TRC - Searching for the Sky Ch. 17

Kal thought for a long while before speaking. "Do your surveyors need to know about this?" he pointed at the line of magic running into the earth.

"Aye," answered Olen. "Comin across some heated caves up in a mountain should certainly be something they oughta know about beforehand."

"Do your surveys usually mention the temperatures of caves?"

"Well... no, I s'pose they don't," said the old dwarf, a grin spreading across his face.

Kal turned to Huldurn. "Is asking for this little bit of discretion too much? If so then I don't think we'll be able to do this."

The magistrate's face screwed up in concentration as he weighed his options. The older dwarf was nearly hopping in anticipation as the administrator made up his mind.

"You an' yer damn rubies!" He finally burst out. "If I hadn't seen 'em already and knew they were real then I wouldn't be sayin' this. Fine. We'll ask the survey team to leave that out o' the report if'n yer king's court asks fer it."

"Much appreciated," said the mage while doing a poor job of containing his grin.

"We'll be takin one o' those rubies now. That'll cover the envoys to yer capital, the survey of the mountain an' be a hefty down payment on our work. Mind you, we won't be cuttin' any rock 'til we have the survey back and you come back ta finalize plans and payment."

Kal smiled. "Fair enough."

The magistrate and engineer began speculating what kind of stone they might be dealing with and what kind of system they could put together for material removal while boring the tunnels. At this point, Kal excused himself and stepped out of the magistrate's office and joined up with Sera, who was waiting for him just outside the door.

"I take it from your smile things went well?" she asked as they walked back toward the market.

"Very much so." At that moment the mage was feeling downright giddy.

"Mind telling me what that was all about?"

"I'm putting together a small city high up on a mountain. Some of the councilmembers from my hometown took care of the purchasing of the mountain for me some time ago. The dwarves just agreed to take care of the next part."

"Which is?"

"Getting people and goods up there more easily."

"Why are you doing all of this?"

Kal looked over at her and smiled, "So women like you and men like me have a safe place to live together."

At first, she looked up at him adoringly, but her smile soon disappeared. "Safely? I know you said that a lot of humans don't like us, but are we in danger?"

"I must have understated how humans feel about you. You will have to remain hidden in some of the lands we will be traveling into. If you are discovered, the humans there may try to kill you on sight."

"Why?" she asked, stopping in the tunnel they were walking down. It was one thing to be disliked by the humans who had dealings with the dwarves. But to have people want to kill her because of what she was seemed asinine.

"Perhaps we should continue this when we get back. It's a long explanation and we still have a blindfold to pick up."

Still deep in thought, she nodded and continued after him.

When they got to the market they returned to the stall of the seamstress and Sera tried on her new blindfolds. The first was a beautiful piece made of a silky green fabric that matched her patches of reptilian skin with flowing designs made of tiny gold beads embedded in the material that vaguely reminded Kal of the snakes on her head. The other two were similar but in a shimmering red and blue that complemented her scales instead of matching them.

He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but he rather enjoyed the look on her. The gorgon's 'punishment' after he recovered from the effects of her gaze flitted across his mind, but this time with the addition of one of the blindfolds.

Her head tilted down as though looking at his crotch as she noticed warming from increased blood flow to that area. "What are you thinking about?" she asked with a slight smile.

The gruff voice of the dwarven seamstress came from off to the side. "Sumthin' you two can go do elsewhere," she said gesturing at the bulge in his pants. "You've got yer pretty strips o' cloth and I've got me coin. Now quit blocking me stall."

---

The next morning Sera heaved a great sigh as the tent collapsed in on itself and folded up into a small square of canvas.

"Everything alright?" Kal asked as he picked up the piece of fabric and nodded to Ria who made it turn into a speck of light and float into her bag. He was worried that he'd done something to upset the gorgon. The suggestive comment she made when getting her blindfolds had been her first show of interest in him since the incident with the will-o'-wisp. Last night after he had explained the humans' views of her and women like her in depth, Sera had returned to her room instead of joining him as he had hoped. He didn't blame her, he'd dropped some pretty heavy news in her lap about how the surface world worked.

"It seems like I keep losing my homes since I met you," said the gorgon

Kal winced and looked over at her, "Sorry? If it helps, when we put it back out tonight it will all be the same inside."

She gave him a sad smile and tilted her head toward him, she was wearing the blue cloth over her eyes today. "I'll be fine, just a little scared of what's out there waiting for us now."

"A little fear is good for you, keeps you safe. I really can't tell you how proud I am that you are getting over your dread of being outside. That kind of fear steals your life even though you are still breathing."

Her head tilted upward, "It's strange, I know there's nothing above us deep down in my gut, but they can't sense heat that far away," she said lifting a hand and letting a couple of the serpents run across it, "and they have such poor eyesight that I can convince myself something is up there, it's just too far away to detect."

Kal couldn't quite see the logic, but it was working so he wasn't going to complain.

"I think I took comfort in my old home being so close, even though I knew I couldn't go back," she said wistfully. "I suppose there's only one thing left to do before we leave."

"What's that?" Kal asked confused, the tent was already put up and he couldn't think of anything else that needed to be done. Ria tittered from her place on his shoulder after seeing the lost expression on his face.

Walking over to the edge of the clearing, Sera unbuckled her belt and tugged down the pants she'd bought for traveling. Leaning over, she pressed up against the trunk of the tree directly across from where the entrance of the tent had been. "Make one more good memory," she said, looking back at him with an inviting smile as her bottom swayed back and forth enticingly.

Ria flew up and perched on a branch that allowed her a good view, one hand already between her legs. Nodding, Kal stepped up behind the gorgon while reaching for his own belt, "One more good memory."