One Skill Short

Must Love Nugs

(Maven)

It had occurred to me that this was the first real time Drusilla and I had been present when Odessa closed a rift.

It was loud but there were no voices like there were when we played the game. I considered asking her but figured she would open up if it ever bothered her...unless she had already assumed it was natural and accepted it.

Today also appeared to be the first time we had really fought demons. It was mostly wraiths, but I heard Drusilla mutter something about how ' of course there aren't any demons here massively vulnerable to fire'.

I wasn't upset with her nearly as much as I was worried for her. I have seen how bad she got when she came home after even seeing a patient unresponsive (still dead) after something had gone wrong at the hospital and defibrillators had failed.

She would drink, cry until her eyes burned, throw up because she drank to much, and cry some more. That was not something we could have here, in this world. Drusilla would be too inconsolable. Too depressed.

She could become a danger to herself when she was like that.

Right now, we both mostly tried to avoid the Terror demon like our live depended on it. Until it came up from under Odessa and Drusilla's feet, and knocked them back as it screeched. I found myself running up, almost blindly, and stabbing the blades into it's back. I jerked my body downwards forcefully in an attempt to drag the daggers down further.

It turned its head around like an owl and let out its best impression of a banshee. The sound echoed through my skull and I tried to lower my head to behind or under my arms and shoulders.

Then I heard it.

"Maven! Get the fuck over here!" It was his voice. I stiffened, paralyzed by the sound of it. Noticing this, it threw me off of it with my daggers still in it's back. I stayed in my spot, unmoving as I stared at it and it stared back at me with it's giant maw of a face.

Until a raging fireball seemed to come out of nowhere and finish it off. It's body remained; a crispy husk before Drusilla slammed her foot on its head and crushed it to ash.

"Fuck you!" If her seething anger was anything to go by, she had heard it too. After a few more overkill stomps she rushed over to check on me, the look on her face haunted.

"You okay?" Drusilla began to frantically check me for wounds. I was only mildly aware she had remembered to bring my daggers back to me.

"I'm fine. Go, there's another wave coming. I'll shoot back my potion and jump back in. Avoid the terror."

"Only if you do." Then back into the fray she went. I wasn't actually in any pain but Adan had once mentioned that a sip of the potion could even lessen things like shock. I decided to assist Solas in handling the rage demon while she and Cole focused on the wraiths.

Drusilla and I shared a look, both of us all too happy to be done with the terror demons while also checking to see if the other was okay.

"Hey, Maven! Catch!" Odessa was waving something in the air before she all but pitched it at me. Thankfully, I caught the object before any part of it could catch me in the face. No good came of getting injured after a battle. It was an enchanted belt.

"Saw you get thrown earlier and remembered you don't have much in the way of enchanted stuff. I figured since Drusilla could heal herself you could use something that allowed you to do something similar." A leech belt then? Well, that's cool.

"Thank you." I smiled before sliding it through the loops at my waist.

"Can we just find the family of nugs now? I would really enjoy seeing a happy little family of nugs." Drusilla sighed as she walked ahead of us, certain that the fighting was over for now.