TRC - Searching for the Sky Ch. 22

Ria watched all of this with great interest from her perch atop the head of Kal's mare.

---

"I'm not sure how well this is going to work," said Kal a couple of hours later as he jogged along beside his horse

"You're wearing your cloak backwards," the thief pointed out. "It looks to me like you're already off to a piss-poor start."

The mage just smiled. Crouching for a moment, his strength rune shone bright red just before he launched himself high into the air, flaring out the cloak and catching the wind coming from the west.

"Well fuck, I'm jealous now," grumbled the thief.

"Looks like I've been hanging around with the wrong wizards this whole time," said the fighter as she watched him soar into the sky. "Most of the mages I've traveled with woulda thrown out their back tryin' somethin' like that."

"Makes you wonder what kind of deal he made for that power," growled Elden. "He's the youngest wizard I've seen by decades and more powerful than most already."

"Youngest I've seen by decades too. Wonder if he might like to share a tent tonight."

"You heard the knight talk about the blue ogre! You would sleep with him knowing he's a monster-fucker?!" The priestess was nearly shrieking in disbelief.

"If I spent all my time worried about where my lovers had their dicks before, I'd never get laid."

"Not all lands are like the ones around your precious city," said the thief. "Monster girl brothels aren't unheard of in cities far, far east of here. As for my personal opinion, when I was younger I spent a week in a harpy's nest. I must admit it was a lot of fun. She treated me like a king and if my cock wasn't in my pants, it was in her. If I had a way to cook my food and sitting in her nest day in and day out wasn't so damn boring, I might still be there. No, I don't have any problem with him being a monster-fucker."

"You all are disgusting," Elden sneered.

"No, we live in the real world. Unlike you, who lives behind your glistening white walls, protected from the outside world."

"The Goddess tells us that the monster girls are abominations that need to be eradicated. Here you are willingly giving them your seed so they can make more."

The thief shrugged, "My balls were empty. Good enough for me."

Smiling at the look of horror on the priestess' face, the swordswoman chimed in. "Since they aren't trying to fuck me all the time I've talked with a few over the years. Not sure what all of this abomination nonsense is about. Aside from going stupid when a man comes around, they seem like good folk in general."

She looked up. "As far as flyboy up there, I like men who can give me a good ride. If what he said is true, that he willingly messed around with an ogre and lived to tell the tale, I'm more than a little curious what a night with him might be like. Gotta say though, I'd love to take a tumble with that knight he fought earlier. As a lover of the sword, skills like that make me moist."

"You're a bitch," said the thief. "Now I'm going to be thinking about your wet pussy for the rest of the day."

The fighter laughed. "Sorry mate, maybe you can ask his little friend over there for some relief," she said nodding toward the glowing sprite still riding Kal's horse.

"Sorry, only Kal gets to do that," said Ria.

All three of them turned to stare at her. The fighter had meant it as a joke.

"Don't give me that look! I can make myself bigger!" Her voice fell, "Something weird happened the last time, so I don't know if we are going to do it again anytime soon. I don't want to take the chance that I might be hurting him somehow. Besides, even if I couldn't grow big, my body stretches, just like a real sprite."

The thief glanced up at the mage, who was little more than a speck in the sky, then back at the sprite. "How the hell are you still here?"

---

With the help of his feather fall rune, Kal climbed into the sky while the oncoming wind continued to push him east, back toward Lantaris. To counteract this, he cut power to the featherfall rune and dove back toward his party. When he got close enough to the ground he angled himself up, powered the rune, and began climbing again.

Unfortunately, there was nothing to see, just an ocean of yellow grass stretching all the way to the horizon. He imagined this area would be beautiful to visit during the spring and summer when all the grass was green and wildflowers were sprouting everywhere. He caught some movement off to the south, but it turned out to be a small herd of deer on their way to warmer and more plentiful climes.

When he had burned through a crystal and a half of power feeding the painfully inefficient featherfall rune, he finally dropped down and landed a good distance in front of the other three. By the time they reached him, he had his cloak on properly and vaulted up into his horse's saddle as the mare passed by.

"Nothing of interest?" asked the thief.

"Unless you find grass extremely exciting, no."

"You sound disappointed."

"I think I am. This has to be about the most boring place I've ever been. With a name like, 'The Death Plains,' I think I expected more danger and less grass. Maybe a couple of lakes filled with black, bubbling goo and gouts of flame erupting from the ground."

The thief laughed. "I've been to places like that. Not in them, mind you, but seen and smelled them from afar. I'm perfectly happy with staring at grass for a couple of days over dealing with that. The stench alone is enough to make you choke" Glancing downward, he sighed, "Going to be a cold night without any fire."

"Why can't we have a fire?" asked Kal. He looked around for a moment before realizing what the thief meant. "Oh."

"Aye. No campfires when your bed is sitting on tinder," called out the fighter from up ahead.

Kal shrugged. "I have a spell that will help. I can cast it on you all as well."

"I've a better idea for how ya can keep me warm tonight," she said, looking back at him over her shoulder. "Your little friend has been bragging on ya."

Kal looked forward to see Ria in her spot on the mare's head, or at least most of her. The sprite's face all the way down to her breasts was transparent with embarrassment.

"How much?"

"Probably too much," replied the sprite. "Enough that if it weren't for your oaths of secrecy she would probably have you strung up," she said, indicating the priestess whose face was red with barely contained hatred. "As it is, I was getting a little carried away knowing that she was hearing all of this but can't do anything about it."

"How many of those demon spawn did you create in exchange for your power?!" yelled Elden, unable to contain herself any longer.

"Demon spawn?" Kal was genuinely confused for a moment. He hadn't had sex with any demons and didn't really plan on it. "Ah, that's right. The clergy think that monster girls are demonic in origin. I'm sorry to inform you, but the church has been lying to you. Monster girls have nothing to do with demons and none of my children are demon spawn. I'll let you cast a lie detection spell and say it again if you like."

Elden waved off the challenge, "You must have made some kind of demonic contract to have powers like yours at such a young age!"

"I was born this way. My mother was barren and contacted a magic-user for a potion that would give her a child. The mage modified the potion trying to make it safer for my mother and father. The result is my affinity for magic. No contracts. No demons."

The priestess ground her teeth together. His explanation made an annoying amount of sense. She had the impression that if she accepted his earlier challenge and made him repeat everything, she would find he was telling the truth. With a growl of frustration, she directed her horse off to the side so she would no longer have to listen to the conversation.

---

They did end up having a campfire that night. Kal discovered that he could turn his staff into a scythe, though it was unwieldly without the curves or extra handles. He used it to clear a large area in the tall grass for them to make camp. When everything he had cut was piled off to one side, they did a controlled burn starting where the fire would be and only going out to where they set their tents up. Kal then used his cloak as a giant fan and, with the help of his strength rune, blew the ash away.

It wouldn't have happened at all if Ria hadn't reminded Kal that he had a large amount of firewood stored away for rare situations like this where he didn't have his tent. It was strange thinking that it had been nearly a year since he split the logs they were about to burn.

Kal had picked up a simple tent at the market that was little more than a sheet of canvas draped over ropes and sticks. The thief's and fighter's were much the same. The priestess's tent was quite a bit larger. The material was thinner than canvas and she just threw the rolled-up tent on the ground and stepped back before speaking a command word. As it began to assemble itself, Kal thought for a moment it might be like his, but quickly saw that the inside was empty and the proper size for its outer dimensions. The finished tent was roughly square and could probably fit another two people beyond those in their party. The canvas floor was a nice touch, Kal had been poked in the legs and knees numerous times by stiff pieces of leftover grass while pitching his tent.

The thief, Kedder, and the swordswoman, Falma, both took Kal up on his offer for the acclimation spell. Elden just dug a heavy fur-lined cloak out of one of her saddlebags and wrapped up in it once the sun went down. Kal was quite surprised that the priestess didn't have a similar spell. He would have been more surprised had he known that the woman actually did have access to a spell of that nature but used it so rarely she forgot the pattern.

The men got an extra treat when Falma stripped down to her pants. The curves of the large woman's chest were mostly hidden by her armor and it was nice to see that her breasts were of comparable size to the rest of her. When she emerged from her tent bare-chested, Kedder grumbled about needing to wander off into the grass later and rub one out.

"Why not just peddle your wares at a whorehouse if you are going to walk around half naked," the priestess huffed.

"Even studded leather is still heavy. Quit whining 'cause I want to take a load off and feel the air on my skin. Ya wouldn't be bitchin' if I was some handsome barbarian or knight sittin' here without a shirt."

"You may want to be careful who you snap at about their choice of clothing," said Kal. "Considering what you were wearing when we first met, you've little room to talk, priestess."

Elden snarled in his direction and stood to go back to her tent.

"Sit back down, cleric. We need to talk, all of us," said the swordswoman.

"About what," growled the priestess.

"You, us, and what's going to happen tomorrow." She turned to Kal, "What do you know of the priestess?"

"Not much, I was just referred to her because she needed help and was looking for those from outside the city. She has access to a map I need, so I offered my services in exchange."

"You?" Falma asked Kedder.

The thief gave her a questioning look. "You were there, she was looking for out-of-towners and we were the only experienced adventurers." He leaned toward Kal and pointed toward the fighter, "She was in there 'cause a gent wouldn't take no for an answer and she stabbed him."

"And his friends were determined to see me swinging from the gallows. My point is that we both owe her our lives and mage-boy here needs something she has. More importantly, I've been in groups like this before and if we can't at least figure out how to tolerate one another we are going to end up dead." Her voice dropped, "I've seen it happen before."

"Fair enough," said Kedder. "I have too."

"What do you suggest?" asked Kal.

"The priestess has the largest tent. I think we should all sleep in there tonight."

Elden bristled, "Why would I—"

"Because it shows each of us the lives we are responsible for at their most vulnerable and all in one place. It also reminds us that we are a part of the group, not outside or above it."

The priestess's need to be in control warred with her desire to be accepted, something she never gave much thought to until the thief's comments about spike traps and falling ceilings. She was beginning to get the impression that this was why the head abbot of her cathedral forbade her from bringing along her assistant or any kind of entourage. "Fine," she snapped, then pointed at Kal, "but he doesn't sleep next to me."

"No worries, cleric. If the mage is that hard up I'm sure I can distract him with something a bit more willing."

"Not in my tent you won't!"

Falma grinned at Kal, "Well damn."

---

Since Falma had taken up the role of party leader, she took first watch, followed by Kal, then Elden, and finally Kedder. Kal mentioned that Ria was resting so there would be no need for the humans to set watch, she could take care of the entire night. The swordswoman rejected the idea, saying that it defeated the purpose of them being under one roof and guarding the others while they slept. The sprite was welcome to keep them company, as it was often difficult to stay awake in such a boring land, but not take over the watch from them.

Despite all of the fighter's innuendo, she and Kal didn't actually do anything together that night. Though he was treated to a nice show as she took full advantage of the acclimation spell and stripped naked before climbing into her bedroll. She certainly wasn't shy about her body. The red, glowing eyes threw him off as he woke up until he remembered casting the spell that gave them to her. While not nearly as tall as the oni, the large muscular woman with glowing eyes did bring back a few memories. Especially as she preened and showed off a bit for the mage before going to sleep.

Kal came up with an idea earlier in the day for a "party mode" for Ria and discussed it at length with the sprite during his shift. The concept was largely based on his ability to give others permission to use the bag of holding and determine what those people had access to. It consisted of individual partitions the other three could use at will, as well as a communal section that anyone could store things in. He figured it might be handy in case they ran across a dirt pile like where Kal and Ikuno found Ria and just needed to grab the whole thing in one go. It also offered a place for others to store someone else's items. If one of them were knocked out, Ria could pick up their stuff so they wouldn't need to worry about losing anything.

At the end of his shift, he went to wake the priestess. Resisting the urge to kick her foot, he instead reached down and shook her gently before retreating back outside to give her some privacy. Much like the priestess, he was beginning to understand that this trip was very different from most of his previous adventures.

He'd had to ask Falma earlier about the different sizes of military units since Elden had said a regiment was lost out on the plains, but the soldier had said his son was in a company. It wasn't a topic he had run across, or was likely to run across, in his collection of books. The fighter assured him that it was most likely a company since that would only be a few dozen where a regiment would number in the thousands. She then went on to grumble about people knowing what they were talking about before opening their mouths. Kal decided not to point out that up until a few seconds ago he was just as ignorant as the priestess. To him, 'regiment' sounded like a group of soldiers while 'company' was someone you invited over for dinner.

A few dozen cavalry going missing was far better than losing thousands, but anything that could take out that many soldiers must be extremely dangerous. While sad for the soldier who lost his son, he was relieved they were only there for reconnaissance and not rescue.

Bleary-eyed, the priestess stepped out into the crisp night air. Tapping a gem on a thin gold bracelet, her eyes lit up with a dull red glow as the world around her appeared to brighten.

"You have the watch," said the mage, though it was nearly unintelligible with him yawning at the same time.

Elden nodded in understanding and looked on as he made his way into her tent. Part of her loathed to admit it, but the fighter's idea seemed to be working. With them sleeping in her tent it brought to light that they were members of her party and were depending on her to keep them safe. It was almost like having chi—

No. No. Absolutely not. She was not letting her mind go in that direction. She had too many ambitions before she started thinking along those lines. Once she was running the cathedral then maybe, but not right now.

"Everything alright?" asked the mage's sprite.

Elden couldn't fault the little avatar's concern; she was sure her thoughts had been painted all over her face. "I'm fine. Since we are out here for the next few hours would you care if I asked you a few questions? I've never conversed with a bag of holding."

Ria smiled. "I'll answer what I can. What would you like to know?"

---

The idea of letting the group use Ria's abilities received a lukewarm response from the others. They weren't too excited about having any of their items tucked away in a bag of holding that wasn't theirs. Eventually, the security of not needing to worry about dropping something important and losing it forever won them over.

Falma was fully convinced that her idea failed horribly, the priestess was even worse the next day. No one could even speak in her direction without getting a curt, snarling response.

Actually, the opposite was true, the fighter's method had worked extremely well. Elden's preconceived notions were dumped on their face yesterday and she was having a hard time dealing with a very jarring shift in her thinking. This was made worse by the underlying reason for bringing the other three, to act as fodder for whatever killed the cavalry and priests.

Adding to her feelings of guilt was her conversation with the sprite last night. The tiny woman truly loved Kal and attributed her emotions to the unusual glow she had picked up a short time ago. It just made the cleric feel worse for hoping the mage might die so she could claim the sprite's artifact.

Her conversation also strayed into the young wizard's relationships and what she heard last night was turning a few more long-held beliefs on their head. A monster girl willfully giving up her life to save a human seemed preposterous, yet that appears to be what this 'oni' did. The last bastion of the priestess's prejudice took solace in Ria's glowing form. She heard that bag of holding avatars were unable to lie, perhaps this change that made the sprite glow allowed her to get around that. Elden could see how weak the argument was. However, with so many of her beliefs chipped away in such a short time, she needed something to hold on to.

Other than the priestess's foul mood there was little of interest that morning. Fields of yellowing grass weren't very exciting.

Kal and Balthus's business back at the outpost put them slightly behind schedule. They were supposed to arrive at the projected whereabouts of the cavalry around midday. but it was a couple of hours after that when Kal landed and said that there was something different about the plains ahead.

"There are large circles all over, they look to be random," reported the mage as he mounted his horse.

"Nothing moving?" asked Falma.

"Not that I could tell. Sorry, but I was a little hesitant to swoop down and look considering how many this thing has killed already."

"Understandable. Let's get a bit closer then find a place to stake the horses. We'll approach the area on foot. No sense in being any louder than necessary."