Rest and Relaxation

Elfsong plopped down on a conveniently place rock and pulled off one of her shoes, rubbing her foot, she said, "Ow, my feet feel like they're going to fall apart if I walk much farther."

"You think you hurt?" Fel rubbed her shoulders. "Try sprouting hair all over your body, having your bones forcibly rearranged, and new appendages grow out of your body. In a matter of seconds at that."

Blade popped her back; "I think we're all a little banged up, a big battle, a chase through the forest, and then that tree." She saw Fade rubbing her head out of the corner of her eye, "Head still hurting from the spells?"

Fade nodded, "Yeah, especially that fog spell, it was the longest I've ever maintained it. My head feels like twenty pounds of rocks in a five pound bag."

Knight took the opportunity to check the bandages on his arm, I think we could all use some time to recuperate. Too bad there isn't an inn close by we could stay at."

"Actually," Virgo said with a smile. "There is this little place that I think you'd like."

They traveled deeper into the forest and soon, the rushing of water could be heard. As they entered a clearing, they found a modest building in the middle of the forest. It seemed to have been built with great respect to nature since they could see trees growing through the roof, and the river that ran under it flowed with clean water.

"I found this place a while back and couldn't bring myself to have my men burnt it. So I've been using it as a getaway when I need some time away from banditing."

Blade whistled, "Nice place, what kind of stuff do they do here?"

Virgo smiled, "The whole works. After they're done with you, you'll swear you've never been more relaxed. They'll untie knots you never even knew you had."

Elfsong clapped her hands and headed toward the building, "Then what are we waiting for? Let's go."

In the lobby, an unusually cheerful receptionist greeted them, annoyingly cheerful, in fact.

"Hello! Welcome to our little paradise." The receptionist scanned the party and they could've sworn that her smile expanded beyond her face when she saw Virgo. "Ah, Mistress Virgo, we haven't had the pleasure of your presence for some time, is everything well?"

"Yes, thank you. My clients have been keeping me busy. These," Virgo gestured to the party, "are some of my business associates. I expect you to treat them as you would me."

"Of course ma'am. If you would all come this way." The six started to follow the receptionist through a door to the back when a hand grabbed Knight roughly. His head whipped around and to his surprise, he found a giant horse of a woman holding his arm in one hand and a rather large club in the other.

Virgo furrowed her brow, "What's the meaning of this?"

The large, brutish woman said, or rather grunted, "No men."

Virgo turned to the receptionist, "Didn't I say to give all of my associates the same treatment you would afford me?"

"A thousand apologies, milady, but I'm afraid Berta is correct. The proprietress has specifically ordered us never to allow a man in, no exceptions. It seems she does not trust them."

"Well, the proprietress can take her issues and-"

"Virgo," Knight interrupted, "It's okay. I don't want to cause any trouble."

"You sure? I'm sure I could get them to change their minds."

"No, it's okay. I was never much of a day spa person. I'll just go out into the forest. I'm more comfortable outside anyway."

"Okay, if you're sure."

All five of the girls waved and said, "Bye, Knight, have fun." And he watched as they excitedly followed the receptionist into the back.

A tug on his arm reminded that he still had the gorilla attached to his arm.

"Okay, okay, I'm going." He pulled his arm free of her grip. "You know, I'm surprised she let's you in here, you look more like a man than most brutes I've seen." Berta apparently didn't appreciate that comment, the next thing Knight knew, he was on his face in the dirt with a black eye that looked like pitch. "Way to go, Knight," He scolded himself. "You really know how to talk to the ladies." Still muttering to himself about his own stupidity, he picked himself up off the ground, brushed himself off, and set off to find something to put on his eye before it started to swell.

The girls were each led into separate changing rooms and provided with a bathing suit and bathrobe. Once they were ready, they were led into a room where a pretty and lithe woman stood smiling warmly.

"Hello," she said. "My name is Mara, I'm the proprietress of the facility. I will be helping you to enjoy your stay here as much as possible."

Blade smiled at her friends while Mara outlined the events of there stay. This is going to be fun, she thought.

This isn't going to be very fun, Knight thought. He had found a spot to make a fire and spread his bedroll but as soon as he had done so, he found gibberling tracks criss-crossing the ground. They didn't look particularly recent, so they probably wouldn't be coming back this way. Probably.

After starting the campfire, he sat down to cook some of the leftover rabbit and felt the cold yellow eyes on his back. His hand went slowly to his sword but didn't draw. Gibberlings were just like all the other dumb animals, if he avoided any sudden movement and made sure they didn't see him as a threat, maybe they'd just go around him.

First on the agenda was a nice soak in the natural hot spring. Heat from below the Earth's crust rose up from the Earth's crust rose up and heated water that flowed down from the Spine of the World and out through the front of the building. The pool itself was carved from the rock, a staggered shelf served as seating and they had even designed a little waterfall that fell into the pool and made a soothing splashing noise. The path to the pool was dark slate rock and on either side shrubs and trees, which went right up through the roof, made the room even more serene, made you feel like you were really outside.

Sinking into the hot water, Fel sighed and said, "I'm going to enjoy every minute of this."

Knight was on his feet now, one hand gripping his still sheathed sword and backing slowly away from the snarling gibberling. The gibberling raised its clawed hands and leaped forward. Requiem flashed from its scabbard and through the air. The gibberling fell at Knight's feet, suffering from what could only be described as a "splitting headache."

More snarls snapped Knight's attention away from his joke. More gibberlings had arrived and they looked none too happy that he had killed one of their kin.

After they had gotten out of the hot spring, they were taken into another room where women gave them manicures, pedicures, even facials. The woman assigned to work on Fel's nails nearly fainted when she saw her hands. Of course, cat-like claws on any human looked pretty strange. One's that were actually used as such tend to take strange to disturbing. Human fingernails just were not designed to be sharpened on tree bark.

Trying her best to keep the slices of whatever vegetable they had put over her eyes, Fade asked Virgo, "How did you ever find this place?"

"When you spend as much time in these woods as I have, you tend to know about a few things. They charge a pretty copper, though.

Elfsong smiled contentedly, "Worth every copper, I say."

Just as luck would have it, he had sat himself in the middle of the territory of the biggest pack of gibberlings he had ever seen. He had several gashes where they had gotten through his defenses. On the bright side, they hadn't taken him on all at once; they could have torn him to ribbons for that.

Come to think of it, why weren't they all coming after him? Their behavior from the beginning wasn't anything like gibberlings he had encountered before. He glance over at the beasts waiting their turn at some live meat, and he saw even more strange behavior. The gibberlings were straining to move forward, as if some sort of invisible leash held them back. He had looked a little too long, and s gibberling jumped on his head. He thrust his sword over his head and into the creature, and pulled it off his head. No sooner had he dealt with one, than he had to turn and cut another one down. Then, the gibberlings stopped. No snarling, no clawing, nothing.

Knight turned and examined his opponents, even kicked one. Nothing. They weren't dead, he could see their eyes blink and their chests expand and contract as they breathed.

In the silence of the forest, he heard a buzzing soon, growing louder and fast. He had enough time to localize the sound and turn when an arrow hit him just below his shoulder. He yelled as the pain washed over him and nearly made him collapse on the ground.

As if his day hadn't gotten bad enough, whatever force holding the gibberlings in there trance decided to let them go, and they came at him again.

Finally, they were given the final treatment. All five lay face down on tables while masseuses kneaded their muscles, taking the last bit of tension out of them. They all felt like their bodies had melted. They were loose and relaxed; any knots were not only untied, but also smoothed out as if it had never been there.

Blade sighed with pleasure, "I'm moving in here and never leaving." The others murmured various forms of agreement. "I wonder if Knight is having as much fun as we are."

His left arm hung useless at his side and the arrow made his shoulder throb. Various cuts and bites bled freely and more gibberlings came. He fumbled through the forms, but he was getting tired, weak, and slow. The gibberlings hopped away from his clumsy slices and came at him again. It wasn't long before it was all he could do to keep them from his throat.

Managing to beat the gibberlings back for a few moments, Knight rested on his sword. He wasn't sure how much longer he could hold out. He looked in the direction of the resort. He didn't know if they had heard the sounds of the fight, but he doubted it. If help hadn't gotten here by now, it wasn't coming.

Three gibberlings came at him at once. Knight hauled his sword up from the ground and prepared to meet the attack. If he was going down, he was going to make sure he took as many of them with him as they could. The gibberlings stopped short, and it was too late when Knight realized that the real attack was coming from behind. The gibberling crashed into his back and he twisted as he fell. He felt a sharp pain as his head bounced off the ground and he nearly blacked out. The gibberling perched on his chest and raised its paw to deliver the finishing blow. Knight closed his eyes and waited, but it never came. He felt the creature step of the chest and he watched as he walked away, followed by the rest of the gibberlings.

He lay there for a moment, trying to stifle the pain, and then he remembered he was in the middle of the forest. No one would be able to find him. He had to move, try to get back to the resort. He struggled to his feet and began stumbling through the forest.

"Thank you for coming," Mara told her guests. "Virgo, it was a pleasure as usual."

Virgo smiled and handed her a purse, "Thank you, Mara. That should be enough for all of us, plus a little extra."

"Thank you very much. I hope we'll see you again. And be careful. Berta has informed me that there have been gibberlings wandering these woods, along with strange men we've never seen before."

Virgo nodded and turned to the others, "Alright, let's go find Knight and get out of here."

They stepped out into the setting forest sun and with the appreciation of those with nothing on their shoulders, looked at nature as if for the first time. The beauty of the trees, the whisper of the wind, the gurgle of the stream, the blue wrapped body lying in the water…

Knight lay on his back, semi-conscious, looking at the sky through the trees. He saw familiar faces staring down at him, but he couldn't remember who they were. He could see their lips moving, but he couldn't hear their voices.

A hawk flew through the canopy, and he marveled at it. How it adjusted each individual feather adjusted as it glided through the air. He felt someone put a stick between his teeth and hands hold him down, an arm reached across his vision. A jerk on his shoulder, bright light flashed in his eyes, the sounds of the world rushed past him, and the last thing he remembered was the clearest sound of the stick snapping between his teeth, and the darkness enclosed him.

Message from the Author: Apologies for the supreme lack in updates over the last several months. My computer crashed and I thought I had lost everything and was in the slow and painful process of recovering all my files. I've finally found them all and can now restart my erratic posting process! Enjoy!