Chapter 19 Kill The Puppy.

Isaac and Lenna woke before the rest of town. Since Safeharbor was underground much of it would stay open all night but most of the more reputable establishments still followed the surface timetable. Celeste was just putting on her apron as the pair sat at the bar for their breakfasts. “Morning dears.” Celeste greeted them.

Isaac nodded in greeting. “Morning.” He yawned.

Lenna cracked a mischievous smirk and glanced quickly at Isaac without him noticing before giving Celeste a wink. “Morn’ keeper of the inn.” She told the woman behind the bar in perfect elvish.

Isaac’s foggy morning brain didn’t pick up how strange the greeting was for a few seconds. He turned to look at Lenna. “You just did something.” He accused which only caused her smirk to grow.

Celeste looked back and forth between them before deciding to ask her question in elvish. “What is going on?” She asked.

Isaac narrowed his eyes at Lenna. “That’s what I want to…” His voice trailed off as his brain finally put the pieces together before he turned to look at Celeste. “Can you go back to speaking in standard?” He asked her.

Lenna chuckled and hid her mouth behind her hand while Celeste looked at him with confusion. The younger of two women nodded slowly. “Sure. I still don’t know what’s going on though.”

Isaac focused on responding to Celeste before he spoke. “Am I back to standard now?” Celeste nodded her head again, this time even more confused. “Lenna’s messing with me. I tried to get her with a joke that only makes sense in my native language, which she doesn’t speak, and now she’s picking on me.” He grumbled.

“I’m still confused.” Celeste replied.

“Isaac can’t control his all-speech. He started talking to me in a language I’ve never heard before, I guess the joke doesn’t make sense in standard, or maybe he thought too hard about it and he switched back to that language.” Lenna replied and took the offered mug from Celeste.

“Your, all-speech?” Celeste asked Isaac.

Isaac nodded. “What language were we even just speaking?” He asked indignantly.

“Elvish.” Celeste replied. “Do you hear everyone in your native language?”

Isaac shrugged. “I honestly have no idea. I don’t even know what my native language is. There are a lot of little things I wish I still remembered.” He grumbled.

Celeste shook her head. “There is a lot to unpack there. Too much actually. Leo should be done making breakfast, I take it that’s why you two are here?”

Isaac and Lenna both nodded. Isaac replied: “Yes.”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

While Lenna replied: “Please.” Because she was more polite.

Once Celeste had left, Isaac sat his elbow on the bar and rested his chin on his hand. “How often do you change the language up on me?” He asked Lenna.

Lenna shrugged. “Everynight. I only talk to you in deep standard when we are in the room.” She replied.

“I still find it weird that there are two standard languages. Why are they even called standard if they aren’t the standard?” Isaac asked. “Deep standard is your first language right?”

Lenna nodded. “Deep standard was originally made by my ancestors to hide what they were saying from the surface dwellers.” Lenna explained. “The rest of the shunned and rejected races found their way down here. After a few millennia they were all speaking it. Surface standard was originally a merchant language that slowly took over the world.”

Celeste returned with their breakfast. Smoked bacon, breakfast rolls, and omelets from some large bird that was native to the area around Safeharbor’s neighboring city. Apparently its eggs were the size of a man’s fist and their shells were incredibly durable. The pair lost their conversation and dug in. Once they were done they both got up to go.

“Have a safe trip.” Celeste told them.

“We won’t.” Isaac replied with a grin.

Celeste chuckled and shook her head. “How about, don’t die.”

“Again.” Lenna and Isaac both replied in unison.

Celeste chuckled again at their antics. “Yes, again.”

“No promises but I’ll try to bring us both back in one piece.” Isaac told the innkeeper.

Lenna shook her head. “I will do my best.” She told Celeste knowing that it meant more from her than Isaac.

—

The pair swung by the Guild Hall on their way out of town and were met by a groggy Alice who handed them the dispelling chime that Edward had left in her care to give to the duo as well as Isaac’s gold adventurer’s badge. Isaac thanked her and she bid them a fun adventure before going back to staring deep into her mug of mushroom tea. Everything was in order so the pair headed out on their longest adventuring job.

—

Twelve hours into their journey Isaac was grumbling. “It’s nothing but tunnels. We haven’t found anything interesting since we left. This, this is unfun.”

Lenna shook her head. Her steps were just as silent as his as she strode beside him due to his shadows that had worked their way in between all of the metal pieces of her armor. “We are in the Innerworld, this is normal.” She reminded him.

“I know but…” Isaac’s voice trailed off as he thought he heard something. Lenna noticed that Isaac had noticed something and stayed quiet and stopped walking as he did. “Keep going, slowly.” He told her and the pair started creeping down the tunnel.

Eventually they could make out what Isaac had heard. A wet, guttural language, combat, a whimper. “Ori-Masa and shadow-wolves.” Lenna whispered. The pair crept up to an opening in the tunnel wall where some large monster looked to have fallen through it out into the open cavern where the commotion was happening. Sure enough two dozen Ori-Masa were in a half circle formation with their backs against a wall.

Just as many shadow-wolves were circling them growling. Whenever a wolf would move to lunge a fishman would jab a bone tipped spear at it. There were a few corpses from both sides outside of the current battle line that looked to have been made during the beginning of their confrontation. The stalemate continued with neither side willing to let the other win.

“Why don’t the wolves just take the corpses and run?” Isaac asked Lenna quietly.

Lenna shook her head. “They can’t. The Ori-Masa would chase them.”

“They have been fighting down here long enough that the wolves know that instinctually?” Isaac questioned.

Lenna nodded. “Yes.” She replied simply.

“Should we leave them be or get rid of them?” Isaac asked. “They are close enough to the city that it might be a good idea to remove them.”

Lenna nodded. “It wouldn’t hurt to kill the puppy.” She replied.

Isaac turned to look at her and blinked slowly a few times. “That was a drow saying wasn’t it?” He asked.

“Yes.” She replied. “Did it not translate well?”

Isaac shook his head. “No. I think it translated fine. Killing a puppy, as in removing a shadow-wolf pup before it can grow to be a pain later right?”

Lenna nodded. “Yes.” She affirmed.

Isaac chuckled and shook his head. “Only drow sayings would be that morbid. The human one is to ‘nip it in the bud’.” He explained.

Lenna thought about it for a moment. “Yes.” She nodded. “That is much less morbid.”

After a moment of silence Isaac gestured toward the small engaging armies. “Shall we?”

Lenna nodded. “Yes. Let’s.”