As they made their way over, Kaelen and the others were standing out of line.
Aiden looked at them in confusion.
"Aren't we going in? What happened?"
Kaelen shrugged and gestured toward where an older human man sat with Jax.
The man had a bald head, and a large, puffy white beard covered most of his face. He wore a set of coveralls and, even from a distance, carried the distinct smell of fish.
Very old fish.
"Apparently, he is the quest giver," Liora said with a shrug. "Something about the bone belonging to his greatest rival."
"Twas not just me greatest rival," the old man said, turning toward them. "He was also me greatest mate. For a man never does bond to an enemy like an undefeated fish."
Aiden stared at him.
Jax, who looked like he was barely holding himself together, tried to draw the old man's attention again.
"I believe prolonged time away from land may have affected his mind," Thalia said, crossing her arms. "Or perhaps it is simply decay from age. He keeps making contradictions like that."
Ever since Liora had told Thalia that part of why people found her disconcerting was her lack of facial expressions, Thalia had been practicing with a small mirror.
It was better than before.
Technically.
Unfortunately, the forced and exaggerated nature of her expressions made her look more comical than emotional.
Still, there was effort.
It took Jax another minute before he finally came back over. Before saying anything, he gestured for them to follow him.
They rounded one of the city wall towers and moved out of sight of the old man.
The moment they were hidden, Jax sat down and started heaving like he was about to throw up.
After a moment, he did.
Then he turned back to Liora with tears in his eyes.
"What the hell?" Jax asked between dry heaves. "He has been sitting there for days and hasn't bathed once that whole time. He smells like month-old fish. Why did you all send the one with the most sensitive nose to talk to him?"
Aiden took a moment to look himself over.
To be fair, all of them needed a bath.
Badly.
But that could be handled after they completed today's quest.
Liora rolled her eyes.
"Oh, grow up, you big baby. It couldn't have been that bad."
At that, Kaelen and Aiden rushed to Jax's side.
"That is too much," Kaelen said, leaning fully into the dramatic flare. "First, we had to do the slime quest all on our own and be stripped for it. Now you torture Jax further without sympathy? Have you no shame?"
Aiden joined in, trying to sound even more dramatic.
"A dog's nose can be dozens of times stronger than a human's. If you truly believe it was not that bad, must we acquire a month-old fish for a small test? Can you honestly say it could not have been that bad?"
At the sudden team-up, Liora looked taken aback.
She turned to Selene and Thalia for support.
Selene gave an apologetic smile.
"Y-you have been kind of rough on the boys recently."
Liora turned to Thalia as her last source of hope.
Thalia, remembering all the distrust and comments Liora had aimed her way, pretended not to notice the look.
Liora searched for an angle.
Found none.
Then finally sighed in defeat.
She looked at Jax as if meeting his eyes was difficult.
"All right, fine. I was being harsh. I apologize."
Jax turned his snout away with a huff.
"Not good enough. If girls could just apologize and get away with everything, then they would run the world and us guys would be slaving away in camps."
He paused.
"Well, except for Kaelen. The pretty ones would be sold to the highest bidder."
Aiden knew the plan to turn Liora's comment around had come from Will. He had even talked to Kaelen and Jax about it beforehand.
He had no idea where the male slave camps and Kaelen auction came from.
Liora just rolled her eyes.
"Fine. What can I do to make it up to you?"
She said it with such a sarcastic tone that whatever small amount of shame and guilt had been building in Aiden immediately vanished.
Kaelen, Jax, and Aiden all spoke in perfect unison.
"You're the bait for this quest."
Liora looked at them with an expression that was one part annoyance and one part horrified confusion.
In a way, it looked like she was having a stroke.
Selene, beside her, looked curious but said nothing.
Thalia nodded and grinned, clearly knowing what was coming next.
"All right, sure," Liora said, bewildered and annoyed. "Whatever you say."
"I am glad you agreed," Aiden said dramatically. "Because Kaelen and Thalia have been working on something since last night."
Liora's face paled.
She realized they had her.
Aiden reached into his cloak and started pulling out the bodysuit.
He still had no idea what it looked like. All he knew was that Kaelen and Thalia had worked on it while everyone slept, then placed it inside his cloak.
When he pulled it free, he had to suppress a laugh.
It was not exactly a suit.
It was a long length of rope covered in dozens of bones from different sources.
Thalia and Kaelen grabbed it and immediately started running around Liora, wrapping her like a fighter wrapping their hands before a match.
The final result was a roughly ball-shaped mass of bones surrounding Liora, who stood there with an expression of deceased horror on her face.
"Well?" Jax asked, turning to everyone else. "What do you think?"
"I think if our enemy is a bone thief, you will look like gold," Kaelen said, trying and failing to stifle a laugh.
Thalia gave a small smile. Her cheeks puffed slightly.
For Thalia, that was practically a barely contained belly laugh.
"You look very striking to bone enthusiasts."
Selene looked over the occasional bone sticking out at an odd angle.
"Enemies probably won't be able to grab you easily," she said, trying to be reassuring.
"I would say you look tasty," Jax said, shaking himself like he could shake away the memory of the old man's smell. "But the smell from earlier made me lose my appetite."
Aiden raised both hands.
"I'm not going to comment, because it will make your revenge against me worse."
Will had coached him through that answer.
He had insisted on it despite the several bone puns Aiden had prepared.
Something about survival instincts.
"Well, lass," the fisherman said, waddling toward them, "you have adorned the proper catching gear. Shall ye be headed to the lair of the vile thief?"
The moment he got close, everyone went slightly green.
The smell was truly horrible.
Aiden could see Jax holding his breath.
"Yea, yea, totally," Liora said, clearly trying to conserve air so she did not have to breathe in the smell. "Where is the lair?"
"Tis just over da wee hill over yonder. I'll guide you mysel—"
Kaelen cut him off, holding up a hand.
"You have already bested your rival. You should not be made to best a lesser beast merely to reclaim what was taken. Leave this to us."
The old man seemed to think about that for an impossibly long second.
Then he shrugged and waddled back to his little sitting spot.
Everyone took a moment to breathe air that had not been contaminated by ancient fish.
Liora leaned over and dry heaved.
"Okay," she said. "That was so much worse than I thought."
Everyone nodded.
Then they started toward the hill the old fisherman had directed them to.
As they crested the first hill, they heard an exasperated sound from behind.
Turning back, Aiden saw Liora trying and failing to climb the hill quickly. The bones weighed her down and restricted her leg movement.
"Slow… huff… down, you… pant… assholes!"
She said this between breaths.
"She's spherical enough," Jax said, turning to the rest of them. "Want me to roll her so she doesn't slow us down?"
"She is already going to kill you in your sleep because of this," Thalia said matter-of-factly. "Do you really want to be tortured first?"
"Come on now," Kaelen said with an uncomfortable chuckle. "Don't joke about things like that."
Thalia did not respond.
She simply gave the three boys a genuine look of pity.
Aiden, Jax, and Kaelen looked between each other.
Now they were worried.