Pocket dungeon 2, p.7
Pocket Dungeon 2, page 7
I had offered for Iris to share with Yasha, and told her that I would take the couch, but she had insisted that she take it instead. I got the feeling she was just happy to have somewhere safe, but I hadn’t said as much out loud.
After her shocking revelation about William ‘Billy’ Harper being the man who had left her in the crystal to die, Iris hadn’t been incredibly forthcoming about much else.
She wasn’t closed off, and she was still talkative, but when it came to her past, she didn’t seem as if she wanted to talk about it at all, and I really wasn’t going to push her on the subject.
I just hoped that with enough time, she would be willing to open up on her own, because it would be a lie to say that I wasn’t curious about who she’d been before Harper had royally fucked her over.
The thought of Harper made my hands clench around the handles of my motorcycle in rage as I took a sharp turn. I had been keeping an eye on Harper and his whereabouts in Chicago, because I had promised Iris I would do as much, and that we would make him pay for what he did to her.
I slowed at a stop light and waited for it to change colors, and I nearly missed the transition from red to green, as I was still wrapped up in my thoughts about Harper.
It had only taken a quick Google search using the key words my buddy had sent me to find Harper’s new building in Chicago. It wasn’t publicly labeled yet as a recording studio, or whatever it was eventually going to be labeled as, but I knew where it was.
I had driven past it once or twice, like I thought that maybe I would see a big, flashing neon sign that said “hey, I’m a piece of shit, come punch me”, but I hadn’t had any luck in that department.
It really just looked like any other high-rise, but that was fine. Eventually, I would get inside to scope things out, but it hadn’t been my top priority at the moment. I was torn between logic and paranoia about Harper’s move to Chicago. He was a bazillionaire moving into the music industry, so it made sense for him to open up a branch in a large city. But the paranoid part of me couldn’t quite shake the notion that he was coming to Chicago to look for whoever had a crystal, and I didn’t want to give him any clues to my identity if I could avoid it at all.
The parking garage, which was the reason I suffered through some of the less pleasant ills of my apartment building, came up quickly on my left, and I made a sharp turn into the garage. I easily navigated my bike up to my usual parking spot, put the kickstand down, and turned the bike off.
I waited until Yasha and Iris both dismounted before I got off the bike myself and shrugged off my helmet. I shook my head to get my hair free of my face and smiled at the two women.
“Come on, let’s head inside,” I said. I started up to my actual apartment after taking the stairs from the parking garage two at a time, and both of the women followed me closely.
When I stepped into my apartment, I sighed in relief at the fact I was home and tossed my helmet on the kitchen island. Both Yasha and Iris followed suit, and without any further preamble, Yasha tossed herself down on the couch with a pleased sigh.
She might have been a fox-woman, but sometimes she acted so cat-like that it was almost hard to ignore.
“Maybe shower before Star Wars, Yash,” I said. “You’ve still got some slime in your hair.”
“That is a good idea,” she said, and just as quickly as she had thrown herself onto the couch, she pulled herself up and disappeared into the bathroom a few paces away.
I chuckled and looked over at Iris, who was still standing by the kitchen island and slipping off her shoes.
She looked far different than when I had first seen her in the dungeon, though that had more to do with her clothing than her physical appearance.
Instead of the pink-and-yellow playsuit straight out of the 70s that she had worn, along with her suede boots and chain belt, she was now dressed in a pair of stylish wide leg jeans, along with a baby doll style t-shirt with red raglan sleeves. It showed off her California tanned midriff, along with the scattered constellation of dark freckles on her abdomen.
The white material of the baby doll t-shirt was stretched tight across her perky chest, and gave me a pretty damn clear view of her pink nipples.
I tried not to stare.
It had been a source of comfort for Iris that the 70s were apparently back “in” when it came to fashion, and while it wasn’t exactly right, she had been able to find some pieces that helped her acclimate a little easier.
I thought she would have looked fantastic in anything, but that had more to do with the fact she was stunning than anything else. Her shaggy, platinum-blonde hair fell around her shoulders and was a little wind swept from her time outside, and then her time on my bike as well.
She brushed her bangs out of her eyes and looked up to meet my gaze. I quickly looked away because I didn’t really want her to know I was staring.
“Do you want something other than pizza?” I asked her with a small smile. “We can always order one for Yasha and get something else.”
Iris matched my smile, though it was a little more shy than my own.
“You don’t have to do that, Wes,” she told me. “Pizza is just fine. I’m hungry enough that I could probably eat anything.”
I looked past her to see the time projected on the little stove clock. It was nearly seven in the evening already.
This simultaneously felt so much earlier and so much later than I expected.
“Are you sure?” I asked her as I pulled my phone out of my pocket and tapped my way over to the DoorDash app. “It’s really easy for me to order you something else.”
Iris warily stared at my phone. She knew what a phone was, which was a step past Yasha, but she was only familiar with landlines. She was still baffled by my cell phone, no matter how many times I showed it to her. It was honestly adorable to see how entranced she was by the device I found entirely commonplace.
Despite her interest, though, she hadn’t quite grasped the concept of delivery apps yet. Baby steps, and all that.
“Really,” she assured me. “Really, Wes. Pizza sounds great, I promise.”
“Of course, it does,” Yasha chimed in from the bathroom. Sometimes I forgot just how impressive her hearing was. She’d even heard us over the spray of the water in the shower.
Another small smile grew on Iris’ face, and I had to force myself to look away so I could actually put the damn pizza order in. All it took was a few taps of my thumb against the screen of my phone, and then two pizzas were on their way to my apartment.
Iris leaned up against the island and casually looked at the television as whatever the fuck Yasha had pulled up on the television continued to play out on the screen.
“I’m going to go deal with the gold and the crystal,” I announced to Iris. “Then shower.”
Iris seemed to be invested with the action on the television, so I quickly slipped behind the couch and into the bedroom to deal with the crystal tucked into the inner pocket of my leather jacket, along with the satchel of gold.
I shucked off my jacket and tossed it onto the floor after removing both the satchel and the crystal from the pockets, and I set both of the items on my dresser where I tended to place them for safekeeping. What I really needed was to get a safe, so I made a mental note of that so I would remember to place an order for one.
While I was still certain that no one knew it was me specifically who had the crystal, this was definitely a “better safe than sorry” situation.
The sack of gold next to it on the dresser didn’t look as full as it was, thanks to its magical properties that carried over into the real world, but that didn’t stop me from being far too aware that it was nearing time I needed to send my gold in to sell again.
I had been trying to space out when I actually tried to sell off the gold by a few days each time, but it was getting harder and harder to manage as I was pulling more and more gold out of each dungeon.
The last thing I wanted was to get the IRS looking into me for suspicious income as well, but I also still needed to sell the gold. My current favorite option, after doing quite a bit of research, was to sell it online to a few different places. All of them deposited the money directly into my PayPal account after the appraisal was processed, and I was able to move the money into my bank from there when needed.
I never thought I’d be the sort of person who had to worry about the IRS coming after them for fraud, but, well, I also hadn’t expected to be the sort of person to get swept up into some weird fucking pocket dimension shit, but here I was… sucked up into some weird fucking pocket dimension shit.
Once I dealt with the two most important things from the inside of my jacket, the fact that I was still in pain finally started to register in my mind. I had managed to push the thought aside for the time being, but now here it was, loud and fucking clear.
“Shit,” I murmured to myself. “Let’s hope I have a first aid kit or something.”
If I didn’t, that was definitely something I was going to have to invest in, because I didn’t want to go to the hospital if I sustained any more serious injuries. It had been hard enough to bring Yasha, considering the fact she literally wasn’t human. Hospitals were the exact sort of place that would get suspicious if I became a frequent flier, so to speak.
I had already started looking into taking some fighting lessons, as well as weapons training to help me in the dungeons. Maybe some emergency medical type thing would be smart to add to the roster as well. I was quickly becoming a one-man army.
Well, not quite a one-man army.
I pulled my t-shirt off, and when I tossed it onto the floor next to my leather jacket, I was unsurprised to see that the thin material of the t-shirt was spotted with little holes that resembled cigarette burns.
Damn, that probably meant there were holes in my leather jacket as well. That was a bummer, I really liked that jacket. Yeah, I could get a new one, but it wasn’t the same.
I shed my jeans next, and then my socks, so I was left standing in my underwear as I briskly walked the few feet from my bedroom and into the narrow bathroom right next door. I half-nudged the door shut to give myself the semblance of privacy and started the less than thrilling process of showering and looking myself over for injuries.
The bathroom was already fully encased in steam from Yasha’s shower, and despite the fact that the fox-woman had already emerged from the water, it was still running on full blast.
Her reddish-gold hair dripped water down her back and onto the towel she had loosely draped around her abdomen and chest to dry herself off, and her tail was in a similar soggy state.
She blinked a few fat droplets of water from her eyes and flashed me a canine-heavy grin. “Much better.”
“I would hope so,” I joked. “I can’t wait to get this shit off.”
While I usually would have loved to shower with Yasha, I was glad she had finished before I could even start. I didn’t want her to see the injuries I had sustained and get worried, or worse, feel bad that she had only sustained a few minor singes to her hair and fur.
“Now it is time for Star Wars,” she announced. Yasha leaned over to give me a quick peck on the lips, and then she slipped from the bathroom without any further hesitation. I fought the urge to laugh as I watched her go.
Then, it was just me alone in the bathroom with the sound of the spray of water to keep me company. I kicked off my underwear and braced myself for the heat before I stepped under the sputtering stream of water.
The water pressure wasn’t the strongest, but even the slight amount it did have sent a few shockwaves of pain rolling through me as the water battered down onto the numerous areas of puckered, injured skin.
I sucked in a breath through my teeth and tried to ignore the mild pain as I quickly started to clean myself off. The water sluicing off all of the remaining slime and grime was an immediate relief, despite the discomfort, and by the time I stepped out of the shower, I felt better already.
The water had started to go cold, so even if I had wanted to stay in longer, it wouldn’t have been a pleasant experience. I quickly turned the shower off and grabbed one of the towels from the back of the door to dry myself off without aggravating my injuries.
I wrapped my towel around my waist instead of bothering with the dirtied underwear. I’d grab a new pair after I dealt with the sores left by the poison.
The steamy fog had started to dissipate from the bathroom, and I tried to clear off the mirror with my hand to little success.
I couldn’t see my own back, even when I craned in the mirror-- fog or no fog-- but on the rest of my body, I counted about twenty marks from where the venomous ooze had splattered all over me. Most of the spots were just red and raw like welts, but a small handful actually seemed to be injuries that needed treatment.
“Shit,” I sighed to myself before I reached up to open the medicine cabinet in the search of something that might help.
I had exactly one bandage left, so that wasn’t helpful, but there was a half-used tube of Neosporin that was going to come in handy.
I uncapped the tube, smeared a little glob on my finger, and quickly started the process of smoothing the salve over the most easily accessible marks on my skin first. I sucked in a sharp breath through my teeth as the cool ointment touched my raw skin, but I powered through and continued to dab it on.
I only stopped occasionally to smear a little more on my finger before I resumed the process. I was able to fall into a sort of silent rhythm as I continued, and it became almost meditative. I was more annoyed by the wounds than hurt by them, but they still weren’t really pleasant to have to deal with, that was for sure.
My torso, arms, and legs were essentially all finished when the partially shut door to the bathroom was gently nudged open.
“Wes?” Iris called out my name. “The pizza’s here.”
She had stuck her head into the doorway then, and she sucked in a shocked breath at the sight of me. I couldn’t be sure if it was because I wasn’t wearing anything other than a towel, because I was covered in welts, or because I was all gooped up, but for some reason, my response to all three scenarios was to hold my hands up like I was trying to show my innocence.
“Sorry,” I apologized quickly. “I didn’t mean to startle you. I’ll be out in a minute, I’m done here anyway.”
I capped the Neosporin and turned to put it back in the medicine cabinet, but Iris didn’t move from her place in the doorway as she watched me in shock and concern.
“Your back,” she said quietly.
“What?” I asked and looked at her from over my shoulder. “What about my back?”
“You still have sores on your back,” she elaborated. “Here, give me that.”
She stepped into the bathroom and gingerly pushed the door closed behind her to give us a little more space. I was momentarily too stunned to do much of anything, but I eventually passed her the tube of Neosporin without a word.
“Turn around,” she said gently. “You can sit on the toilet lid if you want.”
I decided to take her suggestion and moved so I could sit on the closed lid of the toilet with my back to her. I hunched forward and placed my elbows on my knees so she had easier access to my back. I couldn’t see her, but I heard her setting the cap for the little medication tube on the edge of the sink.
She was quiet as she went through the motions of squeezing out some salve onto one of her fingers.
“This might be cold,” was all the warning she gave me before she touched my back with the lightest of hands.
I sucked in a breath through my teeth at the feeling, but it had little to do with the fact that the medication was cold. I was used to that already.
This was the first time Iris had touched me aside from when she had to, like when we rode my motorcycle together, and it was hard not to feel electrified by the feeling of her skin on mine.
I was suddenly glad she couldn’t see my face past my hunched back and the strands of hair that fell down around my cheekbones and forehead and further obscured my features.
“I’m sorry,” she apologized quickly and pulled away as if she’d burnt her finger or something.
“No, no,” I said just as quickly. “Don’t be. It’s just… it’s just a little cool, you were right.”
My answer seemed to relax some of her panic, because she reached out to dab at another place on my back. I let out a slow breath and tried to keep myself from tensing at her touch, though it was difficult.
“What happened?” she asked again. Her breath was so close that I could feel the heat of it as it fanned over my skin as gentle as a kiss.
“One of the monsters in the dungeon,” I explained. “It seeped a sort of acidic venom when it was injured, and it sprayed all over. I think I took the worst of it. As far as I know, it just got Yasha’s fur. She wasn’t thrilled, but I’m glad she wasn’t hurt, either.”
“Good,” Iris said. “Not that you got hurt. I’m just glad that Yasha’s okay, too.”
“So am I,” I said. “This isn’t pleasant, though.”
There was a long pause before Iris said anything else, and for a moment, I was worried I’d said something wrong, but before I could ask her that very question, she reached out and soothed another of the spots that marred my back.
“You don’t like being nursed back to health?” she teased, and for a second, I was so taken aback by the lightness in her tone that I nearly forgot how to speak.
I felt as if I was talking to a different Iris than the one I had gotten to know over the last week. This seemed like an Iris who was willing to be open, and I wanted to keep her here as long as I could.
“I wouldn’t say that,” I joked. “This is pretty nice. It’s not often that I get to be the one in distress.”
Iris seemed almost soothed by the repetitive act of rubbing the ointment onto the sores on my back and shoulders, and I couldn’t say I wasn’t feeling the same thing. There was something magical about her touch, or maybe that had more to do with the fact that she was a beautiful woman touching me while I wasn’t wearing pants.
