The Axe Falls -CH30-

Nick leaned back from the hole and looked down into it.

While they hadn’t found a spring that they could directly tap into, which honestly sounded like a bad idea to Nick, they did find water.

Or a way to get water, that was.

At the bottom of the four foot hole they’d dug, water was filling.

He hadn’t expected it to actually work but he’d forgotten a simple reality.

They were at the bottom of an extremely deep hole. Digging at all was likely going to put them right into soil that had the possibility of being flooded with water.

It’d been more difficult than he’d expected, but not as terrible as he’d feared. They’d used broken masonry as digging tools, sparing them from digging with their hands.

“See, spring runs right under the dungeon. Probably deeper than I thought but… it’ll fill our little well,” Jessie said, peering over his shoulder and into the hole. “And it’s more than you and I could need. Not to mention it seems to be filling rather quickly.

“Just as I said. You made the dungeon get all wet and drippy just like you do me.

“Now all we have to do is find something to get the water out easy and boil it in. Your handy dandy fire spell will make that very simple. No need to burn firewood as a resource. Bucket it, boil it, drink it. One problem down.”

“One problem down,” Nick agreed then he chuckled to himself. Jessie had never once let up on the constant flow of chatter. More often than going right back into a conversation about sex, or sexual things. “Any reason you’re so directed at sex right now? You’re acting more like a horny teen after seeing a pretty girl for the first time.”

“But… I am horny? Women can be horny, Nicky. My people don’t see any shame in sex,” Jessie said and laid her somewhat dirty hands on his shoulders. “Sex is really normal. Why should we shy away from something everybody wants? Find a partner, and rock’em.

“Same thing with death or killing someone. It happens! A lot. It’s why I was kinda bummed when you said you might have to kill me, but it was also totally understandable.”

Jessie suddenly leaned down and kissed the side of his face.

“Now, do we move on to the next part of the plan? Cause I’m still down for you taking me to pound town,” said Jessie. “But I know you want to get us kinda safe and secure before you work at stuffing my insides up.”

Nick cleared his throat, nearly agreeing to throwing Jessie to the ground, then nodded his head.

“How’s your leg?” he asked.

While they’d dug, he’d spent a great deal of his mana simply casting heal on her over and over.

“Hm? Oh! All better. Fracture is totally gone or so the message told me,” said Jessie, her hands squeezing on his shoulders. “Thanks, my kingliest of kings who may lord over me as much as he wants. It’ll make fucking a lot more fun later since it doesn’t hurt at all now, too.”

“Right. Then let’s see about exploring a bit,” Nick murmured. “I’ve only been in this room, and the one I pulled you out of. The doorway over there is blocked but… we could probably try to dig through it later if we get a tool or two.”

“Yeah, I’ve seen as much as you have,” Jessie said. “That and the hole I was in where you found me. Well… I can’t see anything that matters fuck all in here. Just an empty room with the king of my cunny, our drinking hole, and that’s it.”

“King of your cunny, huh?” Nick said and then stood up. The Firebolt spell in his hand continue to burn as he held onto the magic. Jessie’s hands trailed down his back as he did so. His chain mail was all piled in the corner at the moment. He was in the padded clothing he wore under his armor.

“Well, yeah? Its yours now. I can’t give it to anyone else since I promised it to you to get me out of here,” said Jessie with a laugh. “I’m also your whatever-it-was so that makes it even more so. Kinda ended up becoming your Dark Elf Mistress or something. That’s fine, the title you gave me really pumped up my stats.

“That alone is worth letting you be the king of my cunny. That and it wiped out my crimes as well as the bounty on my head. Pretty fucking cool. And besides, it’s not like anyone else was lining up to try and rule over it.”

“Find that hard to believe considering how pretty you are,” Nick said and then started walking toward the second room. Where he’d found Jessie. “Which means its your personality that’s killing relationships.”

“Uh, dearest king o’mine. I’m a Dark Elf,” Jessie said, trailing along behind him. “Most men seem to think I’m going to cut their balls off and make a caprise salad out of them as the tomatoes. I can’t get laid without paying or threatening someone.

“Admittedly if I was back-home it’d be as easy as standing in the street and asking someone if I could tell the time by slapping two hands to their face but… I’m not home.”

Entering the room he found Jessie in, he found it was much the same. Most of it was filled with debris that’d come in from a collapsed point in the ceiling.

“Well, there’s my booty-hole,” Jessie said, walking past him and gesturing at where she’d been stuck. “Thanks against for saving me king Nicky. Obviously I would be dead otherwise.”

Walking past the pile of earth she walked out of view and to the other side.

“Oh, there’s a doorway. Let’s see if we have another room to our underground palace,” she said, followed by the sound of a door scraping open. “Hello? Anyone here?”

Nick was somewhat excited that there was a doorway. It meant there would be another place to go and explore. To look for resources.

Possibly escape this death-trap.

Coming around the far side he saw Jessie standing in the doorway. She wasn’t moving from that position and was holding rather still.

“Problem?” Nick asked softly.

Coming up behind Jessie he put a hand to the middle of her back, his other holding the Firebolt off to one side. He didn’t want to screw up what she could see.

“Corpse. Door on the far side of the room I think,” Jessie whispered, her head slowly tilting to one side. “Couple large rats eating it. I… don’t have any weapons. Without a short-blade I’m kinda not so useful. At least at fightin’.”

“Sounds like a job for me at the moment then,” Nick said.

“What, me or the rats?” Jessie asked with a chuckle.

“Har har,” Nick said then stepped into the room. Bringing his hand around in front of himself he saw what Jessie had talked about.

Not far away was a corpse that was split in the middle. The top half and it’s guts that were spilled out was what the two Ker sized rats were eating.

The bottom half was pushed up against a wall not too far away. Scattered throughout the area was the remains of what looked like a backpack and what had been in it.

Using his free hand, Nick called up Earth-shield and cast it upon himself. He felt the magical armor settle in place quickly.

Unfortunately the sudden flash of the spell was enough to cause the two rats to look at him.

Without much time to spare Nick targeted the nearer of the two and then cast Firebolt with his free hand. He needed to be able to see and throwing his only source of light away seemed idiotic.

With a flick of his wrist he cast the spell a second time as fast as he could before the first one had even landed. The rat he’d chosen had barely moved before the Firebolt struck it in the face.

Squealing in pain the greatly over-sized rodent charged Nick directly. At the same time the second one did as well.

Kinda wish we had doubled back for the armor but… the failure rate got higher after the promotion. Practically a coin flip, isn’t it?

“Indeed, Sire. The further along we go in that path, the harder it is to do so with armor being worn,” agreed Lucian.

With another blast of flame, the second Firebolt hit the rat. Nick formed and cast the third Firebolt spell. It didn’t seem like he was going to be able to drop one before they reached him.

Splashing over the rodent, the spell once against struck it directly in the face. This time, the rodent fell over. Collapsing in a heap.

Thankfully no window presented itself. Lucian was still doing a great job of keeping them down and away. They’d only get in his way and any experience he got from these things would be very small.

Given his lack of an appropriate weapon they were a problem. His level and technical skills, were far above them.

The fact that he could use magic on them was a blessing.

In a second after the first died, the second rat got to him. Biting into his thigh it bit deep into his flesh. Unfortunately it was also enough damage to cause the Firebolt spell he’d been building, as well as the one in his hand, to fizzle out entirely.

Dropping the room and everything into pitch blackness as both spells failed.

Cursing Nick brought up yet another Firebolt spell and tried targeting the rat blindly.

Only for the spell to once again fizzle out to nothing as it attacked him again. Biting him in halfway down his calf.

“Fucking, bullshit!” roared Nick who kicked out toward the rat with his booted foot.

He felt the furry body of the creature bounce away from the kick. It gave Nick just enough time to probably get another Firebolt spell up.

Doing so with both hands Nick froze as soon as he could see the room again.

Jessie had a small dagger buried in the rat’s skull. Twisting the weapon she jerked it free and then stood upright.

“I figured while you tanked up the little beasties I could go get this,” Jessie said, holding up the double-edged weapon. Then she set it down and made a little hand gesture at it. “It’s not great, but it’s not bad either. It’ll do just dandy for me so I can actually get some work done as needed. I’ll clean it before I do anything else with it.

“But hey! I’m super happy to have it. I was feelin’ kinda useless other than a bag for you to fill. Which even that was kinda useless since you said no.”

Jessie gave him a wide tooth grin at that and folded her arms in front of herself. Clearly she was waiting for a response from him.

“Hey, I didn’t say no. I said not right now,” Nick clarified, letting one of the Firebolt spells snuff itself out. “I’m very interested, remember? We’re just kinda busy and don’t have a good place to do that.”

“I mean, you can’t just heal my shoulders and back up, I don’t see why it’s an issue,” said Jessie with an angry frown on her face. Then she sighed and shrugged her shoulders. In the next moment she was starting to pick things up off the ground. “Whatever. We’ll see what happens when we get a chance for it. So far you’re a shit king of my cunny.”

“Trying to keep you, and therefore it, alive at the moment,” said Nick, feeling a little annoyed at this point. He didn’t actually think Jessie was angry at him rejecting her advances. “If it’ll make you feel better we’ll just do it like you said.”

“No! No, no, we’ll wait for a good time and place. Like you said,” Jessie said in something of a petulant voice. “Don’t go out of your way to do me. That’d be awful.”

Okay.

There’s some… baggage… there. Something to do with being rejected for sex maybe?

Mm, I’ll have to be more careful about it in the future.

“Sorry, poor choice of words,” Nick said and moved over toward the corpse. He could see a larger section of the dead man’s backpack not far away. It looked like it even had some gear still attached to it. “I really am interested. I do want to wait for the right time and place. It just sounds unpleasant to try and do something on the ground here. Promise.”

Jessie grunted and continued to pick up odds and ends from the ground.

As soon as Nick got closer to the torn backpack Nick realized what he was looking at.

A large sleeping roll, a pan of some sort, and a shattered egress crystal. There was also the remains and wrappers of what was likely food at some point. The rats had torn into it and gulped it all down.

“Well, Jessie, looks like you might get what you wanted sooner than I thought,” Nick said and started to work the bedroll off the remains of the backpack.

“Huh? Why’s ‘at?” she asked, standing up and looking to him. “Oooh! Bedroll! Perfect. We can cuddle up in that after you’re done doin’ the deed in me. Nice, nice.”

Snorting, Nick continued to pick at, collect, and go through what the dead man left behind. There wasn’t any equipment that would let Nick do his job, but there was a second dagger and both sheathes attached to the belt.

Jessie would at least be able to do her own job relatively well.

“What? I wanna fuck. It’ll help me dump some stress out while you pump yourself into me,” Jessie said almost defensively. “You’ll blow off some steam too through the process, realize I’m great at sex, then keep me close and safe. Works out for everyone. You’re just being dumb about it.”

“I mean… yeah, I probably am,” admitted Nick as he found a canteen. “I just really want to make sure we get out, Jess. That’s all.”

Looking to Jessie he wondered what she’d say. So far she was going off in wild directions that he honestly didn’t consider most of the time.

“I… okay. Yeah. Sorry. Horny, stressed out, nervous, and kinda just angry,” grumbled the thief. “You’re going to be my outlet for some of that until we get out of here.”

Nick felt an odd tickling at the back of his head. Hearing Jessie tell him that this arrangement was until they got out did reinforce to him that this was just sex.

Just as it was for Iris.

Which left him wondering where the Beast-kin was. He hadn’t seen hide nor hair of Claudia or Iris. To Nick that felt very wrong.

They were all standing so close together that they should have ended up nearby to one another.

“Well, maybe after we get out for a bit, too,” Jessie amended, catching his eyes and giving him a grin. “I might want to play Thief-Catcher for a bit. The title really is nice and if I have to pay with my body to keep it, that’s not terrible.”

Once again, Nick could only laugh. Jessie’s thought-process left him in the dust far too often for him to feel quite comfortable. It was odd for him considering how often he felt like he was out ahead of others in his willingness to accept things.

“Hey, hey, don’t laugh. What I’m selling? It’s totally worth the Thief-Catcher title by itself. Having to save me is a bargain all things considered,” said Jessie, pointing at him with a smile and a tilt of her head. “You’re gonna get some here in a little bit and then be begging me to stay in the bedroll with you and play slam ham.”

“I don’t doubt it,” said Nick as he considered pulling the leather armor off the dead man. Then decided against it. It didn’t look to be in complete condition and wouldn’t do them any good.

“We should take his armor, by the way. You start in on that for us,” Jessie said and scooped up the dagger she’d put down earlier. Then she pointed from the dead man to the rats with it. “We’ll use it for other things, just not armor. You’ll see. Along with his pants and boots. We’ll take and keep everything.

“The rats as well since that’ll be dinner for us. Probably breakfast too. Let’s get’em drained of the blood and prepped. Can’t waste the meat.

“For the blood… I can fry that up in that pan so… oh, just put it in the pan directly I guess. We’ll cook that up first with some of rat meat.

“We can’t just always just talk about having some lust and thrust as much as I would prefer it. Anyways, I’ll start in on the corpses.”

Huh. I guess having her as a partner in a survivor scenario isn’t that bad.

“If we we were with Claudia, Sire, we’d be responsible for the majority of everything,” Lucian said. “While I don’t quite like her attitude, or her in general, she’s useful at this moment in time.”

Nick did as she’d instructed and started working at getting the armor off the corpse.

“Oh! I found a magic lamp. That’s wonderful. You can recharge it later and we’ll use it as we need,” Jessie said. “I can’t imagine this core lasting for more than a month though. It’s looking pretty ragged.”