Lilit woke suddenly feeling like she was drowning. A bitter taste coating her tongue. She sat up, coughing hard enough to rock her entire body. When the fit finally passed, she was left panting, sitting on the floor. Awenda sat crouched in front of her, her helmet off and a worried expression on her face. In one hand she held an empty potion bottle.

  Awenda reached forward and pced one gloved hand on the side of Lilit’s face. She felt herself leaning involuntarily into the caress. A small smile pyed across Awenda’s lips.

  “Are you ok now?” Rana asked from off to the side. Lilit hadn’t even seen her crouched nearby. Looking around, Izumi was kneeling on her other side.

  “I think so. What happened? The st thing I remember was that vampire smming me against the ground over and over again.” Lilit asked.

  “Well, as soon as you went down, this big lug,” Izumi gestured toward Awenda, “threw the vampire she was dealing with back into the blood pool with a shield bash from hell. Then she grabbed the vamp on top of you and practically ripped him in half with her hands.” She looked in awe at Awenda.

  “Next thing I know, she’s ying her shield over your body and then she went berserker on the rest of the vampires.” Rana added to the story. “She took that great big sword of hers and just started annihiting vampires left and right.” Rana mimed swinging a sword two handed in big sweeping arcs.

  “It wasn’t like that guys.” Awenda protested.

  “Umm, yeah it was exactly like that,” Izumi interrupted. Awenda hung her head. Her hand fell off of Lilit’s face.

  “Yeah, I just went behind her and finished off the vampires ying in pieces all over the floor. It was so hot.” Rana looked hungrily at Awenda now.

  “And I thought I had problems” Izumi said. “Who gets hot and bothered from a massacre?”

  “What? I’m not ‘hot and bothered.’” Rana protested.

  “Uh huh.”

  “Anyway,” Awenda looked reprovingly at the other two, “when we cleared the room I came back and gave you my healing potion since we couldn’t wake you up to do your prayer.”

  Lilit looked around at her friends and smiled. “Thanks. All of you.”

  Rana and Izumi cpped her on the back and then stood up to go through the loot bags. Awenda and Lilit stayed where they were for a few more moments, doing their best to not stare at the other. Finally Awenda stood up and offered Lilit a hand up.

  Lilit grabbed hold of Awenda’s hand and felt herself pulled gently to her feet. “Thank you.”

  Awenda nodded her head and then bent down to pick up her helmet and shield. She readied herself once more for the dungeon and then the two of them turned to help the others.

  Izumi called out a few minutes ter, “Hey, I found something that might be important.” Everyone else stopped what they were doing and headed over to Izumi. “There’s a key.” She gestured to a rge brass key sitting amongst the loot. “We haven’t gotten one of those before. What do you think it goes to?”

  “I don’t know,” Rana answered. She stood up and looked around the room. “There aren’t any chests or anything down here.”

  “Maybe it’s for something upstairs?” Lilit guessed. “We haven’t seen any locked chests or doors so far.”

  “That’s the only thing I can think of,” Awenda agreed.

  Izumi pocketed the key with a shrug and everyone else returned to sorting through the loot that had dropped. Ten minutes ter they were all ready to go again.

  Awenda led the group back down the hall and up the stairs. A deep red, plush carpet quieted their steps as they ascended to the second floor. At the top of the stairs was a deep nding, covered in simir carpeting. The nding stretched about a dozen yards in each direction. There was a singur door set in the wall across from the stairs.

  They set up in their formation once again. Lilit stood off to one side while Awenda and Rana stacked up on the other. Izumi stood off to the side and away from the wall. She was in a good pce to see past the door when it opened without being in front of it, as well as having most of the stairs covered. Her phantasm hovered at the top of the stairs, directly in front of the door.

  Lilit went to turn the knob to throw the door open, but was stopped in her tracks when the door was locked. Looking down, there was a keyhole under the knob the same brass as the key they’d just found. She turned to catch Izumi’s attention, “Looks like we might have found what that key goes to.”

  Izumi nodded her head and pulled the key out of her pocket as she walked over to the door. She handed the key to Lilit and then stepped quickly back into position without saying anything.

  Lilit carefully inserted the key and gave it a twist. She tried the doorknob again, but it was still locked. What the fuck? She gred angrily at the door.

  “Try turning it the other way,” Awenda whispered across the doorway to her.

  Lilit rolled her eyes at her own foolishness. She quickly reinserted the key and gave it a twist in the other direction. This time she felt some tension against the key as it turned. The key twisted completely over and back again before it seemed to reach the end of the lock. She pulled the key from the lock and put her hand back on the knob.

  This time when she twisted the knob it turned smoothly. Lilit flung the door open and Awenda and Rana rushed past her. Lilit followed hot on their trail, mace raised and ready.

  They found themselves outside, with thick fog swirling around them. When Lilit looked back there was a glowing doorway hanging in the air, with Izumi and her phantasm on the other side. There was no indication out here that there was a building they’d just come out of, but she could see it when she looked through the door at Izumi.

  When nothing jumped out at them after a few moments, Lilit headed back toward the glowing doorway. “Hey, I think this is the door to the next room of the dungeon. I think you can come across now,” she said to Izumi.

  “Oh, sweet. Wonder what we’re going to run into next.” Izumi happily skipped through the door, her phantasm floating after her. As soon as she was across the glowing doorway faded from view. There would be no going back.

  Everyone automatically formed back up into the formation they’d used for the first room of the dungeon. Awenda took the lead, followed by Rana, then Lilit, and Izumi took up the rearguard position. The others followed as Awenda marched into the fog.

  They’d been walking for several minutes before they began to hear the first sounds other than their own footsteps and breathing. The fog seemed to distort the sound so that it was impossible to tell from which direction it was coming from. There was a shuffling sound, like feet scraping over the wet grass. It was accompanied by soft grunts and wheezy, wet breathing.

  Awenda stopped where she was and the group spread out around her, facing out into the fog. They could see maybe a dozen feet before their sight was swallowed.

  Lilit suddenly became aware of a stench in the air. She nearly gagged as she was hit with a smell of putrefying flesh. She wished desperately for a mask or even a shirt to pull over her nose right now. She tried breathing through her mouth, but then it was like she could taste it and that was worse.

  Out of the fog shuffled several figures. Skin hung decaying over the hunched frames and the bony limbs of the creatures in front of her. Hair had fallen out in chunks across their skulls. Zombie Lvl 2 sat above their heads. Fucking zombies were way grosser in person than seeing them in movies. The smell alone was going to kill her before they even got within range.

  “Zombies on my side,” Lilit called out. She stepped back as the others flowed around her to engage the undead.

  Awenda stepped forward and performed a sweeping cut across several zombies at once. Two of them fell over, split in half. The third also fell over, but because it tripped over its newly exposed intestines, not because it was dead. Thankfully, it didn’t appear that they could survive being split in twain like the skeletons had as the other two didn’t so much as twitch after that.

  The group of zombies shuffled agitatedly toward Awenda. Rana and Izumi’s phantasm skipped forward and began a deadly dance amongst them. The zombies were slow, but they couldn’t be underestimated. Rana found out the hard way when she was hit by a zombie and sent stumbling away. Her bell had definitely been rung at least a little. Awenda was being rocked side to side by all of the hits she was taking on her shield as she sshed away at the growing horde stumbling out of the fog. Izumi sat beside Lilit and fired arrows into their ranks. They seemed to be as effective with zombies as they were with other creatures, which was a positive.

  Lilit pulled out her prayer book and sent a quick heal to Rana. She seemed a little shaky on her feet after that hit. Rana’s swings became steadier and surer a moment ter.

  The horde of monsters stumbling out of the fog continued to grow. Awenda wouldn’t be able to hold all of their attention. In a video game she wouldn’t have a problem, but in the dungeon that just wasn’t going to work. “Izumi, shift it to a tank role. Awenda’s about to be overrun.” Lilit called out.

  No one said anything, they just shifted their way across the battlefield. Izumi and her phantasm shifted further away from Awenda. The phantasm let out a whirlwind of sshes that drew the attention of several zombies. It then let out a haunting wail that drew even more toward it.

  Unfortunately, with the party now split like it was, it meant that Lilit needed to step in and become a damage dealer herself. Against these disgusting, smelly zombies. God, she hoped she didn’t puke before she could get close enough to actually hit one.

  Lilit focused on Izumi’s horde. The phantasm being able to be defeated was their weak point out of everyone. And Izumi’s bow took longer to fire and engage the zombies than Rana’s spinning axes of destruction.

  Stepping forward, Lilit swung her mace into a zombie’s skull. There was a sickening, wet thump along with the sharp crack of splintered bone. The smell seemed to actually increase momentarily before the zombie slumped to the ground. Their slow movements, as long as they could avoid being hit, would make this an easy task for Lilit and the others. It was just the overwhelming numbers that was arming.

  Five minutes ter, Lilit was completely out of stamina, breathing heavily, trying not to gag on the smell as the st zombies fell. One with an arrow protruding from its skull, and the other being shoved unceremoniously off the end of Awenda’s sword.

  Lilit stepped away from the fray to catch her breath while she waited for the st of the bodies to dissipate and take the smell with them. Or she hoped it would anyway.

  Doing her best to catch her breath without breathing through her mouth, Lilit noticed she had an alert on her Delver. Attributes increased. Stamina increased by 1. Stamina at level 10. Strength increased by 1. Strength at level 11.

  “Huh, I got some stat increases guys. Stamina went up again, and strength went up.” Lilit smiled at her friends. Rana was already going through the loot. The others stopped and checked their own Delvers.

  “Well, I got an increase in wisdom,” Izumi announced.

  “Same,” Rana added.

  “I went up two levels of wisdom,” Awenda said. The others looked over at her impressed. “It was kind of low before,” she sounded embarrassed.

  “Nothing wrong with that,” Lilit assured her. “Most of my stats are kind of low too.” She walked over and thumped Awenda’s bicep. Her shoulder was just too far away to comfortably reach for Lilit.

  Everyone returned to looting, doing their best to bance the weight so no one would be overly encumbered or anything. It didn’t take very long. They’d had plenty of practice as a team figuring out what was something they were willing to carry and what wasn’t.

  It wasn’t much longer before they formed back up and trudged off into the mist. The site of their battle soon left behind. Over the next two hours they ran into several more hordes of zombies. They were just as easy to take down, and just as smelly as the first mob. But they still hadn’t found the exit for the dungeon room. None of the other rooms had been nearly this rge.

  “Oh my gosh, how long is this room?” Izumi compined.

  “I don’t know. It feels like it goes on forever, doesn’t it?” Rana asked.

  The fog surrounding them was just as thick as it had been when they entered the room. The eerie silence had started getting to everyone. They were all on edge and slightly snappish with each other as time dragged on.

  “I swear I have seen that tree before,” Lilit compined.

  “Wait, what?” Rana reached up and tugged Awenda to a stop.

  “O-oh, I just…I thought I’d seen that tree before. It has a weird bend in the branch there.” Lilit pointed up.

  “Damnit!” Rana yelled.

  “What? What’s wrong?” Lilit asked.

  “I thought it was just me. I thought my eyes might be pying tricks on me or something.” She huffed a deep breath, “But I think we might be going in circles.”

  “Seriously? Why didn’t you say something earlier?” Izumi said.

  “I thought it was just in my head.”

  “How did we end up going in circles?” Lilit asked.

  “It’s actually not hard to do, especially when there are not really any terrain or markers to keep you going in a straight line,” Awenda mumbled. “I’m sorry guys.”

  “It’s ok, it’s not your fault,” Rana reassured her. “It could have happened to any of us.”

  “Well, what do we do?” Izumi asked.

  Everyone pondered her question. How would they avoid circling this floor forever? They obviously couldn’t trust their eyes with all this fog rolling around. There weren’t any noises that could potentially lead them in a direction, not that the fog didn’t distort sounds out here already. Lilit thought about how the zombies always sounded like they’d surrounded the party until they burst through the fog each time.

  “Let’s take a break and eat something while we figure this out,” Lilit suggested.

  “Yeah, I’m getting kind of hungry,” Awenda agreed. Izumi and Rana nodded their need as well.

  The group settled in a circle facing in on the ground. So far nothing had snuck up on them, the zombies were noisy enough to alert the group several minutes before they came into view, so Lilit and the others felt safe enough to face each other while they ate.

  The rations that they’d packed weren’t that great. Dried meat, hard crusted bread, and a little cheese. Pin, but filling was the best Lilit could give the meal.

  As she was packing up, her Delver got stuck on the bag. Unhooking it from where it had snagged, Lilit had a sudden thought like a bolt of lightning.

  “Oh, my god,” Lilit groaned. “The Delvers have a map function and we can set a waypoint on it.”

  “Wow, I feel dumb now,” Rana muttered. Izumi nodded along with her. Awenda simply hung her head.

  “Yeah, well none of us thought of it. Come on, let’s see if we can navigate our way out of here.” Lilit pulled up her Delver and opened the map.

  The area they were in was quite rge it seemed, but yeah, they should have reached the end of it a while ago. And there at the bottom of the map was a giant circle they had uncovered as they walked around in circles for who knows how long. There wasn’t an indication of where the exit to the room was, but it made sense that it would be on the far side of the room. Thankfully they were at the top of their wandering circle, so they wouldn’t need to cross any more areas they’d already been through. She tried to focus on the silver lining here.

  “Let’s set something at the far edge of the map,” Lilit suggested. The others agreed and soon they found themselves heading out once more. A beacon lit up through the fog to guide them.

  It took another hour to cross the room. They ran into one more horde of zombies. The party was careful, Lilit didn’t let them get overconfident, and the mobs were fairly easy to clear. Unfortunately, the exit for the room wasn’t where they had set their first waypoint. But the map had uncovered it at the edge of their ‘perception’ of the cleared area of the map. So they headed out in that direction. This time they didn’t run across any more zombies and they quickly shuffled through the gate and into the next room of the dungeon.

  Everyone’s Delver once again chimed. This is a safe zone. The water in safe zones is safe to drink. Rest, recharge, regroup, and strategize. The room was simir to the first safe room they’d come across. There were a pair of fountains trickling water and a rge open space surrounded by stone walls. The difference was that this safe space had a soft, grassy floor where the st one was hard stone. This would be so much better to y down on.

  Izumi, Rana, and Awenda huddled across the room discussing something. Lilit was pretty sure it involved her as they kept gncing over at her periodically. Rana and Izumi seemed to be encouraging Awenda. About what, Lilit honestly couldn’t say.

  Right now it wasn’t as important to Lilit as stripping out of her sweaty armor, cleaning herself, and putting on some clean clothes. She quickly untched herself with the quick releases built into her armor.

  She turned away from the others before she pulled her tunic over her head. It was heavy with sweat and sptted wetly against the ground when she tossed it in the corner. Her sports bra followed. She’d need to do something about drying those out before she stuck them in her pack and got the rest of her things covered in second hand sweat. A shudder ran down her spine at the thought.

  Lilit pulled out a small cloth from her bag and wet it in the fountain. It wasn’t as good as an actual bath, but it would be better than nothing. She started swiftly scrubbing down her arms and the front of her torso.

  When Lilit was about to move on and pull her pants down to get at her legs and feet, she felt a hand on her bare shoulder. “Let me help,” Awenda murmured from behind her. Awenda’s breath tickled her neck. Goosebumps erupted down her body.

  Silently, Lilit handed the damp cloth over her shoulder to Awenda. She refused to look at her though. Awenda took the wash cloth and began to slowly scrub Lilit’s back. And across her shoulders. Down her arms.

  Lilit had already cleaned there, but she couldn’t say anything to Awenda. Her voice seemed lodged in her throat. And part of her didn’t want Awenda to stop touching her.

  Awenda’s hands swept over the top of Lilit’s chest from behind. Her fingers and the cloth grazing over the tops of Lilit’s breasts. When she didn’t say anything, Awenda seemed emboldened. This time she swept her hands down over Lilit’s breasts. She cupped them, and ran thumbs over Lilit’s nipples. The cloth clenched in one hand was all but forgotten as well that she was supposed to be cleaning Lilit. Lilit pulled it from Awenda’s fingers and tossed it onto the edge of the fountain.

  Awenda’s hands tightened on her breasts. Her thumbs flicked and brought Lilit’s nipples into twin peaks which she pinched and rolled between her fingers. It drew a gasp from Lilit. Her hips rocked involuntarily.

  Awenda stepped up closer, pressing herself against Lilit’s back. Lilit felt Awenda’s warm skin pressed against her. She felt Awenda’s hardening nipples pressed into the top of her back. Lilit pressed her ass back into her. Felt her firm muscles pressed against her from thighs to shoulders.

  Awenda leaned forward, her head coming into the corner of Lilit’s vision. Awenda reached up and guided Lilit’s head to the side. Lilit leaned forward to meet Awenda. Their lips met gently, hesitantly. Awenda was so soft under her lips. Awenda’s lips moved under hers, and Lilit matched her. When Awenda ran her tongue over Lilit’s bottom lip, she opened her mouth and welcomed her in.

  Awenda’s tongue was like the rest of her, surprisingly gentle and soft. Lilit melted into the kiss as it deepened. She let Awenda take the lead for the first few tentative strokes of her tongue. But then Lilit took back control. She twisted in Awenda’s arms. Awenda moaned into her mouth while Lilit ran her hands up the firm muscles of her back. Fuck, she was so strong and yet so gentle and soft.

  Lilit finally drew back, breaking the kiss to suck in air. They were both breathing heavily. Lilit leaned forward and pressed her forehead onto Awenda’s broad chest as she stood up straight. Geez, she was so tall too.

  “I think…I think we need to stop,” Lilit started, leaning her head back to meet Awenda's gaze. When she saw the dejected look in her eyes, Lilit was quick to interject, “For now. We need to stop for now.” Awenda still looked a little saddened.

  “Look, the other two are just across the room, there isn’t even a barrier to set up between us.” Lilit reached up to cup Awenda’s cheek, “I’m not an exhibitionist. When we get back to our suite, you bet I’m going to want to explore this. Ok?”

  Awenda nodded her head, but she still seemed down about the whole thing. Lilit stretched up and pressed a swift, chaste kiss on her lips. She did her best to convey her earnest feelings to Awenda.

  When she looked over, Rana and Izumi were pulling on clean clothes, conspicuously not looking in their direction. They had their bedding id out side by side on their side of the safe room. Lilit turned around and quickly finished up her own hurried washing. She changed into her dry clothes, then spread her wet clothing across the lip of the fountain. Hopefully it would be dry enough by morning.

  She y her bedding down on the soft grass a few feet away from the fountain. Lilit did her best to keep her eyes to herself while Awenda finished cleaning herself on the other side of the fountain. She found her eyes constantly drawn to those muscur shoulders again and again. Just a gnce and then her eyes would dart away.

  A few minutes ter Awenda y her bedding out near Lilit. There was a rge gap between them, and Lilit didn’t know how to overcome it. The idea of lying in Awenda’s arms and drifting off to sleep sent a pleasant pull through her heart, but she didn’t know how to ask. Or if she could after rejecting her advances earlier.

  Awenda y down on her bedding, and the two stared across the distance between them, searching each other’s face. After a few minutes Awenda gave out a great big sigh and turned over, leaving Lilit to stare at her back. She traced the scattered scales she could see dipping down into Awenda’s shirt. Her broad back sloped down to a solid core before fring out gently at her hips. Lilit wanted nothing more than to trace the muscles from her neck to her firm, squeezable butt.

  With a groan, Lilit sat up and rolled off of her bedding. This was stupid, and she was old enough to not keep making stupid mistakes. She let out a frustrated huff as she pulled her bedding across the grass and lined it up with Awenda’s.

  She saw Awenda tense up as she y down behind her. Lilit pced her hand on Awenda’s shoulder and gently pulled her over. When she was on her back and turned her head, a confused look on her face, Lilit asked quietly, “Will you hold me?”

  Awenda’s face rexed and smile tugged at her lips. She nodded her head and stretched her arm out, welcoming Lilit into her embrace. Lilit crawled across both their bedding until she was scrunched up against Awenda’s side. She draped one arm across her abs, tracing random designs with her fingers, while she tucked her head onto Awenda’s chest.

  Lilit let out a contented sigh. She felt Awenda pce a soft kiss on the crown of her head. She y there and listened to Awenda’s steady heartbeat as she gently drifted off to sleep.

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