Chapter Text
This entire group was hopeless and they were all going to burst into masses of tentacles, Astarion decided.
Oh, there was that gith's suggestion, dragging them all to a promised creche, and maybe they wouldn't all die, but Astarion wasn't a big fan of that option. That would put him back in the role of a leashed pet hiding from the sun. No, thank you. There was the vain hope the parasite's gifts would remain, but again, there was little hope of reaching this "creche" in the first place. They had no solid idea of where it was or if there was even one in the area. He wasn't thrilled at his companions for the journey, anyway.
There was, of course, the githyanki, Lae'zel. A woman with nerves of steel, all the social skills of a brick wall, and the warmth of a glacier. Not one for playful banter.
Neither was Shadowheart. It was fun to get under her skin, but the cleric was all too uptight and frigid. He didn't see himself getting along with her at all.
The man they had pulled out of an incomprehensible portal, Gale, waxed poetic so much that it made Astarion's mouth taste like candle wax. He had morals, eurgh. A classic warrior of the light, or something like that.
And then the last member of this little club they had going on was–
"Hello! Astarion, hello!"
He looked down – because his companion was less than half his height – and plastered on a smile to meet the bright one beaming up at him. Truthfully, at first, he had thought the mindflayer ship had picked up a child, which turned into him taking her hostage at first meeting. That had worked up until Shadowheart informed him that was a gnome and not actually a mindflayer-controlled child.
The gnome held up a purple flower.
"Thank you, my dear. What is it this time?" Astarion took the flower. He spun the stem between his thumb and index finger.
"A flower!"
"Ah. Yes. I see." Under his breath, he muttered, "Why would I expect anything else?"
"Thank you for the flower, Fenfen. It’s lovely." Shadowheart shot Astarion a pointed look as she took her identical gift from the gnome.
"What type of flowers are these, Fenfen?" Gale asked, carefully accepting the flower when another was offered to him. "Please don't say it's poisonous."
"It's edible," Fenfen said. She bounced beside Lae'zel until the githyanki swatted her away. Discouraged, Fenfen left her alone, shoving the gift-to-be in her own mouth instead.
Astarion made a noise of disgust and flicked the flower to the side. "Petals might be a filling meal for you snack-sized folk, but I see them as more of a garnish."
He kept an eye on Fenfen. The rest of them had longer legs and longer strides, and if she lagged too far behind, they would have to backtrack to find her again. The bleeding hearts that were Shadowheart and Gale wouldn’t let them go forward without the gnome.
Fenfen Rainpebble.
The name was nearly as bad as Shadowheart's. He had seen her cast healing magic, and she could do serious damage to someone’s ankles with a dagger, so she wasn’t entirely useless.
She was also the least likely of anyone around who would want to immediately stake him in the heart if the club found out he was a vampire spawn, so she had that going for her. She seemed much more concerned with collecting flowers, spinning in circles, and climbing rocks than spending time on complicated thoughts like if something was morally good or not. There wasn’t a thought in that head.
A squeak made the tall section of the party stop in their tracks and turn around. Fenfen was nowhere to be seen.
"Did a squirrel fall out of a tree?" Astarion asked, because for a moment he really wasn't sure.
Until a tuft of ginger hair popped up from a dip in the rocks. "I'm okay!"
If this was to be his one savior in the event his sanguine hunger betrayed him to the group, Astarion wanted to bury his face in his hands and scream.