Rex and Kealy had just finished another unarmed spar, Kealy was having to pick herself up from the ground once more, “I don’t understand how your reactions are so fast. I can jump short distances between shadows, and you catch me before I can strike every blasted time.” “I don’t know what to tell you,” Rex chuckled, reaching out to clasp onto Kealy’s hand to pull her to her feet, “I can half sense, half feel where you are, so I react to that sensation.” “I told you before rogue,” Dilo growled, “It’s called battle sense. He is so focused on the fight with you, his whole body is tuned in to react to whatever you try and do. But that can also be a downside, go again.” Setting themselves up to spar once more, Rex soon gained the upper hand in the fight when Dilo suddenly shot into Rex while standing out of his sight range. She was just about to strike him in the kidney when he rolled his body slightly, causing the blow to be a glancing strike instead, catching her wrist from the overext

“He is speaking to someone, I can hear the difference in vocal tones. How in the nine hells would someone else be in a snake’s mouth to be speaking with him?” Dilo asked, her eyes furrowing in confusion. “That should be impossible,” Kealy breathed, still having her ear against the throat of the giant snake. She was about to speak again when the skin pushed outward abruptly, close to her face causing her to recoil away sharply in alarm. “The f**k was that?” “He is attempting to cut his own way out?” Dilo postulated, scowling at the snake’s skin jerking outward in constant pulses. “A heroic exit through the neck of a twenty-foot snake after being swallowed? Of course he would,” Kealy sighed, smiling while shaking her head slightly. “He does this often?” Dilo asked, raising an eyebrow at Kealy. “Irritatingly. There are stories of him being involved with a soul transfer from a Djinn to a beast, fighting a tenaculum, he was instrumental in turning the tide of a large battle by charging

Venya came back a few moments later carrying a full water skin and a few cloth strips, “Sorry Rex, this is the best I could manage to procure in the short time I had.”“It’s fine,” Rex said with a smile before his face turned stern and his tone went flat and serious, “I’m going to need you to help me with something more important first.”“Something important?” Venya asked, slight worry creeping into her voice, “Is everything ok?”“It will be,” Rex smiled, keeping his voice calm and airy to help elevate Venya’s concern. “I need you to help me straighten my broken leg, so it heals properly in the correct position.”Venya looked down at the bone still partly protruding through the skin of his shin and winced slightly, “I don’t know if can do that.” She was shaking her head slightly while speaking.“I’ve done as much as I can by myself, but I don’t have the strength required to put it where it needs to be and keep my mind straight through the pain, and as you can see, it still needs the l

Rex had just finished dressing, laughing at Kiri’s sighing at him covering his body when someone spoke, “Grub is safe to come to water?”“Yes,” Rex replied, tilting an eyebrow at Kiri, who smiled and shrugged, “Why wouldn’t it be safe?”“Grub knows scary lady is with you wonky leg, and Grub does not want to anger scary lady and she turn him to mush before bone god reads Grub’s skin marks.”“Grub it’s fine to come and wash yourself, I do in fact encourage it,” Kiri said, scowling slightly as her nose picked up his scent. “I’ll see you back at the group,” Kiri said with a smile, turning to walk away, nodding to Grub as he passed while he was making his way to the stream.After throwing off all his clothing to be nude before wading into the water waist-deep, Grub turned to Rex, “What was wonky leg doing with scary lady alone? You have less fear than Grub to be smiling after that.”“She isn’t so bad,” Rex replied with a shrug, throwing his tunic on over his head.“Did scary lady force you

As Rex and his companions stopped atop a slight grass-covered rise in the ground, the outer row of houses that surrounded a small-sized town came into view. “I will have to disappear before we get close enough to the town for me to be recognised,” Kiri announced. “Are you an outlaw of some kind?” Venya asked, eyeing Kiri suspiciously. “No. But could you imagine how good your reception would be at the township of many years’ worth of people entering into your domain to do me harm and you killed them for it?” “Even if that was the case of self-defence, I can’t see it being too good a welcoming party,” Rex said, inhaling and then expelling the air loudly. “Do you have some sort of invisibility trick to remain unseen?” “No,” Kiri replied, shaking her head. Turning to Rex with a smile, she reached out and touched one finger to the top of his sternum, dragging it down to stop at the necklace she had gifted him earlier. “So the necklace?” Rex said, swallowing the rising lump in his thro