The next day, Zenya began zipping around the garden and brought back every bug and every animal that she found in the garden and deposited them on the farmer’s porch for inspection. The man was amazed to see the ant was capable of taking down animals dozens if not hundreds of times her size and equally as capable of carrying them anywhere she so pleased.
By this point, Zenya was fast enough that no mere animal could even see her coming and her spear work was lightning quick. The only animal that gave her any problems was actually on the smaller side. It was a short furry animal with tan and gray fur on its body and black and white markings on its elongated triangular head.
The creature wasn’t particularly fast but had good reflexes. The problem was that it was very strong for its size and was ferocious. It had a wicked bite and long claws that seemed to be mostly for digging but that didn’t stop it from using them to swipe with.
It put up quite a fight but ultimately it didn’t stand a chance against her. Upon seeing the creature, the farmer seemed quite pleased as well. The farmers called the things furry devils and generally gave up on whatever crops one of the animals had its stomach set on eating.
The three of them had gone to the local blacksmith at some point and each had gotten a weapon sized specifically for them. With Zenya wielding an iron spear, even one the size of a large sewing needle, she was a force to be reckoned with.
The farmer agreed to letting the kids split up the chore of watching his garden.
The next few months were spent much the same way. Aiko would spend the early part of the morning cleaning the inn then they would go to breakfast and then head off into the fields. The routine got pretty easy, with one of them staying behind to watch the garden while the other two went out into the woods to hunt.
During this time the three of them got to know their capabilities much better. Aiko was already fairly well acquainted with her magic but Zenya started to figure out that she could use unbelievable techniques to hunt things that were much larger than her. It became apparent fairly quick that she got some sort of Extra skill or power when hunting things that were larger than her.
Likewise, Brass began to discover that he was the stealthiest and sneakiest of the trio and when he set his mind on it could sneak up on almost any prey in the forest edging the farm.
With the final Harvest being brought in and the snow soon to start, the farmer let them know that he wouldn’t be able to keep them employed through the winter. This didn’t really upset them all that much because they had a sizable stock of funds set aside for anything that they would need.
Aiko was still working in the inn every morning which saw to their housing. The only thing that really troubled them when the farmer spoke to them was that they had been eating lunch at his farm but that was a minor detail.
The only other thing wrong with the situation was the realization that they would be bored with nothing to do.
Once the first dusting of snow started to come down the three of them began going out every day and looking for other things that they could do around town. Aiko found that she would be able to do numerous things around town with her magic but that still left the other two with nothing to do. Ideally, the three of them wanted something that they could do together.
The time wasn’t all wasted though because Aiko found that she had more time to talk to the multitudes of people in the town. A lot of times she would spend longer in the inn just waiting on people who ordered food. She got pretty good with the few recipes that were offered from the in.
Brass also began waiting tables to make it easier for each of them to take their time talking to customers. Zenya tried but found the height disparity too great to overcome.
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It was while Aiko was talking to one of the patrons that she finally discovered why everybody was so hostile towards outsiders. Apparently, a few years back there was a huge plague that had killed off almost all of the old and young and left only the particularly fit behind. With so many people dying from an illness, those left behind became increasingly paranoid about new people and many even became hostile.
Aiko finally realized that with the exception of the very young, there was a gap in age seen in every tribe that she had encountered thus far. She also realized that there were no old people in any of the tribes except for the elves. Putting two and two together, Aiko realized that the barrier that kept the elves safe during winter probably saved them from the plague as well. She wanted to tell the people about the barrier that the elves had but something inside her held her back.
About two weeks after the first snow had begun to fall Zenya came home in the evening with exciting news. She was talking to a group of people that day and found something that they would all be able to do but it would require that they left the inn for an extended period of time.
Apparently, the group that she talked to were something called adventurers and went into some sort of dangerous hole in the Ground near the base of the mountain. The group was looking for people to go with them and carry their stuff among other things.
The next day all three of them left very early in the morning so that they could meet up with the adventurers before they left for the day. By all accounts, adventurers got to work very early in the morning. They found out later that it was a habit picked up early in all adventurer’s careers because they wanted to get the first shot at the best-paying or easiest quests from the group that hired them. They also found out the group was called the guild but were told they were too young to join.
Aiko found this bit of information odd because they had been hired earlier in the day by this group to go into some big magic hole called a dungeon by a group of adventurers. She asked about the group and found out that they had just lost a member in the dungeon a little over a week back.
Aiko figured that they must be desperate to replace the missing member if they were willing to hire children. One of the smarter old guys in the guild hall, some kind of wolf or coyote mix, picked up on what she was leaving out and decided to fill them all in.
According to him, the group was looking to use them to bait monsters and spring traps. He advised them to steer clear of the group because they wouldn’t pay the kids what they would have to pay an experienced scout to go into the dungeons. He figured that between the three of them, the group had paid them five silver or less each while they would have to have paid a good scout three gold or more.
The three of them thanked the man and were discussing how to equip themselves to minimize the risks when the guy called over a guild worker. The guy and the grizzled young woman he called over, literally a grizzly bear, began discussing in hushed tones while the kids were still busy.
Before the three of them knew what was happening, the pair picked them all up and started carrying them to the back of the guild building. They struggled but it was futile. Both the man and the woman had iron grips and monstrous strength. There was a chorus of laughter from many of the patrons in the guild hall as they were carried off.
The pair dropped the kids on tables in the back of the guild hall. Aiko had considered using magic to free herself. That was until she heard the laughter and realized they were likely in for a lecture or going to be told they couldn’t accept the job.
To her surprise and that of her friends, the pair just backed up and regarded them critically. The woman spoke first in a low gravelly voice that didn’t sound very feminine.
“I suppose that the lot of you are determined to take the risks and join that group anyway, aren’t you? Well, if you’re going to go anyway, we might as well give you all some guidance. With any luck, you three might just live through a couple runs. My advice though, is you should run away first thing.”
“I think you can tell as well as I can that these kids aren’t going to listen to that. All right you pups, listen up. I can’t teach you about the dungeon because you aren’t old enough to join the guild and go in there. Instead, I’m going to talk to my friend here about what it might be like to go into a dungeon if we were kids and how she thinks we could survive some of those traps and monsters if we were.”
“Don’t you three go running off though. He might ask you what you think and I might get mad at you if you don’t talk to us after we went out of our way to include you in our fun little chat!”
If the advice they were going to receive wasn’t enough, the growled threat the woman gave certainly was. And so, Aiko, Brass, and Zenya sat and listened to Vargas and Brell discuss the dungeon for the next couple of hours. Things got really interesting a few minutes in when the duo began asking what the children could do and got a few demonstrations.
The rest of the day was spent getting supplies for the next day and then going to bed early so they would be ready.