Dungeon Item Shop - Chapter 60: What friends do (Patreon)

Fresh lies awake, tossing and turning as the sounds begin to collect outside. The tapping. The rain returning once again. She flips over, looking at the lantern she had made before that is set against the wall of her room and her eyes find their way over to the chain-lock on her door, just double-checking again if it’s really closed. Thunder cracks out and she pulls the blanket up higher.

“Why does it always have to start raining at night?” she mutters into the blanket that she’s pulling up above her mouth.

The weather in late spring is very unpredictable here, as Jubilee had told her. She huddles together beneath the blanket and listens to a wave of dull, droning thunder roll across the midnight sky outside. The deep rumble sounds oddly calming to her, not like the high-pitched cracking and lashing from the last storm. It’s like the booming voice of a kind, old man, some story-teller or some large and friendly gestalt. As she follows the traveling sound, she finds her eyes slowly growing heavy until they fall shut. Her vision leaves her, as both it and the echoing thunder leave the world together at the same time.

The night passes without further events, though one time, as she wakes up, she is certain that she hears Jubilee walking outside, though as she sits up to listen more intently, she hears nothing but the rain tapping against her window. The girl makes a mental note to make some shutters for her and Jubilee’s bedrooms as well and falls back down, back to sleep.

The next day comes, the rain continues.

Fresh sits downstairs, stretching as they eat their dried foods together. Because of the rain, she didn’t want to go outside and find them something more exotic. “I’m telling you, Jubilee! Witches melt if they get wet!”

“Where did you hear that, you goo-brain? I’ve literally seen you with wet clothes, how does that even make sense?!”

Fresh looks down at the bread in her lap, thinking. “Huh… maybe I’m a different kind of witch.” Though… she rubs her head. Maybe that was just stuff from her old life.

“You’re a different kind of something alright,” says Jubilee, yawning.

“Didn’t you get much sleep last night?” asks Fresh, taking a bite.

Jubilee groans. “Well we came home late and then the storm kept me up.”

Fresh turns around, looking to the counter she is leaning against. “Are you scared of vampires too?”

“What? No, I’m not scared of vampires.”

Fresh thinks, tapping her chin. “If you get scared, you can come to my room.” “NOTACREEP-!” she hastily adds on to the end.

Jubilee sighs.

The two of them finish eating in silence, listening to the rain come. Fresh eventually breaks the silence and tells Jubilee of her plan to make shutters for their rooms too, asking for permission to enter Jubilee’s room again, to which they reluctantly agree.

The day begins and Fresh can’t help but feel just a teensy, tiny bit sharper today. Even though she could have also done with a couple of hours more sleep. Jubilee is running the store downstairs alone, since the rain is keeping their customers either in their homes or in the dungeon for now. So she sets to work, grabbing the materials from the pantry and then heading to Jubilee’s room first.

Opening the door, she looks inside the dark room and walks across it to open the curtains to let some light in, in what was likely the first time in a very long time. Looking back behind her, she realizes that this is the first time she’s seen Jubilee’s room with some light. She tilts her head, realizing that it looks the same as it does when it’s dark.

Dingy and dirty. The bed is unmade and looks like it was tossed and turned in over and over and over. Fresh frowns, Jubilee never seems to make their bed. Looking down she looks at the mirror shards that have been laying here this entire time as well, scattered over the floor.

“How long have these been laying here?” she mumbles to herself. They were here when she arrived. Judging by the thick coating of dust on the broken glass, they had been there for longer than that though. She puffs out her cheek. This obviously won’t do anymore. What if Jubilee falls out of bed onto the glass? What if they get up to open the window and step on some?

Fresh walks back downstairs, grabbing the broom from behind the counter.

“Jubilee, I’m going to clean your room!” she calls back, halfway up the stairs.

“You what?” Jubilee points to her, in the middle of a sale. “Don’t you dare!”

Fresh sticks out her tongue and runs up the stairs, knowing that Jubilee is too busy with the customer to stop her. “Bleeeeh!”

Running back to the room, she starts sweeping the glass together into a pile. Looking down at it, she looks back to the broken mirror. The thought of repairing it comes to her. She could probably just stick the leg of the mirror in the pot and use the spell. But…

She feels like that would be overstepping her bounds, somehow. Jubilee probably wouldn’t appreciate that. Instead, she simply finishes sweeping the floor. Though that is easier said than done, as half of the work is picking up old clothes and setting them to the side. The occasional Obol is scattered around the floor as well and she puts them all on top of the dresser, next to the dried flower. If only as a symbol, she wants Jubilee to know that she saw it. She turns to make the bed. Fresh does however take the effort of changing Jubilee’s bedsheets, grabbing some fresh ones from the messy pile inside of the dresser. She can’t help but wonder if these sheets had been here even longer than the glass had been and throws them, with a grossed out expression, to the side.

Her expression widens as she looks down at the mattress below, that is so deeply flecked and stained with dark rusty stains of old blood from top to bottom, that the top layer of fabric looks crunchy.

“Ewwww! Jubileee~” says the girl to herself, waving her hands around in disgust.

Fresh composes herself. This was her friend, she has to be strong for Jubilee. Adventuring is dirty work, after all. So a little blood is to be expected. Looking out the window, Fresh nods to herself and runs back outside, grabbing her bag.

“Jubilee! I’ll be right back! I’m buying you a new mattress!”

Jubilee doesn’t have time to look up and over the counter, before Fresh is already out the door and running through the rain towards the tailor.

A few minutes later, she’s standing inside of the creepy store. She can’t help but notice that she seemed to have scared the mannequins with her sudden barging in as many of them are stuck frozen in half-jumping and twitching positions, facing the door in shock.

The long, thin man with the strange face nods as he puffs on his pipe and slams his ledger shut as they finish their conversation.

“I need it right away, please! It’s uh…”

The tailor nods. “We know what size your friend’s bed is.”

Fresh smiles in relief and slides the coins across the counter. “Thank you, you’re the best!”

The tailor nods. “I know.”

Bought: 1 [Double Mattress, Flower-Fiber and Harpy Feather Blend - (Medium Softness) - {600} Obols] !

By the time Fresh gets back to the store, she’s drenched and runs into Jubilee, standing there with crossed arms. “You know? Some people might say you’ve gone too far. But me? I’m calm. Collected -” Their leather gloves creak as they clench their fists.

“Mm!” says Fresh, agreeing with Jubilee who clearly wasn’t finished talking and shakes her head to get the wet out of it. She stops, her eyes opening wide as she realizes. “Jubilee!” The girl falls to her knees. “I’m meeeeeeeltiiing~”

Jubilee tilts their head, waving their hands out to get the water off of themselves that she had splashed everywhere.

Fresh opens an eye, looking to see if Jubilee had fallen for her theatrics. Jubilee just stands there as before, their arms crossed again and their eyes even more annoyed. Fresh frowns and sighs, lowering her arms. “Jubileeee~”

“Yes?” asks Jubilee, more than annoyed.

“I’m not going to say I’m sorry, because I’m not.” Fresh looks up to Jubilee, her eyes not wavering as she clenches her fists, rising back up. “Your mattress was gross!” She points to Jubilee with an accusing finger. “GROSS!”

Jubilee plants their hands on their hips. “What my mattress is is none of your business. Creep!”

“Ju-bi-lee~” says Fresh, leaning in with every syllable. “Say ‘what.’”

Jubilee looks at her, lost and frustrated. “…What?”

“What?” mimics Fresh, puffing out her cheeks to make a weird face.

“What?” shrugs Jubilee, annoyed.

 “-Chicken-butt!” Fresh jumps up, running past Jubilee who snatches after her.

“Get back here!” yells Jubilee after the girl and runs after her towards the stairs.

“No!” cries Fresh as she stumbles forward onto the stairs, as a pair of hands grip her ankle. “Ah! Let go! Don’t eat me! Jubileeeeeee~”

Jubilee yells. “As if! I’d rather eat a goblin! You probably taste like wet coins and snail shit!”

“You’re so mean! Jubileeeeee~”

A voice coughs and both of them turn to look at the door where Basil is standing. “Is this a bad time?” asks the woman nervously.

Fresh waves, pulling her leg free and standing back up. “Hi, Basil!”

Jubilee scowls up at Fresh, but relents, given that they aren’t alone anymore. “Hey. So?” asks Jubilee dryly.

Basil walks forward, looking somewhat haggard, but oddly energetic at the same time. “I’ve spoken to my mother-superior and gotten her blessing to work for you outside of my hours at the church instead of going into the dungeon.”

“That’s great!” says Fresh.

Basil nods, smiling. “If your offer still stands, I’d like to accept.”

Fresh and Jubilee look to each other and nod, coming to a truce, for now. Jubilee turns back to Basil. “Great. You’re in, starting right now.” Basil lights up, watching as Jubilee raises a finger to point up to Fresh. “Your first job is to heal her brain-damage.”

Fresh clears her throat. “Actually-“ She raises a finger, waving it at Jubilee and winks. “As party-leader, I’ve decided that Jubilee is going to teach you to run the counter.”

Jubilee narrows their eyes. “As if-!“

Fresh turns around and runs up the stairs, interrupting Jubilee before they can finish. “- I have some work to do, see you in a bit!” The girl runs through the upstairs door, closing it behind herself before Jubilee can stop her. Smiling, having won this time, she goes to finish making Jubilee’s new bed and then sets to work with her original task of making the shutters for both of their rooms.

Jubilee might be mad at her for invading their privacy, just a little, but she’s willing to make that sacrifice if it helps their overall well being.

“Sometimes friends have to be a little mean too,” says the girl, nodding in conflicted-satisfaction, as she looks at the finished shutters and her gaze wanders over to the dried flower on the dresser.