Kay was fast asleep, drool was smeared across his face and forming an unflattering puddle. One arm was slumped across his chest and one foot hanging off the bed. All to say, Kay was sleeping rather deeply, this was my first sighting of sleeping like a baby, all that drool.
I should feel bad about what I am about to do next, but alas. I walk over to Kay and give him a good shake. Closer up I notice how different Kay looks without bunny ears. So this is what he actually looks like. I see.
"Good morning Kay!." I say, rather loudly and close to him, causing him to jump awake.
"Ahh!" Kay says, and falls out of bed, getting tangled up in his blankets and having trouble getting up.
Despite the heavy thump of a body hitting the hard floor I hear “five more minutes” float out of the tangled mess.
“My apologies Kay, but you did say that we should be there early. I shall step outside for you to get ready." I say and slip out of the room. I do not know if I was feeling uncomfortable or if I was trying to ensure that Kay did not feel uncomfortable, but waiting outside of his room seemed the most appropriate course of action.
"Just give me a minute!" Kay shouts through the door and I hear a lot of things shuffling around behind the door.
"Ouch, ah, eep!" THUD! "I'm okay!"
"I do hope that you are indeed okay, Kay! Do you need any assistance?" I ask him. That thud sounded even worse than the last one.
"No, I’m only half, well more like a third dressed!" he shouts. "I mean, no thank you."
Well alright then. I am sure that whatever he is doing in there he is okay. Yes, I am sure that there is nothing going wrong behind that door... As I am debating throwing the door open again and making sure that he is okay Kay stumbled out of the door, hair only slightly sticking up at odd angles.
"Do I look okay? And where is my minute I asked you to give me one?" he asks.
"Give me a moment." I say and walk up to him and comb my fingers through his hair to help calm down the fluffy angles. "There you are." I say and give him a bright smile.
"Shall we go? You look all cozy in your cloak. Are you cold in the morning, or are you going for a mysterious vibe? You know what, I like it. Hey what do you think of these clothes, they are nice right? I can't believe that Momma Tia was nice enough to give me so many hand me down clothes. And ones that she made herself!
“It took me a minute to dig through the clothes and find things that match. These do match right? Yeah I am going to say that they match. I mean, I did fall over trying to get dressed as I was so tired I couldn't hold my eyes open, that is how I chose this shirt… I fell on it. But falling into the wall did help me wake up!"
Kay once against speaks so many things at once I wonder how his tongue does not get tied around his own words. It is rather impressive truth to tell.
"Those clothes are quite lovely." I say. "And I am going for a strong sense of mystery. Am I succeeding?"
"Oh, very much so!" he says excitedly.
Kay was almost unrecognizable this morning without his rabbit ears and tail. I do not know why he did not use the bunny feet spell again. Does it take a lot of energy out of him to use magic? I am very curious about such things. I ponder over this, that, and a few other things, as we exit the library and start heading toward the training hall.
"Oh hey look, it's the losers. Get out of the way!" he says and moves to shove Kay.
Without intending to I leap in front of Kay and position my foot in such a manner as to fowl up this fiend. Rex trips a bit as this was something that he wasn't expecting, unfortunately he does manage to find his balance, pity.
"Wow, look! The little one tried to trip you. What should we do to her?" says one of his sycophants.
He was also an elf, a bit on the tall side and gangly looking. I try not to judge people, but everything about this person just bespoke, goon, lackey, unmentioned side character. I feel concerned about what he is going to say. What does he plan to do to us?
"Haha yeah what should we do to her? Should we hurt her, or would it be better to embarrass her. I could think of a few things" says the other sycophant. While being an elf he was shorter than elves usually are.
"Should we throw them in the trash or tie them up and use them for target practice like we used to do with Kay?" Says the tall one.
"Rex, don't lay a hand on her!" Kay shouts, clearly angry.
"Did you just tell me what to do? I will do whatever I want with her and there is nothing that you can do to me filthy blood. It just so happens that I don't want to be late because of you and your mutt. Anyway, this is a new outfit, and your blood is hard to get out of silk" he says, and spits near Kay's feet.
It makes me want to break his jaw and rip his tongue out. Oh my, where did that thought come from, it is very much not like me.
'Really Zayne? Thanks for the vote of confidence in me just being a good person.'
'I will have to believe you just because I don't want to be a bad person.” I say and I think that he gets the impression that I am sulking. I pause waiting for the assault of yous to continue, but the sulking seems to have worked.
Honestly though, if they really did pin Kay up and use him for any sort of target practice then they deserve to have something bad done to them. Come to think of it, I could use some target practice.
"Don’t worry we will see you after picking classes and depending on how you look under that cloak maybe I will be nice. I take good care of my toys after all" Rex says in the voice of a predator.
This is the kind of person that we do not allow to set foot into the Pleasure Gardens. He is the kind that hurts women that beg him not to, and he does it for fun. I will not let him lay a hand on either me or Kay, unless it has become separated from his arm.
"Come on Amaya, let’s just go." Kay says, grabbing my wrist and pulling me along.
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Rex’s arm shoots out in front of Kay’s face blocking our path. “Did I say you could go? Tell you what take of the cloak and I will consider it.”
That did it, moving past Kay I hit him hard in the solar plexus with my shoulder. He goes down with a wheeze and we start running and we hear them hot on our heels.
'Zayne, these cretons are not even worth eating! They are bad elves, cruel. I do not want to see what they grow into.’
'I do not even comprehend why I am continuing this conversation with you!'
Kay and I run through the mostly empty streets, hoping that nothing stands in our way. I do not like the idea of accidentally knocking someone over as I attempt to extricate myself from this situation. While Rex said that he didn't plan on hurting us, I did not believe him.
We are nearly panting by the time that we get to the training hall. Well, Kay was nearly panting, I was merely slightly out of breath, but the exercise had been rather exhilarating.
"We are here, just a moment, I have to catch my breath.” Kay pauses between every couple of words. “They can't touch us now. Did you really shoulder bash him like that? I mean you did so obviously the answer is yes, but did you really just do that?." Kay says confidently.
How often had those abominable cretins bullied my poor Kay. And honestly what does it mean when he says that he had used Kay as target practice. This thought seems to keep popping into my mind.
"I absolutely, what did you say shoulder bash? Yes, I did shoulder bash that, that, witless panty fiend masquerading as a sentient creature. What do we do now that we are here Kay?" I inquire of him.
"I like the wit and spirit, now then If my knowledge holds up we are supposed to go around and sign up for courses that we feel will help move us towards our desired classes."
"How do I know what courses go towards our desired classes? Is there a handy guide, or a well thought out pictograph?”
"Well let's start with the basics. Each of the courses focuses on improving your knowledge, skills, and overall odds of not dying a pitiful death. There are also just interesting courses that do eventually end up becoming useful, or improve upon more than one skill, but to a lesser extent than just focusing on one."
"Kay this is all really confusing."
"Well, there are always the evaluators that can help guide you in what courses you should be taking. I always thought that I should just choose my own, but we can consult the evaluators first, though that is much less fun." he says, sighing and huffing.
"Well, do you at least want to walk around before we get ourselves locked into our courses?" I ask him, feeling overwhelmed, and yet my curiosity was immensely piqued.
"I suppose that we can do that, though if I am being honest I picked out my courses already, you know like years ago." Kay says, grins at me and pulls me gently to the first table. It was labeled as Athletic Activities.
"Hello how can I help you children?" the person manning the table asked us.
"We were curious as to what courses you are advertising here?" Kay asks.
"Well now, are you? From what I can see it looks like you both could benefit from these." he says and laughs a good natured laugh. "The athletic activities we are offering this go around are Swimming and Obstacle Courses Galore!. We usually have more such as Cross Country but all of that is supposed to be included in Obstacle Courses Galore! It can be fun, but also rather challenging.
"Swimming though, swimming is good for all adventurers to learn at some point. You become acclimated to all of the different temperatures of water you would be exposed to. It will also help build up some resistances."
"Both of those sound rather important." I say.
"Well yes they are young lady. Are you ready to sign up?"
"Not just yet, thanks though." Kay says and we make our way to the next table. It was Mandatory Courses.
"There are courses that all are required to attend?" I ask Kay, rather curious. "Shouldn’t they be more nuanced as there are many different classes?"
"Yes, but we are all going to be killing the same monsters in the same dungeon. Classes don't make different monsters show up and knowledge is knowledge."
"I suppose you are right. Let's see what is required."
"Hi! Are you two here to sign up for courses? I mean, they are required so you don’t have much say in the matter" says a bubbly young woman behind the table.
"We are looking for now and then we are going to sign up after we have seen all of what is being offered." Kay says, helpfully answering the questions.
It seems Kay has noticed that I am trying to limit my talking, as my manner of speech would most likely be mocked.
"Ah, alrighty then! The courses that you both have to take are Understanding Monsters, and Survival 101. However, I highly recommend that you take Party Tactics and Dynamics. I don't even know why it isn't mandatory and Survival 101 is. They are both needed, Is it because they think that I can't teach a class that well, huh?" she says and as she keeps talking it becomes more and more of a mumble.
"I see. That is a very important class. I do believe that it would be in our best interest to take it." I respond back to her.
"Really? You will?" she says, perking up rather quickly.
"Yes we will, won't we Kay?"
"Yup! I think that sounds great. As much as I think that it can just be pew pew and stab stab there probably needs to be someone casting holy light to heal us, and maybe some big strong beefy individual to take on the pain of being in a dungeon to protect our poor feeble, weak little bodies."
"Haha, you are adorable! I look forward to seeing you in class." she says and winks at us.
"Amaya a pretty girl just winked at us, did you see? I wanted to make sure that someone else is witnessing this historic moment and it is not some kind of hallucination."
"I noticed. And don't be so dramatic, most assuredly others have winked at you?" I say. I know that things of that nature are of great importance, but to me they are rather low on the priority list. I thought that it was the same for Kay. Am I mistaken?
"Nope! Plenty of people have blinked at me, which is sort of a double wink. And I need to make sure that it really happened and that the person didn't have some dust in their eyes or a tick that makes it look like they were being nice to me when they actually weren't."
"What was your childhood Kay?"
"Books!" he says in a tone that might be false cheer.
"I am sorry for the great unkindness that has been your life thus far. At some point I shall have to bring you to my home and have comfort and affection lavished upon you."
"Do you want to show me off because I make such a cute bunny?"
"My home requires no alterations so I would ask that you just be yourself."
Kay looked pensive for a moment. Was he ashamed of being a half-elf? I think that is most troubling with great sadness as well. I know not how I shall achieve it, but I will somehow make Kay feel a bit better about himself.
At the third table we are met with a solidly built dwarf.
"What courses are ye wee ones lookin to sign up for?" he asks in a thick accent. I am most grateful that we had so many dialects pass through my home.
"We are just looking at the moment. What courses are you offering?" Kay asks.
"Haha lad, the courses I offer may not be for wee little tykes like yourselves. These are to fashion ye into a warrior! Or an archer." he says, and lets the insinuation linger in the air. "On my table I be offerin' Heavy Weapons and Archery."
"Thank you kindly for letting us know." I say. Kay had been doing most of the talking but I decide that it could not hurt for me to offer words of gratitude.
"Well there lass you have quite the polite way of speakin' now don't you. I don't know a place around these parts where people speak with the same respect that you do. Now, there was a place I went where the women were all very kind and soft spoken, but you seem a mite too young to be one of those lovelies. Unless you be one of their children?"
He lets the question hang.
"I think you might have the wrong person." Kay says. "She is here to become an adventurer, she just thinks that being polite is nice. That's just how she is, right Amaya?"
"That is indeed correct."
"Well if you be sayin so. Have a good one kids!"
Kay and I walk over to the last table where there was a male half-elf and female feline-kin. They were talking happily together.
"Well hello there! Oh my, do we have newbies for our classes. How exciting! They look like such good fits too if I do say so myself." says the feline-kin.
"Look at the boy there. Magic is practically sparking from beneath his fingernails. You are here to sign up for courses right?" he says, switching his attention to us.
"Well, we are viewing the classes before we settle in on any of them. What are you offering at your table and are my fingernails really that dirty?"
"Potions and Poisons." says the feline-kin.
"Spellcraft." says the half-elf.
"And Small Sharp Objects!" The feline-kin interjects in over her half-elf colleague.
“Is that the actual name of the course?” Kay asks.
“Yep!”
"Those do sound like classes we would be well suited to." I say to Kay.
"Have you not had your proficiencies tested?" the male teacher asks?
"Proficiencies?" we ask in tandem.
"People kept trying to decide weapons for themselves, and doing a terrible job at it, getting themselves or their party members killed. So from this year forwards we are testing for rightness of fit." The feline-kin says whilst twirling a dagger.
"That makes sense." said Kay.
"Hey Alice do you mind keeping an eye on the table for me?" he asks her.
"Okie dokie!" she says, tail happily twitching.
"Well then, follow me."