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ladyazulina · 9 months

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Linney's Campaign

Masterpost - Campaign Page

🌸 Spring 1 🌸

Weather: Stormy ⛈️

Previous Part: Let's not get drenched anymore, please

Who's this?

Word Count: 2.386.

It was not a complete failure, despite arriving in the middle of a storm. This person, whatever their name is, was somewhat slightly helpful, guiding me to someone, Orion, in the valley, who could provide me with more information regarding the letter.

I hope so, because the truth is that I don't have any more leads… Or maybe I do, though it’s only just one, but I would feel a thousand times more comfortable if I don't have to use it.

“Well,” I look up at the woman behind the counter, “the good news is that he will be arriving soon…” She opens and closes her hands, excited.

“He?”

“The better news,” she points at me while she walks out, “is that I have an assortment of hot beverages to help with your inside freezing,” she stops at the end, drumming her long-nailed fingers against the surface, “how does it sound?” She hums.

“Oh,” I blink. “That really does sound good,” I murmur.

Her smile widens and she makes an arm gesture behind me. There are only a bunch of tall tables and reclining chairs, so I really hope I’m not misunderstanding this and that she does want me to sit down.

I take a few steps back to do so in the nearest chair and she doesn’t seem particularly displeased. I accommodate myself just a tiny bit.

“What’s your poison? Hot cocoa? Tea?”

I can’t help but smile at the hint of her own species.

“Hot cocoa, please.”

“It won’t take long,” she smiles, going back again towards that hallway, carrying the folded towel with her, “please get comfortable and try to rest. You will warm up pretty soon!”

She disappears under the arch and it’s like she took with her all the assurance. Should I just be sitting here quietly while feeling this cold inside? Shouldn’t I stand up and move and jump and try to get back the warmth the storm stole from me? The magicked towels and the light spheres are helping a lot with the outside part, but is on the inside the danger.

After days of traveling, with each step carrying its own obstacle, I reached my destination only to end like a popsicle?

“I’m baaaaack~”

I look at the scorpionkin woman wide-eyed. Am I losing the passing of time already?!

She’s smiling broadly, with a small circular tray that only has one wooden-like mug with a few marshmallows decorating the top in the exact middle between her hands. I’m feeling a little warmer just looking at it, and I haven’t caught sight of the steam yet.

“Did you rush it?”

She leans in so I don’t have to move to take the mug. It’s so warm to the touch that I don’t think, I bring it against my chest, as if the warmth is going to go through me directly to my frozen core. The sweet scent of the spices –not all precisely sweet if I’m not mistaken– envelopes me in a cozy embrace.

“How do you believe that?” She laughs softly, waving a hand while taking down the other with the empty tray, moving it behind her back to hold it there. So professional. “I left some water boiling when I went inside before, so I just had to finish the drink,” she smiles.

I nod a bit, bringing the mug to my lips to take a sip. It’s not precisely hot, and it warms its way right where the magical external warmth can’t reach. I sigh, delighted.

“Good, right?” She chuckles, going back to leave the tray on the counter.

“Uh…” A sudden thought makes me wrinkle my nose. “I don’t want to ask, but… is this cocoa also magicked?”

She turns to face me, her whole corporal language changing. I can see the guilt all over her face, on her slumped shoulders, on the intertwined hands behind her back, on her brushing the tip of her foot against the floor, and even in the slightest lean of her tail towards one of her shoulders.

She did it. She magicked my cocoa.

“Just a tiny bit,” she brings two fingers so close that almost touch.

Is that why I find it so delicious?

“We use that mix sometimes in winter,” she’s quick to explain herself, “I had a bit still stored. It serves a lot to warm quickly, especially if the cold isn’t on the outside,” she plays with her fingers, her eyes down. “You said you were freezing inside, so I thought it would fit like a glove,” she finishes in a murmur.

I just smile, surprising even to me. I can’t say it didn’t help.

“Thank you,” I bring the mug closer to take another sip.

“Aren’t you mad?” She looks up at me, surprised, and I let her see my smile.

“Not at all,” I shake my head. “I would have loved if you told me beforehand, but you meant well and did great.”

“Oh, my Serket! I’m so glad!” She hops around, clapping.

“You have to promise me!” I raise my voice, stretching one hand to point at her. She stops in her track immediately. “That you will let me know beforehand in the future.”

“Done!” She goes back to hop.

“Say it!” I insist, already fighting my smile, taking the mug with both hands again.

“I promise!” She sounds excited and I want to laugh.

“Say all the words!”

“I promise to let you know beforehand if I plan to magic your things in the future!”

I sigh, feeling like I can finally rest against the chair.

“Good,” I murmur. “That’s good.”

I don’t know if it took just seconds, but my eyelids close on their own and I guess that I lose track of time.

I know I have been drinking one little sip at a time.

I know that since the first one, I started, slowly but surely, to regain my own warmth.

I know that I probably nodded off. I don’t know, I didn’t leave the scorpionkin woman taking care of her things behind the counter.

Why haven’t we exchanged pleasantries yet?

I know that- A thunder rumbles, loud enough to make me jump in the chair but so far enough to have passed above our heads, just before the door opens. Though I look down almost instantly, relieved at the fact that I didn’t spill even a drop of what’s left of the cocoa on myself.

“Are you here already?~” The scorpionkin woman comes out from behind the counter in rhythmic hops, absolutely delighted.

But I’m not looking at the person at the door, rubbing his shoes against the entrance rug. I’m looking that, behind him, isn’t raining. Until a second before he closes the door, when the torrential splashes with force.

“You called,” his voice is so grave and deep that I have to look at him.

Have I gone crazy already or his voice feels warm?

“As if you came every time I call,” she sounds upset now, with her hands on her hips, but somehow her voice is farther from where she’s standing.

That guy is a demon. With blue skin, some red in his eye, one horn going around the side of his head, pointing slightly to the side from below his pointy ear. His wavy black hair brushes his jaw, covering his other eye… and maybe the fact that something else is missing there. I don’t see the matching horn and, somehow, I don’t feel like is lacking.

His lips curve in a snarl and his brows furrow and there, just there I can be sure that that’s his resting expression.

He’s prepared for the weather with a hoodie, long pants, and boots, though I don’t see an umbrella or something similar, his gloved hands are empty. Of course he didn’t bring anything, the rain stopped when he was out there.

… It did?

“Sweetie?” I blink, looking at the scorpionkin woman leaning in front of me, almost completely blocking my view of the demon, who’s also looking at me but with a raised brow. “Are you still here with us?”

“What did you give her?” He asks, barely a few steps away from the door, crossing his arms.

“Just cocoa,” she doesn’t look at him, moving her head just a little in his direction, “with a few drops of Cozy Inside.”

“To a human?” I see him raising an eyebrow again.

“They can handle it,” she searches in my face, “it was just a tiny bit.”

“I don’t see her handling it well.”

“Them,” I murmur.

The scorpionkin woman’s face lights up.

“What did she say?” He leans forward, not coming any closer.

“‘They say’,” she corrects him with pleasure, looking at me with a brilliant smile. “They’re probably feeling a lot better now, and it wasn’t too much, it’s not that they’re not handling it well,” she straightens. “It’s just that they went through a lot, they’re decompressing.”

The demon makes a face. “Why did you call me?”

“What’s your name?” I finally ask. I think I’m processing everything just a bit slower than normal, but working at a snail’s pace.

“You’re right!” The woman brings her hands together. “We didn’t introduce ourselves! I’m Leif,” she leans a bit again, her tail straight behind her, “and I’m the innkeeper, though I think you already know that. What’s your name?” She holds her hands, leaning to the side.

The demon snaps his tongue.

“Linney…”

“Linney,” she stretches both palms facing upward, “it’s a total pleasure to be your acquaintance.”

“Do you have to be that weird?” He exhales.

“That guy over there,” she points at him without breaking our gaze, “is our lovely, overly-friendly, neighborhood demon, Chase.” She turns to face him, frowning. “They’re Linney.”

He frowns too. “What do I-“ but she didn’t wait for him to finish, coming back to me. “-care…” He snorts.

“Chase is here for two reasons,” she explains to me, raising two fingers before lowering one. “The first one is because he’s our greatest Weather magician,” she nods, proud as if she’s the one she’s talking about. “The second one,” she brings back the second finger, “is that, besides being our greatest Weather magician, he also has an empty couch,” she moves a hand.

“What?” He barks.

As if that settles it.

“They need a place to stay, Chase,” she looks at him, sounding tired, “and you know I don’t have more rooms. You’re the only one I can think of that can make sure they don’t get wetter and have a place to crash,” he’s about to retort, but she rushes it, “at least until the storm passes.”

He swallows his answer and I look down at the rest of my cocoa –with no traces of marshmallows since a while– before I can cross glances with any of them. The mug is still warm. Magic, of course. And I finish drinking it down.

“We can look for another place for them to stay when we can all meet. Good enough for you?”

“Not even close,” he shows his pointy teeth.

Is that a fang?

I look at Leif, but her face’s so far away I can’t make her expression.

“Do we have a deal?” She repeats, adamant.

He growls. “Fine!”

And she melts right there and then.

“Ow! I knew I can count on you!” She gets closer to take his arm, but he dodges her and shows her his teeth.

“Don’t! Go to sleep,” he points to the hallway.

I blink, getting up, and she comes back to take the mug from my hand. “Were you sleeping?”

“Oh,” she waves her free hand. “I wish. This storm has wrecked my schedule…”

“I didn’t know the scorpions were a nocturnal species,” I take off the towel.

“We are,” she smiles at me, taking it too. “Not all of us, but the vast majority. Mine is.”

“It’s good to know,” I smile back.

“Are we going or not?” Chase barks, making me jump.

I look at him turning to the door and opening it, so I rush to the table by the back wall, putting quickly the socks and making the spheres come out by turning the boots to also put them on.

“Don’t be a devil and wait for them!” Leif shouts after him.

I get up and put everything back into the bag, taking as much care as possible at the same time. He can’t get too far away… right?

“I’m sorry, that’s who I am!”

He sounds far away already!

I reach the door in three strides but look back at Leif.

“Thank you so much for your kindness.”

At least for a second, she seems at a loss for words, though she recovers quickly.

“Thank you for your company. And don’t mind him, he’s not that bad!”

I sigh, wishing to be able to believe her. “We will see about that…”

I get out, closing the door behind me, and surprise myself noticing that it’s not raining. Again. I look up at the cloudy sky, the sound of the storm not so far until I find it falling on the buildings on the other side of the arch.

Weather magic, Leif called it.

And Chase is using only a bit of it to make his way rainless.

Definitely convenient…

“How much more are you going to stay there?” I hear him, seeing him close to a statue, which seems to be the center of a square.

He shakes his head, turning to continue walking past it. And I jump when I feel a few drops falling on me, not even looking up before running to try to catch him.

Try My Best! #2 Goal: Get to know my host! Act with… wits (+3) Action dice (1d6): 5 (+3) Action Score: 8 Challenge dice (2d10): 4 (✅) + 8 (❌) Result: Weak hit - I succeed but lose track of time. If this brings me closer towards fulfilling a promise, mark 1 tick on it. Then, Time Passes.

Time Passes #1 Whenever I lose track of time, mark 1 tick on the current day in the calendar. If this tick does not fill the box, envision how time got away from your character. If you spent quality time with a Townie, gain 1 favor with them. Then, continue playing. +1 favor with Leif.

Tagging: @aziz-reads

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