Day 2

I was awoken by the smell of breakfast. Exiting my tent, Flora was making food for us while the rest of us slept.

“Hey sleepyhead,” she smiled. “Breakfast will be ready in a few minutes.”

“Wow, you did all this by yourself?” I asked.

“A thank you,” she said. “I figure based on how yesterday went that the rest of this week is gonna end up pretty rough on you guys, so this is the least I could do.”

“Thank you. I’m sure the others will appreciate it too,” I said. I headed off to the woods to find a nice bush to do my morning routine behind. Numbers 1 and 2 dealt with, I returned to camp to find everyone awake, Flora handing out breakfast. She made some eggs and the last of her rabbit meat.

“So, Lucille? What’s the route for today looking like?” I asked between bites.

“We’ll keep heading east until we meet the Lamlen River. At that point we merely follow it upstream for a few days and we’ll arrive at Hearthvale,” said Lucille before finishing her breakfast. “Thank you, Flora. It was delicious.”

“I’m glad you enjoyed it,” Flora replied. Meanwhile, Sofia was scarfing down her portion and the leftovers next to me.

“I think Sofia likes it too,” joked Lucille. The two girls chuckled while Sofia blushed.

After packing camp back up and disposing of the fire, we headed on our way. Flora and Lucille stood at the front, talking and occasionally giggling. The blonde paladin even tried petting the mule, which seemed to still be a bit cautious of her.

“So, Sofia,” I said, trying to initiate some small talk.

“Yeah?” She asked.

“Why pyromancy?” I asked. “You said your dad was a great mage, so he must’ve had books on all sorts of magic. Why only learn fire magic?”

“Uh, well, you see, I...” she stammered, blushing. She sighed. “It’s the only one I was any good at. I tried learning other types, but I could never cast them properly. They’d either just fizzle, or they’d go haywire and I wouldn’t be able to control them.”

“But you can barely control your fire magic as is. How can other spells be worse?” I deadpanned.

“Hey!” She yelled. “Just cause it’s true doesn’t mean you have to point it out!”

“I’m serious here. I may not know much about magic, but it sounds like maybe there’s a reason you can only use unstable fire magic.” I said, spitballing. “Like maybe a curse, or a charm, or some sort of blockage in your ability to control those other types of spells. Any of that sound reasonable?”

She was lost in thought. “Hey, Sofia?” I said, trying to snap her out of it.

“Heads up!” Shouted Lucille. I looked toward the front of the group. Lucille’s sword was drawn. Flora held onto the hilt of her rusty blade with one hand, and hershel’s reins with the other. About twenty feet ahead was a large group of people, all armed and lightly armored, bandits. I drew my sword and stepped ahead of Flora.

“We’re here on official guild business!” I declared. “While we aren’t here for you, if you try to interfere, I have no objections to collecting the bounty on your heads!”

I was bluffing out of my ass. Lucille could tell, but was going along with it. Flora and the bandits seemed to be tricked.

“Hear that, boys!” said one in slightly fancier clothing. “We’re famous! Wait. No, we’re N-famous!”

“Oi. That’s infamous,” Sofia deadpanned.

“These guys have a bounty!?” Flora gasped. “That means they’re really dangerous right? Let’s just give them what they want so they leave us alone.”

“Just stand back Flora,” said Lucille. “We’ll handle this. I promise, I won’t let them hurt you.”

“Last warning!” I shouted at the bandits.

“Get em!” Shouted the leader. Two of them immediately charged. Lucille advanced, meeting one’s charge head on, sidestepping him and cutting him down in one clean motion. The second was headed right for me.

“Steal!” I shouted, raising my hand at him. Materializing in my hand was the random object of my theft...a belt? The man’s pants proceeded to quickly fall down to his ankles, tripping him and he, quite literally, fell on his own sword.

“Dammit! Don’t let these runts humiliate you! Surround and kill the bitch with the blade!” Shouted the leader. Four other bandits ran up and encircled Lucille. I tried to help, but a pair of bandits came at me as well.

“Shit,” I muttered, taking a defensive stance. I heard a startled yelp from behind me and glanced back. A bandit had circled around us and was going after Flora. She pointed her rusty sword at him, hands trembling.

“Put that thing down, girl. Someone’s gonna get hurt,” he chuckled, batting her sword out of her hands with his axe.

“Yeah! You!” Shouted Sofia as she jumped up on his back, stabbing him in the neck with her dagger. The man went down and bled out quickly. Sofia gave Flora a cheeky thumbs up as Flora sighed in relief.

“Pay attention!” Shouted one of the bandits in front of me. I snapped my head back around just in time to see and dodge the bandit’s attack, nearly falling on my ass. The pair ganged up on me, and it was all I could do to not get impaled.

“I’ve got you, Flynn!” Said Sofia.

“No! Go help Lucille, there’s four of them on her,” I said, struggling to stay alive. Sofia ran off to the other side of the mule, likely casting a spell to help her out.

The two bandits were quickly pushing me back, but were unable to land any hits, all being either narrowly blocked or dodged. Then, one of them got knocked the fuck out. Flora had spanked Hershel just as we moved past his hind legs, and the mule kicked the bandit in the face, either killing or knocking him out, I was unsure.

Seizing my opportunity while the second bandit was distracted, I swung his dead friend’s belt at his sword. It wrapped around the blade, and I yanked it out of his hand, disarming him. Dropping the belt, I skewered the bandit before kicking him to the ground. I quickly thanked Flora before rushing up to help Lucille and Sofia.

Turns out, they were fine. Sofia had light two bandits ablaze while Lucille cut down the other two. At this point it was just the boss and two of his cronies left.

“Damn! Retreat!” Shouted the bandit leader. He and his two surviving goons fled back into the woods, signaling our victory.

“Is everyone okay?” I asked.

“Just fine, thanks to Sofia,” said Lucille.

“I agree,” said Flora.

“I know. I am pretty awesome,” Sofia said, basking in the praise.

“We should search the bodies,” I said.

“Wha-” Sofia exclaimed.

“I agree,” said Lucille. “They may have something on them that indicates the location of their hideout, as well as how many more men they have there. The guild would definitely want to know.”

We looked through the bodies’ belongings. Eventually, Flora found a note in one of their pockets. It mentioned a cave to the south.

“We should let the guild know,” said Sofia.

“How? It’s a day’s walk away. By the time we did, they’ll have regrouped,” I asked.

“Huh? Didn’t you know?” asked Sofia.

“Know what?” I asked, confused.

“The guild box,” said Lucille.

“I’m confused,” I said.

“Take our your adventurer’s card,” Sofia said. I complied. “Now turn it over. See that in the bottom right. The guild box bit? You can use that to send items directly through your card to the guild. It’s some pretty neat magic. Real advanced stuff, too.”

Still unsure, I tried it out. I held the slip of parchment over the guild box icon on my card. When the paper touched the card, it disappeared in a flash of light.

“And now it’s at the guild,” said Sofia. “Pretty cool, right?”

“Yeah,” I admitted.

“The guild should send a party out there,” said Lucille. “We should continue onwards.”

Following Lucille’s advice, we continued on down the road. After another few hours, we found the river, where we were going to set up camp for the night.