Chapter 8

The small inn didn't have any other guests besides them, so all the staff's attention was solely on the three adventurers and the lovable pet bear who was the very picture of good manners.

Lonaraa was downing her second mug of ale, trying to keep up with her two companions. With a determination to let loose at least once, she did her best to keep up with her two friends.

Even with the advantage of being bigger than Eldum and Corben, she greatly lacked alcohol tolerance and the measly two mugs were enough to give her a decent buzz.

"Another one, miss?" The tavern maiden, if she could be called that, asked after noticing the empty mug. The about thirty years old woman was dressed in the usual tavern maiden garb but her blouse had managed to lose two top buttons during the short hour they were here.

"Yes. I will take another one." Lonaraa said with fake politeness.

"And you, young sir, would you fancy something as well?" The woman leaned forward to give Corben a better view.

"Well, yes, I can see a thing or two I would very much like to fancy… but I'll settle for another mug of ale for now." Corben responded with a smirk while giving her cleavage a not-so-subtle glance.

The woman was at least ten years his senior but that made it even better. The dark-haired woman seemingly had no problem being a teasing flirt and pretty much taunting him to invite her to his room.

"Whatever you like, young sir." She gave a sly wink and disappeared into the inn's kitchen area.

'That woman… I could…' Lonaraa clutched her hand into a fist under the table.

"Something wrong?" Corben asked her.

"Everything is fine!" She responded through her teeth.

"Sure… Do you want me to knock it off?" Corben asked.

"Your private life is not my business." Lonaraa said as she looked away. "You can run after every floozy you come across."

"If you plan to behave like a scorned wife, you should at the very least announce your intentions to wed me." Corben said with a chuckle. "And I want flowers and a big ceremony… you know the whole package."

Osbeorn growled and hit the table with his paw, adding a grumble that sounded like a burst of laughter.

"Ye? A will be the best man no ye." Eldum shouted at the bear with hearty laughter of his own.

Lonaraa looked up and faced all three with a murderous glare that made the trio shudder. "You! Do you think I would ever marry someone like you? You don't know how to treat a woman right! So run along to your floozies!" She grabbed the mug out of the tavern maiden's hands and downed it in one go.

The tavern maid flinched, hastily put down the mug in front of Corben, and then quickly disappeared.

Lonaraa then turned her full attention to Corben and slammed the wooden mug into the table, shattering it.

"Drinking is fun!" She said with a loud hiccup.

"L-Let's not be hasty here. I was just joking around!" Corben looked around to see possible hiding spots. The idea of getting into a brawl with a drunken Lonaraa made him remember all the half-forgotten prayers.

"Yeah… only joking…" She stood up with a slight stagger. "I'll be off to sleep. Pay for this, will ya." She motioned at the remnants of the mug.

"Yes, the whole evening is on me." Corben vigorously nodded.

She then gave a passing glance at the tavern maid who stood at the kitchen entrance white as snow, and slowly walked up the stairs while supporting herself against the wall.

Corben watched his drunken and angry companion disappear, and after waiting for a good ten seconds, turned to face the tavern maiden. "I'm sorry for all the trouble. We'll pay for the damages."

The woman carefully approached and picked up the splinters littered around the table. "It's fine, sir. If I would have known you two are in a relationship I would never have behaved as I did." She said quietly.

"We aren't." Corben said as he paid the tab and added a few silver coins as extra for all the trouble.

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Lonaraa woke up with an unpleasant taste in her mouth and mild nausea.

"Ugh, why did I let them talk me into drinking? I made such an ass out of myself yesterday." She slowly sat up in bed.

'Corben will think I want to scare all the women away. He is a free man and I have not shown any intention to be in a relationship with him.' Lonaraa clutched her head and looked around. Clothes were scattered all over the room.

She quickly got dressed and packed her bag. The plan was to move on right after breakfast and by the looks of it, she had slept way past the sunrise.

It was just her luck to see that the same woman from yesterday was cleaning the tables. Seeing Lonaraa, she froze in the spot and said with a strained smile. "Good morning, miss. Your companions are waiting for you outside."

"Good morning. I'm terribly sorry for my behavior yesterday." Lonaraa responded with a bow.

"I understand. You have nothing to worry about. A lot of folks let their emotions out after a couple of drinks." The woman replied and returned to cleaning the tables.

"Thank you for understanding." Lonara said and walked out of the inn. 'I should make up with Corben for what I did. Maybe I could be less pushy about walking and physical activities for a while even if I want the best for him?'

Her companions were not there. She looked around confused and then walked around the inn just in case but no one was there.

'They left me?' Her anxiety shot through the roof.

"Corben! Eldum?" She shouted and then made another lap around the inn.

'No! I messed up. Please be there!' She started to look for a note or any other sign that her friends didn't just leave her behind.

"Corben! Eldum! Where are you?" She shouted again.

"They left me…" the reality started to settle in. "I'm sorry, please come back." She said to no one.

"I…" A familiar frantic growl snapped her out of her panicked state. "Osbeorn?"

The familiar massive bear lumbered out of the trees and approached her with another growl.

"Where are Corben and Eldum?" She asked.

Osbeorn stood up on two legs. He imitated smoking, shook his head from side to side, and then pointed at the woods.

When Lonaraa didn't respond he then crudely drew a flower in the dirt and repeated the cigar smoking, but this time shook his head much more theatrically and danced around with a tongue out in a silly expression. He then once again pointed to the woods.

"W-wait a minute. They smoked that weird flower Corben found yesterday, went crazy, and ran into the woods?"

Osbeorn nodded and motioned for her to follow as he sniffed the ground.

'I thought they left me, but it turns out they are just idiots. That is a relief. How silly of me to think they would just abandon me.' Lonaraa followed the bear through the woods.

The initial relief however was quickly replaced with a new set of worries. 'What if they hurt themselves? I was not there to be on guard. That's it, no more drinking!' She promised herself and carried on.

After about a twenty-minute walk Osbeorn stopped and sniffed the air. He lifted his right paw and suggested for both of them to crouch.

As both slowly crept closer, the weird smell started to get stronger. Lonaraa tapped Osbeorn to stop and whispered. "Stop. I think this smell is from the herbs they smoked. We need to protect ourselves first to not fall to the same insanity."

With Osbeorn nodding in agreement, she silently took off her backpack and took out a piece of cloth she kept to patch up wounds that didn't heal with the potions Corben provided and a water pouch.

Quickly making the cloth wet she made a face cover for herself and a muzzle guard for the bear.

The masks likely would not help for long and they would need to act fast to remove both of their friends from danger.

"Let's go. We need to be fast. We need to grab them both and get them out of this area." Lonaraa whispered and both started to move forward.

With a nervous gulp, Lonaraa went around a large bush only to be faced with a sight so bizarre no one would ever believe her.

Corben was sitting on a stump with a large stick in his right hand, a large stone in his left, and a makeshift flower crown on his head. Eldum stood beside him with a large piece of bark in his hands which he held like some sort of parchment. In front of them was a small campfire which was the source of the smell.

Around them either sat or sluggishly moved was the wolf pack Eldum had tamed. Every one of them had bloodshot eyes.

Stunned by the sight, Lonaraa just stared as one wolf nudged a squirrel with his muzzle to approach Corben. The confused animal followed the wolf's order and dropped an acorn at Corben's knees and seemingly looked for a way to escape the absurd situation.

"The king o the forest, Corben the first, accepts yer tribute." Eldum announced in a slow and slurred speech.

"Yes. Thank you citizen for your… your… boon. You may go and my… blessings upon you." Corben said with an equally slurred voice.

The wolf who had guided the squire just looked up with a confused expression and then stared at the squirrel who used the opportunity to run away.

"So eager to return to… work. Bring in the… next serf." Corben said.

"What are they doing?" Lonaraa whispered to no one in particular.

Osbeorn let out a low growl and nudged her shoulder, pointing at their friends.

"Right. You grab Eldum and I will take Corben. We need to be quick. Those wolves might attack us." The bear nodded and charged out of the bushes with a deafening roar.

Lonaraa quickly followed and bolted straight to Corben, picking him up and dropping him over his shoulder while Osbeurn tossed Eldum on his back. The confused wolves looked at each other without doing much else.

"Farewell, my loyal knights." Corben waved at the wolves. "My…" he stopped for a moment. "You.. planned to marry me! Oh, that makes you the queen. My future queen takes me to inspect my lands!"

For how long they ran was hard to tell but they only stopped at the road. Lonaraa looked back to confirm that the wolves didn't follow them and then unceremoniously dropped Corben to the ground.

"Hey!" He protested.

"Oh, shut it!" She shouted back. "Find a cleansing potion and drink it. Now!" She barked the order.

"No need to shout… my future queen." He slurred the response and then mumbled. "I swear, it's like we're twenty years into marriage without even a honeymoon to fondly look back to."

But to not anger her even more, he slowly took off his backpack which he luckily hadn't lost and rummaged through it. "Hmm, this one… no, that one for mana. Maybe this… no."

"Please tell me you still know which one is the cleansing potion." Lonaraa said with her voice sounding anxious. Not only she didn't know how the potion was supposed to look as Corben never marked his concoctions but finding a priest to cast cleanse was impossible so deep in the forest.

"Don't rush me, lady. If you would be nicer… oh there it is. Bottoms up." He downed the potion. His bloodshot eyes quickly turned normal as he looked up at Lonaraa with an expression that portrayed the whole spectrum of the emotions at the same time.

"What are you waiting for? Give one to Eldum as well." Lonaraa raised her voice again.

"Oh, right!" he quickly found another one and gave it to his friend, who was just sitting on his bear and mumbling something incoherently.

Same as Corben, he quickly sobered up and said with an awkward chuckle. "Thon wis quite an adventure, eh?"

Lonaraa didn't even look at him. Instead, she took a step towards Corben with a glare that could make the hell freeze over.

Corben raised his hands and said. "H-hey, let's not be hasty here. I didn't know it was a hallucinogen! I-It was an honest mistake."

"I thought you left me behind!" She growled under her breath, taking another step closer.

"What? Why would I leave you behind?" Corben responded, taking a step back. "I swear we were just high out of our minds, I-I would never abandon a teammate. I swear."

"I thought… you idiot! I was so worried!" She growled again and grabbed Corben by the collar of his robe.

"H-hey… I am sorry. L-lady, r-remember that your punch can kill me!" He stuttered and put a basic protective shield around him on instinct.

"Idiot!" She hissed and then pulled him into a hug. Corben's shield was not enough to fully protect him from Lonaraa's embrace as she clearly was not controlling her strength.

Corben winced in pain. "I'm sorry!" he gasped out.

"You are my only friends! Please don't scare me like that ever again." She tightened her grip.

"I won't… I promise. Y-you are crushing me!"

"Nothing a healing potion can't fix." She responded, not letting go.

"Woman! Contain yourself." he gasped and went for the only action he hoped would get her off him with a slight chance he would get murdered afterward.

Lonaraa could not let him go. The fear of losing more friends was simply too strong. Then she felt Corben's hands go around her waist. 'Oh, he is hu…'

Unfortunately, she was not prepared that his hands would immediately go down and grab her butt.

She instantly pushed him away with a shriek. "Hey!"

Corben winced in pain as he inhaled and said. "Sorry, but I had to stop you from crushing me."

"You!" She raised her fist in anger.

Now it was Corben's turn to shriek as he ran behind Eldum and Osbeorn. "Calm down, woman!"

"Calm down? You… you…" her cheeks got deep blue. "Next time I'll just beat sense into you!" She said with a pout.

"So we are good?" Corben cautiously asked from behind Osbeorn.

"Good? How would you like if… never mind." She turned her head away. "We should head towards Goldshire before you get us in more trouble."

"Ye better make up tae the waif for this blunder." Eldum said with a shake of his head.

"Sure. She got out of a real bind." Corben said, adding a lot quieter. "I guess she took it rather badly."

He ran up to Lonaraa who was already walking forward angrily stopping the road with her hooves. "Lonaraa."

She scoffed and turned her head away.

"Look, I am really sorry for scaring you. I promise I won't just leave you behind. You are not only my teammate but a friend. Why would you even think I could just drop you like that?"

"Because… because of how I acted yesterday." She said, not facing him.

"So what? You got a little jealous because I showed interest in another lady and that's it." Corben said

"I was not jealous!" Lonaraa hastily said, getting bluer by the second.

Corben just chuckled in response. "I would get a little jealous if another guy showed interest in you as well, so we are even." Was that statement true, he could not tell, but she needed reassurance that she was not acting weirdly and he was more than willing to paint such a picture.

'I hope this doesn't backfire and she really does start to have romantic feelings towards me. That could end in disaster.' Corben mused as he glanced at his partner that was deep blue in the face and did her best to not show it.

Proofreading by Sad_Smiles and Visur Nyxan.

AN: Thank you for reading the story, and if you have caught up to the latest chapter, you can check out my other work or join my discord server (Link is in my profile) where additional chapters are available.