“Let’s go over it one more time. What are you going to do?” Agitha asked Zell. They were standing between two warehouses in the northern slums. It had been eight days since the incident at the inn.

“Walk forward.” Zell replied for the second time.

“Good. Just make sure you don’t forget. Walk forward past those kids playing and don’t react. Then keep walking to our room at Kel’s. I’ll meet you there after I figure out where they make their drops.” Agitha finished and gave the gesture to begin.

Zell double checked that the coin purse filled with coppers was well displayed on his belt and walked out of the alley, down the street in the direction of several grubby looking children that were playing tag by the look of it.

As he passed them, one little boy ran toward him while looking back at his pursuer. He crashed into Zell, and the boy chasing him tagged him anyways. The tagger howled with laughter before sprinting away in search of more prey.

“Sorry sir!” The little boy -no it was a girl on closer inspection said blushing furiously and bowing with her hands behind her back. She looked no more than ten years old, with hair crudely cut to jaw length and dirty patchwork clothes that were too big and clearly made for a boy. Zell remembered his mission. Don’t react.

“It’s alright no harm done.” Zell said as he continued on his path to their new room on the north side of the Merchant Belt. Agitha would be disappointed, he thought. He hadn’t been pickpocketed after all. He had been anticipating it but didn’t feel a thing when the girl crashed into him.

Such were his thoughts as he felt down to his coin purse, or rather the empty section of belt where his coin purse had been. She took it! How could any little kid that young develop a skill like that? He pondered and ran the scenario over in his mind as he walked.

He stopped at a fruit stand for a few local plums which he was fast becoming addicted to. He reached for the hidden coin purse under his left armpit which had his remaining silver piece and thirty copper from the troglin. It was gone too. Anger mixed with amazement and shock as he fumbled an apology to the stand owner. He walked the remaining hundred yards in contemplation.

Kel’s Place was a much nicer inn than the previous nameless dump. It was a two story building. The first floor was brick with polished stone flooring. The second story had been built more recently of wood. It was well made, not drafty, and maintained by a small staff consisting of Kel’s family and friends.

Kel himself was a retired Monster Hunter and former student of Agitha’s. He had lost an arm to infection after defeating a tribe of orcs a few years before. While he was still more than capable, he decided it was time to settle down with his wife and children. He took over his father’s inn and expanded it. He insisted the old man stay in the nicest room on the ground floor to relax the rest of his days. He was rumored to have a giant somewhere on his family tree. Zell believed that to be true. Kel was over seven feet tall, and built like a bull.

The tiny bell hung above the door jingled as he walked into the large common room. Kel leaned down to look into the room from the kitchen door across from Zell.

“Yo Bait!” He greeted. His voice was deep and pleasant as always. “What no plums today?”

“Got robbed by a little girl, Kel.” Zell replied in a defeated tone as he slumped into a barstool. “I’m copperless.”

“Aw that’s rough! What are you doing the rest of the day? Where’s Teacher?”

“She’s out investigating. I’m just waiting for her to come back.” Zell replied. He wasn’t sure how privileged Kel was in knowing Agitha’s plans so he tried to keep it vague.

“Ah. Well if you wanna earn some coin, there’s a pile of wood rounds out back that need split and stacked in the basement. How’s fifty copper sound?” Kel Asked as he ducked under the door entering the room. If he stood on his toes, his shaved and scarred head would scrape the ceiling.

“I’d love to help out.” Zell said. “I know where the wood is. Axe by the pile?”

Stolen story; please report.

“The shed.” Kel corrected. "Just split enough to fill the bins in the basement.”

“Thanks for the work, you’re a life saver.” Zell hopped off the stool and hustled outside to the shed. He loved splitting wood, it was one of his favorite chores.

He spent the rest of the afternoon whistling as he chopped and hauled enough wood to fill the wood bins, then finished the rest of the large pile. He stacked the split wood neatly against the back wall of the inn and covered it with a brown linen tarp from the shed.

“All set!” Zell told Kel as he sat back down in the stool later as evening approached. “Any sign of Agitha?”

“Really, you filled the bins already?” Kel asked as he counted copper coins. “Haven’t seen Teacher yet. Are you heading up to your room soon?”

“I think so, might take a nap.” Zell answered pocketing the coins.

“Here take this up with you. It’s for Merc.” Kel disappeared into the kitchen and returned a moment later holding a large cow thigh bone. “Was gonna save it for soup but I can never let a good pup down.”

“You’re spoiling him.” Zell smiled as he took the heavy bone and walked to the stairs.

Merc smelled the bone from across the room as Zell entered. He whined and drooled, but sat perfectly still like a statue. Except for his tail which was sweeping back and forth across the wood floor in a blur. Sitting down he was eye to eye with Zell.

Zell slowly placed the bone on the floor in front of Merc. After a few seconds he said “Nee!” the command Agitha had told him meant Merc was free to do as he pleased.

Merc snatched up the bone, spun a circle and leaped fully over one of the two beds in excitement. He settled on the floor and crunched the bone easily with his back teeth, making short work of it. After a couple of minutes he was licking the wood floor where the bone had been.

When Agitha arrived an hour later, both Zell and Merc were fast asleep in Zell’s bed. She smiled at the scene. The battle hardened woman unexpectedly felt extremely happy looking at the two of them napping away. Zell’s head was resting on Merc’s steadily rising and falling flank. With a care unbecoming of herself, Agitha quietly placed her swords and pack on her bed and left the pair to their nap.

She walked downstairs to the common room. It was dinner time which meant several patrons were enjoying roasted beef and vegetables prepared by Birna, Kel’s wife and master chef. It was a joke around town to call her Birna Giantsbane.

Kel stood behind the bar taking orders and pouring drinks. His twin daughters Nin and Rin greeted guests and waited tables. They were around Zell’s age but much taller than him. They were somewhat gangly and awkward now but Agitha knew they would be beauties soon enough.

“Need a drink, Teacher?” Kel asked sliding her a foaming mug before she could answer.

“Please, and I keep telling you it’s Aggie now. You haven’t been my student in twenty years.” Agitha replied raising the mug to her lips. The apple blossom mead here was famous.

“Sure thing, Teacher!” Kel replied undaunted. “Hey that kid of yours is great. He has a real future here if killing monsters doesn’t work out.”

Agitha raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”

“Yep, he split half a season worth of wood in an afternoon. I gave him fifty copper to fill the bins, and he just carried on and did the whole pile!” Kel laughed “I was surprised that you had taken on an apprentice after the last I had heard. But I get it now.”

“I tried my hardest to run him off.” Agitha admitted. “Did you ever meet Coralia Balfonse?” Agitha asked.

“Yeah once. When I was a Level One and She was the leader of an expedition to reclaim a mine south of Coalmarch. She was a pretty little lady with a great sense of humor. The mission was a cakewalk. With her on point the only things we new hunters found were hobgoblin corpses. Easiest hundred silver I ever made thanks to her.” Kel recalled the story fondly.

“The kid’s name is Zell Balfonse, her youngest son.” Agitha told him. “Coralia was the toughest person I ever trained, hell the toughest person I ever knew. She was my apprentice before I took over your graduating class. She was nearly my equal with the blade, and her mana was Class S.”

Kel coughed as he choked on the crispy piece of potato in his mouth. After a moment he spoke. “Class S is for elves and monsters, no human has that!” Kel exclaimed recovering from his near death choking experience.

“Coralia did, and I suspect so will Zell some day. And as far as mental toughness goes, have you seen his training sword?” Agitha asked.

Kel shook his head. “Did he actually make it to sword shaped?” He laughed aloud knowing that it of course had not. Training swords were usually just rough poles and the closer they looked to a real sword determined a student’s beginning rank and overall fitness.

“It’s flawless. I had over three hours to carve it. It has as much mana as most students have in their bodies.” Agitha explained.

“That’s absurd.” Kel’s mouth was hanging open. “How is that possible? Sunrise drills for over three hours? How is he not dead?” Kel continued amazed.

“He could have kept going. He is willing to die for me to train him.” Agitha continued. “After the war I decided I was done. No more hunting, no more training. I settled in Stormwood near Coralia’s home. Before the last battle she asked me to keep an eye on her family if anything happened to her. So for the last nine years I’ve been patrolling that area.”

“And now you’re back, and with a new prodigy to mold in your scary image.” Kel chuckled. “What have you been doing here, anyways?” He inquired, now wiping a glass pinned between his remaining left upper arm and his body.

“Chopping fingers off the Little Hand.” Agitha replied easily. “Today I had Bait get pickpocketed by some kids I suspected were working for the Pinky. I was right, and I found their drop. A merchant named Clover that sells mostly junk is the front.” Agitha raised her empty mug slightly, and Kel took it down the bar to refill it.

“I hope to learn Pinky’s identity by the end of the week and beat the rest of the fingers’ names out of him. This will be good experience for the kid, learning that cleaning up the neighborhood is pointless if your house is a mess.” Agitha stopped talking to take a drink from her fresh mug.

Kel laughed. “The Pinky is Merissa Redwave. Why didn’t you just ask me first?” Kel admonished. “I own an inn if you didn’t know.”

“Fair point.” Agitha admitted. “Know any of the other four?”

“Nah just the Pinky. She doesn’t keep it a secret. The Ring is rumored to own a bordello on Grave Street. The rest I have no idea.” Kel finished with a shrug of his boulder shaped and sized shoulders.

“Thanks, that’s still a ton of work you saved me.” Agitha said, starting to feel the effects of the strong mead. “Maybe I’ll join those lazy slugs up there and take a nap myself.”