ARC 2: Escort

Chapter 2.01: Lune

The gentle pressure of being held is the first sense to become clear as my mind begins to work at the start of the day. I open my eyes groggily, Messy brunette hair the first thing that they see. I pull my body back at how close the hair is and find myself locked in place with arms wrapped around my midsection. My tail flicks as best as it can from under the covers as I take in the scene. Astrid seems to have embraced me during the night, and now we were cuddling.

I’ve never been one for physical affections, aside from the occasional hug. Finally able to look back on that aspect of my life, it seems lonely even to me. I had always been too busy with work or school for sleepovers or relationships. I chided my past self for being such a workaholic silently as I wrap my own arms around Astrid gently. Idly, I remember something that my mother used to do for me when I was younger. I find my fingers matching the action my mom used to comfort me with and scratching gently up and down Astrid’s back as she sleeps, matching the speed of the motion to the rhythm of her breaths.

The room is still as Astrid shifts just a little closer in her sleep. Her head is nuzzled into the crook of my neck and I feel her hair tickling the underside of my chin. I had to admit that the position was nice; definitely not anything I’d experienced before in my old world. My thoughts drifted at the thought of my old world, drifted to the fading memory of a dream that I wasn’t entirely certain was a dream. Had I really met a God in my sleep?

It would definitely explain a lot of things, and it definitely seemed too convenient to be a coincidence. In all honesty, I was a little glad that I’d woken up to Astrid holding me. As a medical professional, I’ve seen a lot of things. Seen a lot of death, injuries, and any number of grieving families. I wasn’t without emotion though, no matter how practiced I’d become at keeping my composure. Regardless of my new life in this world, I had died. Was I supposed to grieve myself? It was scary to think that I had died, no matter how alive I felt in that moment.

If given the chance, I knew that I’d deal with my own death the way I did the deaths of so many of my patients. Silently and alone. With Astrid nearby, I feel a comfort in her presence. The feeling of her breath against my chest as she holds me close reminds me that I wasn’t alone, at least in this moment. Small saline wetness pools at the edges of my eyes as I grieve myself. I don’t sob as I cry. I don’t let out any sound at all as I continue to rhythmically run my hand across Astrid’s back. The motion serves more to comfort myself than her at this point. I appreciated Astrid’s presence all the more in that moment; whether she knew it or not, I was glad I didn’t have to mourn myself alone.

After a few emotional moments, I feel some lingering tension I hadn’t noticed vanish from my shoulders. I let out a small contented sigh, noticing that my tail has settled lazily against the bed. I could have stayed laying like that for several more minutes, but my hand stops moving along her back as I notice her shifting under me. I feel her pull her head out and away from it’s position near my collar bone and lean my head down to look at her. I see the sleep slowly fade from her eyes as she groggily looks up to me and then down to our bodies gently pressed against each other.

My tail flicks against the bedsheet behind me in amusement as I see her eyes flick back up to mine in embarrassed confusion. I mentally remind myself that no matter how much of a badass swordswoman she is, she still gets shy. Our eyes are locked, neither of us moving to extract themselves from the embrace. I clear my throat and speak up, “Sleep well?” I quirk an eyebrow as I voice the question, both of my ears swivel forward to give her my attention.

Astrid nods quickly, not saying anything as she pulls her arms away from me and sits up. I sit up too; guess it was time to officially start the day. I swing my legs over the side of the bed, Tail flicking its way out of the blankets as I do so. My eyes wander lazily to my outfit by the bedside table, thinking about my plans for the day.

I’d have to check out some of the basic shops around town, probably. That medic; Harm, was it? Visiting their shop was necessary, I needed reference for where general medicine was at. With the clues I'd gotten last night though, I was already a bit concerned about the state of some things. Still, the townspeople looked overall healthier than I expected a medieval fantasy town to look. It was a little boggling.

Or was it?

Neorr's words echo in my mind as I mumble them gently to keep the memory fresh. "Yes, how do you think we found you?"

"What was that?" I look over to find Astrid leaning towards me on the bed. I smile at her, getting up to put on my clothes.

"Just something an acquaintance said to me recently. Was just lost in thought." I say dismissively. It wouldn't be a great idea to try and tell my new friends that I'd talked to a god in my dreams. I don't want to be discredited immediately in this town. Especially if Neorr already has a priest that he speaks through in this town. I didn't want to make the town priest, one of three medical 'professionals' in this town, mad at me. No matter how dubious I found his methods, there was likely something to be learned about healing in this world from him.

"Do you know what time it is?" I ask her curiously, sliding my pants on as I do so.

Astrid turns to open the near opaque curtains hanging over the window to our room. I hadn't realized that the light streaking under the curtain was the primary source of light in the room. As she shifts the curtain, more light seeps into the room and I shield my eyes as they adjust. "I dunno, maybe eight? Probably around there." She drops the curtain when she notices me shielding my eyes. I blink several times as I drop my arms, my eyes adjusting once more to the dim light of the bedroom. "Sorry, should have warned you, hehe."

I smile, turning back to my pile of clothes and slipping my socks and shoes on. "No problem. I'll have to face the sun when we head outside anyways."

"Is the leather for your shoes dyed? I've never seen shoes that look like yours before." I pause, turning to see Astrid sitting on the bed and looking at my feet. I pick a foot up, turning it so Astrid can see the whole shoes properly.

"They're not leather. They're fabric and… Um, rubber? It's a substance you probably wouldn't have seen. It's synthetic." I say carefully. I didn't want to lie to Astrid, especially if I could just tell her the truth and she won't know anything about it. Astrid gets up, poking and prodding the shoe in awe.

"It's… Soft? How does it protect your feet?" She asks, frowning in confusion. I chuckle gently, putting my foot back down.

"Shock absorption. Since it has more give, running is less hard on the joints and such. Probably not something that would be practical to get in your town though. The forest floor is pretty squishy already, which serves the same purpose." I explain, thinking back on my memories of traversing the forest. It was strange that despite not having run across a single river or stream in that forest, the floor had a squishy wetness to it that I had to wonder if it actually was just recent rain. She seemed to accept the explanation, but she definitely still looked a little confused by it. I finished getting dressed quickly so I could leave her to get dressed on her own. I had noticed that she hadn't bothered getting out of her sleeping gown while I was present.

"I'll go talk to Aliz before breakfast while you get ready, okay?" I call out behind me as I adjust my messenger bag strap. Looking back, I see Astrid nodding behind me and I smile. I navigate out the door and across the hall towards Aliz's room. I knock on the door, hoping that she hasn't already left somewhere. After a few moments, though, I can hear her footsteps approaching the door before it opens.

Aliz's bright smile greeted me as she opened the door. "Ah, Lillian. Just the girl I was hoping to see. Come on in." She gestures inside the room and I bow graciously before entering. Unlike yesterday where she had been wearing her metal plated leather armour, today she was wearing clothing that looked more like the stuff I had seen the other townspeople wearing. It was normal clothing, if a little nicer looking. She was wearing pants and a shirt and both showed off her wonderful physique. Rippling muscle peeked through the shirt, speaking of a very visible strength. The memory of her swinging around that huge shield reminded me why she was so buff and I could only nod approvingly as I digested the thought.

"Like what you see?" Aliz asks jokingly. I quirk an eyebrow at her questioningly. Was she flirting with me?

"I was just thinking about how impressive it is that you can throw around that unwieldy shield." She almost looks a little disappointed at the frankness that I delivered it with and I chuckle. "But yes, you're nice to look at." I add, watching her go through several emotions at once. I'm not an emotions person, but I'm fairly certain I saw shock and a smile somewhere before her expression landed back on coolled indifference.

She turns back around to her bedside drawer, pulling out a small pouch. "Hey, catch." She tosses me the pouch and with reflexes I didn't know I possessed, I react immediately. My hand snaps out, catching the pouch cleanly. Aliz looks impressed, "Damn, quick fingers you've got there."

I open up the pouch and my eyes widen as they fall on the pile of coins. "Coins?" I say, pulling out a crescent shaped gold coin.

"Lune." She says and I don't say anything, my ear and tail flicking in thought. "The currency around here is called Lune. That's a Crescent Gold piece. It's worth 10 Silver pieces. Silver pieces are worth 10 Copper Pieces." She explains, looking at my tail. I stop it's flicking, turning to her gratefully.

"Thank you. Isn't this quite a lot of coin, though?" I hadn't quite counted it all yet, but there seemed to be quite a few gold pieces in here.

"It's a bit less than we'd pay a somamancer to heal a wound like that." She waves dismissively.

My eyes narrow a little at that, "I'm not a somamancer, though. That wound will take a couple weeks of healing to get him back on his feet." I say carefully.

"After you went to bed, Vulmer and Roarke went to see Maylin, to look into getting that wound healed. Surprise, surprise, when Maylin was able to heal the wound easily. She used way less power than she normally would have needed for a wound like that." Aliz says casual. Though her tone is casual, her eyes are watching my reaction curiously. "Part of that is payment for helping Roarke. Maylin only charged for what she needed to do."

I thought about her words carefully, thinking through the words. "What's the other part?" I ask, realizing she'd left something out on purpose.

Aliz shrugs, "The other part is from Maylin. She wanted to talk to you." My eyes light up in surprise, tail flicking eagerly. Aliz was watching my tail in amusion again, but I ignored her. I definitely needed to meet Maylin, it had been much later in my original plans, but now I could probably kick it forward to later today.

"Did she say when she wanted to meet?" I ask, suppressing the excitement from my tone only slightly.

"She suggested dinner at the Guild. She has her own lodgings there and she said she'd be free all afternoon. You're welcome to decline of course, but I get the feeling you want to talk to her too." I nod once affirmingly, pulling out my journal to make the note. With the note made, I slip the journal and the pouch of coins back into my bag.

“Absolutely. I have a vested interest in Somamancy, and there are many questions I’d like to ask about her craft.” I explain happily. I was excited about the impending meeting with Maylin, but additionally the possession of money was an exciting prospect too. It meant that I could buy some menial supplies during my outing today, such as spare clothes and simple body care.

“Well, I hope that she manages to answer some of your questions for you.” I nod, not entirely listening to Aliz as my mind runs through a list of supplies and general things I’d like to purchase. “So, is Astrid up yet? Or do we need to go wake her up to go get some breakfast.” I’m snapped from my thoughts by the mention of breakfast.

Hungrily I nod, “She’s up. Should be nearly dressed by now too.” I smile, heading towards the  door. Aliz follows after me, slipping on her leather shoes as we head out the room. We stopped briefly by mine and Astrid’s room with a knock at her door; she was in fact ready for the day at that point. Together, the three of us head out to get breakfast.