The Mistakes Of Misfits
Chapter 16

      Another long day of training. Otah had run us through the ringer. With how close we were to Durik he knew we needed to improve much quicker. Although today I landed a few good blows against the old orc. We seemed to be growing much stronger. not on his level quite yet, but maybe soon we would be there. Four days away from Durik. We soon would reach the human capital city.

     We all sat around the fire as a sweat covered Kerrigan and Otah finished their training and joined us. The old orc smirked at his four students. “You're improving quite quickly. You might just be ready by the time we reach Durik.” It was as close to a compliment that we were going to get from him.

     Otah sat to my right and Kerrigan sat between him and Kasious to avoid Sumi and myself. We all sat around the fire laughing and drinking the night away. Kasious was telling us a story about how he and a few other recruits had attempted a raid on the monastery's alcohol. Kasious let out a chuckle. “So we charged in believing we had avoided the guards when suddenly I'm hit with a bottle to the side of my head. It turns out Serena had been there for hours, waiting inside of the storage room for us. Needless to say our training the next day was much, much more brutal.”

     I let out a small laugh. As I downed a bit more of my liquor. “Not quite the princely behavior I would expect.” I joked.

    Kasious shrugged. His face was beaming. “When you're sheltered in a castle I think it makes you even more rebellious. At least it did for me.” He raised his bottle of exquisite wine and drank it down.

    Otah scoffed. “That's too damn true, trust me that liquor incident is the least of the trouble he caused at the monastery.” He sent daggers toward the prince but I'm sure Kasious was too drunk to care.

    “I have gotta hear more if that's the least of it!” Sumi said excited for the drama. She drank some kind of liquor like I did. Kerrigan sat back and drank trying to avoid anyone's eyes. He laughed every once in a while but rarely spoke. I was fine with that.

    Otah let out a rare smile. “Perhaps next time we spin tales of the prince's exploits, I shall be the storyteller. I feel like I will embellish them much less.” He gave Kasious a knowing look as he drank a mug of ale.

Kasious shrugged and did a small sarcastic bow. “My embellishments are what make them interesting.” He joked. It was good to see him smile. Everything has been so serious lately with Durik being so close.

     I drank another long swig from my bottle. Sumi leaned over and pressed her arm against mine. She smirked as I wrapped one arm around her. She leaned into my touch and rested herself against my shoulder. I loved feeling her breathe against me, the feeling was calming, welcoming even.

      Kasious looked at each of us and I swear the gods couldn't wipe that smile off of his face. He held up his bottle in triumph. “To our merry band of misfits.” He cheered. We all followed his lead and cheered for our group.

    After another long swig out of my bottle I looked down to see Sumi's bright eyes looking up at me. I wanted to take that face into my own, but I could wait a bit longer. I heard Kerrigan sneer. “Careful how much you drink mage, might wake up with something you regret.” I gritted my teeth at the implication.

    I sat forward to take on the half orc but Sumi put a hand on my knee stopping me. “We all know how to handle our liquor Kerrigan. We're not the ones who puke our guts out behind the cart in the morning.”

      Kerrigan's face went instantly red as he tried to come up with a retort. “I… I did not!” He said defensively.

      Kasious roared with laughter. “Yes you did! I think there's still a stain on the back wheel of the cart from your session this morning.” Kasious drank a bit more of his wine. “You can't handle your booze boy.” He lectured, mimicking Otah's voice almost perfectly.

     Otah let out one solitary chuckle and you would have thought Kasious had taken down a dragon from the excited look he gave his mentor upon making him laugh. Kerrigan leaned back, almost crawling back into himself. He most likely wouldn't be a problem for the rest of the night. Sumi played with the sheath of her old greatsword as she leaned against me.

       I cocked an eyebrow. “You know, you could have gotten a new greatsword off of the mercenaries we fought.” I said. “Might not be the best but it's better than nothing.” Sumi seemed almost startled by my mention of her sword.

      She sighed. “It's… it's not that simple. I can't just use any old greatsword, my blades mean a lot to me.” She must have seen the confusion on my face because she pulled out her shortsword and held it up to me. I looked over her shoulder at the blade and I don't know how I never noticed but her blade had symbols burnt into them. They all were different runes that I didn't know the language to. Sumi looked up at my curious eyes. “An orc blade must be gifted. The elders imbed our blades with the runes of our people. Each rune is a triumph.”

     It now made sense to me why she missed that blade so much. It wasn't just a weapon. It was a symbol of all the things she had accomplished. “I'm sorry.” I said. An idea was starting to brew in my head. Tomorrow I will have to start it, I hope I could get it done before everything in Durik took off.

    Sumi shrugged. “I tried to kill you with it. I can't blame you for what happened.” She put her head on my shoulder. Kerrigan’s head snapped toward us, a mix of intrigue and surprise crossing his face. Sumi put her hand up toward him. “Don't ask.” She warned. “It's a very long story.” Kerrigan looked like he wanted to ignore the order but he nodded and kept his mouth shut for the moment.

      We drank and laughed for maybe another hour or two before we decided to start our shifts to sleep. Like always Sumi and I were the first shift. Otah slept while Kerrigan and Kasious had gone somewhere in the woods, most likely hunting for a bit more food. We stayed by the fire, she leaned against me still as she moved some of the kindling in the fire around to keep it going. For about half our shift that's all we did. We stayed in the comfortable silence enjoying the night's peace.

     Sumi looked up at me. “So are we gonna talk about it?” She asked. “It's been a few days and I feel like we're ignoring everything.” I knew what she was talking about. I had been avoiding this conversation.

    “I… well I.” What the hell was I supposed to say? My words caught in my throat as I tried to find a way to justify our sudden kiss.

     Sumi cocked an eyebrow at my hesitation. “Do you regret it?” She asked me. Her voice was not angry, maybe slightly frustrated and very blunt but she seemed more curious than anything else. She waited expectantly for my answer.

      Seeing her there expectantly looking at me. I gripped her shoulder a bit tighter. “Of course not.” The words came off my tongue before I could control myself. Sumi looked almost surprised by my words. I leaned toward her, feeling that strong electric current between us again. Sumi's eyes burned with a violet fire through those irises. I gave her a small smirk, regaining a bit of my composure. “The only thing I regret is not doing it sober.”

      That was enough. Sumi lunged at me, closing the distance and meeting my lips. We held that kiss for a long moment. She climbed on top of my lap and wrapped her legs around me as the kissing intensified. I grabbed her by her thighs and pulled her body as close as possible. I moved my lips down to her neck as her back arched into me. I heard her let a gasp escape from her lips. She looked down at me. “Are you sure you can't hide us somehow?” She asked. “I want you now.”

     I shrugged. “A sound shield is easy, but maintaining an illusion would require a lot of focus. I doubt I would be able to retain that in the moment.” I imagined the illusion I put up giving out right in the middle of its intended purpose.

      Sumi seemed to imagine the same thing because she let out a howl of laughter on top of me. “As fun as it would be to watch their faces. Probably not the best idea.” She brushed a bit of hair out of her face and kissed me again. That electric current flowed through the both of us for a long moment. Eventually she pulled away and rested those sizable hips on mine. She looked down at me with those bright purple eyes. She had a smile that made my chest feel warm. She shook her head. “Atika saved me, this is so fucked up. Neither of us is supposed to be doing this.”

       I knew it was wrong too. Both of our lives could be ruined for what we were doing. She would be banished from her tribe. I would have my memories wiped and my magic removed. I shrugged. “We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. For now we're just travelers on the road, no mages, no orcs, just us misfits.” I ran my hand through her hair. She leaned in so close we could feel each other's breath.

      “You're so unbearably naive.” She muttered with a wide smile. “I wish I could be too.” She claimed my lips once more and held me as tight as she could without hurting me. I held her up with one arm under her and one gripping her hair.

        Sumi brought one of her hands down my chest and before she could make it too far down we heard a familiar voice pipe up. “You too are doing a whole lot of watching.” Said Kasious. He stood smugly with his arms crossed. He was dripping with sweat. He must have been doing some training. Sumi practically jumped off of my lap and got to her feet. Shit, how would Kasious react? He already suspected our relationship but what would he do? Would he tell either of our people?

       Kasious smirked. “Oh well, I guess nothing killed all of us during your watch… I'll let it slide. It's a bit early but Kerrigan and I can start our shift a bit early. Hurry up and run to bed before he gets back." He walked over to the fire but couldn't help but give us a sly smile over his shoulder “You two are cute together by the way.” He remarked. Neither of us made a comment. We both walked over to our bedrolls trying to avoid the tension.

     I turned around. I needed to say something before Kerrigan got back from whatever the two of them were doing. “Kasious, you're not going to…”

      Kasious put up his hand to stop me. “My lips are sealed.” He said. His mouth was still curled up into a smile but his eyes were thoughtful and serious. Maybe he knew more about how much trouble we would get in than I gave him credit for.

     “Thank you.” I told him as I layed down on my bedroll. It wasn't much but a small consolation for his quiet was the best I could give him. The things that would happen if he told anyone outside of our group. It meant a lot to us.

    Before the darkness took me I heard Kasious speak one more time. “What are friends for?”

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