Helpful Rudeness

Dizarae, as you had suspected, was an expert pathfinder in the Dungeon. Even in the dark, even on strange terrain she plodded on. Without the burden of trying to find which way to go, all you all needed to do was keep up, which meant that someone had to be constantly helping Jeane to keep up. Kara was motivated enough to not get lost and left on her own to summon all of the strength she never used when she was able to piggy-back off of one of you. You were worried that Dizarae would keep the same pace but you were grateful to see her slow at some point into the trek. You had an idea about that, and guessed that the only real reason to go at such a pace was to get out of the imps search radius. Her slowing meant that Jeane no longer had to be babysit by either you or Heilan and you were able to walk behind the woman at what was for you a leisurely pace.

“Hey.” You waved. She ignored you. You waited a minute before stepping a bit ahead and waving.

“Hey.” She ignored you again, barely looking in your direction. You didn’t wait again before loudly repeating.

“Hey!”

“What?” Dizarae asked in an embittered tone.

“Thanks for letting us tag along.”

“Don’t bother. I really would’ve left you behind if you slowed. It was on you to follow me or go your own way.”

You paused, then shrugged to say. “Okay. Thanks for not preventing us from following you.”

Dizarae exhaled and gave a short nod. “You’re welcome.”

You walked for a bit longer before asking. “So-”

“No.”

“I didn’t even say anything.”

“I can tell by the emotion of your tone. You’re going to ask what my story is.”

“Huh… that’s some solid intuition.”

“Then where’re you headed?”

“Somewhere safe enough to stop.”

“Are you gonna chase us away if we stop with you.”

She scoffed. “Not worth the energy unless you plan to be a total liability.”

“So long as someone tells us what to do and what not to do we’ll be fine.” You said earnestly, staring at her. Dizarae narrowed her dark purple eyes at you.

“Then you had better find someone to do that for you.”

“Hmm…” She got you thinking.

“What?” Dizarae questioned impatiently.

“I’m usually a pretty good judge of character.”

“Wrong.”

You continued with a coy smile. “You’re pretty standoffish but deep down I feel like you must be a big-” Before you knew what was happening due to the dark your arm was grabbed tightly and your body was swung around and thrown to the ground. The Deamhaine was on top of you, staring down harshly.

“Do NOT try to get in my head.” She growled, her tail whipping back and forth aggressively behind her as Heilan, Kara and Jeane stood around and watched.

“We are not friends or allies. I do not care about you and yours. If you think you can rely on me you are wrong.” Dizarae spoke very clearly and concisely, dropping casualness to address you in no uncertain terms. She added through gritted fangs.

“If you rely on someone like me you’ll regret it.”

You stared up with wide, surprised eyes. All you could do was to think out loud. “I feel like I was right, still.” Dizarae growled and pushed herself up and away from you, not even missing a second as she immediately started moving again. You jumped up to follow after her with a bit more distance.

“Why are you antagonising our saviour?” Heilan questioned in a low groan.

“Deamhaine tend to be loners.” Jeane informed you both.

“I’m hungry.” Kara brought up.

“Haven’t you been getting your fill from either me or Heilan?” You looked back at the Fox with a raised brow.

“I meant actual hungry.” She corrected, her hand over her stomach.”

“Same, a bit.” You mumbled.

“I could eat. I know those two are probably gonna need to eat, though since they haven’t trained their stamina.”

“Good point.”

By pure coincidence as you were talking about eating, Dizarae stopped in front of you all and announced.

“I decided this is where I’m gonna stop. Do what you want.” She knelt down and began unfurling her things which included a few poles, rolled up cloths and furs and some dried out wood. She assembled the wood into a pile, then the poles into a loose wall around it. She surrounded the sticks with the cloth, then began walking off into the dark.

“Hey, where’re you going?”

“To hunt.” Dizarae stated without stopping.

You watched her go, then turned back to Heilan and Jeane. “We don’t have a good way to hunt, but I think if we work together we can maybe have Jeane track any possible game with magic while you and I try to chase and corner it.”

Heilan nodded. “Good plan. It’s just-” The three of you spent roughly fifteen minutes discussing the logistics of hunting and tracking in an unfamiliar place. Heilan offered her opinions, Jeane explained various things they could be looking for while Kara curled up on the ground between you and Heilan. As you were finishing up Dizarae wandered back into the camp with a heavy beast slung over one shoulder and several foreign-looking chunks of… something that must be burnable.

You looked at the thing she caught. It was like one of the swift, large game animals that would be found roaming the wilds in Cheshire.

“Where’d you find that? Also… is it safe to eat?”

“Not sure.” She shrugged.

“Yes.” Jeane informed.

You smiled and politely asked. “Could you maybe offer a bit of insight as to where-”

“No.” Dizarae responded bluntly, assembling the burnables on top of the bundle of twigs.

You sighed. “Alright. We’re going with the plan.”

“Aye aye.” Heilan saluted. Jeane nodded reluctantly while staring daggers at the selfish Deamhaine.

The next hour was more or less a disaster of the two of you literally fumbling around in the dark while Jeane led you all on a wild goose chase due to the inherent delay in her tracking. You returned empty handed to find the Deam was already cooking her haul. She looked up at you and rolled her eyes. There was a fire, but most of the light was being blocked by the wall of fabric and leathers, meaning that there was very little to give it away from afar.

“Go ahead and clean the carcass for scraps, since you’re so damn incompetent.” Dizarae offered.

“Uh, sure?” You knelt down and with a bit of light you were able to see it with some parts already cut out and cleaned.

“Which parts of this are edible…” You wondered, getting no answer from the woman. She was chewing loudly on a meaty bone off by the fire. Jeane inched close while covering her mouth nnd nose to point out.

“Most of it is good meat. It actually looks as if most of the parts that are dangerous were cleaned out and removed. In fact… the majority of what is left are very common, good cuts used in most recipes back where I live.” Jeane commented with a measure of surprise. You glanced over at Dizarae. She had her back to you all and didn’t respond or explain at all.

You said out loud. “Ah… so it looks like it was prepared, almost?”

“A bit.” Jeane agreed.

“Huh.” Heilan looked at you, seeming to pick up the same things you were finally.

You asked. “Dizarae, can we use your fire?”

“Pfft. The fire will be here until it goes out. Use it or don’t use it.”

“Thanks.”

“Forget it. When it comes time to sleep you’ll have to protect yourselves. Don’t bother relying on me.” The warned.

You all ate pretty well that night and when it came time to sleep you organised shifts between you and Heilan, since you two were trained. One thing you both noted was that even after claiming she wasn’t going to help, Dizarae was keeping a calm, quiet vigil near the fire for the whole night. When you finally handed the shift over to Heilan and slept, you woke up the next morning wondering if you would still see her. Somehow you weren’t surprised to see Dizarae squat down in the same spot.

“I didn’t know if you’d be here when we got up. Were you waiting for us?” You asked with a warm smile.

“Tch…” She looked away.

“I was neither going to stifle nor feed the fire. I was simply going to leave when it went out on its own to make efficient use of my resources. If you weren’t ready at that time I would’ve left without you in a heartbeat.” She looked down at the coals.

“It’ll be going out in roughly fifteen minutes.”

“Thanks, Dizarae.”

“Don’t. I’m not helping you.”

“Of course~” You grinned at her.

“Eugh…” She sneered at you as you smiled at her and stood up to wait with her things that were already packed by the edge of the camp.

You whispered as everyone was getting set up. “I think Dizarae is really trying hard to keep us safe.”

“Yeah.” Heilan nodded, securing some meat she’d wrapped up to Kara’s back.

“What… what are you doing?”

“I’m just gonna start tying things to her until she notices so that she can start pulling some weight.”

“You think that’ll work? Surely she’ll notice…”

“Yeah.” Jeane seemed skeptical

Kara did not notice.