<div class="floatright">(http://s3.amazonaws.com/cdn.roosterteeth.com/uploads/images/54063e01-6933-4e38-b195-d0fc28595a06/md/2181220-1448930942333-Warrior_Karsten_Face.jpg)</div>Not that he had anticipated much, so the grumbled, and rather reluctant, compliance that sounded like she was a kid being forced to share her last candy with a sibling, was all that he’d truly hoped for. The girls had set a rather low bar when it came to what he expected from them in terms of an agreeable nature. A bit too close to how he usually felt when he had to drag a bunch of irate and overly excitable adventurers through a dungeon. It was like wrangling cats by throwing flowers at them. If you were lucky you got a lazily lifted head or a flick of an ear once in a while.<br/><br/>But at least she’d agreed to try, and so Cerias watched Sophia slowly clamber onto her feet, once more appreciating the drive it took to keep going despite being caked in rat gunk and rotten soil, and stumble over towards where her red headed friend had vanished off to. It was a shame that blood, shit and gore didn’t all disappear when the enemies de-spawned and returned to their territories. Would have saved a whole ton of trouble and laundry bills.<br/><br/>Taking a chance to enjoy some of the traveler rations for his own while the pair conferred, he snuck a few pieces of left over sausage from the bar along with the hard tack and a few deep draughts of water. The cool liquid poured down his throat like a soothing wind after a month in the southern jungles and he wondered if he should tip them off to the delight in enchanted gear when it came to comforts, or if that would only make things worse.<br/><br/>The hardtack was decent, if rough, and his broad jaws chewed down on it firmly, working until he felt them ache faintly from the effort. It might not taste of much more than faintly spiced saw dust and bark, but it was definitely filling. If the red headed one…Les he thought…ever got a bit more experienced she’d learn to conjure food. Another thing they might not be quite ready to hear just yet.<br/><br/>Warm sunlight caressed his sharp and roughly hewn features, the heat turned into a mild caress along his bristled jawline by the soft breeze that also tugged and snapped around his long, weather bleached locks. It was as if the day itself teased him for a smile. A joy he refused to give it as the frown of his lips remained in a frown so stead it could have been hewed out of rock.<br/><br/>It hovered in place as the girls returned as well, though he felt a small pleased rumble of warmth spread in his abdomen at the sight of them not giving up. That he hadn’t been wrong in offering them some additional aid.<br/><br/>They ignored him however and he settled for following along behind, his leather boots finding easy purchase in the dry dirt along the trail as they set off down into the ravine. As he’d thought the dire rats had scurried back into their hovels, leaving their smaller cousins to snatch and squabble over the half rotted carcasses outside. The scent carried up on the wind was a lovely little fetid slap in the face and he grimaced faintly as he waited behind the girls, listening in on their conversation and mostly agreeing with the plans they formulated.<br/><br/>‘That’s right,’ he thoughts, nodding in accord he knew they didn’t really care for, ‘keep it simple, keep it to the point.’<br/><br/>He’d already scouted a group or two of the furry bags of boils and teeth that would make for an excellent first pull. But he wanted to wait to they got started before he got too involved with their work.<br/>