Spears stared at the woman staring at her, regretting that she wasn't assertive enough to take someone's spot on the excursion Corvayne was on. Her favorite spear-wielding pillow had also taken her new friend. It wasn't all bad, there were lots of interesting people still around camp! She just wasn't around any of them all day. Instead, she was pretending to be big sis Diamonds-In-Passing to the stupid, useless, spoiled, spiteful woman-child before her.

The first day it was dumping her dirty dishes on Spear's plate before she had finished eating. Then she kicked over a pole June was using to dry laundry. Kirae had to ask for Spears to hop on a hover-cycle and catch a donkey carrying the trade goods they had bought. Of course, Kirae saw Bell kick her donkey's side for no reason other than it being there. Which brought her to the morning of the fourth day in charge of a grown woman with the emotional intelligence of a six year old.

“Okay Bell. I see you've trashed my tent. Can you tell me why you did that?”

“Because, if I'm going to be sat here with this farce of incarceration, I demand that the young master in charge of the camp train me!”

Spears moved her organs around her core, her version of breathing deep. She refocused on her vocal chords, trying to mimic a supportive older woman voice. “So, you want attention, and you figure this would help you get what you want?”

“Stop your mummery. Take me to the young master, I have no need of lesser pupils of his.”

Pupil? “Well, if Corvayne isn't back....” She felt something in herself boil a little as the word sloshed around her head. Pupil?! “We can work on the lessons he gave me for you...” I'll show you pupil you little shit! “... so when he gets back he praises you for your diligence!”

Bell raised her nose, and with a boot kicked Spear's tent, causing it to start blowing away in the wind. “Perhaps instead you will work on your running form while I wait for a man with a spine.”

Spears had to decide between revenge and gear, and picked the tent. She used flow like water to appear in front of the tumbling bundle of synthetic cloth and catch it, the fabric feeling especially slippery due to it's waxy cover. She nearly stumbled, then shifted the billowing mass under her and sat on it while she watched the princess fold her arms behind her back and stroll off.

Bell had a small smirk as she waved her hand imperiously. “Go go. find Corvayne, I will resume my training with him when you return.”

Spears wanted to grab a staff and beat her ass so very badly... But it was hard not to see her as a dumb kid. Bell was like Corvayne, a little. She was lonely. Spears was older, wiser, and better trained. Even if she was... nearly totally stranded from everyone she had known aside from Corvayne, well, he was always the best person you could ask for to watch your back, and he was changing in good ways from the boy she remembered, and had fallen for. She reshaped her chin upwards. She could do this!

Still, she was also stuck with her hands full of tent, and none of the friends she had made so far were there to give her a hand. It was an odd thing to say, but Nyx had been helping her with everything so much that now he had been gone for a few days, she really was missing him!

“A spear moves forward!” as her master used to say, so she used her spear's butt to pound the stakes back in and then extended her arms as psudopods to quickly get the rest of the ropes in place, and a few moments later, ta-dah! A tent, not too much worse the wear except her boot prints. Dusty boot prints, all over HER tent!

She was going to kill that little brat!

Spears started storming across the grounds, having to double back when she left some of her mass behind. She detoured to a stream to cycle grit she picked up out and water in, then blazed off to find Bell and give her a solid beating- some training. She wasn't going to fall into the same trap that some of the trainers did when they punished Corvayne for no reason.

Spears saw Shallee and waved, and her movie buddy waved back but was walking with Gary on a little strolling date, both them blushing as they held hands, possibly going over to the crystal court to smooch. Spears tried not to go back to thinking about Corvayne and the times they were very close together. Like, sleeping back to back on a mission once. Or when he didn't notice her looking while he was bathing. Or when she pretended not to notice him looking while she was bathing. It was so hard! She wanted to get closer, but everyone who did that pushed him away.

She found she was wandering, and blinked. As much as she was glad a lack of sleep wouldn't flat out kill her, it made it hard sometimes to be awake and present. She could see Bell also stomping around camp, and then saw she was on a collision course for June and Mosh.

Spears started double timing it over, and of course was still too late.

Mosh just sounded tired. “I don't have to do anything for you lady.”

“Rebellious filth! Why they let vermin into camp, I cannot say-”

June, for as much as she often resembled The Watcher's oasis on a day with no wind, was rigid with anger. Spears didn't know either her or Mosh very well, but Mosh spoke highly of Corvayne, and so on some level she thought of the goblin as a friend too.

“-I assume he pulled you from whatever warren to be his shoe shine boy.”

Spears saw June pull her fist back, and moved to step between her and Bell. The Tower-folk woman's fist pushed through her membrane and felt a little too intimate but didn't hurt. Spears saw Bell look surprised at the attack than righteous.

“See? Even the hopeless lovesick slime, who thinks she's good enough for Corvayne, has enough sense to block the dull witted washerwoman lest I aven-”

Spears suddenly was in a glass bubble, Bell was on the ground, and Mosh was crouched by Bell, trying to fix a bloody nose. She could hear faintly the exchange.

“Outraged! How dare she? How dare she?”

“Put your hands down so I can heal your nose.”

“No! Stay away! I want the other healer.”

Spears saw Mosh back off. “Fine. I'll go get Icariii, you racist shrew. Because I am a class act, and you're a savage.”

“Sav-sa-savage?! I am an imper-”

“You are a backwards ass barbarian! I've yet to see anything past stonework here. You sent a fucking wagon! I make better clothes than anything you or your allies were wearing as armor. What you call an army wouldn't stand up to a single person we consider a warrior.”

“Green devil, you dare mock me?!”

“Mock what?! You are bleeding on the ground, June has your training sword... what's there to mock?!”

Spears watched as Bell tried to speak. “Goblins are nothing but-”

“See? You have nothing!” Mosh spat on her pants. “NOTHING! I lived in an empire so large it would take millions and millions and millions of years to count all the worlds. The goblins you think you are so above lived in paradises that floated between the stars. Thousands and thousands of different races, working together to make sure nobody is hungry or sick or old or ever in danger unless they want to be. We defeated gods, and we were strong enough to show them mercy. Where's your cities? Your roads? Your armies? Your space ships? What did you make with your own hands, even? You have nothing! You make nothing, you have nothing, you are NOTHING! I know about you. I spoke with Kirae and Shallee. They lived in caves, but they are better people than you. There's something in them. They are more fit to rule than you. Kirae, even when she's trying to rip me off, has something behind her. A dream, a point, a mind, a soul. Shallee speaks a million unsaid words in how she STILL keeps going despite everything that happened to her. The things you say? They mean NOTHING. You can't speak your mind, you can't tell us what you want, and thus you sit there and make nothing, You are a DRAIN. Nobody at this camp wants you here, except for Corvayne, and that's because he's a hero, and a better man than a million others I've met. I ain't a hero. I don't care what you think, or your stupid empire. I'm STUCK here too, but instead of being a whiner day in and day out I got OFF my ASS and DID something!” Spears felt herself spellbound figuratively at this point (on top of literally) as she watched Mosh step forward and Bell stumble away from him. “If you're to be the ruler of the empire, it's no wonder it's fucking dying! If you're NOT the ruler then stop fucking acting like your shit doesn't stink. You are a hole, draining everything. SIT UP! GET UP! Give me your stupid fucking nose! Lythandies, mend this useless woman!”

He got his hand on the stunned princess's nose and there was a crack as it fixed itself.

“Right now, march your ass back to your tent or I swear to Lythandies herself I'm going to let Spears loose on you before she cools off, and she WAS ready to kill you because you've been pissing her off for no reason all week.”

“You... you all...”

“Fuck you! Stand up!” Mosh yanked her to her feet. “From now on, if I hear someone ELSE say you were rude to them, I'm melting you into a god damn rock! The only reason I didn't let Spears tear you apart was she'd regret it, Corvayne would be mad at her, and she's been NOTHING but nice to EVERYONE else.”

The princess started to stumble and run. Mosh watched her run, then sighed and turned to Spears. “Hey, sorry about that, but you were going to kill her. You okay?”

Spears nodded, which didn't work too well as she was stuck in a sphere. “I didn't think I was that angry.”

Mosh lowered his glass bubble and it evaporated, letting Spears pour herself to the ground. Now that she was out of the bubble, embarrassment overtook her. She was supposed to be better too, and she wasn't. Hadn't been. Shame flushed through her.

“I have failed, Mosh. You were a more level headed warrior than I was there. Corvayne gave me a job, and I failed it. I am not fit to flush a toilet.”

“Spears, cmon. You cheer us all up. You're like a living jewel, and I'm sure sooner or later Corvayne will see you're sweet on him and well, you know. That's why she started in on you first, I bet. She can't get that he'd like someone so different more then her.”

“But not Hari or Wick?”

Mosh waved for Spears to follow. “Let's walk and talk, gotta go check to make sure she didn't run off a cliff. If she's dead before Corvayne gets back home we'll all be in the doghouse. So, Wick is a princess, and as a spoiled princess she assumes it's right and just someone likes a princess. Hari is an elf, and everyone has a thing for elves.”

Spears laughed a little to try to deal with the sinking feeling around her core. “But I'm too weird for him to like me, huh?”

June spoke up. “You are enchanting. I enjoy watching light play though you and the way you shift as you move. I used to sometimes watch the river, and it reminds me of simpler times, happy days spent washing laundry and happy nights laying with menfolk.”

Spears got distracted from the point by that comment and trying to decide if it was innocent or not, and so she sort of slept walked up to a point where they found Bell, currently trying to free herself from one of Grunt's hands. His other mimed a quick series of gestures that Spears guessed Corvayne had taught him from Watcher hand code, with flavor that seemed to her to be saying: 'I found her sneaking (poorly) around, possibly trying to steal a bike (Hover). Do you want me to transfer her (prisoner) to you? She's really wiggly (poorly).'

Spears nodded. “I'll take her back to camp. I will not lose my temper.” She quickly slapped her heart and tapped her head twice. 'I hope I wont, at least (don't hold me to it).

Grunt made a spear-thump, which was a good gesture for Corvayne in Spear's opinion, then used his free hand to look vigilant, then a few hand words about effort: I don't know what Corvayne expected us to do.

He looked down and Spears could see that Bell was weeping. “The goblin was right, I'm awful, empty and I don't know why, and-”

Mosh slapped his hand to his face. “Of course. Once you mend someone, it unfucks their head a little for a while! Which means she's probably acting like her shit don't stink as some sort of deflection or denial we just peeled off.”

Spears looked to the woman she had punched. A spear goes forward. Corvayne was trying to fix her. If her approach failed, she needed to not double down but find a different angle.

If Spears was worn out from training, sometimes she'd just go out with Coming-In-Hot and a bucket of ammo and just kill a few hours shooting at things in the desert. The older woman acted cold but made time for Spears.

An idea formed. A real bad idea, but something that might help Bell at least let some steam off.

An hour later, Spears, Grunt, and a sullen Bell stood before a bunch of stone targets.

“Okay, before anything else, Bell, I'm sorry I punched you in the face.” Spears put her head down, then looked up.

Bell looked at her, silent with misery. The look said everything about how well that was accepted. A spear moves forward, so Spears clapped her hands.

“Now, I had a thought to make it up to you, Grunt has some neat weapons that Mosh helped make for us. When I'm down, sometimes just shooting weapons makes me feel better.”

“I'm a lousy shot with a crossbow.” Bell muttered. “I'm... nothing.”

Spears silently made a note to not get Mended right after someone roasted her. “Well, even if you can't aim well, these things fire sixty times a second.”

She took an assault rifle from Grunt's hands, then smiled back at Bell before handing her ear protection. “You'll want to put these on, or the weapon will make you deaf. It's very loud.”

Bell wasn't in a mood to fight, shuffling closer and taking the earmuffs. Grunt tapped his own ears then gave a thumbs up: I'm okay.

Nodding, Spears took her gun and laid prone, aiming for the stone target. She washed her pseudopod fingers up to the trigger, feeling the currently cold metal and plastic weapon. It looked like a beauty too, painted black and gleaming in the daylight. While she wouldn't get hurt by kickback, she still pushed the stock into her shoulder and lined up her target. She flicked the safety off and used the sight to aim for a rock, then gave the trigger a short squeeze, blasting the rock with three shots and sending stones and dust flying with a satisfying crack.

Bell looked at Spears, then the target, then Spears. “So? I cannot use magic like that....”

Spears pulled her over and pushed the gun into her hands, using her limbs to get her grip right, then helped her aim, prepared for the weapon to kick up. “It's not magic. It works for anyone who can pick it up. When you're ready, squeeze the trigger and-”

Princess pulled the trigger and of course the weapon started kicking up, blasting bullets mostly into air with only the first few hitting stones. After a few seconds there was a click click click as the weapon was empty.

Spears took the weapon back, but there was a weird look on Bell's face.

“Please....”

Spears mentally swore. She probably was traumatized by-

“Please Spears, can I do that again?”

Grunt let out a single laugh that Spears felt was odd coming from the otherwise silent man, then held up a finger. He ran for the truck and came barreling back with a rocket launcher.

Spears looked at him. “Do we have enough missiles to-”

Grunt jerked a thumb over to Mosh, who was helping Kirae unload baskets of rocks.

“... These are home-made? Nice!” Spears grinned, watching Grunt hand over the missile launcher to Bell, using a hand to make sure it was pointed at the rocks and nowhere else. There was a hiss as the rocket launched right into a distant boulder, the retort booming across the empty plains and reverberating from the crystal and the source. It knocked Bell on her ass, and even Grunt wobbled a little.

In the silence while she rebuilt her ears, Spears watched Bell laughing with pure joy.

Spears wasn't sure if Mister I or Corvayne would approve trading explosives for good behavior, but where had they been the last hour?

“Let's get everything squared away and see if we can't help make some more.”