Kaelen lounged shirtless against the mossy rock shaped vaguely like a chair, a cup of spring water in one hand but it wasn't a cup it was a shoulder piece of armor, a half-eaten squirrel leg in the other.
"This… is life," he murmured with a mouth full of smoky meat. "No cursed relics. No monsters. Just me, squirrel, and the best salad I've ever had."
He took another bite of the leaves and groaned in satisfaction. "If Derek knew about this stuff, we'd serve it every day. Every damn day."
The stars were just beginning to appear above the canopy. A firefly danced past his nose.
Kaelen grinned.
Then.. hiccup.
Then another.
He blinked, feeling a warm tingle creep into his skull like someone poured honey into his brain.
"…weird," he said, squinting at the sky. "Why are the stars melting?"
He blinked again.
"Wait. That's… that's not normal, right?"
Well Past Midnight…
The Ashen Boar's front door creaked open.
Derek looked up from behind the bar, brow already furrowed. "Kaelen?"
