The Heat of the Moment

Chapter XV: Dirty Paws

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SURPISE BITCHES
Bet ya thought I was gone for good.
Hahaha - good luck with that. You'll never be rid of me ;)

All jokes aside, I apologize for my absence. Without revealing too much, I feel like I owe you all some sort of explanation. You all have been so kind,so supportive. I don't think I can really portray how much I value those of you who have stuck with me. This time of year has become difficult for me. The feeling of loss can be overwhelming and all consuming-
I have had a lot of struggles due to my mental health, and the toll that my work has taken on me. I promise you that I am safe, and that I am healing. I am laughing, finding the silver lining, and playing DnD with my friends when I have spare time. (And of course, fighting writer's block.) In my absence, I have thought a lot about where I would like this story to go and have made plans on what will come after. I have had so many fears, along with an ongoing battle with imposter syndrome. There are many projects in the works, and I will be so excited to share them with you when they are ready. I have decided that I am no longer going to hold myself to a schedule because the idea of a deadline, or rather failing to uphold a promise, is just as crippling to my mental health. I feel like this will take a lot of pressure off and allow me to provide you with a story worth reading.
So, without further lolly gagging,
I present to you the next chapter.

This was originally going to be one longgggg assssss chapter
but I have decided to break it up into chunks and add on to what I already have.
So enjoy, little babies~
I look forward to hearing your feedback.
All my love,
SY

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Lying their way into the goblin camp was suspiciously easy.

Diana wore a mask of bored indifference as she perused the goblin tradesman's wares, eyeing Astarion out of the corner of her eye as she kept the short-tempered creature distracted. The goods he held for sale were obviously pilfered from some unlucky source, quite possibly from the wreckage of Waukeen's Rest up on the hill. The goblin was entirely too eager to finesse Diana out of her carefully monitored purse, Astarion's careful slight of hand trick going entirely unnoticed by anyone without a trained eye - a flash of bottle green out of the sleeve of his shirt as he stood by the communal source of wine, vanished before anyone could perceive him standing there at all.

Diana closed her deal with the ill-tempered goblin and pretended not to notice a slip of a shadow as Astarion sized the smaller creature up to pickpocket from the safety of a darkened alcove. Stowing away her coin purse, she turned around to finally acknowledge the situation with Volo standing on what appeared to be a makeshift stage in the middle of the reverie. She recognized the flamboyant thespian from the Druid's grove; he had asked many incessant questions about the party's first encounter with the goblin hoard at the Grove's gate, going so far as to embellish details about the appearance of a dragon. This had annoyed Diana somewhat, as she would have surely recognized her kin if they were nearby and told him as much, only to have him wave her away as if she spouted nonsense.

The bard did not do well masking his impatience as she wandered up to him, looking up at him as if she were listening to a lecture on the many varieties of soil types found along the Sword Coast. Volo was struggling at this point, distracted by the party members as they entered camp - he had been attempting to make up a harrowing ballad about the Goblin's recent inquisitions and he was turning up short.

"Oi back up!"

Diana lazily looked to the side where the voice had addressed her to find a female goblin glowering up at her, waving at her to back up away from the stage. Volo stammered through his ballad, repeating the same line as before as he panicked at the female goblin's angry attention.