Hello one and all

“What the FUCK was that!”

Heavy, worn hands slammed down onto the wooden table, yellowed teeth gritting down hard enough to hear them clank together. Captain Goliath Bernwald was angry. Extremely angry. All the rest of his party had to sit there, taking his berating until they felt it was gonna be their time to talk.

“This job was the last job we could’ve taken to pay off a chunk of our debt, and yet every last one of you FUCKED IT UP so badly I’m worried if we’re even gonna get paid at all!” Oh there we go. That was what set Pierce off. He shot up from his seat, glaring at Goliath with a very tight, bottled up rage ready to set off with the tiniest crack.

“And you’re saying you had no part in our fuck up?” He growled. “You were HUNGOVER, what use is a frontline warrior who can’t even walk into the light without getting so much as a migraine!”

“That wouldn’t have been a problem if you properly stocked up with Restoration potions, Pierce,” Sage lazily messed with a marble on the table, flicking it across right up to Beaumont, who caught it before it could fall to the floor.

“I’m sure we’re just punching over our weight with that one because we’re desperate for money,” Beaumont shrugged. “Clearing out a mansion of poltergeists? None of us are even trained in holy magic.”

“If we had FOUND the item the ghosts were tethered to and destroyed it they would’ve been FREED but we DIDN’T!” Goliath snapped. “You’re all trying to blame anybody but yourselves! Do you know just how many chances we’ve been given? This was our last chance and now that Manticore bastard’s gonna have us all strung up by our ankles bleeding into a cauldron!”

“He hasn’t come here yet, if we hurry up and find a new job, we can recover the costs, and if we show him some gold he’ll extend the day, anything to keep interests up so he can bleed more money from us,” Sage yawned. “Let’s find something less daunting for any amount of gold, and then when we complete our task, give Don Henbane the gold, and hope he keeps us as his little cash cow.”

“As much as I don’t want to agree with your idea…” Goliath pinched the bridge of his nose. “We’re all desperate. Fine. Let’s go to the town hall, then the tavern.”

“How about Beaumont and I go to the tavern for work. Sage and Goliath, you two hit the town hall,” Pierce offered, glaring daggers at Goliath. He clenched his fists. He wanted to reach over and break Pierce’s nose in so many places he’d be a permanent mouth breather. But he took a deep breath, and to avoid spitting further poison, just nodded.

“Alright. We have a plan, let’s just rest for now. We had to use the remainder of our money on the cheapest most watered down healing potions we could and I’m feeling the aching returning,” Sage stood up from his seat. 

“You sure that’s not the arthritis, old man?” Beaumont joked with a cheeky smirk, which he was soon rewarded with by Sage snapping his fingers and sending an uncomfortable spark through the large redhead’s body.

“Maybe you should study magic too. It really does a body good and makes the aging slower, kiddo,” Sage sneered. “Twice your age and I feel no older than 30.” Beaumont huffed, flipping Sage off and stomping out of the basement. Pierce followed behind, glaring at Goliath and taking the time to slam the rickety old door. Sage shook his head and clicked his teeth.

“If I wasn’t in this mess I’d have had those two’s heads blown off,” Sage huffed.

“Then we’d have to shoulder their debts too,” Goliath said. “Only reason I can even stand being around you all is because one of us dying means we have to shoulder that share of the debt.”

“Fair point,” Sage said. “Why else would I willingly work with an overweight drunk, a spoiled brat who can’t access his daddy’s money, and a crybaby whose all edge but no point?” Sage huffed, picking up the bag of marbles on the table and leaving along with the rest of the group. Once the basement was silent, and he could hear the footsteps vanish into different parts of the house, Goliath sighed and crumpled over in the closest chair he could grab. 

Sage was right about him. Goliath WAS an overweight drunk, but he could snap that pompous old twig in half at any given point…

There was a small satchel on his waist. When he opened it up, he pulled out a bottle he was keeping safe the entire time, last thing he could afford. A nice, shiny, bottle of mead, his favorite drink by far, even if the buzz wasn’t strong. Not like he needed to feel a buzz at this point…

He uncorked the small bottle and took a big, heart swig of it, practically emptying the entire thing in one gulp, before part of it went down the wrong pipe in one rush. He coughed, some of the liquid spilling out of his mouth and right onto his bare, hairy chest. God dammit….making a mess on himself like that. It would be funny if his entire situation wasn’t so utterly pathetic.

“What happened…?” He muttered to himself. He wasn’t always like this. He was someone great. Famous even. But now life caught up to him and he was out in an abandoned apothecary shop with three men he doesn’t even like. All to pay the debt of a predatory mafioso who treated this entire group like playthings. 

At this point he thought he’d be a few years away from retiring, sitting in a cave somewhere with booze, meat, furs, and a pretty young thing cuddling up to him listening to his tales of heroism. That was the life he deserved. At least at one point he believed that. Maybe this really was just what he deserved after he got too cocky. With a heavy sigh, once he stood up again, the pain started back up, simmering down from his lower back before shooting up in a burst of flames around his neck. He grunted, sucking in a gasp and stumbling over to the chest he kept his bed roll in. Couldn’t even afford a good bed at this point…but it was time to actually sleep after a long, shitty day. So he blew out the candle that kept the room a bit dim, and let it all drown in darkness before laying down and closing his eyes.

“Going to bed yet old man?”

A very familiar voice shot him up out of his light slumber, followed by the sensation of something sharp pressing up against his jugular. He recognized the bright yellow eyes shining in the dark, dark skin and hair blending so seamlessly into the newly formed darkness. 

“Jetta…hi,” he mumbled. “How’s the old man? Still kicking?”

“Oh he’s doing loooovely~!” She purred, sitting right on top of him, clawed hands pressed down on his rather sizable, hairy gut. Her tail started swishing side to side and her grin showed off devious playfulness, like this was a big fun game to her. 

“Where’s the money, little man~?” She asked. “I really want a plate of Sashimi from this amazing eastern isle chef but unfortunately I can’t get it until father sees the money!”

“Your dad has more money than the king, he can afford that…” Goliath said through gritted teeth. “We failed this-“

“Oh I know you did, remember,” Jetta laid down on Goliath’s massive frame, running a finger through his chest hair. “I have eyes and ears all around this city. Little Scraggles told me about your disastrous failure in that mansion. What a shame…” Goliath growled under his breath. With a swift motion, he grabbed Jetta by the tail and yanked her off of him, rough enough to cause her to hiss in pain. 

“Careful doing that little man!” She hissed, her ears pulled back and her teeth showing. “Wouldn’t want me to tell father his pathetic little debtor hurt his one and only heir, would you?” She crawled on all fours back up to him, hissing with a wild look in her eyes.

“What can he possibly do that’s worse than leaving me on this wild goose chase for money?” Goliath sighed. 

“How about we ship you out to the mountains and have your skin turned into a nice leather tunic?” 

“Then that means I’ll be dead. Which I consider a damn mercy.” At that, Jetta relaxed, her posture going back to normal as she sat back up, and couldn’t help but giggle into her hand.

“Oh god you’re so funny to mess with! Just for being silly, I’ll give you and your crew another week! But in the end, if father doesn’t see at least 150 gold for a job well done, it’s bye bye for everyone here!” Oh no. Oh no no no that wasn’t good at all. Goliath tensed up, eyes widened in the darkness.

“150 gold Jetta you’re kidding me! The installments were 25 gold a fortnight!”

“And you missed enough payments that you oughta be grateful I don’t charge you more!” She leaned into him, this time yanking on his chest hair enough that she was nearly pulling it out. Goliath glared down at her with a quiet fury, sure of himself that he could grab this mangy cat of a woman and throw her against the ground till she was a red smear. But if he did that, then his fate would be far worse than if he just didn’t pay Don Henbane any money.

“I was here to collect whatever you had now. But I gave you an extended day. I’d take whatever you all got but aside from the gear boss so lovingly let you borrow you all don’t have jack shit.” She gave Goliath a cheeky kiss on the cheek, before slinking up the basement stairs, smiling down at him one last time.

“Have a good rest, great hero~!”

—-

Goliath did not, in fact, have a good rest. He stayed up all night too fearful to sleep, and in too much pain to sleep. One week…150 gold…no job here would be offering that much unless it was a suicide mission, or a trip to the arenas, and arena season just closed. Goliath could get the most money then, but now he was shit out of luck. The worst part was going to tell everyone else about this, but he didn’t have much luck, because once the sun rose, he finally fell asleep…

Only to be woken up suddenly by the sound of Beaumont’s footsteps clamoring down the steps. How did he know they were Beaumont’s? It’s worth it to memorize the sounds of your own teammates.

“Hey Goliath, you up?” He asked. “I went with Pierce early to scout out a job, and we found something that might be worth it, c'mon lemme show you.”

“God…why the fuck are you waking me up this early…?” Goliath groaned.

“First off, it’s almost noon, and second off, here,” Beaumont handed Goliath a flyer that was posted up. The paper had an odd faint shade of pink, and the writing was surprisingly eloquent. It seemed like that of a noble who wanted to write the job themselves. 

“Wanted: mercenaries as bodyguards to go to Bounty Valley for further details on payment visit the address down below…” He looked at where the address was, but it was covered up by a sticker. He peeled it off to reveal it was right on the outskirts of town, near some farming settlements. 

“Won’t even give us the payment details, are you sure about taking this?” Goliath raised an eyebrow.

“C’mon, it’s well written, neat, a bit frilly, I’m sure whoever sent this out is probably really dang naive and could be harangued easily into giving us as much reward money as we can strong arm outta them. It could be worth a shot, trust me.” He wanted to say no….but after that conversation with Jetta last night, this could be worth something.

“…we need to talk first. Gather the rest of the group.”

—-

“So this is…”

“Bad? Yeah I know it is…”

“But from the way she talked to me, she wanted the money that day. So this might be a blessing in disguise.”

Pierce gripped his head and let out a groan of exhaust and defeat. 

“150…” he groaned. “What jobs did we get? Anything we can do that only needs 1 or 2 people? Maybe then we can I dunno…stretch out the rewards…?”

“Beaumont found something-“

“I know he found something,” Pierce interrupted. “But this has no reward money, just a meetup place. This could be suspicious as hell.”

“But we don’t know unless we meet the person. Meeting someone isn’t concrete. We’ll talk to them, see if they’re convincing enough, and leave if they’re not,” Sage offered. “

“No, no, Beaumont dragged me back here but I’m going back to the town board to find something else,” Pierce stood up from his seat. “We might as well find a backup if this lead doesn’t work out.”

“I’m coming with you,” Goliath said. “I just woke up and I need to work my joints in hopes the pain dulls.” Pierce seemed to visibly wince at the idea, but he didn’t stop them as they left the rickety shack the group called both a base and a home. Goliath took an absurd amount of care to close the door, cause anything less and he was worried the door would crumble to dust.

“Good to see you finally up and doing some damn work,” Pierce crossed his arms. Goliath’s fists clenched over the doorknob, but he took in a deep breath, trying his best to stay calm.

“The pain made it hard for me to sleep…” he mumbled. “Now come on.” 

The only good part about the shack they were holed up in is that it was in the nice part of town and not the slums. But that probably made it worse for Goliath. He saw men in tailored suits, farmers with barrels of fresh produce, knights in freshly polished armor. Seeing all of that just sickened Goliath. People were just… enjoying their lives while he was forced to wake up and deal with being a wash up in debt. 

“If you’re still in pain, what makes you think you’re remotely capable of mercenary work?” Pierce asked.

“I literally have no choice, none of us do,” Goliath replied with a heavy sigh as he was led to the nearest town guard post. “If we’re lucky wherever we’d have to go might have some good bodies to loot or something. Maybe then we can sell off what we get and find some worthwhile potions.”

“That’s a rare case, a really rare case, and you know it,” Pierce said.

“I know but that’s a silent plea for some things to work in our fuckin favor. I need a real miracle by the time the week is up…”

“A miracle you say~?” Oh god. Oh fuck no. Oh god no please don’t let that be…. 

Goliath turned his head, even though he didn’t want to, and he was forced to stare into the smug, grinning profile of a man he would cheer to see tortured and beaten to death.

“Lancer…hello….” Goliath groaned. “How’s life…?”

“Oh boy is it good!” He grinned, walking up to Goliath until they were less than a foot apart. Lancer looked roughed up. His armor had scratches and his blond hair was frayed and all over the place. He was just on a job. It was obvious by not only the wear and tear on his armor, but the big pouch of gold dangling on his hip.

“Where’s the rest of your gang…?” Goliath asked.

“At the clergy, getting some proper healing! I didn’t need it, so that means I can spend more of my share of the earnings as I please. Had any luck with jobs, Goliath~?” Goliath clenched his fists, crossing his arms and glaring down at Lancer. Just like Jetta, he knew he had all the power in the world to drag and scrape his body through the cobblestone pavements to paint all those stones and pebbles for miles. But there were guards. And people. And any money he has to spend on bail wouldn’t be worth it.

“We’re going on a job,” Pierce interrupted, trying to step in between the two men. “We just accepted one, we’re just scoping out more just in case.”

“Ohhh~?” Lancer smirked. “I do hope it does well. Do you need a quick pick me up? Something to help with that?”  Goliath tensed up. Oh no. Oh god no please not here. Lancer grabbed a small fistful of coins from his pouch. Beautiful, bright, shiny gold coins. Goliath tensed up, staring down at the money he tossed with a deep desperate hunger in his eyes that ashamed him more than anything.

“Pick them up,” Lancer smiled, malice in both his voice and the way his smile didn’t touch his eyes. Goliath didn’t reply to that. Instead he got down on his knees to pick up the coins, which shocked Pierce.

“Goliath get the fuck up! Don’t listen to-“

“Every coin counts, Pierce…” Goliath sighed. He could see people watching. People were staring at this mountain of a man being forced to crouch down on his knees for a few gold coins. He was careful to look around and find every piece he could, crawling around on his hands and knees like an injured animal. Pierce looked down at Goliath with a pained look in his eyes, before he turned around to Lancer’s spite fuel grin and reeled back to punch him. Hard. Lancer’s knees buckled and his head nearly turned 180 degrees from the force alone. Pierce was only a bit less bulky than Goliath, and so the raven haired man had an amazing amount of power behind his hits.

“Go fuck yourself!” Pierce yelled. “Pompous prick, don’t you got anything better to do?!” Lance felt the side of his face,  his cheek already swelling from the hit, and he spat up a bit of blood onto the ground. In the direction of Goliath.

“Goliath knows his place at the bottom of the food chain, but it seems you still wanna fight back and not lie down like the mangy mutt you are,” he smirked. “I’d take back the money I threw at you two, but you’re lucky I’m in a good mood. So enjoy it.” Lance walked past the two of them, while Goliath was busy counting just how much was thrown at him. 

“25…” he muttered. “That’s good, that’s good…”

“Goliath…” Pierce’s expression softened with pity looking at his so-called leader in this pitiful state, standing up with his fists clenched tight with the money he was given. 

“Cmon…” Pierce sighed. “Let’s just find our next job…” Goliath nodded, following Pierce in complete silence.

Seeing that scene earlier, Pierce felt bad yelling at Goliath last night. It seems out of everyone in the group, it was Goliath who was most aware of the severity of their situation, and it was taking a toll on him physically and mentally. Pierce could see it. The bags under his eyes, his deep brown hair and beard growing shaggy with more grey hairs by the day, and the way his movements were slower due to exhaustion and pain. Pierce felt animosity towards everyone in the group, but at the very least had some semblance of respect for Goliath, only if it was because he knew he could be better than he is now. His physique, his aged but cared for battle axe, the scars peppering areas of his body and face. This was a man who had spent years being someone great. 

“Goliath…” Pierce spoke up after minutes of silence leading up to the guard post. “What do you plan to do…after our debt’s been paid?” There was silence for a few seconds. Goliath pretended to scan the job listings, but truth be told he was looking at nothing in particular.

“I didn’t think that far,” he answered honestly. “I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it. If I get to it.” Pierce began to check the papers posted up on the board. All of these were simply errand runs, guard duties, or missing pet posters. All of these paid some copper, a few silver. Nothing worth going out of their way to do. Pierce sighed and banged his fist on the wall, letting out a deep sigh.

“Maybe Beaumont’s right…we should just take the job he found. Maybe they didn’t name a price for a reason…”

“Yeah…yeah…” Goliath sighed. “Let’s just go back, tell Beaumont he was right and-“

“Tell Beaumont he was right, eh?” Beaumont in fact, was standing behind them, with Sage in tow. They seemed to be dressed for travel now.

“The fuck are you two doing here??” Pierce asked.

“We decided not to really…listen to you guys, and went to find you so we can follow the job we got,” Beaumont replied. 

“Unless you two had luck of course,” Sage said. “Did you?”

“No…no we didn’t,” Goliath sighed. You still got that paper?”

“Of course,” Sage handed Goliath the job listing, rolled up and wrapped with a piece of string. “It could be our last sliver of hope. We have to try even if this all turns out for naught.”

“Yeah yeah….come on…” Goliath walked ahead of the group. “I know where to go.”

“You only saw the address once,” Beaumont said.

“He’s good with directions, not far fetched for him,” Sage pat Beaumont on the back and followed Goliath. Pierce was the last to trail behind, head down the entire way. He asked Goliath if he had a goal once their debt was cleared…but did he have his own goal? Did any of them have a goal figured out after they were debt free? 

—-

“This is the place?”

“Yeah, this is it.” 

The group was led to a caravan, and a pretty nice looking one at that. It was two stories, made of a pale wood decorated with bits of pink in places like the curtains, rails, and the foliage coming off of it. Instead of being carried by horses or any other riding animal, the caravan appeared to be a newer fancier one, using mana tech to be driven without the need of an animal. If this person could afford mana tech, maybe they could easily afford to pay them a decent bit of gold for a job well done. 

“Do we just knock?” Sage scratched the unkempt parts of his silver beard. Goliath didn’t answer and instead stepped up to the door of the caravan to knock. Silence. So Goliath knocked again, but louder. He didn’t hear anything come from the first floor of the cart, but instead it came from the second floor. 

“O-oh dear! Apologies! I didn’t expect anybody to answer my listing so soon!” A woman’s voice. A very sweet, bubbly, cheerful woman’s voice. Goliath looked up at whoever was coming down the ladder, approaching the group from the left as she fixed her hair and straightened her dress. 

This woman…she was stunning. 

Her skin was soft and a lovely shade of brown, hair a beautiful field of curls that were an even more lovely darker brown, with what looked like multicolored sprinkles or paper or confetti of some kind stuck in her beautiful curls. Her face was soft and round, with the most adorable dimples when her cute, plump lips curled up into a smile. She wore a very simple dress against her soft curvy frame, but her bright white apron was decorated with multiple stains and splatters of various colors. What was most apparent was that, because of the size of the entire group, she was much, much shorter than all of them. Beaumont was the shortest, but even he was over half a foot above her in height. 

Goliath knew damn well this woman was an absolute beauty, but he kept as stoic as he could be, as the sleep deprivation and pain made him falter only slightly, and he cleared his throat to speak up.

“Are you the woman who posted this job listing?” He held out the rolled up parchment paper, and she immediately seemed to recognize it.

“Yes! Yes I am, though I will say, I only expected one, maybe two people to accept this sort of work. It’ll be a bit crowded with all of you…but I’ll find a way to make it work!” The woman clasped her hands together with a bright smile on her face.

“Okay! How about we talk business? First of all, my name is Camille Caramello, a pleasure to meet you all!” Camille held her hand out, and Goliath took the initiative to shake it first.

“Goliath Bernwald. Nice to work with you.”

“I’m Pierce Ravenscroft.”

“Beaumont Lairot!”

“You may call me Sage Caverly.” 

Camille had an optimistic smile throughout their exchange, though her smile faltered to a bit more of an uncomfortable one when she took a better look at the entire party.

“Before we talk…are you guys…okay?” She asked. “Do you need anything? A rest, something to eat…a bath…?” The group all felt a collective wave of embarrassment at their predicament being very boldly pointed out by this young woman. Even after trying to present themselves, all 4 men were still rather unkempt and tired from uncomfortable sleep, little food, and constant work.

“I…can’t accept that ma’am…” Goliath said. “We’re here to ask you for work, nothing more, nothing less.”

“What good are you all going to be working for me in this state?” She pointed out. “Come on. There’s a river nearby, I have something that you guys might need.” She went into the caravan, and soon came out holding a couple bars of soap. Homemade soap from the looks of it.

“Start with a bath. Then we can talk.” Goliath stared at the bars of soap in her hand. He looked uncomfortable taking it, but when he turned back to his party, Beaumont was the first man to take a bar of soap.

“Thank ya kindly, miss!” He grinned, running in the direction of the river as he began stripping his armor off as he walked. “I dunno about you guys but I’m going in!”

Goliath clicked his tongue in disapproval at Beaumont’s attitude. However…he lifted the bar up to his face to take a sniff. Mmm…it smelled like honeysuckles. He followed Beaumont down to the river, where he already saw him completely stripped down naked as he jumped into the river with a very large SPLASH. When Beaumont resurfaced, there was a big excited grin on his face while he began scrubbing himself down with the bar of soap.

“Cmon big guy! You could use a bath yourself!” He chuckled. Goliath silently began to undress, glancing every so often at Beaumont running his hands through his hair and scrubbing his body down with soap. Goliath wasn’t the only one in a rough state. Beaumont’s body, once almost completely akin to a marble statue, looked quite a bit skinnier and frailer, and there were bruises all across his body that didn’t show signs of healing anytime soon. That’s what made Goliath realize that…his team, they might not be as fit anymore for a fight. Everyone was hungry, tired, and weaker. A big, heavy fraction of him expected this mission to end in another failure.

“Are you gonna get in big guy or nah?” Beaumont rested on the side of the river, already looking cleaner and brighter after his brief scrubbing.

“Oh yeah, okay,” Goliath slowly sank into the water. The day was nice and warm but the water was quite cold. It didn’t bother Goliath much, though he seemed more sensitive to it now than he used to be.

“That woman, what an absolute angel!” Sage was soon nearby disrobing with Pierce, grabbing an old comb from his bag before going into the water. “I ran out of money to make my own soaps, so scented soaps really are a dream come true nowadays!”

“I’m not sure about that, this could just be some ploy to get us alone and defenseless,” Pierce left his clothes to the side, but kept a dagger on him.

“And do what? Rob us?” Sage said. “What do we have that she could want?”

“Our organs,” Pierce countered.

“That little cutie pie in the caravan? An organ harvester? Yeah no Pierce you’re far too paranoid,” Beaumont chuckled. “Just enjoy having a nice relaxing bath. Here if you want to, I can help you shear that side of your head for you.” Pierce scoffed, but once he got into the water, handed Beaumont a blade and sat near him in the river.

“Alright, go ahead,” he sighed.

“Want me to shave that caterpillar between your brows too?” 

“Suck my dick.”

“I mean…you got it out so…”

“Gimme my knife back,” Pierce tried to take the knife back, but not too hard, because Beaumont just continued to shave down the side of Pierce’s head.

“What so you can stab me? Absolutely not bucko!”

“Nobody stabs anybody,” Goliath wet his bar of soap and slowly dragged it across his body, using it to wash every inch of his hairy, heavy body, from the very bottom of his stomach all the way up to his massive chest. Though his figure, it used to be far larger than this. He could tell from the way his skin felt looser on him that he was significantly smaller than he should be, even if he’s still larger than a regular peasant.

“This soap smells incredible!” Sage got his long silver hair wet to start combing it. “Mmm, I get hints of lavender and star anise…! Made in house I assume.”

“You’d be correct!” Sage flinched a bit when he heard Camille right behind him, kneeling by the river with a smile on her face.

“How are you gentlemen doing?” She asked.

“Oh uh, miss, we’re a bit indecent, are you sure we can talk like this? It’d be rude to expose myself to such a stunning woman like you,” Sage said.

“You’re all mostly submerged, so it should be fine,” she replied. “I think it’d be easier to talk business while you all relax here. Makes the atmosphere less tense.” Goliath raised an eyebrow at that. A much smaller, softer young woman, getting all 4 men stripped down and without their weapons to make negotiations more comfortable for her. Quite clever.

“We can talk like this,” Goliath said. “Now, that job title you gave, it was awfully vague. Can we get more details here?”

“Yes, of course,” Camille got more comfortable on the side of the river, pulling out a map she kept tucked in a pouch on her hip. “Bounty valley is about a 3 day travel in my caravan. I need adventurers to go with me into the main Beehives that reside there and protect me while I collect a few jars of royal jelly.” Goliath was familiar with what she was talking about. Bounty Valley was a bit too far for the group to readily travel to and fro there on foot, but when they did get to go here, they were set for food for weeks because of the rapid rate of flora and fauna growth. But because of that, the animals there were large, and dangerous. And this woman was offering to find a way to sneak into the main hives. She’s gotta be crazy to want that.

“Miss, are you sure you want that from us?” He asked.

“Very. Because what’s in that hive is worth more than gold. If you guys can safely bring me to that hive, I’m expecting a profit of 250 gold minimum. I’ll split anything I get in half with you guys.” Everyone paused what they were doing. Beaumont stopped shaving Pierce, who looked up with wide, shocked eyes, and Sage had his comb stuck on a knot in his hair when he paused.

“That much? Are you serious?” Goliath got out of the water, standing right next to Camille, who proceeded to close her eyes and look the other direction. 

“This seems like a trap,” he said to her. “Probably planning to feed us to those bees in there. Offering that much for this job is-“

“Is worth the danger I’m putting myself and you all in if you accept this,” she stood up, this time turning to look Goliath in the eyes. Though the task was…very impossible from beneath him.

“Please sir, I’ve asked multiple people. Even with the money I offer they have all turned me away. And if there are any more accommodations you need, please tell me.” Camille had a silent determination in her eyes. Something to show that she won’t back down so easily. Goliath wanted to argue back, but he realized this was a blessing in disguise. This was their last chance to get a sizable amount of money. Three day travel, possibly a day of planning, and three days back unless Jetta finds them before then.

“We’ll be ready for you by sundown,” Goliath answered. “Everyone, let’s get ready.”

“So we got the job?” Beaumont was next to crawl out of the water, a hopeful, overly excited grin on his face. “We got the job boys! Hell yeah!”

“Clothes! Both of you put your clothes back on!” Sage exclaimed, grabbing Beaumont by the ankle as he left the water. “We're in the presence of a young lady!” Camille immediately turned heel and started walking back to the caravan, trying to hide the fact that her face was a bit red.

“You guys can get dressed! I’ll be in the same place! Goodbye!” She waved at them as she left. 

“Hmph, Sage you’re the one who made so much fuss,” Goliath said. “But we’ve got the job. So that’s good.”

“How should we plan this though?” Pierce asked. “We’re all at least a lil bit familiar with the wildlife in that accursed place. Did you have something in mind?” Goliath placed a hand under his chin. He had an inkling of an idea, but this would take cooperation from everyone here, and cooperation was a bit more difficult, especially after their last job.

“You’re all going to have to listen to me and listen to me good. We fuck this up, and it’s our last chance. Got it?” 

—-

Camille took a deep breath, going into her caravan to check on her items she stocked. She didn’t expect 4 men to answer her job listing, and because of that, felt a bit more unsure of the 50/50 split. More importantly, she had to keep food stocked for the journey. Maybe she can harvest some stuff there…but she might have to do more than that. She saw their bodies. Sage and Beaumont, they showed signs of quite a bit of malnutrition, poor Sage had visible ribs. And even Pierce and Goliath, they were big men but she could see the weight falling off of them fast. 

“As long as they’re helping me,” she said to herself, pounding her fist in her hand. “I’m keeping them fed. I’ll have to dip into shop supplies, but it’s worth it.” Camille felt hopeful. Baking and candy making, anybody even remotely skilled could do it. So if she could set herself apart even just a little bit, she could make it big. Even if it means starting off hiring a bunch of very unequipped starving mercenaries for her first big supply haul. From inside her caravan, she heard the sounds of the group’s footsteps, sounds like they were all dressed and ready, so she went out carrying a woven pouch with her.

“Gentlemen! You said sundown, correct?” Camille stepped out of her caravan. “Do you all want something to eat with me?”

“Huh? You’re offering us a meal…?” Pierce asked. “Hm…you’re just one woman. How much do you have in stock for all of us?”

“Well, I’ll worry about that later, but I keep some portable stew in my cabinets. When you dry it all out, I have a stock that keeps me filled for weeks. But I’ll need something out of you guys.” She put the woven pouch down and retreated back into the caravan. Pierce knelt down and took a look at what was in the bag. It was dried pieces of roux cut up into cubes, and chunks of dried meat and vegetables were strewn throughout each cube. Pierce picked one up and gave it a quick sniff.

“Doesn’t smell suspicious…”

“Oh yeah poisoning her own food supply just to hurt us,” Beaumont scoffed.

“Would you just shut up? Anything could happen. This entire thing seems sketchy.”

“You don’t seem to have a good memory of Bounty Valley, that amount of money she’s offering is well worth the price of us going,” Goliath said. “Only other money we’d expect is some bounty, and lord knows those are few and far between, and even harder to hunt down and capture.”

“This just all seems too lucky for us,” Pierce said. “There’s gotta be a catch, a trick, something-“ Pierce was interrupted when Camille came back and placed down a giant cooking pot.

“I just need someone here to fetch me some water, and start a fire,” she said. “Can you guys do that?”

“Can you increase our pay if we do?” Pierce asked, glaring at her.

“If you guys finish the job, then yes, yes I can.” Pierce scoffed, but stood up and walked over to the river.

“Sage, how do you feel? Think you can purify some water?”

“I’ve got some mana in me, and that’s not that daunting,” Sage shrugged, sitting cross-legged in the grass. 

“Oh no no no, I can purify the water myself,” Camille said. 

“Oh you’re a magic user too?” Sage’s ears perked up. “What do you study?”

“I’m not a full time magic user, and I simply study magic based in recovery and support without the assistance of holy magic.”

“A non-holy healer? Oh wow, those are rare,” Sage grinned, leaning closer to Camille. “But it’s quite the endeavor.”

“I find learning non-holy healing magic is good for those who don’t have the privilege of receiving holy healing. Like let’s say…you were of infernal blood, or undead, or some form of darker fey.” Pierce’s eyes narrowed at Camille as she spoke, but just continued to the river in silence. 

“Where do you keep the firewood, miss?” Beaumont asked, as he was already walking towards the caravan.

“You’ll see it in the back, you don’t even have to go in, it's piled up there,” she answered. 

“You do all of this by yourself?” Goliath asked.

“Mostly! I don’t bust out the big cauldron if I’m cooking for myself, but other than that all of this work I do on my own,” she shrugged. 

“It sounds quite lonely, don’t you ever crave companionship of any kind?” Sage seemed to try and get closer and closer to Camille, and Goliath kept his eyes locked on him as a result. He knew Sage, and Sage loved the small and feminine. Camille was both very small and very feminine, and he wasn’t sure if he trusted him alone with what was their new employer. Maybe. Surely Sage knew better than to try and charm his way with the woman who was giving them their hard earned money.

“I do, but it’s hard to find someone who can tolerate always having somewhere else to be,” Camille sighed. “People like stability, they like being in familiar places and I don’t do that.”

“I don’t care much for stability,” Sage placed a hand on her shoulder, flashing a very gentle, very flirtatious smile. “I don’t think any of my team does. We have a base of operations but that’s just where we keep our stuff.” Just as Goliath was about to go over and say something, Pierce and Beaumont showed up with the pot and the wood. And for further emphasis, Pierce placed the pot down right between Sage and Camille. 

“Oh! You guys got everything!” Camille smiled. “First, let’s get the water purified.” She grabbed another pouch at her hip, and sprinkled what looked to be a fistful of salt into the water. As she did, she began to chant something. The language wasn’t familiar, but as Sage listened to it, it started to sound like some fae language, though what kind, he wasn’t familiar with

As her chanting continued, the water swirled on its own. Sage could hear some words repeat as she chanted, and looked down into the water as what looked to be some sort of black, oily scum started to condense into one place, the exact center of the pot, packing together as tight as it possibly could, until eventually there was a solid mass of filth. Once Camille stopped chanting, she grabbed the black mass and very casually tossed it as far as she could into the trees.

“All done!” She grinned. 

“Oh shoot! That was kinda cool,” Beaumont said. “Sage’s magic doesn’t purify water that way, that’s kinda baller.” He was right, Sage’s magic didn’t do that. His own magic would’ve had everything dissipate into a harmless black smoke that would vanish, but for Camille, the filth stayed the same, but was just turned into an object that Camille could physically dispose of. Either she was more inexperienced, or found a way to save her own mana with quicker, easier tricks. 

“Now folks,” Camille rubbed her hands together excitedly. “Let’s begin!”

—-

The fire was lit, the pot was bubbling, and once it got to a certain point, Camille began dropping the cubes of stew into the water one by one. As she did, she kept on continuously stirring, while Sage made sure the fire kept steady and everyone else sat around to watch. The water began going from a nice beautiful crystal clear to a murky brown, and began to thicken up. In fact, it thickened up a lot more than expected. All 4 men were expecting it to just be watery soup with bits of meat and vegetables in them, but it’s like the stew came to life, with the chunks in the bowl almost swelling up and becoming nice and moist. Goliath was trying to keep a straight face, arms crossed as he kept watch, but the entire time, he was drooling at the scent wafting from the pot. In fact, he felt like trying his best to keep stoic just made the sound of his growling gut even louder as he tried to keep as stoic as possible.

But the smell…he recognized the smell. It reminded him of a time long gone, when he was much younger…a time before he could barely grow a few whiskers of hair on his chin, and his father was out hunting wild Floral Stags. 

“Venison?” Goliath asked as Camille poured a few bowls of the stew. “The meat in this is Venison, right?”

“Oh? How did you know?” Camille asked, passing him his bowl. “But yes, this is venison stew I dried up, with some onion, carrot, and potato chunks placed in. Give it a try.” Goliath looked down at his bowl, noticing just how nice and thick the broth was. It all looked fresh, like it wasn’t just a dried block oh so long ago. He shakily lifted the bowl to his lips, letting the broth, the meat, everything touch his tongue, and every single nerve end in his body felt like it lit up.

It was so warm, and oh so good. It was cooked so lovingly, every bit of flavor was condensed so tightly in those small dried cubes of roux that they exploded on impact with the liquid that revitalized every morsel of this meal. It was just one bowl but it felt like enough to make Goliath’s belly swell like he had overstuffed himself. 

Before he realized, Goliath felt tears streaming down his cheeks as he ate, and he just kept eating and eating, letting his bowl run empty and licking every inch of it clean. He didn’t even realize that…he was the only one eating that entire time. Camille was about to pass him a spoon, while his entire group looked both surprised and extremely worried by Goliath’s state.

“Is everything okay, Goliath?” Sage asked.

“Yes…yes it’s fine Sage…” Goliath muttered. “This is good…this is really good, Miss Caramello.” Camille couldn’t help but smile at that, and as she passed down the spoons, once she got to Goliath, she gave him a gentle pat on his arm. 

“Do you want seconds?” She looked up at him, eyes twinkling against the backdrop of the setting sun. Her smile, the care in her eyes. Pierce kept telling the group something was off about her, but right now, Goliath saw her as an angel sent to give them one last chance. And by god he was going to take that chance.

As Goliath gave a small nod, Camille grabbed his bowl and poured in another nice, healthy ladle full of stew. By then, everyone else had gotten served and one by one took a big heaping spoonful in their mouths. And one by one, the 3 other men’s faces lit up. A bolt of energy coursed through each of them as a sense of warmth and comfort washed over the entire group.

“Ma’am…this is splendid,” Sage spoke up. “You have no idea how much this means…!”

“From foraged greens and poorly cooked rabbit to a proper fuckin dinner!” Beaumont grinned. “Mmm!! Thank you so so much miss!”

“…this is…well…” Pierce noticed Camille was eating, same as the rest, and felt more comfortable indulging. “This is really excellent.” 

“I really appreciate you guys saying that! I’m more of a bakery and candymaker than chef, so knowing you guys think this is good is perfect to me,” Camille smiled. She didn’t even have to pour seconds for anybody. When a bowl was empty, one of the men would reach over, fill their own bowl to the brim and continue eating. In fact, after that words weren’t really exchanged, nothing else was said until, to Camille’s surprise, the pot was completely emptied. 

Goliath ate the most, and by the end of this, he laid down right in the grass while rubbing his very full, very warm stomach.

“Ohhhh gods…” he moaned. “I might’ve overdone it…”

“Overdone it?” Beaumont chuckled as he rested his elbows on top of the prone Goliath. “In the beginning of our travels I’ve seen you eat entire roasted pigs and ask for seconds.”

“I’m gonna work my way back up to that, just you wait,” Goliath replied. 

“I think I might pass out…!” Pierce began to unbuckle his belt and let his stomach hang a bit loose over his pants.  “Fuckin hell…”

“I’m so grateful to receive a meal like this dear Camille…!” Sage leaned against the now empty pot with a satisfied sigh. “A bath, a meal, all that’s missing is a nice swig of ale and a game of cards.”

“Careful now we can’t spoil ourselves too much~!” Beaumont smiled. “But I dunno if we’re fit for travel now that we’re so damn full…!”

“Oh don’t worry about that,” Camille stood up. “Now room accommodations are going to be tight, but you all can sleep in my second floor room, and I’ll be driving until I get tired. If anything happens on the road, I’ll alert you all.”

“Sounds good to me!” Beaumont gave a thumbs up and was first to hop up and go back to the caravan.

“Ah-! No no, you guys help me clean first!” Camille called out to him. “Dispose of the ashes safely and wash out the pots and bowls.”

“We’re not servants, you can do that on your own,” Pierce said, before Goliath gave him a smack against the head so rough Pierce nearly doubled over.

“Of course we’ll help,” Goliath said with a huff. 

After a very reluctant cleanup, the 4 men all climbed the ladder up to Camille’s bedroom on the second story. It was going to be small, but it only sank to the group just how small it really was. 

Goliath could hardly fit through the doorway it was that small, and of course the bed was only fit for one small woman, but there were plenty of blankets and pillows to make room to sleep on. But even then, it was a tight squeeze, with the entire group taking extra care to not hit anything, though it looked like most items were very secure in place. 

Despite the tightness of it, there was a nice pleasant flowery smell, and it was nice and warm inside. 

“Looks like we’ll be bumming like this for a week tops…!” Sage groaned, wrapping himself up in a blanket.

“This kinda makes me miss the apothecary shop…” Pierce sighed. At that, there were small footsteps coming up very quickly, and Camille poked her little head in through the door.

“Sorry for eavesdropping, but I heard the word apothecary shop…!” She whispered with a bit of glee behind her voice. “You guys live in a place like that?”

“We do, but it’s run down, abandoned, shitty, but we have enough space for each one of us to have our own sleeping quarter,” Beaumont said.

“Hm…I’d like to see it when you all return,” she slowly closed the door back behind her. “Well, goodnight guys!”

“Fuck, she can hear us talking…” Pierce whispered. “She could’ve heard me saying all that earlier.”

“You think?” Goliath huffed. “That better not have cost us. We need every penny.”

“Goodnight asshole…” Pierce scoffed, trying to get comfortable while smushed up shoulder to shoulder with the group. Only person who could sort of kind of fit on the bed was Beaumont, and he took full advantage of that as the group finally tried to go to sleep. In fact, as they felt the cart rumble to a start, the noise of the wheels turning on dirt and the slight friction lulled them even faster to sleep.

—-

Waking up like this…it was a real hassle. Goliath, Sage, and Pierce ended up tangled together in the night, Goliath using Pierce’s chest and stomach as a pillow while Sage ended up on top of both of them. When Pierce woke up, because he was usually the first to, he was basically pinned to the ground by both men. 

“This is the worst…” he groaned. “Get offa me you idiots…!” Pierce was about to shove them off, but he paused, smelling something wafting through the air. Fry bread…and was that pork? There was food being cooked this morning…!

“Mmm…fuck what’s that smell…?” Beaumont groaned as he sat up out of bed. “Smells good…”

“I think our employer’s making breakfast…” Pierce muttered. 

“Really???” In his excitement, Beaumont got up out of bed, and had to trample over the group to get to the door, which DEFINITELY woke them up.

“You motherfucker…!” Goliath groaned as he woke up. “Careful where you walk…!”

“Yeah yeah!” Beaumont grinned. “Come on before I eat it all!”

“Oh gods he stepped on my tailbone…!” Sage groaned in pain, sitting up and rubbing the small of his back. “I’m killing that boy with my bare hands…!”

“Your bare hands can’t even chop firewood, I still remember that incident!!!” Beaumont called from down below.

“Are you TRYING to piss us off?!” Sage slammed open the door, forgetting he was on the second story of a caravan and tumbling downwards, rolling his ankle by stepping on the edge of the platform wrong. Luckily Beaumont was able to catch him in the nick of time, holding Sage bridal style in his arms.

“Hey there Prince Charming~!” Beaumont teased. 

“You guys having fun?” Camille was standing right behind them, eating a piece of campfire fry bread slathered in honey.

“Oh! Hey miss!” Beaumont dropped Sage the second he saw her, letting him land with a heavy THUD. “We smelled food, did you make anything?”

“Hm? Oh yeah, nothing big, but it’s probably enough,” she said. 

“Oh what a kind woman you are!” Sage stood up, trying not to bring to attention his sore body after being dropped so harshly. “Breakfast in the morning? Served by our employer? You might as well be giving me a massage and a facial!”

“Oh goodness I’m only keeping you all nice and healthy for the job!” She giggled. “Come with me, Sage we’re going to have to talk one on one, I’ll need help driving my caravan and you seem the most magically inclined out of the group.”

“Now now, I’m a spell caster myself,” Pierce went down the ladder, yawning as he raised his arms in a big, long stretch. “It’s not my main profession but I do know my fair share of magic.” He pointed to the newly shaved side of his head to a tattooed symbol. It was a simple one, a rounded triangle that had a spiral leading right to its center.

“Oh, forgive my assumptions, by your psychique I thought you were a fighter similar to the rest of your party,” Camille replied. “I was actually wondering where your weapon was.” Camille, when first meeting the group, had noticed Goliath with a maul strapped to his back, Beaumont had a sword strapped to his hip, and Sage was fumbling with his bag of marbles. Pierce though, he didn’t have anything.

“Oh yeah, right,” Pierce held one hand out, and as he did, the tattoo on his head began to glow a bright unnatural purple. In a brief flash of light shimmering in his outstretched palm appeared a battleaxe. However, there were strings on it, the handle was also doubling as a neck, and there were tuning pegs on the extended pommel. It wasn’t just an axe, it was a guitar. A very odd one, appearing as if it used similar magic tech as the caravan Camille drove.

“Oh my word!” Camille gasped in amazed astonishment. “You’re a bard!”

“Damn right I am,” Pierce had a slightly coy smirk on his face at the acknowledgement. “But spellcasting’s only half of my specialty.”

“Which means you’re half as good as if you picked one over the other,” Goliath just hopped down from off the second floor, his landing so heavy the ground shook a bit.

“Yeah? And what are your big muscles gonna do against an ice construct beaming down rays of burning cold frost at you?” Pierce scoffed.

“My body could take it,” Goliath shrugged.

“No the fuck it could not!” Pierce gave a joking jab at Goliath’s gut, right on his navel.

“Alright asshole quit trying to rough house so we can eat,” Goliath put a large hand over Pierce’s head. A small clearing in the trees was used to not only park, but also set up a blanket with a small spread of items. Campfire bread, jam, honey, some pickled eggs, and slices of bacon.

“You say this isn’t much, but this is a pretty good spread for all of us,” Pierce sat down and grabbed a piece of bread. 

“This isn’t being deducted from our pay…right?” Beaumont asked with a mouth full of bacon and eggs.

“Oh good heavens no!” Camille giggled. “I don’t think you guys would do a good job for me if you were all starving and weak. This is to keep your strength up!” Camille hopped straight up from her sitting position, hair bouncing and bobbing and her expression starry eyed and optimistic. Sage had that expression. That damn expression that spreads across his face when he sees something, or someone, he absolutely has to try and grab. His smile and his tanned cheeks flushing a darker red were evident of what he was thinking. 

“So, when do you want to teach me how to use your caravan?” Sage asked Camille.

“After we eat. Once we eat we can set off, but truth be told, I’m a bit tired,” Camille rubbed the back of her neck. “I was riding all night admittedly, so I’m running on fumes.”

“Darling, that's no good!” Sage gasped. “You can rest, trust me when I say I’ll make sure the caravan runs smoothly!”

“I dunno how you feel trusting your big expensive machine to a stranger Miss Caramello,” Pierce said. “Which is what this old fuck is.”

“I want to sleep, and I want you guys to get to your destination,” she shrugged. “So that’s how I’m planning it. If the caravan starts to make weird sputtering noises, wake me up.”

“First of all, not an old fuck,” Sage swallowed the last of his jam on bread. “Second of all, I’m a quick learner. Third of all, I’m ready to get taught~!”

“Your banter between colleagues amuses me~!” Camille grabbed Sage’s hand and guided him back to the caravan, and Sage’s face lit up with an even bigger grin. Once their backs were turned, Goliath leaned over to Pierce.

“Watch that one and make sure he doesn’t start thinking with his nether regions,” he sneered. 

“Was already thinking of that.”

—-

With the food eaten and packed and Sage with enough knowledge on how to drive the caravan, the group ended up on the road. A nice public road out in the middle of the day, the trees parted but still providing a nice amount of shade from the sun during the travel. Camille was up on the second floor, and was laying in bed trying to go to sleep.

Those men, they slept in here, it might’ve been a tight squeeze, but it was all she had as most of the main caravan down below was where she worked. She could smell a hint of them on her bedsheet when she pulled the covers up, and she couldn’t help but blush at the thought. Big, burly men, in HER caravan, working for HER. She had to keep a straight face around them but up here, she could smile and giggle and roll around in the covers thinking about how they’re going to be working for her this next week..! 

But as excited and giggly as she was, she was also quite exhausted from her travels. She was about to finally drift off to sleep, even if Sage’s riding was a bit bumpy, but the caravan came to a very harsh stop all of a sudden, and the force nearly flung her out of bed. Oh no, time to check that out.

“Ey ey! Outa the way!” Pierce exclaimed. Blocking their way was a group of men situated on the dirt path. Seedy looking men too. There were half a dozen of them, with their bags strewn about and a couple were twirling daggers around in their hands. Not even hiding what they were supposed to be doing.

“Now now gentlemen,” a very tall lanky scruffy haired man approached the caravan, a coy, sleazy smirk on his face. “This is where you gotta give a bit of toll money to cross. Don’t got any? Can’t cross.”

“Well we don’t got any!”  Sage scoffed. “Now can we move on?”

“Didn’t you hear him geezer?” A shorter, chubbier guy spoke up from the group. “No money and you can’t cross!”

“Buuut…you got some nice stuff from the looks of your fancy lil cart…” the lanky man grinned. “Want us to take a look inside?”

“I don’t think you want that gentlemen,” Pierce narrowed his eyes at the group, while the symbol on his forehead began to emit a faint glow.

“Then hand over some shiny lil coins and we can let you off…!” 

“Absolutely not!” Sage said a bit louder. “We have places to be, and we’re not bothering to entertain you lot!” Camille could hear the commotion outside, and she started to peek her head out from the door up top. Since it opened out behind the caravan, she scanned the area and could hear some faint rustling in the bushes. There were more than six, and they were hiding just in case. 

“Cmon gentlemen! This cart looks fancy!” The tall lanky man started walking behind the cart, though it looked like neither Sage nor Pierce put up a fight when he did. They both gave each other a knowing look, as if this had happened before.

“Let’s just have us search the back and…” the highwayman opened the door to the caravan up, and the second he did, Goliath’s large, meaty hand was clamped around his throat like it was no thicker than a piece of chicken wire. Goliath stepped out of the cart with the highwayman grasped in his hand, lifted off his feet with ease.

“We’re on a time crunch, idiot,” he snarled. “So you and your posse should move out of our goddamn way before I decide if you look better with your neck pointed east…” The highwayman tried to vocalize something, with only gurgles and chokes coming from his strained throat, and in a flash of a second, Goliath felt something penetrate the meat in his shoulder, and he dropped the highwayman as he roared in pain. Camille knew it. Someone in the bushes fired a shot. This was bad.

“We were trying to play nice, but now you’re gonna get it!” The highwayman scoffed after getting a big breath of air. “Come on out boys! Let’s catch these bozos and strip this cart of everything it’s worth!” At that, the group of men almost tripled in size. A dozen men came from the trees and bushes, all crowding around the caravan. 6, the group may have been able to take, but 18….oh that was bad. 

“Protect Camille! And the cart!” Goliath called out.

“Got it!” Beaumont tossed Goliath the maul, who caught it with ease, while Sage grabbed a blue marble from his bag without even looking and tossed it up into the air. It shimmered, glowing in the sunlight, before the glow got so bright it was almost like a flash bang, followed by a cloud of smoke permeating the entire field. The group of highwaymen were smart enough not to attack, but were also careful and on the watch in case anything came at them. In fact, nothing came at them. But there was the faint tuning of a guitar. A melody that started slow but gradually became faster and faster, like a tune meant to dance to.

In fact, some of them did begin to dance. Not willingly, not willingly at all. The group of men could hear their feet tapping and arms swaying with the music, some locking arms with each other to join in this horrid forceful dance.

“Wh-who the fuck is playing that!” One of them yelled.

“Get them to stop! Wherever they are get them to-“ One highwayman looked up, and all he saw was the hard cold metal of a maul, before a hard wet CRUNCH sounded through the fog. Goliath was the cause, staring through the fog at the highwayman’s crushed ribs as blood pooled from his mouth. Camille was sitting on his shoulders, and while Camille fashioned her own plugs quickly from cotton, she had her hands very firmly pressed on Goliath’s ears. While the music played Goliath had no hindrance to start his onslaught. The men danced and could do nothing except listen and barely see through the fog as a man nearly 8 feet tall swung his maul to crush them. All it took was one swing. One well placed powerful swing and men were sent to the ground with their legs crushed, their bodies crushed. But Goliath didn’t aim for the heads. He wasn’t a killer. He just wanted them out of his way to continue his work.

Though, Goliath’s hand slipped. He just hit his fifth man to the ground before he swung just a bit too wildly. He heard a very familiar grunt in pain. He didn’t hear a clink, but he knew he had grazed Pierce. Especially because he heard the music stop, and the fog starting to vanish. 

“Shit…!” Goliath cursed under his breath, and Pierce held his head in pain, about to start strumming again, but his playing hand was shot clean through with an arrow. While some of the remaining highwaymen started carrying their allies to safety, the remaining 8 were still heavily outnumbering the party, and took full advantage of that.

“That’s it…! We’re killing ya now!” One of the highwaymen growled, who ended up fast enough to grab Sage from behind and hold a knife up to his throat. Sage had to act quick, and though he fumbled trying to grab the dagger from the loop on Pierce’s pant legs, he got it in time to jam it right into his captor’s thigh, pushing him off and trying to dig in his bag for another marble.

“You know I’m sick of being seen as an easy target just because of my age!” Sage scattered several marbles onto the ground, with Goliath trying to back away instinctively. Once they hit the ground, several spells just started firing off in multiple spurts. None of them were big, in fact Sage managed to find just the right spells even after grabbing fistfuls at random, to where it would just damage people and not items. A root that grabbed hold of your ankle and kept you there while sucking away your energy, a shot of wind forcing you on your back, a portal opening up under your feet and then swallowing you before spitting you out with your bones crushed from the weight of hard earth…

Goliath knew damn well to stay out of the way, but stumbled over his own feet, and because of that Camille’s grip felt a bit looser, and she fell right off of him onto the dirt path. Just as she fell, another highwayman grabbed her, and he was large enough to lift her off her feet and put her in a chokehold with his rather large biceps. 

“Not so fast girlie!” He sneered. “You all try anything else and the girl dies!” Goliath paused. Camille was trapped, clawing at the highwayman’s forearm, trying to break free from her bonds, however…there was one person unaccounted for. And Goliath could see that unaccounted for colleague who was as quiet as a mouse behind the highwayman…up until Beaumont SLAMMED the pommel of his sword onto just the right spot on his head to knock him out cold. Camille managed to break free, finally letting out a nice lungful of air.

“Is that it? That all of them?” Beaumont asked.

“Some of them are tending to their comrades,” Goliath wiped the few specks of blood off his cheeks. “We can hunt them down and pick them off.”

“No, no no,” Camille shook her head. “I’m going to check to see if nobody died during that. After you guys are tended to, of course.” Sage was helping Pierce snap the arrow in his hand in half to slide it out his hand, meanwhile Goliath yanked his arrow out from his shoulder while grunting in pain. 

“Cheap old things,” he muttered. “Didn’t even penetrate that far….”

“No need to tend to us…” Pierce winced in pain as the two broken ends of the arrow slid out of his hand with ease. “This can heal on its own…”

“I’m not sure about that…” Camille went into her cart. After doing a brief count to see if everything was still accounted for, she went into her storage cabinet and pulled out a jar of candy, with the label Healing on it. The jar clinked and clacked as the balls of candy rolled around in their, and she came out to hand one tiny bright red ball of candy to everyone.

“You can either suck on it slowly, or bite into it for fast acting healing,” she instructed. “They look and sound hard but once you bite they’re pretty chewy inside.”

“Candy?” Pierce scoffed, accepting a piece with his good hand. “You’re giving us candy?”

“Yes! I’m giving you candy!” Camille nodded, smiling as if nothing was wrong with her statement.

“Nothing hurt me….but….” Beaumont was the first to pop the candy in his mouth despite being mostly unharmed. He didn’t start chewing, just kept rolling it around on his tongue.

“Mmm…mmm…oh that tastes good…!” He smiled. “You got any more? I thought these would be all weird and shit but they’re not!”

“Not for you! These are for the injured!” Camille began to walk into the forest where the highwaymen ran off too, but Goliath immediately grabbed her by the shoulder.

“What are you doing?” He asked in a very strict, incredulous tone.

“Giving some to those men,” she answered matter of factly. 

“Why?”

“Those men don’t have the means of tending to their wounds that you inflicted. Most likely a few might die, so to avoid any of that guilt, I’m going to supply them with exactly what they need!”

“You are NOT doing that,” Goliath said sternly.

“Well…yes I am. Wanna know why?” She still had a smile on her face, but it was very coy and playful, almost sarcastic. “You’ve been hired by me, to protect me. If you want me to do what I planned to do and have a 60/40 split with you all getting the bigger end of that ratio, instead of the halfway split we discussed, you’re going to let me help those men before they die choking on their own blood. Got that?” She planned to give them more? Goliath immediately went stiff at the knowledge.

“Beaumont, let’s go,” Goliath commanded.

“Do I gotta go with? Really?” He sighed.

“Beaumont, I said let’s go,” Goliath huffed in a more demanding tone. Beaumont just clicked his tongue in response and followed Camille into the forests and shrubbery. This time, as they could hear the men’s groans of pain and struggles to care for them, another arrow flew at the group. This time, Goliath expected that so easily caught it between his fingers.

“Trying to finish the job?!” The highwayman yelled. His hands on the bow were shaky and sweat poured down his face. He was aiming to shoot Goliath again but seeing the way the arrow was caught made him far more hesitant 

“No, we have a peace offering,” Camille held up the candy jar. “We have no reason to kill any of you, in fact we’re here to help.” The highwayman very nervously lowered his bow, and began to approach. She motioned for Goliath and Beaumont to step back a bit from her, so they did. Though Goliath still stood right behind her with his arms crossed and a scowl on his face.

“What are these?” The highwayman asked once he was at a comfortable distance.

“They’re here to help the injured. There’s 18 of you, correct? I’ll give you all about a dozen. Split them amongst yourselves and for the more gravely injured, they need to swallow this immediately even if it’s difficult for them.” She poured out the candies into his hands. He looked down at them, surprised by the gesture.

“They’re not poison are they?”

“Like I said before, I have no reason to kill you guys. All I ask for in exchange is to keep our interaction a secret from anybody who tries to ask.”

“Easy enough. Fine, since you’re doing this much, and we haven’t had a successful haul in a fair bit, you’re giving us more than we’ve gotten. So…I guess goodbye.”

“Goodbye indeed,” Camille said with a smile. Goliath glanced between her and the highwayman, a sense of guilt creeping up his throat. Guess they were desperate just like his own group. Camille probably knew that and was extending an olive branch. That kindness of hers, now he knew how Pierce felt about Camille. This type of kindness made him think that eventually, soon enough, there would be some catch to it. Like she was love bombing them before eventually trapping them in a web of lies and manipulation too powerful to pull free from. 

That’s okay though. This will just be one job with her, and they’ll part ways.

“And get your friends out the road too, before anybody else sees,” Goliath spoke up, before following Camille as she went back to the caravan.

“One for you too, big guy,” she handed Goliath a piece of candy. 

“If you insist,” he popped the candy in his mouth, sucking on it as they walked back. Beaumont was right…this tasted pretty good. He could taste honey for sweetener and a type of berry he wasn’t familiar with. Since this was essentially a healing potion, maybe it used the same berries used to make healing potions, since it was made to taste good and didn't have that herbal medicinal flavor.

He felt bad being used to this already. This woman’s been giving them good food for the brief day and a half they’ve been on the road together. He was going to miss it once this job was over.

“You too, Pierce,” Camille walked over and handed him a candy the same as the rest.

“I think I’m feeling a bit weak,” Sage tried to look more tired and hurt, despite having no external injuries. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to take one unless you feed it to-“ Pierce smacked the back of Sage’s head with his good hand after taking a bite out of the candy. He felt a weird, almost gross tingling sensation in his hand. He looked down and saw the wound closing up inch by inch, the bleeding stopping and just becoming a big scab where the arrow pierced him. It was mostly like it barely pierced his flesh. Once he saw it was closed completely, he spat the candy out back into a wrapper and pocketed it.

“Wow. Fast acting,” he said in amazement. “Wish we had those earlier.”

“We couldn’t afford the good stuff earlier,” Sage pointed out. “These aren’t being-“

“Deducted from your pay? No, anything I give you here won’t be unless I explicitly say so,” Camille answered. “And you guys did a great job protecting everything here. Nothing’s out of place, nothing’s damaged. That’s pretty good for having to dispatch so many fellas! Proud of all of you!” Camille gave a very happy thumbs up to the group, a big happy go lucky grin on her face. Pierce just sighed, waved a hand in her direction, and went back into the caravan.

“Cmon, let’s let those guys gather their buddies from out the road,” he said. “Man that was annoying.” Camille seemed to be studying the way the group just…brushed off this interaction. She took a few looks at their faces, their postures, trying to find a hint of fear or anxiety, but she could barely find anything, at least from a glance. They were at worst annoyed, and Beaumont especially seemed cheerful. This seemed like hardly anything to them, just a minor setback. 

“You guys seem used to this,” she said to Goliath. He was about to squeeze back in the caravan, but turned to look at her. 

“It’s because we are,” he answered. “Those guys? Just as desperate as we are. Desperate people fight hard but they fight sloppy.”

“Desperate how?” Camille asked. “From the way you guys came to me, you need the gold for something. I wanna know what.” Goliath let out a deep, heavy sigh, but he didn’t seem very hesitant about answering.

“We’re in debt, with a dangerous man,” he said. “And because we were late on a few payments, if we don’t get this gold for the trip in less than a week, I’m pretty sure I’m gonna end up as a rug by that man’s fireplace.” Camille bit at her bottom lip. Oh…it was that serious. That means she had to come clean.

“So…about the money…” she muttered. “It’s not money I have to give to you by your deadline. It’s the average profit I plan to get from what we gather.” Profit? She didn’t have any physical money with her and was just going to rely on profits she may or may not receive? Their last job, and the gold wasn’t even guaranteed?? Goliath’s fists clenched, teeth grinding behind his lips, staring down at Camille with a silent anger and hatred towards her. They could very well be risking their lives for this, but the money is going to trickle down into their pockets instead of the wash of gold they were promised. 

“Give me one damn good reason why I don’t lift this caravan off its wheels and steal everything inside, while you could hardly lift a finger to stop me,” he growled. “I’m sure everything in there is worth a pretty penny, could even get most of the 150 gold my group needs…!”

“We both need each other, badly,” Camille straightened her back out, trying hard to stare Goliath in the eyes despite their stark height difference. “I know you are putting your trust in a complete stranger, but once this is over, I want to talk to whoever you turn your money to.” Goliath didn’t want to falter at those words, but he knew better. Maybe Camille really could do something. It helped that Jetta was friendlier to women than men. His posture relaxed, and he let out a deep, heavy sigh.

“You can try. I can’t guarantee success, but you most certainly can try.”

“Once whoever you work for sees what I can make from this royal jelly, I’m sure they’ll be plenty convinced.” Camille started to climb back up to her bedroom, and Goliath just ran a hand through his hair and groaned in annoyance. Was she naive? Dull? She looked to be in her early, mid twenties at the oldest, and yet he was sure she had the optimism and morals of a nobleman’s child. 

“This is the worst…let’s just hope nothing else goes wrong…” he muttered as he sat back in the caravan. The first story seemed to act as both a kitchen, an office space, and from the locked opening on the side, a mobile shop. 

“What were you and Miss Caramello talking about?” Beaumont asked.

“We’re not getting paid in a lump sum…it’s my fault for not asking for further details about the payment…” Goliath’s head fell into his lap, both hands holding his head. Beaumont looked visibly upset by the news, but rested a hand on Goliath’s back.

“Is this my fault…?” he asked, with sincere guilt in his voice. 

“It’s not, you did good…” Goliath sighed. “I just…I’m sorry. I don’t want any horrible fate to fall on any of us. This is our final straw. And it’s…it’s…”

“Let’s keep going, Goliath,” Beaumont said, a sad smile on his face. “None of us can stand each other, but we all rely on each other to stay alive. But…in the state we’re all in…some days I can barely call this living. I feel like a shambling zombie controlled by some evil force sometimes. Except I’m not being given direct orders, and I do have some sense of self preservation.”

“Not from the way I see you fight sometimes,” Goliath mustered a chuckle. “I mean, our last job we took you did get possessed. And man, did you have some hidden strength that ghost just pulled out of you while trying to kill us!”

“That wasn’t strength bozo! Ghosts don’t care about the physical limitations of the human body by a certain point. I was just a meat puppet.” Beaumont leaned against Goliath’s shoulder, one hand reaching out to place atop Goliath’s. 

“Listen, I just have a gut feeling. I think we should just listen to the pretty magic lady and do this. If Don Henbane’s any smart he could see what we collected and figure out the value. Yes he would yell at us for not using a middleman for all this but better berated than dead.”

“Yeah…maybe I was a bit too harsh with her.”

“Don’t say that till we’re actually done. And if you still think that way then uh…I guess say sorry. Don’t see why you gotta, though.” Goliath could feel the caravan start to move again, and with a heavy, tired, somber smile, he wrapped an arm around Beaumont and pulled him in for a half-hug. 

“I wish I liked you more than I do now. Cause you’re a pretty amusing little guy.”

“I wish I liked you more too, big man!”

Goliath’s grin got even bigger at that comment, he pulled from the hug, and just leaned in his seat. Yes he was probably far too heavy for the seat, and he might accidentally tip over, but It was nice to lean back and wait. This was just traveling from here on out. Goliath was just grateful for the fact that he didn’t have to stand on his own two feet constantly to get from point A to point B. He felt like keeping onto hope at this point might make him soft, but if the rest of the team was still going to be on board, he was happy to as well.

—

The trip all the way to Bounty Valley was Goliath’s favorite atmosphere as of late- Boring. Once the highwaymen were dispatched, the roads were mostly empty. The only truly out there activity was trying to push the caravan out the mud once the rain began on day 2. But It was actually quite comfortable. Camille kept cooking for the party, but she got everyone to help her with prep if needed, and she always handed the cleanup to Goliath’s group. Yes they were in a rush, but considering the speed of the mana tech caravan compared to a horse drawn carriage, nobody in the group seemed outwardly anxious about finally meeting their destination. These were less than ideal circumstances, but to eat, to have a nice warm place to stay even if it was cramped. To wake up to the bubbly smile and sing songy voice of a woman that could turn heads at a moment’s notice…it was all very nice to Goliath. 

“Hey Sage…” Beaumont was sat next to Sage during his turn to pilot the caravan. “You’re good at identifying edible stuff in the wild, right?”

“Moderately good, it’s not my specialty,” he answered with his eyes fixed on the road.

“Are the fruits on those giant ass trees safe to eat?” 

“Oh?” Sage looked up briefly. He saw them on the horizon first, but now they were getting closer and closer. They were right on the border of Bounty Valley, and the evidence of that was the very sparse, but very noticeable gigantic trees that towered above their more mundane forest counterparts. On these trees were extremely giant, dog sized at the largest, fruits and berries that hung on their tremendously sized branches. 

“Beaumont, we’ve talked about this,” Sage sighed. “Most foragables in Bounty Valley are extremely edible. I will say though…since we’re on the path, I advise looking up on occasion. Having one of those fruits falling onto this caravan would be absolutely disastrous.”

“Well…if it falls near us, we get a pretty good snack,” Beaumont replied. 

“Crushed, rotting fruit fallen on the forest floor? You know alcohol is hard to afford right now but I don’t think I’m that desperate yet.”

“Well when you word it like that it sounds fuckin stupid!”

“Because it is dear boy!”

“Stay sharp fellas!” Camille opened the window that led to the driver's seat. “We’re reaching Bounty Valley! If my guess is correct, we’ll be ending up in Honeydew Town and setting up shop there.”

“We’re getting there already eh?” Sage seemed surprised that they were getting there so fast. A week and a half would pass by if they traveled all on foot, probably longer depending on how things were. Carriage rides cost money after all.

“Home stretch y’all!” Beaumont cheered. 

“Not yet!” Camille pointed out. “The home stretch is only after we reach that beehive and extract that royal jelly!” She looked back into the caravan to alert a few people, only to see that when her back was turned, Goliath made himself comfortable on the floor of the caravan with a pillow from her bed and was taking a nice, deep nap.

“Goliath?” She walked up to him, gently nudging him with her foot. Hmmm…maybe she should just wake him up later. There wasn’t any danger at the moment, plus he looked relaxed. And cute. Very cute. Camille sat on top of his stomach while he laid there and absolutely no reaction, no flinching came from him as she gently swung her feet while resting atop his rising and falling gut.

He must still be full from this morning. Hard to believe, but she saw a bit more of a shine in his skin. In fact everyone looked just a bit brighter after a few days of good food. What could happen once they’re even MORE well fed? She could see some shine, some luster of the men they once were. That made Camille smile ear to ear, and her heart flutter. With enough effort, enough drive, these men could be truly perfect warriors that she could keep on hiring for protection. 

She felt a sudden jolt, Goliath stirring in his sleep, and she immediately leapt off of him and pretended to start to count inventory. In fact on her way to pretend to, she noticed something out of place in her snack drawer. She had a few small wrapped snack cakes for herself, but a handful was missing. Hmm…someone got to them…

“Ghh…ahh gods, did I fall asleep here again…?” Goliath groaned, trying to grab onto something for leverage to lift himself off the floor.

“Goliath, by chance were you in my snack drawers?” She turned to him.

“You had a snack drawer…?” 

“Hm…no matter, we’re nearing the first town! So look sharp, big guy!” Camille gave him a pat on the back once Goliath was standing.

“This means we’re already halfway done with our journey! How does that feel?” Camille asked.

“I’m just ready to get this done with. I talked to the group about a plan to get you in without being detected by the hive.”

“Good, great! That means-!” THUD!! Something hit the top of the caravan. 

“Did we get hit with falling fruit?” Camille asked.

“No…doesn’t smell like it,” Goliath sniffed the air. In fact, it smelled…rotten. Animal rot.

Beaumont hopped outside the second he heard the thud, and when he looked to the ground, he saw that a bee had landed on the caravan, bounced off, and fell to the ground.

Bees were just like fruit here in Bounty Valley. Big. This one was the size of a mountain dog, and very much dead. What was odd about it was the state of its body in death. It was covered in a bright blue fungus growing from most of its openings. Even its wings were heavily damaged from the mushrooms sprouting from its body. There was no way it could fly in this state at all.

“Ohhhh that doesn’t look good…” Beaumont frowned. “Hey guys, can you come look at this?”

“What’s the matter?” Camille stepped out of the caravan with Goliath, and stared down at the carcass of the bee. Camille’s face dropped immediately, and she started circling the diseased corpse.

“Change of plans,” she said. “We’re seeking out any nearby hives. Come on. Let’s do a detour out of town and just look for any large hives in the wild.”

“What’s going on?” Goliath asked her.

“I don’t know, but I think I might be able to help out. I just need you guys assisting me,” she said. “I’ll pay you more. Just please come help me out, I’ll even dip from my own savings.” Camille went to the front of the caravan, and motioned for Sage to get out from the driver's seat.

Camille took the lead and started booking the caravan as fast as she could. In fact so much so the group could feel it in the cart. Pierce and Beaumont were on the first floor, while Sage was on the second, and Goliath had climbed up onto the roof to keep watch for anything else out of order. So far…things didn’t look good. The plants were mostly fine. None of the fungus was on any trees, any foliage at all. But scattered in a few places on the tree tops or in the road were giant dead bees, covered in the same unnaturally blue fungus.

“What is this…?” Camille muttered to herself. Goliath looked up into the sky, and he saw a silhouette floating around in very stuttering, shaky motions. It looked like another bee, and even with its incredibly shaky directionless movements, it seemed to be trying its best to fly towards the caravan. Goliath tried to stand up despite the rapid pace of the caravan, watching the bee as close as he could.

Unfortunately, he didn’t realize just how quick he had to act. Because before he could act, he was tackled with a force he didn’t think an insect even of that size could muster. The force sent a loud THUD through the cart, making its shaky fast movements even shakier, and sent Goliath falling off the roof. It took a hard, heavy SLAM on the brakes to stop the caravan, and Camille immediately jumped off to try and help.

Goliath was on his back, trying to pull back the mandibles of a violently thrashing bee that was far, far stronger than its size indicated. It could pin Goliath no problem, and if it wasn’t for the powerhouse grip Goliath kept, he’d probably lose a limb or his damn head to this thing. But his grip was slipping fast.

“Damn bees…! God damn bees…!” He grunted, before reaching up, teeth bared as he ripped into a nice meaty chunk between the head and thorax of the bee. It more violently tried to attack, before finally Goliath roared in pain when he felt a deep, sharp stinging sensation in his side. He just bit down harder in response. He gripped down as hard as he could so that the struggling and violent thrashing could stop. 

And it did. But it stopped with an explosion and bright blue viscera splattering all across his face.

“Goliath!” Sage ran towards him, having set off the final blow, and he rolled Goliath over on his side to check the damage. 

“Fuck…fuck it’s like it’s burning…!” He grunted. Camille went back into her cabin and immediately pulled out two candies. The healing candy, and a purple colored cookie with a jam filled center. 

“Goliath! Goliath!” She called out, running towards him. “How bad does it hurt??”

“Bad…!” He grunted. The stings from a bee of that size is nothing to scoff at, but what was worse was that, when Goliath looked down at the puncture wound, he saw the same eerie blue glow. But instead of it continuing to glow, it quickly began a sickly black color and made the wound burn even hotter and worse, like someone injected him then and there with acid.

“It’s okay! It’s okay Goliath!” Camille gently placed the red candy in his mouth, to which he swallowed it whole and watched the wound close up. The burning pain however, lingered. 

“Fuck!! Fuck fuck that hurts bad!” He groaned. 

“Here, this should help too,” Camille broke the cookie in half and fed it to him, to which he just laid there and focused on chewing. This flavor he wasn’t sure he recognized. Sweet potato maybe? And the filling. It tasted a bit like elderberry but he wasn’t totally sure. Maybe his tastes were dulled trying to keep the pain in check. Actually…he couldn’t feel that awful burning sensation for much longer. Once he swallowed, he sat back up with a heavy sigh, checking where the wound used to be, patting it down and slowly rubbing it.

“Goliath, you’re going to have to be watched,” Camille said. “I don’t recognize that fungus, who knows what it could do in the body of a human.”

“First off, I’m not completely human, second off-“

“This seems way above our pay grade,” Pierce approached the group with Beaumont. “Where are you taking us?”

“I promise I know as much about this as you do,” Camille said. “I have to find a hive and figure out the issue.”

“Pierce, we can’t afford to back down,” Goliath stood back up, trying to wipe his face clean from bright blue bee brain matter. “And if this is serious, someone’s going to have to do something anyway. I’m fine now but someone could very well be killed on these roads.”

“Acting like a hero since money’s involved eh?” Pierce spat. “Fine. You’re right. People could be in danger.”

Camille tried her best to steady herself, and once the cart was back on the road, she slowed down but still kept on driving at a fast enough pace to get them to the nearest hive. She knew she was close when the paths faded into grass and stone, and the pathways grew narrow as the trees got thicker. Not to mention she could see even more bees covered in fungus acting odd. Some were already dead and hanging in trees, others were having violent spasms, eating animal carcasses, or were trying to follow the cart, but their movements were a lot more erratic and they couldn’t fly properly. Camille could see the carnage and she could feel tears welling up in the corners of her eyes. This was awful…she’s seen parasites going after these bees but nothing this severe at such a large scale. 

Her sadness twisted into absolute horror when she found the closest hive. Beehives were large to accommodate for the size of bees in Bounty Valley. Entire swaths of forests were dedicated to just hives, as the trees were twisted and morphed to become nests and foundations for the hives that were so big and sprawling that they might be the size of entire villages, and twice as tall as them since they could reach up far far into the trees. This one though. It was covered in blue. 

Camille expected to see a slew of bees flying to and fro at a constant rate to pollinate or tend to larva or look after the queen. All that energy was instead spent on the few healthy ones trying to pin down the sick and violent so they could pull off the fungus that was infesting them. Or at worse taking the dead and escorting them somewhere far to bury.

Usually bees are territorial and would’ve tried to crowd around the cart to check if it was dangerous. These bees however, were too busy and occupied with the sick to even pay attention to the group.

“What’s happening here…?” Sage whispered to Camille in shock. She looked at him briefly but didn’t respond. He had his eyes on the fungus, it felt very familiar to him, but he had no idea as to why. When he was inside the cart, he kept on observing Goliath to see if anything weird would happen to him, but Goliath seemed mostly fine, and Sage could smell something different on him. It was a similar spell that certain wizards would emit when they used up all the mana stored up in their body and were running on fumes. A mixture of musk and cigar smoke. 

“Camille, I’m going to take a sample,” Sage hopped off the cart and started approaching a deceased bee.

“Sage what are you doing?” She asked. “We don’t know what this is…!”

“I have a hunch.” Sage knelt beside the corpse, pulling a mushroom free from its infested host. He gave it a sniff, before taking a very slow bite from it. He instantly felt a SHARP surge of magic flooding his system. Just body visibly flinched and he shot back up standing. 

“Woo! Oh good heavens!” He exclaimed. “These are full of mana!”

“Did you just eat one?” Camille asked incredulously. “You don’t know what’s in that!”

“Except I do! These are mana spores. Harmless in smaller doses, but this specific strain seems to be very violently spreading in arthropod bodies. I haven’t seen any other animals affected by this so far, but it looks like these specifically spread by using the bodies of…” Sage paused. He heard someone else not far from him. Quickly looking up, he saw a strange blue hat hidden behind some trees that quickly ducked away.

“Hm…” he stood up, holding his bag of marbles at his hip, walking in the direction of the blue capped individual he saw. Once his back was turned, Camille took a look at the corpse he had turned his back to. It started to move and shift as it slowly jolted back to life, and once Camille realized, she stood up from her seat and reached under her skirt to grab the knife she kept in a hidden pocket.

“Everyone inside! Stay sharp!” She called out, trying to sound authoritative despite her shaking voice. Goliath and Beaumont immediately stepped out of the caravan, weapons drawn, with Pierce in the cart sitting with his guitar out, fingers on the strings. 

Camille could see the bee rise to life, and though wingless, still had its stinger. Immediately she jumped onto it, her knife immediately digging between the neck and thorax.

“I’m sorry…I’m sorry…!” She muttered to the zombie-like bee as it fell back down, dead once again. “Sage, what are you doing?”

“I saw someone!” He called out. “Someone else is here…!” 

“Oh??” Beaumont quickly approached Sage, with an excited grin on his face. “Let’s go get em! Maybe they’re friendly, if not we can-“ he was cut off when out of nowhere, a set of four more agile infected bees dropped down onto both him and Sage, holding them down with an uncharacteristic amount of strength. But neither had the bulk of Goliath, and since there were more, only Beaumont could get in one good stab with his sword before he could feel the rush of something hot penetrate his skin and get into his bloodstream.

“Beaumont! Beaumont hold on!” Sage grabbed Beaumont’s hand when he could feel him writhing and struggling with the pain. He closed his eyes, keeping a tight grip on Beaumont as both began to glow bright white hot. Camille was about to act and defend them both, but she saw the way they began glowing, and immediately began taking steps back.

“Sage- Beaumont…!” Pierce was about to step out, but when he saw Camille run another direction, he looked on, and didn’t even have the privilege to blink before being suddenly blinded by a bright, white radius of light that left everyone in the vicinity with a ringing sensation in their ears. Beaumont and Sage were fine. In fact able to stand up after the sudden barrage. All because everyone and everything around them was completely stunned. The bee corpses fell back dead on the ground, several bees who weren’t even near them stopped in the air and began dropping, and Camille, Pierce, and Goliath all fell to the ground stiff and barely able to move. 

“Sage- you- you fuckin bastard…!” Goliath tried to reach for his maul that flew from his hands, but all the muscles in his body were completely unable to move. Even talking was the hardest task for him.

“I had to let out the mana being injected into myself and Beaumont,” Sage took a deep breath, keeping himself steady on a slightly shaky Beaumont. “I’m fine as a magic user but anybody here who doesn’t practice magic or have any innate in them could easily die of an overdose on mana if they get stung.”

“So that’s- that’s what I got injected with…” Goliath mustered out through gritted teeth and strained mouth movements.

“What?! You guys should’ve been dead and oozing from every hole you got!” That wasn’t any of their voices. Beaumont turned his head, and as he did, he saw what might be the culprit to all of this. A bright blue cap, a blue staff fashioned out of the stalk of a mushroom, and a darker blue cape that obscured most of their features from the way it was buttoned up. 

“Hey! Uhh…is this your doing?” Beaumont pointed to the stunned, now dead infected bees laying on its side.

“I don’t have to tell you all a single thing! So either die or pretend you didn’t see a thing!”

“There’s towns not far from here…” Goliath was the first person to just barely start shaking off being stunned, and was starting to stand up on his own. “People are gonna find out either way.”

“Oh I’ll basically be done with what I need to do by then!” The blue capped wizard said with glee in their voice. “These dead bees are just a setback! The queen can always make more!”

“The-the queen…?” Camille laid there, but Goliath gently picked her up in his arms. “Where’s the queen?!”

“You all talk too much,” the wizard tapped their staff twice onto the ground. Every single surface, every bee, everything that had the color blue growing on it began glowing bright. The infected bees began springing up one by one, struggling past the stunned effect, able to stretch their limbs and move their bodies. 

“Oh no no you don’t!” Sage flicked a marble into the air, and it shot out a sharp bolt of magic. That unfortunately fizzled into nothing the second it even got close to the blue capped wizard.

“Yeah. Not gonna happen,” they said, waggling their finger in Sage’s direction. Another tap of the staff, and every single infected bee raised to attention. They moved stiff, unnatural, like puppets being yanked around by a string. One by one they stood to attention, and the group all backed against each other, watching as the half dead swarm rose and surrounded them. Sick, infected, contagious to the hive, all puppeted by a madman with a fungal staff. 

“One last chance folks~!” The blue capped wizard said with a gleefully sadistic tone in their voice. “You can blast off spells all you want to, but you’ll be so full of mana you’ll bleed it out of your eye sockets!”

“Camille, we need to cut our losses and get the fuck out of here,” Pierce hissed. “This guy’s gonna kill us…!”

“Can you please just…trust me?” Camille looked up at him, brows furrowed and her lips pursed like she was about to cry. 

“Pierce, I’m so sorry. I should listen to you more, but for now, let’s finish this job. This won’t kill us, I’ll be sure of it,” Goliath placed one hand on Pierce’s shoulder, who looked up at Goliath, hesitation still plastered all across his face. But he just nodded, hands on the string of his guitar.

“We’re not leaving this world today, not cause of some nasty ass bugs,” Beaumont puffed his chest out and held his sword up. “This ain’t our first, or worst run in with a weirdo like you!” The blue capped wizard’s chest rose and fell, like they were exhaling a frustrated sigh, but their staff raised in the air, glowing a bright blue hue. The forest was silent, these dead bees didn’t hum, didn’t make any noises and just stared completely still at their targets, ready to pounce at any second.

“Ladies, kill them.”

With that command, like a tidal wave of a similar hue, the bees rush the group, surrounding them and piling on them in droves of what seemed like hundreds, stacking on one another and trying to squeeze into whatever crevice they could with the sole command of trying to reach these intruders to sting enough of a surface area of their body that they were more festering wound than person. 

Inside of the horrible, swarming pile though, Pierce was strumming his guitar knowing damn well if he stopped it could kill the entire group. A fast paced, frantic melody that would only play for the stage play of a man delving into madness. A shield had surrounded everyone, tight but safe. Sage had at least one hand on Pierce while he played, the other grabbing a new marble from his pouch.

“Everyone hold onto me, Pierce listen to me carefully! On the count of five, you lower the shields and I’ll take care of things!”

“You got it…!” Pierce tried to yell over his guitar. 

“Five…four…three…two…” Sage could feel his hands breaking into a sweat, he could drop the marble at any second if he didn’t focus, but the determination on Goliath’s face, Beaumont’s eagerness to enter the fight, and Camille holding onto him for dear life, trembling with tears stinging her eyes, and he knew he could not mess this up for anybody in this group. 

“ONE!!!”

Shields went down, the bees felt safe enough to swarm. The blue capped wizard thought the group was well and truly dead from how they were surrounded on all sides with no escape. But they could feel their hair start to stand up on its own, heard a crackling in the air, and very quickly moved their head out the way to avoid a blast of lightning centered entirely in that swarming mass of bees. Behind them, a piece of the hive was a smoldering black, and in front of them the bees were practically burned to ashes and dried husks as they received powerful shock after powerful shock. It all acted quick, but when the lightning dissipated, the group stood, unharmed and itching for a fight. Some of the bees were just charred ashes, but others were simply blackened dried husks, and those still had life in them. 

The mushrooms began to glow all over again to light their black bodies up blue, and they kept on with their singular goal of killing the group. 

Beaumont acted first. In one clean swoop of the blade, he didn’t even have to look to know that he cleaved the heads clean off several infected bees. The group were well surrounded, but Beaumont was fast and Sage’s sudden electrical assault gave him the room to start bobbing and weaving any bee that came at him. Approach him too close in the front and he takes their head with a clean finish. Approach him too close from behind and he whips around with that same speed and precision to decapitate his attacker. 

Goliath though, his approach was much less elegant. He was climbed on, grabbed, and they kept trying to bite and sting at him, but with strength, bulk, and pure adrenaline on his side, half of his attacks were with his maul, and the other were him using his bare hands to grab anything that clung to him and tearing them apart like they were made out of wet paper. He could feel them grabbing him to sting him, he could feel the same pain that earlier incapacitated him, and every time he felt a sting, it only made his roaring louder and his swings of the maul more violent and heavy. No resting or letting the pain settle in until the group was safe, he had to endure till this was all over.

Pierce could stop strumming his guitar, holding it now like the axe it was also built to be. He didn’t have the power of Goliath, or the precision of Beaumont, but he was still a fighter, and could still give one big powerful swing of an axe to sloppily cleave a pair in two. After a swing, he was going to reach down and hold onto Camille to protect her, but when he tried to grab her, he grabbed onto absolutely nothing.

“Camille? Miss Caramello?” He called out. “Sage, where’s Camille??”

“I thought she was following me…!” Sage had kept one marble in his fingers held up to continue using it to blast lightning bolts at any bee trying to get close, and when he went to glance down behind him where he thought Camille was, she wasn’t there either. Their employer wasn’t on the battlefield. Or she still was, and now was in horrible, horrible danger.

“Camille?? CAMILLE!!!” Goliath roared out, sweat beading down his brow that was glowing a faint blue as it trickled down his cheek into his beard. She was gone! Completely out of sight, to everyone.

Including the blue capped wizard.

They had a good enough eye on the group even during the carnage of bees dropping to their valiant fighting. They thought they could tire out the group with wave upon wave of infected bees, eventually killing them from exhaustion, but now they realized they lost sight of one member. She didn’t seem dangerous, so they assumed she was well beyond dead and being carried off by their infected hive.

“Hello~!”

Huh? Why was she so close?

The blue capped wizard turned around, holding their staff up defensively, but nothing was behind them. That voice…it was her wasn’t it? They were about to turn back, but before they could even think about focusing back on the group, small but very cold hands grasped their neck. It wasn’t to squeeze down and choke them. In fact it was much worse

They could feel the skin around their neck grow cold and dry. Their hands grew shaky, their throat felt dry, they could feel the blood in their veins begin to freeze up and dry out. It hurt, hurt in such a horrific unique way, and yet the blue capped wizard couldn’t express the pain by screaming.

“Shhh…shhh…I’m not going to kill you…” a sugary sweet voice whispered into their ear, soft hands still resting on their throat, sucking the life from them. It was Camille, and although she was smiling, it wasn’t comforting. It was cruel, vindictive, vengeful. Her beautiful dark brown eyes were instead glowing a very sickly shade of pink. She could taste the life essence she was draining from the wizard. It tastes earthy, savory, and just a bit rotten. The wizard could only tremble in weakness in pain, trying to stare back at Camille, trying to say something to her even though their voice felt dried up and their vocal cords felt as dry and brittle as a stale slice of cake.

When the staff dropped, Camille let go, and grabbed The staff from off the floor. The wizard tried to reach for it before she could, but she just kicked them to the side, and grabbed it for herself.

“Toying with nature like this, do you get a kick out of it?” She held the staff from both ends, bending it with all her might. It wasn’t as sturdy as she thought it was, so one hard pull, one hard snap, and it splintered and broke, the blue magic it once had now fading the second it was split apart. 

With the staff snapped, the magic could diminish. The bright blue fungus all across the hive, the bees, currently being stung into The group despite their best efforts to avoid being an overly concentrated sponge of mana. All of it became a much more dull brownish-blue hue. The deceased, the diseased, every bee infected by the fungus began to fall, now no longer able to come back from their horrible resurrection. 

It was over. Everyone was alive.

“We did it!”

Camille tried her best to prop up the now unconscious wizard to show off her victory. But since she didn’t have the strength to lift a person, just sort of began stumbling when she held them.

“Is that guy dead?” Beaumont called out from their pretty far distance from one another.

“No! But I broke their staff!” Camille accidentally dropped the wizard, their hat falling off to reveal the face underneath. A pale man, possibly in his early to late 30s, with hollow, sunken cheeks with blonde hair more the color of rotting straw over fresh, golden straw. He had a pair of bright blue goggles over his eyes, and the tips of his thin, stringy hair were stained a similar bright blue hue as the mushrooms.

“I’m going to go find the queen! You guys pick some of the mushrooms while I’m gone!”

“Wait! Wait wait wait you need someone to escort you!” Goliath tried running after her, but stopped when he had to double over on his knees, feeling an absolutely horrible, rumbling movement in his gut.

“Oh god I’m gonna throw up…!” He groaned. 

“Aw shit not again Captain!” Beaumont immediately went to Goliath’s side to help him. Pierce just rolled his eyes and followed Camille wherever she was going. 

“Hey miss!” Pierce ran after her, who had stopped in her tracks before she went too far.

“Hi Pierce!” She waved. “I can’t thank you all enough! This could’ve become a really bad problem if we hadn’t stepped in when we did.”

“Yeah…yeah I guess you’re right…” Pierce rubbed the back of his neck. “But you dealt the final blow. We just-“

“You guys gave me an opening. That’s important in an encounter like that. Because of this, I actually want to ask you guys something. But only once this is over and I pay you guys.”

“Hm, fine, but please don’t do shit like that if you’re not going to warn someone.” There was one hive that wasn’t infested with blue spores. In the center of it all, bigger, brighter, and packed with the remaining survivors of the hive, was where the queen resided.

“Are you sure we should be here…?” Pierce flinched when several bees flew up to them. These weren’t infected. Fully healthy, fully alive, and just trying to assess the both of them.

Camille started to move her feet, lifting her skirt up a bit to show more of her legs so her movements were more clear to the bees. She walked around in a circle, in a way where every other step she wiggled her foot. The bees looked at that, and immediately grabbed her by the scruff of her shirt collar to fly off with her.

“Wh-where the fuck are you taking-!!” Pierce was soon grabbed too, though it took more bees to pick him up and carry him off.

“They’re taking us to the queen!” Camille exclaimed with glee.

“What were you doing there with your feet??” Pierce asked. 

“So you know how bees do little wiggle dances to tell colonies about the distance and direction of flowers?”

“I don’t!”

“Well big bees like this have their own language adapted from that! I know just enough to communicate with them comfortably!” If she knew their language, then why was the plan to sneak into this hive for royal jelly??

They were flown into an opening in the hive, and gently dropped on the floor. The inside of the hive was packed full of bees seeking refuge, with many holding slings filled with larval eggs. Resting on a very plush looking bed of more solid, gelatinized honey was the queen, whose only indication of being queen was the sheer size of her in comparison to the others. While the other bees were no bigger than a large dog, she was the size of a horse, with almost the grace of one when she sat up from her resting spot to approach the two of them. 

Camille stood up, giving the queen a bow, while Pierce just looked on in shock and amazement. This woman…she was an oddball.

The queen began a similar dance of wiggling and moving around on the floor, and Camille followed behind her. Their bodies were telling a conversation over any voice, the queen’s movements at first seemed more aggressive and erratic, but ended up turning gentle, getting close to Camille so she could rub her face with her mandibles.

“Awww thank you your majesty!” Camille giggled, while Pierce just had a look of disgust, but also curiosity on his face. Camille smiled, then turned to look at Pierce with a look of triumph in her lovely, radiant smile.

“Ready to see our prize?”

The queen bee ordered a few male drones to escort the two of them behind the throne room. There was a small opening only big enough for the bees to come in and out of. Camille had to duck, and Pierce just gave up and crawled on all fours leading into the room. There was a big, warm vat of what looked like a pale yellow liquid, swirling around like there was a heat source constantly keeping it at a still warm temperature. It smelled sweet, but the sweetness was a lot more subtle and subdued than the powerful sweetness of honey.

“Most bees don’t store this, but bounty valley bees do,” Camille said. “It’s given to the larvae and the queen herself. She was going to deny my request initially, but since I told her the man responsible for her hive’s infection was taken care of, this is a gift from her to us.” Camille went into the bag on her hip, and pulled out a sizable jar and spoon. She slowly scooped in the sweet viscous liquid, and though it was messy from the way some of it dripped down the jar and her hands, it was filled with the beautiful pale golden jelly. 

“This made a bit of a mess, here.” Camille handed the jar over to Pierce.

“If it made a mess, why are you giving it to me?” He sneered.

 “I’m giving you the first licks of this. Cmon, try some! I promise it’ll be worth it!” Pierce sighed, but grabbed the jar, and since they didn’t exactly have a handkerchief to wipe this off with, he ran his tongue across the jar, lapping up the beads rolling down the jar. Once a drop hit his tongue, once that taste fully reached his brain and swam through his mind, he understood now why she needed mercenaries to retrieve this wonderful ambrosia.

The sweetness of honey, the creaminess of milk, with a very subtle floral scent when his nose pressed against the glass. It wasn’t as sticky as honey, and because it was kept warm, it left a comforting sensation as it slid down his throat. This was wonderful, beautiful. It tasted so different from many things he’s had in the past. In his haze of licking the outside of the jar clean, he almost felt mesmerized by the flavor. He was a fool, a fool for trying to deny helping Camille this entire time. Because now he could literally taste the fruits of their labor. Their reward for a job well done.

Pierce only stopped when Camille tapped him on the shoulder, motioning for them to leave. He came back to his senses quick, wiping the rest of the jar off on his clothes before handing it back to Camille. 

“Thank you Pierce,” she smiled. She wasn’t just thanking him for the jar. It was a thanks for helping her, a thanks for bringing her here, and a thanks for trusting her.

The two were led out the hive, dropped right out of the entrance to go back to the rest of the group. Sage had tied up their wizard, particularly taking care of keeping his hands balled together tight and his mouth gagged. Beaumont was letting Goliath rest on the side of the cart and funnily enough, was wearing the blue wizard’s hat and goggles.

“Beaumont, take those off,” Pierce groaned. 

“He tried to kill us, I think this is a fair trade,” he huffed. “I look good in blue after all.”

“Considering this was an act of bioterrorism, I believe we can turn this man into the nearest town.”

“You think we’ll get money from it…?” Goliath groaned, still feeling sick despite expelling a barrage of blue liquid from his gut into the bushes.

“Probably not likely, since the villages around here are higher in vegetation than coins, we would probably be given some fresh produce or meat,” Camille answered. “But it’s still worth a try to turn him in. Let’s get back on the road towards Honeydew Town.”

—-

Back on the road, the blue capped wizard eventually came back into consciousness while Sage was keeping watch over him. He had collected a fairly large bundle of the mana shrooms, because although the magic in them had faded significantly, they could still be used to make potions. Or better yet, be cooked in a pan with some butter for a nice meal with rice.

“Are you awake?” Sage asked. The blue capped wizard tried to say something, but all he could muffle out were yells of protest.

“I think I know what you were trying to do,” Sage continued. “I almost applaud it. You wanted those bees as hosts to carry those mana spores so they’d spread rapidly around Bounty Valley and grow into large, plentiful resources of mana. As a fellow wizard I think that’s wonderful, but this was incredibly sloppy, violent work.” He idly played with a marble on the desk, this one was duller in color, having temporarily lost its magic.

“Do you have a book on you with your studies?” Sage asked. The wizard stopped struggling, and just nodded his head down to a pocket on his pants. Sage went to grab it. A small, slightly moldy book, with sloppy handwriting inside, but it was still at least a bit legible. 

“I’ll let you have this back, but I might copy some of this down,” he said. “You don’t mind do you? Actually oh wait, I’m not sure I care.”

“Why are you copying that guy’s work down?” Beaumont asked. “Wouldn’t that you know…be bad to learn?”

“No magic is inherently bad. It’s just a matter of how you practice it,” he said. “Although his methods are flawed, I can have discussions about this with any number of wizards to improve upon these notes.” He was writing whatever he could down on a piece of parchment, when his hands grew shaky after hearing another one of Goliath’s loud, labored moans of agony from the second story.

“Oh my god you mana-deprived poor souls can’t handle one small overdose of mana without acting the way he is!” Sage groaned. “When is he gonna stop?!”

“Probably when the big baby stops needing tea and belly rubs from Miss Caramello,” Beaumont snickered. 

Up on the second floor, Goliath was in Camille’s bed that was far, far too small for him while she was rubbing his stomach, her hand glowing a faint peach all across his gurgling, groaning, upset stomach.

“That’s just extra mana don’t worry!” Camille rested her head on his stomach. “You’ll feel better once the tea settles in!”

“C-Camille…can I ask you something…?” Goliath groaned, his hand sprawled over his face. 

“Yes?” She turned to him, taking her hands off his groaning gut.

“You told everyone about the payment arrangement…right?” Camille sighed. She did, the second they all got comfortable. Pierce was visibly upset with her, but every time she uttered the words “trust me” with the group, she proved herself. So he was going to put his trust in her hands one final time.

“I did. They’re not happy with me, but when’s the deadline for the payment?”

“I think we have two days left…”

“Then a day from now, I’m going to use what I got to make the best damn thing your debt collecting friend could ever want. I’ll collect supplies from Honeydew, and get to work.”

She left the second floor, despite the cart still actively traveling, and kept her balance steady to crawl her way to the front where Pierce was driving. He was actually doing a fair better job than Sage was, and was focused on the road.

“Hey Pierce! Do you want to switch yet?”

“No, I saw the town’s lights. We’re not far.”

It was sunset in the lovely small town of Honeydew. Because of the natural produce growing in every tree, bush, and even on some animals, there weren’t farmers. Just foragers and the like who work to maintain the forest and keep it healthy so it can continue to grow plentiful fruits. Today was a rest day, most were inside cooking or preserving food. One of the few people out on the streets was a town guard. Not one sent by the king like many other villages, but ones that volunteer to do guard work in shifts. A shaggy brown haired man with a tan from days out in the sun working and a modified scythe for both work and combat. 

He thought today would continue to be a slow day, until he heard the heavy, fast paced wheels of the group’s caravan. He saw it from a distance, then it was going at speeds faster than any regular carriage ought to. He immediately stepped out of its way once it got too close. Once he locked eyes with Pierce, the driver, Beaumont kicked the blue capped wizard out of the caravan and at the guard’s feet.

“So uh…where’s the bounty office?”

—-

Camille was right. The group wasn’t rewarded with gold for this man’s capture, but the caravan was now packed so full on the second floor with fruits and vegetables and grains and breads and booze and meat that everyone had to squeeze into the second story just to travel. Save for Sage, he found an excuse to be in the driver's seat with Camille to rest on.

“Yes!! Booze!” Goliath cheered, chugging from a big bottle of rum. “Oh how I missed ya love!”

“God slow down captain,” Beaumont had been snacking on a wheel of cheese and loaf of bread while laying down. “You’re gonna make yourself sick again.”

“This stuff! It’s practically like I’m drinking warm milk!” He chuckled. “Sweet sweet fermented nectar! Thank you citizens of Honeydew for your generous donation!”

“God please keep it down, I’m exhausted after all of this…!” Pierce just had a snack cake he “borrowed” from Camille to munch on.

“Where’s your celebrating spirit Pierce!” Goliath leaned back to try and savor the last few drops at the bottom of the bottle. “All this food, a job well done! I could kiss that wonderful woman down there for giving us all of this! Kiss every part of her until not an inch is left untouched by me!” Oh no, this probably wasn’t his first bottle.

“Shh!! Shhh captain she can fuckin hear you!” Pierce covered Goliath’s mouth. “And we still have to worry about the payment!”

“Yeah yeah she said she’ll take care of it! Just relax ya fuckin paperweight of a man!” Goliath took Pierce’s hand off his mouth and handed him the empty bottle. 

“Cmon! Just relax and have fun!”

“Are they usually like this, Sage?” Camille could hear the commotion from the driver's seat. Sage was already nodding off to bed, but he lifted his head at her question.

“Only when there’s alcohol. They’re idiots but well meaning idiots.”

“Alright then, goodnight Sage, I’ll keep watch,” Camille patted him to let him go back to sleep. She wasn’t very tired. In fact after the way she drained part of that wizard’s life essence, she felt a bit too awake.

She let the caravan go nice and quiet in the night, letting the commotion die as the group rested. Everything was peaceful, the moon was out nice and bright and the stars lit their path on the way back to the city of Mortaria. Camille was going to keep watch with a nice hot cup of tea. She felt like it was going to be a peaceful night. There was even an adorable little black cat that approached the caravan, eyes glowing in the dark.

“Oh hey there! Aren’t you adorable!” Camille smiled and knelt down by the cat. “Do you want a little snackie? I got some dried fish in the cart!”

“Unless it’s tuna or marlin, don’t bother,” the cat replied in a smooth, buttery deep female voice. In a puff of smoke, that black kitty was the sneaky, coy, smirking Jetta. She was a bit taller than Camille, and had her pressed to the wall, her clawed hands pressed against the caravan.

“Glad I got to see you up close. I hope the group knows they’re absolute idiots for taking a job that doesn’t turn in the money so soon~!” She purred. 

“Are you the debt collector?” Camille asked.

“Yes, yes I am~! And are you miss Caramello?”

“Have you been following us?” 

“No, not exactly,” Jetta pulled her hands off the cart and took a couple of slow, sultry steps back. “I have eyes and ears in quite a few places. I didn’t need to trail far behind, I just needed an informant to see to it these boys' progress. You plan on shouldering their debt, eh?” She leaned in closely, face inches from Camille’s with a wicked grin spread across her face.

“How do you plan to do that, beautiful?”

“Well miss uh…”

“Call me Jetta.”

“Well miss Jetta, I didn’t expect to see you here so soon. I have something I can make that I’m sure your boss will think is worth the money they owe him. But since you came at such short notice, you’re going to have to watch me make it.” Jetta’s grin faltered, and she stepped back with a confused expression on her face.

“I’ll have to watch you cook? What could you possibly make worth 150 gold?”

“Well…wanna help me set up?” 

“Do I look like a servant? Absolutely not!”

“Suit yourself then!” Camille went back into the caravan, trying to find all the equipment she needed amongst the piles and piles of produce. A pot, some wood, oil, and all the ingredients needed for some delicious fried dough filled and drizzled with royal jelly. Jetta just sat and watched. Camille was kind enough to even show Jetta the ingredients as she cooked them, and was being as open and transparent as she could be so that she didn’t look like she was trying to make anything poisoned.

“Is that yellow stuff honey?” Jetta pointed to the jar of royal jelly Camille brought out.

“In a way,” she shrugged. “Better than that! In fact, when cooked this could have some lovely magical properties to it! I’m making it for cooking’s sake, but if I were to say, condense it with a few herbs, maybe some cinnamon for flavor, this could make for the component of a growth potion! Or a uh, fertility potion if you get some of the steps wrong…”

“I don’t get all that mumbo jumbo potion nonsense. And don’t try to explain it to me. I’ll tell my dad you gave me a headache and he’ll have you served for dessert since you look all sugary and shit.”

“Gotcha covered missy!” Camille got to work. She made a nice fluffy dough mixed with royal jelly, that she shaped into small balls to let sit under a cloth.

“Now we wait!”

“Wait for what?”

“The dough to rise.”

“How long is that gonna take?”

“I made it nice and moist, so it should take less than an hour.” At that, Jetta groaned in annoyance and turned back into her black cat form.

“Wake me up when it’s done!” It didn’t take long for Jetta to fall asleep, and Camille couldn’t help but smile at Jetta’s adorable sleeping figure as a cat. She gently ran a hand across Jetta’s back, and the sleeping cat woman purred in delight as she rested.

Camille turned an hourglass upside down to wait, and just kept watch and occasionally pet Jetta while the dough rose.

In fact, Camille didn’t even need to wake Jetta. Jetta yawned and stretched out when she smelled something absolutely delicious and sweet being fried. 

“Mmm…is it almost done already?” She yawned.

“It’s not almost done, it is done!” Camille had wrapped up a dozen round fried doughnut balls slathered in royal jelly in a pretty little box for Jetta. She turned back into her human form to look down into the box and was surprised by just how pretty they were. But pretty, and great smelling, didn’t exactly mean great tasting.

“So this is going to stand in for the 150 gold the boys owe?” She raised an eyebrow. “I’ve been around the block. Dealt with a lotta broke idiots trying to offer up stuff they thought was worth their debt. If these pastries are anything but godly, you’re getting it too, got it missy?”

“I’m very aware,” she nodded, closing the box and wrapping it tightly with a ribbon. “I’ve said it before to the fellas and I’ll say it to you. I want you to trust me.”

“Trust is a privilege. Not a right.”

“I know~!” Jetta rolled her eyes, putting the box in a magic pouch on her hip. Yeah right. Jetta figured she might as well. It was either this or her father teaching her the ins and outs of filing estimates for the debtors he has. And no way in hell was she sitting around for that.

“See you again soon ya weirdo,” Jetta turned back into her cat form, looking back at Camille once more before leaping into the trees out of sight.

“Hey…is it morning already…?” Sage had just woken up and walked over to the fire pit Camille set up “I smelled something cooking over here…”

“Oh not yet, I was just having a snack! Care to help me clean up?”

—-

Jetta didn’t like being stationary. She couldn’t do what her father does and sit in a big expensive chair all day giving orders to a bunch of dumb mooks. She wanted to be his messenger, his informant. His eyes and ears around every inch of land populated with suckers desperate enough to seek him out for monetary gain. Goliath, Beaumont, Sage, and Pierce however. They were her favorite desperate suckers. She enjoyed seeing men who she knew had amazing, affluent lives in the past fall from grace like a pigeon shot out the sky. It was amusing watching dumb people get dumb results, and these boys got the dumbest results of them all.

It took her a day to get back to Mortaria at the speed she went. She went by foot at first, then once she saw a carriage traveling back into town, hopped into the back when the driver didn’t notice and rode her way all the way back to the city. People in Mortaria knew one thing. The cats don’t get messed with. Ignore them, leave them to the wayside, but kick one or yell at them and you’ll be sent back to your family without a limb. Cats were dear to ole Jetta. Her second family away from Don Henbane.

“You’re telling me you didn’t bother to look at the deck before giving him MY money? I opened the box and could tell right away these are bootlegs!”

“I’m sorry sir, we’ve worked with him before, I didn’t think he’d stiff us like this!”

“Then find him before he leaves the city and bring him to me by tomorrow morning! If you don't, it'll be your head on a stick instead of his!”

Oh, sounded like Jetta’s father was at work. She sat on top of the building of a rather impressive sized stone manor, before taking a big leap down to the window Don Henbane kept open for her entrance. Think now he was nearly done yelling at some poor fool.

Near the window, pouring another party bowl sized glass of wine was Don Henbane’s butler, a nephew figure to him in a way, Sangio. He smiled seeing Jetta come in, gently patting the top of her head down to her back. He was a muscular handsome Casanova of a man who anybody would trample their loved ones over at a chance to kiss. Dark skin, beautiful black curls that almost appeared purple when the light shone on them just right, and a gorgeous chiseled jawline.

“Good evening my dear. How was today?” He smiled at her, dimples appearing right on the digits of his beautiful well defined cheeks.

“Boring, kinda!” She answered. “I got some stuff for daddy! Apparently it’s enough to pay back 150 gold worth of debt! I don’t buy it but let’s see what daddy says.”

“Oh I see, same old same old, let’s go see your father,” Sangio let Jetta climb on his shoulders, and with her in tow he went down the hall, towards the towering double doors of Don Henbane’s office. They had to be big, the doors were for a 10 foot tall man after all. 

Without taking his hands off the tray, the door opened for Sangio, to the very well lit, opulent offices of possibly the wealthiest, most affluent, and dangerous man in Mortaria. 

Don Afsaneh Henbane. Half beastman, as powerful as many other beastmen, but his sheer size and power were a result of his half manticore heritage specifically. He was a mountain of muscle and bulk, skin the hue and darkness of fresh and fertile soil, but with a mane of curls and dreadlocks the color of desert sand. Though his wings were tucked into his body, the span of those bright red monstrosities could block out the sun if he were to ever take flight. And though his size was deadly, and his strength was even deadlier, the real danger was the tail that swung back and forth. A dull red that left a gradient down to a bright, dangerous red to signify the white hot venom that was coursing all through his tail, ready to pounce at a moment's notice. Not tonight though, as he takes great care to leave the tip covered when he’s in safer settings. Much like his very office.

It was late at night, but that didn’t matter. That was the best time for Don to work. Though he didn’t always dress like he was working, as he didn’t even bother to put on much but a silk robe and kept his hair tied back. It was a gamble as to whether or not he actually wore something underneath the robe to begin with. He at first had a very stoic, cold expression plastered across his face, but that immediately brightened into a smile when he saw his two favorite people in the city.

“Oh Sangio! Jetta, my baby girl!” His voice was nice and deep, so deep you could feel it in your chest every time he spoke. He had the kind of tone that was extremely, extremely scary if you ever made him even a bit angry. Jetta immediately climbed up the desk and sat right on top of Henbane’s papers. 

“How is my little baby girl doin? Work treating you well sweetheart~?” He very gently nuzzled her under her chin, before leaning down to give her a big loving kiss on the forehead, which pretty much engulfed her head every time he did this.

“It’s treating me great, daddy!” She purred into his massive, very warm hand. “I got something for ya! Something from one of your debtors! In fact, your favorite debtor!”

“You mean the large one? The one I lost a really bad bet on?” He asked.

“That’s the one!”

“He got the money back already? At least he’s hard working. I’d hate to skin such a promising man. Though…he’s pretty past his prime already.”

“Well…it’s not gold,” Jetta turned back into her human form, pulling the box from her pouch. “Some lady helping that group gave me this. She said it’s well worth 150 gold.”

“This better be good…” he huffed, opening the box to the still surprisingly very fresh dozen of royal jelly glazed donuts. They practically sparkled in the golden light of the office when the box was open.

Jetta looked to her boss, then to her father. She expected him to be angry. She expected him to bubble over and tell her to find the group and bring them back here. But instead he simply grabbed one out the box, sniffing it first to check if it was safe.

“Who baked these?” 

“The lady who worked with them…Her name’s Camille.”

“Camille…don’t know any high class cooks with that name…” Henbane pondered. “Let’s see…” considering just how big he was, he could pop one doughnut in his mouth whole with no issue. If the sweet was poisoned to try and kill him, well this is the dumbest killer this side of Mortaria. But he didn’t taste poison. In fact, the sudden rush of taste the second he began chewing made his slit green eyes go wide, and he clenched his fists hard enough to make his veins bulge and his body shake.

“Uh…sir, is everything alright?” Sangio asked.

“Dad, what the hell was in those doughnuts???” Jetta asked with concern. He lifted up the entire box, and immediately plucked out each donut one by one. Not even leaving himself a chance to breathe he was too busy trying to scarf down the entire box. Well. Save for two. Even in his gluttonous reverie, he still stopped himself before the last two doughnuts were eaten.

“Try them. Both of you.” He demanded, licking the crumbs off his face and the glaze off his finger tips. Jetta took a surprised step back and cringed at the way her father ate. She hadn’t ever seen him become this ravenous, it made her worry about what was really in these. But if they were that good…

She grabbed the box from him and leapt down off the desk to hand Sangio a doughnut. Both of them took one look at the sweet treats they had before taking a bite out of them.

“Mm…mmm-!! Oh my goodness!!” Sangio gasped, staring in awe at what he just put in his mouth. “The last time I tasted something this good I was attending a summer solstice celebration at the castle!”

“Holy shit! Holy shit this is good…!” Jetta grinned. “She rushed to make these and yet they still turned out like this?? Mm, ohhh god yes!”

“Sangio! Start writing a letter! Jetta you get someone to deliver it, we need to find this Camille woman right now!”

“A-already?” Jetta was shocked by her father’s tone. 

“Yes already! How this woman isn’t working for nobles and kings already is beyond me!”

“Alright alright jeez…!” Jetta passed a pen and parchment to Sangio, before assuming her cat form again to rest on the desk. 

She was going to keep her eye on that little baker. There had to be something wrong with her.

—-

The city was getting close, and Goliath was dreading the final day. The only fruits of their labor was the 25 gold that Lancer gave him as pity money. He thought the drinks would make him more relaxed, but instead he woke up with dreading fear and a pounding headache.

“Is everything okay?” Camille poked her head into the doorway. Again, like the nights before, most of the members sans Sage were smushed against one another in an attempt to sleep in the room.

“No…” Goliath groaned.

“Yeah I wonder why that is…” Pierce rested his elbow on Goliath’s chest.

“I have great news! I met your debt collector last night!” Camille grinned. Pierce’s eyes went wide, brows raised in shock and anger, and he shot up to glare down at Camille.

“She came last night?! And what did you do!?”

“I paid her off!” Camille said. “I’m expecting results sometime in let’s say…when we reach the city!”

“We’re gonna die, we’re gonna fuckin die,” Pierce held his head in his hands.

“Don’t worry, I suspect we’ll be getting positive news very soon!”

“You have been very helpful to us so far Miss Caramello…but you can’t just pull shit like this without telling us…” Goliath got up from the blanket covered ground. He was scared. Extremely scared. But if Camille was this confident that she had paid her fair share, he had no choice but to sit back and wait. Can’t do much else while traveling back to the city.

“Have you been told that you’re a headache and a half?” Pierce asked her.

“Yes! I have!”

“Well I feel bad cause it apparently doesn’t stick each time it’s been said.”

“Now now, no need to talk to your cook like that, if all else fails…” Camille crawled over Pierce and around Goliath, trying to get to what looked like a small lockbox. There was no visible lock, but Camille tapped on certain seemingly arbitrary points on the box, and with that it opened up. 

“I promised Goliath I’d take from my savings to pay you guys if all else fails,” she said. “18 platinum, how about that?”

“I…uh…” Goliath did say that, but now as she was pulling the coins out, he hesitated. 18 platinum? Was that all of her savings? Though transferring your wealth into platinum is impressive, that was still a meager amount. She didn’t seem fit to pay them at all. 

“What are you doing with your savings?” Goliath asked.

“Oh? Why do you want to know?” She looked up at him. “If you’re curious, I’ve been trying to find the perfect place to set up shop so I have one spot to return to after traveling and collecting ingredients for my products. Unfortunately there hasn’t been a single building in a major city that’s suitable enough for me. So I’ve been saving and being careful with my money until the day I find the perfect spot.”

Goliath sighed, looking at Pierce, who looked a bit annoyed by the amount Camille really had. It looked like she was planning to trickle down their payment after all. That was frustrating, infuriating, but Goliath held it down and looked away from her.

“I wish you the best of luck,” Goliath said. “But for now, we’ll just take 13 platinum. That’ll be enough to pay off the debt today.”

“Then here,” she placed the money in Goliath’s hands, though there was a small sadness in her smile when she gave her pristine, shiny platinum coins away like that.

“…did you start making breakfast yet?” Goliath asked.

“No, not yet.”

“I’ll help you.”

Pierce watched the two leave the second floor together, and he just sat there, running a hand against the tattoo on the side of his head. He saw that look in Goliath’s eyes. That desire, that want. He wanted to ask Camille, plead they continue working together. She was the first client in a while this hands on with the group instead of pointing them to a place and telling them what to do. Not to mention all the privileges they were given here, it was like she was pampering them. But no, this was just a one time thing. Pierce kept trying to tell himself over and over this was their only time with her. That they were just being hired for this one job, and they’d go their separate ways after this. However…his resolve was faltering quite a bit…especially after that heavenly nectar he had just one small taste of the other day…not to mention the fact that when Camille isn’t looking he goes into her drawers to take a few snack cakes. She won’t notice…hopefully.

Camille made breakfast inside the very heavily stuffed caravan instead of on an outdoor fire pit. She used fresh eggs from the bounty reward and the mana shrooms Sage had collected. Goliath saw her start to use those exact mushrooms and put a hand over the basket she kept them in.

“Are these even edible?” He asked.

“Oh don’t worry,” Sage was helping as well, beating some eggs in a bowl. “Only reason they were so powerful was because the staff that wizard had created a feedback loop where the shrooms bred and fed off one another. The staff was broken and now they’re just slightly magical mushrooms.”

“I tried cooking a few myself this morning to taste,” Camille said. “It had the earthy savory taste of a mushroom with some herbal undertones, like it was already seasoned.”

“I don’t want anything too filling, too nervous to really eat much,” Goliath rubbed the back of his neck.

“Is it because I…?”

“Yes, yes it is Miss Caramello. I don’t know what you know but Don Henbane’s a dangerous man. You better hope he doesn’t think you’re mocking him.”

“Wait…what I smelled last night…” Sage muttered. “Camille darling you didn’t…?”

“I did! Like I said, that should be plenty.”

“I have my doubts…” Goliath was warming the stove, when there was a knock at the door. Beaumont? Pierce? Goliath shuffled as best as he could past the two to answer. Outside the caravan there was nothing there but a single letter, rolled together with a bright red ribbon. Oh no.

“We got a message from him…” Goliath sighed. “Let’s see how bad it is…”

“Oh? Let’s gather everyone! We have to see what he said!” Camille sounded joyous and excited, while Goliath just stared at her with exhaustion plastered on his face.

The group all met outside. Beaumont had slept in so had just woken up, but his tired nature had vanished when given the news. Pierce sat cross legged in the grass, body language stiff and his heart starting to beat so fast he had to take a few deep breaths just to steady himself. Sage fidgeted with the marbles in his bag, some of them sparking or lighting up in his grip, while he bounced his leg and stared intently at Camille. Things were tense. The only people not tense were Camille, who seemed excited, and Goliath, whose anxieties and fears mellowed out into what he saw as acceptance for the inevitable. Camille unrolled the letter, putting the ribbon to the side, and started reading.

“Dear Goliath Bernwald and his group. Although I am very disappointed by your failure to follow through with paying your debt, I am elated by what you have given me in its stead. I was told you recruited a very talented baker to assist you, and after giving me treats I could only eat once I pass and join the Fields of Golden Light, I have a proposition that will pay your debts off as soon as the end of this year. Please come at your earlier convenience. Do not keep me waiting long. Your king, your god, Afsaneh Henbane.”

Everyone who was tense had almost immediately relaxed when those words were uttered. The group looked at one another, like relief had washed over them in a tidal wave. 

“By the end of the year?” Beaumont grinned. “That means he actually wants us out of debt! This is great!!”

“Now now. We have to see what he wants from us,” Pierce said. “Let’s just get on the road and keep going. We don’t wanna keep him waiting.”

“We have the time for breakfast, the stove’s still hot in there, let’s not rush,” Camille pointed out. “Come on you guys, can’t meet the big man on an empty belly, right?”

Goliath didn’t want to trust Camille’s word, but it was hard to stay stubborn and brash after being sweetened up with days worth of warm, freshly cooked food. It was barely a week of travel, and Goliath could see the subtle tan return to his complexion, no longer pale and dry. He didn’t want to continue working like this if he had to go until the end of the year paying off the rest of the debt. In this state there was no way arena money would flow as easily. He probably wouldn’t even pass a physical in the state he was in. Maybe…just maybe…

After breakfast, the group was mostly silent in anticipation for heading back to the city. Camille took the helm driving back, which was a smooth quiet ride going all the way to Mortaria. The streets were rather thin however, and the caravan felt a bit cramped going down. There were even a few stares from the public, as Camille’s caravan was still a very new oddity. Mana tech like this was still new, and even some upper class folks were looking on with interest.

“Hey Goliath, where is Don Henbane’s place of operation?” Camille asked.

“I’ll point you there, just keep traveling till we get to the center of the city.” Camille was intent on continuing, but the caravan started to shakily jolt and sputter all of a sudden.

“Oh shoot, I’m low on mana, I think we need to find a place to park this.”

“How about near our base? It’s not too terribly far.” Goliath however…he was embarrassed at the idea of Camille seeing their base of operations. The shaggy abandoned roughed up apothecary shop they called home. Don Henbane claimed to give it to them out of “pity” because most of the group was basically homeless by the time they had to work for him. Probably the nicest thing he’s done so far for the group.

Camille slowed to a stop in front of the shop the group was based in, and looking at the dilapidated building made her face twist in shock. The old apothecary was two stories, with the display windows on the first floor having been boarded up for privacy. The door looked sturdy and well built but due to age it seemed on its last limbs. There appeared to be a sign, but with the letters either fallen off or faded, all she could see was Tp Apocar.

“This is where you all live?” Camille stepped out of the caravan, parking it off in an alley next to the shop. 

“Unfortunately yes…” Pierce groaned. “Can’t be picky in our situation.”

“May I look inside…?” Camille asked.

“…why?” Pierce turned to look at her.

“I’m just curious. Just curious.” Beaumont opened the door for Camille, letting her walk inside first to get a view of the area. 

The main floor was quite large and spacious. Though very old and slightly falling apart, there was still evidence of the care taken towards constructing the shop. The shelves, the countertop, it was still pretty sturdy looking. Camille saw a few doors, one leading to the basement, the other a back room, and one door that looked like it led outside.

Camille immediately started speed walking to the door leading outside, and Goliath tried to grab her to stop her.

“No no I just want to see,” Camille brushed his hand off and walked outside. To her surprise, there was a large patch of overgrown grass and leaves, all underneath dirty, broken glass. This was a greenhouse! Having this much space in such a packed city to grow crops would be unheard of.

“This…is your home?” Camille asked. 

“Yeah, it is,” Pierce sighed. “Careful around the glass, leaning against it might break something.”

“And you guys weren’t planning to do…anything with it?”

“I mean, we sleep here, eat here, and as a bit of luck, the pipes still work! Sometimes!” Beaumont grinned. “So if that’s what you mean…”

“H- how much…? How much are you offering for this…?” Camille asked, an excited trembling in her voice.

“You’ll have to ask Henbane that,” Goliath answered with his arms crossed. “He’s the one who bought the property and gave it to us.”

“Then it’s settled! We’re going to have to walk the rest of the way there but I’m asking that Henbane fella about this property!”

“Now now, don’t make decisions like that as if we’re not here,” Pierce scoffed. “This is our home. Only one we got.”

“Please oh please, just trust me I’ll-“

“Listen, you’ve been saying that a lot,” Pierce took a step closer. “Just trust you, just trust you. It’s annoying now. You’re overstepping things, so stop treating us like a bunch of servants just because we’re desperate and poor.” Pierce glared down at Camille, who was surprised when he snapped like that. She took a deep breath, wringing her hands nervously despite her furrowed brows and determined frown.

“I’m sorry. I’ll be careful about how I speak to you guys. But I promise, if things go how I think they will, you’ll be in a better place than you are now,” she assured Pierce. 

“Let’s just uh…let’s worry about that once we meet Don Henbane!” Sage nervously chuckled, putting a hand on Pierce’s shoulder.

“Yeah yeah…” Pierce slapped Sage’s hand away and led the way out of the apothecary shop. Camille stayed behind the group, letting them lead the rest of the way to Don Henbane’s manor. Most of the group was silent up to the manor, a large, gated, extravagant building that could even rival the king’s castle in sheer opulence.

Goliath knocked on the gate, taking a step back and waiting for a response. Silence. 

“Shouldn’t there be someone here to let us in…?” Camille asked. “We’re expected, right?”

“We are. Just wait a second,” Goliath replied. The rest of the group took a step back, so only Camille was surprised and had to sprint away as the gate opened.

“Time to meet the big boss!” Beaumont placed his hands behind his head, as the group walked down the long, well trimmed path to the entrance, which slowly opened the closer they got.

“These doors are big…” Camille said in wonder. “What are they so huge for?”

“They’re for a huge man,” Beaumont answered. “This guy’s pretty fuckin big!”

“I’d advise you not call Mr. Henbane ‘pretty fuckin big’ Mr. Lairot.” Beaumont flinched when out of nowhere, with no sound at all, Sangio was standing right behind the group.

“Could you like, not do that?!” Beaumont exclaimed. 

“Hm…no~! Now come on, the boss is waiting for you. But first…” Sangio approached Camille, who knelt down and planted a kiss on her hand. 

“He’s very excited to meet you, madam,” Sangio gave Camille a charming, sly smile, holding her hand in both his. “And now that I get to see you in person, I’m glad to see you’re as much of a marvel as your cooking.” Camille couldn’t help but cover her cheeks so he didn’t see how pink they were getting, giggling under her breath. The group gave each other annoyed glances, while Sage looked on with a silent envy and anger.

“Flattery will only do so much with me, mister!” Camille laughed. “But you’re doing quite a good job!”

“Now then…” Sangio led the group down the very high ceiling hallways, traveling to Don Henbane’s office. A trickle of cigar smoke wafted out the room, and there sat the man keeping the group on a metaphorical leash.

This time, Don Henbane was dressed to the nines in an extravagant white and gold suit. A bright red brooch was placed in the center of his tie, which seemed to emit an eerie glow of magic. On his desk was not only a stack of papers he was sifting through, but also a bloodied dagger, and a sack that was stained with drying blood.

“Good to see you made it,” Don Henbane greeted. “Sangio, go get the refreshments.”

“Of course, sir,” Sangio left the room, leaving the group in the big, spacious office with the most terrifying man in Mortaria. There was a brief, but uncomfortable amount of silence between him and the rest of the group.

“We- we have the money…” Goliath was going to shuffle through his bag for the platinum coins.

“I don’t want that. You’ve given me plenty,” Don Henbane raised a hand. “Miss Caramello. Step forward.” Camille stood up straight, raising her chin up and walking closer to Don Henbane’s desk.

“You…you have a skill I’ve only seen in trained chefs working for nobles and royalty,” he said. “Who did you work for..?”

“Nobody, sir,” Camille answered. “I’ve always worked independently.”

“Who were you apprenticed under?”

“My family, sir.”

“Is that it…? Are you sure you haven’t worked for any particularly famous bakers?”

“Not at all. Just my family, and they were just wheat farmers.”

“That doesn’t really explain much…”

“About what, sir?” At that, Don Henbane leaned back in his seat, letting out an exasperated sigh. 

“I’ve been thinking about the taste of your pastries…ever since I ate those delectable bundles of godly sweetness, I’ve been thinking about when…when I get to indulge in your baking next. You have amazing talent. How I’ve never heard of you before is astonishing. And because of that, I want to offer something to the rest of this group.”

“An offer? Really?” Beaumont grinned excitedly, and in response Goliath tapped him on the top of his head to shush him.

“Yes, yes, two options…first one. Camille, I hire you as my personal baker. You’ll have a room, an allowance, and all I ask for is for you to bake anything I ask for. If you need exotic or expensive ingredients, I’ll provide them. I’ll cut the group's collective debt in half and I’ll stop accumulating interest. Second option, I’ll be your patron. If you have a business of any kind, I’ll provide you with the money and real estate, and these men will be your co-workers until the end of the year. Once those remaining 12 months are over, their debt will be paid in full and you’ll have them replaced with more skilled workers.”

Camille looked up at Don Henbane, then glanced over at the group. She might part ways now and then with them. One of those options benefited Camille heavily, the other the group. Camille getting a very cushy, comfortable, high paying job, versus the group having a guarantee that by the end of their 15 month year, they won’t be in debt.

“I-if the group is okay with it, I’ll pick option two…” Camille spoke up, but slower than normal. 

“Goliath, Beaumont, Sage…” Pierce muttered. “What option do you prefer…?”

“I-I pick option two…” Goliath muttered. 

“Oh? Oh thank goodness, I was gonna pick that one too!” Beaumont grinned 

“Working alongside Camille for longer? Then option two!” Sage answered. Camille’s face lit up, her smile went wider than ever, her dark brown cheeks glowing bright against the golden glow of the room. 

“Oh? That’s a surprise, if it’s unanimous, then-“

“Wait one second sir!” Camille interrupted Don Henbane, which Goliath visibly winced at. Henbane instinctively raised his tail, but didn’t say anything more.

“I have a request, before we set things in stone,” Camille said. “The apothecary shop these men live in. It’s the perfect real estate for a shop I want. Is there a way the shop can be repaired and set up for better living? It’s a fantastic area, and I’ll get plenty of customers.”

“Hm…brave little one aren’t you?” Henbane lowered his tail, leaning forward against his desk. “I’ll only say yes…if you bake me something right now.”

“Of course sir! I’ll bake you whatever you want, sir!” Camille began bouncing back and forth on her feet in excitement and glee. “Thank you thank you thank you for the offer!”

“Now now! Don’t thank me so soon! I expect you to deliver any new or outstanding pastries directly to me at least once every week! Miss a deadline, and I’ll add another week of service to your debt repayment! If you have to travel, you’ll give me a 24 hour notice or else.” 

“That’s it? That's all we gotta do?” Beaumont spoke up, causing Goliath to tap him even harder on the head.

“Of course, we understand,” Sage bowed. “This is more than we’d ever even dream of being gifted. You’re such a kind generous soul…!” Sangio at that moment came rolling in with a covered tray with a bottle of wine and several glasses, the warm smell of roasted pork wafting from under the tray.

“Oh I know, I know I am~!” Henbane smirked. “Camille I’d offer you to share this meal with the rest of us but…because of your request, you gotta go bake for me before you get a meal.”

“Huh?” Camille was already reaching under the tray while she grabbed herself a glass of wine. 

“Camille, would you stop!” Pierce hissed.

“Alright alright I’m going I’m going!” Camille put her glass down. 

“I’ll take you to the kitchen,” Sangio offered. “Come with me.” Sangio escorted Camille out, and once the door was closed, Don Henbane motioned for the group to relax and eat.

“Go on, there’s plenty for all of you.”

Camille happily followed Sangio down the hallway, a spring in her step.

“Why didn’t you accept the job of the Don’s personal chef, miss?” Sangio asked. “You’re basically set for life if you work here.”

“Well, would a bird want to be in a cage forever even if it was lined with gold and gems?” Camille asked. “I might get whatever I want, but the restraint would drive me nuts.” 

“That is a fair point, you seem like the kind of woman that loves the thrill of travel. Though I don’t know how capable you are out there. It’s quite dangerous outside of major cities. Monsters and enchanted beasts, traveling alone like that would be dangerous.” Sangio tugged at his collar to scratch his neck, and for that brief motion at that brief second, Camille noticed something under the collar of his well pressed tuxedo. Stitch marks on his neck. 

“I know. But I find ways,” she answered. “I think it’ll be easier for me if those four work with me.”

“Don’t hold your breath. Uncl- Don Henbane wrung them dry of any use they could possibly have left. Great men at one point but far past that. I’m surprised Henbane even keeps them around.”

“I think that’s stupid of him.”

“Pardon?”

“It’s stupid of him in the long run to just work some outstanding men to death.”

“Heh, miss, you’re either very brave or very foolish to talk like that about the Don.”

“I like to think I’m both~!” Camille was lead to a kitchen that was just in the midst of being set up to prepare to make dinner. Taking items from the shelves and pantries was a large, very heavyset man with black haired peppered with streaks of grey, and big heavy mutton chops framing his face. He had a big gnarly scar over his left eye, one still bright hazel and moving about, while the other was dull and limp.

“G’day Sangio, what’s th’boss want today?” The chef spoke in a rough gravelly tone.

“Caraway, this here is Camille, she’s going to be baking a treat for the boss!” Sangio smiled wide and nudged Camille over to the chef. Hearing that, Caraway didn’t look too pleased, and leaned over to get more eye to eye with Camille.

“Hm…? She’s not a new hire is she? The boss ain’t replacing me, is he?” Caraway narrowed his eyes at Camille, a look of jealousy and anger clear on his face. 

“This is a one time thing, nothing more,” Sangio answered.

“Do you have any sugar in here by chance? I’m going to make something simple for your boss, Mister Caraway sir.”

“No sugar. I don’ bake sweets here. But I do have honey,” Caraway crossed his arms and let out an irritated grumbling.

“Of course sir! This won’t take too too long I hope! Baking is always an exhaustive process!” Camille started scoping around in the pantries for anything she could bake with. There was flour, eggs, milk, and some dried fruit and nuts, and that was about it.

“Hm…I can still make this work!” Camille started gathering the ingredients, and laid them all out. Sangio simply leaned against the wall at first, but as Camille checked the oven to put some wood in, she turned to Sangio and quickly walked up to him.

“Can you light the oven and stove fire for me? And Mister Caraway, can you beat those egg whites for me? You’ll have them beat faster than I could.”

“Comin’ into my kitchen, an’ giving me orders?” Caraway scoffed. “Absolutely not! I’m not doin’ anything for you! I’m just watching and judging!”

“Okaaaay, if you say so!” Camille pouted, but got started separating the egg yolks and whites, while Sangio got down on his knees and began starting the fire.

“What are you making, if I may ask?” Sangio asked.

“A fruit and nut sponge cake!” Camille poured some milk and butter into a pot. “I’m using honey instead of sugar for sweetener, so I hope the cake doesn’t become too heavy or dense.”

“I’m not a big fan of nuts, can you take the nuts out? Cause I might want a slice if the boss doesn’t eat it all.”

“I’ll bake away a little piece for you, because I’m pretty sure your boss’s going to eat the entire thing.”

Sangio just lingered at a safe distance from Camille. Admittedly, Camille felt a bit weird being hovered over by not one but two people, but that didn’t stop her work. She was fast with her hands, not a single second was a wasted one. When the butter was melting, she was beating the egg whites. When the butter was melted, she mixed it with the eggs and poured the flour in. Once the dried fruit was sprinkled in, had a nice fluffy batter of sponge cake, and put it in the oven.

“And now…” Camille put down an hourglass. “We wait.”

“That hourglass, it’s magic isn’t it?” Sangio asked.

“How did you know?” Camille looked up at him.

“I think I recognize something similar to this from the artifacts the boss keeps around. The sand in the hourglass appears and disappears depending on how much time you need.”

“Oh yeah! This does the same thing!” Camille giggled. “It was a gift from someone I made a wedding cake for!” People were giving her items like this for her baking? There’s no doubt Camille was extremely skilled. Which is why to Sangio, her answers with Don Henbane didn’t add up. Caramello isn’t a particularly well known last name to his knowledge. Maybe she was from a different kingdom or country, maybe if he did some reading up he could figure out just who she apprenticed under or where she grew up. He knew Jetta was uneasy about Camille, so maybe some research will calm her nerves. As spoiled as Jetta was, she was some of Sangio’s only family, so he was almost hard wired to make her happy.

The group meanwhile was allowed in a different room, and was busy enjoying roasted ham and a glass of wine. Most were just picking big chunks off to enjoy, with exception to Sage, who was leaving a small pile to the side on the train.

“Don’t wanna eat, Sage?” Beaumont was talking with a mouth full of food, and he spat some crumbs on Sage’s shirt.

“I’m saving some pieces for Camille, we don’t know when she’ll be back out.”

“Oh c'mon you’re giving her all the good cuts!” Beaumont tried to reach his hand out, only for Goliath to smack it away.

“He’s doing the right thing, so stop that.”

“Awww fine!” Beaumont huffed. 

“So with this deal…we’re going to pull stunts like that with Camille more often now?” Pierce was tuning his guitar on the much too large sofa.

“That event was an outlier and you know it damn well,” Goliath huffed. “I think it’s a good deal. This is far more stable than anything we’ve done in the past. And now by the end of this year, we can go our separate ways and live debt free.”

“Implying any of us would just stay debt free forever,” Pierce pointed out. “I don’t think it’ll be that easy. While we work as little delivery boys for that fruitcake, we’re finding better, stable jobs on the side, so we can all just have boring, stable lives by the end of the year. Got that?”

“You do make a good point…but the problem is we’re all in this mess because none of us wanted boring, stable lives,” Sage said. “We have to fix our shit collectively. This could be good for us.”

“We don’t have to go a few days with barely a bite to eat, for one,” Beaumont pointed out. “And if the apothecary shop is being repaired, we’ll have a better place to sleep and shit.”

“Yeah…she’s a good cook, even if she gives me a headache…” Pierce sighed. 

“That’s a headache I’d hate to ever get rid of~!” Sage smiled dreamily. “She might be a bit rash and overly optimistic but I mean…we keep Beaumont around so what’s the difference?”

“Now what the hell does that mean?! We’re stuck with each other, dick!” Beaumont huffed while he poured himself another cup. 

“Beaumont’s a hassle I’m familiar with, at the very least,” Pierce rebutted.

“Oh! This is the room you guys are staying in!” Camille had opened the door to the lounging area, walking in with an excited grin on her face.

“I have some great news!” She turned her right cheek to face the group. There was a bright purple, pretty big kiss mark on the side of her face. “The Don wants all of us in his office, he’s going to announce the news to you all!”

In Don Henbane’s office, he was very, incredibly preoccupied with the large sheet of sponge cake presented to him, not even slicing off chunks to eat and simply tearing out big hunks of cake with his bare hands. 

“Mmm…ohh goodness yes….” He moaned to himself.

“Don Henbane.” Sangio’s voice got him to visibly flinch and sit up straight in his chair.

“Oh uh…yeah bring em in,” Henbane replied. The group entered, Goliath leading them inside with a stoic face, trying to hide the optimism he truly felt. 

“Sangio,” Henbane looked to him, and Sangio pulled out and unrolled a contract.

“You’re free to read this, but this time there’s no hidden catch to all of this. What I’ve been saying here is the whole truth to our deal,” Henbane explained. “Starting tomorrow, the apothecary shop will be repaired and upgraded to be your main place of business. I’ll be working with you to make sure you keep your end of the bargain, and hopefully if your payments are consistent, you’ll be debt free by the end of the year. I’ll need signatures from all of you to legally bind this contract.”

Sage stepped forward to have another read through the contract. When it came to contracts and the like, Sage was better at parsing things out. He scanned over it, just to make sure there was no hidden catch, and just nodded at the rest of the group.

“He’s right, this is all about what I expected,” Sage spoke up. “Alright. Guess we sign.” Sangio handed Sage the pen first, a warm smile on his face.

“Thank you for working with us for so long. I hope by the end of this year we can part ways and have nothing to do with each other from here on out.”

“Oh yes…I hope so too…” Sage signed his signature first, then Goliath, Pierce, Beaumont, and finally, Camille signed her name on the contract. Sangio rolled it back up and presented it to Henbane.

“Excellent! Now then, you all go on back home. I’m going to be busy for the rest of the day,” Henbane motioned for Sangio to take everyone back outside, and once the doors closed and Henbane was left all alone, he continued his very feverish feasting of the fruit-filled cake.

“Goodbye you all, have a lovely rest of the day!” Sangio grinned as he waved them off at the gate.

“Goodbye Sangio! You’ve been a wonderful host!” Camille smiled and waved behind her, walking back down the street and soon out of sight from the manor. Sangio smiled as he watched them leave, and though he kept his eyes on the group, he could sense not far from him the other presence that’s been trailing behind ever since the group came into the manor.

“I hope you’ve been thinking what I’ve been thinking,” Jetta, in cat form, was standing on the path right behind Sangio.

“Researching that girl? Of course!” Sangio turned and picked up Jetta in his arms.

“What did you think? Did you taste any magic at all in what she cooked?”

“Not a single thing. But still, I’m unsure about her deal. That’ll be our little pet project for the rest of the year.”

“Ohhhh wonderful~!” Jetta purred. Neither Sangio nor Jetta felt right about Camille. Their boss was mesmerized by her, but someone who can charm that easily could be hiding something, anything. Time to see what Camille Caramello was truly like.

—-

“Home sweet home!” Beaumont joked the second they got back. “I’m actually going to miss being in that cramped caravan bedroom!”

“Well that’s still my bedroom! So the only room left after that is the first floor!” Camille pat Beaumont on the back. “We can always cycle!”

“No no, that’s still your stuff, Miss Caramello,” Goliath rubbed the back of his neck. It was getting late, the sun was setting and the exhaustion of nonstop week long travel was finally getting to the group.

“It’s not even that late but I’m exhausted…!” Sage yawned. “If you don’t mind, I’m getting ready for bed…”

“Yeah, I could use that right about now,” Pierce stretched his arms above his head. “Fuckin, what a week…”

“Goodnight y’all!” Beaumont started walking upstairs to the second floor of the apothecary. “If anybody needs me, I’ll be fuckin knocked out!”

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll be in the basement if I’m needed,” Goliath was the last to head inside, Camille didn’t follow them, but she did go up to Goliath and wrap her arms around him to the best of her ability. Goliath was shocked. That got him to stop dead in his tracks with his eyes wide with shock.

“I’m glad we met like this,” Camille muttered. “Thank you. Thank you so much, Goliath.” Goliath couldn’t help but grin ear to ear, and he turned around, grabbing Camille and lifting her up into a hug.

“I should be thanking you, Camille,” he said, before setting her back down. “Thank you so much for everything you’ve done for me and my group this past week. You’ve gone above and beyond.” There was a twinkle in Camille’s eyes, a look of joy, relief, excitement. This was all temporary, as a year might go by faster than they’ll realize. But this would be a year where things change for the better. 

Camille smiled one last time at Goliath before walking back to her caravan in the alley. There was still a soft glow of the lights inside. She crawled up the ladder, into her bedroom, and plopped right down in bed, exhaustion finally washing over her.

“Mom…dad…if you hear me out there, I’m going to make it…for you guys…” she smiled sadly, kicking off her boots and laying down. This was it. Finally, everything was falling into place. Camille’s Candy Apothecary…probably a work in progress title for now. She was never good with naming things. She might have liked to travel, and owning a shop might tie her down, but it would be hers.