Chapter Nineteen

“Dwarguy? You’re the one she was talking about?” I was expecting some low level mechanic with a past as a miner or something. Now that I think about it, I feel kind of stupid that I was expecting something of that sort. After all, Loysa was obviously an experienced adventurer, a Full Gear, no less. If she was recommending someone, it had to be someone with experience.

“Aye, ah s’pose I am, lass, but I’m not exactly eager to partner back up with this’n.” He jerked his thumb toward Loysa, who far from wearing the mask of anger I expected, hung her head like she’d done something awful.

I knew Loysa cheated at cards, I knew she served a Goddess that would have probably been considered evil in my world. But then again? She’d also been very solicitous of me… in her own way, and she’d looked after me while I was drunk, even ridding me of my hangover so I could function.

I just couldn’t picture her doing something awful. And Sami didn’t seem like the sort to send a newb adventurer off with someone who couldn’t be counted on.

“An Loysa, why’re you so s’prised? She’s a kitsune, rodents of all sorts are gonna be like candy ta her sort.” He chuckled, it was a wholly out of place comment, the sort I remembered people in my old world making when they wanted to change the subject because things were going to become awkward.

Usually because I made them awkward.

Finding out I’d now actually be okay with ratmeat and think it was delicious was… jarring. I felt my face turn faintly green at the concept, ‘This body is going to take some getting used to after all. On the one hand, magic, on the other, rat is delicious. Fuck.’ I thought, what a way to start the day.

But I really didn’t want to blow this quest, so I tried not to get distracted. I did mumble, “I didn’t know it was ratmeat…”

“What did you think a common street vendor would have access to in the middle of a big city?” Loysa asked, “Do your world’s street vendors have cows and pigs for meat?”

“Yes!” I exclaimed. I think Loysa wanted a bit of a distraction too, since she chose to respond as she did, whatever the history between these two, I didn’t think either one of them liked it.

That answer had both of them look at one another instead of me. “Yer folk must be rich beyond words.” Dwarguy answered and let out a low whistle, “I couldn’t afford that kinda thin ina city until I’d become a four tooth, and then it was only once a week.”

I cleared my throat. I really didn’t want my newfound love of ratmeat to become the focus here. “Right well, ah, ratmeat aside, I need help.” I said and explained the quest.

“Aye, ah can see what ye mean lass, you’ll need a dwarf to get materials, since we’re the only ones who can get it out of the rock, but have ye even gone to look at the thing what needs repairin?” He asked and stroked his beard.

I was about to speak, but then he held out his other hand with his palm up and facing me, “No, never mind. Listen, I can recommend someone to ye if ye like. I’ll write a letter. I’ll put me seal on it and get ye a discount. Ye need a miner for the job, not a mech pilot.”

“You can’t do it?” I asked. My shoulders slumped, I couldn’t keep back my disappointment.

“Course ah can!” He snapped and glowered at me with his eyebrows furrowed. “But ah won’t. Ah only got two more limbs and ah’d like to keep em both!”

I looked him up and down again, “What?” I asked.

I saw Loysa out of the corner of my eye, her jaw was clenched and she was staring at the ground.

Dwarguy grumbled, “Fine. I’ll show ye.” He said and then lifted his pant leg, he pressed his palm against the center of his shin, and… it opened.

My mouth dropped open, there were lots of little gears and tiny metal rods, he then opened up his ‘knee’ in the same way to reveal four other small gears at rest. He raised up off his heel, then came down on it again, and suddenly everything was in motion. He lifted his leg off the ground, it continued to move for a few seconds, then stopped.

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“Both of em be like this.” Dwarguy said and then gruffly added, “And she be why. Ye think I want this happenin to me arms too? Maybe ye don’t know this lass, but losin limbs hurts!” He snapped.

I closed my mouth, “I’m sorry. I’ll find someone else. If I’d lost my limbs, I’d probably be afraid to go out on quests again too.”

“I’m not scared lass. I’ve got a good career as a mech fighter, heh, me legs, I’m used to em now, though it took a few years, now I use em to help pilot me mech, so it worked out.” The start of his frown turned into an almost jolly grin, “Not many can work their mech like me, I can make that fooker dance a jig that’ll make any dwarf lass swoon.” He patted his mech affectionately.

“But you’re supposed to help her.” Loysa said, “Don’t do it for me, do it for you.”

Dwarguy frowned. “The hell is that supposed to mean?”

“Yes, I’ll tell him!” Loysa snapped, Dwarguy seemed to take that in stride, and she quickly went on. “My Goddess says that if you don’t go with her,” she jerked her thumb toward me, “you have no future. She won’t save your life again.”

“Again?” He snapped.

Loysa only looked at him expectantly.

Dwarguy paled. “I was out work’n on me mech on account of lanky elf chap tell’n me there were creds to be made if the right person saw me… we all were…”

I could see where he was going with that. If I’d used my skill when there was nobody there, I doubt anybody would have listened to me. The problem might not have been fixed. Or if the mechs hadn’t been active, maybe I wouldn’t even have seen it.

I couldn’t help but think that the ‘elf chap’ was probably that same jackass who scammed me. But for now at least, I chose to keep my mouth shut about that detail, though looking at Dwarguy’s face, he probably suspected the same thing. Why am I not surprised? A follower of the Goddess of theft would steal from me? Shocking.

Dwarguy’s stance was softening. Like it or not, I’d saved his life, and like it or not, that Goddess seemed to have made it possible. “Please? If Loysa says you’re needed, if you’re supposed to go, has she ever lied to you?” That was a shot in the dark ripped from manga pages and used by protagonists whenever somebody was wavering in their decision about whether to trust somebody or not.

“No. No, I suppose not.” I breathed a sigh of relief when he said that. I’m not that good with tone, but he did sound kind of resigned to me.

“Fine. But after the match. They only got through two yesterday, and I’m up today.” Dwarguy groused, even my dumbass could feel his stubbornness settling in over him.

In fiction, dwarves were incalculably stubborn, as unmoving as the mountains they mined and I got the feeling pushing further would get me nowhere.

“That will be fine.” Loysa said and pursed her lips. “I’m sorry.” She said.

Dwarguy grunted. It clearly wasn’t the first time he’d heard her say that, and he ignored her, he pointed instead toward the far end of the arena. “You got box seats, the entrance is round that corner. Look for the wolfman standing there in boiled leather armor. He’ll let ye in, lass. I’ll see ye after I’m done winning today.” He chuckled and clambered into his mech, reaching up, he pulled the cockpit face down from overhead, and then he said, “Stand back, it’ll be mighty hot for a minute.”

His voice had a weird echo quality to it, like it was on the other side of the speaking tube Loysa used to order breakfast. It reminded me of the game of telephone, taking two cardboard cups and connecting them with a string, speaking into one you could be heard by the other as the soundwave traveled along the line to be heard by the other person. It was crude, it worked, but it had a weird echo quality to it.

I stood back of course, moving as far away as Loysa did, a moment later I heard it. The sudden noise of water becoming steam, expanding over seventeen hundred times the volume from its liquid state, the mech had a brief blue glow and the metal exterior became red hot. I could see Dwarguy inside through the window and saw sweat spring to his brow.

I added ‘heat resistance’ to the list of things dwarves must have had, even if he were insulated in some way, that had to be uncomfortable.

Even ten feet away, I could feel the heat like the wind from a fan that was suddenly turned on. I blinked, and then to my heart’s delight, I saw his mech begin to move. It had a strange ‘duckish’ quality to its walk. Its body more waddling than anything, but the arms moved as fluidly as if it were a person… a person with a lot of joints. The right arm went over head, back, down, and grasped a spiked hammer off the rear and brought it down in front across the body.

‘I’m going to see a real mech fight! The real thing! I can’t believe it!’ I was so excited I thought I might actually piss myself right then and there.

I was all but dancing, bouncing on my heels and wringing my hands, grinning like an idiot.

I suppose my childlike eagerness must have been a little infectious, as Loysa’s somber face seemed to change to an almost big sister-like indulgent expression. She put her hand on top of my head and gave it a rub right between the ears. “Come on, it’s early, but they’re box seats, we might as well get settled. And… there’s a bathroom up there too, I’m sure.”

I didn’t even care that I blushed a little. How could I?

There was about to be a mech fight!