Kharon’s first wrong move that day was being a general nuisance and making crude jokes in orcish to Gryida. Kharon’s second wrong move was deciding to relax on the beach beneath an umbrella instead of swimming, which lead to him falling asleep. Now, it wasn’t difficult for him to fall asleep out in the open, he slept outdoors all the time, so naturally lying on a blanket over warm sands was more than coaxing enough for Kharon to doze off.
Gryida, who was always looking for an opportunity to make Kharon suffer, in ways that weren’t actually harmful but were just enough to be upsetting without really doing any damage. Today the most damage would be sand in uncomfortable places as she began to bury Kharon, and form a small city of sand castles on top of him. She had managed to get him completely covered by the time he finally started to wake up.
He was bleary at first, eyes blinking slowly awake, but then opened wide when he tried to lift his hand to brush some hair out of his face but couldn’t. He tried to look at his hand but all he could see was sand. He would have flinched, but he couldn’t move a muscle, so he shouted.
“What the fuck?! Who did this?!”
Gryida, more than pleased by this reaction, snickered and responded. “Maybe it was the sand guardian.”
Kharon recognized Gryida’s voice instantly, but the meme was too enticing not to respond properly. “The guardian of the sand?”
“Yeah, you know, Posideon quivers before him?”
“Fuck off!”
This was enough to make Gryida burst out laughing as Kharon scowled up at the bottom side of the umbrella.
“Was this completely necessary?”
“Absolutely!”
“Gods damnit. Can you let me out now?”
“Nope, but just so you know, high tide is about to come in, so good luck! Bye Kharon!” Gryida got to her feet, dusted herself off and leaned over Kharon so he could see her grin before leaving him to suffer.
“WAIT! GRYIDA! DAMNIT, COME BACK!!”
---
So, @moofrog had been stuck on what to do for build, and I suggested they draw Gryida building a sand castle, and then they decided that yeah, she would build a sand castle, on top of Kharon, resident rood boy. I was tempted to write a sister piece for my own “Build” inktober, but decided with something different. I still wanted to write it though!! So here!!!
Here is a link to Moo’s own inktober post, so you can see their take on it!
When Kharon was initially hit with the arrow, he could feel it ripping into him between his ribs. It caused him to stagger, but be it adrenaline or shock, he managed to stay standing and see the fight to the end. Unfortunately, by the time the battle had ended the wyvern poison had spread through enough of his body to take effect and he crumpled to the ground.
He gasped as the damage hit him all at once, and brought him to a barely conscious state held in place with laboured breaths. His vision was blurry and he any noise that was just far enough was unintelligible to him. He barely noticed when he was rolled off his side to lie on his back.
Gryida had gotten to him first, as Liana was healing Kava, and Fineas and Gothrix were handling their incapacitated enemies. She had knelt down beside Kharon and turned him over, wincing at the blood stain on his coat that had bloomed around the injury. The wound was bad, but surely not bad enough to cause Kharon to do this, the fact that he seemed so close to death was unsettling.
“Fuck.” Gryida cursed in orcish, her language of choice for cursing, and began to play out in her head, her next course of action. Clearly the arrow needed to be removed and he needed to be healed, but if the damage was this catastrophic she had to be careful about removing it.
“I heard that.” Gryida was just close enough that Kharon could make out what she said, and unable to help himself, as always, he responded. His voice was strained, especially in orcish, and it took a lot of effort just to speak but to him it was worth it.
Gryida’s look of concern turned to a squinting glare. “You need to shut up. You shouldn’t be talking.”
“Can’t help it.”
“If you don’t stop talking I will silence you myself.”
“You can try.”
Still squinting Gryida took hold of the arrow and ripped it out, making sure to do so in a way that would cause the least amount of damage and pain. Kharon gasped out a garbled calamity and his whole body flinched before going limp once more against the ground.
“If you say another word I’m putting it back.” This was an empty threat, but Kharon seemed to listen as he remained silent save for rattling breaths.
Gryida took a moment to study the arrow, maybe it would shed some light on the unusually intense amount of damage Kharon took. It didn’t take her long to notice the special tip, one she had seen a few times when treating her parents. The arrow head was specialized to carry poison, fashioned in a way that would hold more of the liquid than just a plain point. It was poison that had brought him to this state. As awful as that was, it made knowing how to heal him a great deal easier.
Taking an even breath, she put both hands over the opening in Kharon’s chest and with a hum cast lessor restoration. She needed to get rid of the poison first, otherwise it would just undo any damage she fixed. Once the poison was gone, she used a bit more energy to murmur out a tune for cure wounds. The injury closed up, the bleeding stopped, and a bit of energy was restored allowing Kharon to even out his breathing and sit up.
His hearing and vision had been restored, he looked over to Gryida with an exhausted grin. “Thanks.” Even her glare didn’t deter his appreciation.
Rapids Rising had the biggest rollercoasters in the country. The group had been planning a visit for a few months now, and finally they had arrived. The goal was to ride as many things as they could, eat crappy amusement park food, and maybe win some crappy stuffed animal prizes. However, all of this came to a grinding halt when they were faced with their most devastating setback yet. Height restrictions.
Kava already knew she probably wouldn’t be able to ride most of the coasters, that was how it went at any amusement park she went to. However, her friends had persisted that it would be alright, yet when they reached their first ride they were already halted. There was a sign before the line stating the height restriction was at five foot two.
“See? I told you I was too short.”
“Aww man, I’m sorry Kava, I really thought you’d be okay.” Fineas sighed out, incredibly disappointed.
“It’s okay, we can always find another ride!” Gryida was always optimistic.
“Or, we can cheat.” Kharon offered, grinning.
“Kharon, you can’t use magic to solve all your problems,” Gryida huffed.
“You totally can though. What’s your idea?” Kava was instantly ready to break the law and ride the too tall rollercoaster.
“Well, I have been working very hard on charm person. There’s four big coasters here that have a height requirement, and I have more than enough energy to be able to cast charm person on the people who would be stopping us from riding them.”
“Fuck yeah!” Kava and Kharon share a high five.
“Kharon, what if the spell doesn’t work? They would know you tried to charm them, and we would probably get kicked out.” Fineas was quick to think, and saw the flaw instantly.
“That’s why I’m going to succeed every time!” Kharon’s assurance was not very assuring.
“You can’t assume it’ll work every time! There’s always a chance it could fail!” Gryida scolded.
“Don’t wooorry about it, it’ll be fine, I promise!”
“Yeah! Don’t worry about it! Just let Kharon do his thing!” Kava no longer wanted to talk about the possibility of failure, she wanted to ride a rollercoaster!
Fineas and Gryida shared hesitant glances before giving in.
“Alright, but if we get kicked out, it’ll be your fault!” Fineas conceded, voice firm.
Kharon was still grinning. “That’s a risk I’m willing to take!”
Kharon’s clothing was the only thing beside his name that he retained after the fall. Because of this, he was rather attached to his clothes, especially his coat. The red eyes made him feel connected to something, even if he didn’t know what that something was, and the silvers and purples of the rest of it reminded him of something else he could never really place. In truth, it was the only connection to his past he had, and for that reason it was incredibly precious.
Because he was able to attack foes from a distance, Kharon was usually able to avoid damage to himself and his clothes. The exception to this was when the enemy also had ranged attackers, but he was usually pretty lucky about avoiding their attention and ire. This allowed himself and his coat to remain relatively intact. In truth, he wasn’t sure what he would do if he had to give up his coat for whatever reason.
This lack of knowledge trapped him in a stand still when he was hit with a fireball that caught him on fire and burned large holes into his coat. He may be a tiefling, and therefore fire resistant, but his clothes were not. When the battle ended and they were able to walk away from their foes Kharon found himself stuck. His coat was in ruins. He didn’t even move as his companions started to leave, though they stopped when they saw him stuck.
Fineas and Gryida were the first to approach, and Fineas was the first to speak.
“Are you alright, Kharon?”
He didn’t respond, hugging himself, feeling the burned through patches of his clothing. It was ruined… The fireball ruined most of it, leaving the coat and even the shirt beneath it in tatters, with mild burns on the flesh that the flames reached. The rest of his teammates weren’t in any better shape, bleeding and battered, some far more than Kharon, but it wasn’t his own pain that rattled him.
He didn’t respond, not until Gryida put a hand on his shoulder and shook him gently to try and get his attention. “Kharon?”
In a jerk he lifted his head and looked up to her with glistening eyes as tears began to well. “I’m fine.” It was a blatant lie, but he was never very good about talking about his own pain, especially not so immediately after the damage was done.
“I just… I just want to go,” Kharon croaked out, stumbling toward the others in his group, pulling away from Gryida’s grasp. “I’ll talk about it later, promise…”
Fineas and Gryida watched him stagger away, before sharing a glance and following after him. They were definitely going to hold him to that promise.
The group was preparing for a halloween party, they had all hopped into Kharon’s car and he drove them to the supermarket. Once they arrived, Gryida and Fineas acquired a cart and left to go gather snacks and drinks while Kharon and Kava picked out the pumpkins for them to carve that night. As Kava sorted through the pumpkins, finding none of them to her liking she began to mutter about how stupid they were, something that Kharon rather easily heard.
“You know, we don’t have to carve pumpkins,” he offered.
“Of COURSE we do, it’s halloween! You carve pumpkins! That’s how halloween works!” Kava corrected, exasperated.
“I mean, in some places they carve squash. Why don’t we go see if there’s any good ones, we can come back to the pumpkins after that,” Kharon offered.
Kava went slack, flopped on top of the pumpkin pile before standing upright and huffing. “Fine.”
They made their way to the produce section with their cart, and stopped in front of the squash. Kharon began to pick through them trying to see what would be a good or interesting shape to carve from. Kava got distracted by the cantaloupe, remembering somewhere in the back of her mind that sometimes people carved melons for whatever reason.
“Hey Kharon?”
“Yeah?”
“People carve melons right?”
“Usually watermelons, and usually for like, summer occasions, but yeah.”
“So you can’t carve cantaloupe?”
“I mean, I don’t see why not?” Kharon finally looked up. “Did you want to carve a cantaloupe?”
Kava squinted at the melon before nodding, as certain as a sage. “Yeah. I mean, it’s different right? Also, they taste way better than pumpkins.”
“I mean, I don’t think it’d be as easy as carving a pumpkin, but we can definitely get a cantaloupe to eat.”
“Okay…” Kava trailed off, squinting at the cantaloupes.
Eventually, Kharon had picked out a squash for himself to butcher, and he came to stand beside Kava. “What are you waiting for?”
“How do you know when they’re ripe?” Kava had only had cantaloupe once or twice, and she had never actually bought it herself, she never actually bought fruit in general. Too expensive.
“I think, you’re supposed to smack them? Something about the sound they make, or something… I don’t actually know.”
Kava grinned. “Then let’s smack some melons!” And with that she raised a hand in the air, and then slammed it down on one of the cantaloupes in the display. Unfortunately, she misjudged the sturdiness of the cantaloupe and used far too much force, causing it to splatter and spew everywhere. Both Kharon and Kava were covered in melon bits.
There was a pause, and then, Kharon began laughing. This earned him a punch in the gut from Kava, but that didn’t stop him. It just made his laughter more like wheezing.
“Shut up, Kharon!”
“You shattered it!”
“I know!”
“It’s everywhere!”
“I KNOW!”
Kharon continued to cackle as Kava fumed and glared at him. It was at this point that Gryida and Fineas joined them, locating the pair by Kharon’s easily recognized laughter. They both stopped when they saw their friends covered in cantaloupe juice and pulp, stunned for a second, before Fineas spoke up.
“Are, you guys okay?”
Gryida started as well, before they can respond. “What happened?!”
“Nothing, don’t worry about it!” Kava puffed, turning away from Kharon.
“Just checking some melons!” Kharon howled.
“Shut UP, Kharon!”
At this point Kharon actually tried to stifle his laughter, turning to face his friends.
“That poor cantaloupe, what a waste,” Fineas sighed. “It’s ruined, and now we have to buy it!”
“I’ll pay for it,” Kharon assured through giggles. “I’m buying everything here anyway.”
Gryida sighed. “I knew one of us should have gone with you two.”
“I’d say you can’t take us anywhere, but I’M the one who drove!” Kharon’s snickering was renewed.
Kava huffed. “Can we just go?”
“Did you get the pumpkins?” Gryida paused in glaring at Kharon to ask this question.
“No… I mean, Kharon got a squash.”
“That’s not a pumpkin!” Fineas didn’t need to be a farmer to know this, and in fact he hoped nobody actually needed to be a farmer to know this.
“You guys can have pumpkins, I just wanted to carve a squash.” Kharon had mostly stopped laughing at this point.
Gryida looked back to the pumpkin display. “Well we’ll need to hurry before the ice cream melts! Put the cantaloupe in a produce bag and we can ring it up that way.”
With shame, Kava scooped the ruined cantaloupe into a produce bag and closed it with a twist tie. Fineas noticed Kava’s upset instantly, and put a hand on her shoulder.
“Hey, it’s alright, it was a mistake, right?”
Kava looked away. “Kinda?”
Before Fineas could respond, Kharon took the bag of cantaloupe and plopped it into his cart with the squash. “C’mon Kava, it’s fine. Let’s get some pumpkins and take everything back to my place, and then hey, once we’re there we can clean off all of the cantaloupe guts and party. Beside, we can’t make rootbeer floats if all the ice cream is melted!”
“Yeah…” Kava sighed and then scowled. “Yeah! For the rootbeer floats!”
“For the rootbeer floats!” The cheer was made by everyone at that point, pushing them onward to the pumpkins where they picked some out before going to the registers. This halloween would be a good one, even despite the cantaloupe massacre.
---
I finished Inktober! I made it the whole month! AWE HELL YEAH!
The fire had started out small enough, small enough for Kharon to light it with prestidigitation, but that was just the start. Gryida and Fineas had spent the past few hours bringing wood over from the stockpile and once they had enough they added to the flames until it was a brilliant bonfire. It had to be far away enough to not be a danger to the barn, and they had to make up enough wood to compensate for what they were going to use, so it took a whole day of preparation before they could actually relax.
Kava and Kharon had been tasked with doing the rest of the prep work. Digging enough of a pit that the fire could be contained, lining it with bricks and rocks, and then the easier tasks of gathering everything else. Blankets, the food and drink coolers, and even a few cushions that were supposed to be used with lawn chairs and therefore water resistant.
They gathered once everything else was settled, and set the fire as the sun began to color the sky with pinks and purples for its setting. Gothrix and Liana had joined them at this point, both having been busy during the day, forcing them to be late. By the time the first star was visible in the darkening sky, the fire was at full blaze. Ash and sparks rose into the air before they were snuffed and blown away into the night.
The scent of the autumn dusk, heavy with fallen leaves and harvest, mingled with the smoke and burning wood to create a night that was the purest essence of the season. They sat beside each other on the blankets, some moments in silence, some moments telling stories, slowly sneaking closer to the flames as the air cooled off. They would stay there long into the night, reveling in the company and the moment, both of which couldn’t have been more perfect.
