The Spa of My Enemy
We stood outside the fire warden’s door for a minute, weapons raised. And nothing happened. “Well, that turned out OK.”
“You mean the way we didn’t die? Yes, that was quite clever.” Acgar patted my shoulder. “How much did you give her?” Sadi was rummaging through one of the bags of holding.
“Um, it was…. I dunno. Whatever I had left after the Myntilly thing.” I gestured vaguely, not wanting to bring up the resurrection.
“Ladies? Shall we move on?” Iam and Brus stood at the next doorway. Myntilly looked at the sigil on the door and read out a charm person spell. The door opened to reveal a bathtub. A spa really.
The bathtub was huge and looked deep. At the far side, you could see soap, a loofa, a rubber ducky and some shampoo. Across the tub and to the right, I could see a doorway.
We stood at the lip of the sunken tub. “Are you going in?” I raised my eyebrows at Myntilly. “Me? I could drown in water that deep!”
“Oh for heaven’s sake, we don’t know how deep it is. Don’t be so dramatic!”
At that, Terrem ran by, jumped and grabbed his knees for a big cannonball splash. Water went everywhere. The motion of the lapping water made the rubber ducky bob towards Terrem. He laughed and splashed in the water. “Miiiissssttttteeeerrrr Orbius! Come and plaaaaaay!” Suddenly, the rubber ducky squirted water at Terrem’s face. He began to cry and splash around.
“Terrem!” I called. “Are you OK? Are you hurt?” I stood as close the edge as I dared. Terrem and I are about the same height, but with my armor on…. I didn’t want to get in that spa if I didn’t have to.
Brus leapt into the water and moved toward Terrem. Sadi glided up beside me, arrows nocked.
I caught her eye. “Don’t hit him.” She smiled. “Don’t worry.” All I could see was Terrem’s back. How was she going to miss him and hit the ducky?
Sadi waited, bow drawn. Brus splashed up beside Terrem and nudged him to the right. The ducky spit at Brus and he bellowed, but he kept moving. In that time frame, Sadi let three arrows fly. Two of them hit the duck. One lodged in its beak and one on its left side. It began to swim in circles, obviously crippled by the arrows.
I heard Acgar sigh heavily. And then splash! She was wading towards the rubber duck.
My hand went to my mouth. “Be careful!”
She leaned over the duck and brought her spear down straight through its back. “Ssssssssssssssss.”
“When Orbius finds out you killed his rubber ducky, there’ll be hell to pay.” Ian grinned at Acgar.
Brus and Terrem had reached the far side. Brus climbed out and shook the water from his coat.
Myntilly straightened her robe. “I want to see what’s behind that door.” And she fly over the water and landed beside the door. “Hmmm, no sigil here.”
“Wait for us! Don’t open it alone.” Ian walked up the side of the wall with his spider climb boots.
“Awesome idea!” Sadi joined him. “Guys? Wait. I can’t get over there. I don’t have……” My voice trailed off. No one was listening. I sat down on the edge of the tub. “Well,” I thought, “if they need a healer, they’ll tell me.”
The door opened and I heard Sadi say “Don’t go in there!” Myntilly frowned at her. “There’re just books.”
“Just books? Remember when some books kicked our asses? Just books…. Nononono! Aw, man.”
“See? No problem. Just because some books attack doesn’t mean all of them do.”
“What do you see?” I called across the spa.
Acgar’s voice called out. “Linens, soap, extra duckies, books….. Orbius knows how to lounge in a bath. I can just picture him now.”
Our Hen House
Compassionate Cook