I had been around misty more than the others by a long shot, but even I was surprised by the change that occurred.
She had once been a genderless blob of water with a head, a smaller shape for a body, and little nubs for hands. Now she stood a good 4 inches taller with a more humanoid figure, a crown of small flowers like a wreath was around her forehead as a small bag made of leaves hung at her side. Better than that though was the fact that she had been doing meticulous upkeep of Aiden's house, and while it was significantly smaller than the Dukes house, and was only slightly larger than the vehicle itself, it felt like home in a strange way.
"NOW!"
Thalia, Liora, and Selene yelled as they rushed forward. They had insisted on bringing some things from their bags for our way down, and like the fool I am, I did not dispute. Though I may be a fool, I am not so much a fool that I didn't see what they were planning.
I rushed forward, hoping to get there before they could, but I was against a Wind mage in a race, and worse, she had several lengths on me. So I strained my body to its limits to run as fast as I could. I found defeat as Selene drew the curtain on the copper bathtub.
"Oh come on, Aiden has been driving this entire time, and its his house, he should get first dibs!"
I wined as I paced the outside of the curtain.
"Jax, if you are asking 3 lady's who have not had a chance to properly wash themselves in almost 2 weeks, including after getting covered in crab blood, you are making a grave mistake."
Liora called as I could hear the water beginning to boil and steam starting to rise into the air from behind the covering.
"THIS IS SUCH BULLSH-"
I cut myself off as Aiden and Little Fox made their way over to me, and while Aiden would be fine, I had tried to avoid teaching Little Fox swear words before she ends up calling someone something that gets us in trouble, as just because she can speak and knows what the words means, does not translate to having knowledge of social cues and the like.
"Dude, I'm not sure what you were expecting here, especially now that it's 2 guys and 4 girls."
Aiden said, crossing his arms, Misty sitting floating by his shoulder as they gave me an inquisitive look.
"B-B-But my bath. I have waited so long."
I said as tears ran down my face. Aiden grabbed me by the scruff of my neck and began to drag me as I stared longingly at the sweet bath and the cleanliness it would bring.
"Come on dramadog, while they are doing that we get to go on the cart ride you loved so much last time."
Aiden stopped and looked at Little Fox for a moment before he said.
"Head on past the curtain, the others are in there, and will help you with the knobs. Also let them know they are in charge of setting up stuff for everyone to have a place to sleep tonight and cooking dinner."
Little Fox nodded as she walked past the curtain while Aiden and I looked to each other and took off down the hill. While they were all very much keen on taking a bath first, the threat of having to cook would probably cause Liora to come after us because Selene's cooking is edible, but looks horrifying, Thalia can't cook very well, and Liora just doesn't like to. So we picked up the pace as I would rather start down the mountain intact.
Running to the cart, we both jumped in and began the descent as Misty seemed to have even worked on it, the normal squeal at the start was gone, replaced by a oiled silence as we began down the track. I waited until we were past the first bend before I turned back to Aiden.
"Ok, so why are we heading down right now, and why right after ensuring Liora would be ready to throw us down the other side of the mountain when we get back up?"
Aiden looked down at me and gave me a grin as he said.
"We have everyone but Little Fox at level 15, so we're here to grab a specific quest, plus I want to check on Hopestone."
I took a moment to think before I realized what he meant and looked at Aiden with a look of surprise.
"I mean I knew we would need to take one at some point, but this feels fast."
Aiden raised an eyebrow as he asked.
"A month to complete the first one, and two months after that of almost every other day questing, and you're surprised it took 3 months to get to this point?"
Hearing that, I thought back about it and I realized, just what it had taken to get here, Kaelen, Meeting Thalia, Ymer, the quests we did, meeting Red, doing my vows, and more. If anything, the fact that we didn't get here faster is surprising.
As we finished riding down the rails and stepped out of the cart Aiden looked to me and said.
"Ok, so let's walk down next time because I think the right track is loose and we almost slammed into a tree."
I chuckled and said.
"Dude, you and I have both cut down trees with an attack before, you think slamming into one will do much?"
Aiden raised an eyebrow at me as we walked down the familiar path to the gate of Hopestone.
"In case you forgot, I have the alchemist class, I grew up with a distinct knowledge of my own squishyness and murderability. Hell even when we first encountered the ash spirits, one attack from them would have left me unconscious and dying."
I bumped his leg with my side as I jugged ahead and said.
"You have like 4 times the HP you did then, I think you should start to think about that."
Aiden rolled his eyes at me as we cleared the tree line. The city wall loomed down the hill where we could see a small line making their way in for the day.
As we approached I scanned the wall for our favorite polar bear, but instead I saw our least favorite dwarf.
"Fuck, its Qos's shift."
Aiden and I said in unison as we walked up. The others probably would be confused by this, but as I had been in and out of the city several times with Aiden, we both knew the annoyance of dealing with Qos. He was arrogant, nit picky, and seemed to not like Aiden for some reason, maybe it's because he has a house on prime forest real estate and he doesn't. In general we never really stop to ask.
We made our way into the line and waited for around 20 minutes or so before we got to the front. Qos took a moment to look us up and down before his eyes widened slightly as he asked.
"Well if it isn't Aiden, did adventuring not work as well as you had hoped?"
"Actually we're here to check to see if my grandfather has a tool we're looking for in his shop, and to say hi to some familiar faces."
Aiden said as he shrugged. This seemed to surprise Qos who took a moment before he leaned in with a snarl.
"Well mister hot shot, I'm gonna need to see all your paperwork or you're not getting into the city."
I found myself holding back a growl as Qos said this. This was one of his tricks he loved to do to Aiden, and if Aiden was missing any obscure paperwork then Qos would not let us in, if he had it all, we sat for an hour while he read through it for 10 minutes, and probably took a nap or something for the other 50. I restrained myself from saying anything knowing Qos could kick us out if he deemed us to be unruly, but he needed cause, something I had messed up and given him a few times that he used. I turned to Aiden wondering if it was worth it, but to my surprise Aiden just let out a deep sigh and said.
"Holy fuck your childish, I mean I know that you never had the balls to go past 500ft away from a wall you can cower behind, but come on man. But hey I get it, I can't possibly expect someone with a class like Pirate, known for its offensive power to be anything but a baby back bitch."
While I would say I never agree with Qos on things, both his and my own jaw went slack as we stared at Aiden who raised an eyebrow at Qos as if challenging him. Qos tensed his jaw as I could see the veins bulging on his head.
"You, You."
Qos stammered as I saw his head clench around the short sword at his hip. I turned to Aiden ready to help if this became a fight as he leaned in, the sound of his Revolution core humming with heat and power as it spun to life, causing Aiden to hum like a racecar.
"I, I, either draw your sword and I get to show you the things I learned to be able to take down D rank monsters, or step… aside… Qos."
Qos took a step back as I could see the conflict on his face. The part that was worried if Aiden wasn't bluffing about D rank monsters, vs the side that wanted to attack and put Aiden down as he had done before. Qos didn't move, remaining still as the veins on his head and arms bulged. Aiden silently walked past Qos and made his way towards the gate.
I followed inside as Aiden turned to me and held up two fingers in a peace sign.
"Ok, know you have questions, to answer quickly because I have 4 seconds left, I'm Will, I'm Aidens skill, and I can take over the body for a brief tiiii-. BY THE GODS WILL YOU ALMOST GOT US SHOT!."
Aiden said, shifting as he spoke from the confident and almost arrogant personality back to his normal slightly timid but still brave personality. I stared at Aiden for a moment before I burst out laughing, rolling on the road as I pointed a paw, happy tears running down my snout as I could barely contain myself.
"Dude, I thought you went through a whole personality shift to be some big tough badass all of the sudden."
Aiden blushed slightly as he lightly kicked my shoulder sending me spinning on my back, while I was still laughing of course, as he stormed off down the road.
"Well when you stop laughing, come on, we need to see what Obsidian Plate quests there are."