It was a quiet and sunny day in the valley where Stormhoard Keep stood tall and proud. It was given to the group of adventurers known as the Brave And Few by the duke of the port city Valen, Gall Brightstone. Thell wandered around the keep unable to find any of his companions within the walls of the hall. He roamed through the many hallways navigating through the different rooms hoping to at least find someone to bother. He checked the dining room, no one, he checked the courtyard, no one, he eventually checked the study room requisitioned by both Dilya and Brian.
'Surely at least one of those two would be there' he thought. As he entered the room Thell noticed that it was dimly lit and only by candlelight which emanated from the location of a dark-haired and dark blue-skinned female dark elf, Dilya.
Thell plonked himself down across from Dilya, "So where Is everyone?"
Dilya sighed in response as she continued to write on a piece of parchment in front of her. "Where to begin?" she responded as she took a sip from her ceramic goblet, "Well Hannah is in prison since she tried to steal from a shop owner. Brian is attempting to get her out of prison, hopefully through legal means. Simon? He is off somewhere in Valen trying to make friends. Hosir is sad about not having a beard so he and Odin are off drinking somewhere, trying to make him proud of being a dwarf. Carl is off picking some flowers for his mother and so that just leaves you and me."
"So what are you doing?" Thell asked.
"I'm writing a letter to my friend Brutus to wish him a happy anniversary for his victory as chieftain," Dilya replied not looking up from her work.
There was a moment of silence except for the sound of the quill scratching on the parchment as the ink was applied and the occasional flicker from the candle fire.
"Well this is boring," Thell spoke, breaking the serene atmosphere.
"Well, you don't have to stay here watching me."
"What else am I meant to do?"
Dilya sighed. "I don't know, go hang out with the others. I'm not going to stop you."
"Yeah but I don't know where they are."
Dilya just continued to finish off her letter.
A few more minutes passed and Thell spoke again "So why are you writing the letter?"
Dilya dropped her quill and just looked at Thell intently. "I'm writing to my friend Brutus to wish them a happy anniversary for becoming Chieftain of his tribe."
"Yeah, I know what you are writing it for. I'm asking why are you writing it."
"What?"
"I said not what you are writing it for but why are you writing it" Thell repeated louder.
"I care about him and I want to wish him a good life."
"Urgh, you're so boring."
"Look. Let me just send this letter off and we can go do something. Does that sound good?" Dilya asked as she sealed the letter in an envelope, pouring a dark blue wax over the lip and then pushing a seal of her religious order. One of the few remaining pieces of her past that she still possesses.
Dilya then placed the closed envelope on the table and began to draw symbols, in red chalk, around the envelope.
"What are you doing now?" Thell asked.
"I'm writing a glyph that will allow me to send this instantly to Brutus." Dilya then finished writing the glyph and spoke to Thell again. "Now please be quiet as I need to concentrate on thinking about Brutus, otherwise the message won't reach him."
The dark elf then began to trance her hand around the symbols muttering the incantation, once she completed the circle the envelope burst into white fire and disappeared.
Dilya sighed in relief, "Alright then shall we go-" she stopped herself from talking as she saw Thell holding the envelope. "Dammit, can you hand that over please?"
Thell just looked at her confused, "Why? It appeared to me. So it's mine."
"No, it was meant to go to Brutus. You were just on my mind so you received it instead," Thell replied as she yanked the letter out of Thell's claws almost tearing the letter itself. "I just need you to be quiet so I can send this. So shut up please." Dilya tossed the letter into the circle and repeated the incantation.
When the letter disappeared after the spell was cast. There was silence, once Dilya opened her eyes she was greeted with Thell's red-ashed hands holding the same letter. Dilya sighed, "I'll do this later."
"How come you keep thinking of me?" Thell asked.
Dilya's cheeks turned a lighter shade of purple. "Oh uh, it's just because you are here and I have to look out for you in case you try to do um something stupid."
"Is that so?"
"Uh, yes?" Dilya replied uncertainly to herself. "How about we practice some fighting? I just need to get my stuff, so I'll meet you in the courtyard. Sounds good?"
Thell nodded in response before joyfully jogging away. As he left Dilya let out a deep breath still feeling the warmth in her cheeks.
After a few minutes Dilya arrived in the courtyard in her silver and blue scale mail and attached at her hips were her two daggers, one of which could expand into a glaive, and in her hand was her finesse curved longsword. Dilya looked around and spotted Thell sitting on a barrel in his blue dragon plate armour with his bone greatsword laying across his lap.
"Alright scales, shall we do this?" Dilya questioned as she took her fighting stance. Thell just nodded and started to remove his armour. "What are you doing?"
"Well, you said being manoeuvrable and light on my feet is the best chance at winning a fight."
"I did but that doesn't mean you have to take off your armour."
Thell didn't respond and finish taking off his armour and was about to take off his loincloth when Dilya turned away "Why are you taking that off?" she yelled.
"Don't worry, you can't see much."
Dilya still had her hands blocking her view of Thell. "Could you please put armour on?"
"But not wearing anything makes me faster."
"You could at least put on leather armour." Dilya then pointed at the small shack inside the courtyard that acted as an armoury for the adventure's keep, "surely there is something in there." Her cheeks were blushing profusely which did not go unnoticed by the red-ashed Dragonborn.
"But I'll be faster without any clothes."
Dilya peeked and saw Thell standing completely naked but with no private parts to be seen.
"See, it isn't that bad. My dick retracts." Thell then clapped, breaking Dilya's mild trance "So shall we fight?"
"Um, yes. Of course." Dilya resumed her fighting stance as did Thell. "On three."
"One."
"Two."
"Three."
Thell immediately charged at Dilya, swiping his sword at her chest. Dilya was able to deflect to blow before following up with an attack of her own, using the momentum from her deflection to attack from below.
Thell saw this and took a step back, avoiding the attack. 'He was right' Dilya thought to herself, 'He certainly is faster. And not too bad on the eyes' in her moment of distraction Thell used the butt of his sword and struck Dilya. It didn't hurt much but it reminded her of the situation she was in.
Thell thrust his sword at Dilya and twirled around using his momentum to launch him off his feet and fall. Dilya brought her sword down on Thell but he rolled to the side and in one move knocked her sword out of her own hands.
Thell got to his feet and swiped at Dilya again, there wasn't enough time for her to summon her blade so she pulled out her modified dagger while stepping back to avoid the attack. Thell attacked again, in response Dilya extended her dagger into a glaive and used the rear of the polearm to deflect the attack and ended up smacking Thell across the face as well.
She then took a few steps back to give herself space and readied the glaive with both hands while facing Thell. "You really should have been wearing your armour," Dilya stated as she noticed some of his blood dripping down from his snout.
"Yeah but this is more fun," he responded before charging at Dilya. While Dilya was well versed and skilled with bladed weaponry she relied more on her magic to aid her combat prowess. While Thell was the opposite focused entirely on his weapons and barely relying on his magical capabilities.
They traded more blows until Dilya lost her glaive and was down to her final weapon, a dagger she has had since her early days in the temple she studied and Thell had lost his weapon which Dilya had disarmed him by flipping him over her shoulder.