Xiao's Birthday

Part 11 (Chapters 26-27)

Artist is @hinapopota on Tweetbird! THIS IS SUCH A GOOD PICTURE OMG.

Chapter 26

"And then we went on to fight a little hilichurl camp," Missy recounts. Xiao and I keep eating.

"We climbed a mountain to get a plant."

I snort. "Well, it was a purple flower we needed as an ingredient."

"Still. It was a plant. Anyways, after that we had to go fight an Abyss Mage and a, what was it again?"

I shrug.

"Oh! A Frostarm Lawachurl!"

Xiao puts his fork down.

"That sucked. It took so many tries to win that."

"That's when your eye got cut," Missy says. "I thought you were a goner. There was so much blood."

"Missy, I'm fine," I hiss. "Anyways," I say, "it wasn't bad." The last thing I want is him feeling bad about all of this.

"The healers here may be able to help," Xiao says.

I smile. "I can visit them tomorrow. I'm not too worried though, Arienne did a nice job. It barely hurts."

He takes a deep breath, and resumes eating.

"Oh! And then we had to fight them a bunch. __ saved a lot of travelers who got in trouble."

"That doesn't surprise me," Xiao responds. "What were they doing there?"

"Well, once the Regisvine plants were gone, they just walked up the path like they owned it. And they learned their lesson."

"I doubt it. But we helped them once." I shrug. Once is good.

"You helped them again at the lake," Missy points out.

"Oh yeah. That sucked. By far, the worst day."

"Really?!"

"Yes." I look to Xiao, pouting. "I got thrown in a frozen lake by another Abyss Mage. Man I hate fighting those guys."

"They're not fun," he says.

I shake my head, agreeing. "And I can never reach them. Even if I climb on stuff, they just destroy it. Hmph. But we won. And we got the mask, which is what we needed."

"You defeated him."

"Of course." His eyes are so pretty. "We weren't gonna just leave him there."

Xiao chuckles to himself, the first time I think I've seen him laugh. He takes a drink.

"And then __ got sick and I had to be a nurse for a few days. That was boring."

"That's what I get for taking a swim in a lake."

"Then we went into a mountain and at first it was fine, but after that day a bunch of spiders showed up."

"They tried to eat us," I say.

"We ate them," Missy protests.

I shrug. "I said they tried."

"What did they taste like?," Xiao asks.

"Oh, we brought some back if you want to try some."

He nods, slowly.

I look at our plates, almost cleared.

"Do you...want to join us for dinner tomorrow?" I'm nervous, but I look over to his eyes.

Xiao is staring back. "Yes. I'd like to join you."