After a simple meal alone in the mess hall, John went back to his bed and fell asleep immediately. Healing might fix your injuries but there is always something left over that can only be fixed by rest and after what he's just been through he felt he deserved it.

Upon waking he got dressed and went back to the mess hall, this time it was full of other guards and the human he had seen earlier was sat on his own in the corner of the room. John recalled his name was Sean and since they were going to be working together he figured he might as well start now. He walked over and sat on the bench opposite from Sean.

"Hey, friend, Sean right? I'm Henry." He spoke in English and extended a small hand towards him.

A look of surprise flashed across his face which then shifted to a slight smile and he accepted the hand.

"Yeah, Sean. Got teleported over and they let me into the guards for my integration placement, you guys train hard for such little people. I went through basic training back home but christ it's nothing like that"

"Integration placement? I've kind of been out of the loop for a while so I don't really know what happened when you guys arrived."

Sean cocked his head

"For real? I thought you guys were like super social or something?" John winced slightly at that and sean just looked apologetic and raised his hands. "Whatever none of my business... Yeah so everything just started shaking and we ended up here. It wasn't long before some of the local clans arrived and started helping out. Dug some people out of rubble and stuff.

Weirdest experience of my life being rescued by a bunch of midgets that can shoot fire out of their asses." He seemed to realize what he just said and rushed to apologize "No offense meant, it's all still a bit odd to me you know? Anyway so for the most part whatever political leaders we had met up with the clans and managed to work something out, a couple of the clans are giving us a hand in rebuilding the city and we some of us would join the clan cities and gnomes would join ours you know? we'd teach you guys what we know and you teach us what you know kinda thing.

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So me and some of the other lads from the army back home signed up for the guards to fight monsters and stuff and turns out compared to you guys we're strong as hell. Comes with being twice as big or something I guess but means we're great for this job. Now fighting with swords instead of a gun is weird but with this system thing you pick stuff up pretty quick. Got no knack for magic but honestly, I was always the hit it with a sword until it dies kinda guy anyway so I ain't complaining. But yeah that's about it, been out here fighting stuff just like you after basic training, gotta say it's pretty awesome. "

"Oh well, I'm glad you're enjoying it here, I don't know if I'd describe being attacked by giant monsters awesome but that's the difference between you and me I guess" John gave a bit of a self-depreciating laugh and Sean gave a small smile. "You said you signed up with some friends? Are they here too?"

Sean looked a bit crestfallen at that "No, we got split up, the other guys took better to swords than me it seems so they ended up in one of the hotter bases and I got assigned over here, still pretty cool though."

John nodded and had just about finished his meal. "I'm working with you with Jack it seems for a few days, you heading over there? You can tell me how you ended up stuck working there whilst we walk over if you want?"

"Sure, it's a funny story actually." They both stood up and made their way over to the quartermasters' room

"So I got put out here like 2 or 3 weeks ago, the first week went pretty well, not everyone has those spore things and they cost a lot now so I couldn't buy some for myself. So I tried to pick up a bit of gnomish so I could talk to people, you know? So I talked to one of the gnomes that had those spores and got them to teach me some phrases that'd come in handy with the higher ups you know? To show I'm trying to integrate and all that.

Anyways I get called up to see the boss lady to see how things are going and I say one of the phrases I was taught. About 15 minutes later she stops yelling at me and my beard is singed off. Turns out I had just told her that her magic sucked so bad she'd be better off using her staff as a pole and dancing for tips. The guy who taught me to say that is still recovering from the burns and I got stuck with the quartermaster as a tax for being such an idiot."

John let out a somewhat undignified snort when he heard the story and it seemed that Sean had managed to see the humor in it since he was laughing too. The two of them spent the rest of the day idly chatting and ribbing one another as they did odd jobs and sorted things for Jack. It was weird talking to a human and he found that as nice as chatty as gnomes were, they were inherently different from humans and he had missed the way a human conversation usually went.

A smile crept onto his face as he went to sleep.