Chapter 15

The mood wasn't exactly uplifting after the treasure hunt fiasco. The party sat at a tavern, each having a mug with a drink of their choice.

Sure, clearing another bandit camp on the way back paid for the expenses, but it was a weak consolation.

While the four of them drank in silence, Eldum was at another table talking with someone he knew.

"I think we could snoop around the Moonbrook and see if we can get into the mine without too much trouble." Corben put out a suggestion.

"Shouldn't we wait for the return of the team that is guiding the guy who betrayed Defias Brotherhood to come back with the location of their main camp?" Jithu asked.

"It's likely that we'll have to compete with more than one team, and I would prefer to get ahead of the competition and get the heads of the leaders. I think it was around thirty gold for all of them." Corben replied.

"Unless we let the suicidal pest blow up half of the southern parts of Westfall, we are not even getting close to the hideout of Defias leaders," Yiliana remarked.

"There is a large chance the thief you are seeking is hanging around near them."

"Sure, and because of that, I'll just march into their camp and ask for the heirloom to be given back."

"I have picked up a few new tricks so we can plan a stealthy hit and run," Corben said. "But if you want to be on the safer side, we can continue clearing bandit camps near Sentinel Hill."

"I just want to get the job done and move to a more forested area. These plains are wearing on me." Yiliana said. For a night elf, being in the bright sun day in and day out was as hard as the day races being awake only during the night.

A forest-covered area like Duskwood or even the jungles of Stranglethorn Vale was a far better option than Westfall.

"You don't want to be part of our team permanently?" Jithu theatrically sniffed.

"Maybe we can accompany you. It's not like we have a long-term plan on where to adventure." Lonaraa flashed the elf a hopeful smile.

"You are not the worst team I have been part of so I don't see why not," Yiliana said, giving her a warm smile back.

"See, you do love us!" Jithu ran around the table, jumped on the stool, and hugged the night elf tightly.

"Where are your hands touching me, you perverted pest!?" Yiliana's voice dropped, sounding murderous.

"Sorry, it's a habit." Jithu giggled and let her go, running back to where she was sitting before. Once at a safe distance, she added. "I didn't expect a priest's butt to be so firm."

"One of these days I will make you walk into a wolf pack and leave you there!"

"Just a friendly touch that's all, right boss?" Jithu turned to Corben, who almost spit out his drink.

"Can you stop your shenanigans for five damn minutes!"

Jithu just chuckled in response but quickly stopped once she noticed Linaraa's silent glare.

'Right, I forgot I'm encroaching on a claimed territory.' She took a large gulp from her mug and then looked away with a whistle, hoping that Lonaraa calms down. Getting on the receiving end of Lonaraa's kicks and punches wasn't something she ever wanted to experience.

Right then, Eldum returned to the table, shaking with excitement. "The famous brewer Grimbooze Thunderbrew lives in the mountains in the south. His Thunderbrew lager is legendary!" He spoke so fast it was practically untranslatable from his thick accent.

"I'm all for trying new kinds of booze, but I don't think it's worth heading deep into Defias territory for it," Corben replied, getting the general gist of what the dwarf said.

"Lad, a single barrel fetches about a gold on the worst of days, and all we need to bring with us is a few bags of hops to get a few barrels in return." Eldum continued with the same enthusiasm.

"Gold split five ways doesn't sound like much for all the trouble we would have to get through." Lonaraa voiced her opinion.

"Stealing Defias outfits, renting a cart, taking hops from one of the harvest watcher-infested fields, and boom, we are rolling in cash. Besides, I want to get wasted on the stuff!" Jithu shouted out her plan.

"You know that might actually work. If we can get five or more barrels, it's worth the risk." Corben scratched his chin.

"And how you'll convince other Defias we are part of them?" Yiliana asked.

"Leave that to me. I know how to bullshit with a straight face." Jithu proudly announced.

"That she does." Corben agreed. "Anyone against."

"I'm not sure if it's worth the risk and we are delaying the infiltration of the mine even more," Lonaraa said.

"Even at the worst, it will only take us about three days to get the job done. Lass, that's the best-tasting lager you'll ever find." Eldum continued his sales pitch.

"Not to mention we could let the cro… I mean, our resident lunatic to leave some surprises in their camps." Corben added in.

"There is no winning with you all." Lonaraa let out a defeated sigh.

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The setup for the ride went as smoothly as it could. They easily found a horse-pulled cart to rent from one of the farmers for three silver.

Jithu made a device that temporarily disabled the harvest watchers on a recently abandoned farm, letting them load the cart full of hops.

Even getting the red bandanas every Defias member wore wasn't hard. The only difficulty came with hiding Lonaraa and Yiliana as there were no draenei and night elves among the bandits.

In the end, both had to hide under the bags of hops, which greatly annoyed Lonaraa, but Yiliana took it as a blessing since she could just sleep during the day without a care in the world.

Most of the bandits paid no attention to them and let the merry cart pass without any trouble.

Of course, they would be of different opinion if they noticed what nasty surprise Jithu left in their camps to go off in about a week. The crafty gnome had created a bunch of bombs with a time trigger set to go off at the exact time and left one in each bandit camp they came across.

During the evening of the next day, they finally reached the small brewery in the mountains with a single dwarf working inside. The large glass windows have a good view of what was happening inside.

The only Defias members present were a few passed-out drunks sleeping against the trees or right on the ground near the brewery.

Corben guided the cart right into the small brewery's yard and parked in front of the main entrance. Even before he and the others got off a bald dwarf with a thick reddish beard and eyebrows ran out.

"Aren't you the sight for sore eyes. I was running low on hops. The names Grimbooze." The dwarf greeted them with a thick dwarven accent as he wiped the sweat off his bald head, sniffed the air, and extended his hand towards Corben.

"Pleasure to meet you. We were hoping to exchange these hops for some of your produce." Corben returned the greeting.

"Sure, sure! Drop the bags at the back entrance and pick as many barrels as you like." Grimbooze grabbed one of the bags from the cart and ran back inside.

Corben did as instructed and drove around the brewery, finding stacks upon stacks of barrels.

With the help of the rest of his group, he unloaded the cart and, together with Eldum, got the first barrel of the lager into the cart. Lonaraa picked one by herself with seemingly no effort at all and within a few minutes loaded twice as many barrels into the cart as the two men.

With a cart holding fifteen barrels, it sure looked like a big payday was coming their way.

"Now that our hiding place is gone, how are we going to get back safely? We can't exactly wait a few days till the bombs go off?" Yiliana casually asked while filling up one of her pouches with the delicious brew.

"I can keep illusions on you and Lonaraa for the duration of the trip. My current mana reserves and most of the mana potions should be enough for that." Corben replied.

"Sounds good." She sniffed the lager and took a small sip. "Not bad. A bit on the bitter side but drinkable."

"You don't know what a good thing is!" Eldum replied with righteous fury, as if his entire kind just got insulted.

"A bit of honey would make it a lot better." Yiliana said, completely ignoring the dwarf's anger at her judgment of the brew.

"Everyone has their own tastes." Corben patted Eldum on the shoulder as by the looks of it Eldum was ready to strangle the woman for her blasphemous comments.

"You can't call that a taste," Eldum grumbled under his breath.

"In either case, we should get moving," Corben said, casting an illusion on both Yiliana and Lonaraa, making them both look like tall human women with Defias bandanas on their faces.

The return trip was just as uneventful.

They were stopped a few times by the Defias members, but Jithu talked them out of every sticky situation.

The moment they arrived back at Sentinel Hill, Corben went into full salesman mode and drove from tavern to tavern selling at least a barrel in each.

With just over sixteen gold and one barrel left for personal use, the mission was an astounding success, putting the whole group into a celebratory mood.

After splitting the money evenly and renting a room for a celebration, everyone still had over three gold left, making them well set for a while.

Seated around a big round table with one of the barrels of lager right in the middle, everyone waited for Eldum to fill their mugs. Even Osbeorn was getting a bowl of delicious brew.

The tavern maid had already filled the table to the brim with food, and once the celebration had ended, they could go to sleep in the rooms upstairs.

"Just don't overdo it," Lonaraa warned Corben as he was already taking big gulps, competing with the rest of the team. Surprisingly, even Yiliana had joined in and had downed half a mug in one go followed by a loud burp.

"Relax, I know my limit. I'm more worried about you." He said, tossing a large piece of fried meat in his mouth.

As the resident lightweight of the group, Lonaraa would take things slow and drink three, maybe four, mugs throughout the evening.

"Aha, you know, I'll just leave you under the table when you pass out." She said with a straight face.

"And here I thought you liked me," Corben replied with fake shock, turning to the bear who was happily lapping the beer. "You'll be my pal and carry me to the bed right?"

Osbeorn just lifted his head, pointed at the other three group members, let out a low grumble, and returned to enjoying his drink.

"The ungrateful beast said that you can sleep with us three under the table." Eldum translated, glaring at the bear.

"We need better teammates." Corben said, shaking his head.

"That we do." Eldum agreed.

Nonetheless, despite the threat of being left under the table, none of the four showed any signs of slowing down.

As the lager flowed and everyone got progressively more drunk, engaging in playful banter and light hearted insults, Lonaraa couldn't help but notice Yiliana giving the two men increasingly hungry glances.

Instinctively, she put a hand on Corben's leg, who gave her a surprised look and then put his arm around her waist.

"Since we are a team shouldn't we at least know more about each other?" Lonaraa asked to distract everyone from staring at her and Corben as they were sitting so close together in plain view.

"I come from an engineering family. My mommy and daddy both ran our family business with my two brothers helping them. We had the best shop in Gnomeregan." Jithu jumped at the opportunity, speaking in her usual energetic manner.

She then got a bit quieter. "That is until Gnomeregan fell. I had to leave all my toys behind." Then returning to a chipper tone. "Oh well, at least all my family survived. Now we have a shop in Ironforge and it is doing great."

Eldum was next to tell about himself.

He came from a hunter dynasty with his father, grandfather, and even great-grandfather all being hunters who spent most of their days in the wild, only occasionally returning to live in cities.

He was set to have the same lifestyle and planned to be an adventurer for at least a century before settling down and having a family.

Corben and Lonaraa told their stories next with Corben, as usual, not going into any particular detail.

Then the group turned their attention to Yiliana. She may have been the latest addition but at this point, it was clear that she was in no rush to part ways.

She glanced around, took a few big gulps from her mug, and said just one word. "Divorced."

"Come on, don't you elves live for a very long time? You have to have more to tell." Jithu said.

"So what? I was a priestess of the moon for fifteen hundred years and rarely left the temple." She hissed back, clearly not happy about the questioning.

"I didn't know the divorce was a thing among night elves."

"Now you know! You try to live with a druid bastard that goes to sleep for years wandering that damned emerald dream, likely bedding dryads and who knows what other creatures." Yiliana ranted and then finished the rest of her mug in one go.

She pushed the empty mug towards Eldum and over Jithu, who was sitting next to her.

The dwarf quickly filled it and passed it back. She took another big gulp and pointed at Lonaraa. "And you girl, better keep him close or someone might take him away."

Lonaraa stared back for a good ten seconds, snarled at the elf, grabbed Corben's face turned him towards her, and kissed him.

'That bitch won't take him away from me!' She glanced at the elf and the rest of her surprised companions while kissing Corben in a rather aggressive manner.

"Well, that's a power move," Jithu said with a giggle.

Ignoring her remark, she grabbed Corben's hand and whispered in his ear. "Let's go upstairs."

Before he could formulate any sort of answer he was already being dragged towards the stairs.

"Good luck you two!" Jithu shouted after them.

"Did she think I was going to get between them?" Yiliana asked none in particular.

"Probably. That lass gets very territorial after a few mugs." Eldum said with a chuckle, downing the last of his mug. "Either way it's only the three of us and a whole lot of lager."

"I should go check…" Jithu tried to slip away, but instantly Eldum's heavy hand held her in place by her shoulder. "You are not going anywhere."

Meanwhile, Corben and Lonaraa reached Corben's room and once the door closed, she froze in place.

"Look, she probably didn't mean it like that. If you are not ready…"

"I am! I just…" she turned around and stared at Corben. She then leaned down and kissed him again.

This time the kiss was a bit stiffer. "I just…" she tried to say something between kisses.

"It will be alright. We can stop anytime you want. I will be gentle." Corben said in a soothing voice.

"It's not that…" Lonaraa let out a sigh 'I am an adult now. She won't ruin this for me. I will stand up to her when we meet her!'

"Look, if you are uncertain…"

"I am certain!" She kissed Corben again. 'This time I won't let her.' "And don't worry about me, I have been with a man before."

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.