[While on a rescue mission gone crazed, a holy warrior and a rogue fight bandits, demons, and the urge to rip each other's clothes off.]
The mission, rescuing a princess, could be going better.
Séa is an earnest paladin, honest and gullible. Tash is...
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The rogue sank to the floor and buried her face in her hands. Despite being immersed in pain, Séa wanted to kneel and hug her frustration away.
Ghomarck stayed on the far side of the room. His head drooped forward. "Indeed, I feel quite the fool at the moment."
Séa's armor disintegrated at the shoulder, and she slipped off her gauntlet and metal sleeve. Blood stained her gambeson at the upper arm. Instead of dressing her injuries, she knelt and rubbed between the rogue's shoulder blades with her bare hand. "Hey, Tash. Are you hurt? I mean, you dodged those fireballs, and that was amazing. I never saw a person move so fast. You were like a greased pig at the fair, uh, except you're not like a pig at all. You're lots cuter."
The rogue peeked at Séa through her fingers and mumbled, "Yeah, I'm all right." She dropped her hands from her face and mock-scowled. "And that was the most back-handed, inept compliment ever uttered in the history of the world."
Séa's lips curved upwards. She shrugged and spread her hands. "So I'm original?"
"You are without peer," the rogue pronounced, "in the madwoman category."
With assorted bangs and rattles Séa sat next to Tash. She used her breathing-meditation to rise above the waves of pain like an albatross coasting on ocean rollers. She lowered her visor, then wrestled her helm off. Her lips and chin felt sticky Cave air passed over the congealing blood and cooled her lower face. She summoned a grin. "I feel like it's time for a snack. We can decide what to do while we eat."
"You need more than a snack," Tash accused. "You need a week of convalescence. You're a mess. Can't you heal yourself, like you healed me after the succubus attack?" Tash shrugged out of her pack, now with scorch marks added to its long list of traumas and stains.
Séa swigged from her canteen and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, thereby smearing her knuckles with blood. "No, no. That's not how it goes. Torugg wouldn't approve."
"Sure he would." Tash scavenged in her own pack for a pair of honey cakes. She handed one to Séa. "How can you finish a quest when you're half dead?"
Séa tore into the dry waybread. "I see your point," she said around chewing, "but I'm not impaired, yet. Just banged up. I couldn't do it even if I were worse off. It's better to tough it out."
"Better how?" When Tash squinted, the stiffer scar tissue of her eye-slash pulled at her brow and cheek.
"Better to not bug Torugg with selfish whining. We endure. We succor those who suffer and we endure." Soberly, Séa bit off another chunk.
"But you're suffering. Right now. Brightly and redly. All over the place." The rogue licked her lips.
She licked her lips at the sight of my blood. And she calls me crazy. Séa waved her bit of bread to emphasize her point. "I'm in pain, yes, but I'm not suffering. I accept my pain as part of my life journey, and, in this case, proof of conquest. In case you didn't notice, we made a great team just now. We sent one of the Abyss's most feared demons back to the Planes of Darkest Torments."
