131: Past

Coral looked at Wyatt with wide eyes. “You’re feeling what I’m feeling, right? What do you mean, it’s Lily?”

Wyatt shook his head. “It’s her name, Lily. Anyway, let me make some introductions. Coral, you obviously know Hari and his team, but they have a new member now—his name is Trevor.”

Wyatt pointed at me. “And Lily is his guardian of sorts. Also, the fire elemental in the fireplace there is his companion.”

Liane spoke up. “Crisplet.”

Wyatt quickly corrected himself. “Right—Crisplet. Then you have Micca, George and Darren. They are on their way to the capital to start a new business. Oh! We need to come up with one hundred and twenty gold for a new roof decoration.”

Milo chuckled, “One hundred and ninety gold.”

Wyatt waved him off. Coral just looked bewildered by everything.

Suddenly she shot to her feet. “Everyone downstairs! The whole town will be up in arms; they think you’re under attack or dead!”

“Don’t worry about that. I made everyone leave except the two groups staying here tonight—we’re closed at the moment. You’ve been unconscious for a little while now,” Wyatt said with a chuckle.

Coral shook her head. “No, you don’t understand. Several adventurers ran off to the guild for help, saying that only a powerful beast could have that aura, and they went to get help.”

Almost prophetically, there was a loud knocking heard downstairs.

Wyatt sighed. “Wait here. I’ll deal with it.”

While he was gone, Coral sat looking worried at the staircase as Micca came over to sit next to me.

“Tomorrow, you’re coming shopping with me, okay?” she whispered.

I nodded—I was really excited about it.

Voices from downstairs filtered up. “As you can see, nothing is happening; we’re all alive. Now please leave,” Wyatt could be heard saying.

The noise caught Lily’s attention, who looked up from where she was lying at the fireplace, causing Coral to squeak in fright.

Hari gently patted her on the shoulder. “Relax, she won’t hurt you.”

A moment later there was the slamming of a door, followed by heavy footsteps coming up the stairs.

Wyatt appeared, looking annoyed. “Bloody adventurers—always so willing to throw themselves into danger,” he muttered.

But almost like a lantern had been turned on, a smile broke across his face as he got to the top. “Alright, they’ve left us alone for now. Just how powerful is that aura of hers?”

Liane laughed. “Lily had half of Grey Rock frozen in fear or passed out when she thought Trev got hurt—that was really something. Even the people in the adventurer’s guild were dropping to the floor from two levels down.”

Wyatt fell onto his chair, shaking his head, while Coral still looked bewildered.

“Now, you lot will be wanting rooms, I gather?” he asked.

The mood lightened almost immediately. Lily even laid back down.

“Sure will—rooms, baths, food, and plenty of ale!” Hari said loudly.

Jen, Micca and Liane’s eyes all lit up at the mention of baths.

“Right. Coral, if you want to show the girls to the baths, I’ll show the rest where they can find their rooms.” Wyatt instructed, snapping Coral out of her bewildered state.

The rest of the night passed in a blur of food, cleaning, and tales of our adventure so far. He even got an entire roast boar for Lily! She wasn’t overly quick to eat it, which further reinforced my belief she was just very picky and preferred my cooking, but she ate it all the same before vanishing.

Well—her presence was still there. I found her later that night when I went to my room and she was already asleep on the bed, which made me realise that regardless of the bed size so far, she was still taking up the entire bed.

Was that intentional?

One of my favourite tales I heard Hari started his adventuring career in Wyatt’s party. Hearing how he began as a prim and proper son of a noble was really unexpected. Then there was the tale where their group was walking through the swamplands, only for Hari to fall prey to one of the mud worms which inhabit the area—stepping right into its trap.

“Was it the same type of mud that Milo fell into?” I asked.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Both Liane and Jen nodded. “One and the same! Hari was telling us about this very tale that same day,” they laughed.

I couldn’t help but notice a couple of things. We had been told that Hari had been kicked out of home, and now tonight I’d heard he was a son of a noble. I was really curious about that, but it didn’t feel like the right time.

Saying goodnight to everyone and heading upstairs to my room, I stared at Lily on my bed… I had a dilemma. I could squeeze onto the small section of bed left next to her, or I could set up the bedroll on the floor.

The decision was quickly reached—I would not be giving up a comfy bed to Lily!

Lily left me the tiniest section of the bed. I knew she was doing it intentionally, because normally you couldn’t touch her unless she wanted you to—otherwise you’d pass straight through her smokey shadow form.

But this time—this time she was solid the entire night.

***

I woke up the next morning half hanging off the bed with a knock on the door.