Take advantage of the situation

“How the fuck did this happen?” asks Lia. Without the cloak, you finally get to see her “new” outfit. She’s wearing your red tunic, which thanks to you tearing off a good chunk of the bottom fits her like a loose, long-sleeve crop-top. Almost her entire midriff is open to the world, revealing her smooth, lightly tanned skin and lithe figure. Around her waist is a dark green pleated skirt, which used to be Blythe’s spare before the tentacle monster incident. The skirt cuts off just before her knees, which are as bare as the rest of her legs until you reach her worn-out leather boots that reach halfway up her shins. Also, a long tail covered in short, black fur spills out below the skirt, swishing from side to side in a slow rhythm. This is the first time you’ve actually seen her tail, since she’s always been wearing long skirts or the cloak until now. She looks a little annoyed when your eyes make it back to her face, but if an annoyed glare is the price you have to pay in order to admire her outfit, then you’re okay with that.

“Lia, this is Jas Evergreen,” you say. “From the inn yesterday, you remember her. Jas, this is Lia.” The two women glance at each other briefly, Lia not looking very pleased and Jas as red as a tomato. “Jas was just apologizing for the way she acted yesterday. She offered to let us have three of her best rooms at the inn tonight, free of charge, to make up for it.” The blonde woman’s head snaps in your direction, her glare intense, but she’s far too flustered to fight you right now. Plus, she kind of owes you for the cloak… and her attitude… and holding you here at the tavern until she worked up the courage to apologize. On the other hand, she did just get done telling you she hates it when men push women around, so maybe this move was a little tone deaf. Lia sees her reaction and raises a brow before looking to you with a mixture of respect and disapproval. No doubt she’s pieced together what just happened and is remembering the similar situation you put her in when the two of you first met.

Despite that, Lia only hesitates for a second before buying into your game. She turns to Jas, purposefully placing a hand on the woman’s arm and teasing the cloak open a little as she says, “That’s so generous of you! I was absolutely heartbroken, having to sleep in a tent last night like an animal.” If the irony of what she said were lighthearted, she might have winked at you, but she doesn’t, because you both know she never chose to live in a tent on the street. “Why don’t you go and get those rooms ready, then? We’ll be right over once we pack up our camp!” Lia gives the embarrassed bunnykin one final pat on the arm and then steps over to imitate Blythe by wrapping herself onto your arm. Her breasts are significantly smaller, so it doesn’t have the same effect, exactly, but Jas gets the picture and skitters out of the tavern as quickly as she can. After paying her tab, thankfully.

As soon as Jas is gone, Lia steps away and turns to face you. She analyzes your face with an inquisitive look, like she’s deciding what to think of you. “We shouldn’t take advantage of people like that,” she says after a second. You take special note of the fact that she said ‘we shouldn’t’ and not ‘you shouldn’t.’ “But she was a bitch to us yesterday, so it serves her right. Hey, listen, I’ve got little hidden stashes all over town of stuff that I, uh, ‘acquired’ today. Give me your bag so I can go collect it all, and I’ll meet you and Blythe at the inn after.”

“Sounds good to me,” you say while swinging your rucksack off of your shoulders. “I can’t wait to see what you have for us.” You hand over the bag and send Lia on her way. The last you see of her is her tail slipping through the door just before it closes. Looking around the room a final time, you decide that it’s time for you to go as well. You paid for your single drink up front, so you slip out of the building without a word to anyone and make your way down the street. The sun is just now touching the horizon, so you should have plenty of time to break up camp and find the inn before dark. That is assuming that Blythe also returns to camp and helps you. And assuming you remember how to get to the inn.

When you get to the gate out of town, you find Blythe chatting with the guards. You must have come right after the shift change, because it’s the night crew: the young, chivalrous man and his middle-aged, father-of-four partner. You hear the tail-end of a story about the man’s many mischievous munchkins as you walk up. Apparently, the punchline of the story is that his wife wants even more kids, even though the four they have are bouncing off the walls.

“You sound like a very lucky man,” you say as a way of making your presence known to the group. Blythe looks to you and smiles, while the young guard laughs and the dad guard rubs the back of his neck. “Sorry to interrupt, but I was just coming back to pack our things.” Blythe’s smiling face turns a bit more serious after your words. “Thanks for looking out for us last night, you two, but I managed to get the girls and I some rooms at an inn for tonight. I think our camping days are over for a while.”

“I shall begin packing right away,” says Blythe. “Or should we wait for Ms. Lia?” You tell her that Lia already knows about the move, and Blythe leaves you with the guards to start tearing down the campsite outside the wall. You stay with the men for a few more minutes, making idle banter about your day in town.

“Who’d you get as your Guild rep?” asks the younger man. You don’t remember doing anything like that, but the guards explain that whoever you talked to in order to sign up is now your representative with the Guild. In other words, the woman you spoke to earlier is now responsible for helping you get jobs: if you were an actor, she’d be your agent. You describe the lime-haired elven woman to the men, after which the older one crosses his arms and sighs.

“Sounds like you got unlucky,” he says. “Rumor has it that girl’s devil-possessed.”

The younger man speaks up too, saying, “Hild. Father Drunan apparently gave her a charm that suppresses it, which is why she was able to keep her job. It’s a shame, she was always a very kind woman.”

“What he means to say is he had a thing for her,” says the older guard, much to the embarrassment of his younger partner. “Watch out, or this one’ll be pining after your nice friend over there next!”

After a few more minutes of chatting with the middle-aged dad and the young one who apparently has a thing for elves, you take your leave to go help Blythe finish packing up the campsite. To your surprise and guilt, she’s almost done by the time you get there. Since Lia has your rucksack, you have Blythe load up your arms with both bedrolls and one of the tents, and then the two of you reenter the town.