"A-Are we there yet, Dust?"

Fidget shivered within the confines of Dust's backpack, afraid of peeking her head out. The forest was dark and scary enough at the best of times, but the madman she was travelling with insisted on pressing ahead while it was dark. He hadn't agreed to let her ride in his pack until a large bird had swooped at her, and even then only because she had clung onto his pack for dear life; it was mildly less inconvenient to have her inside the pack itself, and so that was where she went.

"If we were," Dust grumbled, "do you think I'd still be walking at this pace?"

Fidget sighed and curled up a little more on top of the travel blanket that separated her from the food and monster bits Dust was carrying around. "Don't you have any sense of self-preservation?" she asked him. "When you're not busy flinging yourself into piles of enemies and swinging that sword around like a maniac, you're always off running through spikes, or caverns, or spiky caverns."

"We go where we're needed, Fidget. And we can still make good time before it gets too dark to see."

The Nimbat in his backpack grumbled with discontent, reaching up and lifting the back of his backpack just enough to peek out from under the flap without leaving its safety. She could barely see anything; beyond the area lit up around them by the torch Dust was carrying, the forest was lit only by the moonlight coming down from above and filtering through the leaves.

Huffing, she settled back into the safety of Dust's backpack. "I don't know how you keep going for so long. Don't you need to rest?"

"I'll rest when we make camp." He said flatly. "I could probably go faster without all the extra weight on my back, though."

Fidget folded her arms indignantly. Aside from her perfectly natural, sensible, and reasonable desire to not be eaten by whatever big, scary monsters were living in the forest, she had another reason to want Dust to stop: she had to pee. He never seemed to take into account the fact that she was so much smaller than him – and by extension, so was her bladder. It felt like every time they went anywhere, she had to hold it in until she was nearly bursting.

"If you were going faster, would you make camp sooner?" she tried.

"No. It would just help us get to our destination quicker tomorrow."

"Wh-... well then why are you complaining if you're going to make me wait anyway?" she snapped.

"Make you wait for what?"

Fidget froze, realizing she had said too much. "...wait for dinner." she managed to come up with, "And wait for sleep!"

"You're sitting on top of all the food you could want." Dust pointed out. "And if you want to sleep, I'm not stopping you."

"How am I supposed to sleep when I'm being bounced around constantly?" Fidget retorted. "I don't know about you, but -I- prefer to sleep somewhere flat, and stable, and out of the reach of hungry monsters that are looking out for a Nimbat dinner!"

"I think there's some hot sauce in there somewhere." Dust replied nonchalantly. "If you rub that on your fur, I'm sure the monsters will leave you alone."

"Oh, sure, I'll SEASON myself! Hey, monsters, come and get yourselves some secret recipe Nimbat while supplies last!"

"You talk a lot for someone who claims to be tired." Dust said, unamused. "We'll stop in a little bit, just let me get some peace and quiet, please."

"Fine!" Fidget snapped, huffing and leaning against the back of the backpack. She crossed her legs as well, resigning herself to having to wait once again for Dust to stop. She was quite tempted to relieve herself in the backpack out of spite, but then she'd be without food and without a dry blanket once they did stop.

Trying to keep her mind off the pressure in her lower abdomen, Fidget let her mind wander. She wondered what the next crazy request was that Dust would accept without hesitation, what the next awful monster was that he'd pick a fight with, and what Sereth looked like under his robe. Maybe there wasn't anything under there, and he was just an animated robe and some gloves with some glowing eyes. She couldn't rule out the possibility.

In the middle of a heated internal debate with herself about whether Ahrah was a spirit that possessed a sword, or a sword that was awakened with magic, she got tossed around a little as Dust suddenly came to a stop. "Hey! What's the big idea?" Fidget demanded, poking her head out of the backpack.

"Nothing." Dust replied. "I'm stopping to make camp. Unless you'd rather I keep going..."

Meekly, she shrunk back down into his backpack. "Nope, you're good." she mumbled. Suddenly she got tossed around as Dust unslung the backpack from his shoulders and put it down on the ground, the Nimbat inside shooting him a death glare as she crawled out from it. Looking around, she saw they were in a small clearing, and she stretched her wings out before taking to the air, keeping her legs pressed closely together – having to wait an extra 30 minutes or however long it had been had not made her any less desperate for relief.

Dust was already in the middle of gathering branches for a campfire, as well as stones to surround it with. It was the perfect time for her to take care of her needs before Dust decided to rope her into something else, like putting up the tent, or gathering berries, or whatever. Her eyes were already fairly adjusted to the darkness after spending so long hiding in Dust's backpack, so she could make out the forest beyond the clearing, and as far as she could tell there was a reassuring lack of glowing eyes of any color.

"I'm just gonna go over here and look around." Fidget said by way of an excuse as she saw a few bushes she could hide behind a short distance away. "I'll be right back, don't you worry."

"Watch out for the bears." Dust remarked idly as he tossed another branch onto what was soon to be a campfire.

A little shiver ran through her spine. Dust was just joking around and teasing her, right? If there actually WAS a bear nearby, he would take care of it... right?

"You're really mean sometimes, Dust." she huffed, shaking her head as she flew out of the clearing. As far as she could tell, the forest was quiet, with no signs of movement except for occasional small insects. All of the smart creatures – a classification she currently excluded Dust from – were sleeping by now. As she ought to be. And after a pee break and a quick meal, she would.

Delicately, she landed on the grass behind the bushes, which blocked the view between herself and Dust. Her paws made no sound on the grass, and she squatted down immediately, not wanting to waste any more time. Spreading her legs as far apart as she could, lowering her hips as much as possible, she took a few breaths and started to relax her muscles.

The pressure in her bladder abated as a thin stream of pale yellow water gushed from her slit and onto the ground. It splashed and pattered gently on the grass, making very little sound on account of the short distance it had traveled, barely audible even to herself. The nervous Nimbat looked upward, glancing at her surroundings, but when nothing came out of the darkness to eat her in her moment of weakness, she softly sighed and just enjoyed the feeling of finally being able to pee.

She kept herself perfectly still, wanting it to be over with as soon as possible, listening to the impact sound of her urine changing as the ground was saturated with it, making a tiny muddy puddle between her feet. The discomfort and pressure inside of her was gone, replaced with the sensation of relief and satisfaction, especially as she fully emptied out at the final drops fell from her urethra and onto the wet ground below her.

Fidget reached behind her to pluck a leaf from the bush as she clenched her muscles to get the last drops of pee out of her, but the bush was stubborn and didn't want to relinquish its leaf quite so easily. With a firm tug, however, she finally snapped it off, rustling the shrub, and she used the smooth, broad leaf to wipe herself dry.

"Fidget?" she suddenly heard from directly next to her.

Her eyes shot open wide as she dropped the leaf into her puddle by surprise, letting out a short scream of surprise. "Aaaagh! What- DUST!" He was standing barely a couple of feet away, holding Ahrah in one hand. The feline had not only come after her, but worse, he had snuck up on her in a vulnerable moment! If she wasn't already empty, she might have wet herself from the shock. "How long have you been there?"

"Um, I just got here." he said nonchalantly, watching Fidget as she took to the air again, her cheeks burning bright red from embarrassment. "I heard something rustling and came to check it out. Was that you?"

Fidget flew up until her eyes were level with his and glared at him. "Yes, it was me! You could have just asked first instead of sneaking up on me while I was... you know, doing things!"

Dust rolled his eyes, something she could only see because she was looking underneath that ridiculously oversized hat of his for once. "Everyone pees, Fidget." he remarked in a flat tone as he turned on his heel and headed back towards the campfire he had just finished building.

She flew after him indignantly. "That doesn't give you the right to walk in on me!"

"Then maybe you should have told me what you were doing."

"You don't tell ME! It's always just, oh Fidget, go wait here all by yourself in this scary forest, or this monster-filled cave, or this freezing mountain. I'll totally be back soon but you don't need to know why!"

Dust ignored her as he took a flint and steel out from his backpack to light the campfire, which only made her more infuriated with him. "Well, fine! I see how it is! Next time, I'll just announce it in the middle of some important conversation you're having! Hey Dust, I know you're talking to Big Important Mayor Guy about saving some children, but I need to..."

She faltered, and he shrugged. "Yeah, clearly I have a lot to worry about." he remarked dismissively. "Look, I heard something in the bushes, and I was worried about you, so I came to look."

"Hmph." Fidget perched on the nearest tree branch and glowered at him, not wanting to keep arguing, but not wanting to admit defeat either.

--------------------

The next day it was not darkness, but rather inclement weather that forced Fidget to take shelter in Dust's backpack once again.

They had finally broken out of the forest around noon, but they still weren't anywhere near their destination – several more days of travel by road separated them from the next town they were headed to. They were only going to get there one step at a time, but a storm had broken out in the early afternoon. As a result, Dust was the only one taking steps as Fidget hunkered down inside the darkness of his pack, taking occasional peeks out from under the flap. He wasn't even chewing her out for it this time; the winds were strong enough to drive the rain almost horizontally, and he had to keep one hand firmly on his hat to stop it from blowing away. Fidget would have struggled just to stay in place.

The availability of the road was the only saving grace. Fidget was glad that they wouldn't have to go trekking over a mountain full of monsters, or through a cave full of monsters, or across ruins full of monsters, or any other monster-infested horrible places. She'd had quite enough of that for a long time.

Fidget took a cautious peek outside, lifting the flap a tiny bit with one finger. Rainwater dripped copiously over the edges of the flap to either side of the part she lifted up, and she got a glance at the gray skies and vast grasslands around them, the forest they had left earlier just a distant landmark now. It was just the two of them, the rain, and...

Fidget squinted. Something was approaching them on the road. The Nimbat trembled a little, afraid that something was coming to attack them. She wouldn't be able to help Dust in weather like this, and there was no way he'd be able to fight anything off without her help! (Or at least, that's what she told herself...)

The raging storm made it hard to hear or see very much, and Dust bouncing her around as he walked didn't help – but whatever the approaching thing was, it was glowing. She could barely hear the sound of hooves over the rain pounding on Dust's backpack, and whatever it was, it was coming at them fast.

"D-Duuust!" Fidget squeaked from inside his pack, pointing down the road before realizing he couldn't see her. "Something's coming up behind us! I can hear hooves!" She clutched her head in both hands and lowered herself further, peeking out through the now-tiny gap under the flap. "It's got glowing eyes! It must be some kind of HORSE DEMON! It's gonna eat us alive!"

"What?" Dust said, stopping and spinning around, jostling Fidget around inside his pack and turning her away from the monster. She heard him draw Ahrah, and was shifted further as he took up a battle stance...

"...Fidget, that's just a wagon." Dust told her after a moment, relaxing his body.

"Oh." Fidget murmured quietly. "I... I knew that! I was just, um, testing you. You have to stay alert, you know! What if it -had- been a... horrible... horse demon...?" She shivered a little and tried not to think about it any more than she already had.

The sound of the hooves grew louder as Dust put Ahrah away again in silence, refusing to dignify Fidget's excuse with a response. Fidget raised her eyes to the flap again, but Dust was facing the wrong way, so she couldn't see anything except the road stretching out ahead of them and into the awful weather. Suddenly, she heard horses whinnying and the hoofbeats stopping as the driver reined them in, and Dust stepped back slightly.

"Easy, easy!" she heard a mildly familiar, gentle voice say, trying to remember who it was. When the horses calmed down, she heard the voice speak again. "Greetings, Dust. How fortunate to meet you out here. When I saw a traveler holding a sword, I thought I was about to be robbed."

"Sorry about that, Sereth." Dust replied, identifying the other speaker for Fidget. "SOMEONE had led me to believe we were being attacked." She felt his hand tapping the side of the backpack she was hiding in,

"No harm done. If there is nothing else, I will be on my way."

"Uh, actually, would you mind if we hitched a ride?" Dust asked quickly. "You seem to be going the same way we are."

"I am in rather a hurry." Sereth replied.

"We just want to hop in the back. You don't need to change direction or go out of your way for us." Dust explained. "We'll just be sitting in the back, we won't be any trouble at all."

Fidget really didn't want to be walking the entire way either, so she piped up as loud as she could manage. "And besides, wouldn't it be better to have some protection in case there ARE bandits out here?"

Sereth only hesitated for a brief moment. "Very well," he conceded, "just hop in the back and we'll be off."

"Thank you!" Dust and Fidget replied together as Dust quickly ran around behind the wagon, climbing up into the back of it, unshouldering his backpack and setting it down. As soon as she came to a rest, Fidget poked her head up out of the backpack and looked around. It was a fairly simple covered wagon, with several boxes secured in the back of it, one of which Dust was sitting (and dripping) on. A few cloth bags were stored at the front of the wagon, and Fidget could just clearly see Sereth's form in the driver's seat, illuminated by the lantern hanging next to him – the one she must have mistaken for glowing eyes earlier.

"We're good to go." Dust told their driver, and Fidget heard him lash the reins, getting the horses moving again.

"This is nice." Fidget observed out as they started to move. "I didn't know you had a wagon."

"What was that?" Sereth called back without turning around, raising his voice. "I can't hear you very well over the storm."

Fidget turned towards him and tried again. "I said, I didn't know you had a wagon!"

"Of course I do." Sereth replied curtly, keeping his eyes on the road. "Did you think I carried a tent and all of my wares around Falana in my pockets?"

Fidget huffed from being chastised. "No, I just hadn't seen it before. Besides, I've never seen under those robes. Who knows what you've got under there."

"Now now, Fidget." Dust chided her, "You should be grateful. Unless you want to fly along behind the wagon..."

She frowned and folded her arms, but didn't say anything else, turning to look out the back of the wagon. They were going at a pretty good pace, but thankfully the road was in good condition, so they weren't being bounced around. For a while, they passed the time in their own ways; Dust opened the backpack and rearranged the contents, teasingly blaming Fidget for everything getting out of order. Fidget periodically rebuked his complaints, until she went over to one of the canvas sacks and stretched out on it. It was probably full of fruit or something, but for the tiny Nimbat, it was a lot like a big beanbag, so she made herself as comfortable as she could on it.

Though she didn't properly sleep or nap, she did close her eyes and spaced out for a while, thinking initially of what fruit might be in the sack, then what kinds of desserts someone might be able to make with them, and then what other nice food she might be able to get once they arrived in town and didn't have to live off of trail rations and foraged food. Some of the towns around here had delicious apple cider as well, or maybe she could get Dust to pour her a small cup of honey mead...

Fidget opened her eyes suddenly, taking note of pressure in her belly. The thought of pouring liquid had brought her attention to her need to pee, and though she had previously tuned it out completely, she was now acutely aware of the rain all around them, which didn't help her predicament. She'd last snuck off to relieve herself at lunch while Dust was getting it prepared, and then she'd been hiding in Dust's backpack for a while. She'd lost track of how long they'd been in the wagon entirely.

Glancing over, she saw Dust staring out the back of the wagon. "Dust?" she asked softly, "How far do you think we are from the town?"

"We should get there tonight." Dust told her. "We're going at a pretty good pace, but there's still a lot of road left. Why?"

"Oh, well... it's been a while, I was thinking maybe it would be good to stop and take a break." she told him, coming up with a rather feeble excuse. She was embarrassed enough about what had happened the previous night; she really didn't want to bring it up, even tangentially.

"Then it'll take even longer for us to get there." Dust flatly dismissed her. "I've been walking for several days straight rather than hiding in a backpack, so I'd rather rest my legs."

Fidget frowned. "What about the horses? They've been going fast this whole time..."

"I'm sure Sereth knows what he's doing." Dust inclined his head towards Sereth, but their driver didn't seem to notice, probably still not able to hear them when they talked quietly. "And they're not going flat-out. I'm sure he'll stop them if they need it, but they should be able to keep up this pace until we get to town."

Ugh, why did Dust always have to make this so difficult? Fidget started to wonder if he was being deliberately dense just to mess with her. She leaned back into the canvas sack again and sighed, keeping her legs close together, resigned to trying to hold it in.

But now that she could feel the need to relieve herself, she couldn't get the sound of the rain around her out of her head, and she felt herself rubbing her legs together subconsciously. After trying and failing for several minutes to zone out again, she sat up. She was about to call out to Dust, who was looking outside again, and froze up; she was going to have to tell him what she wanted, and she was going to have to be clear about it. She took several breaths to calm her nerves before she climbed across Sereth's goods and boxes, and stood on the crate next to the one Dust was sitting on.

"Dust." she whispered to him.

He didn't look back, but he did acknowledge her. "Yes, Fidget?"

She bit her lip, closing her eyes tightly. This was going to be humiliating no matter what; it would be best to just get it over with. "Please ask Sereth to stop. I..." she lowered her voice even further. "I, uh, I... have to pee." she forced out, cheeks flushing deep red in embarrassment before she even got the sentence out.

To her amazement (and her grudging respect), Dust didn't chastise or tease her. He responded after a moment in a hushed tone, "Sereth was in a real hurry. I don't want to bother him – he's doing us a huge favor. If we get out, he might leave us behind, and we're still a very long way from the town."

Fidget didn't know whether to be more frustrated at Dust for refusing, or because he actually had good reasons. "It'll only take a minute!" she insisted, opening her eyes to look up at him pleadingly.

"We promised we wouldn't cause any trouble, Fidget."

"Pretend there are bandits or something behind us!"

Dust shook his head. "No, look, I know it's not great for you, but you can hold it until we get to the town. It won't be that long."

Fidget narrowed her eyes at him. "Look, buster, have you ever tried holding in a full bladder when all you can hear around you in every direction is the sound of water?" she gestured outside the back of the wagon for emphasis. "I thought about trying to hold it, but there's no way."

He went quiet, and for a moment, she thought he was ignoring her, and she considered the pluses and minuses of biting him. "Okay," he said after a moment, interrupting her thoughts of violence, "Maybe... maybe there's something in here you can use. An empty jug or something."

Fidget's frustration evaporated on the spot, replaced with embarrassment as her eyes widened and she put her hands over her mouth. "What... here? In front of you? I... I can't! No!"

"It's in here or out there." Dust told her. "And I don't think you can fly fast enough to catch up to this wagon in this weather."

Fidget didn't argue with that, but it didn't make her any more receptive to the alternative. Dust continued, "Actually, everything in here is sealed up, but I've probably got something in my pack you can use. You're going to owe me, though." He bent over, opening his pack up and digging around inside of it.

"I'm not... I'm not gonna... right in front of you!"

Ignoring her protests, Dust continued to rummage through his things. "A matchbox?" he suggested.

"I'm not -that- small!" Fidget hissed in annoyance. "And no! I just told-"

"Pepper shaker?"

"That's not any better! Listen-"

"A pillow?"

"No! Dust, stop."

He gave an exaggerated shrug in response. "Okay then, squat at the back and go pee off the back of the wagon."

Fidget closed her eyes, clenching her fists, resisting the returning urge to bite him. It would be momentarily satisfying, but would cause far more problems than it would solve. "Just. Ask. Sereth. To. Stop." she told him through gritted teeth.

"No, Fidget. Stop being unreasonable. I know you don't want to, but you don't really have any other options."

She groaned and sat down on the crate. "Fine! I'll just try and hold it then. It's your fault if I leak."

"I'm pretty sure that would entirely be your fault, Fidget."

She huffed, and they sat in silence for a while longer. The argument had distracted her from directly feeling the pressure in her bladder, but with them no longer talking and the sound of the rain filling her awareness, her growing need to urinate came right back to the forefront of her attention. She squirmed, squeezed her legs together, and tried to distract herself by looking for anything interesting out the back of the wagon, but nothing seemed to work.

"Please, Dust." she begged quietly. "Ask Sereth to stop."

"Ask him yourself."

She tightly closed her eyes. "I can't...! It's bad enough I had to admit it to you."

"Then find something to use. Look, I found some empty bottles in my backpack between the cotton and the scrap metal."

"Why-" she began, but shook her head. Dust's hoarding tendencies could be addressed later. "Don't make me do this, Dust. Just ask-"

"Neither of us wants to walk through this weather, Fidget, but that's what'll happen if we stop. Come on, you've helped me fight monsters, but you can't handle peeing near me?"

"Fighting monsters isn't supposed to be private!" she snapped back, dropping her voice mid-sentence to avoid alerting Sereth.

She sat back down and grumbled. A few more minutes passed, but she could tell she wasn't going to last much longer. Why did Dust have to be so stubborn...?!

Fidget shook her head, sighed, and gave in. "Dust." she said quietly, looking away from him. "Give me a bottle."

"Finally deci-?"

"Don't." she cut him off. She really didn't want to hear his teasing right now. She heard rustling behind her, and soon, Dust set a bottle down next to her on the crate. It looked like an empty round-bottomed potion flask he'd found somewhere, and was about as tall as her legs, with a long neck and a stopper that he'd thankfully removed for her. It would certainly be big enough, but it was way too big and cumbersome for her to hold it.

Fidget squirmed as she realized she would have to stand over it. And a pang in her bladder informed her that she didn't have time to find something else.

"Promise not to look." she demanded.

"I promise." Dust told her, turning away and looking out the back of the wagon again.

Fidget watched him for a moment to make double, extra, super sure he wasn't watching – and felt another cramp, reminding her to get a move on. Standing up on the crate, she pulled the bottle into an upright position – the round bottom on it meant she was going to have to hold it steady. She straddled the neck of the bottle, glancing behind her to make sure that Sereth wasn't looking either, but the merchant was keeping his eyes on the road ahead.

With her legs on either side of the flask, one hand on its neck, and her wings and other arm held out for balance, the Nimbat relaxed. Almost immediately she felt her straining bladder release; her aim was slightly off and it splashed on the glass rim, running down inside of it only after spraying a little onto her inner thighs. She squirmed and shifted back, making sure her urine was going into the bottle and not outside of it.

Her pale golden fluid was gushing out from her and down the inside of the flask's neck, but while some of it continued to flow down over the concave glass surface, some of it dripped off and fell down to the bottom. At first it wasn't a problem as it drummed dully on the bottom of the flask, but as the fluid level rose, it began to splash.

Fidget's cheeks burned brighter; she was mortified to know that Dust was right next to her, and while he wasn't looking, there was no way he couldn't hear it. The splashing grew louder as she pissed more and more into the flask, and she felt the warmth of it through the glass against her hand. She didn't dare move for risk of spilling pee onto the crate, so there she remained, frozen in place as she relieved herself.

Fidget fixed her gaze on the wagon walls, so that she wouldn't have to look at either Dust or Sereth; she didn't need the visual reminder of their presence during such an intimate moment. She couldn't remember how long she had been peeing for – it felt like she had been going forever, as her intense embarrassment stretched the moment out. Silently wishing for her stream to end and for herself to be empty, just so that the moment could be over, she glanced down to the flask and saw that the spherical part at the bottom was about half-full, more of her pee streaming down the inside of the glass and dripping down with a steady splashing sound.

But finally, at last, her stream trickled off to a series of droplets, and she squeezed her muscles to get every last drop out of her. She let out a quiet sigh of relief now that she had emptied herself, but her cheeks still burned from shame, and as she moved away, she felt the wetness between her legs lingering from the initial spray. "Uugh..." she groaned quietly. How was she going to deal with that?

The sound made Dust turn his head to look over his shoulder at her. "Something wrong?"

Fidget crouched down behind the bottle, even more embarrassed as Dust looked at her. "N-No!" she snapped, "I don't... I don't need your help!"

Realizing the flask would spill if she let go of it, she reached out with her other hand for the stopper that was next to the bottle with one hand, as the other held the flask upright. All the while, she kept her legs spread apart, not wanting them to touch while they were still wet. She would fix this, one problem at a time. With some difficulty she managed to get the stopper to the rim of the flask, and then wedged it inside, pushing on it repeatedly with all her strength...

...at least until Dust reached over, using the thumb on his much larger hand to push the stopper into place. "Are you sure?" he asked nonchalantly as he took the flask – and Fidget's meager cover – away from her.

She curled her wings in front of herself to try and keep at least some scrap of modesty. "I'm fine!" she insisted, looking around awkwardly.

"Uh-huh." Dust replied, unconvinced. "That's definitely why you're walking all bow-legged. Why are... ah, you need something to clean yourself with, don't you?"

Fidget closed her eyes again, about to die of embarrassment. "Yes." she admitted reluctantly. She heard Dust rustling around again, but she refused to look at him, even when she felt something nudge her curled wings.

"Take this." Dust told her. Fidget moved one wing out of the way and reached out blindly, grabbing hold of some scrap of fabric. She wasn't sure if it was from his clothes or something he'd scavenged while out and about, but she didn't care. Still keeping her gaze firmly away from him and off to the side of the wagon, she reached down and rubbed the fabric against her wet fur to dry herself off, brushing it gently against the lips of her slit a few times to ensure she was cleaned up.

With that ordeal finally over, Fidget held the wet fabric scrap away from her, thinking what to do with it. It was decided for her, however, when Dust reached out and pinched a dry corner between his thumb and forefinger. He tugged the scrap from her grasp and tossed it out the back of the wagon, but held onto the flask in one hand.  "So," he said after a moment, "if I threw this at a monster, how effective do you think it would be?"

Fidget turned and shot him a furious glare. She wanted to snap at him, but that would just draw Sereth's attention, and she was far too embarrassed about what had just happened to start another argument.

Dust saw the look she was giving him and decided to drop the matter, and leaned towards the back of the wagon, hurling the flask somewhere into the grass by the side of the road. Fidget hopped down from the crate and went back to the sack of fruit, flopping on it and staring up at the cloth wagon roof, trying desperately to think about literally anything other than what had just happened.

--------------------

Though the remainder of the trip passed in a very awkward silence between the two of them, Fidget had to admit that it was much, much faster to ride with Sereth – his quick pace in the carriage brought them to the town late in the evening, just after nightfall. Unfortunately, while the rain had lightened to a drizzle for a brief time during the trip, it had picked back up to a full storm by the time they got to town.

"This is your stop, yes?" Sereth inquired after stopping the cart in the town square, turning around to peer into the back of the wagon for the first time since they had gotten on.

"Yes, thank you very much." Dust replied as he stood up.

Fidget got up from her resting spot on the bag of fruit, took one look at the storm outside, and walked over to where Dust's backpack rested on the ground against a crate, climbing inside of it.

"You take care, then." Sereth told them both. "May good fortune find you on your travels."

Fidget poked her head back out of the backpack and looked up at Sereth. "Thanks for the ride." she said, ultimately grateful despite what had happened – it was all Dust's fault, anyway.

"Safe travels, Sereth." Dust said as he picked up the backpack and slung it onto his shoulders, jostling Fidget around inside as he did.

Dust hopped out the back of the wagon, and Sereth immediately spurred the horses to a gentle trot, heading down the street into the darkness. After watching Sereth leave, Dust turned around and headed over towards the inn.

The moment he pushed the door open and stepped inside, the innkeeper behind the desk – a portly black-and-white rabbit – stood up from his chair. "Dust!" he cried out. "You're back!"

Fidget climbed out of the backpack now that they were indoors, taking to the air and flapping her wings to hover near Dust's shoulder. "Wow, Dust, you're more popular than I thought." she remarked.

Dust ignored her comment. "Uh, yeah, I just got here. Is there a problem?"

The innkeeper stepped out from behind the desk, wringing his hands. "Dust, my daughter – she's sick. The healer says she needs a special medicine, but the plant he needs only grows up in the mountains, and it's dangerous up there. Please, I need your help!"

"How bad is it?" Dust asked. "It's almost pitch-black outside. We can go first thing tomorrow morning, if you can tell me what we're looking for."

The innkeeper bowed down deeply in front of Dust. "Thank you, thank you! She's not in immediate danger, but she isn't getting any better." Straightening up, he quickly went back behind the desk for a key. "I'll give you a room on the house, and meals too, just please..."

It took a few interruptions, but Dust eventually managed to extract himself, coming away with a key to a room on the third floor, and an invitation to a free dinner in the tavern on the ground floor.

"Not even two feet in the door and you're getting asked to do things." Fidget observed while Dust was unlocking the door to their room.

"Are you saying we shouldn't help?" Dust inquired, opening the door and pushing it open.

Fidget huffed and folded her arms as she flew in front of him and faced him. "Of course we should help! But everywhere you go, people seem to have things they want you to do."

Dust shrugged and headed inside. The room wasn't particularly fancy or large, but it looked quite comfortable, with a large bed, a folding screen for some privacy, and a door behind it that led to a washroom. "That's why we're traveling, Fidget. I want to help people – isn't that why you come along with me?"

"I'm SUPPOSED to be the guardian of your sword." Fidget retorted, pointing at Ahrah with one hand, "And I don't particularly enjoy being dragged off through the wilderness to fight monsters that would consider me a one-bite appetizer."

Dust simply stood still, looking at her (or so she assumed, with his hat in the way). Fidget sighed and slumped her shoulders. "...but yes, I'm glad we can help people. Even when it does involve hiking up into monster-filled mountains for a plant."

"There we go. Was that so hard? Now give me a minute to let me change so we can get dinner. I don't think the innkeeper wants me dripping all over his tavern."

Fidget sighed again and took a seat on the bed as Dust went behind the privacy screen to change – mostly, at least, as he still had his hat on when he came back out. Fidget had stopped asking about that a long time ago.

The meal wasn't anything spectacular, but Fidget couldn't care less; after traveling on the road for so long, a fresh, hot meal in a warm room was pure luxury. The innkeeper even helped out Fidget by serving her meal on a tea saucer and giving her a drink in a tiny cup that she could actually pick up, at least with two hands. Dust asked the innkeeper to get a bath ready in the room while they were eating, and they excused themselves soon after they had eaten – they had an early start ahead of them, and it was already quite late.

Upon returning to the room, Dust stretched his arms over his head. "Okay, Fidget, we've got a big day ahead of us." he told her. "I'm going to take a bath and then sleep."

"All right. I'll probably be asleep when you come out. Goodnight, Dust." She felt a lot more charitable now that she had some food inside her and wasn't cramped from hiding in a backpack.

"You too, Fidget."

Dust propped Ahrah up against the wall, went into the washroom, and closed the door. Fidget went to the bed; there were more than enough pillows, so she grabbed onto one and flew up, looking for somewhere to set it down to use as her own bed. She found a table tucked into the corner with only a flower vase on it, but there was enough room for her to put the pillow down and sprawl out.

The sliding door to the washroom wasn't particularly soundproof, however, so she could hear him splashing around in there. She squirmed on her pillow, the watery sounds making her realize she needed to pee again. She got up and flew over to the bed to peek underneath it, expecting to find a chamber pot, but there was nothing there except a light layer of dust.

"Right." she mumbled to herself, "It'll be in the washroom."

She flew over to the door and pushed on it, but Dust had closed it all the way. Looking down, she saw that it had a doorknob, and groaned; she couldn't reach it from the ground, and she never got enough leverage to be able to turn it AND push it while flying. There was only one thing for it.

"Um... Dust, could you hurry up?" she called out sheepishly.

"What's the matter, Fidget?" he asked. "Can it wait?"

Fidget blushed as she flapped her wings to keep aloft outside the door. "I think the, uh... chamber pot is in there and I... need it."

"It is, but I'm sure you can hold it for another few minutes. I'm not going to be that long."

"You always say that, and then you spend like an hour in the bath! Please, I won't be long."

Dust sighed. "Fidget, I'm completely naked."

"So?!" Fidget snapped, "When's the last time you saw ME wearing clothes?"

"That's the point. It's not a big deal for you, but it is for me. Besides, do you really want me to open the door, naked head to toe, wet and dripping?"

"I don't want to see you naked either!" Fidget retorted immediately. "Eugh, I did NOT need that mental image! Just open the door and push the pot out or something."

"Just hold it in, Fidget, I'm really not going to be long."

Fidget clenched her fists and inhaled, about to give him an earful, but decided against it. She relaxed a bit and folded her arms as her wings flapped. "Fine, you jerk, I'll go find somewhere else. I think it stopped raining. If the innkeeper finds me though, I'm telling him it's your fault."

Dust didn't give a response, and Fidget turned around. She had no intention of going outside, but she didn't want him catching on to what she was going to do, as she looked around the room for something to use...

Right in front of her, she saw Dust's clothes piled up on the floor where he'd left them earlier. After the soaking they'd received earlier, they were still very damp, even if they had stopped dripping. They were going to take overnight to dry out... so it wouldn't matter if they got wet again, would it? She had been ready to move on from what had happened in Sereth's wagon, but if he was going to be difficult again...

Fidget hesitated briefly, listening for a moment, and heard Dust's quiet splashing indicating he was still in the bath as she had expected. She flew to the pile and landed on it gently, testing her balance and finding the small clothing pile stable enough to stand on. Dust's pants were on top, and she was standing on part of them close to the waistband.

"You dummy, you have to hang these up or they won't dry." Fidget muttered under her breath as she squatted down and spread her legs, resting her hands on her knees with her wings spread to the sides for balance. "Also, we have got to talk about your fashion sense, Dust. Solid bright teal is a terrible color..." She gave the door one last surreptitious glance, but it was still firmly closed, and she could hear Dust bathing on the other side, oblivious to what she was planning.

Fidget kept her hips as low as she could to reduce the amount of noise she was going to make, and relaxed her muscles. Within a couple of seconds, her pale stream gushed out from her and began splashing on the pile of Dust's clothes, the short distance only causing a gentle pattering sound on the damp fabric that barely reached her ears. The already-damp clothes were quickly saturated, her excess urine spilling further down onto the pile of his jacket and pants.

Her breathing was heavy from excitement – this wasn't her just taking the best opportunity she could get at the time to pee, for once. Dust had pushed her around once too often, and she was finally giving him a little payback. As she watched, her piss began to collect in some of the creases and folds of the fabric, forming little reservoirs where the clothing was too wet to absorb it faster than she was spraying it out. She kept herself still, just wanting this to be over as soon as possible, but at the same time enjoying the catharsis she was getting out of it while it lasted.

As the Nimbat's small bladder was emptied out onto the clothes, she realized she was going to need to clean herself afterwards, but she had another idea for that. For the moment she focused on finishing her pee, letting the stream continue to wetly patter on the drenched clothing until it trickled off to a few drops. Before it finished on its own she clenched her muscles, getting two more squirts out of herself before she was properly empty.

She stood up, satisfied, taking a glance at the clothes. They were quite obviously soaked, but her addition to their wetness was gradually, if a little slowly, spreading out and disappearing; by the time Dust got out from the bath it would probably be unnoticeable. The rush she had gotten from doing such an inappropriate thing still clouded her head a little, but she took a deep breath to calm herself a bit and took to the air again, leaving the scene of her crime behind.

She could feel a little dampness between her legs, but she went straight to the bed to deal with that – Dust was going to be sleeping there, not her, after all. She landed at the closest corner and turned to face it, reaching down and grabbing the soft bedsheets, pulling them upwards until she was holding onto the corner. Gently and carefully, she wiped the corner of the fabric between her legs, getting the last bits of moisture cleaned up, and then let go of the sheet, whereupon it fell back into place hanging off the edge of the bed.

With that taken care of, Fidget flew back to the side table where her pillow was. She gently landed next to it, fluffed it up a little, and then sprawled out on her front. Her annoyance at Dust's behavior wasn't completely gone, but she certainly felt a lot better, both physically and mentally.

"We'll call it even." she murmured as she closed her eyes. 

--------------------

"...and they were no match for Dust and me! He could probably have taken them by himself, but without my help it would have been much harder."

Fidget was busy regaling the other patrons at the tavern with stories of their exploits; Dust had elected to stay with the doctor and help him prepare the medicine. The trip had been tiring, but not dangerous. Fidget had been grumpy about getting up so early until the innkeeper had treated them both to a hot breakfast as the doctor told them about the plant they needed to find.

From there, it was a straightforward journey. Some beasts and monsters, but nothing they couldn't handle, even if they would have been a threat to the average traveler. The weather was clear, with the wet ground being the only sign of the storm from the previous day. And a good thing too – the plant they had been sent to find was a prickly and thorny thing with long leaves and bright pink flowers. Nice to look at, but Fidget would have hated to be forced to share backpack space with it.

"So we headed back in a real hurry. Dust said he wanted to get back as quickly as possible, and I wasn't going to argue! There was the medicine, of course, but I didn't want to go camping outside in the dark with the monsters! And, uh, of course, Dust didn't either. But then! As we were coming back, suddenly the ground started to slide out from under his feet!"

Fidget looked over her captive audience of the locals as she gestured with both hands. She'd been at it for a while, and was starting to get tired. They'd gotten another round of free meals and rooms from the grateful innkeeper, and she was planning to take a bath of her own after this.

"The wet ground had come loose, you see. And I shouted, 'Dust!' and flew after him as he started sliding away! I wasn't scared, I mean, but I didn't want him to get hurt, you know? Fortunately he only fell into a small gulch, so he mostly just got covered in mud. But he stuck the landing! Cats really do land on their feet. Then we had to fight our way back, through the monster-infested mountains-"

"Thaaaat's enough, Fidget." Dust said from behind her, making her turn around with a small "Yeep!" of surprise.

"Aww, hey!" she complained, mildly upset at being surprised and interrupted. "When did you get here?"

"Just now. The doctor says she'll be better by morning." Leaning on the bar next to Fidget, he continued, "It's not good to exaggerate, you know. We didn't have to fight very much on the way back."

"They're still monster-infested mountains even if we cleared a path earlier that day." Fidget insisted grumpily, folding her arms.

Dust gave a chuckle. "Maybe so. Either way, we came back with the plant, and that's what matters."

"The plant, and a small field's worth of mud." Fidget remarked, pointing downward. The wet ground had left Dust's boots and the bottom of his longcoat caked in mud.

"Unfortunately, yeah. I already had the innkeeper prepare a bath for us. I told him to leave the bucket there for you, since the washtub would be too big for your tiny little frame."

"Heeey!" Fidget snapped, shooting him a momentary glare. "...but thanks, I could really use a bath too after all that flying."

"Go on ahead. I'll even let you go first." Dust told her. He started to lead the way out from the tavern, gently turning away people trying to ask him more questions, and the child who wanted his autograph. Fidget flew over the crowd and out of the room, heading for the stairs.

As promised, when they got to the washroom, a large tub of hot water awaited them both. An empty wooden bucket rested nearby, and Dust picked it up and scooped it through the tub, filling it about three-quarters full of water, setting it down next to the tub.

"Enjoy." Dust told her on his way out. "I'll be out here if you need me... hoping that I can ever get these clothes clean and mud-free again."

"You're gonna need a trip to the laundry pool tomorrow, mister." Fidget told him, but brightened up a bit. "Um... thanks, Dust."

"You're welcome." And with that, he was gone, closing the washroom door behind him.

Fidget sighed and relaxed as she prepared – grabbing a tiny rag that would probably serve as a face cloth for someone Dust's size and laying it out next to the bucket, then fetching some soap. Once ready, she landed next to the bucket, reaching into it with one hand to test the temperature. The water was still quite hot, though not scaldingly so, and so after dipping her hand into it for a moment to get used to the temperature, she slowly climbed into the bucket. Dust had left enough empty space that she didn't overflow it, and it was sized pretty well for her.

After the last few days, the chance to just completely relax and get clean was a real blessing. Thankfully she wasn't nearly as dirty as Dust had gotten, so she didn't need to scrub herself too hard, and mostly just relaxed in the hot water, letting her hands roam over her body to clean her fur.

Her fingers slid between her legs and brushed over her slit as she relaxed, idly and innocently at first as she was cleaning herself. But a moment later, they returned, this time more deliberately, her index and middle fingers on her right hand slowly rubbing up and down over her entrance. She thought to herself about how long it had been since she'd had the chance to really unwind and relax – there weren't many opportunities, with how much they traveled. Not to mention all the trouble Dust had put her through recently, though she was ready to put it all behind her. Sometimes he could be a jerk to her, but in the end, he never meant any real harm, and he did a good job of protecting her. His heart was in the right place, even if his attitude left something to be desired.

She bit her lip a little as she pressed her fingers a little more intently against her slit, her first and third fingers teasing her labia as her middle finger teased in between, directly at her opening and the sensitive flesh there. "I've earned this." she whispered to herself as she closed her eyes partway, leaning back against the inside edge of the bucket.

Delicately, she slipped her middle finger into her vaginal tunnels, just teasing herself for the moment, taking her time. There was no need to rush. She took long breaths as her finger teased along her tunnel, slowly sliding in and out, giving only light touches to her most sensitive spots.

Letting out a small hum, she tipped her head back as she sped up just a little, pressing her finger in up to the knuckle. Good food and good views on their travels were nice and all, but there was nothing to substitute for physical pleasure, and she had sorely missed it. She continued to tease herself, gradually ramping up her self-pleasuring, her finger rubbing over sensitive parts of her vaginal passage. Briefly, she slid her finger out to tease instead at her clit for just a moment, before pressing her finger back into herself to continue where she had left off.

Losing track of both the passage of time and her awareness of her surroundings, Fidget bit her lip again as she felt her pleasure mounting. She could ease off and edge herself a little... but instead she opted to go for the finish, at least this time. She didn't want to push her luck -too- much, after all. Her breaths came more heavily as she pumped her finger in and out of herself faster, rocking her hips against her hand, spilling a little bit of water over the side of the bucket.

"Aah...!" she moaned out, before bringing her free hand up and clamping it over her mouth. She didn't want to alert Dust, not now. She kept fingering herself intensely, her eyes closing completely as she lost herself to her pleasure, feeling her orgasm approaching.

"Mmmh... mm-mm," Fidget moaned into her hand, her noises muffled by it. "Mmmh... mmmh...! MMMM!" She trembled and shuddered against the side of the bucket, burying her finger in her slit as she climaxed. Her head swam with pleasure, and she wiggled the digit in her pussy back and forth to draw out her peak a little bit longer. When it ended, she let go of her mouth and panted softly for breath, relaxing and savoring her afterglow. Pure bliss filled her consciousness, all other thoughts temporarily leaving her...

Suddenly, the door opened.

Fidget gasped in shock and embarrassment, flailing around and splashing water over the sides of the bucket as she removed her hand from her loins. "DUST!" she shouted, caught midway between surprise and indignation.

"I'll just be a moment." he said nonchalantly.

"I'm BATHING!" Fidget shouted, her anger winning out in response to Dust's complete indifference to her situation. Her cheeks were bright red, both from embarrassment, and from her recent exertion.

"I know, you were taking a while, and I didn't want to wait. Unless you want me to stay in here while I-"

"GET OUT!" Fidget yelled, pointing at the door and sending drops of water all over the floor from the sudden motion, her eyes shut to try and hide from the embarrassment of the situation.

"Why?" she heard him reply, "You're always naked anyway, it's not like I'll see anything I haven't before."

Fidget sputtered and tried to form words for a few seconds, not wanting to admit what she had just been doing, inwardly glad that he hadn't come in a couple of minutes earlier. She took a breath, looking up towards Dust to give him an earful, only to find that he had left while she was fuming.

"Uuuuugh." Fidget sank into the bucket. She tried to relax again, but she was still seething quietly; the serenity of her afterglow was gone for good. Instead she just felt irritated at Dust... and the beginnings of a need to pee as well.

With a huff of annoyance, she started to climb out of the bucket to take care of that before she ended up with yet another entry on her list of frustrating pees in the last few days, only to realize the problem: Dust had made off with the chamber pot. She had completely missed that that was what he had come in for, since she was too busy shouting at him to notice what he was doing.

She couldn't believe Dust's nerve – just -yesterday-, he had refused to let her into the washroom to take the chamber pot, and she had asked him politely. But when it was his turn, he just barged on in without so much as knocking, and couldn't see the double standard he was employing.

"Jerk." Fidget grumbled, her annoyance intensifying – she was now in the reverse of the previous day, in the washroom, but without the chamber pot. She found no amusement in the irony. Just when she had been ready to forgive and forget, he had gone and made things worse. If only she had been able to lock the door...

She could tell him to bring it back, but she wasn't really in the mood to speak to him. She could also just pee on the floor; it was already wet, after all, and a wet floor in a washroom was normal. There was also her bucket, now that she was done with the bath...

...she blinked, and glanced over towards the big wash tub. HER bath was over, sure. But Dust was waiting on her...

A devious grin crossed the Nimbat's face as she climbed out from the bucket, spreading her wings, giving them a couple of flaps to get the water off. She'd just have to teach him another lesson, for barging in on her in her alone time without so much as a 'please', then making off with the chamber pot. Not to mention that the previous night he'd just told her to hold it in and wait and wouldn't hurry up – but apparently that rule only applied to him.

Briefly taking to the air, she landed on the edge of the wash tub. It would have been precarious to stand like that on the edge of the bucket, but the wash tub was so much bigger than she was, she wouldn't be able to tip it over even if she tried. Carefully, she sat on the edge, her feet just barely above the water as she spread her legs out as wide as she could.

She rested her hands on the edge of the tub as well to hold herself steady, stretching her wings out for balance, and relaxed. It was a comfortable position, and even though she didn't have to go that badly for once, it didn't take her long to start relieving herself. Her pale stream gushed from her urethra a short distance downward into the water, sending up bubbles as the jet of her piss splashed deeply before spreading out. It billowed out into a pale yellow cloud as it dispersed, mixing in with the other bathwater.

Although Fidget was enjoying the sense of relief, the catharsis of getting some indirect revenge on Dust was far more satisfying to her. Even if he didn't realize it, she was making sure that his inappropriate behavior was getting paid back. She smiled as she kept her stream going strong, listening to the barely audible splashing it made from traveling such a short distance.

Turning her head slightly, she kept an ear out just in case Dust was coming back, but she couldn't hear anything, so she focused on finishing what she had started. As soon as her stream began to trickle off, she squeezed her muscles to get every last drop out from her, and into Dust's bathwater. Even when nothing came out, she gave a couple of extra clenches, just to be sure that she wasn't sparing Dust a single drop.

Finally, when she was completely empty, she took a moment to admire her handiwork, in the form of the quickly dispersing cloud of Nimbat urine in the water, and the bubbles on the surface that were slowly popping and disappearing of their own accord to hide the signs of what she had done.

Beating her wings, she took off again, glancing around. From the side table where she had taken the face cloth earlier there were more washing rags for Dust to use, rolled up neatly, so she flew over and straddled one of them, grinding her slit against it briefly to clean any leftover wetness that wasn't from the bath.

With that taken care of, she flew back to her bucket and sank back into the water. She was already clean, but she wanted to just relax and see if she could recover at least a little bit of the serenity she had had earlier – especially now that she had gotten the chance to exact her revenge on Dust for ruining it. For several more minutes she just lay back, perfectly still, and relaxed. But, eventually, she decided to leave before Dust barged in on her again, and climbed out to dry herself off.

"Okay, I'm done," she called out towards the door. With a smirk, she added, "The water's still warm, so enjoy!"
