“Ouch, someone stepped on my toes,” Luci cried.

“Stella, your tail is tickling me,” Wip said.

“I’ll tickle your throat with my foot if you keep talking,” Stella hissed. “Who can make light?”

“Oh, me me me!” Wip shouted.

Recycling his enma, Ortho woke up and shouted, “No! You’ll kill us—”

The inside of the dumpster lit up in a soft blue light. Ortho let out a sigh of relief when he noticed the source of it was Luci’s finger. It didn’t completely relieve his panic, however.

They were packed tight inside the dumpster. Wip was backed into the corner, his legs stretched out and buried under piles of trash. Ortho’s shoulder leaned against the opposite corner, and Wip’s running shoes, one of their soles falling off, rubbed against his knee. Stella sat between the two of them on Wip’s knee with her arms folded, shooting a death stare at Ortho. Her tail flicked irritably, brushing trash this way and that. Luci’s knees had curled up to her chin in the corner of the dumpster adjacent to Ortho. Her long, grey hair was everywhere. Ortho spat a strand of it out of his face. From that strand, Ortho expected a scent of shampoo or something, but all he got was rotten food.

“What is wrong with you people!” Ortho screamed. He tried to scramble out again, but Luci stuck a hand out. Glowing threads burst from her fingertips which bound Ortho’s legs and arms. He struggled against them, but even with the wadis it was no use.

Stella pointed down. “You. Look for aftos. Now.”

Ortho scrunched up his face, confusion overcoming fear. “Er, what?”

“Wip needs aftos or else he won’t go into the dungeon,” Stella explained.

“I use lots of them,” Wip said, grinning.

“He can fight without them, by the way,” Luci said.

Stella gritted her teeth. “Yes, and he’s being stubborn. Which is why…” She stabbed Ortho’s chest with a finger. “You! You’re going to help him so we can get you idiots into the dungeon by the evening.”

Ortho stared incredulously at her. “Then go buy one.”

Stella’s finger pointed down again. He traced the finger down and saw a warped lump of metal lying next to his leg. Sorting through the cacophony of putrid scents in the dumpster, he managed to pin this one as a mixture of cold light and thin fire—that description made no sense, but that’s exactly how his mind processed aftos. Usually, he could use those scents to get vague idea of what an afto did, though most of that was guesswork based on experience. This afto was extra confusing, a tell-tale sign that it was warped beyond use.

His jaw dropped, which he immediately regretted because he choked on a mouthful of garbage stink. Sputtering the smell away, he howled, “You can’t be serious! You’re going to use warped aftos? That’s a one-way trip to curse-ville, brother.”

Luci groaned. “Mr. Wip doesn’t do things… normally.”

Ortho stared at Luci, then at Wip, then at Stella. Unable to take it anymore, he started laughing. “Okay, no. I’ve seen some strange stuff in my life. Believe me, I lived in a land that was nothing but strange. But you guys? I’d rather have singing lessons with a karahia than deal with you grupps.”

Wip raised a hand, which brushed against the lid of the dumpster. “Can I punch a karahia?”

“No, you—it’s armoured. It’s literally the last thing you should punch. It’s literally used to make armour for our warriors, second only to fuchite…” Ortho took a deep breath. “No, screw this.”

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

Putting everything he had into his wadis, Ortho pushed against the threads binding him. They creaked. He gritted his teeth and flowed more enma into his wadis, as much as he could manage. With a great twang the threads snapped.

Luci’s eyes bulged. The light on her finger winked out. The crate she was standing on collapsed under her weight. She landed in a pile of trash with a yelp.

Ortho exploded up, sending the lid of the dumpster slamming against the building wall behind it. He puffed out his chest and fixed Wip with a challenging stare. “I am Ortho, a proud warrior of Nubah Kilebhi. I will not lower myself to this”—he gestured around him—“filth! Literally. I’m out. The debt is your problem now and so is the Cartel.”

He made to leap out when Stella barked, “Wip, grab him!”

Like nuedul rising from the earth to swallow its prey, Wip rose out of the trash. Stella was tossed off his legs and landed onto Luci, who squeaked under her weight.

Wip lunged at Ortho with his arms spread wide, preparing for a grapple. Electricity coursed along his arms. Ortho rushed enma into his wadis and, with his stomach pressed against the edge of the dumpster, prepared to fight.

He thrust back with a strength-enhanced elbow. It connected and sent Wip tumbling to the back of the dumpster, rocking the whole thing. Stella, half-way up into a kneel, fell over again from the shaking. She screamed a string of curses as her face hit trash.

Ortho only got one leg out before a hand closed around his ankle. He tried to kick with the other, but red electricity coursed along his body. His eyes rolled into the back of his head and he slumped over the side of the dumpster. He was then slowly dragged back into the dumpster, groaning, before the lid slammed shut again.

Once everything settled and Ortho was propped up against Wip’s shoulder, Luci created another light. Wip and Ortho were now pressed against one side, Luci was lying flat along one wall of the dumpster and whimpering about having to smell rotten cat food. Her hand wasn’t raised very high and shadows were cast all along the dumpster. Stella sat cross-legged in the dead middle. An orange peel was stuck to her face. She tore it off and hurled it at Wip, who shifted slightly to one side to avoid the hit. His body limp, Ortho slumped into the empty space and the orange peel splatted against his face instead. He would have puked if could.

Wip poked Ortho in the temple. Ortho wasn’t able to slap him back, but he did manage to slur a curse. Even to his own ears it made no sense.

“Stella, this is the afto guy, right?”

“Oh, for now he’s not,” Stella gloated, “because I have his gear at home.”

Wip hummed in thought. “Are you sure he’s strong? Even Luci can beat him in a fight.”

“I can’t raise my arm any higher than this,” Luci mumbled into a trash bag.

“Unfortunately, he is,” Stella admitted. “Plenty of freelance, or non-guild affiliated, parties have tried to hire him, only to fire him after a few days. Almost every guild in Anypaxia has scouted him at some point, and a lot freelance fences have had the displeasure of contracting with him.”

“What happened?” Luci mumbled. “Did he not like the money?”

“Oh, it had nothing to do with the money,” Stella said. “It’s because his attitude sucks. He can’t work on a team. Every time he’s told what to do, he gives them his sappy warrior speech like the one just now. From there, it all devolves into a slugfest.” She pulled a flask out of her pocket, took a swig, then screwed the lid back on. “I learned that the hard way, back when I first started out.”

“Well, I’m sure we’ll be okay with Mr. Wip here,” Luci said. “He sure loves a fight.”

“I sure do,” Wip beamed. He set Ortho’s shoulder against the dumpster wall again.

Stella stuffed her flask back into her pocket. “Shouldn’t be too difficult to win. As long as he doesn’t have his gear, he’s basically a pushover. Sure, that goes for most dungeoneers these days. Melding is all but inferior to aftos so nobody bothers with it, but most dungeoneers will still have a trick or two up their sleeves. Ortho’s enma, however, is notoriously trash.”

Ortho finally stirred out of his stunned state. “Your face is trash!” he screamed, before lunging at Wip again.

This time he didn’t make it far, as Wip put a hand between them. He caught Ortho’s head as he charged in and zapped him with more red electricity. Ortho fell to the side of the dumpster, into a pile of moist trash.

Stella balled her fists. “And if you keep talking, your face is going to be in trash. Oh, it already is. Hah!”

“Please don’t fight anymore, guys,” Luci said.

Now that he was getting used to the effect, Ortho only took a few seconds to burst out of the trash and throw the lid off the dumpster. He took a deep breath of fresh air before thrusting a challenging finger at Wip. “Once I get my gear back, you and I are going to fight.”

Wip impersonated a salute. “Okay!”

“Hang on,” Stella said. She held a hand up at each of them. “Nobody is doing anything until Wip gets some aftos for this next crawl.” She turned to Ortho. “When I hear from him next, he better have only good things to say about you.”

Ortho scowled at her. “Oh, he will, because he’s going to be too scared to say otherwise!”

He tucked his hands behind his back, so that they wouldn’t see how much they were trembling.