Yaris stood in the doorway. She had changed out of her combat clothes and was now dressed in a soft blue coat and fluffy shoes.

Oh, wait. That wasn't Yaris. It looked like her. This human had the same hair and the same green eyes, but their face was older, lined lightly with age.

"Can I help you kids?"

"The guild told me Yaris is here, I'm-"

The woman sighed, cutting him off, "that girl's been fighting again I swear it. She doesn't come home for any other reason. Are you here to try and take revenge? Because I can tell you now, kid, you ain't got it in you, and she won't take to you bringing a little sibling as a valid handicap."

"What?" Eim seemed momentarily confused, "no, we're a part of her party, down at the guild hall. I'm here to apologise."

"That and to stop her running off into the woods," Jump-touch broke in. She was helping.

Eim glanced down at her for some reason, but the woman simply shook her head, "I swear. Come on in, she's sleeping the sleep of the dead at the moment."

That sounded serious!

They entered the house behind the woman, the door opening directly into what Jump-touch assumed was a living room. Human buildings, she was learning, always had too many rooms.

There was a big stove against one wall, cold, with a frying pan and a kettle on top, but that wasn't what caught her attention.

What caught her attention was the rest of the room. Two armchairs in the style humans favoured bordered the stove, taking up most of the free floor space on that side. The middle of the room was a corridor to the back, and on the other side was a cleared table, a couple of wooden chairs by it.

And then, on every other surface, sitting on shelves built up on the walls, in little standing cupboards, and even on the floor in a couple of places, were figurines.

Hundreds of them.

All of them, she discovered upon closer inspection, were figurines of humans in different poses. One might be two people hugging, another a woman chasing a dog, or a woman holding a child up into the air. The one she was looking at right now featured two people in funny outfits leaning on each other, shoulder to shoulder. On and on they went, making her head swim.

If this had been a kobold room, then the rest of the village would have been dragging the occupant up to the Peak before they'd finished introducing themselves.

Greed! Whispered her mind. If Eim had wanted to know what greed was, then this room should set a good example.

She was crouching down to peer into a dusty cupboard with a glass front, the inside of which was full of humans with hunting hawks standing in various poses, when Yaris entered the room, the woman behind her, arms crossed.

She was initially silent upon seeing Eim, and it took her a moment to see Jump-touch, perched as she was on the floor.

"Oh great," she muttered, running her hand through her hair, "and you brought the kid to make me feel sorry for you."

"It's not like that." Eim took a deep breath, "I didn't feel comfortable leaving her alone at the guild, but... I know the end of the dungeon didn't go so well, but I think overall, it was fine?"

"It was not fine," she snapped, before taking a deep breath of her own. "If you hadn't hit me with whatever you hit me with, I'd have just kept hitting you. I've done it before. And I gave you a black eye up on the ledge. It was not going well."

Eim examined a figure of a child and a goose, picking it and turning it over to inspect the bottom. "It wasn't going that badly. You lead well in battle, despite, you know. And as for the rest of it, even Shrike didn't slow us down that much. I think we have a chance at going somewhere with this, Yaris. Our two groups, the kid, we're a good team."

She huffed, taking the figure off him and putting it back on its shelf with a clack. "Look, I know I've seen you around the guild, when you were working reception and I was with Team Eight, but don't think you know my problems. I know my problems, and even I don't want to deal with me."

"So instead of trying, you're gonna run off into the woods, is that it?"

She stared at him for a long moment, and he winced.

"See?" she said, "this is just gonna keep happening. I'm acidic. Plus you don't want a [Common] class in your-"

"Of course we do," he interjected, stepping back and almost knocking into a cupboard covered in porcelain dogs, "if anyone knows that rarity doesn't matter, it's us. I'm a healer, Yaris. Shrike has gone two levels without a single new skill, and the kid has a great skill, but her class isn't..." he glanced at Jump-touch, "no offence."

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Had she been meant to take offence? Her class wasn't good for combat, she knew this?

"We-" Yaris lowered her voice, "we went on the most simple quest possible, and two out of the five of us had debilitating panic attacks, at least one of which was my fault."

She wasn't shouting, but she was getting louder.

"Get outta here. Find yourselves a better leader, one who doesn't have anger issues. Stone help me, I should have taken that [Berserker] Class, it would have suited me."

Eim blinked, and Yaris shook her head. "Forget it. It doesn't matter."

"Maybe this'll help," Eim spoke carefully, "we know your problems. If you do get mad, I can stop you with my skill. You can just learn to ignore me, and in return I can learn to shut my stupid mouth."

She laughed a quiet laugh. "Let it go, Eim. With a [Pocket Zone] in your party you should have your pick of new members. It won't find you long to find a new [Warrior], somebody with a better rarity than [Common]."

Eim shook his head vehemently, "no, we won't."

She blinked, momentarily put off, "what? Why not?"

"Because if you leave, then Ollie leaves. Then what do we have. A healer with a potentially bad rarity, a non-combatant who needs protecting, and Shrike."

"His damage is good-"

"His damage is great, and I love him very much, but the man can't walk."

Yaris winced. "It doesn't matter, with the zone, unless you want to haul more perishables back. Plus you never know, it might-"

"We can't rely on the zone all the time, not if we want to bring back any loot. As for that, I have a Diagnosis skill, Yaris."

They looked at each other for a moment, before she pursed her lips, "have you told him?"

Eim rolled his eyes. Crouched on the floor, Jump-touch realised her legs were starting to ache, but to stand up now would draw attention to herself.

"Of course I've told him, I'm not an idiot. But he still has hope, you know?"

Yaris sighed, flopping down into one of the armchairs, "and you don't think there is?"

He shook his head. "Not unless we find a miracle."

"Alright. And he's either taken something illegal or he's really gained no boosts from levels two and three. You're right, it's not a good look. At this point you might be better breaking off on your own, taking the kid with you if you can."

"Would you break off on your own, without Ollie?" Eim walked over and leant on the back of the other chair, staring over it at her. On the floor, Jump-touch slowly lowered herself until she was sitting, legs crossed. She had pins and needles in her toes.

Yaris gave him a long, silent look, and he returned it in kind.

Should I say something? This seems awfully heavy.

"No, I guess not," she said finally. "We're still trying to work out what a tailor class can do combat wise, but I think for that we need Shrike. He's brighter than either of us."

"You underestimate Ollie."

She grunted, waving a hand, "maybe I do, but Shrike is something else. Bloke's educated.

A bit lip, "we don't want to stop at level five, Eim. We want to carry on and go as far as we can. We want to reach the bottom of that stupid ravine, at a minimum. We're going until we can't go home, the both of us."

Eim blinked. "Oh, but won't… What about the shop?"

Behind her, the woman was staring at Yaris from the doorway, cups in hand, but Jump-touch couldn't read the expression on her face.

"Fuck the shop," Yaris almost spat, "they haven't done anything to deserve trapping somebody with a class they don't want. It's only because Ollie's a softie at heart that they've managed to get this far, but I'm working on that."

Should I just ask if they're a boy or girl, does it matter at this point? It's the right moment, right? They're talking about Ollie right now.

She rose to her feet; you couldn't ask questions while sitting on the floor like an animal, but- they're talking like normal humans should talk to each other, I should let them.

She walked over and stood next to Eim instead, trying to look assertive. If there was mediating to be done, she would mediate! If there was a chance to ask, then she'd ask.

Ok, yes, she hadn't been very good at it so far, and the last chance there'd been, she'd gone into a full-blown panic attack, but she could learn to not do that surely! That's all 'levelling up' was.

Yaris gave her a look, "what do you think, kid? If come back, there's gonna be more fighting, I'm not… Good at keeping my temper. Notoriously awful at it, in fact."

"At least you acknowledge it," Eim said, looking away. "I've… Known people who can't admit that they have anger issues, and if you try and tell them they do, well, they get angry. It's no fun."

Yaris gave a small shrug, "I get that. Woo, Yaris can admit she has a temper, but admitting I have a problem and then not doing anything about it is just as bad. And what if the only thing I can do about it is to leave? What if holding my breath and trying to keep it inside doesn't help."

"And what'll you do when you've bounced through every party in the guild?"

"Go fight that big river-monster on my own, I suppose," she sighed. Then she waved her hand, "I know, I know. I'll come back to the guild this afternoon and we can discuss it as a team. If Ollie wants to stick it out, and Shrike, then we can try it one more time."

Eim let out a sigh of relief, "that would be great. Shrike and Ollie should be back by then. We left them in the orchard last night."

"Yeah yeah, you're very grateful. But if I'm not going to go live in the woods for a month, then I've got shit I gotta do. Get outta my house, you red-haired savage."

He grinned, waved a hand at Jump-touch to follow, and a short time later they were both outside standing in the road.

"Well that went much better than I expected. I thought I'd be coming out of that with another black eye."

Jump-touch took a moment to find her thoughts, "maybe she spent all her anger, so she doesn't have any left right now? There used to be a person back home like that, one of the uh, protectors. If he didn't go out fighting at least once a week, then his head would get sick and he'd start fighting with everyone. I didn't know him super well."

He wasn't a guardian she'd interacted with much. He had shown up at her birthday party, but it had only been a brief visit. She wasn't even sure of his name.

Eim grunted. "Maybe, maybe. It does work sort of like that for most people, but even I knew to avoid her at school. But it doesn't matter, even if she has a temper, she's a good leader, and she fights well. Even her skills are pretty good for a [Common] class."

He yawned, then shook his head. "Man, I was not made to be awake this early, let's go find that butcher's shop, and then we can go back to bed."