Rema stood very still.
Four pairs of eyes stared at her.
Five, if one counted the sleeping mage currently face-planted into a pile of books.
The tavern had gone silent.
Dice stopped rolling.
Mugs paused mid-air.
Dinisio who was leaning back toppled over. He smoothly stood up and was besides Rema in an instant. His longbow and quivers forgotten on the table.
Flipping his silver hair to show his crimson eyes. He flashed his sharp canines, "My lady," he purred, voice smooth as velvet sin, "even if it were at the edge of the world, I would gladly accompany you."
Rema blinked.
"Actually," she said politely, clasping her hands, "I'm here to follow your group. If you don't mind."
Dinisio's grin widened his luminous skin basking in this delightful news.
"Even better. Why not follow me upstairs to my room so we may discuss such matters in a more.... private setting?" He said fluidly, taking her hand and leaned down to kiss it.
**ZZZT.**
A sharp electric discharge snapped through the air.
Dinisio convulsed.
Smoke curled from his fingertips.
He froze upright like a decorative statue.
Then tipped sideways.
*Thud.*
Rema gasped. "Are you alright?!"
Nika slammed her mug down, unaware that Dinisio was just zapped by a mysterious enchantment.
"I told you not to drink so much!" She stood, tall, toned, golden-skinned, tiger ears twitching atop her head. Black stripes trailed down her arms. Her twin blades rested against the table, metal humming faintly with enchantment.
A beastkin tigress.
Fierce.
Stunning.
And Dangerous.
"If you don't wake up tomorrow," she snapped, stomping to wake Dinisio multiple times, "I'm leaving you behind."
"You shouldn't do that I don't think he's alright..." Rema wanted to intervene.
A chair slid back smoothly.
"Ahaha… please don't mind him. He passes out from drinking too much all the time," Soren pulled out a seat for Rema. "Why don't you sit?"
Soren had a longsword at his waist and had this presence of a leader.
Behind him loomed a mountain.
"Gosh…" came a deep, awestruck rumble. "You're… very pretty."
Giano bent slightly to look at Rema.
He was enormous.
A goliath of a man, part stone, part bark, veins glowing faintly green like sap beneath granite skin. Moss clung to his shoulders. Tiny mushrooms sprouted on his head.
A gentle giant.
Currently blushing the color of damp clay.
Nika squinted. "Hey. You're sprouting mushrooms again. Pull yourself together!"
Giano gasped. "Oh! I'm so sorry! Excuse me!"
He stood abruptly and mugs toppled. The tavern shook for each of his creaking, hurried footsteps.
The tremor disturbed the final member. A pile of books shifted and a pale girl with ink-smudged fingers slowly sat up. Silver spectacles slid down her nose. Dark robes swallowed her small frame.
"Is it morning already…?" Milani yawned. She blinked at the new face. "Oh. Who is this?"
Soren happily made the introduction, "Milani, this is—" He paused and looked at the healer.
"What was your name again?"
"Aah— it's Rema."
"Right! Rema. And she's a healer. She said she wanted to join our party..."
Milani stood. Gaze at Rema as if she was human scanner.
Examining.
"You are of fae and elven lineage, yet your proportion is quite..." she stated calmly as she analyze Rema's hour-glass figure, she was particularly interested in Rema's ample bosom that was at her eye-level "How fascinating."
She nodded approvingly, then returned to her mountain of books.
"Honestly. I am surrounded by idiots." Nika pinched the bridge of her nose. "Hey! How many times have I told you, you can't just assume someone's species! Are you listening?!"
Milani was already reading again emersed in the mountain of books.
"Well it doesn't matter what your specie is, if you're a healer we actually do need one." Soren said trying to stir the chaotic conversation back to its proper course.
Rema clasped her hands nervously. "Great! I am a healer and I know basic healing spells."
Soren brightened instantly. "How lucky! We're on escort mission to bring the goods to the neighboring city and it's rather urgent so we have to make a short cut through the whispering forest. We are short of a healer and if you're willing, the reward is —"
**CLANG.**
A blade struck the floor between Soren's legs.
He froze. looked down and then very slowly looked up.
Nika gave him a smile. It was not the comforting kind, more like strained patience. "Leader," she said dangerously, "I hope you are not accepting a stranger's word at face value again and sharing all the details of the quest to a stranger and pay her an exorbitant amount right?"
Soren plastered on a smile, he knows very well Nika was always touchy when it comes to splitting the reward. "W-Well… healers are rare and to have one go with us through the whispering forest on such short notice is a miracle..."
Nika growled deeper, "Leader! Just because healers are rare doesn't mean her life is more valuable than ours. We equally put out necks on the line so an equal share is just." on the verge of tears from frustration she downed her mug of ale.
"Actually, I'm just in a hurry to get to the next town and you don't have to pay me..." Rema said but her voice was too soft for Soren and Nika to hear.
"What do you suggest we do? It's not like we can go without a healer..."
Nika slammed her mug down. "Of course we have to do it the old way!" she then turned to Rema a mischievous smile on her face "Listen here if you want a bigger share of the rewards money for the quest you have to prove to me you got what it takes."
"Like I said... I don't really need..." Rema attempted to say.
"Oh! I'd like in on this, last time you lost to me and I was able to get my new armor, I want to join!"
Nika said with a competitive glint in her eyes, "That was dumb luck Soren! I'll take you on this time!"
Soren happily clapped, "My my you have such a competitive spirit!"
Nika ordered "Innkeeper! A barrel of your finest ale!"
A Few Barrels Later
"Hey, Soren… are you sure about this? This feels sus-pi-sufish- suspicious.. " Nika slurred, cheeks flushed.
"What's there to think about?" Soren beamed, unable to open his eyes from his drunken state. "Like she said she's a healer and she's going the same way as us and we don't even have to pay her that much. Consider it a strategic companionship."
Rema hiccupped politely. "I actually don't need the money… "
"But I don't trust your judgement Soren! You know we never get a quest with such a high reward and they don't even mind that members of the party are non-human!"
"What are you talking about we've done many quest as a mixed-specie party"
"Yeah but the pay was always half! It's only you and Milani are too good for your own good to split it evenly with us non-humans. You know what I think you just like her cause she's got big boobs!" Nika said passionately, completely ignoring Rema.
Soren nodded solemnly his eyes still close, "I believe the right term is breasts Nika!"
"Are they really that big?" Rema said weighing one on each of her hand, giving each one a little squeeze.
"I-It's not like I care! I just don't want you getting scammed again, okay? Remember that idiot cleric who charged a gold coin per high-tier healing? Who even does that?!"
She lunged forward and wrapped the tall figure.
Soren, meanwhile, nodded sagely at his companion. "You know if you get this drunk you're quite cute Nika! I'm glad you look out for everyone in the party!"
Rema hiccupped again her cheeks flushed from the alcohol. "You two are quite close!" Very slowly… she turned her head from Nika to Soren. "But why are you so far apart?"
Nika was fiercely hugging a tavern broom, glaring up at its bristles. "Soren you got to take care of yourself better, got it? Why is your hair so stiff?"
Across the room, Soren had both hands on a potted fern. "And you," he said seriously to the plant, opening his eyes a bit, "You look a little green. Are you feeling unwell, Nika?"
The fern, tragically, remained silent, but you could almost hear the broom sigh with all the dust that fell from its head.
They were not sitting together.
They were not even facing each other.
They were on opposite sides of the tavern.
One passionately arguing with a broom thinking it was Soren.
The other consoling indoor foliage thinking it was Nika.
Rema lifted her mug chugging some more of the ale. "I'm glad you have each other, let's all be friends okay?"
"Geez! Stop being so cheesy like Soren, also Soren's mine so you can't have him got that!" Nika charged Rema practically saddling the broom at this point.
"You're so brave for confessing!" Rema said holding her cheeks feeling sparks of youthful love.
Nika narrowed her eyes, evaluating Rema. "I didn't confess nothing you hear me!"
"Alright I'll keep quite" Rema said shushing herself.
"No you're not suppose to keep quite you're the one whose confessing. Why you so eager to get to the next town! Are you running away from someone? or something?"
"No I'm not... I'm looking for CAT I told you remember she looks like this!" Rema pushed the parchment paper to Nika again.
"I don't buy it! Does this look like a cat to you?! I think a chicken drew this!" Nika slapped the poorly drawn sketch that Rema had drawn earlier. It looked like a round potato with triangle ears, sticks for legs and nine-wavy lines for a tail.
Rema's eyes watered, "I tried my best, does it not look like CAT to you?" she mumbled, red-faced.
Then she looked at Nika.
Softly.
Drunkenly.
"You know she's as cute as you."
Before anyone could react—
Rema leaned forward, wrapped her arms around Nika. Pulled her directly into her ample bosom and began petting her head. "There there… cat… I'm here now! Don't run away again okay? Why don't we go home now!"
Nika went rigid.
Her ears flattened.
"I am not a cat," she growled.
Her claws extended.
"I am a TIGER! a TIGER! How dare you use such charming tactics against me! You'll never get my gold! You'll never have Soren!"
She reached to scratch Rema then -
**ZZZZT.**
A blinding electric surge exploded outward. Nika flew backward. Crashed into the table and chairs scattered. Smoke rose gently from her hair.
Rema gasped. "CAT! CAT ARE YOU ALRIGHT?!"
Meanwhile Soren was busy watering the potted plant, "Don't worry Rema, Nika just gets a little clingy when she's drunk. Here Nika have some water to wash the alcohol away."
A few books slid and Milani slowly emerge from her mountain of books adjusting her crooked glasses with scholarly dignity that did not match the chaos around her.
She blinked once.
Twice.
Looked at the overturned tables. Soren watering the Inn's potted plant. The tigress beastkin being held by the elven fairy.
"…Is it morning already?" She rubbed her eyes and examined the parchment that fell on her head, the one Rema had sketched on earlier.
Milani tilted it here and there trying to discern what it was.
Her expression shifted.
Confusion.
Recognition.
Then her eyes widened.
Her fingers tightened on the parchment.
"…Wait."
Her voice dropped to a whisper.
"It can't be. Could this really be..."