Alek pulled the draw knife along the sapling striping the bark off in clean, fluid movements. He watched his next visitor make their slow approach up the path and wondered why people seemed to seek him out. Was he not far enough away from the town proper to be left alone? The woman made her way up into the clearing where he was working and when Alek didn't immediately acknowledge her presence, she found one of the large rock outcroppings to sit on.

She was small and slight, an average sized specimen of her species. Dark hair and eyes, light purple skin. Her horns were straight and her tail long and thin and always in motion. How people confused Alek's demonic heritage with a Tel’ani like this woman, he didn't know. She was a pretty thing, though age was creeping up on her. Her pale blue outfit revealed much. She must have thought she was sexy and Alek might have agreed, but he couldn’t. The magical slave tattoo peeking up out of her skirt wasn't something he could hold against her. The collar around her neck prominently displaying her legal status on the other hand, Alek found it, and by extension her, revolting.

He kept stripping the bark from the saplings he had collected. The woman cleared her throat twice, but Alek didn't even look at her until he dropped his load of stripped saplings by the frame of his project.

"That's a rather small house you're building." She said, her tone light and full of humor.

"It's a chicken coop. What do you want?" Alek picked up another load of saplings and dropped them onto his work surface.

"Between the stories of one of my coworkers and a client, I pieced together that we had someone famous in town. I came to see the great Harbinger of Wrath for myself."

Alek held his arms out by his sides as if to give her a subdued "taa-daa". "There. You've seen me. Now what?"

She pouted. "You're not quite the gentleman I expected."

"Never meet your heroes. Now if you're done gawking, I've got work to do."

"Hmph. Would have been better off with Wrath. I heard the big idiot was at least nice."

Alek grit his teeth. "Don't ever insult Wrath in front of me!" He snapped. "Get out of here. I hate dealing with you people."

The woman stood up, a mixture of anger and disgust in her expression. "So the Tiefling has a problem with Tel'ani. That's rich."

"No. The Tiefling has a problem with slave whores."

She looked shocked.

"Leave. Go back to your master." Alek said, returning to his work.

"Master Malex is a good man." She argued in defense of someone Alek neither knew nor cared about.

"I wasn't judging him. I was judging you. Get off my property."

With an unladylike huff, she marched off on the long road back to town. Alek ignored the whore.

"Wow. I get being against slavery as a concept, but why the hate toward the slaves?" Came a female voice from behind him.

Outwardly Alek showed no reaction, merely turning to face the new speaker. Internally he was trying to regain control of his racing heart. How in the Abyssal Hell had she snuck up on him. The blacksmith's daughter was leaning against a tree trunk as if she had been casually standing there the whole time. Apparently the nickname of Red wasn't just a reference to her auburn hair and freckles, her entire outfit was a vibrant crimson.

"It's not that she is a slave. It's that she's docile."

"Lots of people are docile."

"True, what would you do if you found yourself enslaved?"

The redhead took a moment to think it through. "Probably plot to kill my master."

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Well there you go."

Red frowned. "Still seems like hating beggars for being poor."

"Did you have a purpose for bothering me? Or is this just bug Alek day and I didn’t get the memo?"

A wide grin spread across her face. "What? I can't come gawk at Lydia's newest and most eligible Bachelor?"

"Ha, have you seen my face?"

"Most eligible, not most desirable, but I think you're dashing." She teased.

"You're too young. Did you just come here to hit on me?"

Red removed herself from the tree and started toward the work bench. "I thought I recognized you in the shop, obviously not, but I did recognize your description." She grabbed hold of one of the saplings and set it for him to start with the drawknife. "When I realized I had access to The Harbinger of Wrath, I figured I'd try to get some advice."

"Advice? Well you've got my attention." Alek picked up the drawknife and started stripping the bark.

"How do you deal with someone considerably stronger than you and has a bodyguard?"

"I'd throw Wrath at them." Alek chuckled. "But I suppose the answer would be, with cunning and trickery. Is he ever separated from his bodyguard?"

"Not really, they don't go to the bathroom together, and I can't get to them at night."

"How strong is he? Normal asshat strength or Orc strength?"

"Like a fucking Orc."

"Hmmm. Any weaknesses? Any way to pull him away from the Anorian?"

"Maybe, I guess he likes…" She froze, giving Alek all the confirmation he needed.

"The crow yours?"

"I, ah…" Her mouth worked without sound for a moment.

"You got a license for magic?"

Alek gained some sadistic satisfaction from putting the kid into a flight or fight response. He could practically feel the war between her urge to run and her attempt to reassert control. Her eyes steeled and she replaced the stripped sapling with a new one.

"None of your concern." She said, her usual mirth gone.

"What? The licenses or the crow?"

"Both."

Alek shrugged. "Licencing magic users never made much sense to me anyway." He returned to stripping the bark, pleased by the girl's final reaction. "So what'd he do to you?"

There was a long pause filled only with the sounds of the Darkmoss and the scrapping of the drawknife on fresh saplings as Red decided how much information to let out. "He killed my friend." She said quietly, simmering rage giving her voice a hard edge.

"Shouldn't that be brought up with the sheriff?"

"Maybe if he wasn't the damn problem."

Alek stopped. "Huh? Wanna elaborate on that?"

She shrugged. "Something happened at the palace. Most of the town guard has been camped out there. The fucking idiot sheriff put word out for mercenaries and adventurers to keep the town safe. Of course, they cause most of the problems."

"Where is the palace? I haven't found it."

Red hooked her thumb towards town. "North of the farms."

That was weird. "Why so far away?"

"The Harmond shifted and the town followed the river I guess."

"But the palace stayed?"

"Yeah, that's the story anyway."

Alek nodded and returned to stripping saplings. "Okay, we got off topic. Some asshole killed your friend and you want revenge right?"

"Something like that yeah."

Alek figured she wasn't giving him the whole story, but he took the time to wonder if it really mattered. Was this in any way his business? The answer was no, so advice, for good or ill, was all the aid he would be giving. "Weaknesses. He is physically gifted. How is he mentally?"

"He's not stupid. A bit of a sucker for pretty girls."

"Using yourself as bait without backup is usually a bad idea."

"Wanna be my backup?" She plastered that big grin on her face.

"No."

The grin disappeared and she switched out the saplings.

"Tell me about the Anorian. Is she loyal?"

"No damn idea. She follows him around and looks scary. Always. Same expression all the time."

"Does she follow when he chases women?"

"Don't know."

"If you manage to get them separated, what do you plan on doing?"

"Turning him into compost."

Alek looked up at the girl. She said it so matter of factly, and compost seemed odd for a blacksmith. Maybe she gardened. "What to elaborate on how you go about doing that?"

"Not really."

"Poison."

"What?"

"I would use poison."

"Yeah, but how?"

Alek shrugged. "Not really my problem."

Red nodded. "Fair enough. I think I've got a few ideas now." She dusted off her hands and started for the woods.

"Hey!" Alek called out to her. "Aren't you afraid of the monsters in there?"

The girl turned her grinning face at him. "No."

She disappeared into the Darkmoss. The trees looming over his little chunk of land. Alek shrugged to himself. She was weird. Gave off some dark vibes. Hopefully he hadn't emboldened her to do something stupid. Part of not caring, ment he gave a more honest opinion. Probably should have tried to do the good thing and talked her down. Oh well. In his world there was only one good person, and it wasn't himself.