Fate Weaver's convergence

C64 Opening breeze, fading flowers 11

"Kiyomi~"

I could feel something nudging my shoulder, but my body felt so heavy, that all I could do was grumble.

"Mom, five minutes."

"Kiyomiii~ Come on girl, wake up. It's time to keep going, you want us to meet your time goal don't you?"

Relenting under the constant nudging of my shoulder, I cracked my eyes open. Looking over my shoulder, I saw Adrian smiling at me as she posted her head in her left hand.

"G'morning."

I mumbled as I slowly tried to sit up. Sometime in the early morning, Graf called for us to stop and make camp after he noticed I was giving in to exhaustion.

"Morning kid."

"Mornin troublemaker."

Alick and Graf both added in order. As they did, the pervasive scent of fried pork and eggs traveled on the breeze.

"Mn? Breakfast?"

I mumbled, creeping out of bed and looking to the source. A cast iron pan, laying atop burnt coals that were patiently tended. Within it, a few slices of bacon and an egg.

"I'm making yours right now Kiyomi, me and Alick already ate; Adrian can wait since she didn't wanna budge on ya."

Graf spoke as he poked and prodded at the thinly sliced pork. It was quite strange seeing the Goblin with an expression mute of aggravation or spite.

"Well, come on. You want it while it's fresh or it'll overcook by the time you dig in. It's not like we have plates."

"So some ground rules, Kiyomi."

"Wow, you can say my name instead of kid"

Graf rolled his eyes.

"Touché. Back to where I was, now that we're sobered up enough to know what we signed up for, here are some ground rules."

Graf handed me the fork he'd been using to cook. Taking it in hand, I prodded at the pan.

Mmmm~ bacon is always good~.

"First things first, don't run too far from us. We don't want you getting hurt on our watch. Second, we don't have a primary healer so if you DO feel like you're in danger, be careful."

Graf produced a vial from one of the bags placed around us, handing it to me.

"For emergency use ONLY. We can take care of scrapes or cuts. That's reserved for if you're seriously injured. Not that we plan to just let that happen, not in good conscience."

For a guy that's all bark and grouchy, he's surprisingly considerate.

"The last rule kid."

Graf crossed his arms, sighing as he did.

"We need to know why we're going to the pass. We're not exactly gonna let you near a monster nest to grab an egg or something."

Graf said this as he raised a brow, seemingly expecting a similar answer.

"That's oddly... specific."

Graf shrugged.

"It's specific cause I tried when I was a munchkin."

Graf was surprisingly casual in his explanation.

"We're grabbing a flower, Azure-lace."

The three fell silent, all looking at me.