ROUGH DRAFT Coye vol 3 ch 13 (Patreon)

Coye and Byng made it out alive after their great ordeal, and they hurried out of the forest as quick as they could. Sadly, that meant dropping hands and continuous Quick Stepping until they were in the clear. Neither minded the drain on their resources, since they just needed to get out of there before anything else crazy happened.

Nothing did, and they were relieved to exit and see the starry night sky. They didn't bother with hurrying back to Byng's camp at that point. Although they still had stamina, both were mentally done by that point and they needed to take things slow for a while. They were mostly quiet, but they resumed holding hands the entire time. Coye's adrenaline died down and he became dreadfully aware of the fact that this was his first time hanging out with a girl when Shayla wasn't there to help him through it, but Byng was a comforting presence at this point and she only relieved his worries.

It took a half hour to reach her camp, and he couldn't see much until she entered ahead of him and started lighting some scattered torches spread out across the property. Once enough light was shining in, Coye was impressed with the size of her camp.

The entire place was protected by a thick fence with various bones, there were three tents of different sizes made from pelts stitched together, and a big fire pit in the middle. It was even located next to a small pond. There were also racks and racks of dried meat, and a whole bunch of tanning racks with different hides attached. Byng had herself quite the fulfilled life out here, he realized, which made him a little jealous with how little he had to show for himself.

He also felt bad about seeing it, too, as it looked quite similar to a number of goblin camps he'd burnt down as part of a quest in the past.

"Here we are," Byng said as she opened up the crude gate. "Hope you don't mind my style, but everything you see here is something I made myself, gahaha!"

"This place is wonderful, Byng. You have so much going on..." he said, taking in even more of the sights including the various skulls on display on her fence.

"Oh, it's not much but it's home..." she waved him off but it was clear she dug the compliment. "Have yourself a seat over there while I get some stuff ready for you!"

Coye found a couple of carved stools placed around the fire pit, which Byng had lit with a now-roaring flame. After sitting, Coye took a quick look into his pouch and confirmed Shayla was still napping away. Some of her glow had returned, so her mana must be replenishing itself. He was pleased to see it.

Byng emerged from the smallest of the three tents carrying a large, beat-up metal basin in her arms that she then took to the pond and filled with water. She returned to him and placed the basin on top of the campfire with a sigh. "Here you go, short-stuff. Have yourself a soak once it's nice and warm, ok?"

"Sure," Coye nodded. "Thank you... um... do you have anything I could change into after? And I don't mean to be pushy, but-" his stomach spoke up, rumbling terribly.

"No worries, I got you covered!" Byng offered him a pair of furry slacks made from Direwolf pelts. "Hope you don't mind if I don't really feel like cooking anything fancy, though."

"Anything is fine as long as it's filling..." he sighed as he took off his messy tunic and then stripped himself of his sweater beneath. Summer was his most hated season for adventuring, he didn't know how all those knights in armor pulled it off.

When he looked at her, he noticed that Byng was staring at his chest.

"Um..."

"Don't mind me, just checking out the goods!" Byng cackled. "I'll go whip something up real quick before you hop in." She said as she ducked into the medium sized tent, where she kept all her foodstuffs. From the brief moment where the flap was opened, Coye could see she had enough saved up that she could open up her own store if she wanted.

For the first time today, Coye allowed himself to zone out and close his eyes. He reflected on his experiences as he emptied his head, and while things could've gone better, he allowed himself to feel proud of what he accomplished with the help of Byng and Shayla. He really wouldn't mind doing things with others more often from now on, if they were half as fun as they were with Byng.

Byng returned only a few minutes later, though, so his relaxation was short lived.

She carried in her hands a very odd-looking food, one in each hand. They looked like horns of plenty, but upon closer inspection, Coye realized that they were in fact some sort of strange bread.

"This should fill you up," Byng smirked and handed him the food. "These are palgakkas, they're a big packed food we ate back home to load up on energy! You make em out of leftovers, so they're real easy to make."

"Oh, thanks,"  Coye said as he took the interesting culinary experience presented to him. He looked inside the top of the cone-shaped bread and observed that there was a wide array of meats packed in. Holding it all together was a thick brown paste that wasn't quite a sauce but smelled somewhat similar to gravy.

He wasn't in a mood to be picky, so he scarfed it down and was pleasantly surprised at what he experienced. The crust was hard and flaky and salty, but the inside of the bread was soft. The meats were as salty as he expected, but the strange gravy-adjacent paste actually had a sweet flavor to it that dulled the offending salt nicely and smoothed things over.

"You like it?" Byng asked as she got a little too close to his personal space, but he could see how much it meant to her.

"Yeah. It's really good!" He nodded, taking another bite and loving it even more.

"You're damn right it is!" Byng smiled ear to ear and again started to mess with her curly hair, which Coye assumed she did whenever she was feeling girlier than usual. "I'm gonna fill you up with so much Grurguhrokkan cooking, short-stuff, just you wait and see!"

"Looking forward to it," he said as he tore into the rest of the palgakka. Initially he was worried about having to ask for seconds, but by the time he was done, he felt like he'd just eaten a five course meal. He was so full he was almost bursting and feeling bloated. "What the heck-"

"They're real filling, aren't they? The bread's special because of the dough and it sorta expands in your gut! There's not always enough food to go around back home, so you gotta make the most of what you got. They don't spoil for ages, either!"

"It's amazing. I might have to ask you to make me a bunch of them sometime so I can keep a stock available. I feel like these things would really help fight off the hunger."

"Yeah? You really think so?" Byng was starting to feel full of herself at all the praise and to deter herself from acting on it, she scarfed down her palgakka in essentially two bites, impressing Coye with how she could handle that much filling food all at once. "I could do that for you sometime, sure!"

The water in the impromptu tub started to boil.

"Ah, there's your cue. Go on and get in, come on, come on!" Byng beckoned him.

"Do I smell that bad?" Coye frowned at how much she was pressuring him.

"No, but... you know. The sooner you get nice and clean, the sooner we can talk about your prize." She said with a small blush.

"Oh," Coye nodded and stood up, then peeled off his boots and his trousers, leaving him in nothing but boxers as Byng continued to eye him like a piece of meat. "Um... can I get a little privacy...?"

"So soft and feminine-looking..." the Gengaggi said as she began to drool. "Barely any muscle definition, ah...!"

"B-Byng?!" Coye covered up his chest like a woman, unsure of how else to handle her staring.

Byng managed to wrestle herself away, but didn't pretend to look shamed. "Sorry, sorry! I'll turn around for a sec... even though I already saw what you were packing this morning..." she reminded him, peeking over her shoulder to catch him taking his boxers off.

He hopped in before she could sneak any further looks and felt the warm bath encompass him, searing his aching muscles to relief. He let out a long sigh of contentment as he reclined in the basin. "Thank you for this. I was feeling real gross..."

"No prob. I figured you'd need it before anything happened tonight. I mean, uh... you know what I mean."

"Y-Yeah..." Coye said as he submerged himself up to his nose to hide his embarrassment over the suggestion. Things were so close to happening with Byng. He could have anything he asked of her, and after a long, long day of flirting and innuendos there was really only one way for this to go. That was up to him, though, and he'd need to make sure he chose his prize carefully.

To get himself from thinking about it for a bit, he asked, "Do you have any soap?"

"Soap?" Byng looked back at him and blinked.

Coye waited for her to reveal she was joking, but he knew that wasn't coming. It explained far too much. He sighed and shook his head, resigning himself to a bath without soap, while Byng got out their bags of holding still stuffed with reaver weasels.

"I'm gonna do a little work on these bad boys while you soak," she said, dumping out the carcasses onto a big bloody leather hide. "I'll cut the trophies for you and bleed them out. Gonna get their pelts tomorrow and I'll figure out something for the rest! You want your pelts, yeah?"

"Yeah, I do. What do you normally do with the eyeballs?" Coye asked, earning him a strange look. "I-I have a guy- an alchemist- and I'm trying to earn extra gold."

"Whatcha saving up for?" Byng's curiosity grew as she began skillfully severing weasel feet one after another with her knife. "Does this have something to do with that new hobby of yours?"

"Huh? Oh, no... I've just been thinking of moving out of the Guild sometime. That's all."

"A man's gotta have his own place," Byng nodded respectfully. "Why are you being so evasive about the hobby thing, though?"

Coye could tell she was just trying to make conversation and furthermore, he knew she wouldn't tease him over his newfound interests. There was no reason not to tell her, so he explained all about the RealMonster cards he'd picked up and Byng listened carefully. She seemed interested, but by the end of his explanation, it was obvious she didn't entirely get the point.

"So, lemme get this straight. You get pieces of paper, and you... collect and battle with them? Is it like gambling?"

"I think so, I don't know..."

"Hm. Weird. I can't get used to the weird crap you Karnallians do for fun. Back home, all people ever did was fight, get drunk, fuck, or some combination. We had types of gambling and a few games, but it usually involved one of those."

"Um... what do kids do for fun in Grurguhrohk?"

Byng slammed her knife down on a weasel's neck and put the head into one pile and the body in another. "I don't think you're really getting it, short-stuff. Kids don't have fun where I'm come from. They learn to fight, and if they're lucky, they get to prolong their eventual violent death until they're a bit older."

"Sorry..."

"Not your fault. I don't expect you to understand some place you've never been." Byng groaned as she finished beheading the last weasel, then stood to fetch a rack. One by one, she started to tie the weasels to the rack by their remaining foot, allowing them to bleed out.

As Coye watched her work, he began to wonder. "You never answered me when I asked how you got to Karnalle, you know..."

"Ah," Byng's ear perked up for a moment. "It's not like it's a big story or anything. When I made the decision to leave my Homerealm, I made my way to Jorr Korgazzad and waited for a chance to sneak onto a Voidship. I'm small, so I managed to fit in the cargo without much trouble!"

"What about the ship? Wouldn't it have sensed you?"

"Nah, he was chill. The mage whose soul was bonded to the ship apparently hates being a merchant vessel so he couldn't have cared less. Nice guy, helped make sure I didn't starve on the voyage! We landed in Bourgeaux, and I kinda just crept along the continent until ending up here. Nowhere else seemed to fit, you know?"

"And why is that?"

"Because I found what I was looking for, and nothing else really matters besides that."

"I see... are you happy with your life in Karnalle?"

"Well, I miss my parents, but all in all I wouldn't ever go back. Not a chance. Maybe to visit, but that's about it!" She shrugged and waved him off. "Anyway, enough about me. We got more important things to talk about, short-stuff. You about done in there?"

Considering that all he could do was soak, there wasn't much for him to do in the first place. "Yeah, I just need something to dry off with. Also, I don't suppose you have something I could change into, do you?"

Byng gave him a look that did all the talking for her.

"I figured," he sighed.

Byng tossed him a pelt and said, "Dry off with this, and if you must, you can wrap it around yourself."

"Didn't you say you were going to rinse off, too?" Coye gave her an inquisitive look.

"Yes," she rolled her eyes and sighed. "But you're gonna be weird about it so I'm gonna do it in my tent! When I'm all finished up and ready for you, I'll call and you come in and join me. Then, we'll finally talk about your prize."

"We'll talk about it in your tent...? After you've washed up...?" Coye asked as he gulped, feeling his blood start to gather in a vital place.

"You heard me." She said with a blush as she approached the tub with a bowl and a rag she had prepared, filled it, and walked off towards her tent, the largest of the three. "Use the water to put out all the fires before you come in, ok?"

"Ok..." Coye nodded and with that, Byng closed the flap behind her.

He looked over at his belt and frowned, knowing Shayla was still sleeping within. This was usually the time when she'd be giving him a pep talk and helping to calm his nerves, which were starting to kick into overdrive. He couldn't rely on her. If he wanted things to happen with Byng, then he knew what he had to say and do. Coye had to claim his prize.

He left the tub and dried off, wrapping the pelt around his waist as instructed and then put out the campfire and torches. The darkness encroached upon Byng's camp, the cool air chilling Coye's skin as he knelt to pick up his gear. A look inside confirmed that Shayla was still passed out, and his heart raced.

"Any minute now, Shayla..." he said, not expecting an answer.

"You got this, baby..." she grumbled, turning over in her rest.

Although small, Coye was greatly affected by her words and smiled down at the Pixie. He repeated the advice to himself, saying, 'I got this... I got this...' several times over as he waited for Byng's ok.

Sooner than he was ready for, it came.

"Alright, come on in..." Byng called out, sounding a little nervous herself.

"Ok," he said, bringing his gear to Byng's tent save for his bloody clothes.

It was time.