The Story of your Friends

A few laughs and pleasantry exchanges later, you asked the Centaur what happened after your group split up.

"Right after the battle, or more like right when you gathered the attention of enemy forces..." Kelara started and looked at you, the guilt still lodged deep inside her eyes. "... we fled with the main defender group. They sent some of the riders after us, but we were organized and deadly enough to make them regret it."

"Yeah, we did." Layla, surprisingly focused on conversation, interjected. "I killed a lot of them. I was so tired after battle, but I had to protect everyone."

"Very nice, Layla." She squeeled in happiness when you said that. "Kelara, can you continue?"

"Sure. We ran for a few hours, picking up other refugees on the way, making sure everyone was safe. It was... Exhausting. But good. Felt like an honest work." You weren't surprised she felt like that. She was raised like that, like a good person. A knight in this weird world. "We set up camp for the night, and in the morning the halfling... I forgot his name..."

"Sievers." Doris helped her with recollection.

"Right, thank you. Sievers offered us to go with him, to move as a part of the refugees group going east, to the border. He said he needed our protection, but we had to find you first... Hopefully they got there safely." Centaur sighed audibly, looking straight into the fire. "Anyway, we caught finally a little break then. Maybe an hour after they left, we stumbled upon Doris and Salahea, not that far away from here."

Kelara stopped, so Doris could pick up the story.

"We were running through the night, exhausted, searching for shelter. And for you, David. We couldn't find you, that was the worst part. But finding Kel and Layla the next morning was... Nice. Then..."

She wanted to continue but a certain spider interrupted her.

"Then I was lonely! Like, very lonely. And bored. And hungry, so I ate a lot, so don't judge me if I got fat. And lonely. We were waiting for days, and there is barely any prey to hunt around. David, can you believe I had to eat fish? They taste horrible, raw and cooked."

You gave her a smile, you missed her... Unusual way of thinking.

"Yeah, like Layla said, we were waiting for days." Kelara continued. "We were not sure if you would come here, or if something happened to you. I kept thinking about splitting the group, or just riding alone to search for you, but I... I..."

She lost her words, not being able to explain and look you in the eyes.

She's in the bad spot. You might want to reassure her. And fuck her.

Ishtar's advice wasn't that bad. You could see Kelara had some issues, carried a lot of blame for what happened and then regretted a lot of decisions that she made.

"It's fine, Kelara. I'm here now."

You sent her a smile, but she just started to look in the fire, away from your eyes.

"We made a decision that if we were to wait three more days, we would start actively looking for you, instead of just waiting." Doris said when sitting on your lap. "Today was the final day."

"Then I'm glad we got here in time."