Chapter 90 - The Morning After (Patreon)

As Zeke got dressed, slipping on his tight-fitting, padded under armor, he couldn’t keep a grin from spreading across his face. He resisted the urge to look back at the still sleeping Abby. Instead, his mind reached back to his memories of the night before. It had been urgent and, though he hadn’t realized it before, wholly necessary. The encounter with the goddess had been the cherry on top of months of relentless stress, and the night with Abby had worked wonders to alleviate the heavy weight of tension he’d carried on his shoulders.

Once he’d donned his padded clothes, Zeke summoned his armor. As he strapped each piece into place, he found himself wondering about the future. There was every chance that the night before had been a one-time thing. A product of a stressful event that would never be repeated. However, as he felt his breastplate affixing itself to his chest, Zeke hoped that that wouldn’t be the case.

He liked Abby, and not just in a friendly way. They were great friends and companions; that much was true. However, he felt that there was something more there. Part of it was her beauty, certainly. No person could look at Abby and fail to acknowledge that she was a gorgeous woman. It was more than that, though. He hesitated to think of it as love, but over the course of their partnership, they had developed a deeply personal relationship. He respected and relied on her more than he ever had with anyone before.

“I guess you want to talk about it,” Abby said without opening her eyes. “Or is there another reason you’ve been staring at me for the last few minutes?”

Zeke silently cursed himself because he had been doing just that. He’d finished donning his armor a couple of minutes before, and he’d filled the interim with staring at the beautiful woman tangled in the bedsheets.

Abby opened her eyes and propped herself on one elbow. When the sheet slipped down to her waist, Zeke pointedly kept his eyes up, his gaze never wavering from her face. It was difficult. And probably ridiculous. But he was nervous, and he had no idea where he stood with Abby.

She rolled her eyes and got out of bed. A moment later, she’d retrieved her clothes and started dressing. As she did, she said, “So – do you want to talk about it or not? It’ll probably be awkward until we do.”

“Uh…I…I guess,” he said. “It’s probably for the best if we figure out where we stand.”

Abby finished dragging her green shirt over her chest, then said, “And where do you think that is?”

“I don’t know,” he admitted.

“Is that because you don’t know what you want?” she asked, sliding her dark, leather pants on. “Or because you’re afraid of how that might relate to what I want?”

Zeke sighed. “I’m not sure,” he said. “Maybe a little of both? I mean…this could change things between us, right?”

“I should hope so,” was her response. Then, she grinned. “Fine. I’ll go first, just because I have a feeling that if I wait on you, we’ll be stuck dancing around the subject for a year. I like you, Zeke. I don’t know if it’ll ever go further than that, but despite all the reasons we shouldn’t, I want to see where it goes.”

Zeke jaw went slack. It didn’t drop, but that was only because he made a conscious effort to keep his expression as neutral as possible. But in his mind, surprise, anxiety, fear, and unbridled joy twisted around one another to create a mass of confusion he wouldn’t soon untangle.

“So? Nothing to say?” she asked.

“Oh,” was his reply. “Sorry. Just trying to make sense of it is all.”

“Not really a lot of make sense of, right?” Abby said, tying the laces of her leather armor. “I like you. You like me. We’re on the same wavelength, and we work together really well. And as last night proved…”

Zeke blushed. It wasn’t that he was a stranger to sex. Being an athlete that everyone expected to eventually progress into the professional ranks had its advantages with women. That didn’t mean he’d grown comfortable with talking about it. He blamed his conservative roots.

“Oh, that’s just adorable,” Abby said, stepping forward and running a finger along his reddened cheek. “But I’m serious, Zeke. I think this could work. The only question is whether or not you want to take the leap with me. If not, we can chalk this up to a one-time thing and never talk about it again. But if not…well, I just want to be absolutely clear. I want to see where it goes. Do you?”

It was a good question. Nearly every fiber of Zeke’s being screamed at him to tell her that he did as well. He’d imagined a relationship with Abby on more than one sleepless night, so it definitely fit into his fantasies. However, he also knew that it wouldn’t come without its risks, either. If something happened between them and the relationship failed, it would ruin the friendship they’d cultivated over the previous months. If that came to pass, Zeke would be alone again. The chances that he would find someone else who matched with his goals so perfectly were slim.

So, it came down to an evaluation of risk. Or it would have if he’d looked at it logically. Reason paled before the tide of emotions, though, and he said, “I…I do. I really do.”

Abby’s face split into a grin. “Good call,” was her reply. Then, she kissed him, and any doubts about his choice faded into the background. When they broke apart, Abby said, “I suppose we should get moving. We have a lot on our plates after yesterday.”

Despite the fact that he very much wanted to shed his armor and jump back into bed with Abby, Zeke agreed. “So, we’re still headed towards the Micayne Estate first?”

“Yeah – I think that’s best,” she said.

“Alright,” Zeke said. “Let’s get some food, then we’ll get going.”

With that, he left the bedroom and, ignoring the knowing glance from Pudge, who’d slept in the cottage’s common area, Zeke went outside to revive the fire. Once that was done, he retrieved a few eggs from his spatial storage and started frying them on a skillet. He’d taken the opportunity to restock in Beacon, so their food choices were far more varied than they’d been while hunting drachnids. He was more than willing to take advantage of the space’s curious prevention of food spoilage, so he’d gotten a host of perishable goods that no other traveler would even think of carrying.

They had also used some of his wealth to stock the cottage with furniture and other essentials, making it a comfortable home that would be the envy of any traveler.

After they ate, Zeke dismissed the cottage, and they made their way back to the trail. Resuming their climb through the mountains, Zeke fully expected things to feel awkward. However, to his surprise, everything felt surprisingly similar to how it had been before. When he remarked on it, Abby said, “What did you expect? To skip through the mountains while we held hands?”

They’d shared a laugh at the absurdity of the comment; regardless of how their relationship had changed, the mountains were no less dangerous than they had been the day before. This fact was driven home when, out of nowhere, a short, furry creature came barreling at them from behind a stray boulder.

“What the –”

The monster was humanoid and bipedal, but its resemblance to a human ended there. With two, curling horns and a goat-like face, it was naked but for a loin cloth. White fur covered its entire body, and its legs ended in cloven hooves. As it rocketed towards him, the creature let out a loud bleat.

It hit him with the force of a runaway truck, its horns a natural battering ram that knocked Zeke back a handful of feet. However, he maintained his balance, and because his armor had served to dampen the impact, he was completely unharmed. As he skidded back, Zeke summoned his mace, Voromir, and activated [Leech Strike]. A split-second later, red mist enveloped his hands and weapon.

Just as he was about to attack, a silvery arrow sprouted from the monster’s neck. The conjured projectile disappeared as soon as its momentum was spent, and a gout of blood erupted from the resulting wound. Another arrow hit the creature in the chest, staggering the thing. So, when Pudge came out of nowhere and barreled into the thing, it was wholly incapable of maintaining its balance. And once it was on the ground, Pudge’s savage claws made quick work of it.

It was all over in the space of a few seconds, and despite Zeke’s lack of contribution, the monster had ended up as little more than a pile of eviscerated gore. And Pudge was already rolling in it. The bear’s emotions said that he was in absolute heaven.

“Pudge – stop,” he said with sigh. “That’s gross.”

“Oh, c’mon – let him have his fun,” Abby said. “It’s kind of cute. You know, if it wasn’t terrifying. Besides, it’ll wash off pretty easily.”

“Whatever,” Zeke said. He’d tried to break Pudge of the habit on numerous occasions, and he’d failed thus far, so he was beginning to think it was a lost cause. So, he asked, “What the heck was that thing, anyway?”

“A caprid,” Abby said. “Didn’t you inspect it?”

Zeke shrugged. “I forget sometimes,” he said. He used his inspection skill on the monster’s remains, but he was only able to identify it as a caprid corpse. “What level was it?”

“Fourteen,” she said.

“It packed a serious punch for something that level,” Zeke acknowledged. “If I hadn’t been wearing my armor, it might’ve cracked my sternum.”

“Yeah – that’s kind of their thing,” Abby explained. “They have some sort of momentum skill. If you let them get going, they hit extremely hard. If one of them hit me after getting that kind of a run-up, it would have caved my chest in.”

“Well, that’s just great,” Zeke muttered, looking around. “If there are any others around, I’ll –”

A rustle in the nearby bushes snatched his attention away. Abby let out a nervous chuckle. “Oh, that’s the other thing they’re known for,” she stated. “They also travel in packs. If you see one caprid, there are probably a hundred more close by. And if you happen to kill one? Well, they can smell it on you. They’ll track you until you either end them or…well, they end you. Vicious little monsters.”

“Fantastic,” Zeke breathed just as the nearby forest erupted into a mass of white-furred, waist-high monsters. As one, they let out a raucous bleating sound, just like a herd of goats, as they surged toward the party. Quickly, Zeke activated his skill, placing [Mark of the Bear] on both Pudge and Abby. Then, he stepped forward, placing himself between the horde of caprids and Abby. “This is going to suck.”

“You’re not wrong,” was Abby’s reply as she backed away. For his part, Pudge’s emotions only reflected the bloodthirsty bear’s eagerness.

And then they were on him.

Zeke had fought hordes of monsters before. In fact, he considered it a bit of a specialty. With his skill, [Leech Strike], combined with his high strength, endurance, and vitality, he could keep going far longer than most. Not only did [Leech Strike] fill him with healing energy, but it also soothed his fatigue, allowing him to fight for hours before exhaustion overtook him. It made him nigh on unstoppable, so long as he could swing his mace.

However, the caprids seemed to have been perfectly designed to counter his abilities. Because there were so many of them, it was impossible for him to avoid their attacks completely, and it only took one to send him reeling. Then, once he was on his back foot, it became that much more difficult to avoid the next ramming attack. And the next. Before Zeke knew what was happening, he felt like a pinball being bounced between a host of charging goat-men. The only solace was that, aside from pushing him around and keeping him from maintaining his footing, the monsters’ strikes were largely nullified by his armor. He didn’t take much actual damage, but so long as the monsters were allowed to keep attacking, he was unable to influence the fight.

Luckily, he wasn’t alone.

While the caprids continued to hammer into Zeke, Abby peppered them with her conjured arrows. A few veered off to attack her, but displaying her investment in dexterity and agility, she avoided the chest-high monsters with ease. Meanwhile, Pudge proved his worth as well when, with a roar, he charged into the mass of goat-men. His claws lashed out, and with each swipe, a monster went flying. Pudge wasn’t fully grown yet, but he was more than big enough to deal with the comparatively light caprids.

Their screaming bleats filled the air as Pudge became a wrecking ball of sharp claws, teeth, and bloody fur. At the same time, Abby continued firing her conjured arrows with matchless precision, felling a caprid with every second or third shot. After a couple of minutes of being bounced around, the crowd of monsters thinned enough that Zeke could finally regain his footing. That’s when he took the fight to them, and with each swing of us mace, he stole a bit of his victim’s vitality, healing the few bruises that had bypassed his drachnid armor.

In the end, it turned into a slaughter, and when the last caprid went down, Zeke stood in the center of a heap of white-furred corpses, his chest rising and falling as he caught his breath.

Abby said, “You make a really good distraction.”

Zeke cut his eyes at her in annoyance. “Whatever I can do to help,” was his sarcastic reply. “Do you think there are more of them?”

“Definitely,” Abby said. “We’ll probably be dealing with these things for the whole trip if we don’t cut it off at the source. And they breed like rabbits, so you can bet there are plenty of them to make it annoying.”

Zeke sighed. They already had a lot on their plate, but if what Abby said was right, they couldn’t afford to leave the caprids at their back, lest they choose precisely the wrong moment to attack. They had no choice but to clear them out.

“Fine,” he said. “Can you track them?”

She chuckled, then said, “They’re not really stealthy. I’m willing to bet you could track them if you wanted to.”

Zeke dismissed his mace and removed his helmet before running his hand through his sweaty hair. “Well, I guess we need to get to it, then. At least they give experience, so it won’t be a complete waste. Let’s go kill some goat-men.”