They wandered into the cathedral an hour or so after second shift started. The rest of the week would be more relaxed according to Bralla, so they didn’t bother waiting in the crowd in front of the cathedral for the festival to start that day.

There were crowds of women standing around chatting instead of one huge dance like the day before. They headed for the feasting tables to get some food and drinks before wandering over to the dwarves and joining in on their conversations. Well, the others did anyway. Anna stayed at the feasting table and proceeded to stuff her face with as much food as she could.

“Are you Anna by any chance?” a dwarf asked.

Anna looked over at the woman, mouth still full of food. The dwarf was on the young side with bright orange hair and a big bright smile on her face. Her dress was green and so was the gem mounted in the simple golden necklace she wore. Anna swallowed her food after chewing a few times and then licked the grease from her lips.

“Yeah,” she replied.

“Thank you for taking care of gram yesterday!” she said.

Gram? What’s a gram? I didn’t do anything with a gram, did I? Wait, isn’t that the stuff that makes up a pound? What did I help with that weighed that little? Wait, why is she looking at me like that? I mean, even if I did help with something, why is she so happy about it?

“She was so excited when she told us about the strange human lass that danced with her,” the dwarf added.

Oh, grandma! That’s what she meant by gram!

“It was fun for me too,” Anna replied.

“Would you like to join us?” the dwarf asked.

“Sure,” Anna replied.

She wiped off her fingers and face and then followed the dwarf away from the feasting tables and into the crowd.

I wonder what they are going to want me to do?

The orange haired dwarf stopped next to a group of about twenty dwarves. Most of them had orange hair as well. Bolhild was with them. She had her arm wrapped around one of the dwarven women using her for support.

These must be her great-granddaughters. They all kind of look alike, maybe, sort of, I think. Eh, whatever. It doesn’t matter either way.

“Oh, Anna! It’s nice to see you again!” Bolhild said.

“It’s nice to see you too,” Anna replied.

One of the dwarves held out a flask and motioned for Anna to take it.

“Are you trying to kill her?” another dwarf asked.

“It ain’t that bad!” the one holding the flask said.

“Not that bad she says! Last time I took a drink of that shit, I woke up naked on the first floor!” the other dwarf replied.

“Bah! Not my fault you got no ass,” the one holding the flask said.

What’s she talking about? She has an ass. It’s pretty big too!

Anna took the flask from the woman’s outstretched arm, pulled the stopper, and took a drink. She made a face from the incredible sourness that filled her mouth, swallowing in a gulp, and then sticking her tongue out afterwards. The dwarves burst into laughter. A few of them patted her on the shoulders and arms.

“Took that like a dwarf, lass!” the dwarf said.

“That was nasty!” Anna replied.

The dwarf looked hurt by this statement, and the other dwarves burst into laughter again. She took her flask back and took a drink from it, making a face herself before stuffing the stopper back in and putting it in her belt.

“You made a face too!” Anna said.

“Bah!” the dwarf replied.

“Don’t worry about her, lass. Her lad brews that swill, so she gets her tits in a knot if anyone talks bad about it,” the other dwarf said.

“It’s not like that!” the dwarf with the flask replied defensively.

“Tell that lad of yours to come home from the brewery and take you to bed more often. I want to see at least one of my great-great-grandchildren before I go to the mountain,” Bolhild said.

The dwarf with the flask turned bright red, and the other dwarves started to tease her about it. She put her hand on her belly and smiled shyly.

“You might get your wish, gram. I’m late,” the one with the flask replied.

The dwarves got quiet for a moment, eyeing the woman with anticipation.

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“How long has it been?” Bolhild asked.

“Two weeks,” the possibly pregnant dwarf replied.

The dwarves looked disappointed now. She didn’t blame them. It was almost impossible to tell that early without magic, and the dwarves didn’t have any magic.

“I, uh, have a spell that can tell,” Anna added.

“You do?!” the possibly pregnant dwarf said.

She stepped towards Anna, grabbed her by her shoulders, and began to shake her excitedly. The other dwarves pulled her off after a moment.

“Stone one’s balls! Are you trying to kill the lass?!” one of the dwarves asked.

“Shit, sorry,” the possibly pregnant dwarf replied.

“It’s fine. I’m tougher than I look, so I take it you want me to cast my spell?” Anna asked.

The dwarf shook her head vigorously. Anna held out her hand, palm up, and summoned an eye. The dwarves stared at it, clearly surprised by its sudden appearance.

“I usually use this to check for broken bones and stuff, but Barika taught me what to look for when a woman’s with child as well,” Anna said.

“So, what do you see?” the possible pregnant dwarf asked.

“I haven’t looked yet, hold on,” Anna replied.

Anna turned the eye to look at the woman and focused on it. She suddenly saw inside of the woman and looked inside her womb. It was clear that something was growing inside the woman. She suppressed a shutter knowing that would just upset everyone and that what was growing inside was just a baby anyway.

She smiled and nodded at the woman who squealed in delight. The other dwarves started to hug her or rub her belly. The pregnant dwarf pulled her into a hug and squeezed her tightly suddenly.

“Thank you so much!” she said.

Someone tapped on her back. The dwarf let her go, and she turned around to find another pregnant dwarf smiling at her. She was much farther along with a visibly swollen belly that she had one of her arms wrapped around.

“Could you tell me if my wee one is healthy?” she asked.

“Is something wrong?” Anna asked.

The woman shook her head no.

“I just want to make sure. You can do that, right?” she asked.

“I can,” Anna replied.

“Would you please?” she asked.

Anna sighed and looked inside the dwarf.

Hmm, this baby looks like a baby instead of some weird thing. Wow, it, no she, even has hair. I’ve never looked inside someone that was inside someone before. It shouldn’t be too hard, just a little bit more, and there we go. Okay, she’s got a fast heartbeat, but that’s normal. I see lungs, brain, muscles and bones. Nothing out of the ordinary. Honestly, she doesn’t look that much different than a baby after they are born. Better tell her mom. She’s getting that ‘oh, no, something must be wrong’ look on her face.

“She’s healthy,” Anna said.

“She? Do you mean I’m having a lass?!” the dwarf asked.

Anna nodded, and the woman pulled her into a tight hug, smiling. When she let go, her eyes got big, and she pulled away.

“I’ll be right back!” she said.

She rushed away, or at least as much rushing as a very pregnant woman could manage, and Anna, not quite sure what was going on, shrugged it off and turned back to face the orange haired dwarves who were still congratulating the young pregnant dwarf. Bolhild grinned at her when she noticed that Anna was paying attention to the group again.

“So, what do you do, lass?” the old dwarf asked.

“I’m an adventurer,” Anna replied.

“Oh, what does an adventurer do?” Bolhild asked.

“Well, we explore ruins, hunt dangerous animals and monsters, look for treasure, that kind of stuff,” Anna replied.

“Did you find any treasure?” one of the dwarves asked.

“Sort of. It was something called the scepter of Octavius. I thought it was just a mace, but the temple gave us a chest of gold for it,” Anna replied.

“How big was the chest?” the dwarf asked.

“Big,” Anna replied.

She motioned with her hands to show the approximate size. The dwarves looked impressed and started to fold their arms and rub their faces in a most dwarven fashion.

“You said we, right?” one of the dwarves asked.

“Yep, me and my friends,” Anna replied.

“How many of you lot are there?” another asked.

“Seven counting me,” Anna replied.

“Not a bad haul, even for seven of you. No wonder you have such a nice dress on,” a third dwarf added.

“It’s too bad I won’t be able to wear it again,” Anna said sadly.

“Why not, lass?” Bolhild asked.

“Well, it’s for the gem festival, and I’m going to be leaving before the next one, and who knows when I’ll be back,” Anna replied.

The dwarves looked at her like she had grown another head.

“What?” she asked.

“Who told you that you could only wear that to the gem festival?” Bolhild asked.

“Uh, no one, but when we told Bralla about it, she said she hadn’t worn hers for years because she hadn’t gone to the festival, so I thought that you didn’t wear them anywhere but here,” Anna replied.

“Aye, we dwarves don’t, but you’re not a dwarf, lass. It’s just a dress for you,” Bolhild said.

“I never thought about it like that,” Anna replied.

“Just don’t go around wearing it in the mountain, and you’ll be fine, lass,” Bolhild added.

“I won’t,” Anna replied.

“Have you ever hunted a dragon?” one of the dwarves asked.

“No, I’ve never even seen a dragon,” Anna replied.

“Oh,” the dwarf replied sounding disappointed.

“We did kill a sea monster once,” Anna added.

“Really? How big was it?” the dwarf asked.

“It was huge!” Anna replied.

She went on to describe the beast and how they had dispatched it. At least, the version they had all agreed on. The dwarves loved it, though dwarves love any story, true or not, if it was told well.

Once she finished telling them about the sea monster, it was clear they wanted to hear more, so she told them about the basilisk, another fabricated tale, and in her opinion, a rather lame one. According to the others, they used poisoned bait and then tracked the dying monster to its lair where they killed it with spears once it collapsed.

I still say that’s meaner than what I did to it. I mean, tearing its insides out was way quicker than dying from any poison Elaine would come up with. According to the others, poisoning monsters is what people normally do. That’s the story with the wyverns as well. We left out some sheep and followed them back to their nest where we waited for them to die and then got the eggs and griffin feathers.

Using poison to kill animals seemed kind of wrong to her, but she didn’t have to worry about getting hurt or killed by the things, so she guessed she’d just have to trust the others when it came to things like this.

Just another one of those things I’ll never really understand.

The dwarves grew quiet and started to stare at something behind her. She turned around to see what was going on and just blinked at the sight of dozens of pregnant dwarven women all looking at her expectedly. The woman that she’d checked to see if her baby was healthy took a step forward. She had a smile on her face.

“I went to tell my sister, and well, I guess some other lasses overheard what you can do, and they wanted to know if their wee ones were doing well. Sooo, would you mind?” she asked.

She could tell by the look on their faces that if she said no they would be mad at her or even worse start crying and she couldn’t stand that, so she summoned her eye once more.

“Alright, just line up,” she said.

They lined up, and she started to check the first one, looking inside the woman and seeing a small baby-like growth.

How did I get myself into this mess?