What followed after can only be described as a shopping spree. It was exhausting and as you might have guessed I became the designated bag carrier. Well not that there was much carrying I just shoved everything in my storage as the others gleefully spent their hard earned silver. There was one ‘good’ thing about all this running around.

“I could get used to this.” Gilana said gleefully as she pulled into a crushing half embrace as we walked, I groaned. The other three had taken a real liking to my Storage skill and in extension to me. So now my storage was almost full with everything from beer to spare knives and I had gotten both delighted slaps on the back from Franz and even a half smile from the elf. I had even learned her name, Kiyara.

“It is rather nice.” Kiyara agreed as I extricated myself from Gilana’s death grip/hug.

“My only regret is that there isn’t any more room for beer.” Franz said longingly.

“You are already taking up half my storage? Is that not enough Franz?” I asked, feeling more than a little miffed.

“Three barrels will hardly last all the way to Umpari my boy.” Franz huffed.

“Never underestimate how much a dwarf drinks.” Gilana stated wisely as she started to cling to Kiyara instead. The two women already drew the eye of nearly every man on the street and when Gilana clung to Kiyara like this no man was able to keep his eyes to himself. This resulted in more than one accident around us but Kiyara pointedly ignored everything around her, and Gilana... Well Gilana gave no fucks.

“Well I suppose that the only thing we need now is some armour for our precious Goldie.” Gilana smiled slightly creepily at me.

“Indeed, some proper plate and we’ll be good to go!” Franz added with a laugh.

“I doubt ‘plate’ is even a choice.” Kiyara raised an eyebrow and looked at me appraisingly.

“Awah! Sweetie! We were thinking the same thing!” Gilana said and redoubled her effort at getting intimately close to Kiyara as we walked.

“By the spirits, will you stop?!” Kiyara said, exasperated. Apparently there was a limit even to her patients and she pushed away a sulking Gilana. “Anyone but a dwarf would see that Victor would be unable to even move in anything but light armour.”

“Yeah, Franz can’t you see how skinny he is?” Gilana grabbed my arm and shook to underline her point. I wanted to argue that I was at a perfectly healthy size but I decided to avoid that pitfall.

“So what, you want to get some flimsy leather armour for him or something?” Franz snorted derisively, he was about to say something else but Kiyara interrupted him.

“Leather works fine. There is no rule stating that you have to tank every hit with your face.” She ended her statement with a condescending snort. The dwarf and elf started bickering and Gilana looked over at the pair with a lonely look.

I got a real bad feeling about that but before I could do anything about it Gilana started clinging to me whining about how her ‘sweetie’ was ignoring her. Then suddenly her voice turned somewhat serious.

“You know goldie, you are rather tall aren’t you.” She held her hand over my head and measured how tall I was. “You are a few fingers taller than me, that's quite nice.” She giggled and pressed herself close to me. I would have been a bit fluttered had I not clearly seen Gilana’s furtive glances towards Kiyara.

“If you really feel that, how about you use my name instead?” I sighed.

“What? You don’t like your nickname?” She asked, feigning surprise as she rapped a knuckle on my badge.

“If it had been something I had earned…” I stopped in my tracks. ‘Hungry’ I had heard nothing from Simon since I’d fed him at the butcher’s place so I was rather surprised when his thought intruded on mine. “How are you hungry again?” and looked at my sleeve.

“What are you...” Gilana gaped as Simon poked his head out of my sleeve. “What is this adorable creature?!” She shouted and reached out for Simon who promptly disappeared into my Sleeve once more. The other two stopped their bickering and looked over as Gilana pulled my arm and tried to peer into my shirt sleeve.

“What are the two of you doing?” Kiyara’s voice sounded annoyed and she was tapping her foot.

“Simon had this cute animal on him and it is hiding somewhere on his person!” Gilana barely paid any attention as she kept on handsily looking for Simon.

“Would you please stop!” I shouted as Gilana’s hand closed in on my other snake. “That was my familiar I’ll show you later just not on the damn street!” I vainly struggled against the significantly stronger woman.

“By the spirits.” Kiyara rolled her eyes and pulled Gilana off me. “Let’s go eat and then go to Ughers so we can get goldie some armour.”

“Could you stop calling me that?” I asked as I followed the others. As you might have expected, Kiyara ignored me. Gilana however, suddenly started sniffing me. “Um… what are you doing?”

“You smell nice.” She stated and kept sniffing me.

“Uh… could you stop sniffing me?”

“I’m trying to figure out what it is.” She just ignored my protest and shoved her face closer to me. “Sweetie, help me figure this out.” I saw Kiyara roll her eyes but then she came over and started sniffing me as well! “WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?”

“It’s not perfume.” Kiyara stated as she was now also sniffing me. It was a very absurd thing to be part of, Gilana was sniffing me like an oversized dog and Kiyara cutely sniffed me like a rabbit. I was oddly pleasant for a moment until I noted all the stares we were getting.

“Would you please stop! It is just deodorant and some face wash.”

“What is deodarent and what kind of face wash?” Kiyara asked and started walking again. I think I saw a slight blush on her cheek.

“It's an antiperspirant...” I said after I finally managed to push Gilana away from me. The bank look I got from Gilana made me sigh and explain. “It makes you sweat less and blocks the smell of your sweat.” I almost wished I hadn’t used my deo this morning.

“Where can I get some?” Gilana asked excitedly and pulled me in close as she followed Kiyara. She quite deliberately pressed my arm into the cleft between her rather sizable breasts and I felt my face flush a bit.

“I-I don’t think you can get any here.” I somehow made it through that sentence without stuttering too much.

“Then where did you get it?” She asked with a pout.

“I-I um brought it from home…” I suppressed the colour creeping onto my face.

“And where is that?” Franz had somehow managed to stay at a range where the oglers ignored him while still being in hearing distance. “I suppose practise makes perfect.”

“Wismar, but that is rather far from here. I can tell you more about it as we travel. For now however, could we please get off the main road? I don’t think I can handle much more of this.”

“Escorting a beautiful young lady such as myself is too much for you to handle?” Gilana asked haughtily. There was so much I wanted to say about that but I was not going to voluntarily open up that can of worms. So I did something else entirely.

“Yes I’m afraid so, escorting such a lovely woman as Gilana has indeed proven to be a bit much for me to handle.” I said with a half bow. I was going to exaggerate even further but judging by the effect I had done quite well. Gilana blushed then scowled and was about to yell at me, then she blushed again and on it went. In the end she huffed and walked off in a fluster.

Walking at a normal pace for once we arrived at a three story restaurant in no time at all. The place smelled of freshly baked bread and herbs. And we soon found ourselves seated on a veritable sea of pillows by a low table on the second floor. The room we were in was only large enough for two more people and despite the rowdy atmosphere in the restaurant all we could hear in the room was muffled voices.

When we had settled down and what I believe was mead had been served to the three of us (Franz got a tankard of beer larger than his head.) Gilana shuffled close to me and looked me straight in the eyes with an intense look. I froze mid drink.

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“Show me the cutie now.” Gilana said with a voice so serious that it took a lot of effort not to do a spit-take.

Simon chose this moment to show himself from the opposite sleeve so as to put me between himself and Gilana. ‘Hungry’ he sent and avoided Gilana’s attempt at grabbing him.

“Stay still.” Gilana said and she lunged at Simon who disappeared into my sleeve leaving Gilana in my lap looking into the sleeve of my arm. It was at this moment, as you might have expected that the food that I at least have no memory of us ordering arrived. Of the two women who entered with trays filled with food, the first almost stumbled as she saw Gilana sprawled out on my lap wrestling with my sleeve. The other woman didn’t even bat an eye and spoke in a monotone.

“The usual plus an extra serving.” Her flat voice and cold eyes made Gilana react like any sane person would and laugh nervously, blushed and moved back to her seat. Or that’s what I imagined that she would do. Instead, she ‘fixed’ her position and made herself comfortable in my lap and pretended like this was the most natural thing in the world. She did at least have the good grace to blush even if she pretended not to.

“I guess that Gil likes gold just like every other girl.” The younger serving lady said as she put down her trays and glanced at my golden badge.

“Yes I think I am going to keep this one.” Gilana said, tilting her head back haughtily. This made the back of her head hit my jaw and suddenly we were both in pain. The way she squirmed as the others laughed at us was bad. However, my brain was fortunately focused on my jaw.

“Enough horsing around.” Kiyara said and with a grunt she pulled Gilana off of me. I might have been mistaken, there were a lot of tears in my eyes, but I think that Kiyara was pouting with a rather jealous look.

When I was about to start eating, Simon popped out again, ‘Hungry’. I sighed and retrieved a piece of wolf meat from my storage and Simon almost instantly devoured it. This caused four distinct reactions from the room’s inhabitants. “That’s disgusting.” “Wow! that’s cool.” “I don’t think that should be possible…” and my own “When did you get so big?” The first voice was Franz, the second was Gilana who looked at Simon with sparkling eyes and the third was Kiyara who just looked confused.

I was the one who should be confused however. Simon had grown, and not by a bit either. I hadn’t noticed before but now that I had a comparison I saw that he was about a quarter bigger. “How is that possible?” I wondered looking at Simon who looked back at me ‘Hungry’. I pulled out another piece and Simon finished it just as quickly. Then he looked back up at me again ‘Hungry’ I took a deep breath and took out another two pieces Simon at one and Gilana nabbed the other and with eyes sparkling she asked.

“Can I feed him?” She smiled like a kid on Christmas.

“Um, sure.” I said and looked down on Simon. He seemed annoyed to me but that was probably my imagination. I moved the arm Simon was curled around towards Gilana and she held the meat back a bit so that Simon had to reach for it.

Simon gave me a look before he went for the meat and I was sure that it translated to ‘you owe me one’. Then he took the meat and allowed Gilana to pet him. The brutish looking woman was very gentle with my familiar and... “Yes, she was gentle with my familiar, not with my snake, my FAMILIAR.”

Simon was full and wanted to go to sleep which I knew because of the look he gave me. Oh and the repeated ‘Sleepy’ he kept sending. For a moment I thought that he'd bite her but I think that Simon was even more afraid of pissing off Gilana then I was. And if I’m honest I would probably bend over backwards to not seriously anger any of my new companions especially Gilana. “They do say that any good man should fear the wrath of the women in his life.”

“Um the food is getting cold…” I said after this had gone on for longer enough. Gilana pouted and pulled back allowing me to test the food that smelled quite lovely. “This is really good.” I said between bites, the others just smiled and kept eating. The food, mostly lamb or something similar, was spiced perfectly with herbs and salt. It was a true testament to the chef’s skill. To be able to achieve such taste without pepper and all other spices that are probably all but impossible to find here. “I do have quite a few spices on me.” I pondered for a moment as I ate. “No, I should probably save those for a rainy day or maybe, my own consumption.” That’s a thought. “Though I couldn’t cook even if my life depended on it.” I kept eating with a wry grin, savouring every bite.

In no time at all the entire table was cleared of anything edible and I leaned back overstuffed and very pleased. It was then I noticed that Franz was still wearing his full plate armour and had his helmet on with the visor down.

“How do you manage to eat like that?” My innocent question was met with uproarious laughter from the two women and grumbling from Franz. This lasted for quite a while and I noted the slight blush on Gilana’s and Kiyara’s cheeks. “They aren’t sober!” I realized with a start and only now saw the half dozen empty mugs that had at one point contained mead that stood between the two women.

“He…” Gilana had to catch her breath from laughing before she could continue. “He deliberately equipped a full set of cursed armour!” And she burst out laughing again.

“And I’d do it again!” Franz shouted back indignant. “I paid less for this than the material is worth!” He half growled and slapped his chest plate. The women just kept laughing. “… this armour has saved me more time than you two have thank you very much.” Franz grumbled and drank some more beer.

As the two women finally calmed down the older serving lady entered the room and in a chorus my three companions shouted “NOT IT!” And then they grinned deviously at me.

“Are you twelve or something?” I shook my head a bit disgusted by their attitudes. And flicked a gold to the serving lady who’s eyes went wide for a moment. “I hope that will cover it, please treat us kindly next time as well.” I gave her my best smile and inclined my head.

For the first time the woman smiled, it was a slight smile but it was a smile nonetheless. The woman then curtsied and left the room without a word. The other gaped at me.

“You mightily overcharged there.” Franz said half amused half exasperated.

“Yeah, by like at least double.” Gilana said, eyeing me oddly. “We still need to buy you some armour you know. You should be more careful with your money.”

“Who was it that made me pay for all of this?” I asked a bit defensively.

“That’s that and this is this.” She grinned and shrugged. “Besides, if you can throw money around like that you probably have enough money for a decent set of armour.”

“You can never have enough money for armour.” Franz said with a huff.

“Says the guy, who will likely never be able to change armour again.” Gilana scoffed. Franz grunted unhappily but did not retort.

“We should get a move on.” Kiyara said, rising to her feet. “Ugher might have closed up shop already.”

“Not likely. That man can smell gold like Bugrat smells feet.” Franz said, standing with a grunt.

“Like a what, smells what?” I asked before I could stop myself.

“Like a Bugrat smells feet…” Franz and the others looked at me oddly. “I guess I’m the weird one.”

“Nothing.” I just shook my head and headed for the door.

When we exited the store the older serving lady gave me a slight smile and a shallow bow. Her dark hair cascaded down her shoulders and I couldn’t help but smile and wave in return as I walked out the door.

“Wow, someone is popular.” Gilana said mockingly. Somehow her mocking tone rang hollow to me and she wore a slight pout as she looked at the serving lady.

“Well. I am a gold ranker.” I answered in a flat tone and gave Gilana an equally flat look. She just snorted and elbowed me in the side.I did not whimper in pain. But I might have groaned and had to suppress a tear. Her elbow hurt, a lot.

I found out that Ughers was only a street away from the restaurant and it was indeed open, I think. There was only a single shuttered window at the front of the store and the entire store looked more dilapidated than any of the other buildings I’d seen in the central part of the city. The door was slightly ajar and Gilana strode in with a smile, and Franz muttered something about shoddy buildings and shoddy armour. I was unsure of what to feel looking at the less than stellar building but with a sigh I entered the building..

“You again?” A gruff voice said. “Did you manage to destroy another set of armour already girly?” The voice belonged to a man who sat reading a beat up book in a crooked chair. He looked up, dark eyes set deep in a placid face scanning his customers.

“That’s just rude.” Gilana said with a huff. “I haven’t even left the city since I came here last.”

“That’s why I was asking how you managed to destroy another set of armour.” There was a slight smile on the old man’s thin lips and Gilana huffed indignantly.

“We are here for something that could help and keep the new guy alive.” Kiyara said as she idly played with a knife.

“Where in god’s name does she hide all those knives?” This was the third knife I had seen her pull out of nowhere. “I am beginning to believe that she also has a storage skill. Because there is no way she should be able to hide that many knives in such tightfitting armour.”

“Oh! A gold ranker, and a mage to boot!” For a moment there it looked like the man’s eyes turned into gold coins but that surely must have been my imagination. The man stood and gave a deep bow as he introduced himself. “My name is Ugher, this is my humble shop.”

“I’m Victor Lynth, pleasure to meet you.” I bowed back.

“Ohho.” He chuckled and eyed me with a slight grin. “You are a mighty tall one, if a bit skinny.” He added as he strode over and looked me over like a slab of meat. “I might have something that fits you but…” He trailed off dramatically.

“He is flush, just make sure the quality is up to par.” Gilana said this as she and Ugher exchanged a look and grinned at one another.

“Excellent!” Ugher clapped his hands and led me over to a thin metal mirror. “Now stay still and I will take your measurements.”

The next few minutes passed in a flurry as Ugher’s bony hands felt me up with the excuse of ‘measuring’ me, for some reason Gilana and Franz ‘helped’ with this. After this I had to play dress up doll for what must have been an hour until Ugher found a set armour and resized it to fit me. The old man sent me off with a smile and a wave. Oh and with a THIRTY FIVE gold lighter purse. “It is simply that quality is expensive in any world.” I did my best to convince myself of that at least. Outside night was rapidly approaching and had to give up on the idea of going to the Mage guild.

“Where are you staying?” Gilana asked as she pulled Kiyara in close to herself and got ready to head back.

“I am staying at the Gilded Hog.”

“Oh, Imon’s place. Not bad.” Gilana snickered. “As expected of Goldie.” She laughed at my flat look and turned to leave with Kiyara. “We will come get you in the morning, don’t oversleep or I will chuck a Franz at you!” She cackled and walked off into the crowd.