Chapter 1915 A Bit of Morning Panic
Chapter 1915: Chapter 1915 A Bit of Morning Panic
— Kat —
Kat continued doing random jobs until just after midnight, after which she headed over to Grandma’s house and just waited around for her to wake up. It was a bit awkward, but it prevented her from being late. Grandma just opened the door, and casually chucked a bag of orbs at her when she was finished for the night.
Kat was ready to walk away when she paused mid-step. “Wait… while I do trust that you paid me properly… how do you know what jobs I even did? You had that bag ready and threw it at me before I so much as twitched in your direction.”
“Let an old woman keep her secrets,” answered Grandma with a grin.
Kat frowned but simply nodded at the old woman and headed back to the mayor’s house. It was only once she was settling in for the night that she decided to quickly check how many orbs she’d ended up with… and it was around thirty. *Shit. That’s a LOT of orbs for only a few hours’ worth of work. Guess we’re safe to hammer on this quest for Weaver without too much worry…*
Kat shook the thought away and ducked into the shower before slipping into bed. Lily was curled up in Memphis form just below one of the pillows and Kat happily transferred her sleeping girlfriend from the bed to her stomach and then pulled up the covers. Lily seemed happy with this, but what she was getting from the link was a jumbled mess, but Lily did seem happy with whatever it was so Kat was sure it was fine.
Kat managed to sleep easily and from her perspective it was soon morning. Getting up, she made her way to a nearby spot she could hear pacing with Lily in her arms. Her girlfriend was still happily sleeping and completely unphased by Kat getting up. When Kat peaked outside into the hall she saw Hedera pacing. “What’s wrong?”
Hedera screamed at Kat’s sudden appearance, jumping and slamming into the wall… causing a nearby vase full of flowers to rock and topple over. Hedera’s eyes went wide as Kat’s tail lashed out and encircled the vase. “You alright?” asked Kat.
Hedera, seeing the vase was caught, put a hand over her heart and breathed in and out deeply a few times to calm her racing heart. “Yeah… yeah… sorry…” mumbled Hedera.
“Hey it’s fine… what were you worried about before?” asked Kat as she gently placed the vase back where it was.
“Oh… um… well I was worried about a few things but one of them was where you were. I didn’t know… um… before obviously. I didn’t think I’d be awake so early either,” Hedera said shakily. Kat shrugged at the statement, not even knowing what time it was. “So… yeah I didn’t know if I should go and talk to the maids to see about breakfast or if that would be presumptuous or if I should wake you or if you were even here or if you’d just worked through the night… and well I was working myself up into a frenzy a bit…”
Kat placed a, hopefully, calming hand on Hedera’s shoulder. “Well considering you promised to visit Weaver I imagine we should go see her for breakfast. As for everything else? I wouldn’t worry too much about it… though saying that isn’t too helpful. Um… what was winding you up so much? It seemed like you were getting better compared to when we first ran into you,”
Hedera shook her head, “Sleeping in a new place, dealing with so many new people. Also not having you or Lily around made me a bit worried about our deal. Stuff like that. Trying not to ramble too much about it,”
“Ah…” Kat mumbled. *Not really sure how to fix that. I mean… we could sleep in the same room? But I just had a good… however many hours of sleep and I don’t know when I’m going to do that next. I don’t know if I’ll always or even often want to leave Lily behind to stay with Hedera. Hmm…* “Not sure what to suggest for that…”
“I’m sure I’ll get used to it. Normally when I’m in new places my team is around so it’s less of a worry. I’m sure after we’ve been teamed up for another few days I’ll start to not worry as much…” admitted Hedera.
Kat raised an eyebrow at the statement. *You say that but didn’t we agree to be on a time limit for our deal? Don’t get me wrong, I’ll probably be happy to extend it… but that doesn’t seem to even be a concern right now. Does she remember? Should I remind her? What would be less likely to cause issues?*
Kat decided to keep her mouth shut. In the best case scenario it wouldn’t be a problem, and in the worst case it wouldn’t be a problem right now. “So… want to head to see Weaver for a bit? Say goodbye to the mayor first? What’s the plan here?”
“I think we see Weaver, then say goodbye to the mayor after that then leave,” offered Hedera.
“Sounds good,” agreed Kat. With that all confirmed, they did as outlined. The breakfast with Weaver was a small affair, and Kat did take a detour to pick up some baked goods. It cost a few orbs but after the massive windfall she received overnight it was basically nothing. Even with the bread she still had enough to cover the night for both of them.
Nothing new really came up. Weaver was a bit worried about them, but she wasn’t going to change plans. Trusting that Kat and Hedera knew enough about what they were doing to be safe. The mayor was similar… in that he basically just said hello, wished them luck, and then let them head off without anything more. Kat thought there was meant to be a map or something… but apparently not.
Afterwards as they started to leave the town behind Kat asked, “Do you want me to carry you? And if so, want to fly or run?”
“Um… what’s faster?” asked Hedera.
“Running is faster, especially in a straight line… but you can find that straight line a lot easier when you’re flying. I don’t know how many things we’re going to run into along the way. It’s also not entirely safe in the air but if you’ve got your bow out I’m not sure how worried we’d need to be. I’m a bit lacking in ranged options myself, but between you and Lily it will be less of a concern,” explained Kat.
“Ah…” Hedera chewed on her lip for a few moments as she hopped over a root. “I think I’m good with sticking to the ground… at least for now anyway,”
“Perfectly fine,” said Kat with a nod before speeding up slightly. Hedera frowned at that but sped up to match Kat. From there, Kat started to ramp her speed up slowly, keeping Hedera in mind but the elf didn’t have any issues keeping up. Kat did keep a bit below her technical limit, because she didn’t quite think Hedera could match that.
The only exception was on the odd occasion where Kat noticed an orb, or something that might be one. She’d stop to check it out before sprinting back to Hedera. The elf did stop the first time, but when Kat insisted, she not worry, Hedera simply pointed the areas out as they passed through the forest.
There were a few ’fights’ if they could even be called that. The monsters they encountered were nothing drastic and one blow from Kat or one well placed arrow from Hedera was more than enough to deal with the threat. The closest to a ’problem’ any of them became was when a bunch of mushrooms jumped up to attack all at once but a bit of demonic fire cleared them all out fairly safely. They weren’t terribly strong either because they froze just about instantly with only a touch of fire.
As they got closer to the mist wall… it seemed to move further away, or rather it stayed ’in place’ making it seem like they weren’t going anywhere. Despite the fact they were definitely trekking in the same direction. Kat even started to leave notable marks on the mushrooms they passed. Despite this, they never repeated. Unless the mushrooms were rapidly regenerating from the demonic fire application they just weren’t getting much closer.
Kat was tempted to start flying to eventually check things out… only for them to suddenly hit the wall around lunch time. The wall was just… suddenly right there. Instead of slowly getting closer, it was as if they’d made it to their destination after just a few extra steps. Strange… but nothing too weird with Thyme building the island.
“So… guess we all just press a hand against it? Do we do that one at a time?” asked Kat.
“Yes… I think so. If it’s under an hour the others probably shouldn’t bother. Plus, Lily should see if she counts,” offered Hedera.
“Sounds good,” agreed Kat.