Eight Intertwined

12 - Rippletide

Just as the rumors had dictated, the pathway leading up to the entrance of the Caves of Maiya was littered with monsters. They were the same types that Tressa had seen outside of Rippletide when she was forced to fight off beasts that strayed into town. Her aim with a bow was much better than she expected, and Tressa wasn't bad with a spear either. Her wind magic did a nice job of knocking the flying beasts off their course, and each time that a beast was defeated, Tressa found herself beaming with joy at the sight of victory. Cyrus and Ophilia continued to watch her fondly from nearby throughout this whole process, and Tressa found herself beaming at their clear silent praise. 

The job of carrying the wine to the entrance of the caves involved a lot of shuffling around. After a short distance, they would swap around just who was carrying the wine in its hefty container. Ophilia wasn't as muscular as Tressa by a long shot, and after a while, even Cyrus began to struggle. He wasn't even all that strong if Tressa was being honest, but he did have the advantage of height to make it at least a little easier to heft the barrel from place to place. 

As it turned out, Cyrus was notably good when it came to seeing what the enemies were weak to as far as combat was concerned. He could give a brief glance at the beasts, and from there, all it took was a short slash of a weapon or flourish of magic for everything to be resolved. Tressa couldn't help but wonder just how long he had spent studying to make sure that he was good at something so strange, but she figured that it was something that she could inquire about later on. 

"I truly hope that we don't run into any of the pirates in battle after we get there," Ophilia said after she let out a sigh. She had just managed to defeat yet another one of the beasts, and her eyes were laced with concern that anyone could see with just one glance in her direction. 

"If we do see them, then we'll just have to fight our way through!" Tressa declared firmly. She wasn't exactly looking forward to the idea of fighting against the pirates given how ruthless and powerful they had already proven themselves to be, but that wasn't going to stop her from trying. Plus, part of her was desperate to get revenge on the pirates from the humiliation that she had endured earlier that morning. 

"Your plan should make it much easier for us to power through fighting against the pirates," Cyrus pointed out. "If they all drink the laced wine, then it should be easy for us to sneak in and out as long as we're quiet enough to keep from waking them once more. It would likely take quite a bit to rouse them if they're under the influence of sleepweed in the first place, so we have the advantage here."

"Those pirates are going to see this as a way of apologizing for me acting the way that I did earlier today, but they're not going to know that this is exactly what I want them to think," Tressa said to herself with a prideful smile and a snicker. "I can make sure that they think what I want them to. All it's going to take is a little bit of a performance, and I can do that without any issues. If I say that I was sent here to make up for what happened this morning or something... Well, I think that the pieces should all fall right into place, and that'll be that!"

"Your confidence is incredible," Ophilia told Tressa, her eyes gleaming with admiration. "I don't think that I ever would have been able to do something like this. I wouldn't have had the idea in the first place, and beyond that... You have to be pretty driven to not only follow through with it but have such confidence that it will succeed. I don't think that I would ever be able to do something like this."

Tressa shrugged at her words as she and Cyrus continued walking with the barrel. "I think that you're not giving yourself enough credit. You're able to do all sorts of things that I couldn't dream of doing right now. I mean, your skills with light magic are amazing, and I don't know if I have the patience for that right now," she confessed. "I'm happy that you're here. I'm sure that I can use all the help that I can get."