Frank woke up, disoriented. Thomas was nowhere to be seen, and Frank began panicking.

He hurried out of the tent, looking around frantically.

“Thomas?!” he called.

“Quiet!” Margaret hissed from where she crouched, cooking breakfast. “He’s meditating!”

“Where’s Marc?” Frank asked.

“Praying,” Margaret replied. “Did you two finally do it last night?”

“What? No!” Frank snapped.

Margaret chuckled as Frank blushed fiercely.

“You’re cute. I can see why Thomas likes you,” she said. “Bacon?”

Frank accepted the small plate and blew on the bacon strips to cool them down.

“You five have rather strange habits,” Jakni said, walking past them.

Frank shrugged at the man’s words and began eating the bacon.

“How do you know how to cook over a fire?” he asked.

“Probably the same way you can speak Draconic and Thomas knows which way to go,” Margaret replied.

Marc walked up to his wife.

“I have a summoning spell today,” he said, accepting the plate Margaret handed to him.

“Shouldn’t you focus on healing us?” Frank asked.

“Yeah, but if we’re going up against 300 kobolds, some extra bodies can’t hurt,” Marc replied. “The rest are healing spells.”

Garyn came bounding into the middle of the group, and Thomas came chasing after the wolf.

“Down!” he said, pointing to the ground.

Garyn stared at him, panting with his tongue out.

“I think he’s laughing at you,” Frank observed.

“I’m trying to do something here,” Thomas sighed.

He walked over to Garyn, and put pressure on Garyn’s rear, trying to push the wolf’s butt to the ground.

“Sit,” he said firmly.

The wolf took a step backwards and Thomas fell over.

Frank burst into laughter, and Logan poked his head out of his tent.

“Shut up!” the wizard yelled at them, before pulling his head back in.

Frank helped Thomas back to his feet, still chuckling.

“It’s not funny!” Thomas growled.

“The look on your face as you fell, oh my gods!” Margaret guffawed.

“Pack up, it’s almost time to go,” a young man called.

“Man, everyone here is so young,” Frank said.

“They all look like full-blooded adults to me,” Margaret shrugged, packing her cooking utensils into her bag.

“You’re a half-orc. You reached adulthood at 14,” Logan said, stepping out of his tent. “Which also means you’ll probably be the first to die of old age.”

“Okay, end of conversation,” Marc said, paling.

Frank and Thomas began taking down their tent as Garyn trotted around them. It took them around twenty minutes, but eventually, the tent was neatly stowed under Frank’s backpack.

“You have your spells, right?” Marc asked of Logan.

“Of course I do,” he scoffed.

“Anyone know how to make arrows and bolts? We’ll need some more soon,” Frank said, looking at his collection of twelve crossbow bolts that rattled loosely in their case.

“I’m pretty sure I could make you a bow, and maybe some arrows, but I am not so sure about the bolts,” Thomas said.

“Ooh! Could you make a composite longbow for me?” Margaret asked.

Thomas shrugged.

“I can try,” he said.

“Oh. Right. Sometime, we’ll have to talk about professions,” Margaret said. “We know that I’m an innkeeper, but we don’t know what you can do.”

They walked over to the horses, and Thomas led Collin over to Frank.

“Before you get on his back, I want you to pet him,” he said.

“W-what? Isn’t riding him bad enough?”

“I’m going to get you over your fear,” Thomas reminded him.

“Can we talk about this?” Frank asked shakily.

“We don’t have the time. Look, you’ve ridden on his back. Why are you afraid to touch him?”

Frank let out a huge sigh, and Thomas guided his hand to Collin’s side. The horse snorted loudly, and Frank yanked his hand away.

“Be nice Collin,” Thomas scolded the horse, before turning back to Frank. “Are you ready to get on?”

Frank shook his head.

“Come on. We need to get going you two,” Marc called to them.

“Fine,” Frank groaned, and he tried to pull himself onto Colin’s back.

It took a few tries, but eventually, he was seated with his arms tightly wrapped around Collin’s neck.

“Good job,” Thomas said, as he jumped up behind Frank.

Placing his arms around Frank, there were no words to describe how he felt. He was finally out of the closet, and he had a gorgeous boyfriend. And he had a wolf and a horse. What more could a man want?

Then the reason for the journey came rushing to the front of his mind, and he shuddered. Collin stopped, feeling Thomas’ shudder.

“Are you okay?” Frank asked, turning his head slightly.

“Yeah, I… I’m just thinking about what we are doing.”

“You mean the two of us-”

“No. We will be invading someone’s home later today,” Thomas said, gently nudging Collin with his feet.

“I don’t know if you heard, but the kobolds took a girl. We’re trying to get her back to her parents. I don’t want to kill either, but these creatures are evil Thomas.”

Marc trotted back towards them from the group.

“Are you two okay?” he asked.

“Just talking,” Thomas said glumly.

“Is it the kobolds?” Marc asked.

“Yeah,” Frank sighed.

“Thomas, I’m a follower of the god of Life. My whole being recoils from the thought of what we are about to do. But they took a girl. We need to take her back to her mother. The kobolds are not just going to give her back. We will need to fight, and we will need you to help us fight.”

“I will, but I don’t like it at all. They are part of the natural order, and every kobold we kill disturbs the natural world in some small way,” Thomas said.

“Wow. You’re very clerical today,” Frank observed, holding on for dear life as Thomas brought Collin to a trot, trying to catch up with the group.

The world darkened slightly, as the sun retreated behind a cloud, and Thomas heard someone cry out in pain.

The group stopped immediately, Jakni dismounting. As Thomas rejoined the group, he saw a man lying on the ground, blood flowing from a bruise above his eye.