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Bastian beams widely. "Of course it does!" His face immediately changes to a frown as he leans close. "But it will hurt a lot less than losing this leg to gangrene."

Papa comes back to the group and offers what assistance he can even tho out of spells

Little gulps a bit, but complies. Nearby, Ash mutters something about him being a baby girl.



Once the wounded are taken care of, the cavalrymen fall immediately into a comfortable routine. A firepit is assembled from loose stones near the treeline (so as to be far from the corpse immediately outside the cave) and a fire is started using wood from a covered woodpile the men found near the cave mouth.

Once there is a bed of coals in the firepit, Octo brings an iron grate out of one saddlebag, and a sack of flat bread and cheese from the other. He sets the grate over the coals and lays the rounds of bread on the grate before covering them with cheese. Ash grabs a bread round on his way out, then grabs his horse and heads off to meet the relief column.

The cavalrymen say little about the findings in the cave, or about what has happened. The only real comment anyone makes is something about the entire situation being "above our salary."

"They get a salary? I have yet to be paid at all.." Angel whispers quietly into Liris ear, checking her breastplate she lays it beside her, then sets about removing the remaining mismatched pieces, which she lays in a pile beside her.

"Could you get me something to eat? And perhaps Eldon?" looking at the grate she adds the final comment seeing Eldon laying on his back staring up to the sky.

Liri nods to Angel and walks over to the fire, weary from the day and from her wounds, but knowing that Angel and Eldon are worse off. "Ah, panis militaris. and you even have some cheese! there isn't by any chance a share for us?" she asks, with her best effort to be charming.

Octo draws his sword, and nearly shouts: "You stay away from that food...until it is ready." He uses his sword to adjust one of the bread rounds that had been placed too close to the edge of the grill, "Then you may help yourself.
"We shall have a real meal after our relief arrives. This is for comfort for now."

Bastian is sipping from his own personal flask, watching the whole event unfold. He smiles to himself, recognizing in Octo the harshness to maintain a group of fighting men. He also recognizes that it is a veneer used to cover his actual compassion for his troops and their well-being. Walking over he extends the flask and says, "A bit of comfort for yourself, Octo?"

[OOC] I had intended for Octo to be making a joke - a "Dinner will be ready when it's ready" kind of thing - with a drawn sword for emphasis. But I kind of like I-L's interpretation better. It makes me look like a real author, capable of imparting complex feelings and thoughts into a character. [/OOC]

"People always messing with my cooking," Octo mutters, while dropping spoonfuls of something from a jar onto the bread. "This is good trail food. You can eat it cold, but hot is better.

Octo accepts the flask from Bastian and takes a quick drink. He pauses, considering what he has just tasted, then takes another before handing the flask back. "That is good."

Liri starts to laugh, a relief of tension after Octo's unexpected reaction, but then stops and winces as tears shoot into her eyes from the pain of her wounds. Clutching at Bastian's arm for a moment to stabilise hersef, she asks "May I sit down while I wait, then? for comfort?" She just manages to smile.

Angel closes her eyes a moment, barely acknowledging the rest of the group she needed Liri beside her, but that felt wrong, like she was hoarding the elf from the others....

Free from the armor that usually covers her body she lets the slight breeze caress her skin, her elven blood reveling for a few moments..

Bastian looks over and slightly down at Liri before answering. With a mischevious smile he says, "No one is stopping you." He winks at her and looks back to Octo. "That's one of the perks of being a priest of Liquitus; we always have the best booze!" With that statement he takes a long shot from his flask in salute.

"If this were a comedy, Ullo would appear about now, shaking his fist and shouting for us to get out of his yard," Barber says. "I doubt we shall see him soon."

"Quite so. How do you expect our mushroom farmer lived with this portal to who-knows-where for years, without knowing. And suddenly it vomited monsters. Seems odd," Octo muses.

"I wish I knew..." Angel says with a slight chuckle, shifting her bare legs in the sunshine. "Perhaps it appeared there? But that wasn't the first place... our friend in the sea."

Papa tends to his own wounds, cleans them with water and applies bandages.

Eldon barely acknowledges the world around him.