They went around back to a small fire with a kettle sitting next to it and no seats. She eyed the solemn kettle that failed to be boiling over the fire. Looks like she’d been bullshitting too. Whoops. She looked up to see Bertold had moved forward and was wandering the edges of the fire trying to figure out what to do. She just dropped down in place and Sugarbear claimed guardianship over her right side. Seeing her lack of decorum, Bertold followed suit.

She leaned for the kettle and her eyes caught on her cup. Her one cup. “I’ll go in to get you a cup.” She said absent mindedly and stood but left Sugarbear to watch him with a wave of her hand. She wasn’t sure what he saw with that steady expression of his but he watched her every foot of the way before turning back to examine her dog.

Tea, tea, tea. Cup, cup, cup. She went through the cupboards trying to figure out where she stored them. She only ever needed the one and never felt like replacing it after washing up for the night. Then a whimper came. Koda was at her side sniffing at her and the backdoor. He must have already noticed the guest.

“I’m sorry boy, but this is a 'no injuries allowed party,' you have to go back to bed.” She signaled him but he failed to leave, just looked up at her face and whimpered. It was so hard to say no, but that man was acting funky and there was no way she could show weakness in front of him at her… tea party? “Koda! Lie down.” She said firmly and at last he looked away and settled back into his bed. Body turned with eyes on the front door. He may have listened but he hadn’t given up. Cassidy took the hint. When she finally found the cup, she left the door cracked for Koda to run through should a fight erupt.

When she made it back, she was greeted by a friendly smile. “You made it. For a while I was afraid all I’d get was the company of this lovely animal.” He gestured back to Sugarbear and Cassidy ground her teeth. She didn’t like other people, or maybe just him, talking about her dogs like that. After everything in this world, they deserved more respect than that patronizing tone. By the time he turned back to her she was all smiles though and she settled back down, between him and her dog, to pour him some tea.

“I’m glad you appreciate her. She’s proven indispensable among my hunts.” A sweet little smile, that should warn him this was a bad area to go.

He gave a nod as he accepted the cup, “She looks like she could hold her own.”

Sugarbear stayed on the ground, eyeing the back and forth, her ears with ever so slightly back. If her owner didn’t seem so relaxed her hackles would be up by now. She went back to watching the man.

Cassidy was also watching Bertold. He seemed to have relaxed quite happily by her fire. She had just shot at the man who was trying to break into her house and he was now happily sipping tea by her fire. Was she missing something? What was up with him? That sword came to mind. Riiight.

“Do you often go exploring?”

“Hmmm?” He opened his eyes from savoring her tea. It wasn’t that good of tea. What was he savoring?

“Do you often go onto people’s property and try to open perfectly good doors?”

He leaned forward and started coughing. It looked like something went down the wrong pipe. The coughing didn’t stop and for a moment she thought of going forward to give the poor man a pat on the back. She did ambush him. Well, not really. But she could have been nicer about it. She was trying to be amiable after all. She asked again once he got his wind back.

“Do you often go exploring?”

He’d set his cup aside to get some air and was now eyeing her with his arms supporting him from either side. She felt itchy. His hand was offly close to that sword.

“I’m an Explorer, it’s what I do.”

“And do you often find places like these open and free for exploration.”

He met her gaze and said matter-of-factly. “I find woods like these all the time. But usually there’s just a body.”

It was her turn to take a pause now as she digested this. She knew she wasn’t the only one. The voice claimed there was others, or at least implied it with the whole top 10% speech. But that also implied others were alive, not dead on the ground. Then again that would make getting into the top 10% a lot easier.

“You said usually.”

He’d gone back to his tea. She liked him better, with tea in hand and away from his sword.

“When we get woods like these they come with Initiates. The Initiates are usually dead or choose to move on by the time I, or others, find them.”

She thought of her happy home, why would others move on? “Then what’s so exciting about these woods if you’re so focused on searching them? Is it the house? Things in the house?”

He waved his now free hand dismissively. “Oh no, those are just interesting. The heavy mana influx your land goes through to be brought here creates rare resources that we’re hunting. There’s not much to the houses besides jewelry.”

Not much! This was her home! That was just plain insulting. She looked down at her cup to hide the glare. She was supposed to be nice right now. Sugarbear shuffled next to her and she had to put a calming hand on the fuzzy blue head.

“And the bodies?”

His hand jumps a little.

“You said usually you find bodies.”

“What about them?” His head tilts curiously as if this were an innocuous question.

She took a sip, trying to drown her frustration in tea. It was cold. She put the kettle back over the fire. “What killed them? How’d they die? What did you do about it? Do you just leave them or bury them or something else?” Something else… her mind was going dark places. Just because this world was insane didn’t mean its people had to be too. She eyed him suspiciously. Sugarbear let out a growl.

Bertold wasn’t sure what to do. Places like this were usually a goldmine for treasure and this one surely was; his Sensing Skill was going off like crazy. But all the others had been vacated or, um, vacated. And its not that this Tier 1 was scary, but he was beginning to feel very intimidated with that massive dog growling at her side. Besides it was bad form for Explorers to go and murder people to steal their property. The knights would be all over him for that. They always seemed to know...Must be some Skill. He thought back to earlier, then their was her proficiency with a bow. No one manages the shot she made earlier unless they were very certain of where it would land. Not a good idea to challenge that willy nilly.

Not-to-mention, she was just a Tier 1 and they were now in melee range. His territory. What trick did she have up her sleeve that made her so comfortable with a stranger that could be wanting her dead? God, why did she have to turn up alive?

He melted out of his frozen state to slowly put the cup down. Cassidy narrowed her eyes at this as if he were putting aside a peace accord.

“A lot of times it’s hard to tell, they’ve usually been dead awhile, but it’s almost always an animal that’s gotten to them.” This was so awkward. Again, he wondered, just why couldn’t she be dead? It would fix so many of the upcoming problems. “I’m an explorer not a gravedigger. I don’t really have anything that can help by that point so I just leave them in peace and do my job.”

What about the times it wasn’t an animal? “Which is exploring."

“Yes.”

There was a pause. Both contemplating their next move. This was her ground. Neither one would argue that. Cassidy was hoping he’d pick that tea cup back up, especially if this was about to break into an argument. She didn’t want his hands free if they disagreed about his welcome. But peace required compromise and if she wanted any access to her goldmine—his information, she’d need him around and talking.

Bertold was trying to think his way towards an invitation. There was magic on these grounds and treasure. But they were hers and the bones of her ancestors made this ground. He could feel it. It made things both more difficult and far more lucrative. The magic would twist these aspects of this land to fit with her family line which ment rare. He couldn’t do anything without an invitation though and that dog was damn scary, even at Tier 1.

She leaned forward, breathing in and refilled her tea cup, offering some to him. “What does it take to explore? What’s it all about?” She sounded like an idiot. What’s exploring? Finding things, you moron.

“Well, um…” He glanced at his cup with one eye before holding it out to her. “An adventurous spirit?” They both let out a sigh at that one. This was getting nowhere fast.

Cassidy was thinking of those bodies. Dead without ever leaving home. She focused on this man before her. Shifty and untrustworthy in every way, but her only link to this new world. Her thoughts whirled and turned but only for a moment, she decided. She decided she'd do the impossible and make this new world her home too.

New strategy. Cassidy’s favorite strategy. Blind rush. “Now that you’re here and know that I am very much alive. What do you hope to gain from being on my property?”

That got him. No more dancing. He eyed her. There’d been a lot of that, eyeing each other. Neither side seemed to be getting anywhere, though it was his turn to try and make a difference. Gaze went to his mug. He gripped it like a life line.

“Usually I mark out things or areas of interest for Adventurers or Merchants to come back and claim.” Usually, usually, usually. Why couldn’t this be usual? He looked back up to see one eyebrow quirked.

“Obviously that won’t work here.”

“Yeah.” Her voice was bone dry. He immediately threw away the idea of going in 50/50 with her on selling rights to the resources. She didn’t seem interested in sharing.

Back to his tea. He swirled it around in his cup. This was fine porcelain. You had to hit the really fancy places to get this and here he was in the middle of no-where drinking it by a campfire. She obviously had resources, even luxury. So, what could he give her that would help him work his way to what he wanted?

Cassidy hoped he would hurry his ruminations. Yes, the tea was very interesting but she was tired of sitting by this fire. It may have been a great way to relax before invasion of the Explorer but now the heat was only adding to her building frustration. To make matters worse, she’d been hearing this odd little creak coming from her house and Koda’s head had just popped out. She kept signaling at him but he wouldn’t go away. She imagined he was growling at the intruder but she wasn’t sure and the last thing she wanted was for this Bertold to turn around and make eye contact with him. She had no idea in holy hell what might erupt then. Her dogs had always been protective but they weren’t used to strangers anymore and Sugarbear was showing clear signs aggression to what was, admittedly, a peaceful conversation.

Bertold pursed his lips. Information is what she didn’t have. He decided to go for broke. Come back with what he could if resource rights were off the table.

“Why don’t you show me around the property,” Give her control, good. “I’ll be able to show you what you have and teach you how to use it.” Information, good. “Afterward we can discuss my price for these services. Afterall, I can’t exactly ask you for something you don’t have.”

“And ask for the moon? Yeah right. There’s no way I could tell if you're lying about the worth to get more anyway.”

“Well then how are we going to agree on a price for anything if you don’t know the prices or trust me to tell you?”

She had to think that one over. And over. And… inspiration. The prices were different for both of them. She didn’t care how much it cost in this world. She only cared about how important it was to her. So if the strangeness meant pricier, and with this world’s logic she bet it did, that gave her an ace in the hole—Neridia. Nothing was stranger than Neridia and Neridia kept giving her free water whenever she came to visit. Something about recompense and landlording. Maybe Bertold could tell her more about that or… Neridia. She never did actually ask. God, there were so many questions she needed to ask.

“Let’s make a change to that deal and I think we’ll both be very happy.” He looked at her doubtfully. “You do everything you’ve just described and in return I’ll give you a flask of Nymph water.”

“Nymph water?”

“Water, Only from a Nymph.”

“No, that wasn’t the question. What do you mean Nymph Water?” He asked as he reeled back in surprise.

“You know a Nymph!”

“Yeah…?”

“Hell yeah, I’ll take that deal. Two flasks!”

“But I only said one.”

He just shrugged his shoulders. "One it is."