Two weeks had passed at Furrowfield and Lily was taking the morning to herself after having built a better a few small houses and another tiny field for a few more crops. She had her dress drying on the fence post nearby and was sprawled out in the thin black shirt and shorts she usually wore beneath her dress; her shirt was pulled up to expose her pale belly to the warm rays of the sun. She had a silly grin on her face as she daydreamed of different things to build for everyone, though she wished she knew of a way to make the ground healthier; she just couldn't think of anything to make to help.
A shadow covered her, making the builder frown as she slowly opened her eyes. A face glared down at her, red eyes narrowed as Malroth leaned down more over Lily. "Morning, weirdo."
"You wouldn't have me any other way." Lily relaxed some and shut her eyes, waiting for him to move so she could enjoy the rest of the morning. "Also, I'm pretty sure it's afternoon now."
"Not quite. Rosie told me about a place East of the farm that was an old wheat farm but she's too chicken to go." Malroth shoved his hands in his pockets, lifting a brow at Lily when her eyes opened up again.
Lily let out a groan and started to roll over when she realized that she was between Malroth's legs. Her cheeks warmed and she pushed herself back as quick as she could, pointedly not looking at him as she held her hand up, waiting for him to help her up. "So, we're going I take it?"
Malroth grabbed her hand, pulling her up without so much as a grunt of effort. "Yup! Time to go bash some monsters!" He turned and started to lead the way out when he glanced back at her. "You might want to put more clothes on, though."
Lily's face exploded in every shade of red as she ran over and grabbed her dress. "Sh-Shut up!" She yanked her dress over her head and ran after him.
The two traveled for a while, climbing their way up the incline when a rat ran by them. It came to a skidding halt next to them, its' nose wiggling in their direction. "You look like you're headed towards the old wheat farm."
"You talk!?" Lily gasped, jumping away from the fat rat.
"Well… yeah." The rat reached up, scratching its' little head. "All of us fat rats do. Look, it's dangerous once you get passed them stairs there, too dangerous for me to sneak in and snag some wheat seeds. Too many monsters. Just passing along a friendly warning."
Malroth's jaw hung slack as he watched the rat scurry off and into the brush. "It.."
"Talked…" Lily pulled her arms to her chest as if she were giving herself comfort. "I'll have to ask Rosie about the rats later, I suppose."
Malroth scratched his head as he numbly walked away from Lily, his eyes wide with shock. "It talked…"
Lily trotted after Malroth, let out a blood curdling scream when a maulusc emerged from the trees next to her. "M-Malroth!" Lily screamed out when the giant green tongue slammed into her, tossing her to the ground.
"Lily!" Malroth slid down the rocks he had climbed up, pulling out his club as he pushed off the ground. He brought his club down, hitting the disgusting slug monster between the eyes. It roared in pain but turned to Malroth, trying to slam itself into him. "Not gonna happen, ya big ugly!" Malroth hit it again, pushing the monster back.
Lily felt around her hip, her eyes going wide as she watched Malroth fight his new enemy. She didn't have her Cyprus stick to join in on the fight. And she had stupidly left her hammer back at the farm. Malroth was a beast in a fight, he hit fast and hard; enjoying each blow he struck. A few more strikes and the monster was done for. "Malroth…"
Malroth turned, grinning at Lily with his club resting on his shoulder. "Easy peasy!" He laughed and went to her, helping her up again. "Where is your stick at? Your hammer?"
Lily pouted and turned her head, mumbling softly.
"What? Where?" Malroth put a hand behind his ear and leaned in towards her. "I couldn't hear you…"
"At the farm…"
"And why… would they be there?"
"Cause… I wanted an easy morning…"
"And you… forgot them, why?"
"Cause… I didn't think about it…"
Malroth couldn't help but laugh at the ashamed look on Lily's face. "You're pathetic, I swear. Stick close to me, I'll protect you."
Lily looked at Malroth, her cheeks warming as he turned and started to walk away from her. She'd only known him for a few short weeks now, but she wasn't sure what she would do without him by her side.
Malroth grabbed Lily's hand, easily pulling her up the last ledge that overlooked the old wheat farm. He put his hands on his hips, rolling his shoulders. He let out a grunt when joints popped from the stretch. "We're almost there."
Lily stared in awe at the large, rundown building ahead of them. "That's it!" She ran down the hill, laughing on her way down as Malroth yelled for her to slow down and wait for him. She kept her eyes open as she watched the area around them, not seeing any monsters around.
Malroth ran after Lily, watching as she slid into the old building. "Dammit, Lily! Wait up!" He looked around, trying to find an easier way in besides the hole in the wall that she slipped through, but he saw nothing else. "Dammit. I'm gonna pull her outta there by those damn pigtails." He barely made it through the slender hole as he looked around.
Hardly any sunlight streamed in, but the bit that did cast shadows everywhere. Something moved to his left and he pulled his club out, readying himself for an attack. He pressed his back against the wall, peeking around the corner. That did him nothing in the way of seeing what might be in there with him. "Lily?" His voice, even at a whisper, echoed around him faintly. He saw a set of stairs to his right and smirked. His builder had to be upstairs.
He moved forward, but something covered his face. He let out a yelp and clawed at his face, trying to remove the sticky webbing that stuck to his skin. "Ew! Come on! Lily!?"
"First, I get attacked by monsters, then my sword breaks clean in half… I can't even! I don't even know where to start when making a new weapon!"
Lily glanced over as she bounced up the stairs, smiling when she saw a girl with tanned skin and blonde hair. "Hey! You said your weapon broke?"
The girl gasped, jumping up when Lily spoke to her. "Woah! You like, totally came out of nowhere!"
Lily laughed at the girl, holding her hand out for her. "I came from downstairs, I promise."
"Right. That's what I meant." The girl took Lily's hand and pulled herself up, grinning at the builder. "What are you doing here?"
"I heard this was an old wheat mill so I'm looking for wheat seeds to plant at a farm I'm helping out at." Lily grinned more as she pointed back in the direction she came from.
"Wheat seeds?! I've like, totally seen some of those around! But like… who are you?"
"I'm Lily, my friend Malroth is around here somewhere." The two girls let out a scream when they heard shouting coming from somewhere beneath them. "M-Malroth!?"
The girl let out a screech when a dark shape came up the stairs, bright red eyes glaring in their direction. "M-Monster!"
"Lily… you don't have a weapon, why did you run off like that?" Malroth growled as he climbed the stairs and picked his way carefully across the room.
Lily gave a nervous laugh and scratched the back of her head, playfully sticking her tongue out. "I just got so excited when I saw the mill and wanted to find some seeds to take back to Rosie."
Malroth rolled his eyes and shook his head. "You don't have to be so reckless; you know." He put his hands on his hips and stepped into the sunlight, ignoring the shocked look he got from the girl. "Let's try to find some seeds and head back, I don't want to be traveling in the dark."
Lily leaned around Malroth, grinning at him. "Got it, boss man."
"Hey… Lily, Malroth. Do you guys feel that? I'm getting a tingle in the back of my neck." The girl whispered as she darted out onto the balcony and looked down, seeing a hoard of ants beneath them. "Woah! We're right on top of an ants' nest! I clobbered so many of them on the way here that my sword literally broke! Like, literally!"
Malroth huffed and looked at the two girls. "I'll hold them off. Lily, you'll need to make some improvised weapons so you and… whoever this is can help fight them off." He gave the builder a nod before running downstairs.
The girl watched as Lily ran around, picking up various things. The builder was a fury of movements before she came back to the girl, holding out a wooden stick. "How did you?!"
"I'm a builder. I just used some of the old railing pieces and… well, tada!" Lily laughed when the girl carefully took the wooden stick. "C'mon, lets go fight these baddies!" She led the way down the stairs, seeing the Malroth had clobbered most of the large ants already. "He never leaves any for me."
The three fought off the remaining monstrous ants, by the time the waves stopped coming in, the sun was starting to fall behind the mountains that surrounded them. Malroth grumbled and crossed his arms over his chest. "Now we're either going to have to hold up here for the night or travel in the dark."
"It won't be that bad, Mal!" Lily giggled and gave him a playful shove. "We can find some wheat seeds really quick and hurry back to the farm."
"Oh, that's right! You're looking for wheat seeds." The girl held out a small satchel. "I have some that you guys can have. My name is Britney, by the way." She looked around before catching Malroth's eye. "If the three of us go back together then we can stomp the Children into the dirt and fight off any monsters that come around!"
Malroth grumbled again but shrugged. "Fine, fine. Besides, Rosie and Perry are always too afraid to fight any monsters that do show up, so I guess another hand to help won't hurt." He started to walk out of the building without them, glancing over his shoulder at them. "Are you coming or what?"
It didn't take the three long to get back to the farm but the others were fast asleep by the time they got there. Lily pointed to a building at the other side of the farm, smiling at Britney. "You can stay in there; we'll make introductions come morning."
Britney nodded and slipped into the small building. Lily turned to Malroth, seeing something stirring in those bright red eyes. "Are you alright, Mal?"
"Don't run off like that again, what if there had been monsters in there and I wasn't fast enough?" He growled at her before stomping to the little hut they shared. Lily couldn't help but smile at his worry. Only a few weeks ago he had said they would never be partners, and here he was worrying about her.
The next morning, Lily made sure to be up early in the morning to plant the wheat seeds and to make sure she was up to introduce Britney to the others. The next person up though was the Priest. He looked over at her but resumed his post next to the Deitree without saying anything. Rosie and Perry got up, giggling to each other but froze when they saw Lily tending to the garden. "Lily! You're up! When did you two get back?"
"After you guys went to bed." Lily looked between the two, a brow raised at them. "We brought back a someone who can help protect the farm."
Rosie seemed to glow with excitement. "Really?! Where are they?!" As if summoned by the excitement, Britney slowly stumbled out of the small hut Lily had pointed her to the night before. Rosie whirled around; her eyes wide. "Hi! I'm Rosie!"
Britney cried out and dodged out of the way of Rosie who had run over to give the new female a hug. "Uh… right. I… uhm… I'm Britney." She nervously glanced to Lily who was laughing from her spot in the pathetic excuse for a field. "You know… not to be rude, but your farm ain't got a lot of space. It's way too small."
Rosie pouted and looked over at Britney then to Lily. "We're working on it! We just… need to come up with a way to clean the soil and then it can grow more!"
"Clean the soil?" Britney put a finger to her chin as she thought for a moment. "Have you all heard of wrigglies? They're giant worm monsters that eat the tainted soil and put out clean soil. They can't help it so the Children of Hargon are trying to round them all up. I met one, he was going into hiding so we didn't really interact."
Rosie beamed with excitement and grabbed Britney's hands. "Where?! We can bring him here and he can help us!"
"Oi! Can you bring the volume down some?" Malroth growled as he stumbled out of the hut he and Lily shared, his long black hair was wild around his back as he cast a glare at Rosie and Britney. "What has you so excited this early in the morning?"
"Clean soil, Malroth!" Rosie giggled and spun Britney around with her. "We could have clean soil!"
Malroth turned his attention to Lily who gave a shrug and her signature smile. "I take it you and I are going somewhere?"
"Sounds like it!" Lily laughed and slapped Perry on the back, winking at him. "Unless you wanna go, Perry."
Perry's face turned almost as red as his hair as he jumped away from Lily. "O-Oh no, Mister Malroth ain't gon' wan' nothin' tah do wiv me. I'd be useless out there, fightin' monsters and what nots."
"Yeah, you can at least hold your own, Lily. I'd probably bring back pieces of Perry." Malroth shrugged and slung his purple jacket over his shoulder. "I'm going to go freshen up, I'll be back in a few minutes."
Lily watched him walk away, her eyes glued to the scars on his shoulder blades when he turned his head, causing his hair to move away from his back. She hadn't seen those before, but then again, she'd never seen him take his jacket off before. She turned to Rosie, grinning. "Guess I'll get ready to go!"
"Oh! Lily, I meant to stay up to give this to you when you got back. I tried my hand at making something." Rosie pulled a small bag off her belt and handed it to the builder, smiling. "The Priest showed me how to give something magical properties, this pouch should hold a lot of things for you."
Lily took it, examining the pouch carefully. "I'd heard of things similar to this back home, they were rare and very expensive." She stared at Rosie, her blue eyes searching the other girls' face. "How can I repay you, Rosie?"
The grin on Rosie's face only seemed to grow as she pushed her glasses up her nose. "This is my payment for you helping me build my dream, Lily. I'm so glad I got to meet you." Rosie giggled and shyly twisted her shoulders, her cheeks dusted with a soft pink at the awed look she got from Lily. "I mean it, I'm glad you decided to help me rebuild the farm."
