“Here seems like a good spot to set up.”
Thus declared the man at the head of the group as he stared up at the night sky above the treetops. Thankfully for everyone, the weather was holding up tonight in the Shroud. As long as the elementals didn’t get pissed and no wild animals or otherwise appeared, tonight should go just as planned.
Esredes laid the tent down on the ground, asking the others to help set it up. With the help of B’ahm and everyone else who pitched in, in no time they had a few tents set up, and an unlit campfire ready to be brought to life. Once he was satisfied with all the tents, and was sure to check for stability, he turned towards a purple-haired half Lalafell with a smile. “You get the honors tonight.” He said, gesturing towards the campfire. “Give it your best, Shalala.”
She breathed in a large breath, and then out came a small puff of fire. It was much less than Esredes was expecting, but it caught onto the log and the fire began to take hold, with a round of cheers from everyone else.
“Perfect.” Esredes said, taking a seat on the ground and stretching out his limbs. The rest of the party began to settle in various ways- Dione transformed into her dragon form, B’ahm dismissed himself to go fish at the nearby river with reassurance that he’d be back, and Seraphiaux…. decided to go hide behind one of the tents. Clearly the man was not yet comfortable around all of his contacts... oh well. In due time.
Esredes took the bag of marshmallows from beside him and opened it, putting several on sticks and distributing them to whoever wanted one. He was not the biggest fan of them himself, but he knew much of the party would gladly take them. Soon enough, Rusty was roasting a marshmallow, with a glance towards Alastor, who was also roasting smores… And Heilyn was beside him, trying to keep him from burning it.
Jaime gave a disapproving look around the campfire at all of the marshmallows, taking a stick and spearing a cut of boar meat while declaring that everyone had to eat proper food. This was of no protest to Dione, who eagerly crouched next to the campfire, sniffing the meat.
“Not too close, Dione. You’ll burn yourself.” Esredes quickly said.
Alise began cooking stew as Jaime cooked the boar. It seemed this camping trip would not be short on food in the slightest. Finally, Teagan showed the group the cream puffs she had brought. ”What’s camping?” Poor thing didn’t know what you were supposed to bring to a campfire, let alone what they were even doing. But it was a good first experience for her nonetheless, and a few people were glad to try a cream puff. Esredes himself politely declined. He wasn’t much of one for cream puffs.
So far, so good for the most part. Esredes relaxed his body and watched the party as the idle chatter filled the air. Rae was playing with his Carbuncle like usual, showing off tricks to the others. That bird companion of Luken’s was chirping as his Elezen companion whittled away at a little piece of wood, occasionally pausing to munch on his own snack, which earned him a glance from Rusty, but the Roegadyn said nothing.
Esredes glanced at Bellona, who was watching the others roast marshmallows, and got an idea. A smirk spread across his features as he grabbed a few marshmallows in his hand. “Hey, Bellona.” He said. “I’ll give you all of these marshmallows if you sing for us all.
The Miqo’te’s ears flattened against her head, and his smile grew even more amused. She said no, and Esredes only took a few more marshmallows from the bag. “Not even for this many? Hmm?”
Then to his surprise, she reluctantly agreed and stood up and walked over, grabbing the marshmallows from his hands forcefully and shoving a couple in her mouth. “My, I’ve finally cracked the code. She can be bribed with marshmallows. I will use this against you.”
After she had sufficiently stuffed herself with marshmallows, she stood up in front of the campfire and began to sing a simple tune. And as Esredes heard it, he couldn’t understand why she hid her talent. Her voice was beautiful. When the song ended, he joined the rest of the party in giving her a round of applause and cheering.
She threw a marshmallow at him. Worth it. He caught it in one hand, and threw it to Ambrose to eat instead. Soon B’ahm returned with a bucket of fish, and now there was a nice mixture of marshmallow, boar, and fish being roasted by the fire. Esredes had helped himself to a cut of boar, a bit of stew, and a couple fish by this point, as he listened to Levi and Cynric take their turn singing and playing together. It was almost like old times, just talking and cooking food over a campfire, only in a location that wasn’t cold as all seven hells.
Some time passed of this, before Esredes spotted a figure in the distance and abruptly stood up. Whoever it was, they were approaching the campfire. Esredes narrowed his eyes. “Who goes there?”
As the figure came towards the campfire, the light revealed them to be none other than someone Esredes never wanted to see again. The green-haired Elezen man flashed Esredes that same, irritating grin he always had.
What the fuck was he doing here. “I did not invite you here.” Esredes said with venom creeping into his tone. “How the hell did you know we were here?!”
“Never mind your dust packed red head about it,” Mazin said as he held up a bag full of spriggan chocolate and graham crackers. “S’mores?”
Several of the people eagerly piped up at the mention of s’mores, and Mazin walked around the campfire handing out the necessary materials to all who reached their hand out, while Jaime cried out something about s’more heathens. The man then took his place among all the others, still giving Esredes a knowing grin. He glared back at the man, but said nothing.
“Hey, where did my s’more go?”
“Did you not eat it?” Esredes responded, only for his eyes to land on Ambrose, who was about to put a s’more in his mouth despite his mouth being covered in chocolate already. “Ambrose.” Esredes said in a stern tone, only for B’ahm to stand up and smack Ambrose’s hand for him, before following it up with holding out his own s’more to him, explaining that he didn’t like milk chocolate very much. The Miqo’te child seemed to accept this, shoving it down his mouth.
The campfire continued on for a bit more after that, lively as ever, only for another uninvited guest to turn up. First came an Elezen man with a book in one hand, a bottle of whiskey in the other, and an awkward smile on his face. “Sui? How did you get here?”
The little missionary responded that Nophica had guided him here or something like that. Ugh. Well, it was better than that green asshole who had invited himself in. The man sat among the others, uncorking his whiskey bottle and offering it to everyone. Most of the young adults declined after a little taste, B’ahm accepted a drink out of it, and Esredes helped himself to a little. Just enough to enjoy the taste, but not to get drunk.
And then just when he thought there’d be no more interruptions, an older Elezen man stumbled towards the campfire. “...What.” Esredes said. “Vesevont. You’re definitely not supposed to be here either.”
“I had to make sure all the kids here were SAFE,” the man responded.
“They’re young adults. They can…” Esredes glanced around the camp. N’theya was missing. Ambrose was making stick dolls. On second thought, never mind. He couldn’t argue. “Whatever. Feel free to join us, then.”
The campfire continued on. Sui talked about Nophica for a while, almost sending everyone to sleep before passing out himself. Once the man was out, N’theya returned, clutching a rabbit in her hands. “I FOUND A FRIEND!” She proudly declared, while Clover’s face turned red.
“...That’s nice of you, N’theya.” Esredes responded. “I just hope you can keep that thing secure. Come sit down and eat a s’more.”
Well, now everyone was finally settled in properly, plus four unexpected guests. It was at this point that Clover procured a book from her large bag. "I, ah, I brought the traditional ghost stories....I h-hope that is okay...."
“That is more than fine, Clover.” Esredes responded. Some of the others cheered eagerly. “Ghost stories! Ghost stories!” Yori looked particularly eager, leaning in closer to listen to the stories.
Esredes listened as Clover gave her best scary reading. It left much to be desired, but she did her best. N’theya’s rabbit hopped over towards him at one point. He smiled down at it and reached a hand down, gently petting it as Clover spoke. It settled itself into his lap and fell asleep.
Once she finished, the camp began to settle down. People were falling asleep one by one. Esredes looked up at the night sky, glittering with all the stars above it, and smiled to himself.
What a nice little moment they could all share together, unexpected developments and uninvited visitors aside. If only this moment could last forever, he could almost believe for a moment that this reality was worth it. But like the morning, the night wasn’t quite beautiful.
Yet even if he knew it wasn’t, as he looked out once more at all the faces of his companions, there was still one thing he knew was beautiful. The love that he witnessed all around him, yes, that was the true beauty that remained in such an ugly world.
And so he elected for the moment to allow himself to be happy. He closed his eyes and listened to the sounds of the night, the low chatter of his companions, and the crackle of the campfire. The perfect sounds to fall asleep to, on a perfect little night like this.
ANDDD THAT’S A WRAP FOR THIS YEAR!
THANK YOU EVERYONE AGAIN! I exhausted myself but I really wanted to be sure I could churn out Passable quality prompts. I hope you enjoyed what I put out this year!
Featured in this drabble: @punches-and-cream-puffs @the-littlest-voidsent @clover-hawthorne @ambroseffxiv @bookbornexiv @thecalmnessandthestorms @heartofthefury @dimensional-illusion @catte-bard @bowdownoverdweller @thesilverdragoon @mazinkhin @momokarp
Thank you to all my friends for always being there in and out of character. I appreciate you all more than you could ever know.
I greatly appreciate the support of all of you who liked my prompts, as well. It makes me happy to know some people did read and enjoy these, and it helps my motivation. So here’s to another great year of writing, and for all that will be generated next year!
