"Woah! Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed," Heath said, lowering his gloved hands. Two large duffels of supplies hung from each shoulder. Realizing she wasn't in any actual danger, Cassidy de-summoned Truth~Teller. The gun dissipated into a soft orange energy as she released it from her grip.
"Haven't you heard of, I don't know, knocking?" She pointed at the now ajar wooden door. "I could've blasted a fucking hole between your eyes!" she said as she threw herself back down on her creaky white-sheeted mattress.
Heath sat his large sheath-less broadsword against the wall and put a finger up. "Okay, first, you could have, but you didn't". He sat down, taking the filled brown bags off his shoulders.
She crossed her arms and began saying, "That's not the-"
He put up two fingers, "Secondly, I did knock. Ain't my fault you're the hardest sleeper this side of Aethra" He pulled the old battered chair from her desk and sat in it backwards.
He reached his hand behind his back to scratch a far itch as he said, "Hell, I didn't even know if you were here or not"."
At those words, the fog of sleep that had briefly clouded Cassidy's mind blew away in an instant. In its place, a hurricane of anxiety and anger broke out.
"You would've known where I was if you were in your damn spot!" She stood up atop her bed, her white hair grazing the wooden ceiling.
"Bu-" He tried to get a word out, to stop the absolute torrent he knew was coming.
"But nothing! You were getting drunk while those fucking people almost burned me!" Heath stood up from the seat with enough force to knock it to the ground. "Cass, you're not listening-"
"What's there to listen to?" She put two fingers to her mouth to mimic Heath's habitual smoking and deepened her voice as she said, "I'm so sorry Cass I got into this drinking contest with these guys from Meadow-Wood".
"That was one fucking time!" Heath shouted. "And you still bring it up!"
"Maybe I wouldn't have to bring it up if you didn't keep reminding me!"
Heath grabbed the chair sitting on the ground, sat it right side up and sat back down. He rubbed his temples to calm himself down before speaking.
Cassidy kept standing on her bed, fully aware of how ridiculous she must look. She stood there, arms crossed and eyes stamped on Heath like a hot cattle brand.
"Okay, look, I'm sorry I wasn't there today." He turned in the chair and grabbed one of the brown duffel bags and began rummaging inside it. "I swear I meant to be there, but I got a little held up getting this."
He pulled out a small, deep green gemstone and presented it to her with a dramatic "Ta-da". Her eyes widened with shock as she yanked the gemstone out of his hands.
Cass looked at it sitting in her palm, the cold energy radiating into her skin. She quickly sat back down, and a long moment passed as she looked at the crystal in her palm. She gripped it in her hand and looked like she was going to explode at him again. Right before she launched into another screaming match, she stopped herself.
He just watched her warily, obviously apologetic about what had happened. She let her thoughts cool as they sat in silence for a beat.
Finally, Cassidy broke the tension with a question.
"How the hell did you get your hands on a storage crystal?" Before Heath could answer, she rubbed its smooth surface, causing every inch of it to glow with a white light.
"Well... that's the part you're not gonna like..." he said as he scooted the chair back a bit away from her. Her eyes quickly snapped from awe at the crystal to ire at Heath's words.
"Oh? Let me guess, gambling?" She spat the words out and returned to ogling the incredible piece of technology in her hand.
Heath crossed his arms, a defensive stance against her harsh words. "You call it gambling; I call it calculated risk". Without responding to his defensive words, she got up from her bed and walked over to her desk. She popped open the lid and took out a piece of paper and slowly brought it to the illuminated crystal.
The same light instantly covered the paper and pulled into the crystal. She let out a small squeal of pure amazement and tossed the crystal back at Heath.
"Careful!" he yelled as he grabbed it out of the air, almost fumbling it to the ground.
"If this thing lands on the floor the wrong way, we'll be sleeping on dirt". Cassidy just rolled her eyes at his warning and sat back on her bed. "Don't they need to be rubbed before they activate?" She asked as she stretched out her arms with a yawn.
"Technically yes, but these things can misfire". He held up the crystal between his thumb and pointer finger like an old prospector holding a piece of gold. "One of this size and weight probably wouldn't absorb all the floor". He looked around the room, scanning the floor with mental measurements.
"But it would at least eat up all the floor in your room, so on second thought here". He tossed the crystal back at her, and she caught it like a snake striking a bird out of the sky.
"You want me to hold on to it? Why? You've got way more shit than I do". She asked as she carefully placed the crystal down on her bed. Heath just leaned back in the chair and shrugged.
"Consider it an apology for today's... incident".
She fell silent and looked at him, and then over at the crystal for what felt like an eternity. Finally, she sighed and relented her aggression in exchange for the boon.
"Fine, apology accepted, but I swear if you pull a stunt like that again there won't be enough storage crystals on Maldroga to save your sorry ass".
Heath could tell from her high pitched tone that despite the tension that laced her eyes and her words, she was inching closer to a more jovial mood. Feeling the calm beckoning of sleep pulling at him, he decided they needed to plan their next move for the coming days.
"Now might not be the time for me to ask, but you up for a new kind of gig?"