Several weeks have passed in the caravan, each day very much like the last: wake up, eat, and either spend time with Cabinet and Wood or do chores around the camp before one elf or another picks me up and carries me back into the center tent. It was kinda nice- not the being picked up and carried like luggage part, but being actively looked for.

I can’t judge mom too hard because it’s not like I was looking far and wide either; maybe she thinks I’m dead.

“Do you think my mom thinks I’m dead?” I ask out loud, sprawled out on the rug with rabbit designs. My hand rubbed against it as I ignored the very loud silence.

“...Probably not? You said you are going to meet her in Westville, right? She probably has a lookout for you.” Cabinet replies after shifting her pile of scrolls. She’s scraping the bottom of her scroll box and has taken to rereading them out loud to pass the time, so her speaking is better than mine, fancier.

I hadn’t told the caravan about the whole first river situation, figuring that it would lead to more…enthusiastic adoption attempts by either the elves or the humans, who have warmed up to me as well during travel. The fact that I can carry more than all of them and save time probably helps, but I’m still a bit distrustful of my species.

It feels both silly and well-earned.

I’ll work on it, probably. It’s up on my list of things to do, beneath ‘get better at cooking’ and ‘wrestle five orcs at once’ because both seem a little more likely.

Walleye’s ‘lessons’ haven’t been as informative as I was hoping, but every two days he’s plopped me down on his spider and leading the caravan, shouting advice over the wind; I think I should just befriend a sneakier person than myself because getting along with merchants seems to be a bit of a pain with all their unspoken words and implications. I was also advised to lie by mostly telling the truth and smudging details rather than flat-out lie. Guess I can’t practice on my fake guard scenario anymore.

I’m probably going to anyway, it’s too fun to stop.

My only complaint is that it kinda feels like Cabinet is pulling away since our conversation about how long humans live, but it’s not like I can promise to live longer; a stray rock or a badly-timed cough can lead to my death. It’s a bit of a miracle I’m not dead yet, considering my bad luck around rivers and my tendency to shove things in my mouth.

“It’d be kinda funny if what takes me out is starvation.” I muse, which prompts a loud scoff from Cabinet. I look at her poring over a more ragged-looking scroll than usual and stirring something in a pot,

“I should ban you from talking about your death, you are in a strange mood.” Her ears are drawn almost as tightly as her eyebrows as she carefully pours a few drops of a milky substance into the pot, leaning back when the drops make her mixture puff up a short plume of smoke.

I plop my head back down and shrug, “I get like this now and then, dunno why.”

Cabinet hums and after tapping the spoon against the pot walks over to me and nudges me out of the tent,“Sybil, can you get me Mimzy? I have need of her presence.”

A normal request save the fact that she’s pulling out her saddle-knife.

“You’re not going to kill her, right?” I ask, eyeing the blade as it glints against the light. Cabinet blinks, glances down at the knife, and then shakes her head emphatically,

“This isn’t going to be aimed at her.” She promises, but for some reason, I’m still a little leery. I try poking my head over her shoulder to try and puzzle out either what’s in the pot or what the scroll is saying. An elf arm immediately blocks my attempt and I am nudged further out into the heat of the day. Spoilsport.

I stick my tongue out at her before walking down the undulating back of the sandwhale; I’ve gained my ‘sandlegs’ according to Garlic, who probably has another name but responds to my nickname at this point. She’s the second-closest human to me after Cain, but that doesn’t matter right now because she’s not holding onto the spider I seek.

Mimzy must have sensed me looking for her because moments later I spotted a dark multilegged blotch running at me from a distance before skittering up the sandwhale’s bumpy hide. She taps her little legs around me before requesting up by lifting her small front legs: Cain called them pedi-somethings but I was shocked there were other names for leg and stopped listening. I leaned down and picked up the dog-sized spider as she wiggled in my arms, either out of glee or trying to get comfortable. Spider acquisition successful, glad I didn’t have to try and spider-jump to get to Cain’s mount.

Turns out that trying to hop horse-sized spiders at a full gallop can be somewhat harrowing, who knew?

“Cabinet’s looking for you for some reason, but if you got into the flour again somehow I ain’t gonna save you from retribution,” I informed the spider, only prompting a soft bap in the face by spider leg, “Who taught you your manners young miss?” I laughed, gently shaking the unrepentant prisoner as I walked back into the center tent.

It’s just Cabinet and I in the tent, Wood and Passenger decided to ride alongside Walleye; dunno why they didn’t bring along the fourth member of the family but she’s been keeping occupied making…something. It doesn’t smell edible, a fact that hammers itself further into my nose as I walk into the tent.

I take a moment to start breathing through my mouth before announcing my presence to Cabinet, who’s hunched over the pot much like the beer brewing widows back at the village. The only thing she’s missing is the strange hat they would don.

“Got the spider, why do you need her?” I tried releasing my hold on Mimzy, but that did not release her grip on me, hugging my torso and left arm. Her shiny black eyes stare at my face, prompting me to make faces at her until a wide cup is held in front of my face.

“I freely offer this drink to you,” Cabinet says to me, solemn-faced. My eyebrows furrow a little in confusion, but I take the…drink with my right arm and stare at the vaguely brownish-reddish liquid.

“What is it?” I ask, looking up from the concoction until starting back when my face is right in front of Cabinet’s; her dark eyes glimmer in the low light and I’m close enough to see her fan-like eyelashes as they blink in confusion and widen.

She flushes under her dark skin and takes a step back while muttering an apology under her breath. I take a couple of looks back at the…drink and her before scrunching my face and taking a couple of large gulps from the cup. It’s not as terrible as I expected it to taste, but it’s very tangy, something that makes me think of metal. Not sure what.

I finish the…drink and Cabinet takes the cup back in her hands and looks at the bottom inside it for some reason. She smiles up at me, and I return with my confused face.

“I freely offered this drink, which was taken under no coercion,” It feels like Cabinet is translating words from another language- they feel…slippery in my ears; still, not like either statement was a lie, so I nod in response to her nod.

“Can you do one favor in response?”

“Uh, sure- what do you want?” Maybe she needs me to carry something for her or something? Cabinet gently grabs my hand and wrestles the other from under Mimzy’s body, squeezing them gently when both are in hand.

“Can you live as long as you can? Live as long and as healthily as you can?” She asks me, which is enough of a surprise I barely notice Mimzy dismounting my torso to skitter off somewhere else. I still notice- hard to ignore a dog-sized spider hopping off your chest- but I barely feel it.

“I’ll do the best I can.” I blurt out, feeling my words hang in the air like heavy smoke before I’m enveloped in a full-body hug and hang limply in Cabinet’s arms. Guess this is how the rest of my day will go.

HelloHound

So it's been a smidge since the last time, and as promised it was at most three weeks. I spent a good portion of my 'time off' playing Skyrim and the like, starting a new story that I might share later down the line, going into a deep funk, and getting sick for a couple of days; it's been a very eventful November and while things aren't 100% yet, it's better for me mentally. Hope y'all had a good month without my illustrious presence and let's try and get this show back on the road 

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