Sir Cabe looked about, "Let's bury Jesse and Bethany and then we'll return to our last camp. It's hard to say how long our Lord will be out of it. Without him to help it would be hard for me to bless enough space for all of us to camp in, since I had to bless this spot already for the Lord and Happy to be healed."
Paige looked at him, "That's sounds like a good idea. Do we bury them in the same spot?"
Sir Cabe looked at Bethany's remains, "Well at one time she was a devoted servant of Athena, regardless to how things turned out. It would take considerable more time to open a new grave," He looked down into the one Sylvester had been digging. "This single one should suffice." Sir Cabe looked at Toby, "Did you remove any valuables from Jesse?"
Toby nodded.
Happy walked over and grabbed Bethany's hair and lifted her head up, "What do you have to say about Wing Chun now bitch? What's that? I'm sorry, you need to speak up. That's what I thought." Happy spun taking her head between her finger tips and jumped up in the air and her forearms extended and Bethany's head slipped off the tips of her fingers rising up in the air and moving towards the grave. Everyone's eyes followed her head as it arc up and over and dropped into the grave. "Score," Happy cried out.
Sir Cabe shook his head as everyone else smiled or laughed a bit. Kaylee walked back and grabbed one arm while Happy grabbed the other and they dragged her body over and pushed it down into the grave. Toby brought over one of the spare blankets and they wrapped Jesse up in it before they carefully lowered him down into the grave and they took turns filling it in with the dirt.
It took Sir Cabe, Kaylee and Happy to get Lord Walter up into his saddle, they finally had to get his charger to lay down to get him on it. Toby stood there smiling the whole time. Happy looked at him, "What?"
"Why didn't you just take his armor off?" Toby asked her.
Happy glared at him and he quickly ran back and got onto his saddle. Lord Walter's charger stood up and looked expectantly at Paige. Paige smiled and climbed up in her saddle, she looked around and when everyone was finally in their saddles she turned and started riding back south and Lord Walter's charger matched stride with her horse.
Two hours later they had returned to their previous camp and began getting everything set up. They got Lord Walter down off his charger first and Paige had them go ahead and put him in their tent. Sir Cabe stayed long enough to help her get him out of his plate mail. Paige looked at Sir Cabe, "How should we work watches?"
Sir Cabe scratched his chin, "We'll do three four hour watches, and you should concentrate on taking care of our Lord."
Paige smiled and kissed his cheek, "Thank you Cabe, especially for caring enough to try and protect me."
Sir Cabe nodded, "Thank you my Lady for what you did to save us."
Paige smiled, "You know you can call me Paige right?"
Sir Cabe shook his head, "Not now that you are married my Lady."
Paige shook her head as she watched him leave the tent.
"My Lady Paige," Toby called out.
Paige smiled, "Come in Toby."
Toby stepped into the tent, "I just wanted to see if you needed a hand removing Lord Walter's clothes and to give him a once over to be sure he is okay."
Paige nodded, "Sure, we can do that."
It didn't take long and Toby nodded, "He looks good physically. Meta-physically might be a different story. I also wanted to thank you for standing up for me against Sir Cabe."
"Of course Toby, you only did what I told you to do so you shouldn't suffer any consequences of that." Paige told him.
They heard Sir Cabe raise his voice, "No, you heard the Lord, we do not put our hands on the weather. Do you know how mad he'd be when he wakes up and finds out we did this?"
Paige and Toby stepped out of the tent.
Allie stepped up to him, "I know what I am doing, besides, don't you think he'd like to wake up and find out we hadn't died of dehydration?"
"Whoa, guys, hold on. What's wrong?" Paige stepped up and gently pushed them back away from each other.
"We're out of water and there is no fresh consumable water within forty miles of this place. If Lord Walter can't conjure any, we're going to have a really rough time. The horses especially, but I could bring a small rain cloud to fill our water pots." Allie told her.
Paige looked at Sir Cabe, "Walter told me that Cavaliers like Paladins have some of the abilities of Clerics, do you not have this ability to make food and water?"
Sir Cabe shook his head, "I've spent most of my time studying tactics and wars. Our Lord out paced me long ago."
Paige nodded, "We need some kind of middle ground then. Is there anyway he could cast the spell while he was asleep?"
Sir Cabe frowned as he looked at her, "How do you mean?"
"We bring the pots into the tent and put them around him and I try to get him to subconsciously cast the spell to make the water." Paige told him.
Sir Cabe smiled, "Well, I've never heard of such a thing before, but what's the worst that could happen?"
Sir Cabe grabbed Toby and they walked over to the water horse and got the two biggest pots down and took them into the tent and set them next to Lord Walter. "Now what do we do?" Sir Cabe looked at Paige.
"Roll Walter on his side facing the pots," Paige told him as she knelt down behind his back after they rolled him over. She reached down and pulled his left hand up and put the owl emblem into his hand and closed her hand around his so he was holding it. "Walter, we need you to create water in these pots for us," Paige told him.
Walter lay there unmoving, Paige smiled down at him. She bent down closer to his ear and gently blew across his ear, "Walter, do you remember our honeymoon night?"
They saw him smile after a few moments and slowly he nodded his head. "We need you to create water in the water pots," she told him before whispering quietly, "And then tonight we can reenact some of our honeymoon."
His smile got bigger and he mumbled something and the two pots filled with water. Paige smiled, "Thank you Walter."
Sir Cabe laughed, "You are devious." He bent down and put the lid on the two pots and then picked one of them up.
Toby picked the other one up, he wagged his eyebrows at Paige, "Looks like whatever you whispered caused more then just the water to rise."
Paige looked down and saw the blanket over Walter had pushed out away from his body and she blushed.
A short bit later, "Paige, is it okay if I come in?"
Paige smiled, "Come on in Allie."
Allie stepped in and saw her lying on her side next to Walter, "I just wanted to make sure our Lord was okay after what happened."
Paige nodded, "He seems to be resting comfortably."
Allie nodded, "Is it okay if I do a quick examination?"
Paige nodded and Allie knelt down next to him. "I don't know what that magic is but it seriously disrupts the Lord's cellular life." Allie reached out and put her hand against his forehead and then opened his eyelids and checked his eyes before examining his ears and mouth.
Paige began to get a little concerned, "Well?"
Allie nodded, "He doesn't have any discoloration to his skin anywhere does he?"
Paige shook her head, "Well, he didn't when Toby helped me remove his clothes a couple of hours ago."
Allie looked at her, "Do you mind checking or helping me to check right now?" Paige lay there biting her lip as she thought about that. "If you are uncomfortable with me seeing him undressed, I can just examine the parts you're okay with and then you can examine the others after I step out. I just want to be sure we aren't missing anything."
Paige took in a deep breath as she moved back and knelt next to Walter. Slowly she nodded and Allie reached down and pulled the blanket up from his feet until it was almost to his groin. Allie then lowered the top down until the top of his pelvic bone showed. Allie looked at Paige, "Since you seem a little unsure about me seeing our Lord, we'll just examine this much of him and give you a few moments to adjust to me seeing the rest of him. Is that acceptable?"
Paige slowly nodded.
Allie smiled at Paige as she began examining his skin, "You know, I knew he was going to be well muscled, but for some reason I didn't think he would be quite this well muscled. No wonder he has such a reputation of physical prowess in physical confrontations."
Paige just smiled.
Allie finished examining all of his exposed skin and she looked up at Paige, "Have you decided if it is okay if I remove the blanket now?"
Paige looked into her eyes, "Are you going to be responsible for our health?"
Allie smiled, "Why do I get the feeling this isn't just about examining him? Are you wanting me to move to the Keep or the town outside?"
Paige nodded as she blushed, "I'm not comfortable with sharing such an intimate view of him unless you are going to be there at all times for us."
Allie nodded, "I will be there for all of you."
Paige smiled and nodded her head as she watched Allie reach out and pull the blanket the rest of the way off of him. As she touched and examined, "Thank you for figuring out how to get our Lord to create the water. Okay, let's roll him over."
After thoroughly examining him Allie nodded, "Everything looks fine. His cells are still distressed but I think like at the lake it will just take some time for his cells to recover but he'll be fine."
"Thank you Allie," Paige told her with a smile as they both covered him up.
Paige ran her hand down his chest and stomach. "Nothing like a closed tent flap to invite people to come visiting," Paige whispered to Walter.
Paige looked at her wedding band next to Walter's, they both had a nice solid weight to them as she thought back to when Happy gave the rings to them after they got back from their honeymoon night.
Happy pulled out a small leather sack and opened it and removed a wad of leather. She unfolded it and uncovered a gold ring and as she unfolded it more she uncovered a second larger gold ring. "While you two were on your honeymoon day," Happy rolled her eyes. "Whoever heard of a one day honeymoon? Anyway, I made you real wedding rings." She handed them to Paige. "But in order for the magic to set you have to be in close proximity of each other for at least twelve hours."
"Happy, these look so professional. Thank you, what would the magic do?" Paige looked up at her as she handed them to Walter to see.
Happy grinned, "Well right now if you were wearing it and someone tried to hit you it would afford you extra protection. It would be like you were wearing two sets of leather. But after the magic sets you would share a limited psychic bond with O'Brien. You wouldn't read each other's thoughts, well not right away. The psychic bond could grow to do that. But that's like years from now. After twelve hours it would be more like you'd have a limited connection. You know if the other was experiencing strong feelings."
"This probably won't work but nothing ventured, nothing gained," Paige said as she looked at Walter. She thought, 'Love, can you hear my thoughts?' Paige sighed when she felt hungry. Paige laughed, "Okay. This could be a problem if I can feel when you are hungry and don't know if it is me or you."
Paige stepped outside the tent and Ralph ran up and hugged her, "How's Dad?"
Paige smiled, "He's still sleeping. But he's going to be okay baby."
Happy called over, "Did you tell your Mom and Dad?"
Ralph's eyes got real big, "I was so excited when they came back I forgot."
Paige reached out and ran her hand through his hair, "Tell us what baby?"
Ralph reached into a pocket and pulled the ring out. "Happy made the mold and poured the gold but she let me extract it and clean it up." He held the ring up for her to take.
Paige smiled as she took it and looked it over. "You did a really good job on it Ralph, I'm really impressed."
"Thanks," Ralph smiled at her. "I told Sir Cabe I didn't realize this was something a person could do as a living. So I was wondering if maybe Dad would let me learn how to do it."
Paige smiled, "I don't see why he wouldn't. But what about being a Paladin?"
"Hearing all of the stories you always told and even seeing Dad in action is very inspiring but this, it's like it calls to me." Ralph told her.
Paige nodded, "Well, when Walter is back on his feet I'll talk to him about it. I am sure he won't have an issue with it if that is what you really want. Just make sure though, you can't just switch every time something different comes along." She smiled as she held the ring back out to him.
Paige walked over to Happy, "Happy, on these rings, what kind of feelings will we be able to feel?"
Happy shrugged, "Standard ones I guess, why?"
Paige laughed, "What about hunger?"
Happy thought about it for a moment, "Hey Sly, come here."
Sylvester got up and walked over, "What's up?"
Happy pointed at Paige's ring, "Would Paige be able to sense if O'Brien was hungry with the rings?"
Sylvester thought about it for a minute, "Well, if he was really hungry, yes, I think she would."
"Great, so how do I tell the difference so I don't start eating everything?" Paige looked at him.
Allie looked over from where she was drinking a cup of coffee with Cabe, "You're hungry Paige, let me fix you something."
Paige smiled, "Sorry, I wasn't saying I was hungry, but thanks Allie, I'm trying to figure out if these rings are telling me if Walter is hungry."
Allie laughed as she stood up. "No, I'm telling you, you are hungry, not our Lord."
Paige laughed, "Well then, I'm extra glad you are here to save me from over eating then."
Allie looked at her for a moment, "I think a peanut butter and jelly sandwich would work, no coffee but water."
Paige stared at her in disbelief, "Oh my, that sounds great."
Allie smiled as she started cutting the bread, "I bet strawberry jelly."
Paige's mouth dropped open, "Are you sure this ring isn't telling you want I want?"
Allie laughed, "Nope, I just know what your cells are saying. And I am going to guess, you'd really like lentil soup for dinner."
Paige ran over and hugged her, "However you are doing this, thank you."
"You're welcome," Allie grinned as she handed her the sandwich and put everything up before getting the lentils and other vegetables out and setting them to the side for later.
Paige got a cup of water and sat down before taking a bite of the sandwich, "Allie, this sandwich has just the perfect amount of sweet to it. Now surely my cells couldn't tell you that."
Allie sat next to Sir Cabe and grinned, "That might be a little more intuition." Allie nodded, "I made a potion to try on Lord Walter. It should give his body energy and nutrients which it needs without being overwhelming. We can give it to him since we checked him over and he didn't have any bruises or wounds because it could make it worse by making him bleed more."
Paige nodded as she ate another bite, "We can give it to him after I finish unless you want to go give it to him now."
Toby looked at Allie, "Well what do my cells want me to eat?"
Allie looked at him, "Lentil soup."
Toby laughed, "Then why doesn't it make me as happy as it made Paige?"
Allie smiled, "Probably because no matter what your cells want, you want brats and ale."
Toby stared at her, "How could you possibly know that?"
Allie laughed, "Well the ale is obvious, you always want ale. But I heard you tell Sylvester you wanted brats."
Everyone laughed.
Writing to stay ahead of the Corona virus! Monday might be a little tricky, have to make a visit to the VA hospital to drop off my sleep machine and get a new one. Hope you all are doing well! To the Adventure! -Tim
