Alice came back to consciousness an unknown time ter. She opened her eyes, wincing in pain. Everything in her body hurt. She must have groaned or made some other noise, although she didn't notice it, because immediately she saw Bridgette leaning over her, touching her face lovingly.

  "Alice, are you okay? Thank the goddess. I thought we had lost you. Please don't ever leave me like that again."

  Bridgette quickly moved around and kneeled by Alice's head, gently setting it in her p and pulling her slightly more upright, so she could look around. Tears cascaded down the redhead's face, leaving trails in the grime before falling to wet Alice's cheeks. Bridgette bent over, sobbing, the rush of emotions too much for her.

  They were still in the cavern where they had fought the kobolds. A pile of bodies rose halfway to the ceiling over in one corner of the room, and a few pebbles illuminated the room. Colin sat in what looked like a beanbag chair she recognized from his bedroom, slumped in the middle of the room, looking forward the small tunnel up to the entrance of the den. He had a can of beer in his hand, dangling limply.

  Alice tried to nod, but her head spun and she nearly vomited. Instead, she settled for simply saying, "I'm okay, babe. What happened?"

  Bridgette sniffled, trying to calm herself down. "Well, I had almost got the fucker down, but then he hit you one st time and you went unconscious. I killed him, then tried to stabilize both you and Colin. Once I was somewhat sure you weren't about to die, I tried to clean this pce up and keep an eye out, but I have been going absolutely fucking crazy, just so afraid. I didn't know what else to do, I didn't know how to help. All I could do is wait, praying that nothing else would find us. I was almost dead, you guys were unconscious, I felt so helpless."

  Alice reached a hand up, touching her lover's cheek. "I'm here, B. It's okay," as she cast a healing spell, bringing her health to full. She then cast a second heal, targeting Bridgette. "Help me up, and I'll go get Colin, too."

  As Bridgette helped Alice to her feet, the shorter girl swayed unsteadily. Despite being back at full health, her head spun, and she felt as weak as a newborn kitten. Alice nearly tumbled over, grabbing on to Bridgette to steady herself. As she did, she noticed her friend was stark naked.

  "Uhm, B, where are your clothes? Also, that transformation..."

  "Hah, well ... funny story. I'm not sure where they are. When I transformed, my normal clothes vanished, and I had that crazy sex tentacle armor. But then when I got knocked out, the tentacles vanished, but my normal clothes didn't come back. So uh, I have no clothes. Awkward, huh?" Bridgette sheepishly ughed, blushing furiously as she helped Alice over to Colin.

  Colin did his best to avoid looking at the nude girl. "Alice, thank god you're -hic- okay. The nudist was losing her shit. Also, we all nearly died. Well, me and you. Want a beer?" Alice pced her hand on Colin's arm and cast one st heal.

  "I think I'll pass on the beer for now, thanks. Are you okay?"

  Colin gnced up at her drunkenly, then looked over at the naked Bridgette for a long moment, then back at Alice. His eyes seemed to gze over, and he took another pull of his beer can, then dropped it to the floor. It rolled across the cavern until it came to rest against a rock with a gentle clink.

  "I'm just fucking peachy, A. Having the time of my life. You?" Alice sighed, pulling a t-shirt from her storage ring and hanging it to Bridgette.

  "Please put some clothes on, Bridgette. And yea, Colin. The time of my fucking life." She sank down next to him on the beanbag, giving the boy a hug. "It's okay, we're all okay." Colin hugged her back and started to cry. Bridgette pulled the shirt over her head, snarling in frustration as it thinned to nearly obscene transparency, although thankfully hung down to her mid-thighs. A stylish logo gradually emerged on the front of the shirt, with what looked like a giant pink octopus waving its arms above its head, a nude girl suspended in the tentacles and being penetrated in her mouth and vagina in the cssic 'spit roast' position, with more tentacles wrapped around the rest of her body. Writing scrawled underneath the octopus.

  "I ? Tentacles - Stuffing Holes Since '69"

  Bridgette slumped down in defeat on the other side of Colin, pulling the two into a hug, sandwiching Colin in between the two girls. The three clung to each other, crying, as their bodies tried to purge the stress and fear of the experience. After a few minutes, they had calmed enough that the tears stopped. At that point, Colin came to the somewhat awkward and inappropriate realization that he was in full body contact with a mostly naked Bridgette and a scantily cd Alice. He shot to his feet, blushing furiously, and swayed a little from the alcohol in his system.

  He cleared his throat and tried to change the subject, "Okay, so. We're alive, we're healed - thank you, Alice - and we're in a cave. What's our pn from here? Do we even know what time it is?"

  Bridgette shook her head. "I'm not entirely certain. It was getting close to evening before we found this cave, and you guys were both out for what felt like a few hours, but I can't really see the sun from here and I didn't want to go to the upper chamber. We could sneak up top and look, see if we can tell what time it is, but I'm not sure if it's worth doing that right now."

  Alice nodded thoughtfully, "I think it's smartest if we try to rest down here, regain our full strength. I know I'm pretty much out of spells, I might have one basic one left, and I'm sure Colin is nearly tapped out as well." He nodded his agreement. "So if we can do our best to barricade the tunnel entrance and get ourselves a little safety, we can rest here until we're fully recharged. Then in the ... morning I guess, we can head back to the house."

  Colin paced around, tapping at his chin. "I can use a ritual spell and create a good light here, if we're going to stay here all night. I can also put an arm on the tunnel. Then we can take turns on watch and everyone can rest. If I remember right, it's about eight hours for everyone to fully replenish resources. Let's just try to close up that tunnel a little more, or otherwise ensure that we don't reveal we're here."

  Alice stood up from the beanbag, helping Bridgette up and sighing at her shirt. "Will you ever stop wearing those lewd things? Those shirts are so inappropriate. You're going to give Colin a stroke from the rapid rush of blood."

  Bridgette spluttered, "It's not my fault. You saw it, it changed to this when I put it on!" Alice stuck her tongue out and winked at the other girl, as Bridgette stomped her foot angrily.

  Alice smirked, "I love watching your reaction to the shirts, and I suspect Fi does, too. That's probably why she keeps fucking with you each time you put on one of her shirts." With a growl, Bridgette stalked over and started grabbing kobold bodies from the pile and dragging them over to the tunnel, piling them up to block most of the way back up to the surface. When the tunnel was about eighty percent blocked, the three decided that was sufficient to prevent both easy access from intruders and light from escaping.

  Colin then retreated about halfway across the cavern and began casting his ritual. Ten minutes ter, a fme erupted from the ground, dancing in the air as if to a silent wind. The area immediately surrounding the fme was lit brightly, but gradually dimmed to the point where the friends could see the bodies at the entrance to the cavern, but the light didn't spill into the tunnel to the surface.

  "Perfect," Bridgette excimed. "Great job, Colin. Now we can use this spot for keeping watch, and then unroll some sleeping bags off in the corner where it's a little darker and rest. In the morning, we'll be good to go. Thanks!"

  Colin nodded in response, "As an elf, I only need four hours to get the benefit for recharging my abilities, so how about if I take the first four, then I'll go into my trance and rest the st four hours. Then you guys will only need to take two hours each. Sound good?"

  Bridgette nodded, "I'll take second, that way Alice can get six hours in a row, then she can take the third watch if that's okay?" Alice bobbed her head in agreement. Colin settled back into his beanbag chair, gncing toward the entrance to the cavern and pulling out a book to read while he passed the time.

  The two girls walked some distance away from the campfire toward the opposite end of the cavern from the tunnel upwards, and Alice brought out a queen size sleeping pad for camping as well as two sleeping bags from her storage ring. She then zipped the bags together to create a rger compartment, before undressing and climbing in. Alice turned and held the edge of the sleeping bag open for Bridgette, who considered it briefly before pulling her shirt off and climbing in after Alice.

  "No funny business over there," Colin's voice came from the campfire.

  "Nobody likes a voyeur, Colin," Alice shot back. "And we're too tired for any shenanigans."

  Bridgette pulled Alice close, spooning around the smaller girl, holding her tight. Alice could feel Bridgette's body shake as she continued silently crying. Alice turned and kissed Bridgette, then held on to Bridgette's arms as she closed her eyes again, sleep coming quickly.

  WhimsicalLantern