Ever since Octalia’s founding, back when this realm was still young, Sun’s Haven has remained one of its most prestigious seats of learning. Only Vanaruth’s Schools of Arts and the League of Adventurers are said to be its rivals. Rivals in the friendliest sense of the word and, coincidentally, for this past century, all three schools have shared the same line of train stations.

A fact which meant that, with each school’s graduation ceremony being staggered this year and Sun’s Haven being earliest, it was to three times the usual commotion we reached Sun’s Plaza.

No respectable Arts student would miss an opportunity for daytime drinking, and no aspiring adventurer could back down from a challenge. Today, there were bound to be a lot of both. For me and those staying here alike.

My name is Minnie Dulaine, and I do not fall to peer pressure. Not even when it comes from my best friend.

🙢

“Do I have to remind you that I’ll be meeting my future boss later today?” I asked as Victoria shoved a stickman mug, filled with a sparkling and golden liquid, into my hands.

“All the more reason to drink now, while you still can,” she grinned, weaving between stalls that served hotcakes and salted pretzels within the crowded space.

Throughout the plaza, there were bards playing music, lively shows taking plays, and sizzling cantrips and glowing lights flying through the air. Laughter, chatter, and drunk greetings were ever present even though we were hours away from noon, and most stalls were still in the progress of being set up. One drunk kid even got yelled out for trying to buy a raw meat skewer that hadn’t even gone onto the grill yet.

As we passed by, the kid was still mumbling something about having orc blood, and that it was fine because he was hungry. The sight wasn’t even that rare of an occurrence.

The graduation weeks around here were more akin to festivals than anything else, with safety precautions being stretched just a little bit further each year. It was only a matter of time before some incident, too big to ignore, took place, resetting the doomsday counter towards absolute chaos.

For now, however, the juggling acrobats riding donkeys, all the while balancing drunk students on their shoulders, remained. We were still in the middle of an arms race where each new student council did not only try to outdo their seniors from years past, but also our two rival schools.

It was both a blessing and a curse to be the first school to graduate, but with few others beside me hauling around luggage that sunny morning, it wasn’t too hard getting around.

The briefcase remained safely tucked under my arm, and my other two bags casually bobbed along behind Victoria’s head. She didn’t even need to pay attention to keep them floating there in the air, even as several passersby from off-campus stopped to stare at the spectacle in awe.

Even if our peers were more used to the sight, sparkling cantrips was the best most of them could muster. Still, Victoria would take every opportunity she got to pause and applaud and cheer for each colorful display we passed by.

Each time it happened, I was sort of glad I didn’t possess any mana. I would have been embarrassed to death if Victoria ever praised me for tossing a few sparks into the air.

Which was my own prerogative, I realized. Most people shone up whenever Victoria paid them attention, genuinely seeming to enjoy her whistling and cheering as their creative apparitions raced through the air. Yeah, I’m terrible at receiving compliments, but I’m working at it, and Victoria genuinely enjoys all things magical.

Yeah, don’t be a downer, Minnie, I reminded myself once more. Let’s enjoy this while we still can.

I looked down at the mug in my hands, filled with Willow’s Sparkling Honeysuckle Wine. My favorite.

With a sigh, I downed it in a single sweep.

“There,” I said, able to feel the heat spread through my belly as a grinning Victoria turned my way. “Happy?”

“No, of course not,” she said, laughing. “My best friend is leaving. But it helps.”

“It’s not a far-off dimension I’m going to,” I said as she hooked her arm around mine, pulling me on a slight detour to watch the horses someone had brought as mascot for their floating-horseshoe-tossing stall. “Tarbow is technically still part of Octalia.”

“But there are no portals going there,” Victoria pouted, if only briefly. It was hard for her to keep up the sad act for long with her fingers now buried in one of the chestnut mares’ manes. It was a calm creature, caring more for the candied apples another girl was feeding it than anything else.

Only after having ensured that I had given the mare a few good scratches as well, for good luck, did Victoria continue leading me through the crowd, chatting about how she wanted to get a couple of horses one day if she ever moved away from the city.

She would take me to the station. Eventually.

“This is how people drift apart, though,” Victoria eventually said with a sigh. “It’s half a day’s travel by train to reach Tarbow, which might as well be an eternity. I’ll be forced to eat breakfast alone from now on, you know. How sad is that?”

“I’m the one who will be eating breakfast alone.” I laughed. It was hard not to with how swiftly Victoria went from her despairing maiden act, to munching on chocolates or cheerily greeting familiar faces. “You have at least another hundred friends who have been waiting for the opportunity to eat with you.”

It was with great offense Victoria turned towards me, still licking sweet chocolate from her lips. Had I been a man, I would most likely have fallen for her then and there. Even as a woman, I almost did.

“Aren’t you at least a little bit sad we’ll be this far away?” she huffed, giving me an accusatory look.

“Of course I am, but I’m also being realistic about it,” I said, taking the opportunity to hook my arm around hers and take the lead. “Depending on how our work schedules shake out, we’ll be able to see each other every other weekend or so. At worst, once every month, and more frequently during holidays.”

“But that’s almost the same thing as never, though,” Victoria complained. “You might forget me in that time. Or find someone more fun to hang out with. If you were to help me at the inscription shop, though…”

I rolled my eyes as her voice meaningfully trailed off.

“The more times you bring it up, the less likely I am to consider it,” I said, having already exchanged a few coins for more sparkling wine in passing by. “Here, take this and stop complaining.”

I had barely pushed the mug into her hands as Victoria emptied it in a single motion, switched it for a full one, and shoved that one into my hands. She had predicted my move and prepared the perfect counter, even as she ended up swaying a bit on her feet. “We are still going one for one, right?” she burped. Which, annoying enough, only came off cute coming from her. Almost as annoying as the smug smile she now wore.

“You’re not cheating, are you?” I asked as I looked down at the overflowing mug I had been handed. “No detoxification spells, right?”

I was more of a sipper than a chugger, and I was still processing the last drink I had drank too quickly. My cheeks were already starting to get a bit flushed, and everything was feeling a bit too dandy. This is a really bad idea, depending on who my boss is…

“You think I need a spell to take you on, greenhorn?”

Seeing Victoria’s smug smile grow even wider, I finished the mug without a second thought. “Fine, you’re on, noble lady,” I snorted. “Be warned, though, we commoners only accept defeat in death.”

As long as I reached Tarbow Bay before nightfall, I wouldn’t really need to meet my boss until tomorrow morning. More so, I had sort of accepted that today would be the day me and Victoria built up a buffer for the weeks we would spend apart. The contingency was already written in the note I’d sent to my future employer in Tarbow Bay, even if I would never admit as much to Victoria.

She might actually end up killing us both if I did.

“Then death it is!” she now cheered as she tugged at my arm, changing our trajectory for a busy tavern that was full of clinking glasses and loud song. I would have been worried, if not for the fact that Victoria would be holding her valedictorian speech in a few hours.

I was in good company. Or so I prayed.

🙢

With the sun having passed its highest peak, the streets were only getting busier as we, at last, staggered our way into Sun’s Station. We were both giggling, munching on a hot dog each, and I had a bag of salted pretzels pinched under my briefcase.

Although I still found the gift stressfully expensive and hadn’t let it out of my sight even once, a few drinks had sort of made me accept that it made for a good snack support.

“And you are not going to use a detoxification spell on yourself before giving the speech?” I slurred, watching Victoria fumble as she counted out the coins for my ticket in amusement. She had insisted on it as I paid for our hot dogs and, apparently, the pretzels didn’t count because she got them for free.

“What?” she asked, having just shoved a few too many coins inside the machine. It caused an extra ticket to pop up, which she now placed into the donation tray as if a stroke of generosity was her plan all along.

It was a tradition among students who have just passed a particularly hard test to leave something in there, donating random trips to the brave hearted.

“I’m perfectly sober, I’ll have you know,” Victoria continued as she, with the grace of a wooden doll trying to act like a functioning human, started making her way towards the platform. In trying not to stumble, she made herself seem even drunker than she was.

Laughing, I followed after her.

“Just admit your loss, and I’ll let you,” I teased, my words a bit muffled from the last of the hot dog I’d just shoved into my mouth.

“Let me?” Victoria huffed, barely catching herself as she spun around upon the stairs leading up to the trains. “You mean to say that you don’t have any sneaky concoctions tucked away in your pockets, which you will use the moment you are out of my sight.” Swaying a bit on her feet, she looked me over with highly suspicious eyes. It wasn’t completely unwarranted.

As always, I did have some sneaky concoctions in my pockets, but I wasn’t planning to use them. Before I could say as much, however, another voice had called over.

“Victoria? Shouldn’t you be at Campus Park right now, preparing your speech?”

Discounting the fact that most people were arriving by Sun’s Station that early noon, not leaving, making the platform relatively empty with no trains arriving for minutes yet, the owner of that voice wouldn’t have been hard to pick out in a crowd twenty times this size.

It was one both me and Victoria recognized all too well.

Cassandra Romanocci was in equal parts Victoria’s number one admirer and self-proclaimed rival, and now, she stood there atop the stairs, looking down at us with an all but pleased expression.

She was, to put it lightly, one of a few vocal opponents that didn’t appreciate the festival sides of these graduations. “It’s a sacred ceremony to initiate our adult lives…” and what’s not. She proudly hadn’t tasted a drop of alcohol in her entire life, and the stick up her butt had always been quite the sizeable one.

“Cassandra!” Victoria still cheerfully greeted her peer, spreading her arms wide as if to pull the other woman into a hug. She probably would have, if not for the flight of stairs separating them.

It had happened too many times before for me to count, and not once had the Miss Romanocci failed to turn beet red, from head to toes, as she was pulled into one of Victoria’s overly friendly embraces. It was always an amusing sight to see, and an effective way of disarming Miss Romanocci.

Now, however, with distance and a stack of ledgers tucked into her arms to protect her from the attack, Victoria was left to switch to her second most lethal weapon: deflecting things onto me, “I was actually just about to head there in a couple of minutes,” she said in that same cheerful tone. “I’m just seeing Minnie here off with the next train.”

“And you are going to hold your speech like that?” Cassandra frowned, looking Victoria over with displeasure.

To Miss Romanocci, her rival was supposed to be a paragon of perfection, and whenever she wasn’t, it made her visibly distressed. Now, each swaying motion Victoria made upon the stairs in her intoxicated state seemed to throw Cassandra off balance as much as anyone.

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“I don’t know, am I?” Victoria giggled, turning around to look down at me with glittering eyes. She seemed highly amused by the prospect, but she was also too responsible to do it without me ‘forcing her’ to. If only barely.

Now, she had forced me to sober up substantially. It was the sole magical ability I seemingly possessed: my talent for never being drunk enough to fully shut off my brain.

Yeah, thanks for this one, Vicky, I thought as Cassandra’s tightened expression turned my way.

If Miss Romanocci’s rival was meant to be a paragon of perfection, her rival’s friends were supposed to reflect the fact as well. In short, they were not supposed to be me.

“Minerva,” Cassandra now spoke, pronouncing my full name as if she’d just taken a bite from a very sour lemon. I winced as well.

There was a reason I didn’t use my full name except for signing papers. It made me sound both older and stricter than I wished to be.

“Cassandra,” I tiredly responded, doing my best to match the woman’s tone as I took another few steps up the stairs, hooking my arm around Victoria’s to lead my giggling friend all the way up onto the platform.

“Even if you can afford to get drunk in the middle of the day,” Cassandra continued, despite my attempt to keep my eyes elsewhere, “I would have hoped that you at least had the decency not to pull Victoria down to your level. She is this year’s valedictorian. People look up to her.”

Internally, I rolled my eyes. ‘And I think you will find that Victoria is very much capable of making her own decisions,’ I wished to say, but kept myself.

Instead, to a tingle I swear was the Honey Wine and now years of pent-up annoyances, I got out a wide smile. Having just reached the top of the stairs, I let go of Victoria’s arm, only to step forward and clench Cassandra’s hands in my own.

“You know what, I’m actually really glad that I got to see you before I left, Cassandra,” I said, meeting her eyes with my deepest sincerity. “I have always been too shy to tell you, but all the attention that you’ve given me over the years has really helped me a lot, you know?

“Without you and your friends, always sneering about my crude manner, I would still have been embarrassing myself like I did as a young teenager, having never learned noble decorum. Without you and your friends, always pointing out reality for what it is, I might still have been disillusioned about what it means to be manaless, never finding my own way in life.

“Without you, always nitpicking every silly mistake I made during classes or exams, I would never have been able to remain focused to achieve the grades I did.” I squeezed her fingers tighter. “Really, thank you, Cassandra, for always motivating me like a great friend. Without you, I would never have been able to find work as head financial adviser of such a great company straight after graduation. Really, thank you so, so much.”

As I pulled Cassandra into a hug of my own, I could feel how the woman had turned stiff as a plank. She wasn’t blushing deeply as I let her go from my embrace, she just stared at me with a ghastly, startled expression.

“But now I really need to run,” I continued, keeping up my smile. “My train will be arriving soon, and I really don’t have any time to spare. Fun as graduation ceremonies can be, as a working woman, employed by one of our city’s greatest companies, I really am busy. I’m sure you would underst—”

I put a hand to my lips, gasping at my own slip of tongue. “Oh, gosh, I’m so sorry, Cassandra. You are still looking for employment, aren’t you?” I let pity seep into my expression. “It’s all right, I’m sure you’ll find something even better soon enough. Talent speaks for itself, right?” I stepped away to hook my arm around Victoria’s once more. “But if you excuse us, we don’t have time for chatting right now, even if you do.”

Before Cassandra could ever find the breath to respond, I was already pulling Victoria along with me, away from the speechless woman.

🙢

By the time we found a secluded booth to wait for my train, Victoria was howling with laughter.

“You know that will bother her for years, Minnie,” she got out between wheezing breaths, wiping the tears from her eyes. “And here I thought I was the bad one for forcing physical contact on Miss Romanocci all these years.”

“I think she actually enjoys those hugs that you keep giving her,” I quietly said, finding some solace in the last of our pretzels. I had ended up saying too much, and now, I was as embarrassed as I was regretful.

I can’t even blame it on the wine, can I?

Where spiteful words might feel good in the moment, they don’t achieve a whole lot in the long run. There was a reason I preferred living a humble life.

Now, if things didn’t work out with my new job, it would be impossible for me to ever show my face in front of my old classmates again.

The rumor was bound to spread as Cassandra frantically got to the bottom of this – what work I had found, what this company was, and why I had gotten it and not her.

G&G Incorporated, let’s hope you are the golden goose I have been looking for…

“Then you really are worse than I am,” Victoria giggled, breaking off the other half of the pretzel I held out towards her. As several seconds passed without me responding, she continued in a more sober tone, “Guess you are committed to making this work now, huh? ‘Great company’ and what’s not.”

“Guess I am.” I sighed as the first rattle of the rail tracks warned of my approaching train. Much as I wanted things to work out, however, there was only so much I could do. Truth be told, I didn’t know anything about this company I was heading to except that my professor had recommended me for the position. It would be foolish and naive to expect too much.

No, Minnie, stop living your life so half-heartedly! Even if it’s not that great, you will make it work out!

Mustering a smile as a bronze-clad locomotive, billowing a vibrant purple haze, appeared in the distance, I turned towards Victoria. “Sober up before you go give your speech, alright? It won’t be as funny if you slur your way through it if I’m not there to see it.”

“You are just looking for an excuse to take one of your tinctures, aren’t you?” Victoria asked, looking me over with palpable suspicion.

It really seemed that she had hoped to deliver her speech drunk, just to spice things up a bit. Now, I had robbed her of that opportunity.

“I think I’ll enjoy this liquid uncaring for a bit longer, actually.” I shrugged. “At least until any hangover starts to kick in, then I’ll spare myself the suffering. Now, hand me my luggage and go be a responsible adult, you wicked witch.”

“My hex upon you,” Victoria huffed as she, with a lazy flick of her wrist, let my luggage slide down upon the platform next to me. For the past few minutes, it had been bobbing along to a bard song that had long since disappeared out of earshot. “Just wait until you get to Tarbow Bay and meet a real witch. Then you’ll realize just how kind and pretty I am. Warts: zero. People turned to toads: none. Hooked nose: not even close.”

“Are you sure about the nose thing? Lately, I’ve been—” Victoria silenced me with a punch to my shoulder, only to then pull me into a hug.

My train had just arrived at the platform, and the scarce few passengers awaiting it besides me were already boarding. “Just be careful, Minnie,” she said in a sober tone, squeezing me tight. “If things start looking weird, just come back right away. My offer is still on the table, and damned be what anyone else might think, alright?”

“Yeah, yeah, mom,” I said. “I’ll even remember to eat all my meals, write as I promised, and, hopefully, come visit before the month is over.”

“Ass,” Victoria quietly huffed into my ear.

“Bitch,” I retorted, only for both of us to laugh as she let me go from her embrace.

She did still look worried, though, as I picked up my luggage.

“You won’t even notice I’m gone before the next time we meet,” I said with a smile, backtracking towards the train. “So, go ace that speech, tiger.”

“And you go take Tarbow Bay with storm,” she responded with a faint smile of her own.

“Of course,” I said, my next few words yelled to be heard over the train whistle that signaled its imminent departure. “Next time we meet, I’ll be the richest woman this city has ever seen!”

🙢

Even if they ran on a tight schedule, most of Octalia’s trains were separated into two levels, with the above one generally being reserved for longer journeys. The seats were more cushiony and private, with occasional attendants passing by to tend to your needs.

Although my trip to Tarbow Bay certainly classified as a ‘longer journey’, I had refused to let Victoria pay more for the ticket when these seats would get me there just as well.

Down here, on the first level, the seats ran along the walls, facing towards one another across the aisle for ease of boarding and getting off. Usually, they were used by people commuting within the city, but I had still found a relatively quiet spot to sit down, briefcase in my lap and luggage between my feet as we rattled our way through the city.

Except for my yearly trips home to visit my family, this was the first time I ever travelled this far. It was with a strange feeling in my stomach I watched those familiar stations pass by, so many people stepping off even as I remained behind.

Ever since we left the university areas behind, with the clock only being some hour after noon, barely anyone was occupying the seats around me.

There was a young couple with their giggling toddler, a scholarly looking man who read one of those fancy newspapers with moving images, and a passed-out grandma, laying on her back and openly snoring away a few seats down from me.

The sawmill like sound pulled more than a few annoyed glances from the man with the newspaper, but I had already pulled out my radio crystals.

Where most people would just have tuned their own mana to the crystal’s magic and be done with it, me being me, well, I had to strap a few extra crystals around my neck to make up for my handicap.

It had earned me a few strange looks in the past, but now, I barely noticed it as the young couple curiously glanced my way. There was nothing wrong with those pretty crystals Victoria had hand-carved me a few summers back, and now, my auditory senses were occupied by the radio announcer’s voice, “…And for our next news, the Dragon of Ismothel will no longer be hunting the local sheep herds in exchange for being invited to East Willow’s yearly harvest festivals. As a citizen of the nation, it was very dehumanizing not to be invited, he claimed in a recent interview. Now, he’ll be given an entire cake of his own to make up for past transgressions, and to ensure friendly relations in the future.

“Further south, King George still struggles getting his royal sword out of the stone of holding after forgetting its password, leaving general contractors to be summoned from across the land. Many speculations have been made that his successor won’t be able to be crowned until the sword is finally removed. So, maybe you, dear listener, will have a chance to become the next king of Singland, as long as you have a keen interest in geology.

“In more recent news, there have been several reports of rambunctious revelry taking place across our beautiful city of Octalia, leaving several sources to claim there are goblins on the loose. But now, it is time for some music…”

Goblins on the loose, I thought as a vicious fiddle started playing in my ears, accompanied by a heavy troll-chant that was strangle rhythmic. Inside of the city?

I couldn’t help but smile at the notion.

With all the resident adventurers, strict guards, and magical detection systems, it was impossible for any non-benign races or bad actors to gain access to Octalia. It had been for centuries, leaving the city to prosper in ways it never had before.

It's most likely some children that are up to some no-good pranks, I thought as I let my eyes drift shut. Goblins, huh? Wouldn’t that be—

I blinked my eyes open in the middle of David and the Howling Gnolls’ famous flute solo, a recent hit single that had been taking the city by storm.

I wasn’t sure why, but something had set off an uneasy feeling in my stomach. Looking around, however, the couple was still there, talking to their toddler with exaggerated motions and laughter, the scholarly man was still reading his newspaper, looking relieved, and…

Ah, that grandma was no longer passed out sleeping. Instead, she sat straight up in her seat, feet swinging over the edge, and staring right at me with nerve-wracking intensity.

Not that she seemed threatening, exactly. She was shorter than I’d realized, probably not reaching above my waist even if we stood next to each other. She had a hooked nose and floppy ears but…She was human, wasn’t she?

I rubbed my eyes, shook my head, and looked again. Yeah, just an innocent grandma that’s staring at me with her large, inhuman eyes… I must have drunk too much, I concluded as I disconnected my radio crystals from my neck.

She was still looking at me, feet swinging back and forth.

“Can I help you?” I asked the old lady, only for a gnarled finger to immediately shoot out towards me. Or rather, down towards the seat just next to mine.

Following it, I could feel my heart sink.

Ah, shoot…

It was the stickman mug that I’d been drinking from earlier, currently sat next to my bag of finished pretzels. I had forgotten to put it down before I boarded the train, and now, the little guy that was meant to run back on his own was in the middle of his greatest adventure yet.

He swung his wooden legs over the edge of the seat, just like the grandma a few seats down.

“Oh, I-I must’ve forgotten to return it,” I stuttered, feeling a blush spread up my cheeks. It really was embarrassing. Now, I either looked like some dumb drunk, or a petty thief, and I wasn’t sure which was worse.

Before I could decide, however, the grandma had jutted her finger towards the stickman mug once more. “Grabbo?”

“What?” I asked, too caught up in my own embarrassment to catch the meaning of those words. Rather than repeat herself, however, the grandma just slid down from her seat, skittered across the aisle, and snatched up the stick-man mug without another word.

With glittering eyes, the old lady shoved the enchanted mug into a knapsack I hadn’t even noticed — quite the stuffed and oddly-shaped one — before eagerly returning to her seat.

The scholarly man sent us both a look of disapproval from the disturbance, but I wasn’t sure what to think.

Is she going to return it or…?

Considering the grandma’s next handful of actions, I doubted it.

Scooted all the way back in her seat, the old lady’s dirty soles — she was barefoot all this time? — now barely reached over the edge where she sat. Her legs were spread wide, like a small child playing with her toys on the floor, as she eagerly began fishing out one odd trinket after the next from her knapsack.

Tissues, silverware, odd socks, and colorful fabric appeared on the seat before her. Things that no one could be petty enough to steal, yet looking like great treasures with how the grandma’s fingers reverently handled them.

For several minutes, she kept at it, all the while I kept deliberating how to handle the situation. On one hand, most of those items should probably be returned to their owners, on the other, she was just an innocent looking grandma…wasn’t she?

Once more, I rubbed my eyes as the old lady’s grin had seemed a bit too sharp toothed, but before I could shake off the lingering intoxication, a bell-like ping sounded throughout the wagon, announcing that the next station was approaching.

The noise caused the old lady’s eyes to shoot up, only to go wide like saucers a second later. “Grabbo, grabbo?”

Following the grandma’s gaze through the windows behind me, I could see Octalia’s Golden Bell Tower rise over the shimmering city, illuminating the rooftops in a brilliant sheen. It really looked like a sea of gold was spreading out before us, but that was just a cheap illusion to—

The train had barely stopped as the grandma shot out of her seat, eagerly cackling, “Grabbo, grabbo!” as she ran towards a pair of doors that had barely slid open, leaving a single dirty sock behind.

What on earth just happened?

My name is Minnie Dulaine, and I think I just witnessed something really strange.

🙢

Preview of next chapter:

It was a sunny spring day, until it wasn’t.

As a citizen of Octalia, you tended to get used to the transfer between realms. I hadn’t. Although my hometown was quite far away from the bustling metropolis of the Mid Point, its climate wasn’t that different from that of the main city. The scents might be a bit more muted back home, and the wind might blow in a different direction, but nothing that couldn’t be brushed off as a long train journey.

And for the duration of my stay at Sun’s Haven? Well, a lack of funds and a need to maintain my grades for my scholarships had meant that, despite Victoria’s constant suggestions, for a full decade, I had never really left campus grounds. The few times I did, it was only a few stations away at most, where the streets were still familiar, and the people looked mostly the same.

Now, however, as our train cut through one of those shimmering barriers that were so common across the hodgepodge that was the Mid Point, sunny skies turned to rain and thunder at the blink of an eye.

I was no longer in Octalia proper. The train had brought me across realms, and now, a weathered Tarbow Bay stretched out before me – the shimmering fumes of alchemical shops, industrial smoke, and shipyards as far as the eyes could see.

A gray and gloomy place where my dreams of fortune were set to begin.

🙢

“Miss Dulaine?”

I had barely found shelter under a rusted tin roof – the platform’s only real construction – as a voice called out to me. I was fairly certain that I’d warned my future employer that I might arrive in Tarbow Bay a bit late, and that I would seek them out tomorrow morning at the factory.

Now, however, I was greeted by a gaunt old man, looking like he’d been standing there upon the platform for hours. He would barely have reached up to my chest on a good day, and from underneath a rain-soaked derby hat, I saw floppy ears and a hooked nose.

No, no…He was just an old man, human, if a bit on the shorter side. The words of that radio announcer just got to me.

My name is Minnie Dulaine, and I think that I should really stop drinking.