Chapter 17 Cali’s Feelings Part 1

Once Cali and Thomas arrived back at the inn, they met with Lily and Scarlett who were sitting down at the counter patiently waiting. As the two of them passed by, Lily excitedly said, "We're back!" Thomas stared at her for a moment and then asked, "From what?" Just as Lily was about to tell him, Cali said, "Please follow me, so we can store the ingredients." Thomas glanced at her as he said, "Sure, just give me a minute." Lily then paused for a moment and then said, "That's weird… Cali didn't say anything to me." Lily thought for a moment but then said, "Oh right, Scarlet and I took out some more of those giant rats, apparently they keep finding ways in to the sewer so until they fix that issue they're gonna keep paying adventurers to go down and deal with them." Scarlett nodded as she said, "Yes, and it's an effortless task when you can see in the dark." Thomas stared at Scarlett for a moment and then said, "It is… but who told you I could see in the dark?" Scarlett stared at him for a moment as she said, "I didn't know… but I'm also able to see in the dark." After another moment or two of talking, Cali grabbed Thomas by his unhurt arm and said, "Come on, I need those ingredients, so I can get back to work." Once Thomas and Cali were gone, Lily said, "Usually Cali is more patient… I wonder what happened while we were gone." Scarlett shrugged as she said, "I'm unsure as well… before she seemed… scary." After another moment or two, Thomas came back holding a piece of paper. Thomas stared at the paper for a moment and then put it in his pocket as he said, "Guess I'm going out again." Once he left, Cali came out from the storage area and went back behind the counter as she asked, "So how have you two been?" Lily glanced at Cali and then stared at her for a moment before asking, "What did you and him do while we were gone?" Cali froze for a moment and then her face went bright red as she nervously said, "W-we… we didn't do anything." Lily stared at her intently as she asked, "But what about the shopping? Didn't something happen, isn't that why you're acting so strange?"

Cali covered her red face with both of her hands as she nervously said, "H-he… he said a few things… but I'm not certain how to react to any of it." Lily seemed excited to hear this as she quickly asked, "What did he say! What did he say!" Cali seemed flustered by this, and it didn't seem like she wanted to answer, but soon after she faintly said, "He… he told me… that he was interested in me." Lily seemed to be gleaming with excitement as she asked, "And how did you respond?" Cali peeked through her hands and thought about her response and then quickly covered her eyes again as she said, "I… acted foolishly and told him that I'd give him a response another day… I also told him not to tell anyone… so please keep this between me and you." Scarlett sat there staring at the two of them for a moment before asking, "Wouldn't it be easier too just answer him now?" Lily glanced at Scarlett with a big smile as she said, "No way! Haven't you ever heard romance stories from anyone! It has to be planned perfectly!" Lily then glanced at Cali with a huge smile as she said, "But I thought you didn't want to go out with a species who had a shorter life span than you?" Just as Lily said this, Jason walked down the stairs with a smile and asked, "What's going on down here?" Cali quickly removed her hands from her face and looked away from him as she shouted, "Nothing!" Jason paused for a moment and then said, "If it were nothing, I doubt you would've shouted like that." Lily stared at him with a huge smile as she began to explain but even though Cali tried to stop her, she ended up shouting "Cali likes Thomas!" Upon shouting this, Cali completely froze with her red face as all of the men in the bar fell silent for a moment, began to talk amongst themselves, and then left soon after. Jason glanced around at the now mostly empty inn and then back at Cali as he said, "Well, … we're probably done for the day with work." Jason then smiled at Cali as he cheerfully said, "Now, what's this I hear about you and Thomas?"

Cali began to panic for a moment but then began to fidget with her hands once more as she said with an embarrassed look on her face, "Well… he said… he was interested in me… and that made me feel… it made me feel… I'm not sure what it made me feel… it was mostly a nervous feeling… but… in a happy way." After hearing what Cali had to say, Jason said, "Honestly, I think I'm more surprised than you are… you've been alive for two thousand years and are only now getting a feeling like that." Cali began to blush even more as she said, "I've never felt this way towards a man before… or anyone for that matter." Lily stared at Cali excitedly for a moment before saying, "I didn't know Cali could look cute!" Cali flinched at the sound of this and asked, "Am I… un cute?" Lily nodded as she said, "Yup, I've only ever heard people call you sexy." Cali seemed to regain some of her composure as she nervously said, "Is…is that so… then… that's a good thing, right?" Jason nodded as he said, "Well that typically depends on the man's interest but if he's interested in you, it must be a good thing right?" After a moment or two, Cali asked, "Then what should I do?" Lily smiled smugly for a moment as she said, "You should invite him out and then confess, or you can wait for him to confess." Cali thought for a moment as she said, "But waiting on a creature with a shorter life span than me could be dangerous." Jason glanced around the shop as he said, "If you'd like you can go now, I'll take over since nobody is here." Cali glanced at him for a moment as she asked, "But why? I can still work?" Jason nodded as he said, "Yeah I know, but you just said you wanted to avoid waiting on him since his life span is short, so you should go and confess to him right?" Cali thought for a moment and then her face turned bright red as she said, "I… I don't think I can do it." After a short bit of convincing, Cali agreed, and then she left with Lily and Scarlett following closely behind and out of sight.

While all of this was happening, however, Thomas was staring at the note Cali had previously given him asking him to get some other ingredients they were unable to grab due to her freezing up. Thomas stared at the paper for another moment or two as he said, "I don't recognize any of these… this is gonna take me a while." After walking for a few minutes, a group of men blocked his path and then one of them said, "Hey, you're that Thomas, right?" Thomas stared at the men for a moment as he nodded and said, "I am… why do you ask?" The man scoffed at him as he said, "Cause I heard you stole Cali's heart." Thomas flinched as he heard this and then shouted, "I'd never steal from her, and if I did, I definitely wouldn't have stolen her organs!" The men all glared at him as one of them walked out with a sword and said, "I've been going to that inn every day for the last two years to see her, it's unfair that someone who just appeared not too long ago to win her over in such a short amount of time." Thomas thought for a moment as he said with a confused look, "Win her over?" Are we no longer talking about me stealing her heart?" The man with the sword seemed to appear in front of Thomas as he slashed at his chest and angrily said, "Still rubbing in your romantic victory… I'll teach you!" Thomas moved slightly back, unable to fully dodge it as the sword sliced through his front, as blood flew onto the ground Thomas held his chest and said, "That could've killed me." The man stared at Thomas as he said, "Obviously, now admit your defeat and surrender Cali to me!" Thomas stood there, trying to determine what he meant as he said, "Surrender her to you? The hell are you even talking about?" The man glared at him and then created yet another slash wound on his stomach as he said, "So you've already considered that option unsatisfactory… Then I may very well have to kill you." As the man raised his sword above his head, Thomas smirked and said, "I'm really gonna die because I have no idea what you're talking about? That's a pretty lame way to die." Thomas quickly summoned his sword as he said, "Well, no point in just lying down and taking it."

The man smiled as he said, "So you do at least have a backbone." Thomas blocked the third strike as he said, "I suppose I do… though I was told to avoid fights until my arm gets better." The man stared at his broken arm as he asked, "By chance was that Cali who told you that?" Thomas moved the broken arm slightly as he said, "Yeah. How'd you know?" The man seemed displeased with that response as he said, "I can't wait to have you on the ground getting the life beat out of you by all these people." Thomas glanced behind him at the crowd as he said, "There sure are a lot of people watching." The man nodded as he said, "Of course, all these men went to that inn for the very reason I'm fighting you, and by the end of it all those men, some of which are adventurers, are all gonna tear you limb from limb." Thomas glanced at the crowd as he mumbled, "I'm already getting my ass kicked by a single person… I definitely won't be able to beat all of them." Just as Thomas said this, a blue box appeared that had a single word on it, survive. Thomas flinched at the sight of this box as he mumbled, "Do the boxes even think I'm gonna die?" After the box vanished, a timer appeared that read ten minutes. Thomas stared at the timer and noticed it going down as he shouted, "Are you kidding me! I won't last ten minutes!" The man slashed Thomas's back, this time knocking him to the ground as he said, "I'm well aware, so lay there and accept that you'll have the life beaten out of you." Thomas glanced behind himself at the man with a slightly angry look as he said, "Cali just fixed this jacket." Upon saying this, however, the rest of the crowd surrounded him and began to literally kick him while he was down. Thomas unfortunately couldn't do anything while this all happened except hold his sword tightly and hope that once that timer went down that he'd get something to help himself. After the ten minutes passed, the blue box reappeared with the words "Objective complete! Savior has arrived!" Just as the box vanished, Thomas heard Cali shout, "Thomas, where are you?" The crowd of people all froze for a moment and turned their attention to Cali before scattering in dozens of different directions.

While the men were leaving, one of them said, "You got lucky this time… you better watch your back." Thomas raised his head and stared at Cali for a moment as he mumbled, "My everything… hurts." Thomas stood up covered in dirt, blood, and bruises as Cali walked over to him and asked "What happened? I only sent you out to do a little shopping." Thomas stared at her for a moment and wiped some blood off of his face as he said, "I was just walking, and then I got attacked by a bunch of people." Cali stared at his stomach for a moment as she asked, "Are you alright?" Thomas smirked as he said, "Yeah… I'm fine." Upon saying this some blood dripped down his face causing Cali a bit of worry as she said, "You know lying about something like this to an elf is impossible right?" Thomas paused for a moment and then said, "Yeah… I know… and also… I might've torn the back of the jacket again… sorry." Cali sighed for a moment as she lifted him off the ground using a bridal carry and said, "I'll take you back to the inn, so please don't push yourself." While being carried, Thomas said, "I'm sorry for getting blood on you… and tearing the jacket you worked so hard on." Cali sighed once more as she stared at him and said, "Don't worry about it, you're injured right now, so just focus on yourself." Upon arriving back at the inn, Jason said, "I… kind of figured this would be what was going to happen… though I didn't think he'd come back looking this bad." Cali stared at him for a moment as she asked, "What was going to happen?" Jason pointed at Thomas as he said, "I figured that he'd get attacked… that's actually why I sent you out to get him." Cali paused for a moment and then asked, "So then, … it's my fault he ended up like this?" Jason nodded as he said, "Unfortunately yeah… because us humans are typically jealous and selfish creatures… so after they heard what Lily had said they ended up leaving and attacking him."

Cali stared at Thomas for a moment and then with a look of pity said "I-I'm… I'm sorry… this was my fault." Thomas stared at her for a moment as he asked, "What's your fault?" Cali stared at him with a tear in her eye as she said, "It's because I wanted to keep what you said secret… if I just told Lily and Jason, then you wouldn't have had to go through this." Thomas's stared at her in confusion for a moment as he said, "I'm still not sure what's going on." Jason stared at him as he said, "It's because you're interested in her, right?" Thomas stared at Jason with a blank face as he nodded and said, "Yeah… I'm pretty interested in her magic." Cali flinched at the sound of this as she asked, "Then… does this mean… you're not romantically interested in me?" Thomas stared at her for a moment or two and then asked, "What does romantically mean?" Cali flinched once again as she said, "So… it was my misunderstanding that caused you to get hurt like this?" Cali set him down on the counter and then glanced at Jason with tears in her eyes and a fake smile as she said, "I think… I'm going to take my leave now." After Cali went upstairs, Jason stared at Thomas and said, "I can't say I've ever seen her act like this before… you should probably say something to her." Thomas laid there staring at the roof for a moment before saying, "Hey… did I do something wrong?" Jason stared at him for a moment and then sighed as he said, "Honestly… I'm not certain… but she did seem a bit upset." Thomas sat up as he said, "Then I'll go visit her now." Jason stopped him for a moment as he said, "But don't you wanna treat your wounds first?" Thomas stared at him with a serious look as he said, "No, … not right now anyway."