3.30 – Early Camp

3.30 – Early Camp

Jordan's coughing and hacking session was even louder, this time, and Natalie winced as she watched their friends sleeping nearby. Nobody had woken. That was some sort of miracle. Her illusion had, once again, helped keep them safe. Natalie had gotten way too involved to have been capable of keeping quiet.

She sat there, surrounded by the eerie environment of the Wispwood, looking at her coughing friend, her wet, growing-soft dick, and the camp of her delving team, not a dozen feet away, who could have at any moment woken and seen Natalie slapping her hips into Jordan’s face.

That probably hadn’t been the greatest idea.

Cheeks heating, Natalie tucked her equipment away, then knelt down next to Jordan, who was still recovering. Natalie had gotten pretty enthusiastic at the end. Jordan had clearly not been fully able to handle it, for all that she’d reciprocated eagerly.

“Uh,” Natalie said. “Sorry about that, Jay.”

“Sorry?” Jordan asked between coughs and clearings of her throat. “You mean how you used my throat like an actual toy?”

“Um.”

“Though, it is,” Jordan said. “It is your toy. But I’m new to this, yeah?”

“Sorry,” she repeated, face blazing.

“It’s fine. That was fun.” More cleared throats. “Definitely not the best strategy for keeping quiet,” she glanced toward their friends, “but I like seeing you lose control.”

“Your turn?”

“No, that’s okay. Tonight was just for you.”

“Really?”

“I can wait till we’re not in the dungeon. We’re already pushing our luck.” Another glance. “The sound dampening was pretty good, but you were having some fun. What happened to having some restraint, like I told you?”

Natalie blushed. “When it’s you, I can’t help myself.” She really, genuinely didn’t stand a chance.

The response had a blush appearing on Jordan’s own cheeks. Natalie would have figured it would’ve been the violent throat-fucking and degrading talk that would have colored her friend’s cheeks, but apparently not—just a simple statement that Natalie couldn’t help herself around her.

“Well,” Jordan said. “Try harder, next time.”

“We should backtrack,” Ana said. “Get closer to the spawn-in point. So the monsters are weaker.”

“I think that’s smartest,” Natalie agreed, however much it grated her. Being sent backwards in progress was hard to swallow. “We especially need to find Liz a weapon.”

“I’m not awful casting with just my hands,” Liz grumbled, “but it’s not a strength of mine. This sucks.”

“Can you use orbs?” Ana asked.

Liz blinked in response. “Huh?”

“We need a healer more than a mage.”

“Oh.” Liz sent a panicked look around at the rest of the team, though why she was panicked Natalie didn’t wholly get. “I don’t want to take your weapon.”

“If it’s best for the team, then it’s what we should do.”

There was something amusing about how matter-of-fact Ana spoke. She wondered if there was some limit to it. Something she didn’t act rationally about.

“I’d feel awful,” Liz said, continuing to shoot looks to Natalie, Jordan, and Sofia. “Delves are as much for practice as anything. I shouldn’t take that from you.”

Ah. Natalie understood now. That was why Liz didn’t like the idea.

“I won’t have us with a crippled healer,” Ana said. She rummaged out the thick crystal orb from her weapon pouch, then passed it over to Liz. “It’s the logical choice to make.”

“Well ... if you’re sure ...” Liz seemed far from happy about the development. Natalie sympathized to some extent, though she did think Liz was being a little too empathetic. There was nothing wrong with leaning on a teammate for help. And Natalie had already made it clear that what happened yesterday wasn’t her fault, so if Liz had lingering guilt over that, then Natalie wasn’t afraid to set her straight for a second time.

“Besides,” Ana said. “I can cast with my hands. It’s not a specialty, as you said, but I’m not much worse, either.”

“That’s good, I guess,” Liz mumbled. “Thank you.”

At a serious nod from Ana, and the dark-haired girl returning to her meal, Liz sighed and tucked the orb to her side, then did the same.

Natalie didn’t think it was a big deal either way. She wouldn’t be reckless in today’s delve, but she did intend to set a good pace. And if the dungeon had any pity in its cold heart at all, then it would provide them a mage’s weapon to make up for thrusting Liz’s arch-nemesis straight into their lap, on their first delve of any note.

Though planning on the dungeon being nice ... that wasn’t usually a great idea.