68: Snacks!

It didn’t take long for us to make it back to the house with Micca. Once inside, Liane quickly informed the others of what had happened.

 

I was surprised by their reaction—Hari and Jen both went to grab their weapons. Did they really think there might be a follow-up?

 

Hari also took the paperwork from Liane and, after going over it in detail, nodded.

“Good job getting this paperwork. If they try and pin anything else on him now, it won’t stick,” Hari said with a chuckle.

 

“I guess they thought there was no way an orphan would have this kind of money less than a month after leaving the city.”

 

He stored the paperwork but kept his weapon handy.

 

Micca, through all of this, had been silent. The sudden rush for weapons had even caused Crisplet to burst out of the fire, flames now dark red and looking quite intimidating.

 

“It’s okay, Crisplet—no one’s here to hurt us. This is Micca; she’s a friend, from the gates,” I said, gesturing toward her. After a quick burst of bright sparks, Crisplet slowly returned to the fire.

 

“Uh… sorry,” Micca began. “I should have said. The Lord’s men came looking for you shortly after you left—both at the inn and at my place. I didn’t know he was here.”

 

“It’s okay. I’m not thrilled about losing three gold, but if this means they have to leave me alone now, that’s good news,” I said, trying to stay positive.

 

“Well, they probably won’t give up that easily, honestly, Trev,” Jen said. “I imagine they’ll try to catch you alone at some point over the next couple of days. And if they’re particularly committed, they may try to use your friend here to get to you.”

 

She glanced at Micca, who looked genuinely shocked.

 

“Wait—me?” Micca asked.

 

“Pretty common tactic, honestly,” Liane said. “Take a friend or family member, tell the target they’ll be released if they come along quietly. And the nice person—who cares about their friends or family—always does.”

 

“It’s probably best you stay here instead of at the inn for a couple of days.”

 

“Wait—but what about my caravan?” Micca asked, worried now.

 

Hari just laughed. “That caravan won’t be heading to Boltron for a long time, unfortunately. And honestly, I’m not sure going there right now is the best move anyway.”

 

Liane finally spoke again, throwing her arms over the back of the chair as she sat down.

 

“Honestly, I don’t think they’ll try much here in the city. More adventurers stood up than I expected back at the inn. That was a significant show of force.”

 

She stretched her legs and smirked. “There’s a good chance he’ll run back to his Lord. Coming from a small town like that, they won’t have the resources to go against the Adventurers’ Guild. They’ll probably cut their losses.”

 

I looked at Micca apologetically.

 

“Sorry for getting you dragged in again.”

She just waved me off. “You’ve mentioned Boltron is a bad idea—twice now? What happened?” she asked, glancing between Hari and me.

 

Liane let out a snort of laughter. “Now that is a story to tell. Trev’s cat is starting wars with gods and dragons, and everything in between.”

 

That got a laugh from Milo and even a chuckle out of Jen.

 

“It’s not my cat!” I tried to protest, but was waved off—again. And Micca, it seemed, was all in. She turned straight to Liane for all the details.

 

What followed was a grand and thoroughly embellished retelling of events, including how I’d apparently befriended a continent-destroyer level beast and set it loose on a dragon, who broke free, destroyed half of Boltron, and was now fighting another dragon in the forest… who, somehow, was also my friend?

 

“None of what she just told you is true!” I said, trying to defend myself, but Micca only smirked, clearly enjoying every word.

 

“Well, it’s not far from the truth,” Hari added, looking contemplative from his chair.

 

“You do have a continent-destroyer level beast following you for snacks. It did attack the dragon. And the dragon did destroy a large portion of Boltron.”

 

Micca looked completely stunned.

 

“Wait—wait, wait…” she said, shaking her head. “You’re telling me most of that was true?”

 

“Yup,” Liane said, grinning wide.

 

We ended up chatting late into the night before most of us eventually turned in. It was decided there would be a watch tonight, just in case. I shared a room with Milo and Hari, while Micca stayed with Jen and Liane—so that there’d always be someone with each of us.

 

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Crisplet remained in the kitchen, still building something out of coals inside the fire. It looked to be a building of some sort.

 

Tomorrow was going to be a lazy day. I’d mostly just be cooking—which sounded amazing.

 

We’d all agreed to skip shopping today, and Jen had volunteered to go out and buy a bunch of apples and maybe some melons so I could practise carving runes. The other thing I wanted to try was starting the sugar cane juice… though I still wasn’t entirely sure what I’d do with it yet, so it was more of a maybe.

 

I woke up early the next morning and decided to get straight to work. With Micca back, I really wanted to make her pancakes—to show her how far I’d come. Now that we were back in town, I could be a little more generous with ingredients too. Plus, I was pretty sure she’d never tasted Dilwater berries before.

 

After saying good morning to Crisplet, I noticed he’d continued building what now looked like a grand manor made of coal. The door was missing, and it was large enough for Crisplet to move in and out.

 

It was genuinely impressive.

 

“That looks amazing, Crisplet!” I said, noticing the small details etched into the coal. He had really gone all out. I got a burst of sparks in response.

 

“I’m going to cook breakfast now,” I added, pulling out the ingredients I needed. I mixed the flour, egg, milk, and sugar into a smooth batter, then pulled out my pan and melted butter in the bottom.

 

By the time everyone had gathered in the dining room, I had a large stack of pancakes ready. I’d set out honey, a bowl of mixed fruit, and some butter for people to help themselves.

 

Once again, breakfast was a big success. Turns out Micca had a sweet tooth too—she didn’t even question the Dilwater berries after Jen pointed them out.

 

Hari and Jen decided to go shopping that day, while Milo and Liane opted to stay behind. Milo wanted to continue his studies, and I had a feeling Liane just wanted to eat whatever I cooked. Micca also stayed—none of us really trusted that Simon wouldn’t try something again.

 

Next on my list was prepping another Drake steak for the cat. I didn’t know exactly what to pair it with this time, so I sliced off a giant steak around the same size as before. I made several pockets in the meat and filled them with onion, garlic grass, sliced tubers, some Virfolium, and a couple of Blood Tears. I made sure to keep some ingredients aside for future snacks too.

 

I didn’t use the Dawnroot this time, but I did shave off a little Mana Truffle and tucked it into the filling.