Rya, Nieren, and Dalia were walking through the street of Ironside with Nieren leading the way. The occasional ironside soldier would wave to them as they walk through the streets.
"Oh! You see that guy there? He's been cheating on his wife with that woman back there," Nieren said as he pointed at the man standing outside of a bar.
"What!? How can you tell?" Dalia asked.
"Because I heard them when I would sneak out from my mom's place. But yeah, he almost got caught, like five times in the past month. His wife has been getting suspicious lately so she started going through his stuff." Nieren explained.
"Really? Why doesn't she just mark him and claw the other woman's face?" Dalia asked in suspense.
"Hold on! Nieren, I like hearing drama on occasion but why are you telling us? Did you tell your adventure friends about all this gossip?" Rya asked.
"No, they were mostly men in the Adventure Guild. And I never had any girlfriends in my life. I-I never even told anyone except for the woman who lived next door to me. We would talk while we did our chores and such." Nieren said nervously.
'Aw! She didn't have any friends besides a neighbor?' Rya thought to herself. 'She must be lonely...'
Nieren turned to look at Rya and smiled softly before continuing their walk.
'So she wants to be our friend. Sure, why not.' Rya decided as she looked to Dalia and gave her a look to follow her lead.
Dalia was surprised at first but caught her drift and pointed at Nieren to confirm what Rya was thinking.
Rya smiled and nodded. So the two of them sneak up on Nieren.
"So back to the story. So the guy's wife—WHOA! Hey!?" Nieren yelled as the girls jumped her and hugged her around the middle.
"Hehehe, welcome to the club Woody!" Laughed Dalia as she hug Nieren's torso.
"I'm glad want to be friends with us, Nieren!" Rya said with a smile as she hugged Nieren's shoulders.
"Huh!? Guys!?" Nieren asked confused.
"Yup! And it looks like we have another friend, Dalia!" Rya said with a smile as she hugged Nieren's arms.
"Yep! No turning back now! It's official! Welcome to the club, Woody!!" Dalia cheered.
'Ooohhh! I-I always wanted to have girlfriends. I never knew it was this fun!' Nieren thought to herself.
"So! You were saying?" Rya said as she release Nieren from her hugs. Dalia followed suit.
"Yeah, well... so the wife has been trying to find out if her husband is cheating on her. So she hired someone to tail him and see where he goes. The guy she hired was one of those "detective" guys who act shady at first and then try to get information from you or threaten you."
***
Nieren continues the gossip as they made their way to the poorer district of town, where her mother's house is. They all laughed and squealed at the twists and turns of Nieren's story. Like they were teenage girls.
It took about 15 minutes before they made it to Nieren's place.
"Hahaha! Tell us another one, Woody! I can't get enough!" Dalia said excitedly.
"Oh sure! Now let me tell you about— Oh! Oh no!" Nieren started to panic when she saw her mother's house.
"What's wrong?" Rya asked.
"My mom. She'll kill me for not coming home in about a week." Nieren said as she bit her lip.
"Hey, she may be mad and worried. But she will be so relieved to see you," Rya said with a smirk as she put her arm around Nieren's shoulder.
"I-I don't know, Lady Rya. Back when I was one hour late my mother forbid me from going on a Quest for weeks. And I sort of left against her wishes." Nieren said nervously.
"Well, maybe your mom won't care that much since you're a grown woman now," Rya said while looking at Dalia.
"Yeah, when I'm 70 years old, she might, and I mean MIGHT consider me a grown woman. Which is in like, 26 years away! No! Trust me she'll be mad and say I can't be your Lady in waiting anymore!" Nieren said as she looked down at the ground.
"Ah! Well, what if we help? We'll go over tonight and surprise her, right?" Dalia suggested.
"No. We shouldn't put this off. Nieren how did you disobey your mother? Was it bad?" Rya asked as Nieren wanted to cry.
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"When the threat of the monster stampede was thought to be happening my mother told me to quit being a adventurer. I had been working hard on it for 15 years with very little problems and when the little green guys started showing up she said I would be over my head. It's not like I wasn't in sticky situations before. So I was, like what's the big deal? Frankly, I don't know how anyone fails prey to them?" Nieren said.
"Um? I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Alpha. I was dead by the time she found me in the goblin nest." Dalia said.
"Yea, they keep coming after you in waves. They're not hard to kill but it's a endurance test. Especially if you're a woman. Those little shits wanted to gang rape me. I'm glad I was strong enough to stop them. But then I ran out of weapons and had to run." Rya said.
"Huh? T-They are that tough?" Nieren asked as she backed up a bit.
"Yes, and the hobgoblins, they were tougher than most monsters you find these days. You should be happy that you didn't have to fight them!" Dalia said as Nieren looked back up.
Nieren gulped and nodded her head. "Then I'm dead for leaving home. I shouldn't have left without telling her."
"No no no, she'll understand that you were doing something important. Like saving my behind when I got enslaved. You're my hero, Nieren. I'm sure she'd rather you be alive than dead, right?" Rya said as Nieren looked up at with hope.
"Yeah! If it wasn't for Woody. Alpha would be doing gods know what. You did good, and I think your mom will see that." Dalia said as she patted Nieren on the shoulder.
"You two have my back? I'm so glad! I've never had friends like you before. Thank you!" Nieren said as she gave a giant hug to both girls.
"It's not really that big of a deal, but we are your friends now, right?" Rya said as she hugged Nieren.
"Oh yeah! Watch out when my mom sees you. She was one of the grownups in my life that told me that Dark Elves are evil, daily. I'll try to talk her down but she might jump to a biased conclusion. Just be on guard if my mom tries anything." Nieren said.
"Okay. I promise that I won't hurt her if she tries to come at me," Rya said with a smile.
"Okay, time to face the music," Nieren said as she started walking towards the front door.
'Gods! I hope mom doesn't flip out' Nieren thought as she got ready to knock on the door.
***
On the outskirts of Ironside in the poorer part of the neighborhood was a rickety old house. It looked like it was built a thousand years ago as it appeared to be made mostly of wood.
The yard itself was filled with flowers and trees that gave off a soft shade of green. Yet the flower beds were a mess and needed attention. There was a small garden with vegetables growing in it though they looked a little overgrown and underfed.
It was rare to see such a small garden in a city like Ironside but here it was. It all was created by a Wood Elf. Her name was Yuliana. She lived in this house with her daughter Nieren for over 30 years.
She had been born into Wood Elf Royalty, but because of the death of her brother at the hands of the Black Rose Mercenaries. She grabbed the Elder Tree seeds and her daughter and fled.
She wishes she could have brought her over to one of the hidden villages of a Noble Wood Elves that escaped the war. But she feared that they would take out their anger on her daughter, for she was half High Elf which is why she has her father's blonde hair, instead of the wood elf green hair. And the surviving Wood Elves blame her father for abandoning the Wood Elf Kingdom in their time of need.
Her husband ran away with his soldiers before the fighting started, leaving her and her daughter to die. The few times she tried to go after him, she was stopped by his guards.
He claimed that he would send a message to her the High Elf King telling him what happened and then he would make sure they were safe. She knew he never sent the message, so she didn't even bother asking him anymore.
She knew she had no choice but to flee with her 14-year-old elven daughter to the city of Ironside. She heard about how the dwarven city came to be a part of the human kingdom of Fiafyr. And it was a kingdom that didn't condone slavery of any type.
It was a long shot but it was the only city on the continent that would be safe until her daughter comes of age and is considered an adult at the age of 70 years.
It took her and her daughter a month of avoiding slavers and monsters to get to Ironside from the northwest.
Yuliana knew she couldn't tell the Baron's men that she and her daughter were fallen Royalty. She couldn't trust that word wouldn't get out and have assassins come after her and Nieren. So they had to live as commoners and lie about their heritage.
They were given the run-down house as refugees since they were fleeing from war. This house was given to her if she was able to help with agriculture in the town.
Most wood elves were amazing at growing plants but she never did anything in agriculture but she knew this was the only way to get refuge and agreed to do the work.
Yuliana was sloppy at first but was lucky that the Baron didn't mind her sloppiness. As long as she produced rare foods for the city was all Baron Arathar Coldforge cared about.
After a year of working hard, she made friends with some of the other farmers but tried to keep to herself as she feared that they would be discovered at some point.
She also had a goal of growing a new Elder Tree from seeds she got from the palace on top of the old Elder Tree that was destroyed during the war. It was a Wood Elf's greatest defense against all the other races and monsters but before the war broke out their kingdom's tree began to die.
The elves knew it was foul play but no Elf knew how the humans killed the Elder Tree.
Yuliana knew the only way to save her people was to grow another one.
And no matter how much she tried she couldn't get it to grow. And as the years went by her daughter became interested in her bow and sword. Nieren was not good at growing plants like her mother and thought she could help by becoming an adventurer.
Yuliana worried that is had more High Elf blood running through her veins than Wood Elf. And no matter how much she tried Nieren wanted to follow in her own footsteps.
Yuliana gave in a little and let her go out under strict conditions in hopes to stop these urges to become an adventurer as she was still not of age to be alone.
Years went by as she tried to grow the seedlings. But nothing ever came of it. And Nieren grew tired of farming because she wasn't good at growing plants. After all, she wasn't a full-blood Wood Elf and wanted to become an adventurer instead as she learned how to cloak herself with her mana.
And Nieren went out on her own behind her mother's back as an adventurer until she started becoming a household name in the city of Ironside.
Yuliana was displeased that her daughter was putting themselves in danger but knew she needed to try and make a living for both of them but it was hard to make a good living on small amounts of corp yields, even if they were rarer plants and every time Nieren came back with a Quest rewards she was happy to help her mother.
It was at this point Yuliana knew this was what her daughter was. But she still wanted her home every day so she knew Nieren was safe. And this went on for years until the goblin horde showed and things difficult between them.
Nieren had been out adventuring for two years now and was getting really good at adventuring alone. But her mother didn't want her to go out with so many goblins around. So she found a way to sneak off and leave a note for her mother.
That was when Nieren ran into Rya. When Nieren helped the Crown Prince free the Dark Elf which helped defeat the Kings Slayer and Rodulf of the dreaded Black Roses.
Yuliana didn't know that the Black Roses were gone as word hadn't reached the poorer part of the neighborhood yet and she was worried sick about her daughter. She knew all she could do at the moment was wait and try to get these damn Elder Tree seeds to grow.
***