CHAPTER 75: RELAXING IN THE CITY

The morning came with the 5 of us in a tangle of limbs. I had somehow found myself at the bottom of the pile with Zara’s head buried between my breasts whilst I myself was engulfed by Kana. Dawn was still somehow curled around my neck, and I have no idea where Amanda is.

I was once more thankful for my cloud flask that allowed for me to create this extra large bed that easily fit all of us on. And then their is the comfort of sleeping on legitimate clouds. It was truly unbeatable, and I will forever claim that it is the greatest item that I own... well maybe behind my storage chocker but it’s damn close!

Eventually the othered did wake up and we managed to untangle ourselves once everyone was somewhat cognisant. After a quick breakfast with the Silver Wing party who also woke up around the same time as us we decided to head back to the city.

We went as a large group and the journey went by quickly and without any incidents. I was slightly worried about the pompous paladin or Lord Michael wanting to cause trouble, but was reassured by Senitha that if he was to go after anyone it would be her. And he wouldn’t be stupid enough to start a fight he knows he cannt win.

After a number of hours we arrived back in sight of the tall white walls and the towering skyline of the City of Bowen. The evening sun reflected off the towering walls painting them in a azure hue, the shining silvery helmets of guards walking the walls standing as one of the few parts of the cityscape that moved. The only other sign of life easily visible was the splattering of smoke trails rising in the air from the various hearths of the city.

A small line of travelers, merchants and adventures lined up outside of the gate facing us and we made our way over to join on at the back of the line. Thankfully the line into the city didn’t take too long as the line had long since dwindled along with the waning suns.

Entering into the city we were welcomed back with bustling streets full of citizens bustling around finishing up their business before the days end, whilst merchants hawked their wares wanting to get just one more deal done before the late hour forced them to close up for the day.

Our party split from the Silver Wings with them stating that they were heading home but would be open to meeting up later in the week, we could just find them at the guild.

As for our destination well Zara stated she needed to head back to see her parents but that she could meet us tomorrow to go about handing off our loot to the guild for the auction that would soon be happening. As for the rest of us well I needed to say hi to a certain Dwarven barkeep. Making our way to the familiar inn we walked into the cosy common room to the sound of laughter and conversations overtop of a bard of some kind plucking away on a stringed instrument that I had no name for.

The warmth of the common room was welcome after the chill of evening and we collectively felt ourselves relax as we made our way over to the bar. Behind which stood a bald dwarf with a nearly maintained beard dashing too and fro making drinks appear before the customer had even finished their order, it was easy to tell the regulars from the newcomers by the amount of surprise that they showed when he did his signature trick.

Walking up to the bar I called out when I saw he had a spare moment. "Oi Fuarder how’s it going?" He looked up in surprise before that morphed into a look of recognition and then delight as he finally placed who I was.

"Well, well if it ain’t the mini adventure lassy! Already failed the trial eh?" He asked with a grin so wide it nearly split his face.

Snorting at that I leant against the bar and replied with a grin. "Oh no didn’t fail at all, in fact I and my team managed to complete the entire trial ground! And we are now here to celebrate!" Fuarder’s grin only grew and I could practically see him counting the coins we would soon be spending. Kana and Amanda however, well they looked mildly surprised that we would be celebrating but quickly broke into smiles of their own as 3 mugs of ale appeared in front of us with a flourish from the dwarf.

The rest of the night passed in a blur of drink food and good company followed by a night filled by satiating the desires of my two lovers.

The morning came all too soon and before long we were up and eating breakfast when Zara arrived at our inn looking mildly disgruntled. "What’s up Zara?" I asked her when she spotted us and came over.

"Well iv just been kicked out of the house. Now that I’m a ’propper adventurer’ my folks expect me to house myself." She growled in clear annoyance. Meanwhile I couldn’t help but chuckle at her frustrated expression. Clearly she wasn’t used to having to find her own accommodation and was used to the finer things in life when not out in the job.

"Well you are welcome to stay with us, so long as you don’t mind us being physically during the night." I teased, her cheeks did redden but she still forced out a small nod.

"T-that would be appreciated."

"That’s actually a point iv been meaning to bring up." I looked right into Zara’s eyes when I said that. "Would you like to become a permanent member of our team? We work really well together and I feel we get on well. I for one would love it if you would be willing to stay with us and travel around the world with us!"

She looked quite surprised at my sudden offer but it didn’t take long for a shy smile to blossom on her face as she thought about my proposal. "I-I think I would like that yeah. We did work well together as a team and I do l-like you all." Her blush deepened when she said the last part causing me to hide my smile behind my mug which I hastily brought up to my lips.

After a moment when I waited to see if she would say anything further, once I was sure she was either done or too embarrassed to say more I lowered my mug and smiled at the nervous wolfkin. "Then it is official. Welcome to the team." Saying that I stood up and walked over to her before pulling her into a hug which she reciprocated.

After the obligatory round of platitudes for making her membership official we soon finished up our breakfast exited the inn and made our way over to the adventures guild to go about the process of submitting all of the magical items we gained over the course of exploring the trail ground. We had managed to gather several items of varying quality and use. From some quite impressive weapons that we were sure would make us a healthy sum to some truly peculiar items that whilst novel and quite cool were of questionable use.

So whilst we didn’t expect to make a fortune we were sure that we would make quite the windfall. Entering the guild hall we were soon directed to an appraisal room where a staff memeber worker their way through our items one by one. They seemed quite impressed at the variety of items we had collected, if that was just a feigned interest to make us happier I didn’t really know or care, at the end of the day it wouldn’t matter much what they thought but what the other people who attended the auction thought about them.

We were then given some basic information about the auction itself, it would apparently be a formal event and as such we would be required to dress up for it if we wanted to attend. This brought a grin to my and Zara’s face but a look of horror to grow on both Kana and Amanda’s face, their look of despair only made my grin widen as I imagined all the shops I will get to drag my two lovers through.

Past that absolute gem of information the appraiser gave us a signed receipt of all the items that we had handed over and let us know that we could take any item back within the next 3 days but after that it would be too late to try to take anything back. This seemed reasonable to me and given that none of us held any interest in any of the items we gave up we doubted that it would be required for us.

With that out of the way we made our way back out into the main hall of the guild and converged to one said as we discussed amongst ourselves what exactly we would want to do with the rest of our free time till the auction took place.