A loud banging could be heard coming from the door to the room, it’s drumming waking me from my peaceful slumber. A female voice could be heard on the other side of the door, “We found a quest for you. Please come down to the main lobby as soon as you are able.” I rolled over in bed, footsteps receding down the hallway outside as my eyes were blinded by the light from the window.
Looking over I could see Orion having the same difficulties, his orange fur pressed to the side of his face as he stretched his stiffened limbs. Sighing, I slowly oozed out of the comfort of the blankets and proceeded to put on my clothes. The new garments I’d been provided by the guild were quite simple yet effective in their purpose. Good quality textiles had been used in the creation of the cloth pants and shirt, their cleanliness and comfort a good replacement for my old ragged outerwear.
In the corner of the room I noticed my armor had been arranged in a neat pile, cleaned of the blood and sweat that I’d been wandering around in for the past few days. Part of my mind wondered how they could’ve snuck into the room and taken the pieces for cleaning but then I remembered how exhausted both Orion and I had been. They likely had no issues evading detection as they came in to pick up and drop off the armor. Orion’s armor had also been cleaned and organized, a fact that he’d yet to notice.
Getting up I walked over to my pile and started to don my armor. A single small scratch in the metal of one of the plates was the only evidence of the previous days’ adventures and the armor actually looked shinier than when I had purchased it in Fenroot. After wrapping my tail around my waist, slipping my armor over my body, and clipping the greaves to my shins I was able to sit down and admire the room a bit. The room was no bigger than a college dorm, its quaint atmosphere and second bed further exaggerating the similarities. The desks on the end of each bed were likely used for paperwork or writing contracts or general places to sit and do work. Slipping on my boots I noticed how rough the floors were. Years of wear and tear had worn down the floorboards and had imprinted the floor with many uneven patches. I was lucky I hadn’t gotten a splinter while walking around barefoot!
After Orion was dressed we headed down to the main desk. There sat Tether reading her book, immediately looking toward us as we entered the lobby area. As we approached the desk her finger shot up once again, warning us to not speak until she’d finished her chapter. After a few minutes she set her book down and addressed us, “Thank you for not interrupting. We’ve received a quest that specifically mentioned both of you by name, a rare occurrence for coppers. A merchant from the Merchant’s guild stopped by this morning and needs escort to a small village north of the city.” She said as she slid the contract over to me.
I chuckled quietly as I read the name of the contract. Behind me I heard the entrance slam open as the sunlight was blocked out slightly be a silhouetted figure, “Let’s go! I haven’t got all day to be waiting for those two lazy bums to wake up!” Shiza was the client.
I turned around as the Musteve launched herself at us, barely having time to sidestep her tackle as she flew past me. Orion hadn’t been so lucky. He took the full force of the attack meant to be born by a person nearly twice his weight. The Ferrin and Musteve, carried by the momentum of the tackle, tumbled over the countertop, bowling over Tether in the process. With a shout Tether had them both by the nape of their necks, “NO ROUGHHOUSING!” She threw both of them back to the other side of the counter simultaneously.
“Haha! You both promised so you have to accept the contract!” Shiza stood up triumphantly. The smile on her face was overwhelmingly funny when you compared it to Orion who still wore a look of confusion as he laid stunned on the floor. She turned to Tether who was still fuming as she picked up paperwork that had been knocked off of the desk, “Mrs. Receptionist, thank you again for taking this request on such a short notice.”
Tether stopped what she was doing and reached out to shake Shiza’s hand, “It’s always a pleasure to do business with the Merchant’s guild, even copper ranked members are welcome to ask about our services. You can call me Tether by the way.”
They smiled at each other before continuing on about the specifics of the contract. I listened in on the conversation while Orion recovered from this ordeal. Apparently, Shiza had picked up a contract that would take her to a small village north of Valenta in order to pick up some medicinal herbs from the local herbalist. Feral dogs tended to roam the area so her contract was paid quite well for a copper rank. However, not being able to fight off the dogs herself were she to encounter any, she wanted to employ us as guards. The contract totalled to 50 copper for the trip which should take two days at most.
After accepting her contract, much to the pleasure of Shiza, we set off to grab something to eat before we left the city. Shiza purchased us each a skewer filled with different kinds of meat for five coppers a piece and we set off north of the city. The kabbas were lightly roasted and seemed to have three different kinds of different meat strung along the length of the shaft. There were no evident spices giving the meat any kind of unique flavor which was a bit disappointing but understandable for something that was so cheap.
As we walked down the road, Shiza gave us further details about the village we were headed towards. We learned that the village itself went by the name of Barefoot village. It was another Ferrin settlement and as such, its inhabitants were mostly of that race. There had been strange happenings around the village itself and recently, the count’s men had been spotted wandering the area and guarding the roads. While this made the roads less dangerous, it also prevented the herbalist from travelling to the city herself as the soldiers had locked down access to the area for anyone not part of the Merchant’s guild.
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After a short while walking, we came across a small pack of feral dogs. They were feeding on a carcass on the side of the road when they noticed us, their mouths soaked with the blood of their latest victim. Their feast seemed to consist of a small, strange looking striped deer that had no doubt been no match for the predators. Noticing us the dogs growled and stopped gorging themselves to face us. The monsters were even in number with us until Orion took the initiative, charging one of the beasts and skewered it with his spear. I raised my shield and jumped forward in time to catch one of the dogs that had lunged at him, knocking it to the ground with a load crack. I felt a sharp pain in my calf as I felt the third try to clamp down over my grieve and slashed down with my sword. The animal’s head rolled onto the ground below as I sliced through muscle and bone. At this point Orion had regained his balance and was able to stab his spear into the neck of the dog that was attempting to get back up.
It had been a quick fight, lasting no more than 30 seconds. We were either getting better at this whole combat thing or fighting feral dogs was significantly easier than some of the other monster’s we’d faced, perhaps a bit of both. I felt a cooling sensation on my leg where the animal had clamped down. Looking at the wound, it had begun to glow in a light blue tint, slowly sealing itself where teeth had lashed through the flesh. I glanced back at Shiza who was holding a staff in my direction. The blue glow faded and Shiza’s arm lowered.
I wiped my sword on the grass before resheathing it. Of course there would be magic in this world, I thought to myself stupidly. Until this point, I hadn’t paid as much attention to the fact that there was a resource called mana. I looked at Shiza, she was panting from the effort of casting that single spell, “Hey Shiza, thanks for that heal. You never told us you could use healing magic.”
She smiled slightly still trying to catch her breath. Orion was staring at the staff in her hand, “Yeah that’s pretty rare! Why are you a merchant? You could make a lot of money by just healing people at the temples.”
Shiza winced at his words as we walked over to join her, “I’m Musteve, if people found out that I can use the heal spell someone could easily kidnap me and force me into slavery. Human healers even have to deal with those risks but beastfolk don't have the same protections humans do. I wouldn’t get the right to contest my enslavement before a judge, they would just brand me and claim the records were lost.” She was very matter of fact in the way she was speaking about such an injustice, “If I’m in the Merchant’s guild at least I have their protection.”
Orion nodded, seeming to agree with what she said, “I suppose, but why not practice your healing while under their protection?”
“A copper rank like myself only has their name recorded in the city they operate out of.” She said calmly, wrapping her staff's tip in cloth once again to hide the red stone embedded in the wood, “If I reveal myself now, would be kidnappers would simply take me out of the territory and I would lose any protections. If I wait until I am a silver member then I will get protections everywhere.”
Her explanation made me uneasy how many beastfolk slaves I’d seen on the roads. How many of those people were abducted then forced into slavery. If there were few protections for those people, it was no wonder there were beastfolk villages and very few in the cities. One mistake like taking the wrong turn down an alley could spell disaster for any beastman that wasn’t strong enough to overcome their attacker.
While I was lost in thought Shiza and Orion had already started walking, chatting away as if the conversation that preceded their newest one had been run of the mill. I jogged slightly to catch up with them. Their lives had been spent in a world where these types of revelations were completely normal. Enslavement, racism, kidnappings, they were all part of everyday life in this world. They’d been acclimated to the sight of seeing beastfolk in chains walking past them on the street, knowing all too well that they could be next. Looking at my hands over the end of a muzzle the realization had hit me hard. My hands were covered in thick black fur as was the rest of my body, I had a bushy tail for pete’s sake! I was a beastman and the idea that I could be forcibly enslaved for no reason bothered me to no end. So how did it not bother them? I tried to listen to the conversation that was happening between Orion and Shiza but my mind was lost in its thoughts on morality.
We approached the village as the sun was starting to set. Amber shades of yellow combined with crimson red as the sun's rays refracted off the atmosphere in the waning hours of the day. Unfortunately for our party, there were no inns within the town so after picking up an assortment of herbs from the herbalist, we were forced to camp just outside the village palisades. For safekeeping, the herbs were placed into my magic pouch, the weight instantly disappearing as they were dumped in.
The night was quiet, the forest surrounding us muffling the sounds of the village in the distance. The ambient light of the fire illuminated the surrounding tree trunks and casted the silhouettes of our shadows off into the woods. I had been assigned the first shift of watch duty, we had all agreed to take turns but I had drawn the short straw. I silently thanked my lucky stars that I’d been allowed to sleep in a bit this morning. As I sat and watched the fire crackle, a single ember of light floated into the air. I traced it as it slowly cooled in the surrounding updraft, its bright yellow light turning red then dimming with the passage of time. Slowly it drifted to my left until it settled onto the bark of a tree I was sitting next to.
As the ember died a new glow emanated from behind it, briefly tricking me into thinking the ember had somehow reignited and dislodged itself from the tree. The glow headed to the right, its distant glitter hidden behind the lush foliage of the woodland. I felt a skill being activated and the area around the glow was flooded in light, a group of feral dogs that had been hidden in the darkness jumped back in surprise. I looked at the two sleeping beastfolk across the fire from me and moved to nudge them awake.
I was going to need their help for this.
Shiza
Musteve (Level 2)
25/200 Experience
40/40 Health ----
30/30 Stamina ------
60/60 Mana --
10/10 Spirit ---
‘0’ Stat Points Available
Racial Ability - Unavailable
Skills: (Staff G) (Healing Magic G) (Barter G)
Spells: Heal, Deflect