Chapter 18: Trail by fire

"Haha. Brother, since when did your voice become so feminine?" Graum's chuckle echoed within the fog.

"That wasn't me, and you know it." Bjorn replied already fed up with Graum's antics.

"My NAME is: MINK!" Mink yelled angrily into the fog.

"Alright MiNk." Graum replied with a mocking tone. "I'm referred to as: Graum. I would say it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance...but it's clear that it isn't." He replied sarcastically, his voice seemed to come from infront of mink, but due to the density of the fog it was challenging for Mink to be sure.

Feeling insulted by Graum's tone, Mink wiggled her hand out of Bjorn's grasp and knelt down picking up a small stone. Mink threw the stone into the fog towards the direction she believed graum to be.

-plop-

The stone splashed as it landed into the pond

"Well that was rude..." graum remarked trying to sound disappointed.

"Brother! There is a reason why she's here!" Bjorn announced with a stern tone.

"Other than throwing stones?" Graum replied, chuckling under his breath.

"Yes! She believes you to be a pervert!! She is insulting your honor" Bjorn huffed. To a dwarf like Bjorn, honor was everything.

"Meh, I've been called worse." Graum replied casually ignoring the subject.

"Tch, as I thought. So your not just a pervert, but a coward aswell." Mink snickered, taking Graum's lack of interest in the matter as an admission to her claims.

"That's ironic, being called a pervert by someone who stormed back here whilst I was bathing." Graum's tone was calm and cold, unlike the atmosphere..

Mink felt her cheeks burn with embarrassment, by how true Graum's retort was.

"If it hadn't been for this Neanderthal dragging me back here. I wouldn't be here." She defended gesturing broadly at bjorn.

"Alright, that does sound like something brother would do... however, is he forcing you to stay now?" ... "Is he physically restraining you?" ... "Is he blocking you from leaving?" Graum relentlessly shot question after question at mink.

Mink stood silent as she internally answered Graum's questions. "...No, he isn't forcing me to stay... also... no, he isn't restraining me... and... no... he isn't... blocking... me... from leaving..."

Moments of silence went by, as mink mauled over the questions in her mind.

"Haha well, If you're going to be silent, could you be silent else where? I would like to get out... without exposing myself." Graum chuckled.

Mink gritted her teeth in frustration, she was not use to losing when it came to a battle of whits.

"I don't trust you...Or this Neanderthal. I'll be keeping an eye on you." Mink sneered turning around taking a step towards the guild, but stopped when she heard the water from the bathing pond swishing around. The sound that's made when something or someone is walking out of water.

"If you want to keep an eye on me, all you have to do is turn around." Graum teased with a mischievous grin, as he walked out of the pond picking up the towel and wrapping it around his waist.

*guise: on*

Graum hid his devil eyes, in case the girl known as Mink decided to call his bluff.

"Brother! Behave yourself!" Bjorn scolded. He was surprised by how cavalier Graum acted.

"Of course brother..." graum stopped when he came into Bjorn's view.

Bjorn saw Graums mischievous grin and a nervous feeling turned Bjorn's stomach.

"I'll try and behave, but you should heed your own advice. After all you did suck on Rheilas breast while she was unconscious." Said graum with a crooked grin.

Mink turned around with a shocked expression and an anger that boiled in her blood.

"YOU DID WHAT?!?!"

"Brother! This isn't the time for your jokes. You said she was poison..." Bjorn began but was interrupted.

"I KNEW you were scum!" Mink leered.

"Oh just wait till you hear what I did..." graum baited, turning minks attention away from bjorn and onto himself.

"The cat-eared Imalidae... I believe her name is Rheske... while she was passed out, I managed to get two fingers into her" Graum lewdly smirked as he raised his hand with only his index and middle fingers extended.

What graum failed to explain was, using his index and middle finger, he fished parts of a broken spear out of the Rheske's wound!

As graum instigated a responce out of mink, her boiling blood turned her vision red with anger.

"You vile trash... you'll pay for what did." Mink gritted, her anger taking control as she concentrated her mana. She turned, raising her open palm at graum, who she could now see was three meters away.

"Fire shot."

Orange flames shot out from Minks hand, and rushed towards Graum.

As the flames charged graum. He did nothing but grin as the flames engulfed him

(Moments prior)

-Rheila and Rheske-

The twins, Rheske and Rheila watched with bewildered expressions as bjorn grabbed Mink by the hand and led her towards Niadra's bathing pond.

"That won't end well for Bjorn.." Said Rheila with a relaxed smile.

"She doesn't like 'new' people, let alone being touched.... I'm sure it's only a matter of time before her temper gets the better of her." Rheske added with a 'matter-of-factly' tone.

Since it was just her and Rheila, Rheske's shy disposition.

"Haha, you're right!" Rheila laughed.

The twins then noticed Mystilynn from across the foyer pacing, they could see she had a determined look on her face... like she was searching for either something or someone.

The twins then looked at each other, unsure whether or not if it was any of their business to get involved.

Rheila silently asked Rheske with a short glance.

Rheske shrugged in response.

Rheila turned her head back towards Mystilynn and raised her arm above her head, in an attempt to catch her attention.

Mystilynn noticed Rheila and began to walk towards her.

"You seem to be on a mission." Joked Rheila as Mystilynn approached the table.

"Hi, Mysti." Rheske greeted with ears perked , and a tail that happily flicked back and forth.

"Good evening girls, and yes as a matter of fact I sort of am...." Mystilynn briefly greeted before pausing with a bewildered expression. "Where's Mink?" Asked Mystilynn from seemingly nowhere.

"With Bjorn." Rheske aloofly answered.

Mystilynn's expression visibly changed from bewildered to confused .

"Mink began teasing Bjorn about something... next mink started accusing Graum of being a pervert for some reason. Bjorn got offended, and decided to take Mink towards the back of the guildhall... not sure why." Rheila clarified upon Rheske's statement filling Mysti in on the what had happened.

"Something doesn't add up..." Mysti paused, her eyes shifted from side to side like she could physically see the information in the air. "Why would Bjorn take mink back towards the back of the guild hall if she was accusing Graum of something if he was right there with all of you...?" Asked Mystilynn.

"Because he wasn't with us." Rheila clarified.

"We haven't seen Graum since your office." Rheske remarked tilting her head, slightly adding to her aloof expression.

An enlightened expression washed over Mystilynn, as all the information had now came together.

"OH!"

"Oh, what?" The twins asked in unison.

"I had the boys wash up before supper... in Niadra's pond... and if Graum didn't join you all for supper... that would mean, he's still there." Mystilynn slowly explained in a soft tone.

-indecipherable yelling-

Mystilynn, Rheila, and Rheske heard the all to familiar tone of Mink's volatile temper.

"This can't be good.~" Mystilynn sighed walking away from the twins and towards the back of the guild hall.

Rheila and Rheske, got up from their seats quickly following behind Mystilynn.

As they opened the doors of the guild hall leading to niadra's pond; Rheila, Rheske, and Mystilynn caught a momentary glimpse before Mink lifted her hand and orange flames hissed through the air cutting the distance between Mink and Graum.

*profane flames*

Graum smirked as his black flames came forth mere moments before Mink's fire shot reached him.

Graum's profane black flames burned darker as it fed upon Minks fire shot, rendering her attack... Harmless. Everyone except Bjorn; thought Graum was being burned alive.

"MINK!" Mystilynn called out sternly over the hissing of her flames.

Mink lowered her hand whilst looking over her shoulder to see the frightened faces of Rheila and Rheske and the disappointed expression of Mystilynn.

Minks orange flames swallowed Graum and The gravity of her action sunk in, as she took in their expressions.

Bjorn stood silent, crossing his arms over his chest. He knew Graum anticipated a violent reaction, and planned accordingly.

"I had to.. he confessed to his un-virtuous actions..." Mink hesitantly explained. The fiery anger that compelled Mink to violence... vanished, leaving a pit of sorrow in her stomach as she looked upon Rheske.

"Actually!.." Graum loudly exclaimed dispersing his profane flames, along with minks orange flames. "All I said was what happened, Your imagination got the better of you and told you a different story." Graum finished with a crooked smirk.

Rheila, and Rheske couldn't believe their eyes! They SAW mink's flames engulf Graum . Yet he stood un-injured without as much as charred marks.

"To be fair... you could've worded your response differently." Bjorn added, sighing.

Graum turned his attention to bjorn.

"Did I lie? Was it not the truth?" Asked Graum smugly

"~Heavier Sigh~ No...you didn't lie.." bjorn defeatedly admitted.

A wave of relief washed over mink, when she realized Graum wasn't harmed from her brash action. However curiosity soon took the place of relief

"How are you un-harmed...?" Asked mink as she closely looked him over whilst he wore nothing but a towel that covered his delicate bits...

"Hold on Mink..." Mystilynn interjected, turning her attention from her, to Graum. "I am well aware that Mink has a... " Mystilynn paused looking for the right words. "volatile temper... so don't misinterpret this as a sanctioned action... however; I have complete faith in her, that she wouldn't resort to violence so easily... so do you want to tell me what happened?" Mystilynn delicately asked, as she shifted her eyes from him to Mink then to Bjorn.

"He said he..." Mink interrupted.

"Mink..." leered Mystilynn , stopping minks interruption.

"I can tell you what happened!" Announced Bjorn happily.

All eyes shifted to bjorn.

"Alright Bjorn. Explain what happened." Replied Mystilynn with a long drawn out exhale.

Bjorn regaled his audience with a summarized version of the encounter, leaving out Graum's lewd remarks.

Rheila, Rheske and Mystilynn looked at each other, all of them silently came to the conclusion: something didn't add up.

Mystilynn turned her attention to mink.

"And why did you resort to violence?"

With mink given permission to speak, she took in a deep breath.

"While Rheila was unconscious on the day in question. That Cretan took advantage of her... and... sucked.... on... her breast..." embarrassment covered Mink's face as she pointed to Bjorn

Mystilynn turned her head over to graum, but out of the corner of her eye saw rheila's embarrassed expression

"Is that true?"

"With time being a crucial factor, I don't know any other way to extract poison... the afflicted area, I will admit... was a tad scandalous... but brother was distraught about the matter, and held Rheila's modesty in the highest regard." Explained graum with smugish tone.

Mystilynn bobed her head from side to side as she, herself tried to think of an effective way to extract poison from a victim. After a short amount of time mystilynn replied:

"Alright, but I don't see that as a reason to burn graum... wouldn't you want to burn Bjorn instead?"

Rheila and Rheske, after collecting their composure looked at mink.

"B-b-because of how he 'TrEaTeD' Rheske's InJuRiEs." Mink hesitantly started to explain.

As mink summoned up the courage to repeat Graum's explaination of his endeavor. A smug smirk broke through Graum's composed expression.

"H-h-he said he Went… F-fingers deep into... R-Rheske." Mink managed to choke through her explaination as her face glowed as red as her own hair in embarrassment following up by holding up her hand with her index and middle fingers extended.

Mystilynn's eyes widened with surprise, she couldn't believe Mink would say something so uncouth.

Rheske's ears flopped to the sides as she covered her face, hiding her embarrassment.

"Brother poorly chose his words..." Bjorn let out an elated sigh.

"Oh..um... well... I can definitely see how that could me misinterpreted..." Mystilynn modestly admitted, as she gently tugged at the top of her yukata, trying to cool herself down from the hot and heavy topic.

"I mean... I guess I could've said it differently... but it's still the truth..." Graum continued to explain with his smug smirk that seemed to feed off of everyone's embarrassment. " I delicately inserted my fingers into the stab wound, making sure that there wasn't any debris in the wound. I then stitched the wound, and applied a salve." He finished, his smirk was now unbearably smug.

Moments of silence had past as Mystilynn weighed minks reaction against Graum's lewd explaination.

"While I don't condone these violent actions, I will admit... you had it coming Graum." Mystilynn smiled as she deliberated her judgment. "Still though… I'm glad you are unharmed. In the future when explaining yourself please be more transparent about your actions. We wouldn't want another misunderstanding."

Mystilynn then shifted empathetic eyes off of graum, and onto mink.

"Mink, I think you should apologize."

"What! Why?" She asked not seeing anything wrong with what she did.

"Through some stroke of luck…" Mystilynn began with a smile"… graum wasn't harmed. He is a member of our guild, and I would like for us all to get along."

Mink felt somewhat embarrassed for being childishly scolded. Comming to terms with the fact that she had too, Mink turned to graum to apologize.

"Sorry."

"Apology accepted." Replied Graum.

Mystilynn was somewhat taken back by how improper Mink's apology had been, but since graum didn't make a fuss about it, mystilynn was willing to over look it.

As the fog began to thin, more of graum was starting to become visible. Noticing this, Mystilynn turned to the girls.

"Alright ladies, we best be on our way. We should give graum the privacy we all expect in return."