Gang of Weirdos

twelve - no you're getting mugged

(A/N: A bit less romance and a bit more action and banter, but ah well. Maybe next chapter. ;) Happy Valentine's Day, loves! - your fav muscle mommy)

When we made it back to camp in the morning, where Halsin and Shadowheart were already packing up, Shadowheart raised her eyebrows at me. I flushed and looked at the ground, finishing making my way over- Astarion in tow.

"What did you two get up to last night?" she asked, a knowing smile on her face. There was even a twinkle in Halsin's eyes as he assessed us, slinging his pack over his shoulders.

"Why, would you have liked to join, pet?" Astarion purred. Shadowheart's eyebrows immediately pushed together, and the nastiest look played over her face.

"I'd rather bed a dead cow than spend one night with you," she said, with more venom than necessary. Even I cringed back at the words. Astarion merely placed a hand over his heart, the back of his other hand across his forehead.

"You wound me," he sighed. "Alas, I shall never know the comfort of your warmth."

"And we'll be keeping it that way," Shadowheart chuckled. She nudged me with her shoulder, and we set off- Shadowheart badgering me with questions for every dirty detail. Halsin and Astarion kept a bit behind, making their own conversation.

I realized that with all Shadowheart knew about me, I didn't know much about her. She sighed and seemed anxious- but relented. She worshipped Shar, and dreamed of one day becoming a dark justiciar. Night orchids were her favorite flower.

"You'll have to point them out for me if we ever come across them," I said. She smiled at that.

"Oh, and- I'm afraid of wolves," she said with a sigh. She scratched the back of her neck, refusing to meet my gaze.

"We'll do our best to avoid them, in the future," I assured her. "Thank you for telling me." She looked at me out of the corner of her eye, a smile creeping back onto her face.

We made our way back to the beach where we had taken on the duergar, and then finally made it across the waters, though to my disappointment we were still not quite at moonrise towers- the infamous place we needed to reach in order to solve our worm problem. I was beginning to wonder if we would even actually find the answers to our problems there, as more and more problems seemed to keep popping up. For instance: there were duergar on a passing boat that we ended up having to slaughter, as they hadn't been happy to hear of their friends' passing. And now... there were even more of them.

They had no tadpoles in their heads, but something surged through anyway.

"You're one of them True Soul fuckers," the female duergar waiting for us at the docks said. "You lot owe us coin. Pay up." The daggers in her eyes- if looks could kill. Speaking of daggers, she had one at the ready- aimed at me. I exchanged glances with Astarion, Halsin, and Shadowheart.

"I'd sooner take your head than give you any money," I said, crossing my arms over my chest. The lady raised her hands up as her eyes widened.