I Can't Get the Vampire Rogue to Romance Me

Chapter 39 - Maybe It'll Further the Plot

"Valerian, are you sure you're alright?" Artmond asked for the fifth time.

The vampire didn't even bother to answer, just glowered as they moved into the deeper part of the grotto where Harrowheart's forge stood.

Things had improved overnight. The forge was still black, but its owner and a few others were pulling out the burned logs to load into a cart while others were setting up new ones to take their place, restoring the forge.

"Good morning, mates. How are ya all? Good sleep an' all?" Harrowheart said cheerily, dropping her end of the burned log onto the cart as she spoke.

"Well, enough," Evangeline said, smiling. Harrowheart was definitely one of her favorite characters in the game.

Her joviality was short-lived, however, as a pair of druids walked up. Immediately, her face went stony, and she crossed her arms to square up to them. One druid, a squat tiefling, looked her up and down. "I suppose you're going to tell me no one approached you, again."

"Yes, that is what I'm going to tell you," Harrowheart responded.

"And that your forge catching fire was just a coincidence," the other, a lean human, added.

"Pretty much," she countered.

"Harrowheart, it doesn't have to be like this. If someone is threatening you, we can protect you," the first said, leaning in as his voice quieted. "Horns to tusks, I mean it."

"I don't need your horns anywhere near my tusks, Aencis," Harrowheart sneered.

The lean human snorted a laugh at the name, which earned him a chest smack from his partner. "You know not to call me that Harrow," the druid warned.

"I'll call you whatever I damn well like," the forger continued, taking a step forward toward the challenge, but the lean human interceded, stepping between the two larger beings with a hand out toward them both.

"Hey, hey, that's enough. We didn't come here looking for a fight," he warned, more to his partner than Harrowheart.

"That's right. A fight is the last thing any of us wants," Hagor said, stepping up beside Harrowheart, crossing his own arms. It wasn't an aggressive move, but rather a calm, firm one that just knew how this was going to go. Evangeline stepped up on the other side of Harrowheart, followed by Artmond and Sigismund. Valerian stayed in the back, crossing his arms. The show of force was unmistakable.

The two druids backed off, but the tiefling couldn't quite turn around and walk off without one last stabbing finger, pointed at Harrowheart. "This isn't over," he said in the most cliche way possible, before letting his partner drag him off.

"Well, that was melodramatic," Valerian snarked.

The tension drained from everyone at that comment.

Harrowheart turned to the rogue and she laughed. "You speak true, kid. Even his love declarations were like he read them from a badly written book."

"So you did date him?" Sigismund sniffed.

"Only if you're feeling generous with the definition," Harrowheart said, then gestured at the workers, who had stayed stock-still and watched during the standoff.

"Clarince, can I pass this to you?" she asked the closest one; they nodded with a thumbs up. Then she turned back to the party. "I need a drink already, and from the looks on your faces, you want a story?"

"It's really none of our business," Sigismund said.

"I agree it really isn't." Valerian's agreement irritated Sigismund more.

"That's fine by me.

To be continued...

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