coye recognized as the ones she hit him in the face with the other day – water balloons. Only, he figured these ones didn’t have water as she shot them off in rapid succession.

His guess proved right, as Byng’s next move was to pull out an arrow that she struck upon one of the metal plates of her bow, causing it to catch on fire like a match hitting the strip. She notched it and then let it fly. A couple of seconds later, and there was a minor explosion deep within the earth. It must’ve dislodged some of the ceiling, as Coye could feel it beneath his feet.

‘Careful, there! She’s gonna explode the ground out from under you!’

“I’m sure Byng knows what she’s doing,” Coye insisted. Proving his point was a loud hissing noise echoing out from within the cave.

Byng put energy into her feet and jumped up to be with him, smiling wide. “Did you hear that, or what? Sounds like somebody’s piss off in there! You better get ready to drop. If we’re lucky I did some damage, but I don’t know if it actually hit it or not.”

“Even if you did it wouldn’t do much, their scales are fireproof.”

“Right,” Byng conked herself in the head. “Stupid me.”

Once more, the ground beneath his feet was beginning to shake. This time it was more regular. The monster was coming and Coye’s grip on his sword tightened in response. The party didn’t have to wait for very long.

A monstrous serpent emerged from the cave. It was long, very long. Its body was thin like a snake but much larger. Its face was also snakelike, though it’s eyes were more akin to a lizard, and it possessed a fearsome amount of fangs that suggested it chewed it’s food as opposed to swallowing them whole. Along it’s back were a row of sharp, dark green spines. Affixed to its upper torso were two legs with three fierce claws stemming out at the end of them. At the end of its tail were a tight collection of even more spikes that looked deadly to the touch.

The monster looked left and right for the source of the disturbance, only for Coye to get the literal drop on it. He ran off over the edge of the hill and pointed his sword downwards, charging up energy to perform Downward Thrust. Unfortunately, the oversized lizard sensed the oncoming threat and it’s faster reflexes went to work. It twisted its lengthy body out-of-the-way just in time, making it so the attack went from being a fatal blow to one that merely scraped the surface of its side.

‘Damn, watch out behind you!’ Shayla warned.

The monster was slipping around and in the ensuing chaos its tail end was sent on a deliberate collision course hurtling straight at the fighter. Coye responded by whipping his body around and brandishing his shield. He met the blow head on, but the force of it was enough to send him flying backwards. He almost landed straight on a jagged rock, but Shayla used a gust of wind to blow him safely onto a comparatively softer bush.

“Well, that didn’t go how I thought it would…” Byng grumbled and then prepared one of her standard arrows, lining up a shot. “You alright?”

“Yeah,” Coye said, pulling himself up and facing down his foe. “You got my back?”

“Always,” Byng grinned and correctly predicted where the Lindwurm was going to twist to next, and she let loose an arrow straight into its eye. “Sorry about that, short stuff! I gotta shoot for the parts I can actually hurt!”

Coye frowned as he watched the massive serpent writhe in pain. That was one perfectly good eyeball that now went entirely to waste.

‘Not like it matters since you might be getting a house soon anyway!’ Shayla reminded him.

“I guess I’ll have to make do with its tongue and whatever else I can scrounge,” Coye sighed. He Cautiously approached the monster with his shield raised, staring it down every step of the way While watching out for sudden moves or unexpected attacks. He wouldn’t let himself be caught off guard by that tail again.

Once it had quelled its mindless fury, the Lindwurm Took on a more defensive position, crouching its lengthy body down to the ground. It had two targets to choose from, only its left eye was now blinded thanks to Byng, so the monster couldn’t entirely see where she was. It only made sense to target the closer threat under the current circumstances, so it again launched its tail at Coye.

No that he was able to see it coming, Coye responded with a decently charged Shield Bash launched straight at the oncoming extremity. It stung hard, Bringing the monster to hiss violently to the point where smoke billowed out of its nostrils.

Coye wasn’t done. He countered the tail swipe by jumping in and hitting it with Double Strike. The Sword cleaved straight through the monsters thick hide of green scales. Blood spattered out as he pulled his weapon out. Coye didn’t manage to sever it, but he made it halfway through and could see the exposed bone in the wound.

“Nice one! Get back, I don’t wanna hit you with this,” Byng warned as she readied her next move. Coye knew better than to stick around and find out what his lover had planned, so he quick stepped backwards away from the monster which was still in great pain over his latest attack.

He watched as one of Byng’s trick arrows found its way to the wound, it’s tip exploding into a cloud of orange itching powder. The reaction was immediate. It cried and cried, bringing its lower half close enough for its two hands to work up a frenzy itching at its exposed flesh.

‘Ew,’ Shayla cringed as the Lindwurm mauled itself and screeched violently. ‘Between this and the boar eating it’s own arm, I’m starting to wonder if monsters just naturally maim themselves whenever Byng is around.’

It was an amusing thought, but  Coye didn’t give it much thought. He only watched the monster do it’s grizzly work until the tail was completely severed and a fountain of blood Spurted From the new stump. He took the opportunity to get in close and slash at one of its arms.

Again, the sword bit through the monster and it’s scales, bit the flesh was much more muscled here than he was expecting. The cut was not deep, giving the Lindwurm ample opportunity to strike back. it did so with a swipe of its opposite arm, prompting Coye to try and back out only for it to catch him on his leg with one fell claw. Steel Soul softened the blow, but he toppled to the ground and clenched his teeth in pain.

"Shit," Byng sized up her options, deciding to shoot off a flurry of arrows at the exposed wound Coye made in the arm. She made sure they were really worth something, charging up energy in each and unleashing Power Shots. Some of them missed, others either pierced or were deflected by its scales, but enough pelted into the beasts flesh to draw attention away from Coye.

He got back up on his feet, only to see it had changed targets. It ripped out as many of the arrows as it could before turning to Byng and seeing her with its remaining good eye. It drew in a deep breath of air so strong that it gave both adventurers pause. Smoke again began to churn within its body and its chest rumbled.

"Byng! Get out of there!" Coye tried to warn her as the first embers began to crackle from behind its ivory teeth.

Byng was fast, but there was a chance she wouldn't get out of the way in time. Fire breath wasn't a straight line, and the entire hilltop could be consumed. That's why Shayla took things into her own hands by focusing a huge portion of her mana into a big attempt at manipulating the Lindwurm's luck.

'I've got this,' Shayla announced to Coye. After their battle with the Boar and her subsequent blackout, the Pixie was just as determined as Coye to improve her skills with magic and become less of a liability. She knew that she should start training with him when he did his stuff, but mana exhaustion would ruin her entire day and that made things difficult. Better to use it all up in battle when it matters, she figured.

Byng had a firsthand view of the effects of Shayla's magic. She was just about to book it as the Lindwurm opened its mouth- only for a blue crackling glow to occur inside of its throat for a brief second. This was suspicious enough, but then the fire breath was canceled because of the beast suddenly let out a large, wet burp, causing the flames to disperse inside of its own body.

"Nice!" Coye smiled once he understood what had happened.

"Agh! More like fucking nasty!" Byng cringed and back-stepped away from a spray of oncoming gunk. She looked on forward at the beast, which was now momentarily stunned as it struggled to regain its breath. There it was, with its mouth opened slack and pointed entirely at her. This was an opportunity, however it was set up.

Byng thought she had a chance here to do some real damage, so she notched all five of a special arrow type she carried with her. These arrows had a tip like a morningstar or a spiked flail, and she Power Shot them straight down its throat. Once these arrows made contact with something, their many spikes would shoot out in tons of different directions like a storm of needles.

Power Shot increased the piercing power of these needles, meaning now there were dozens of knives shredding it apart from the inside where its scales could prevent nothing.

The Lindwurm hissed a final time as its vision faded, several of the spikes managing to drive themselves into its heart. The monster tried to climb up top of the hill where Byng looked down on it with a smug expression.

"And that's how you do it," she said as the beast toppled to the ground, then jumped down to the grassy plain below to rejoin Coye.

He was a little stunned over how fast things had managed to wrap up. "What the heck did you just do to it?"

"You made it burp, right?" She slung her bow over her shoulder, put her hands on her hips and got up in his personal space.

"Uh, yeah," Coye blushed and took a step backward, sheathing his sword.

'I hate not getting credit for saving people's lives,' Shayla grumbled.

"That gave me enough chance to shoot a huge payload straight down its throat, and that was the end of that, gahaha! Guess Dotty should've have underestimated us archers, huh?" She smirked. Coye had a small laugh, but he appeared dejected. "Something wrong, short stuff?"

The boy scratched behind his head and looked away. "No, um... not really. It's just, it felt kind of anti-climactic, didn't it?"

"Uh, no? I got a huge badass moment!"

"Exactly. Usually I'm the one who-"

"Oh," Byng narrowed her eyes. "You mean it felt anticlimactic for YOU. Sorry, but you had your chance to look cool in front of me the other day. You think I'm gonna pass up the chance to look cool? Fat chance! I ain't your sidekick, buddy." He couldn't tell whether she was being serious, but when she started to laugh he knew she was just giving him a hard time like she so often enjoyed. "Really, though. I'm sure you'll have some kind of badass moment sooner of later so just let me have this one, ok?"

"Yeah, I didn't mean it like that. I just thought that this would've been more difficult."

Byng frowned and looked over at their fallen foe. "Y'know, I kind of agree." She looked a little forlorn as she stared, giving Coye pause.

"Byng?"

"Ah, sorry," she snapped out of it. "I've just kind of been in a rut ever since we got together. Not because of you- before you go worrying like you always do- but I'm just kinda confused about where I go from here. I was hoping for a chance to get a good hunt today, but it didn't really live up to what I was wanting."

Coye was surprised. She hadn't let on to her feelings when they last hung out. He knew the feeling of uncertainty with what to do with his life, but he hadn't expected Byng to struggle with it as well. He thought he had things all figured out.

"Wanna talk about it?"

"Nah, not right now, anyway. You should go and do your thing before we take a look in the cave to see if we can't find that wagon. Here.” Byng loaned him one of the bags of holding, only to remind him that he really needs to get his own one of these days.

Coye took out the fancy knife Byng gifted him and went to work on the corpse of the Lindwurm. He scooped out its remaining eye, which was as big as both his fists, a long portion of its ropey tongue, then he sawed through A bunch of its teeth and then some of the spines off the top of its head.

‘You’re getting weirdly good at that,’ Shayla commented with concern. ‘Maybe you should’ve been a butcher instead of an adventurer…’

Coye laughed to himself, making Byng curious. “Something funny?”

“No, um… just remembered something.”

“Riiiight. Make sure you remember to get a scale for Dotty while you’re at it.”

“How could I forget?” He laughed again, then started to fill up the bag with as many scales as he could dislodge with the knife.

Byng watched the way His face lit up just by mentioning their guild mistresses name. It made the huntress cross her arms and ask, “Mind if I ask you a bit about her, short stuff?”

His cheeks grew red as he looked over his shoulder. “Uh, what exactly did you want to know? We’re just friends.”

“Sure, but the fact that you have to drop that in there makes it pretty obvious you wouldn’t mind if you were more than that.” Byng smirked because she knew she was right. “I just want to know how much you like her. That’s all.”

“I like you and Suzette just as much,” he defended himself, then tied off his bag and strapped it to his pouch.

“Hey, c’mon. You know me better than that, right? It’s not about that.”

‘Hmph. Smug bitch acting like she’s better than me just cause she doesn’t feel jealous…’ Shayla muttered mainly to herself.

Coye rose from his grim work and blushed. “Sorry, you’re right. I didn’t mean to get defensive, it’s just… I’ve known Dorothy for around two years now and… my feelings for her are pretty strong because of that.”

“I get it,” Byng smiled. “The reason I wanted to know was just because I think it’d be a good thing if you went for it, you know? That poor girl needs a solid win sooner or later more than anyone I’ve ever met. You would be good for her.”

He thought about trying not to seem overly happy about her words, but it didnt work out and Coye was soon wearing his smile wide. Byng laughed at how transparent he could be, and then patted him on the shoulder.

“Whatever happens, you’ve got my support. Not that I should need to tell you by now, but I know how you can be, gahaha!”

“Thanks, Byng… I don’t even know if I’m going to… um… pursue her or anything. At least not seriously. You can be… well, more than a little pushy so I just want you to promise me you’re not gonna like, y’know…”

“Try and hook you guys up?”

“Yeah, that. If things ever happen with her, I want to give it proper time and make sure it happens naturally.”

“Hey, I get it. Your hunt is your own. I’m not gonna get involved until she’s in our bed, short stuff…” Byng gave him a wicked grin that made him nearly erect right then and there, that was just how naughty it was.

‘Gods, you’re hopeless…’ Shayla sighed.

“R-Right, well… between you, Suzette, and… um, I mean, the two of you, I have enough on my plate as it is. At least for right now.”

“Right, right.” Byng nodded. If she noticed his little slip of the tongue, she didn’t call him out on it. “Be real with me, though. Are you thinking about chasing down any of the Bitches? Cause I’m not sure how I feel about that. They’re hot, but”

“Byng, can we please just get back to the adventuring part of our adventure?” Coye blushed and frowned. “We can talk about this some other time, but the short answer is no, I don’t plan on… um… ‘going after’ any of Britni’s party, but… you know, I didn’t really plan on going after you either, so…”

“Fair enough!” Byng laughed, and then turned her attention toward the cave. “Guess we need to check inside to see if that wagon of hers is still salvageable, huh?”

“Seems that way. Been a while since I’ve had to check out any caves…”

“Same. We’ll probably be fine, long as we stick together. If there was another Lindwurm then I’m sure it would’ve come out by now.”

‘Why did she have to jinx it like that…?’ Shayla sighed.

Together, they began to journey forth into the cave. It went deep into the earth, and before they knew it they needed light. Byng lit her lantern and attached it to her bandolier, while Coye raised his sword and Shayla gave it magic luminescence.

“Your sword was like that the other day, too. Another one of those magic tricks you picked up?” Byng asked.

“Yeah… I’m just full of little tricks like that…” Coye mumbled while Shayla cursed the boy and his inability to act inconspicuous.

For a while they kept quiet as they focused on the area around them while descending. There were littler paths for them to follow, though luckily the monster left a trail leading straight down into its nest. They had to jump down into a large pit, which was nerve-wracking, but such was their job.

The Lindwurm pit was a dank, dark place. Bones of huge monsters could be seen picked clean all over, and adjust as Dorothy predicted, they could see the ruins of what used to be a wagon torn up around thrown on top of a bunch of other shredded up tree branches, grass and other materials that the Lindwurm used in its nest.

What surprised them most was that A good deal of the boxes were in perfect condition. There had to of been 30 or 40 of them all together, and while a few were unlucky enough to have not escaped, most must’ve fallen out as the Lindwurm rent the wagon for its own purposes. Afterward, it probably brushed them off with its tail and paid the garbage no further mind.

From the couple of boxes that Coye could see, it seemed that the goods were exactly as Suzette had told him. He saw cheap looking clothes, books, and other simple items of that nature. None of it looked to be that expensive and there weren’t any surprises mixed in with her wares.

“Damn, Suzette sure is lucky! I totally didn’t think her shit would be safe.”

“Yeah,” Coye nodded. “The question now is what do we do with all these?”

‘Wasn’t the job just to kill the snake and find the wagon? You guys should be good to go.’ Shayla insisted. ‘Don’t go sticking around for too long, baby. This place is bad news.’

Coye mentally acknowledged his partner’s fear, but he turned to his lover and waited for her response.

“Well first off we’re gonna throw as much as we can into this baby,” She said, opening up her remaining bag of holding. “When we’re done with that, I think we should try and haul all of these boxes at least outside of the cave. Sure, it ain’t our job to take them back, but I don’t feel good about pushing this job off on ordinary scavengers, y’know?”

“I was actually thinking the same. Even without a Lindwurm guarding it this place seems dangerous, and it’s close to the Woods, too. I feel bad that I already went and use one of the bags of holding, though…”

“She understands that you gotta make bank, short stuff! Now come on over here and help me with this!”

Coye did, and a minute later they had fit six whole boxes of cargo into the small hammer space dimension inside of the magical bag.

Satisfied, Coye reached for the bag he’d already filled and tied to his belt. “Do you have any normal big bags on you? I was thinking I could transfer all my trophies and carry it on my back, so we could use the bag on more cargo.”

“You might wanna hold off on that thought for a sec,” Byng said as she tied off the cargo bag, and then pointed past his shoulder. “It looks like we might be in a tighter spot than we thought…”

Coye looked in the indicated direction, and then he saw the new threat. From the Earth below crawled out three large insects roughly the size of a large dog. Their black carapaces shined bright under the light of Coye’s sword, and from that light he was able to recognize them for what they were.

“Damn it, it’s a group of Gargants…”

Shayla recalled her experiences with this newest threat, sighing. ‘Oh, not these fuckers… if you didn’t already know they’ll-’

“Fuuuuck. If we don’t get out of here now, then these things will swarm the place!”

‘That’s what I was trying to say!’ Shayla fumed, hating the fact that only one person here could hear her talking at the moment.

Coye knew this already, though. He stumbled into a nest of them once in the woods but miraculously found his way out of the labyrinthian tunnels before getting consumed by their depths. There must be one such nest below here, and from his knowledge he figured that the Gargants must have a symbiotic relationship with the Lindwurm. That would explain why all of its kills were stripped down to the bone, at any rate.

"Let's get out of here," Coye ran forward, slashing straight through one of the insects.

Byng was close behind, loosing an arrow straight into the skull of the second. Not to be outdone, Shayla used her magic to lift a small rock and launch it at a stalactite on the ceiling. It fell, impaling the third Gargant and dooming it to a writhing death. Byng looked at Coye for a brief moment in confusion, noticing how if he wanted to he could've swiped at the other foe with his sword. There wasn't much of a need to go and do all that. She kept her thoughts quiet as they proceeded to run to the edge of the pit.

Their escape was cut short as the earth started convulsing all over the place. More Gargants were coming. Much more. Mandibles started to tear through the surface level here, there and everywhere, threatening to fill the entire pit in only a few minutes. There was no way they were getting the rest of the cargo- and likely nobody else would be.

"Shit, they're coming out of the walls, too!" Byng pointed at their escape route. Both adventurers could jump high with the use of their energy, but if the walls were covered then there was a chance they could be attacked mid jump.

Shayla looked around for ways to be helpful, but there were too many Gargants for her to process and she didn't think she'd be able to contribute in a way that mattered. It sucked, but she held her tongue for now.

"Keep them off me for a second," Coye said.

Byng nodded and started firing off arrows at encroaching Gargants while the boy took an item out from his toolbelt. It was a collapsible magic rod,  with a small cube affixed to the top. The cube had one glowing gem on each side facing outward for a total of five. He pointed it at the area directly in front of him and the rod a single time. It glowed and the light from one gem faded, creating a floating block of magic.

Without explaining, he jumped on top of it and repeated the process, jumping from one block to the next until all the gems were devoid of glow. Byng didn't need to be told what to do, she simply followed him up the blocks and when they were both at the tallest one, they were just about level with the pit's ledge. All it took was a quick step and both of them were in the clear.

"That was some good thinking!" Byng congratulated him as she found her footing.

"Always have to be prepared," Coye said.

He collapsed the rod and stashed it back where it came from, leaving it to replenish its supply of magic before it could be used again.

'Don't just stand around here showing off!' Shayla knocked on his skull. 'They're coming!'

The danger followed them out of the pit and were now scaling the walls, the antennae of the first arrivals appearing in full view. Worse, they were starting to come out of the walls here, too. Coye and Byng looked at each other in silent understanding, sharing a brief nod before coming to the mutual conclusion that they needed to book it.

They sprinted as fast as they could, jumping over Gargants that popped out from beneath their feet and dodging surprise attacks until finally they saw the entrance of the cave. They were almost home free, and now that the way was properly lit, they supplemented their speed with Quick Steps and were out in seconds.

They looked back at the cave. Even though retrieving the cargo was now an impossibility, they could still do a good deed and seal off the cave. Coye produced a few small bombs from his pouch, lit them and threw them at the oncoming swarm, while Byng matched his efforts by shooting the last of her three oil arrows to supplement his explosions and then for good measure a Force Arrow at the ceiling.

The explosions alone wouldn't have done much, but the oil doubled their power and chunks of defeated Gargants flew into the sky, only for rocks falling from the ceiling above to crush them into paste. The mouth of the cave totally collapsed, sealing the entrance with rocks and earth. Nothing that Gargants couldn't handle, ut at least they made a dent in their numbers.

Now in the clear, the two traveled back to their horse which had long since run out of oats but remained blissfully unaware of all that had happened. It neighed once it saw them, causing Coye to smile. He sat down on the ground to take a breather, and Byng joined him soon after.

"Didn't know I'd be getting two workouts in today," he laughed softly.

"Gotta work those legs, pretty boy!" Byng cackled.

For a moment, they just relaxed and allowed themselves the opportunity to recover. Coye wiped himself with a handkerchief and offered one to Byng, who took it and did the same. Her aroma was intoxicating thanks to all the sweat, but he was able to keep his desires in check perhaps due to his increased exposure to it.

Once he'd calmed down, he found himself feeling a little down. "It really sucks that we weren't able to save more of the boxes..."

Shayla was about to console him in her typical feisty manner, but found that she was undercut once again by Byng who seemed deadset on outperforming her in the chill, supportive girlfriend department.

"C'mon, short stuff! Don't be so down on yourself!" Byng insisted, reaching out to pat him on the back.

Shayla frowned at how inconvenient it was that she couldn't say anything out loud. Maybe if Byng was aware of her existence she wouldn't talk over her so much, but it's not like that was an option. She sighed and bit her lower lip, intent on listening to the rest of the conversation as the third wheel.

"Sorry," he gave her a weak smile. "It's a bad habit. I always feel a little down when things don't go the best they could've. I end up replaying things in my head, trying to think of how I could've done better... which just makes me feel kinda worse, you know?"

"We did the best we could, though. So don't get hung up for too long. If it makes you feel any better, I know better than anyone who much it sucks when something doesn't go your way, gahaha!"

That got a smile out of him, and he relaxed soon after.

"What about you? Was that enough of an adventure to pull you out of your funk?" Coye asked.

Byng gave it some thought and then reclined on the grass. "Eh. It was fun and all, but... you were kind of my goal ever since I met you, and even for years before that. The whole reason I emigrated was to find someone like you, and not that I have, it's like... what's next? I'm not like you, short stuff. I'm not good at takings things a day at a time. My mind has to be working, my hands moving, my bow shooting... I need a new goal."

Coye looked at his lover in admiration, adoring the fierce look in her eyes as she gazed at the clouds above. "You'll figure something out. I'll be sure to support you through all this, so... don't worry and take your time."

It took her a moment to respond, but when she did, Byng smiled widely and looked to him with appreciation. "Thanks, Coye. I'll figure things out. I always do."

A few minutes later, they were ready to get back to town and report to Suzette. They untied their mount and took off. Despite feeling left out of the conversation, Shayla placated herself by remembering what awaited them when they next saw Suzette. They would get news about getting a home of their own! It was surreal for her, and in a way, she related to Byng in that she was about to accomplish her big goal and was unsure of what would happen next. That did nothing to dampen her excitement, though, and as the horse galloped back to Cransmere Shayla was all smiles.