A light breeze whispered through the leaves in the growing darkness of the forest. The drow elf drew closer to Ruthrrien and carefully began to bandage her wound. She grimaced and tried to tell the elf she could do it herself, but the pain was too great. “Thanks,” was all she could manage as he finished.
“Do you have a healing potion?” Ainz asked unconcernedly, obviously hoping she didn’t.
“Yes.” she answered gruffly, and pulled it out of her pack with her good hand, thankful it didn’t break. Unstopping it with her teeth, she drank the whole bottle.
Ianz was still eyeing her with a malicious glint.
Lucerin frowned at him. “Stop sizing her up for death and help me get her stable.”
“Not exactly my territory,” he replied smoothly. “Besides, she just took a potion.”
“Yeah,” she replied firmly as a warmth spread to her limbs, “I’m already feeling my strength return. Let’s just hope nothing else happens tonight.”
“We should get back to camp,” Ainz responded, unable to hide the slight disappointment in his tone.
Lucerin stood, “Can you walk?”
She nodded and slowly got to her feet. Lucerin made a slight motion as if about to offer help, but her pride had returned with her strength and she growled a little, determined not to appear weak. He moved away without further comment, joining the others as they made their way back to camp. She moved slower than the rest, every muscle in her body aching as the last of her adrenaline faded. Exhausted, she gingerly lay down on her bedroll upon returning to camp while the others discussed who would take watch, agreeing that they should let her rest.
As she slowly drifted to sleep, howling was heard once again much further away than it had been before.
——————–
BOOM!!
She woke with a start as the earth shook with the force of the lighting bolt. Ainz and Lucerin appeared at the openings of their tent as the halfling stared at the sky. A wicked wind suddenly blew through the camp, causing the tents to collapse and their lighter weight belongs to blow about. As they scrambled to collect them, a torrential rain suddenly released from the clouds above, soaking them all to the bone within minutes. Gathering as much as they could, they moved to the base of the trees for some cover until the storm passed.
It left as fast as it had come, and all grew still and quiet again. As the others moved to reassemble camp, Ruthrrien simply remained at the base of a tree, plopping down and leaning back against the trunk with a sigh. She fell back to sleep within minutes, exhausted from her injuries.
She woke the next morning just as the sun was rising, and for a moment was confused by her surroundings. A thick fog had rolled in and she could barely see past the first few trees across the small clearing. Then she spotted the others already up and packing to move on and remembered where she was. Despite the less than restful night, she felt refreshed and wondered if the potion had healed more of her injuries overnight. As she rose to pack, she found movement easier, and was able to use both arms with much less pain.
As she gathered her things, she noticed Ainz and Lucerin cast quick glances at her, Ainz looking disappointed while Lucerin looked wary.
She smirked at Ainz, “not dead yet.” Grinning as she stretched a bit to show off how good she was feeling. Ainz grumbled as Lucerin’s eyes narrowed.
“You healed up well,” he said evenly, hiding his growing suspicions.
She shrugged and rolled her shoulders, passing her great ax between her hands and bouncing on the balls of her feet a little to get the blood flowing as they prepared to leave.
“I’m made of tougher stuff you know. And I got that healing potion from one of the best potion makers in the whole city.” She was fully confident in this, but Lucerin was unconvinced and continued to keep a close eye on her. Gelwyn had been tending to her pony when she voiced what everyone else was thinking.
“So, we all still want to make money, right? Do we keep going?”
“Well it’s not like I’m going to let this little injury stop me.” Ruthrrien replied confidently. The others exchanged dark looks. “Look, I’m fine. Let’s go.”
The Whitney Scott 