Here it is.

Lalucia and the others have managed to get the one time victims of the slaver camp somewhere safe, as you'll see.

 
Kvarca ghosted through the woods, senses straining to detect the sounds of pursuit. The three kobolds had agreed that they should act as a rearguard so a defense could be mustered on favorable conditions; luckily, such foresight had so far proven unnecessary. Kvarca's grinned when his nose reported good news: he was downwind of a healthy deer. He briefly contemplated how delicious it would be before beginning the hunt.

On silent feet he stalked his prey, eyes alert for potential noise sources. Smell would normally have been a problem, but a spell designed to hold in such emissions temporarily negated that risk. He just needed to get a bit closer...

Kvarca feared the hunt had failed when the deer's head snapped up and seemed to look straight at him, but it eventually settled down and returned to eating. Knowing he would be unlikely to get another chance, he laid prone and started crawling towards the deer in a circuitous fashion, being certain to take advantage of the terrain. With a slow work of will, he built up and released his most powerful spell: restful sleep. It was almost worthless in battle, but it was invaluable for capturing live targets in a hunt. Most of the time, he would have simply killed the creature, but occasionally live prey were more useful. In this case, they were more nourishing for a vampire, of which his friend Lalucia was, and one in desperate need of energy.

His grin widened when he saw the deer calm down and fall into a state of slumber. He released a low-pitched call for Skista and Kaolinita. Once they arrived the trio worked in well-practiced routine to transport the prize back to camp; even if this one was far more mobile than usual.

Lalucia walked towards the head of the party, glad to be on her feet again. The deer's life energy had washed away a great deal of her exhaustion, much as its meat would do for the others soon. Her head snapped to the side before darting off ahead and to the side, clearly excited by something. She returned a few minutes later, a small grin on her face, as she reported that a brook had been found and it would serve as a suitable camping point. Looks of relief spread upon the faces of many forced to walk for hours, especially those carrying the heavy weights of their fellow humanoids. Darson informed her of those who had spread out to either secure more food or to scout the area. As Darson went back to helping the wounded and recovering, Lalucia and three other able-bodied individuals gathered useful containers and headed off for the stream. Becky walked after them, obviously thirsty.

Lalucia eyed Becky curiously, as she seemed far less energetic than usual, and possibly even verging on somber. Her eyes seemed to stay focused on the ground as she walked though she did look up to smile weakly when she noticed Lalucia was observing her.

Lalucia smiled back awkwardly, "What's wrong, Becky?"

Becky looked up, started to answer, but then walked ahead of the others with a small sigh.

"Probably worn down from our lil treck here," the Ireaca male offered. Wildfall was his name, Lalucia recalled. "How much water are we bringin,' anyway? My ladyfriend's gonna be wantin' me there when she gets back, I'm sure."

Lalucia nodded in thanks. "As much as we can gather; we will probably be making at least three trips before we leave. There are a lot of tasks to be done, and water is important for most of them."

Wildfall nodded, reminded of a saying. "'He who has water and.. something else.. on his own farm,' and all that."

"Uhh.. do you need cold water, too?" Becky asked, sounding reluctant. "Because if you need cold water, I can make the cold water cold and if you don't, then I don't have to, too."

Lalucia smiled at Becky. "I do not believe we will need cold water, but it was very nice of you to offer it. Some of the others might enjoy it if it was available, but please don't strain yourself trying to make it."

She almost seemed to smile but not quite. "Didn't you know I can freeze the whole lake if I wanna?! But I don't wanna get us in trouble. We wouldn't have any water, and it's harder to make uncold than it is to .. um.. make unhot. Nevermind, I'll sit over here until someone wants cold water."

Becky's voice kinda trailed off.

Lalucia blinked and eyed Becky speculatively. "Do you accidentally make things colder?"

"Only when I nap!" Becky said, happy to have her mind off what happened. "But it isn't nap time so we'll be okay! I think. What do you think? Do you think we'll be okay?"

"We should be. There haven't been any signs of pursuit, and they were injured quite a bit. We should be able to get everybody rested up and get to a nice safe city before they could catch us," reassured Lalucia.

Becky clapped unenthusiastically. "I'm glad we have a nice young leader that's really old that's also you.. I mean.." Becky shook her head. "I'm glad you are here to help everyone. Did you eat too? You ate, right?"

"S'cuse me, ladies," Wildfall said, heading to help the others get the water ready.

"Thank you, for the compliment and the concern. Not to worry; I fed well, and I will have more later on. I should be well enough to handle whatever challenges are in our way. Are you sure you don't want to help? We're going to need a lot of water and dry firewood before morning," Lalucia responded.

"I wanna help, but I have to look at myself in the water first," Becky said with a big sigh. "I have to think about some things. No, wait! First I will help and then I'll do that after. Is that okay?"

Lalucia's smile widened. "Of course it is. And if anybody tries to give you trouble, they will have to go through me first. Hopefully not literally."

Becky giggled. "I'm glad you weren't a prisoner, but I feel so sad for all those poor people, don't you? I mean, I think it was probably pretty bad, huh?"

Lalucia's smile slipped away. "Yeah, it was. However, they're free now, and will have the chance to move past it, have fun, and enjoy life again. And we couldn't have done it without you."

Becky frowned. She seemed to struggle momentarily with how to express herself. "I feel cold. I mean, my heart does. I don't wanna think about this anymore, I don't think."

"Very well," Lalucia replied. "I need to go help gather water now; I wish you luck in figuring out what you feel and desire."

"I'll help like I promised first," Becky said, coming with.

The pair reached the brook with a few minutes of sedate walking. When they got there Lalucia grabbed her own steel cookpot and let the brook slowly fill it.

"Ya know what they put into Ireaca stew?" Wildfall asked her in a conversational voice.

"Can't say I do," Lalucia answered warily.

"Anything ya find," he answered. "Or anything left over from last night. Can be quite good if ya know what you're doin. Once ya get used to it, course."

"I have to admit, I am rather more particular about what I consume than that. Though it shouldn't be problem, given the large number of hunters in our party and the rich wildlife," Lalucia countered.

"Yeah," Wildfall said. "Summer will probably make it a point to try to outhunt 'em, so that'll be good. But what about the ones that ain't so well off? We'll have to watch what we get for them. Stomachs might not be ready for anything too rough."

Lalucia gave a feral grin. "Good luck; I rather doubt she could best Kvarca; he's the best hunter in the tribe." Her smile faded slightly. "Do you know what to feed starved humans? Kobolds do well with shredded meat stew, but I am fairly sure human digestion is different."

"Hm.. we haven't dealt with it that much," Wildfall said with a shrug. "I've heard you have to be careful to get the blood out. Which might quality as ironic at this point. Avoid feeding too much. Something light on the stomach. I know the furs do a lil better with it than people. Well, I think I heard that."

"Oh dear... is anybody among them a qualified healer?" Lalucia asked worriedly. She well knew that improper feeding could easily be fatal, but Wildfall just shrugged.

"Here's hoping, huh? There's a bunch of people helping each other, though. Really, we gotta get them to.. I dunno. Seaside Town seems way off."

Cattaras came to life finally, looking at Todd, with the two having momentarily returned from their duties. "You think anyone at that joint you play at could help us?"

Todd shrugged. "You mean the Tree? Maybe, Boris knows there's plenty of opportunity to learn healin' there."

"We can't put off feeding them until then if we want them to be able to do anything. Is there anything that we could feed them that they can definitely digest safely?" Lalucia pleaded.

"I'd stick with more water and vegetables for the worse off," Wildfall answered. He turned to Todd and the big cat. "Other than that, how's the hunt going, ya two?"

The big tiger growled. "Someone scares off the prey every time. Vulpine stealth my tail!"

"Hey! I didn't see that root there, I swear!" Todd retorted. "Besides I'm not a hunter."

Lalucia's smile took on a predatory edge. "Neither am I. But you could help gather water or firewood. If we don't gather enough, we might have to use your instrument to make up the deficit." It was clear she hadn't forgotten Todd's less than polite comments while she was being carried by Cattaras.

"Whoa... what gives with the attitude, darlin'? I'm doin' the best I can here." Todd looked hurt.

Lalucia felt uncertain for a brief moment before firming her resolve. "I didn't appreciate how your mocking, especially since I was helpless and in a combat situation. Where I come from, that is the act of an enemy."

Wildfall inserted his opinion. "I wouldn't go that far over a lil teasing."

Todd smirked. "Hey I never mocked you, darlin'- now musclebound here..." He jerked his thumb at Cattaras, who merely chuckled.

Lalucia sighed. "I did not appreciate being referred to as prey to be collected, not to have my alleged preferences used in an attempt to humiliate somebody else. Now, we clearly expect different things from our relations. Can you at least agree not to do such a thing again?"

Cattaras shrugged. "Nothing humiliating me, hon. Actually I quite liked the lick, blood or no. Not the first or hopefully the last time I'd had a girl lick me, either." Todd looked about to say something, but didn't.

"I'm glad that it was not unpleasant," Lalucia replied. "Though it was just because it was needed for me to stay conscious, and it was already out of your body." Her eyes narrowed slightly. "You do know that I have absolutely no intention of having sexual relations with you, or anybody else, in any way, shape, or form, correct?" She noted the pot was as filled as it was going to get and switched to a second vessel.

"Awkward," Wildfall mumbled to himself, looking for something else to do.

Todd muttered to Cattaras. "Man, that's a burn out of nowhere."

Lalucia picked up on the comment and growled. "Why should my own inclinations be any kind of insult to him, or anybody else? Does your overbearing ego demand that the world bow before your urges? Get over yourself."

Cattaras shifted his weight a bit. "You know, much as I enjoy the little fox being cut down to size I'm thinking he's going for the 'out of nowhere' more than anything, and not as an insult. But enough about urges- except to say that whoever turns your head will be the luckiest person in the Kingdom." He then nodded and went back into the woods to hunt.

Todd was... shocked. "Wow... never expected a decent answer out of the big lummox."

Wildfall chuckled. "I gotta write down the 'overbearing ego' bit. Classic."

"Yeah, yeah." Todd grumped- but smirked.

Lalucia sighed before gathering up her filled water containers and taking them back to camp. Todd grinned as he saw her. "Hey Lalucia? Wanna apologize for the way the big guy and me's been goin' at it. Our conversations to date haven't been this friendly before. Kinda weird, y'know?"

Her mind twisted those sentences however she could, and still couldn't wrangle meaning from them. "Can't say I do. I do appreciate what was clearly an apology attempt, even if linguistic differences rendered it largely unintelligible."

Todd shrugged. Nothing more he could do about it, so he leaned back against a tree and began to play a soft tune. One that he hoped would lift spirits and mend wounds. He spotted Becky in the distance, releasing a wild bird into the air as behind her, the others hunted and tended to the wounded and went about getting water and food to everyone. Others were doing desperate headcounts, trying to make sure no slaves had been left behind. It was clear there was still some bad news to be digested.

Things were starting to look up, though. Still, Todd had been in these situations long enough to know it could all go south in a moment if they weren't careful.

Voter Ichiro rightfully called it more of a character building piece, but I quite like the conflicts, as well as the story of Lalucia, Becky and the others trying to move past the horrible incident they're trying to escape. We'll get back to this story later on, but we've got a wide host of other characters to visit before that, and a few more after it before the Finale.