NEVER SPLIT THE PARTY: The Adventures of the Creeping Bam (BOOK 4: The Hunt)

CHAPTER TWO: SHAYLINE

I breathe out as soon as we touch ground and that horrible lurching sensation stops, opening my eyes at the same moment as I immediately start casting about my surroundings, hand already laid on my sword in case I need to draw it in a rush. Nothing here. Except that ... shit, I guess her warning wasn't simple caution after all, this really doesn't look like what I expected. All I can see is dim lit cobbles and high walls, but from the look of it ... gods, I've never seen a place so clean, certainly not outdoors. Not even when we were in Bavat.

Kesla drops to one knee immediately with a great clanking of steel from her greaves, and she barely gets her helmet off in time before emptying her stomach right onto the cobbles. She stays there for a long, drawn out moment after, head down with her helmet tucked under one arm curled at her side, the other hand pressed hard onto the ground holding her up, just gasping and moaning with each heavy breath. Fuck ... it's like she's done before we can even get started.

Wincing in sympathy for how she must be feeling, I look to Lady Naru, who's simply frowning down at her, but she must sense my attention because she raises her chin and meets my eyes almost immediately. I couldn't read that look if I tried, to be honest. She's not worried, exactly, but ... I don't know. Maybe there's a little concern. Certainly she must be thinking the same thing I am. This was a mistake. There's no way Kesla's really ready for this.

"All right, that's it." Krakka's already stooping beside her, reaching out to grip her thick, well-armoured arm, aiming to help her up. "This is no good, Kesla. You need to go back –"

"Fuck that ..." she manages to choke out with a considerable amount of savagery, looking up at him now. It'd probably be a little more effective without the string of nasty drool dangling from her lips, but it seems to work as the cleric just steps back, frowning deep but holding his tongue. I suppose the re-greased hair and dark black line once more smeared across her eyes does its trick, too.

"Oh ..." She spits hard, then hocks and spits out something a good deal more unpleasant, before finally starting to push herself up again. When Krakka starts to step in to try and help her again she waves him off with a very tight look indeed, instead just straining for a long moment as she shoves herself up enough to get her other foot under her too and then plants her free hand on her knee. After that she just shoves a little harder until finally she's only a little bent in the back, although in the end it's still got her breathing hard.

That fucking hurt to watch, I just can't hold my tongue any longer. "Kesla, maybe he's right. Do you think that maybe –"

"I ain't sitting out on this one. Not here. Definitely not now. This is important. Not just to the effort, but ..." She straightens her back out the last of the way, then leans back a bit extra as she gives it a little stretch. It makes her wince, which I doubt is a good sign, and gods it cracks pretty loud, despite all the layers ... but afterwards she seems a little more comfortable, at least. "Oh ... fuck ... she means a lot to me. I can't let her die. Or her family."

Yeah ... I wasn't with them the other day, when they came here to visit Lady Thura Vezrim, but I've heard the stories, hell you couldn't grow up in the Reaches without learning about Kumehn Valley and those three intense days of desperate battle. The Hellcat, what a serious legend. And from what I've learned, at least second-hand from the others since they made that visit, I'm told she pretty much lives up to it. It's clear they were all very impressed with her, but more than that, I hear that she's a very good person, too. So yeah, I suppose I can commiserate with that.

But I can also understand where Kesla's coming from personally, too. This woman was her hero growing up, she means the world to her, and I know full well what it's like looking up to someone so much when you're young. I had that with my mother, Min the Reckless cast one hell of a shadow. Perhaps not quite to the extent that this Lady Thura's cast on Kesla in her youth, but ... and then to discover that she actually measured up to what she always thought? That's a powerful thing. The need to act is clearly strong for her.