I stared at Paz's character sheet and the awkward silence stretched on and on. My eyebrow began arching upward; her cheeks turned pink. My eyebrow raised higher; her embarrassed blush started burning crimson. My eyebrow was in danger of drifting off my forehead. "I guess it's gonna be quite some Talk about secrets, huh."
The entire top half of Paz's body was nearly glowing in the dark. She looked down, unable to meet my eyes and fidgeted with her fingernails. Her voice was barely a mousy whisper. "I know. Y-you know that I lo-" She swallowed and cleared her throat and collected herself. "Know how much I care about you?"
I took her hands in mine and whispered back. "Of course I know, baby. You know I feel the same way. Hells, I'm crazy about you. I'm trying to be patient, but the questions just keep piling up without answers."
Paz nodded and wrapped her arms around my waist as tears fell down her cheeks. I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her against me, resting my cheek against hers as my tears joined hers.
"Gods Above, save me from this lesbian drama! Maybe I should throw myself at the mercy of the slavers. It surely can't be as painful as following you two around." Jack physically shoved us back out of the tent and into the darkening night.
We took a moment to look around and get our bearings in the dark. Paz rubbed her hands together and then when she pulled them apart, three glittering and glowing little stars rested in her palm. She handed one to each of us.
"Very cool spell." I cradled the little magical trinket in my hands like a baby bird. Paz blushed and nodded.
"Just cover them when you need to not be seen." My sexy little ginger demonstrated by closing her hands around the star. Seeming to sense her intention, the light instantly winked out instead of spilling through her fingers, and then returned as soon as she opened her hands again.
We slowly followed Jack between tents, trying to be as sneaky as we could manage. He led us to a corner of a large tent. We peeked around and saw five men sitting around a campfire, drinking and laughing. An elf woman stood nearby, naked save for the metal collar around her neck and the chain leading from it to Christopher's lap. She was holding a tray with drinks and staring down at the ground, clearly wishing she could sink into the ground and disappear forever.
We pulled back from the edge and Paz's foot bumped into a precariously stacked pile of barrels; all of them full of metal collars and chains and some horseshoes. The top barrel tipped over and crashed onto the ground, and the metal chains scattering everywhere sounded like an invading army in the relative quiet of the night.
Heehee, she rolled a one on her stealth. I giggled to myself. Paz smacked my arm and gave me 'you'll pay for that later' eyes. Gods Above, had we been together so long that she could read my mind? She smacked me again and snorted contemptuously. We slipped the starlight into our pockets and then we were running, doing our best impression of Metal Gear Solid as we attempted to perform a stealthy sprint. We could hear the men shouting into the dark and asking each other about the calamitous noise.
Jack led us in a large circle and we came back around behind Christopher. Only one of the men remained by his side; we could hear the other three investigating the spilled chains and collars. We heard another thunderous crash and a shouted 'fuck' as another barrel was knocked off the pile. Whoever had stacked those barrels was going to get hell in the morning. We could hear more distant voices as other men around the camp were waking or sobering up enough to ask about the ongoing cluster-fuck.
Our blond guard slipped around and pressed the blade of his spear to the other man's throat as Paz and I both did similarly on either side of Christopher. "Hey fuck-face, remember me? I'm the tiny little thing and this sure isn't my cock pressed against your throat."
Christopher growled and sat up straighter in his chair. "What do you want, cock-sleeve?" Gross. So very gross. Was my world really this gross? I take no credit for these monsters. I didn't write slavers, and my villains were usually cartoony and melodramatic, not this scummy excuse for humanity who abused others every chance they could get and in as many ways as their lecherous minds could imagine.
"Nothing from you. I just wanted you to know who killed you, so you have something to think about on your way to the afterlife." He gurgled blood as I shoved my sword into his throat. Jack followed my lead and dispatched the other man. Paz grabbed the keys off his corpse along with the chained slave. Huh, no stomach queasiness that time. I feel like I should be concerned that I'm getting used to killing.
We slipped away from the bedlam and crept our way back to the slave cages. At the entrance, Jack peeled away in a different direction.
"You free the slaves and head east to that hill." He pointed to a hill in the distance that stood above the trees. "I'll make a distraction, grab my stuff and any supplies I can find, and meet you there. Then we can head to Vaqyn."
Paz and I nodded and moved toward the cages. The slave girl followed behind us. I glanced at her over my shoulder, and took a moment to look her over for injuries. She was pretty with light brown hair cropped short and hazel eyes that looked like they would sparkle once she was away from this place. She had some very nice curves, not thicc, she was still a recently freed slave, but she had a lot more meat on her than Paz or me. Of course, in our currently starved states, a scarecrow probably did too.
"So, what's your name?"
She bowed her head. "I am called Xena, Miss." I did a double take. Huh, I wonder if I could somehow turn her into a warrior princess.
"One could wish for better circumstances, but it's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Alexis and this is my girlfriend, Paz."
She turned and bowed to Paz as well. "A pleasure, Miss's Mistress." She turned back to me. "It will be my joy to serve you both until I journey to the next life."
Oh gods Below, not this wookie life debt shit.