“Please tell me you can fix him up and we can get home before Noir starts another ‘I was a snake’ story,” Penelope whispered to Trixie as she looked over the stranger. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love a good story. We just have maybe heard a bit too much of it today.”

“Agreed,” Trixie said as she pulled her hair back up into a ponytail. “Mom never mentioned guys like him in her warnings.”

“You got warnings?”

“Usually along the lines of ‘the prettier he looks, the less work he does’. Nothing I’ve read or heard tells me how to talk to crazy.” She pulled out a pair of gloves and slid them onto her hands. She’d commissioned them for a perfect fit with the tailor, and then asked her mother to make a potion to soak them in so the gloves would make her diagnostic magic easier to handle. It took some doing, but now the gloves showed a screen similar to a god’s message with information rather than her head getting bombarded with information.

“And why a snake of all things?” Penelope asked with a small shiver that went all the way from the tips of her white boots all the way to the tips of her blond hair. “Creeps me out just thinking about it.” She glanced over her shoulder at the boys who were walking the edge of the field and ensuring no monsters would enter.

Trixie shrugged as her magic tried and failed to show what was wrong with the stranger. “Well, he’s not going to die right now,” she finally said, speaking up loud enough for the rest of the group to hear. “But it’s probably better not to move him just yet. I’m not sure what’s wrong with him. It’s too complicated for my magic, but I’m not getting a ‘dying’ alert either.” She cast a basic heal on him anyway, just to be safe.

“It’s not safe to move down the mountain right now even if he was awake,” Noir said. He pointed down toward the treeline where the sun was setting. “The field is blessed so we should be safe here, but the nightcrawlers will be coming out soon.”

Trixie’s face fell, and she even sniffled a little bit despite trying hard to hide her disappointment. It wasn’t just the bed or the food that was bothering her. It was the whole experience being so outside her comfort zone.

“None of us has a tent, or even a sleeping bag,” Tom pointed out, tactfully ignoring Trixie’s soft sounds even as he handed her some of his rations. “We weren’t expecting this to be an overnight trip.”

“Penelope can still light a fire for us,” Ash said. “That should keep us warm and add an extra layer of protection for anything that challenges the blessing. We should take turns sleeping, too. Just in case.” He lowered his quiver down and set his bag next to it.

“I’ll take first watch,” Noir offered. “I don’t like fire, so it’ll take me longer to sleep with it going anyway. I’ll keep an eye on the new guy too.”

That seemed to set everything in motion for the group. Penelope pointed out the places where good wood would be and Tom set his sword and shield aside to collect the dead pieces trees had shed before darkness fell. Trixie complained about sleeping with dead things as a pillow, and Ash found her a pile of fresh grass, laid his coat over it to smooth it out, and let her sleep there. Penelope stared the fire and laid down next to her, sharing Ash’s coat-pillow. Ash and Tom laid down on the opposite side of the fire, using Tom’s coat laid over his shield.

Noir sat down near the head of the stranger. He stuck his sword into the dirt point-first and then leaned against the hilt. Ash and their father (and the swordsmith) always complained about his sword habits, but Noir thought a thorn should be used the way the person knew best.

Noir was better at jabbing and smacking than he was at slashing and slicing.

It wasn’t long before the sky was dark and the soft snores of the others added to the melody of night noises. Noir found the sounds soothing and halfway familiar, and was half smiling as he looked up at the moon.

“You know, I haven’t always had the best of luck with humans,” Noir told the stranger. He kept his voice low so he didn’t disturb the others. Talking to himself helped him stay awake and alert, though, so he wasn’t going to stop unless someone complained. “Comes from being a tree, I guess. Things that matter to them don’t matter to me. What color a cloth is, or what kind of design it has, that’s just… frivolous. For the longest time I couldn’t even see, and then I didn’t see the same way people see. I could taste so much more as a snake it was overwhelming at times.

“Don’t tell them I told you that though.”

Noir sighed as he looked out. Honestly, having that much energy was tiring. It took a lot of effort.

Noir was proud of his past. He made no secret of the fact that he wanted to be a tree again, and he was going to tell everyone he could how great that future was. It was a future worth sharing.

The soft breaths of the others made a quiet lullaby behind him. “Everyone deserves the chance for a peaceful future, right?” he asked the stranger. “A future where they can take joy in living each day. I miss that life, and I don’t think it’s wrong to be angry it was taken from me. But to get it back I have to earn it. I’m only level ten. By the time I died as a snake I’d only made it to the thirties. I have no idea how to level all the way up to 100.”

“Sounds like you need to battle the demon lord,” the stranger muttered as he sat up. “Ugh, my head. What happened?”

Noir steadied the stranger and offered the man his own water. “We found you wandering up the mountain as we were going down.”

“That doesn’t sound like me.”

The man’s voice scratched and rasped like he’d eaten wood for breakfast and the splinters lodged in his throat. He didn’t feel like much of a threat, and as far as Noir could tell he wasn’t armed.

“Where am I?”

“We brought you to a blessed field until you woke up,” Noir explained. “You shouldn’t wander around while sleeping, you understand. Humans are pretty fragile over all. Any creature could have ended you. Even the bunnies.”

The man snorted. “The bunnies? I’d have to fall off my horse for them to reach my fingers. Still, I suppose you did help. So thank you for that.”

“My name is Noir.”

“I suspected as much,” the man grumbled. “The guild told me the five of you were up here. Never heard of such a ill-conceived, short-sighted, ham-fisted-“

“Sir?” Noir asked.

“-sorry excuse for a quest group in all my life.”

“My team is superior,” Noir growled. “We have my brother, who is an amazing archer, Penelope, who burns things to death-“

“Tom who is an apprentice at shield and sword techniques, Trixie who can handle basic first aid and shielding, and yourself. Noir. Who uses his sword like a club. Is there anything I missed?”

Noir felt his fist clench without his permission, and his teeth ground against each other like fangs wanting to gnash the man’s flesh. “Who are you?”

“Marty,” the man said simply. “And no it’s not short for anything. Not ‘Martin’, not ‘Marvis’, not ‘Marthalemew’ or whatever nonsense you think of. Marty. I’m the new vice guildmaster.”

Noir’s eye twitched. “You are not a magnificent anything,” he said bluntly.

“You say that to the man who rode his horse through all sorts of danger to find you on this mountain and find out why you were late!” Marty accused. “I am very considerate!”

“You’re the reason we’re late,” Ash grumbled as he sat up and rubbed at the back of his head. “Why are you being so loud? You’ll wake the girls.”

“He says he’s the new vice guildmaster,” Noir chuffed.

Ash let out a disbelieving “hunh” in a short puff of air. “He’s about as much of a guildmaster as I am. Leave him be,” Ash said. “I’m going back to sleep.”

Noir eyed the stranger as his brother turned over and folded the coat over for a bit more cushion between his ear and the shield. After a few minutes his curiosity finally won out over his anger and he asked: “What were you saying about a demon lord?”

“You want to reach level 100, right?” Marty asked.

Noir nodded solemnly.

“The demon lord is level 99. No one’s ever beaten him. Logically speaking if you want to be level 100 you have to beat monsters at level 99. Right?”

“Your words make sense, but I still don’t trust you,” Noir grumbled. “We’ll see what the guildmaster has to say.”

“Alright, that’s it,” Ash said with an angry grunt as he sat up again. “Noir, your turn to rest. I’m taking the next watch before this idiot puts fool ideas in your head that will get all of humanity killed.”

Noir frowned, but conceded the watch position to his brother. He’d never considered the demon lord as a target. Beings like that were beyond the skills of a single person. Usually entire countries sent armies to battle creatures of that level. As a snake he would have been an ant under the demon lord’s small toe. As a human… he might be a slightly bigger ant under the demon lord’s heel.

Being small was hard. Noir missed being as big as a tree.

========

Something to read while you wait?