Walking through one of the world’s many gates, the smell of meat cooking in the air, Steph couldn’t help but look at Will beside her, slight judgement in her eyes.
“Do you really need to do that?”
“Do what?” He asked back in innocence as he laid thin strips of meat along his arm, letting it cook under the power of his lighting augmentation coursing through his flesh before pulling off one to chew on and offering her another, only to be turned down.
“We have a full day ahead of us, and you’re going to be greasy for all of it.”
“I’ve got some soap and water in my ring; I’ll rinse off after I’m done lunch.”
“Mmm, well, I think I’m going to get something that hasn’t been cooked on a person.”
“A nice thought, but it doesn’t look like there’s many options for that.”
The city they’d entered was largely empty, and the reason for that was obvious, with the invasion point marked on the horizon, far too close and plain to see as soon as they’d arrived, making that land one of many that had largely been evacuated. There were still people living and working there of course, but of them, it was mostly the stubborn, along with those preparing for the next wave, with that latter group being their reason for their visit.
It also meant that as far as restaurants or food carts went, options were slim, given that among everything, they weren’t a priority to keep around and, without a strong population, there wasn’t much money to be made either, leaving their walk through the street snackless while they went on their way.
Steph’s stomach growled, and annoyance crossed her face before she reached out to Will’s arm, taking a piece in the end.
“Life has gotten way too weird.”
“Yeah, but what can we do?” He shrugged, pulling out both soap and a bottle of water to start wiping himself down with, now that his meal was done.
“Not cook on your body to start with.”
“You ate some in the end,” he laughed. “And you could have saved at least a bit of space in your inventory or your ring for some snacks.”
“Ugh, I thought we’d be able to finish quicker this way.”
As a space and time mage, Steph’s supporting role for so much of the war effort left her acting as a means of transporting goods, at least when her power as a life mage didn’t have her stuck healing for days on end, with moving various items for fortifications making up the bulk of that day.
There were hundreds of invasion points across the planet, and all of them needed to be surrounded and staffed, meaning the work on all fronts never actually ended, even when the fortresses in each area had been built up, improved upon, and repaired since the spots were first marked. As the threat of the war grew in intensity, there was always something more to be considered. More defenses, more spare weapons and potions and food, more furniture to be slept on, and more little comforts, no matter how unused they would go when things went to hell, and she needed to transport them for all the good they’d hopefully do.
Really, she and Will needed to transport them, though she was still doing it to a far greater extent. Receiving rings that acted as such powerful storage items meant that both of them could add on to what she could already hold with her magic alone, doing more as a result, and also gave a convenient push to those in charge to make sure they got more work together. They were both valuable resources, but in different ways. If Will could provide some value as transportation of his own while also making sure she was safe along the way, then it was a benefit to everyone.
With their first stop being within the city they were passing through itself, finding where others making deliveries had piled up supplies within the city square, Steph took note of the location before opening a portal from there, out towards their next stop.
Ending up within sight of one of the many fortresses dotting the area, only one more pathway needed to be opened to get them to its front gate, where they needed to follow proper procedure, waiting to be let inside and led through when they were, where soldiers were already hard at work in preparation for what was to come.
But at least then, their work was unrelated to the two. Brought to one of the larger open spaces within, Steph and Will dropped off their delivery, letting out a mountain of crates filled with supplies of all sorts, watching as those same soldiers moved to drag them off, organizing them as needed and making space for the next as Steph opened a portal to the city square they’d just left, letting all of the supplies that others had dropped within it be easily transported to that new location.
As the soldiers worked on moving it all, her only job was to maintain the portal, letting them walk in and out to get everything they needed, and as dull as that was, it was also a time where she could relax, letting her sit down while Will joined her side.
“Not gonna help them out?” She teased, nodding the soldiers’ way while Will gave her an exaggerated shrug.
“I went over the brief in its entirety, and that is not part of my job description. If they’re so against giving us any days off, they’ve gotta be prepared for the bare minimum.”
“Unless you can get away with even less.”
“Ha, well, I’m a little older and a little wiser than when we first ended up here. With the benefit of hindsight, I would have said that we should have just struck out on our own, working as adventurers or something.”
“We’d be a lot less wealthy if we did.”
“Sure, but the trade-off would be a lot more freedom. What do you say? If the war ever ends, we’ll have done our part. We can quit and move somewhere else. Preferably somewhere quieter, and can just live off our savings forever.”
“Ha, I think I’d like that,” she smiled, laying her head on his shoulder. “You sure you wouldn’t still want to work, though? We’re too young to be retiring for the rest of our lives already.”
“Are you kidding? After all of this, unemployment’s the dream. If you still wanna work, then all the power to you; I’ll be at home in my pajamas, sitting on my butt when I’m not going to be trying to convince Ben to figure out how to reinvent the TV here. Movies too. He already figured out video games, so the rest can’t be too hard, right?”
“I think there’s a couple other creature comforts I’d pick first,” she laughed. “Like phones, cameras, maybe chocolate.”
“Chocolate would be great,” Will sighed. “Think that’s even possible to make here without cocoa beans?”
“I don’t care how inauthentic it might be so long as the taste is right.”
“Ha, we should send him a list to start working on, then. Weapons are overdone; I want electricity and mass-produced candy.”
“Sadly, I think he probably has better things to worry about.”
“Technically, so do we, but that’s not going to stop me from dreaming. I’m telling you, our retirement is going to be great.”
“I guess we’ll have to wait and see,” she sighed, standing up as the soldiers finished moving the rest of their goods and let her close her gate. “But it looks like break time is over. Back to work?”
“Yeah, back to work.”
She offered him her hand and pulled him up, letting the two go off to their next destination of many, with more shortcuts to make and goods to deliver. Dreaming of retirement was nice, but there was no escaping the reality of how much work there was left to do that day and further out until however the third wave ended. They could only hope that eventually the future would hold a bit more peace.
Author’s note
Struggled a bit with where to go with this one when my original idea didn’t work, I figured touching on a bit of the logistics involved in preparing for the war wouldn’t be a bad direction while also giving a bit of a more casual scene between the two of them so hopefully you got a bit of enjoyment out of it.