Isran the Great

Isran decided not to look into the ditch after clearing the notification, she helped Phaedra get down from the tree, Elysi jumped down behind her.

“What time is it?”

“Eight pm.” Isran answered.

“Should we head to the cabin?”

“Cabin?” Elyis frowned at Phaedra.

Pheadra smiled back. “Yeah, it’s a Palos word, Isran used cottage which is also a Palos word, though not as used academically.”

Isran blinked at Phaedra. Palos words. Words of the old world where words from her past life… 

Isran hissed and shut her eyes.

“Are you okay?” Elysi touched her arm lightly.

“Yeah.” Isran sighed opening her eyes. “We should head to the building, but we’ll have to be very serious about the watch.”

“If we find more monsters around, should we just abandon it?”

Elysi nodded at Phaedra. “We should.”

Isran grabbed both their hands as they walked. It probably wasn’t the best course of action, they were in dangerous woods and not having their weapons drawn could prove to be fatal, but in that moment Isran couldn’t care less.

There were fortunately no monsters around or in the cottage. It was also quite clean, like someone had been living in it for a while. The bed was king sized and a busted up old 90’s tv sat in one corner of the room.

A table, chairs and an empty fireplace.

Elysi sat on a chair and pulled out a few fire gems from her bag. “Just in case we should use these for heat, a fire would attract monsters.”

No one argued. Isran peeled her armour off and sat on the bed, Red rested beside her.

She looked at her girlfriend and new companion sitting together. Elysi wrapped a few of the fire gems in cloth while Phaedra counted rations and picked some out for them to eat. They were expecting to stay a while in the dungeons so they had a good amount of food. Though feeding a third person certainly reduced the amount they had.

Isran was kinda tired of the meat, it wasn’t the worst, but she had been eating it for too long.

Isran picked Red and rubbed the silk of the cape softly.

“I have a few questions I’ve been meaning to ask you.” Between all the trouble they had faced in the dungeon, and actually learning how to communicate with the cape they hadn’t discussed anything much. She wanted to know how many points the stat boosts the cape gave her were and if there were any other things Red could offer.

When Red only lay slack in her hand she decided to just continue speaking. Though, speaking to a piece of cloth was still weird.

“So how many points can you give per stat?”

Red slowly escaped her hold and wiggled.

“Not static?” Communication was still rough.

The cape flicked her knee twice. No.

“A multiplier?” Isran doubted it was, the boosts we’re that big.

Red flicked her twice again.

Isran hummed. “A fixed number then?”

Red flicked once. Yes.

They played a guessing game for about five minutes before Isran groaned. “Are you sure it’s a fixed number?”

Red floated for a short while, not answering before forming a percentage sign.

Isran blinked. “A percentage of the stat?” That is a multiplier though...

Red flicked once. With that knowledge it was only a matter of guessing a few times before Isran got a proper answer.

“Okay, so fifty percent of the stat, that’s the boost?”

Red flicked her once.

“And when its more than one stat, does it halve the percentage? Like twenty five percent of each?”

Red answered affirmatively.

Isran sighed in relief, that was good to know. She wondered if she could upgrade red, the boosts were insanely good still but bigger is always better.

“Any other things?”

Red flicked her once.

Isran didn’t bother asking what other benefits the cape offered, she was tired and trying to communicate more would give her a headache.

Elysi walked up to her, a fire gem in one hand and food in the other. “Counting the rations we could stay for maybe two weeks before we ran out.”

Isran sighed, Red floated to Isran’s helmet and lay slack.

“Are you okay? Is the goblin blood still affecting you?”

“No.” Isran smiled, brushing some of Elysi’s fluffy white hair out of her face. It had become a little ashy considering they were in a dungeon for so long. “The hex lasted only a day, I’m fine.”

They stared into each other’s eyes. “I was so scared.”

Isran frowned and tilted her head. “Of what?”

Elysi sighed, leaning into Isran’s palm. “You almost died Isran. And I know it’s weird that I like so much, we barely know each other and it’s only been a month but when you fell… when Phaedra said you only had ten health points—”

Isran listened quietly, wiping the small tears that fell from her sheep girlfriend’s eyes. She did almost die. But they had been so busy afterwards that she hadn’t processed that fact.

“I’m so sorry I made you so worried.”

Elyis shook her head. “It’s not your fault.”

“I know… It won’t happen ever again.. I promise.”

Elysi laughed softly, still crying. “You can’t promise me that, there are so many people stronger than you, than me. What—when I sleep, I dream about what I would’ve done if you had died. I—I probably wouldn’t have survived a day after. They would’ve killed me too.”

“They were trying to save you.”

Elysi shook her head. “I would’ve tried to kill them.”

Her voice shook form crying but she sounded so sure.

“Do you care about me that much?”

Elysi frowned. “Of c—Yeah, yeah I do.”

Isran lay down, pulling Elysi onto the bed with her. She ran her hands through the smaller woman’s hair gently, her finger brushing against her horns.

“I will get stronger, both of us will, and I promise if you don’t want to come back to the dungeon I understand.”

Elysi was quiet for a while, sniffling. “I don’t think I could sleep knowing you’d be in the dungeon with strangers.”

“But—”

“Let me—let me be by your side Isran.”

Isran would argue the point more later. She shelved the feeling of dread rising in her as she thought about her near death. She tried to think about how she died the first time but she couldn’t remember. The memory was missing like several other memories from her past life.

Isran swallowed, she had no idea how stressed and beaten Elyis was truly feeling. Her girlfriend was so good at seeming fine. Isran hated how she couldn’t tell when Elysi was stressed or sad but Elysi could read her so well.

She had to be better. And maybe think more carefully about being an adventurer.