Lowell

Chapter 17

Yuri woke up the next morning with old teeth on his bedside. That ache from last time was sitting in his gums and his head still pounded in a dull throb. He wished there was a mirror so he could see the state he was in. Nobody had come in and woken him up so nothing bad happened. His hair felt greasy and he still had the smell of sewer lingering on him. Gross.

Eyes still clouded with sleep, Yuri set out to ask if he could find a bath or anything. Rich was setting up the fire for breakfast. "Morning."

"Oh... hi..." Rich muttered slowly as he turned to look at him. "Can I help you?"

"You have anything to wash with?" Yuri asked.

Rich nodded and gave him a rag. "There's a small a barrel of water you can use... I'll get you a bucket." Yuri thanked him and did his best to find some privacy. He ran the water over his skin and looked for any changes. None. There was more relief to the thought than there should have ever been.

Why couldn't he just be normal? Normal people didn't have to wake up and look into a bucket to see if their teeth still looked like... well teeth. Yuri gave a loud huff as he dumped the remaining water on his head.

He shivered from the cold and shook of the water like a dog. "Shit. Shit." Maybe this hadn't been the smartest idea. He should have just put up with being smelly.

"Yuri?" Fuck, Yuri grabbed for his pants. "Are you okay?"

"Yes, please don't walk over here!" He fumbled into the only pair of clothes he had and was grateful Estelle had listened. Even if decency was something Yuri didn't care about, Flynn did and he could hear the lecture now. Ugh, the guy needed to get laid or something. Yuri finally walks out to face Estelle.

"Were you taking a bath?" Estelle shrieks in embarrassment. "I'm so sorry! I should have left you alone."

"It's fine." Yuri waved her off. "Let's eat and get back on the road. Wait… did you wash up?" She gives a quick yes her face a bit red. "Good. We'll need to get a move on if you want to catch up with Flynn." She nods and they make quick work of breakfast before taking off. There's much to be done and standing around is not one of them.

There aren't many towns in general. It stands with how rare barrier blastia are and with how dangerous monsters are that they're only a few towns between Diedon Hold and Zaphias. Most closer to the latter of the two for better protection. The empire liked to pride itself on the Hold which supposedly discouraged the more dangerous monsters from going near the cities. Yuri didn't really believe that, but the empire liked to take credit whenever they could. Large egos are frail egos.

As they stood in the entrance of Diedon Hold Yuri did his best to walk innocently while Estelle seemed be moving in stiff jerking motions. "Just walk normally."

She nervously flitters her hands. "Do you think those knights followed you here?"

"I wonder. Well, let's do our best not to stand out." Yuri said looking carefully over at the bored knights on duty and walked past casually. "All right, let's see if we can just pass through the Hold." He said and turned to find Estelle had disappeared. "Where's she off to now?" Yuri looks over to see Estelle standing at a cart reading a book. So much for lying low. It's then he gets a lecture om swords skills and Assam The Blade Master. Yuri had no clue that the blastia could do something like that. He always figured that they were used just conductors for artes and nothing more, but then the how does Estelle use her power.

"I can't imagine business is all that great in a place like this." Yuri says to the cart owner.

The cart owner sighs. "Don't get me wrong, I'm not here because I want to be." The owner gestures to the gate. "There are monsters on the far side of the Hold, so I'm stuck."