The Petite Dungeon Explorer 39 Trying To Be A Man

I was still counting wood grains by the time the little waiter returned. He was balancing two whole trays full of food on his arms, and I wanted to bite my tongue.

Please tell me that isn't a part of the whole lover special.

"Here you are your dwarves' blood and wyvern sandwich," he says as he places a huge mug down in front of me, with his tail. Next, he puts down a sandwich stacked full of juicy meat and pressed between two golden brown buns. Around the sandwich were golden brown crips of potatoes.

I felt my mouth water as I looked at everything.

"Miss here is your lover's special," he says.

In a flash, he begins to move things off of the one tray onto the table. A huge cake that was in the shape of a heart was placed down first. Cookies in the shape of a heart, with lettering that said, 'I love you.' But that wasn't the last of it next, came a mug full of a pink liquid that had two straws that curled into a heart.

He'd emptied one tray and then he began to place down the stuff from the other full tray. This was one was full of meat that had been cut into hearts, and the bread that was toasted pink with sparkles. A jar of juice that was red was placed down as well, with some cups, and other goofy lover stuff.

Cecily was shaking beside me.

"Enjoy your lover's special," he says sheepishly as he walks off with both of his trays.

We sit in silence for a moment, just taking in the view of all the lovey-dovey stuff that was in front of us.

Should I say something?

"Cecily didn't mean to react like this! Cecily's heart was just beating so hard," she says as she turns to look at me. Those big golden eyes looking right into my soul.

"It's not your fault, I hugged you out of nowhere, I didn't mean to startle you. Thank you for ordering this for us, I didn't know you thought so highly of me," I tell her softly.

"Of course! Cecily loves Hollis, you're Cecily's best friend!" She tells me smartly, as she grabs my hand.

Oh, thank the G.o.ddess… just friends.

I felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. Even though Cecily was cute, I could only think of her as a friend as well.

Plus, I'm sure that someone else has special feelings for her, in the lover sort of way. The last thing I wanted to do was come in between that, I don't think I'd be able to face him if I stole his first love.

"Hey, did you two just get your food?" Ekon's voice drifts over as him and Silvyr walk over with cards in their hands. Silvyr looked a little haggard as he held the cards like he'd won a battle.

"Yeah, do you want some, we ordered a little bit too much," I say.

"Sure, I'm hungry after all that haggling. Sera really drives a hard bargain. Good thing Silvyr was there, he really knows how to talk down the price!" Ekon says laughing. He and Silvyr slide into the other seats across from us.

"You just have no common sense," Silvyr scoffs, rolling his eyes as he places the stack of black cards onto the table. The cards were the same exact as the one that Vissi had handed us.

"Who in the world ordered all this lovey-dovey stuff?" He asks, poking at the pink bread in front of him.

"Cecily ordered it for Hollis," Cecily says with a frown.

A look of surprise pa.s.ses over both of the boy's faces as they look at her, but neither says anything more about it.

Grabbing the mug of blood, I tilt it back and drink it. The warm and thick taste of dwarfs' blood was the best after a long hard day. It just drove the weakness out of my bones.

"How much did we make?" I ask licking my lips.

Both of the boys had taken up a plate and filled it with the pink food.

"We'll we managed to sell all that meat for 300 gold, and then the pelt we sold for another 200. The tusk and the blood sold for 500, and then the lion we managed to get a solid 150 gold for all the parts. In total we managed to make 1,150 gold," Silvyr says pus.h.i.+ng the cards forward.

"If we divide that up then each of gets two hundred and eighty-seven and fifty silver," I say, doing the math in my head.

Flipping the card over, I see the number two eight and seven glowing a golden yellow. Below that is smaller silver lettering, I see the number fifty.

"Exactly, not that bad of a haul, but if we sold the cores for more of the animals then we could have made more. But I don't think any of us are hurting for money," Ekon says with a grin.

He was digging into the meat that was shaped like a heart, while Cecily was eating some of the cake.

I wanted to laugh, I was defiantly a rich kid and all of them are as well. It was safe to say that we're all little spoiled rich kids. But that didn't mean that we didn't understand money, and thankfully my friends are all sensible.

"Here! Everyone takes a card," Silvyr says, tossing a card towards each of us. We each catch it.

"We should use this money to prepare for the Fate Temple," I say, drinking the rest of my blood.

"Cecily's heard that this is the hardest Temple and that we'll be stuck inside of the Temple for a couple of days," she says around a mouth of food.

"It's the most comprehensive and dangerous temple there is, not to mention that in terms of clear rate it's below thirty percent. I know that we've been training for this, but are you sure that you want to go through with it?" Silvyr asks looking towards me.

His icy white eyes seem to look into my soul, and I just smile as I chew on my sandwich. He was a little thinker.

"They're no point in backing out. I've already made my mind up," I say swallowing my mouthful of food.

"Did you get cold feet Silvyr? Now's not the time to be chickening out!" Ekon says sternly.

Silvyr's face darkens and he takes a deep breath. It looks like peer pressure was every present no matter what age you are.

"Brother stop bullying Silvyr! Or Cecily will beat you," she snaps at her brother. A bit of crumb still on her lips, but she looks menacing, nonetheless.

He looks annoyed but he keeps his mouth shut.

"Cecily will protect you within the temple, you don't have to worry," she says with a grin towards the blus.h.i.+ng little elf.

"I should protect you! You're a girl," he stutters a little bit as his ear light up bright red.

"Says who!" Cecily snaps. Her little face is drawn into a grimace.

Gender rules didn't really apply that well here. Plus, Cecily wasn't the damsel in distress type at all. Even though she looked the part, that didn't mean she was planning on playing the part at all.

"Ahem," I cough a little bit.

Everyone turns and looks at me and I smile.

"Silvyr's just saying that it's the manly thing to do," I say.

Leaning in closer towards Cecily, I whisper in her ear. "He's trying to impress you, don't give him too much of a hard time."

She gives me a confused look but quickly nods her head in understanding. I beam at her, she was adorable.

"Let's finish eating and then head out, we can go shopping for the supplies that we'll need," I say chomping on more of my sandwich.