As the battle came to a close, the trio made their way back to the town. Once they gave the all-clear, the Town Master came out of the bunker to greet them.

“Thank you all once again,” the old man bowed, nearly audibly creaking as he did. His staggered movements spoke to his age, the wrinkles on his face and hands only further supporting that fact. “I don’t know what we’d do without you. We’ll be sure to repay you!”

Gaspard shook his head, “No, no, it’s the least we can do. Your hospitality is more than enough,” he smiled.

The Town Master’s eyes drifted over to Za’Lia for a moment, a crease forming in his brow. Eleanor quickly took a step in front of her best friend, blocking his glare entirely.

Gaspard, probably noticing it too, cleared his throat, “Of course, we wouldn’t mind a free meal every so often,” he laughed.

“Oh, is that so,” the old man clapped, a smile returning to his face. “How about we have you two—erm, three, come over to Rockman Inn for some dinner? Everything on the house!”

Eleanor used every bit of her willpower to stop herself from yelling at the old man. It hadn’t flown passed her that he’d excluded Za’Lia the first time around. At the same time, Eleanor turned her eyes to Za’Lia.

“That’d be nice—” Gaspard started but was quickly interrupted by a small hand grabbing onto his. With a tug, Za’Lia pulled on Gaspard’s hand. It was light enough to where the Town Master couldn’t have seen it. With a smile, Gaspard continued, “—but we have some prior arrangements. And we really wouldn’t want to cause more trouble to all of you today.”

“I see,” the Town Master said, “Then we’ll extend the offer to some other day. Just keep in mind that your next meal at the Rockman Inn will be on the house,” he outstretched his hand.

Gaspard took it as he said, “Will do!” He forced a smile as he did.

With the battle won and the Town Master informed, the trio walked back through the broken streets and exited the small town.

Passing the gate, they let out a synchronized sigh of relief.

“There’s something about being suddenly thrust into a fight that really doesn’t feel good, huh,” Gaspard complained as he rolled his shoulders. His armor and green hair were stained red with blood. Noticing some of the red in his bangs, he pulled a piece of it down and, unsuccessfully, tried cleaning it off with his hand.

“It’s not like it’s that big of an issue for you. You’re always wearing that armor,” Eleanor snickered.

Unlike Gaspard, she didn’t like wearing heavy clothes all the time. The outfit she usually wore consisted of a brown dress and a white blouse. It was light, warm, and comfy. Unfortunately, with how sudden the call to action was, she had to wear that same outfit into the fight today, only layering some pieces of armor on top of that.

She looked down at herself and saw that not only her armor was covered in blood, but so was the dress she loved to wear.

“This is going to be a pain…” she mumbled, light pulling at her filthy clothes.

“Hey…while you’re at it…” Gaspard put a hand on her shoulder, “You wouldn't mind—”

“Clean your own damn clothes!” Eleanor cut him off.

Blood wasn’t terribly hard to clean from armor. But fabric? That was another story. It would take a long time to clean both hers and Za’Lia’s outfits, she wasn’t going to spend more time cleaning Gaspard’s too.

Speaking of which.

She turned to Za’Lia who was as silent as always. Her blue outfit exposed a lot more skin than Eleanor would’ve liked it to, but Za’Lia claimed it allowed her to move better, so there wasn’t much room for debate. Although the outfit didn’t concern Eleanor as much anymore, the fact that Za’Lia never wore armor definitely was a huge concern.

Either way, her outfit, like the other two, was covered in blood.

“I wonder why the Rings of Eternity were this far north,” Gaspard noted, snapping Eleanor out of her thoughts.

“It’s not that weird. In fact, it does line up with what happened,” she hesitated for a moment. “With what happened three years ago.”

Gaspard’s eyes went wide, “R-Right…Sorry for bringing that up,” he apologized.

“Come on, we don’t mind it. Did you forget that we fight people like them all the time?” Eleanor asked. Although she said that confidently, it wasn’t entirely a true statement.

“Hm…well either way,” He cleared his throat, “I hope this is a one-time occurrence. The last thing I want to do is deal with that group of weirdoes again.”

Eleanor huffed, “I don’t think we have a choice.”

At this point, they’d dealt with many different types of people. For as strong those in the Rings of Eternity were, their lackeys still didn’t match them three in strength. They could probably win every time in a one-on-one.

At least that’s what she liked to believe.

“Hmm,” Za’Lia mumbled, “Tired.” With a single word, she raised her arms towards Gaspard. And, like the doting father that he was, he scooped her off her feet and carried her on his back. Za’Lia dropped her head on his back, being careful not to hit him with her horns, and sat there like some little kid.

“She can walk by herself, you know?” Eleanor asked with crossed arms.

“But she’s tired.”

“We’re almost home, you know? You don’t have to baby her, you know?”

“You’re the last person I want to hear that from—you know?” he mockingly added.

With an elbow to the ribs, Gaspard yelped but continued carrying Za’Lia on his back.

Finally, reaching the log house by the sea, they entered the building. The stress was sapped from their bodies the moment the woodsy scent entered their nostrils.

The cabin was cozy but roomy. Immediately after entering the house was the living room, three chairs sat in front of the empty chimney, a large carpet giving the otherwise brown floor a red color. At the far back of the house was the kitchen with a dining table nearby.

When they’d first arrived there, the place had looked much blander and everything was targeted for a single person. The cabin had once belonged to a friend of Gaspard who apparently let him borrow the place while he was staying in that part of the country. Eleanor didn’t know much about who they were, but she hadn’t heard Gaspard talk about them ever since he explained that to them.

Gaspard lowered Za’Lia before stretching. “Go change your clothes. I’ll get dinner ready.”

“You change your clothes too!” Eleanor quickly fired back. “And take a bath, there’s no way you’re going to cook with blood all over you!”

“My uncle used to say that the blood gave the food a nice extra flavor—”

“No, that’s gross!”

He pursed his lips and looked up pensively, “Yeah, he was kind of known for that.”

Then why are you following after him, she wanted to ask but decided she should change her clothes quickly before the blood fully dried (Although she had a feeling that’d happened a while ago).

“Let’s go,” she grabbed Za’Lia and took her to the room at the far end to the left.

Closing the door behind her, Eleanor made sure the room was pitch black. The lack of windows helped, but she also checked the walls, door, and door frame for any light that could possibly leak through. After making sure there wasn’t a hint of light, she turned to Za’Lia.

“Okay, you can take the bandages off.”

On command, Za’Lia undid the white cloth wrapped a few times around her eyes. As soon as the last piece was removed, she opened her eyes, revealing their beautiful golden color.

Eleanor found it ironic that those eyes that bore a striking resemblance to the sun could never be seen during the day. That is unless Za’Lia risked losing her vision forever.

What cruel Goddess would let that be the case?  She wondered.

“Let’s get you clean,” Eleanor said as she began to undress her.