Water dripped from everything as they walked down the street. It was early spring, and the weather was still cold but warm enough to melt the snow. The rest of the winter had been downright boring, other than midwinter festival that is.
I liked the decorations, and the lights were pretty, but everyone kept trying to kiss me.
She’d already been kissed twice in her life, and that was enough for her.
They decided to stock up on rations. She had already talked to most of the food merchants surrounding the guild and was leading them to her favorite meat seller. The coyote woman, she’d been corrected sternly when she called her a dog person, had offered to cook anything Anna brought her. She had tipped so generously that the woman had made more over the winter than she had in the prior two years and was more than happy.
Anna had no idea what to bring, so the woman had started to give her lists to go out and get. She had to search markets all over the city to find everything, and much to her delight, the ones near the adventurer’s guild had the best food.
She pushed open the door to the meat merchant’s shop. It was named Pete’s Meats after its owner, a name which made her smile when she said it. She was hit by the usual smell of blood and smoke as she walked inside.
“What can I do for you today, Miss Anna, and who are your friends?” Pete asked.
“This is my adventuring party,” Anna replied.
She introduced them one by one. Pete was a huge friendly man, and everyone was smiling by the time he finished greeting them all.
“It’s good to meet you all,” Pete said grinning. Thokri chuckled, and Elaine groaned at the terrible joke.
“We need rations for a few months of travel Pete,” Anna said.
“Jerky and sausages I take it?” he asked.
“Yes, please,” Anna replied.
“Is it just the six of you?” Pete asked.
Anna nodded yes and then asked for a few different kinds of jerky and sausage to let the others try to see what they liked best. Once everyone picked their favorites, Pete took out a sheet of paper and started to write down a receipt, promising to have their order delivered that day or the next. They planned on leaving in a few days, so they told him he didn’t have to rush.
“Ruothild’s place has the best dried fruits and vegetables. They also have nuts and mushrooms,” Anna said as they walked out of Pete’s place.
“Ruothild? That sounds like a halfling name,” Lyreen said.
“What’s a halfling?” Anna asked.
“Short chubby folks,” Thokri replied.
“Yeah, that sounds like her,” Anna said.
Ruothild’s shop had a colorful sign hanging above the door. It was the reason she had first gone into the place to be honest.
She pushed the door open, and a bell jingled. There were shelves covered in large clear jars, each filled with some kind of dried food. Usually, she would fill a small bag with some of whatever she wanted and then bring it to the counter to get weighed. But this time, she needed barrels full of the stuff, so she’d have to ask Ruothild herself.
The halfling was sitting on a stool behind the counter, smoking a pipe and looking over a ledger. Anna walked to the counter, and Ruothild looked up.
“Anna, what can I do for you today?” she asked.
“We need rations for the trip back to Oldforge,” Anna replied.
Ruothild nodded. She started to look through the ledger and tell them the goods she still had in bulk.
Being the end of winter, there wasn’t much of a selection, but it was enough to get them by. They were planning to travel on the main roads and were going to stop at inns each night to rest. They could eat at them as well.
They picked what they wanted and paid her. She promised their goods the next day, just like Pete. After leaving Ruothild’s, they headed to a bakery run by elves. Anna had found it in her search for cupcakes and fell in love with the bread there. When she told Lyreen and Voekeer about it that morning, they nearly dragged her there first thing.
The elven bakery had a sign in both common and elven hanging above the door. Voekeer was the first inside this time, followed closely by Lyreen. The owner greeted them in Elven to which they responded. When he saw Anna, he grinned.
“So, these are the two young ones you told us about,” he said.
“Yes, this is Voekeer, and this is Lyreen,” Anna replied.
“I’m Ailmar. It’s nice to meet you,” he said.
“It’s nice to meet you too, sir,” Voekeer replied.
“Getting ready to head back to Oldforge and need some travel bread I take it?” Ailmar asked.
“Yep,” Anna replied.
“Come back in a few hours, and I’ll have a big batch for you,” Ailmar replied. After chatting with Ailmar for a few minutes, they left the bakery and went to a few more food places before heading back to the guild.
They checked on their wagon which was being loaded with the supplies and goods they had stored in the guild warehouse. The gold would go in last and need to be placed above the axles. At least, that’s what Thokri had told her.
They had bought spare wheels and axles for the trip as well. The spare wheels were attached to the side of the wagon and were covered with oilcloth. The spare axles were tied to the side and covered as well. It looked kind of silly to her, but she didn’t say anything because the others seemed to think it was normal.
Once they checked on the wagon, they went back into the guild hall and found a table to sit at. They spent the rest of the day drinking and talking with the other adventurers who were getting ready to leave the city. Once night fell, she went to her room and packed up, going to sleep when she finished.
The next day was busy. Their food was delivered early in the morning, and they loaded it along with their packs. Anna set Lord Emerald in the back along with her flower and pack. The rabbit stuck his nose out of the cage and stiffed hard.
“You’re so greedy!” she said and handed him some of the food that was in a pouch near his cage. After she finished stuffing her rabbit, she helped get the horses hooked up.
Lord Emerald’s not the only one looking a little fat. I’ll have to take it easy on them at first.
She had heard that horses could get hurt if you ran them too hard when they weren’t used to it, and these two certainly didn’t look used to it anymore. She flicked the reins and got the wagon moving, waving goodbye to the stablemen. The city was crowded, but not so much so that they were slowed down. They rode out of the eastern gate just before noon.
Thokri was smoking his pipe again, so none of the others wanted to ride with them on the front. The road was crowded for the rest of the day, and they stopped at an inn just before sunset.
It was crowded, but they still managed to get separate rooms. After a quick meal, it was stew of course, they each went to their separate rooms. She didn’t bring Lord Emerald with her into inns. Most innkeepers wouldn’t allow it anyway, but fluffy and fat as he was, he’d be fine in the wagon.
She doused the light and got undressed, looking out the window at the moon for a while.
I wonder why part if it gets dim throughout the month?
She puzzled over it for a few minutes before falling asleep.
They were back on the road early the next day and for weeks they rode along making good time. She spent most of that time thinking about what came next after they returned to Oldforge.
I’ll need to ask the dwarves to take care of my house for longer, and someone will have to water my flower. Maybe I should let Lord Emerald go. I don’t think living in a cage is fair to him. We will be passing Gloomwood. I can just let him go there.
She thought about it for a while and decided that while she’d miss him, he wasn’t living a good life stuck in a cage, so it was the right thing to do. She told her friends about it, and they all agreed, so when they arrived at the edge of Gloomwood forest, she took his cage and walked over to the tree line. She set it down and opened it up. He hopped out a few feet and then turned around to look at her.
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“Alrighty, you’re free, so go and live a good life, alright,” Anna said.
Why do I feel so bad?
She felt sadder than she’d ever felt before. He just kept looking at her and wiggling his nose like he wanted food. She got up and took the cage. After a moment, she walked slowly over to the wagon and put the cage inside. She looked back at Lord Emerald, and he stood up on his hind legs to look at her. She waved goodbye and got on the wagon once more. She flicked the reins, and the wagon jerked into motion.
Sparks appeared next to her on the driver’s bench, and Lord Emerald popped into existence next to her. He climbed onto her lap and sat down. She pulled the wagon to a stop and looked down at him.
“But you’re free,” she said. He just wiggled his nose at her.
“Looks like he doesn’t want to go,” Thokri said.
“But why?” Anna asked.
“You’ve been stuffing him full of good food, and nothings tried to eat him for months. I don’t blame him for wanting to stay,” Barika replied.
“Oh, well, you can still go whenever you want to, alright?” Anna said.
The rabbit just twitched his nose and kept right on sitting. He hopped into the back a few hours later where he tried to get the bag of food. Elaine stuffed it in the cage so he couldn’t get it, so he sat on the top of the cage.
That evening when they got to the inn, he followed her in and sat next to her at the table.
The barmaids all loved him and brought him some vegetable scraps to eat while the party ate their dinner. He followed her upstairs and hopped into her bed when she laid down, snuggling next to her as she fell asleep.
He spent his time sitting on the driver’s bench next to her or begging for food in the wagon during the day and sleeping next to her at night.
Her birthday came and went much like any other day with her friends wishing her well. It felt strange being two, but she supposed it didn’t make much of a difference. she hadn’t physically changed a bit.
It was nearly summer when Oldforge appeared in the distance. The city looked like it had when she left. The guards waved them through, only pausing for a moment to stare at her and then Lord Emerald who was sitting next to her on the bench.
The wagon rolled down familiar streets heading for the adventurer’s guild. The streets were crowded, mostly with carts filled with produce from the surrounding farms or goods being taken from the city to said farms. This is what life was like for most people. You either grew food, or you sold things to people growing food.
I might be the only person that really doesn’t have to worry about food. Other than if my friends can eat, I guess I do have to worry about food after all.
She pulled into the guild stables, and they went inside. Bruno was behind the counter talking with a few adventurers when they got to the main room. They walked up behind the adventurers and waited for them to get finished with the ogre. Lord Emerald walked over to one of the barmaids and stood up, placing both paws together, and started to move them up and down.
The barmaid squealed in delight and scooped him up, carrying him off to receive some treat no doubt.
“He’s way too smart to be just a rabbit. You know that, right?” Elaine asked.
“Yeah, I think he might be a person,” Anna replied.
“Does that mean we have a rabbit in our party?” Voekeer asked. They looked at each other for a moment.
“I mean, we have a tentacle monster, why not a rabbit?” Elaine said.
“Because he can’t talk,” Voekeer replied. Rose punched him on the arm.
“Ouch, fuck, oh shit, sorry, I didn’t mean anything by it,” he said. Rose glared at him for a moment before shaking her head.
“Does that mean he needs to join the guild?” Anna asked. Again they just looked at each other.
“Why don’t we keep this to ourselves, child?” Barika asked.
“Aye, that might be for the best. Don’t want to let everyone know the lad is smart. He might not get as much free grub if we do,” Thokri added.
“He’d never forgive us,” Lyreen said.
“Well, that settles that I guess,” Anna replied.
The other adventurers finished their business with the guild, so they walked over to Bruno.
“Been a while. Did you finish those contracts?” he asked.
“Sure did. Here they are, and we got more gold to store,” Voekeer said, handing their contracts to him. He looked them over for a moment.
“So, what did you do this time, kill a dragon?” Bruno asked.
“No, we found the scepter of Octavius and defeated the dark one’s fifth general,” Voekeer replied casually. Bruno gave them a look.
“You’re not fucking with me, are you?” he asked.
“No, we’re not,” Barika replied. The ogre sighed after a long moment.
“You know what, it’s none of my business. I got plenty of room in the vault, so just bring whatever you want here when we’re done,” Bruno said.
“We’re going to go to Boulderfist mountain in a few weeks. We will be gone a few years at the least,” Voekeer said.
“Alright, I’ll mark it down. If you get any contracts from other guild halls, let them know to send us a letter, alright?” Bruno replied.
“Alright,” Voekeer said.
“I’ll let the guild master know. She might want to talk to you fuckers before you leave,” Bruno said.
Anna went out to the wagon and got the first chest. She didn’t feel like carrying both of them at once. She only weighed a hundred pounds, so she had to balance them carefully. Otherwise, she’d tip over.
She brought the first one in and set it next to the counter and headed back out to the wagons. She heard Bruno grunt and swear when he lifted the chest. She got the other chest and put it in front of the counter as well. Bruno swore when he saw it but took it anyway. He rubbed his back when he walked out the second time and gave them a receipt for two heavy-ass chests in his words.
Lord Emerald hopped from the back room soon after and sat next to her.
“Let’s unload the wagon, and then we can take care of the rest of our business,” Thokri said.
Bruno had added their payments for the hunting contracts to the chests of gold. They didn’t really need any more coin to carry around with them in the city and would take a few small lock boxes full on their trip to the mountain.
After they finished with the wagon, they went to the dwarven tavern. She needed to get the key to her house and asked them to if they could watch it for a few years.
I hope they don’t mind.
She thought she knew the dwarves pretty well, but after the last year, she realized that people were just strange, and she doubted that she’d ever really get them.
Thokri pushed open the door to the dwarven tavern. They walked over to a table and sat down. One of the barmaids brought them a tray full of ales and asked if they wanted food. Everyone was hungry, so they ordered some of the roast meat. Dwarves came over to sit with them, and they started to talk about what had been going on since the party left.
Her friends told them about their time away. They spent hours talking, and when they finally left to check out Anna’s house, with a few of the dwarves that had done the work in tow, she had to use her cure poison ring on the elves and Rose so they could walk straight.
It was still daylight when they got to her house, and she unlocked the door and walked inside. A very surprised Gwen squeaked and hopped up, knocking the table with a swollen belly. Anna looked down at her belly for a moment.
“Anna, you’re back! I, uh, have been staying here. I hope you don’t mind,” Gwen said.
“How’d that happen?” Anna asked.
“Oh, this,” Gwen replied, placing her hand on her belly. “Well, I met this man, and he was so handsome and kind and, well, you do know how this works, right?” she asked. Anna just stared at her blinking until Barika shoved her out of the way.
“Of course, she does. Now, tell me how far along are you?” Barika asked. Gwen smiled.
“About five months,” she replied.
“Have you been to see the midwives or a priestess yet?” Barika asked.
“Both. The dwarves paid for me to see them. They are so sweet. They wanted to make sure that both of us are okay,” Gwen replied. A big hand grasped Anna’s shoulder.
“We couldn’t find enough stone to cover the floors, so we used ironwood. Hope you don’t mind,” one of the dwarves said.
She snapped out of it and looked around the room. They had replaced the plain oaken floor with a polished ironwood one. It was a deep reddish brown, and she could see faint reflection in its surface. They had also replaced most of the structural beams of the house with ironwood ones and lined the walls with thin panels. There were lamps hung on the walls around the room, the bright oil lamps with glass bulbs over the wick like the belt lanterns they carried only bigger. Her furniture had been replaced with stone and Ironwood pieces, so the whole inside of her home seemed to match.
The centerpiece of the room was the fireplace which had been replaced by a huge black stone affair covered in dwarven carvings and now fitted with beautiful wrought iron swing arms to hold whatever cooking pot, and what a cooking pot it held.
Instead of her plain iron pot, a huge cast iron cauldron hung there, bubbling away with what smelled like soup. The cauldron itself had been cast with the grinning face of the stone one in several places and intricate patterns covering it.
“I, uh, kept your soup going,” Gwen said.
“Thanks,” Anna replied, still overwhelmed by everything.
“Do you want some?” Gwen asked, walking over to her.
“No, thanks. I just ate,” Anna replied.
Gwen looked at her nervously. Anna just stared at her, unsure of what she wanted. Gwen started to fidget, pulling her fingers and looking around the room.
“What?” Anna asked.
“You’re not mad at me, are you?” Gwen asked.
What is she talking about? Why would I be mad? I don’t understand at all!
She just kind of stared for a while.
“I, I’ll leave if you want,” Gwen said.
“Why?” Anna asked.
“Because I was staying in your house without asking,” Gwen replied. She looked more confused than nervous now.
“I wasn’t here to ask, so how could you?” Anna asked.
“So, you don’t mind?” Gwen asked.
“No. Uh, do you mind staying here for a few years while we go to Boulderfist mountain?” Anna asked. Gwen’s eyes got big, and then she hugged her.
“Oh, thank you!” she said.
Anna hugged her back, but something moved in Gwen’s belly. Anna bounced back like a startled cat, leaving a shocked looking Gwen standing there.
“IT MOVED!” Anna said. Gwen smiled.
“Babies do that, see,” she said.
Gwen took her hand and pulled it to her belly. Anna yanked her hand back.
“No, that’s fine! I believe you!” she said rapidly.
Gwen looked like she was about to cry.
Oh no, I just, I didn’t mean to, oh don’t cry!
Anna wasn’t sure what she should do, so she scurried out of the house. The sun was starting to set, casting a red-orange hue across the city. She took a deep breath of the cool evening air to calm down.
“What’s with you?” Elaine asked. Anna turned to look at her friend.
“There’s a person inside her, and they moved!” Anna squealed.
Elaine laughed. It was a hard laugh. She doubled over for a moment and needed to catch her breath.
“Oh, gods! That’s just great!” she said.
“IT’S NOT FUNNY!” Anna shouted.
Elaine started to laugh again. Anna folded her arms and huffed.
“Come on. You’ve seen women with child before. Why are you acting like this now?” Elaine asked.
“Because those ones didn’t move!” Anna whined. Elaine laughed hard again.
“Sure, they did. You just didn’t notice,” Elaine replied. Anna shuddered some.
“Oh, that’s just gross,” she said. Elaine put her arm around Anna.
“I actually agree with you there. That’s why I’m never going to have any, but you can’t say that, especially not to a woman who’s pregnant,” Elaine replied.
“Fine, I won’t,” Anna said.
“Now, let’s get back in there,” Elaine replied.
“I still don’t want to touch her,” Anna said.
“Too bad. You have to, and you’re going to congratulate her and act like you’re so happy,” Elaine replied.
“Why?” Anna asked.
“Because that’s what you do when you’re around a woman who going to have a baby, alright?” Elaine replied.
“Fine,” Anna replied.