One Word Prompts

Roasted - Potatoes

Six sat around a campfire, the flames burned down to coals. Above them the stars of the night sky twinkled around the crescent moon from behind a hazy screen of clouds. Around them the forest stretched, dark and deep. Their dinner, potatoes, the dubious reward from their last job, roasted slowly in the steady heat.

"This is the last time we leave Daud in charge of picking the job," Aaryn said. He was a young man with dark hair and bright eyes. Like the others of his party, he wore his traveler's cloak tight around his body and sat as close as he dared to the coals.

"I thought it went fairly well," Kat said, patting Daud's shoulder. At sixteen, she was the oldest of the party, and was already a woman of grace and poise. Battle trained as she was, she still looked more like she belonged on a dance floor in silk dresses than in leather armor swinging a mace or drawing a bow.

Daud sat beside her on his sleeping mat, his sword and shield lying within reach at the foot of his bed. His sandy hair, dark eyes, and wide frame made him the perfect contrast to Aaryn. The two were often in friendly opposition, and Daud did not look the least bit surprised or upset by Aaryn's accusations. Rather he quietly tended the coals, poking the potatoes periodically with a long stick.

Keres nodded in agreement with Kat, her eyes not leaving the potatoes, her mouth watering slightly. She was a shy girl, the youngest (although certainly most dangerous) member of the party at thirteen. In public, she generally kept her face hidden beneath the deep hood of her cloak, but tonight, among her friends had let it fall back, revealing her shocking white hair, her pointed ears, and her hungry smile.

"Ri," Aaryn whined. "Please, don't send Daud to the Guild Office alone again."

Rihan shrugged. Unspoken, but unarguably, Rihan was the team leader. He tended to wear either an easy smile or a devil's grin. Tonight, in as straight a voice as he could muster, he wore the second. "I don't know. Its good for us to diversify our contracts. Maybe we should do more of this kind of work."

"You must be joking." Aaryn crossed his arms over his chest. "We fought vampire weasels, Ri. Vampire. Weasels."

"I told you! That was the job," Daud said. "No one believed me."

"What the hell is a vampire weasel?" Aaryn insisted. "It was a weird rumor. We were supposed to investigate. The investigation was supposed to discover the town's livestock weren't being attacked by a weird mythical creature. We then were supposed to assure the people it was just the ordinary kind of wolves, and then, we were supposed to have gone home."

"Since when have you wanted to go home?" Rihan asked. "You miss the temple monks that badly?"

Aaryn scowled. "A low blow, Ri, low blow. We all know I'm never going back there. You know what I meant."

Rihan shrugged. "Regardless, how many missions have we been on? Has a single one of them followed the plan?"

"I mean..."

"It sounds like your objection was that we actually had to fight?" Rose said slowly. She sat beside Keres, her long hair let down from its usual tidy braid for the night. Her sword and shield, like Daud, were at the foot of her bed roll within easy reach. "You do remember, we're adventurers, right? This is what we do?"

"Rose," Aaryn sighed. "Were you prepared for foot long rodents with a taste for blood? I wasn't. Were you prepared for there to be a weasel king? Or for him to be three feet tall with claws that put werewolves to shame? I wasn't'."

"We could have done more prep work," Rihan admitted. He put a finger to his lips, pretending to be in thought. "But someone insisted that there was no such thing as a vampire weasel. It was hard to convince anyone we should do any serious ground work."

Unable to refute the accusation, Aaryn switched tactics, "And what about this reward?"

"The potatoes?" Rihan asked.

"Yes, the potatoes!"

"What's wrong with the potatoes?"

"It wasn't just potatoes," Kat said. "They gave us a lot of supplies we needed. We were all out of bandages and ointment before."

"And there were fresh strawberries in the bags they gave us," Rose added.

"Gold, guys. Gold." Aaryn waved his arms about in emphasis. "We're adventurers. The end goal is gold. Or did we forget?"

"You're such a cynic, you know that?" Rose said, shaking her head.

"Besides, since the vampire weasels had been eating their livestock, they didn't have any gold to pay us," Daud added.

"But potatoes?" Aaryn lamented. "Who the hell wants to be paid in potatoes?"

Keres's eyes flicked from the potato filled coals to Aaryn, a warning scowl on her face.

Daud poked the potatoes again with his stick. "Food's ready."

"I'll eat Aaryn's," Keres said quietly.

"Wait, what?" Aaryn said.

"'Who the hell wants potatoes?' I believe you said," Rose said.

"You'll receive gold equal to the value of your potato, of course," Rihan said with his devil's grin spread across his face.

"Wait, no, guys, I'm hungry too. Keres, no, please."