After a pause:

"Thank you for rescuing us. Where are we and where are you taking us?"

He waves for Gabe to not say anything.

"The ruins of the ancient Lemurian settlement," he replies. "I believe this specific location is Dagon's Eye. I am setting up a base there, although it is still unfortunately under construction." The kitten mewls softly in his hand.

An appropriately-timed bolt of lightning in the distance illuminates the skeleton of the structure he seems to be building: there is a squareish balcony made of wood held up on top of a tall stone structure by said structure itself plus some wooden pillars firmly attached to the ground. The beginnings of a wooden bridge leading from that square towards the rest of the ruins seem to be under construction, but that is all. There is a large and thick tent over the structure made of animal hide, seemingly treated to be impervious to water, and the structure itself is dry enough to attest to its quality.

There is a rope ladder leading up to it, its bottom high enough that one might need to jump to reach it.

"Nifty place, did you build it yourself?" Thomas asks. Up? It sounds like they will need to jump and go up.

"I did, yes. Would one of you be so kind as to hold these for me?" he asks, offering them the axe and the torch.

Henry takes the axe, since he already has a light source.

Also, his spikes have mostly vanished.

Thomas takes the torch and waits until he can climb the rope.

So the man starts climbing, one-handed, with the kitten in hand.

What a very agile man.

"Don't forget to shield your fall or you will break your neck," Henry tells Gabe.

When the man arrives up top, he gently deposits the kitten on a bundle of furs then goes back to look down. "Do any of you need help up?" he calls.

They look at each other. "No, do you think your rope can take more than one at same time?"

Henry covers Gabe's mouth.

"It can take all of you," he replies with confidence.

Gabe just smirks and they quickly climb up. Well, limited by their injuries but no one falls.

The area is large enough for them all to be comfortable, but only just. There are furs on the dry treated wood that one could not-terribly-uncomfortably sleep on, as well as a taller, bigger pile of furs and hides over in a corner that looks like it might be clothes of some sort. A large part of the area is occupied by a campfire, with an iron pot hanging over still-burning embers, smelling of recently-cooked meat. A wooden box lies in another corner, filled with what seem to be tools and bunches of wood and iron.

The man is feeding the kitten tiny scraps of roasted meat when they arrive, and it's making tiny contented sounds.

So adorable and so bad ass. "May I come close? I am freezing."

"Sure. The furs and the tent will keep you warm, as soon as you dry up, it's wet but actually really hot here if you're dry." When he sees Henry arrive, he takes the torch back to place it in a little metal nook he has prepared for this, away from the campfire, so there are two sources of light and warmth. When he does that, though, he notices Henry's injuries and frowns. "We will need to treat that or it'll get infected," he says, moving over to the pile of probably-clothes-question-mark? to try to look for something there.

"We can use our magic to patch ourselves up. But that's very kind of you."

He pauses and looks over his shoulder. "Are you sure? I have some aloe wraps here, it would be no trouble."

"Our kind of magic is different from yours."

He lowers his hands and shrugs. "As you wish, then." He holds out a hand in Gabe's direction for his axe and sits on the floor, cross-legged. "Well, make yourselves at home, such as it is. My name is Taharqi. It is a pleasure to meet you."

"Oh, right. This is Gabe, and Thomas. I am Henry. Thank you for saving us... if there is anything we can do to repay you."

His hand covers Gabe's mouth. While the other picks up the axe to hand it over.

He accepts the offered axe and fetches a small cloth-like thing to clean it up. "While I am sure we can fuck later as your friend seems to so terribly want," he says, raising an eyebrow and tilting his head in Gabe's direction, "it would not be appropriate to ask for sex as payment for saving someone's life. Or anything, really. You are not in debt."

"In my defense, it's not every day I'm saved by a naked warrior. But I will selflessly fuck you regardless of payment."

"Let me check your injuries," Henry says, taking Gabe's shirt off . "But still, you saved our lives."