40 Debt is Unavoidable

BestMarked_Flower: The 1,000th daughter of New Atlantis is single and Myyx and I decided she should be a prime target! I don't like being so poor, there's pretty things to buy out there and she's rich!

SheShellsSheaShells: I looked her up, a mermaid with some curse or something? Anyway, I can make our money without help, honey. Plus, we've already got a mermaid!

BestMarked_Flower: Abandon that male pride, join the gold diggers club! And Odd, uhh, since when did you have a mermaid? You've only got Myyx and I.

SheShellsSheaShells: I'm glad you have faith in my ability to get rich... Anyway, I'm using her phone, duh. It just hasn't happened yet.

BestMarked_Flower: Darling, it'll never happen. Even Myyx agrees with me.

SheShellsSheaShells: Of course it will! And when did Myyx agree with you?

BestMarked_Flower: You don't even like her anymore! Myyx called me, saying that she watches how annoyed you get with her!

SheShellsSheaShells: I do, how did she get a phone, and don't say things like that! (She can see these messages!)

BestMarked_Flower: Odd, Myyx is like a hundred years old. Maybe even several centuries. Why wouldn't she have some wealth tucked away? And I doubt Sophia wouldn't care that you're no longer crushing on her like that.

SheShellsSheaShells: Hundreds of years old, money? Do you think she could help pay off this debt to Sophia? And why didn't she help out her harem sister in buying a phone in the first place? Or her man?!?

BestMarked_Flower: Keeerch, I- chhhhh, losing... chhh -ception. keeerch.

SheShellsSheaShells: That's not how losing reception works, babe.

BestMarked_Flower: Really? How am I supposed to do it then?

-conversation between Odd Meirvere and Cirrha, before Odd ran into the shark-themed bandits, 2109 FE

******************************************************

Trafaul groaned as he struggled to stand up. Somehow, the swirly in the waterways had sucked him down and threw him into some underwater cave. He couldn't really tell if he had lost consciousness, because it was such a blur after he got shocked by Odd's magic.

"What was that?" he muttered to himself. It was the most painful experience of his life.

Blinking and cracking his knuckles, he let the stale air enter his variable gills. Trafaul had no clue how far underground he was, but the lack of air flow was discouraging.

In front of him was a frothing pool of water. He turned behind him and saw a tunnel that started upwards, towards the surface. The entire area was adorned with strange, fist-sized, glowing, purple gems that lit up the passageway. He felt a little dumb for it taking so long to realize he could see despite how alone and lost he was. It wasn't like he had night vision, so it could be a lot worse.

"Hello?" he echoed loudly, without a sense of danger. "Anyone there?"

Then he saw a pale bodied Gob that had been beside him the entire time. Odd!

The creature was on the ground, sprawled on his side, but his hands were tightly clenching his black-bladed daggers.

"Rigor mortis? You can't be dead and leaving me here all alone!" Trafaul yelled as he grabbed Odd's shoulders and turned him face up. He rested his head on the bodies chest and felt...

A heartbeat!

"What do I do, what do I do?" he muttered. However, he didn't freak out and panic because Trafaul was an optimistic individual. He immediately recalled an article he read online about surface dwellers.

Trafaul laced his hands on top of each other, placed them on Odd's sternum, and moved them down a little before he pressed down with a decent amount of pressure.

"One, two, three..."

He counted out loud as he pushed. Was it five compressions? Fifteen? Thirty? He couldn't remember!

"Five..."

Mine as well keep going. Trafaul felt that five just wasn't enough.

"Twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen. That shoooould be enough."

Trafaul removed his hands from Odd's chest, lifted up his head to make sure his airways were clear before he leaned down on top of him.

Only to feel a sharp cut form on his neck.

"What the fuck. Are you doing?"

Trafaul smiled and pulled back, "Thank the seas you're alright. I was just doing CPR to help you!"

"CPR?" Odd cocked his head. He hadn't pulled his dagger back yet. The Gob looked ready to strike at a moments notice. No wonder the king's daughter let him join their group, that look in those cold, grey eyes was scary as hell!

"Of course. I read it online. Its a good technique to help surface dwellers get water out of their lungs!"

Odd's dagger started to crackle with black energy. Is that yin lightning? Where did this guy come from?!

"I traveled with you for almost a week, right?" he calmly stated while he shifted the dagger in his left hand to a reverse grip while the one in his right seemed to inch towards Trafaul with it's malevolent magic.

The fishman nodded his head. Where was Odd going with this?

"I slept underwater with your group."

Trafaul nodded again.

"And you thought water in my lungs would be a problem?"

"You're a surface dweller, so yea. Where are you going with this? And can you please stop making such a face? Personally, I'm more than a little irritated on how you killed people that were going to change to our side, but I'm not freaking out on you!"

The Gob scoffed, flipped his daggers as he sheathed them and muttered some homophobic curses under his breath.

Trafaul wasn't an idiot and knew what he was talking about, but he thought his friend was blowing everything out of proportion.

A growl came from Odd's chest and the Gob reached for his pouch, but it was empty.

"I guess you don't have any Power Stones then," Odd exclaimed. "And I wonder how the bandit got separated from us, I remember grabbing onto him."

"Oh, I was being swept away so I grabbed onto you to keep you safe," he remarked.

"Right, whatever," Odd turned to head up the tunnel.

Maybe he was irritable because he was hungry? That's understandable, but Trafaul had his own thoughts on where to go though.

"Just because it goes up, doesn't mean it leads to the surface. Don't you think we should go back the way we came?"

Odd shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly, "Maybe, or it could be worse. At least this way, we know we're making constant progress. Plus, we were thrown by a current, I don't exactly have fins."

"But," Trafaul bit his lip. "I got captured while travelling through tunnels. They aren't my favorite thing.

"I thought you got caught while trying to convince a hobgoblin to be friends?"

Trafaul coughed, slightly embarrassed. "The last time, yes, but I convinced a few to evolve better the last time I was captured. It wasn't so bad."

Odd rolled his eyes. They kept walking up the tunnel in silence.

"Don't you think we should wait and call for help?"

"You don't even wear clothes, are you telling me you have a phone hidden on you?"

He never did wear clothes. His package acted a lot like a whale's does, so he never found the need to wear pants for modesty's sake.

Trafaul reached towards his wrist out of a habit, but found nothing, "My wallet/phone combo was taken when I was captured, so nope. Don't you have Sophia's? I saw you borrowing it before the attack."

"Fuck," Odd halted his steps for a moment before he carried on. "She'll make me pay for that too."

"So can you call for help then?"

Confused, Trafaul watched Odd growl, hit him with a glare, and then he shot a bolt of yin lightning at one of the gems. They both watched it dim a bit after his attack. It only took a breath before it lit up to full strength. Odd had a curious expression on his face.

"Are you sure you aren't a Goblin?" Odd asked him.

"Huh? What's that got to do with anything. You're the one attacking rocks at random."

"I just feel like I'm surrounded by the people I was born around," Odd trailed off, shaking his head sideways. "And I hit the rock to test it. Rocks don't just light up randomly."

Trafaul thought that he just wanted to hit him with the lightning, but took it out on another target at the last moment. Gobs are so violent, but Odd is a good sort. With the right amount of help, he'll turn into an elf or something nice when he hits tier 3.

He sounded tired on top of his hunger. Maybe getting stuck in the cave was stressing him out too, but its not like Gobs were the most stable in general. Thankfully, Trafaul was here to help his new friend. Not only was it his duty to help the denizens of the planet, but it was the least he could do after he helped initiate the escape from the Pitts.

Even though his hobgoblin girlfriend died in the chaos... but its not like it was Odd's fault. That guy's a friend.