(Dyn)

  One hour ter…

  on-ranked adventurers could move quickly when they weren’t esc mundane or even unranked individuals. P’reslen was the first to show. He did a low flyby of the area. His gold and emerald blur shot over them as he searched out Wedge to tell him they’d arrived. Ru and Athrax were , both panting from their run. While Quinten brought up the rear, appearing st. He shot Dyn an easy smile along with a wave, unbothered by the s off him from their intense pace.

  Ru bent down beside Eury. “Where does it hurt?” she asked, wasting no time as she triaged and treated the not-as-young-as-he-thought elf. The mender gently ran her cwed fingers along Eury’s rib to find the break. Eury flinched away as she found the fault. One healing ability ter and Eury could finally take a deep breath.

  The determined elf sighed in relief. “That’s much better.” She closed her eyes as the tension in her shoulder slipped away. “Thank you, I breathe again.”

  “Good, how’s your head?” Ru pushed back the e cloak to check for cussion. “Tell me your name, what day it is, and where you are.”

  “I’m Eury. Today is Seonday, and I’m sitting under a tree because of some gashole.”

  That wot him every siime. His shoulders shook, as he couldn’t hold back his ughter. His reaust have seemed odd to Ru, because she was quick to turn around to che him. He waved her away, letting her finish up with Eury first. There wasn’t muyone could do for starvation.

  He noticed there were two sides of Ru. As a leader, she was blunt and domineering. But as a mender, she was passionate and motherly. He watched as she doted over Eury, making sure the elf woman was in perfect health. Shortly after she was doh Eury, she turned her attention to him.

  “I know you took a potion,” she said. “But does it hurt when I push here?” She leaned into his hip. It tickled a bit, but he felt no pain, just tenderness.

  He shook his head. “Just sore.” She tinued examining his legs down to his ankles, and they all checked out.

  “Your color…” She frowned, her husky brows ing together as she wiped at the grime on his cheeks. “I’d still like to top off your health.”

  “Sure.” He shrugged, not about to turn down free health care. She pced her cwed hands on his thighs. A familiar tingling warmth spread through his legs as she used her healing ability.

  Dyn had said nothing earlier when Ru didn’t react to Eury’s itive response, but it still the back of his mind. “Did Eury say today was Seonday?”

  Ru nodded, standing up to help him to his feet. “Yes, she’s correct,” she said, pulling him up. “Today is Seonday. It’s easy to lose track of time when on a quest or tract.”

  Still not fully satisfied with his uanding, he asked, “Is today the seonday of the month, or…?”

  “No,” P’reslen said, having just returned with Wedge to join their versation. “Today’s the Seonday of the week.”

  “Of the week? How does your week go?”

  P’reslen started ting off the days on his cwed fingers like a nursery rhyme. “Monday, Seonday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.” He held up seven fingers across both hands when he was done.

  The fident drai had skipped a day. “What about Tuesday?”

  Athrax snickered as he stepped into view. “You know about Tuesday, but not Seonday?”

  Dy as if they were ganging up on him. “Where I e from Tuesday is Seonday.”

  “On Mother ons, Tuesday es once every three years to make a-day week,” P’reslen said.

  “Leap Year?” Dyn asked.

  “Dirt knows about Leap Year, but doesn’t have a Seonday?” P’reslen shared a fused look with Athrax, whed.

  “Yeah, we’ve got a Leap Year too, but Mondays oh are usually the worst day of the week. I just don’t get why anyone would want a sed?”

  “Alright,” P’reslen said. “But what do you call the extra day for Leap Year?”

  Dyn didn’t know the right answer, so he took a guess. “Leap… Day?”

  Athrax looked at Dyn suspiciously. “Weird…”

  Ru turo address Wedge, bringing the topic of versation back to pertinence. “What happened?”

  The big guy gave them an abridged rundown of the events that led up to now, which still took a while because of his intrinsic lithkai ce. Dyn watched Athrax wrestle with his respect for Wedge as a guild instructor and his impatieo get shit done.

  In the end, the old soldier survived the gcial recap. He pushed off the tree that supported him in his time of need and uncrossed his cyberic arms as he strode up to the slightly less chubby man.

  “Flowers…” Athrax said with more accusation thaion. His brown eyes narrowed on Dyn as he rephrased his question. “You found an undergrou because of… flowers?” He stared down at Dyn, waiting for an expnation.

  “They’re different here,” Dyn said, pointing past the old soldier toward the field where it was Hay’len’s turn to stand watch over the gashole. “Look. See how they’re all bunched up?”

  Athrax turned around slowly, as if Dyn ranking him. He had to lean in, but their colorful clustering was visible from the hill, even through the trees.

  “Flowers…” Athrax said again, shaking his head. “Very perceptive.” His tone shifted to something close to impressed. “Not sure I would’ve put two and two together.” He turned back to Dyn, crossing his imposing cyberic arms across his chest. “You really use yourself as a leverage point to pull up the elf?”

  “Eury,” Dyn said.

  “What?”

  “Her name is Eury.”

  Athrax threw his head bad scoffed. “Boots don’t get names until you survive your first outing.” Ign the old soldier’s blunt remarks, Dyn tinued expining.

  “I tried the shotgun first.” He pointed over to where it was still stu the mud. “It didn’t work… not enough surface area, I think?” He scratched the back of his head and then shrugged. “My body was better at distributing the weight.”

  Athrax nodded. “Guess that’s one good turn for havin’ all that surface area, eh?” Dyn flinched as Athrax tapped him on the belly. The old soldier finally noticed the state of Dyn’s pants and said, “Must’ve hurt something infernal.”

  “That’s one way to put it. Actually, I think Wedge said the was infernal. Not sure if that makes it hurt more.”

  Athrax grunted and admitted, “Clever.”

  “Heroic,” W’itney corrected, returning to the group to che their friends.

  “Idiotic,” Ru said sharply as she stepped between them. “He crippled himself, leaving two team members to be rescued.” She looked them all in the eye, so there would be no misuanding. “We’re all just lucky his position and timing were both ve.”

  Dyn strongly disagreed. “I think a life is worth more than a broken leg and a bit of pain.”

  “I’m ined to agree with you…” Ru frowned and then jabbed a cwed fi at him. “But that doesn’t mean I do.”

  Dyn’s eyes dropped to the empty vial in his hand. He remembered what Charles had told him a it to get recycled. “Sorry I had to use a potion, though.”

  Ru raised her eyebrows at him incredulously. “That’s what you’re sorry for…? The oelligent choice you’ve made all day?” She took a breath to calm herself.

  “You’re still unranked. Internal bleeding alone could’ve killed you before we arrived. Not to mention blood poisoning, clots, shock, and several other horrible ways to die.” But none of that had crossed his mind. Resets had dulled his mortal instincts, and he’d grown reckless. Her words helped him see that.

  “With that said, I’m impressed with your mundane mending teique you used to revive Eury before her soul departed. How’d you know to do that? Were you a physi ba Dirt?” She took the empty vial from him, slipping it into a pou her belt.

  Dyn shook his head. “No. I’m not sure what you mean by ‘souls’, but that was just part of First Aid—Earth’s basic medical training.”

  Ru pced a hand on her hip. “Bandaging a wound or applying balm are basic teiques. I wouldn’t call ving the soul that the body is still alive a ‘basic’ teique.”

  He gave her a weak smile, rubbing the back of his neck. “Fake it ‘til you make it, as they say oh.”

  “Another odd idiom,” Ru said and huffed. “Listen up everybody.” She waited for their attention as they ed up their individual versations.

  “While I’m pleased that Dyn helped us first avoid stumbling into the arc beetle’s path and now locate its , I suddenly have the urge to reiterate to everyone. Under no circumstances is Dyn allowed to touch the bloody book.”

  Something had caught Athrax’s attention as he lifted his muzzle and sniffed.

  “Yeah,” Dyn said. “It smells horrible. Gets worse the closer you get to it.” He couldn’t imagine how much worse it might be for races with a more powerful sense of smell, like the okamijin.

  There was a sharpness in Athrax’s voice. His ears fttened slightly as he said, “Ru.”

  The nostrils at the end of her muzzle fred as she took a sniff. Her eyes went wide. “You used a metal hat hole?!” She was furious. “That gas isn’t just toxic, it’s highly fmmable. One spark and the entire pocket could’ve gone up.”

  Dyn’s mind immediately went back to when he jammed his shotgun uhe . It was a good thing it had been raining the eime and that it got stu the mud.

  ‘What else have I dohat almost got me reset?’ he wondered.

  Wedge frowned. “That… had not occurred to me.”

  “Sorry, Wedge.” Her voice softened. “It’s easy tet your sense of smell is… limited.”

  Trying to ease the tension, Quinten said, “Good news is everyone’s alive.” He threw an arm over Ru’s shoulder and one over Wedge’s. It was an awkward stretch to get his arm up and across the big guy’s broad spanning back. “Re we’ll just he one boomstick to sort it out.” He fshed a smile.

  “Think we use the rest to blow up the beetle?” Athrax asked, a little too enthusiastically.

  “No.” Ru shot him a ft look. “And the person who even thinks about blowing up the infernal arc beetle is walking home.”

  “Fine,” Athrax growled. “Where we off to ?”

  Ru looked up at the sky. “Sun’s ing down. We should head bad che with the Everafter.”

  Athrax sighed. “And what about the bloody quest?”

  Ru shared a gh the old soldier. “We’re not giving up on it, but I’d rather everyone make it home alive, even if that means we go back empty-handed.”

  Athrax nodded his cession. The old soldier was stubborn, but knew how to follow orders.

  Dyn raised his hand. “Could one of you go get my shotgun?”

  “he gashole?” Athrax asked.

  Dyn poio where he’d st had it. “Yeah, it’s in the mud over there.”

  “P’reslen, would you mirieving the on for Dyn?” Ru asked.

  The fident drai gave a quiod. “Be ba no time,” he said, floating up off his feet. He took a deep breath and dashed over to where Dyn had pointed.

  Less than a mier, P’reslen dropped the mud-caked shotgun into Dyn’s arms. The cool, wet mud smeared across his hands. He wasn’t sure it’d fire again without being field stripped and ed, but that was okay—it wasn’t effective against the arc beetle, and the other adventurers were more than enough to hahe local wildlife.

  No longer just the two of them, Eury resumed her tough-as-nails facade. She walked beside him as they hiked back, but didn’t exge a word the erip back. That was okay with Dyn. He sensed her walls were for everyone else, not for him.

  Three hours ter…

  They returo the Everafter without i. Engineer Echo practically buzzed with energy, eagerly awaiting their return. He’d met them on the upper deck. He snatched his green tri off his skull before addressing Ru.

  “I see you’ve returned a bit early today,” the engineer said, bursting at the seams to show her his new creations. “Would that suggest you’ve some time to go over the explosive tools I’ve put together?”

  Tired from the day’s events, she gave him a nod. “Perfect timing. We’ve found our target.” She stepped off the ramp, allowing the rest of her team to e aboard the airship.

  “Excellent, shall we go to my workshop?” he asked, gesturing toward the entrance below deck, hat still in hand.

  “I’d like to take the eeam, if that’s alright with you?”

  “Of course! The more minds, the better,” he said ahem down into the bowels of the ship toward his workshop. “This lease. Do mind the floor and try not to touything. It’s a bit of a tripping hazard at the moment, and I haven’t found the time to up with the crash and all.”

  “Dyn, that means you,” Ru said.

  He hung his head. “Yes, Ma’am.”

  “I must say,” the engineer said, pg his hat atop his skull again. “Other than the crash and that dreadful nekralis business, this trip has done wonders for my ior’s block. It’s been years since I’ve e up with a new creation. y really is the grease for innovation.”

  The workshop was a mess, OHSA viotions c every inch of the floor, tucked into the ers, and ying on the benches. Cords snaked across the floing to boxes, tools, up under and over the shelves. Exposed wiring, vats of suspiciously bubbly liquids, and traces of bck powder—everywhere.

  The Final Destination movies came to mind as Dyn crossed his arms, tug his hands under his armpits. He was okay with looking stupid as long as he didn’t actally blow them all up. A faint smile tugged at Eury’s lips, threatening her usual stoicism as she watched him.

  “Don’t move!” Engineer Echo yelled. Everyone froze.

  He slowly held out his arms, making his way over to W’itney. With the care of handling an actual bomb, he lifted a small box out of their hands. “Please. Don’t touything,” the engineer reiterated.

  He carefully pced the hand-size box ba the ter. “I haven’t defused any of the ordinance, seeing as I don’t know how much you’ll need. So sider everything in this room armed and ready to detonate.”

  W’itney swallowed hard, and said, “Sorry.” They took a step o Hay’len with a bashful look on their face.

  “I’ve only fashioned one of each so far, but vert as many as you need,” Engineer Echo said proudly.

  “We’ll only be needing one,” Ru said.

  Dyn watched the disappointed drop of the engineer’s skull, his green tri sliding slightly askew.

  “I see…” he said relutly.