Page 51 of Protecting His Treasure

“In real life. Yes. In this game, no. That was your number one rule. You said…”

“I know what I said.” That was when I thought I was going to win.

“You said,” he continued. “That during the game, we could not use our relationship to sway each other. You said there could be only one winner. You said this was not a team endeavor.”

“I said that?”

“You did. My dragon heard you too.”

Two against one. Shit.

Later that night, they loved each other and held each other close. They knew there were dark days ahead. However, they were quickly developing a family mantra. Together, we can overcome anything. That was a mantra that would get them through the dark days to come.

But the days that came were much darker than either of them anticipated.

***

The gifts kept rolling in after Christmas.

A couple of days after Christmas, one of the blacksmiths sent them two chests that were filled with weapon which included a set of ‘his and hers; shields. Real shields. The kind the Romans and the Vikings used to have. They were beautiful. Flames were engraved on Kaede’s, and a wand was engraved on Sin’s.

Wand? Stereotype much. Still, it was beautiful, so Sin didn’t complain. Plus, it was the thought that counted. And there was no point in having a shield to protect yourself with if you didn’t have a sword to defend yourself with. They were also gifted a pair of swords. One for each of them.

There were flames engraved on both swords. As a fire witch, she approved of that engraving. It was much better than a wand. Seriously, what witch used a wand these days? There was also a pair of nun chucks in the chest. Sin was claiming those for herself. She would look so badass swinging those bad girls.

“The blacksmiths made all these weapons for us?” Sin exclaimed.

“I told them about the chest you had in your home. Most of those items were magical. The would’ve survived the fire. But, when I went back for them, they were gone. More than likely, when the fire died out, creatures in the area foraged through your belongings, taking anything, everything they thought was valuable.”

Made sense. She would’ve done the same. On this plane, you couldn’t let anything go to waste. If she’d seen a cabin burning to the ground, she would’ve hidden somewhere and waited for the fire to go out and then she would’ve searched the ashes to see if anything was still intact.

The first thing she’d learned when coming here was that you had to be willing to dumpster dive. No there was no real dumpsters here. But that was the only word she could think of to describer what you had to do around here. It was a struggle. Especially for people who didn’t have a compound, for people who were surviving on their own.

Hunting for food could be a challenge. So, could searching for drinkable water. And don’t even think about trying to scrounge up some hair care products. Especially not if you’re a black woman. And there were no department stores. You had to make your own clothing or steal it.

This place could turn you into something you never thought you’d become. She’d become a mismatch clothes wearing, afro puff hair styling, too big shoes wearing fire witch who was now mated to a dragon. Yeah, this place could change you. But, at least she had new weapons.

“These weapons will come in handy. Thanks, babe.”

“I felt bad for causing you to lose your weapons. That’s why I asked the blacksmiths to make you some new ones. I know they can’t replace the ones I caused you to lose….”

“I love them.” She opened up the next chest. A happy grin spread across her face. “Handcuffs!” She winked at him then continued perusing the chest. “Ooh, a spear and an ax. More clothing.” She picked up a pair of what looked like leather pants and a leather jacket. “And they match. Is this why Lee took my measurements the other day?”

“It is. All of the weapons are flame retardant. So are the clothes. They wanted to have them ready for you my Christmas. They failed.”

“I don’t call that a fail. They got these done quickly. Actually, how did they make these clothes so fast? Fabric Magic?”

“Yes. All of the military clothing is made by the witches in the compound.”

“I tried using fabric magic to make my own clothing. None of my spells worked. The arm hole would be where the neck hole should be and, yeah, it didn’t work. I ended up needing a nap.” Ever since she came to this plane, her magic had been a little wonky.

“From what I hear, conjuring clothing out of nothing is exhausting. The magic users who make our military clothing only work one week a month. Then they spend another week resting from using up so much energy.”

“Wow. I wonder how long they’ll have to rest after making these for us. I feel bad now.”

“You should feel happy. You’re one of the few women who’ve had their training clothing made by our magic seamsters and seamstresses.”

“Who makes the other women’s training clothes?”