Untenable Hospitality

Danielle sat after another cold breakfast. The fruits had been dry, which is more than could be said for everything else. Her blankets lay on the opposite side where Melorandious still slept. His limbs went in every direction with his head facedown.

I would have expected him to be a light sleeper, she thought.

A wave came into the cave, and Danielle jumped. The spirit formed again, this time seemingly sitting on the surface of the water. A large eel rose its head. The spirit petted it.

The two watched each other from across the cave.

Danielle shifted her seat, not taking her eyes from the spirit.

"What do you want?" Danielle said.

"From you? Nothing," the spirit replied. "But it would please me if you came closer."

Danielle's nose wrinkled. Steps of boldness or stupidity, but she took them all the same.

She stopped, out of arm's reach. As worthless as that action was. The spirit accepted this, appraising Danielle's face and gazing into her. Danielle had no sense of the spirit even noticing her uncomfortable expression. Those bright eyes were as unreadable as the moon.

"Do you know how much mana you have?" She said.

Danielle snapped her attention back to the spirit as a whole. The face seemed calm enough.

"I guess it's a lot," Danielle said. "But I don't have any way to measure it."

"Haha! How like your kind," she said. "You hear about a gift you hold and immediately try to measure its worth."

Danielle glanced down at the waves touching her bare feet. Simple to imagine them becoming bigger after seeing what happened before.

"I'm sorry?" She said.

The spirit dismissed her apology with a wave of her hand.

"I am the lake. Over hundreds of years, I've amassed an amount of mana that many a Magi could build a city with, or raze I suppose. Yet, seeing your ability to retain it, I'm but a puddle to a river."

Danielle felt a grin breaking from her face.

"Finally, some good freaking news!" she said.

The spirit raised her shimmering eyebrow at this.

"It seems you are but an empty vessel though," she said. "I suppose that was the cost of such an impossible feat."

"Drained?" Danielle said. "Are you serious? Won't it refill?"

"Refill?"

The gigantic large white eel sank back into the lake. The spirit rose in her fury, her skirt of waves rolling down with force.

"You expect that much mana to be refilled like any common beverage?"

Danielle glared up at the spirit.

"Go ahead," Danielle said. "Come at me if you want."

The waves settled down as the spirit sank down again, a hand to her head.

"I didn't wait here to fight you," the water said. "I want to help you."

"I thought you already helped us," Danielle said.

She kept her gaze locked onto the spirits. The lake held her arms out as she lowered herself.

In between the hands formed of water floated a glowing blob. Danielle's eyes crossed as she focused on it so close to her face.

"Take it," the spirit said. "This little one can help you if you require it."

The little blob quivered and glowed. She held a finger to it, and a wobbly little limb reached back to her until the two met. It felt cool and slimy.

"What does it do?" Danielle said.

"Protect you," she said.

Her watery hands withdrew, and the little blob floated towards Danielle. Holding out her own hands, Danielle watched as the blob ignored them to land on her shoulder. It squelched up at her.

"Aw," Danielle said. "I'll call it Droplet."

The spirit lifted her hand grandiosely.

"Whatever you wish," she said. "Just keep it close to you at all times."

Danielle's smile strained.

That's not ominous at all, she thought.

The blob, Droplet, squelched at her again, reaching a tendril out to her face. An easy grin again rested on it.

At least this time bomb is cute! She thought. And this lady hates him, so it might not hurt to keep it around.

"Shall we leave, lady?" Melorandious said.

Danielle jumped. Sleep still held onto him, but he was very much awake. He eyed the blob without comment.

"Leave if you like," the spirit said. "The storm has long since passed. I'll take you out myself—

"Wait a second!" Danielle said. "He gave his word last night."

Melorandious lip curled as he looked at Danielle.

"I'll teach it to you later," he said. "We shouldn't overstay our welcome."

Danielle clearly gathered his undertones of "don't make me stay with the spirit that wants to kill me longer than necessary". She ignored it.

"So I'm going to learn when we're running for our lives?"

"You'll learn after we leave," Melorandious said, "once we're finished running."

Danielle crossed her arms. The water spirit sunk back into the lake wearing bemusement. Melorandious didn't raise more points, but Danielle already understood his perspective. The Aldlesians might be catching up as they spoke.

Or they might not have even left yet, she thought. He said so.

"Hey, just today," she said, "if you teach me today I'll leave learning anything from you until we're in the clear."

The bright colors of Melorandious' apparel clashed with the worn expression on his face.

"And why would I believe that?" He said.

"I don't know," Danielle said. "Why should I believe anything you have to say? Especially when you can't even keep this tiny promise?"

Melorandious let the tension drain from his shoulders and jaw.

"All right," he said.

A clang punctuated his words. The water withdrew from the ground leaving Danielle's sword behind. The blade as dark as it ever was. Danielle and Melorandious watched the spirit, her amused smile giving no comfort.

"I almost forgot about this gift," she said. "As long as you're learning, try to hold the sword this time."

"Ha ha, sure," Danielle said.

She reached up to the new squelchy blob on her shoulder. Droplet squeezed away at first, sticking to her neck. She grabbed it and put it on the ground.

"I'll keep you safe at least," she said.

Droplet proceeded to float up off the ground she laid it on but didn't jump back to her shoulder.

"So we were going to learn swings?" Danielle said.

"Did I say swings?" Melorandious said. "I meant posture."

The next hour was spent on a crash course as Melorandious told her to bend her knees, relax her shoulders, and use her back. The water spirit drifted away quietly as Danielle fought to rise to the challenge. She didn't even know what he meant by "use your back". Still, after a few examples and tries she managed to do it without being stopped. Although she didn't know what she did correctly.

She swung a few times, slowly, so she could focus on doing right. Fingers burning, she looked down at her hands. It was more blisters.

The list of minor pinpricks of pain dotted her from the minor scratches to the odd bruise.

"Maybe we have some ointment from the Rovers," Melorandious said.

"If you got blister ointment from the Rovers but didn't ask for umbrellas or cloaks, I'm done with you," Danielle said.

Melorandious spared a glance of confusion as he routed through his bags.

"Come on," Danielle said, "I meant it as a joke."

"Ah," he said, still routing through the bag.

OK, Danielle thought. Not funny.

She routed through her own bag, thinking it might have found its way there. All she came up with was her damp clothes. She'd wrung them out last night, but the blankets had taken priority. It had been a slack effort.

With a sigh, she began wringing them out again. She tried thinking of it as arm training, though she'd already gotten plenty of that from the soreness of her arms.

"I found it," Melorandious said.

He put it down beside her.

"Oh, it's in a little tin," she said.

"Glass would be impractical for the Rovers," he said.

He followed Danielle's example by wringing out his quilts. The distance between him and the lake was peculiarly large. Danielle let out a soft chuckle at this.

She relaxed as the balm took the bite of pain from blisters and toes. Her legs dipped into the lake. Watching the reflections of light from the lake move, she released a contented breath.

"This is pretty nice," she said.

Minus, she thought, my sore arms, my sore legs, the weirdo who probably won't kill me, the hunters trying to take my life, the spirit who also probably won't kill me, the suspicious blob she gave me, and the fact that I can't go home or contact anyone I know, not to mention the lack of conveniences from home.

Droplet floated next to her and bopped her cheek.

"Ah!" She said. "OK, I guess you could be a bonus."

She stroked Droplet gently with a finger. It shivered a little.

"I might get to learn magic," she said. "That could also be a bonus!"

Unless that's impossible as well, she thought.

"We'll be leaving soon, so you should pack back up," Melorandious said.

"Pack, unpack, wring things out only for them to get wet again, such a pain," Danielle said.

"It could be worse," he said. "And the spirit told me we won't be leaving the same way we entered."

"She tell you that last night?" Danielle said.

She remained sitting. She wanted to draw this out for as long as she could. The sitting that was.

"Oh, you heard?" Melorandious said.

"Maybe a bit," Danielle said. "But maybe I just dreamed it."

"It wasn't that interesting," Melorandious said. "It was mostly a warning."

"I can imagine," Danielle said. "But you're the one who made your own bed, and as you're not willing to give me any information as to why..."

She stood up and stretched, pulling her arms. Hands twisting as he wrung, Melorandious' ignored the pointed drop off of the conversation.

"...then I can't have much sympathy for you," Danielle said. "Tch."

She went to her own bag. After they packed up they stood at the side of the lake. Melorandious thought about the distance to the Aldlesians border. Danielle wondered if it was worth it to dig into his past. As long as she returned home quick enough it wouldn't become her problem anyway.

She snorted.

Fat chance of that, she thought. So I need to make him open up to me.

A pale form entered the cavern. Raising its head, the white eel from earlier rose from the water. It towered above the two, and the splash fell over them.

Melorandious' blinked out the water as Danielle wiped her eyes. The eel opened a gargantuan jaw and both peered into the mouth.

"It shall be your ride," a familiar voice said from the water.

This time she hadn't bothered to form a human figure for them. It was time to go.

Melorandious put one foot on the gray tongue. Danielle felt the urge to wretch rising. He took another step, shifting his weight as both feet stood on it. Turning to her, he held out his hand.

Danielle sighed as she took it.

Just imagine it's a frog, she thought. A really ugly frog.

She squatted down, trying very hard not to touch anything. Melorandious followed suit but with less aversion to the tongue beneath them. The mouth clamped shut, and the dim light of the cave disappeared.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit..." Danielle said.

Melorandious rested a hand on the side of her head. Droplet also raised a supportive tendril.

"It probably won't be long," he said. "Without a boat, this is our best option."

"And if it doesn't let us go?!" She said.

"Well, we'll cut it up," he said. "Couldn't be helped."

Danielle reached up to hold his hand. The human touch in the darkness was comforting.

"Shit, shit, shitty shit, shit, shit, shit..."

None of that stopped her mantra, of course. Melorandious closed his eyes as he tried to focus on the feeling of movement.

The conversation with the spirit from earlier surfaced in his mind.

"You may try to hide who you are. Forget your name, make yourself into a fiend, and run into depths my brethren cannot see, but hiding will get you and her only so far."

It made him smile. People who wanted him to die, people who had tried to kill him, and now spirits thought to comment on him.

I'm alive still, Melorandious thought. And now I'm free. Revealing myself serves no purpose.

The eel slowed to a stop. Falling backward, they then fell forwards. The ground hit them.

On the muddy bank, the eel had spat them out. Danielle lifted her head to see the eel already turning away.

Melorandious rose and tried to wipe himself off, only for his hands to come up with more mud. Danielle picked herself up, looking at the shore.

"Well?" She said. "Where to?"

"I believe the eel put us on the opposite shore," Melorandious said. "So. Yes, follow me."