Chapter Seven

“Ouch.” I winced and moved my tails.

I’ll spare you the preamble, we didn’t go that far, Loysa took me directly to a little narrow hole in the wall that smelled like sulfur and metal, smoke rose from the ceiling, and it was easy to see right at the outset that this was no humble smithy. But the entrance within that I’m being taken to has two things. A long line and a narrow alley between two large buildings and… unless you count the occasional insect, rat, or the dankness, a long line, and nothing more.

Every step forward, my tails scraped over the wall causing me to crinkle my nose with disgust and hope, for the love of this world’s gods, that I could take a bath soon. And every other step forward, the meathead behind me, a big, bald human with a creepy ‘subway grabber’ look on his face, stepped on my tails.

I know, I know, you’re thinking, ‘Hey, why not move them?’

Have you ever tried to move nine tails out of the way of anything?! No. No you have not, so, you know… shut up.

Loysa looked behind me after the twelfth time of my ‘ouch’ words, and looking up and down at the looming, badly dressed, lunkhead and his ripped clothes, bare feet, she seemed to come to a conclusion to herself as she gave a subtle nod. “I’m a priestess, and if you step on her tail and annoy me one more time, I’m going to curse your sword to never be drawn again. You can have the curse undone at a temple, but it will cost at least a hundred creds.”

The meathead might not have been that smart, but he looked into her narrow glare and sputtered, “Th-Thats illegal!”

“So is tail groping, pervert.” She answered.

She spun around, her robes fluttered in a way I can only describe as ‘heroic’ and she leveled her staff over my head, bopping me a little between my ears and began to mutter her incantation.

The big oaf turned and began to push his way back through the line, shoving people aside, stumbling and slipping as he went, they pushed back and he, big as he was, was hardly an ogre. He fell face first into the muck, and I felt a little bit better.

He got up at the exit of the alley, wiped his face, and ran out of view. Loysa relaxed her pose and turned around. She didn’t say anything to me, and we took another step forward toward our destination.

“Thanks.” I finally said after three very long minutes. I wasn’t used to people doing really… anything for me.

“It’s fine. I just don’t like people like that. But you know, you’d have an easier time of it if you stowed at least some of those. Most kitsunes keep their visible number of tails between two and four. Too many out, and you give guys like that an excuse to ‘accidentally’ touch them.” She shook her head. “Perverts.”

“Wait, you’re saying he really was a-?” I blushed in spite of myself. “So the bare feet?”

“He’s probably not that poor. Shoes are pretty cheap. But there’s no law against not having shoes. So guys like that go around to try to catch cat tails, fox tails, they chase tail every chance they get.” Loysa explained, and I laughed out of the blue.

She cocked her head. “Something funny?”

I shook my head and we took another step forward. “No, it’s just that ‘chase tail’ thing is a saying back home. It’s usually applied to humans though.”

She cocked her head, “Do humans have tails there?”

“No.” I answered.

“Your home makes no sense.” She said and turned around again, seemingly ending the discussion.

She was a curious sort of priestess, definitely not like the ones I knew from anime and manga. She wasn’t sweet or naive or even really very nice. But even so, she had done me a good turn. I was a little curious about that hidden card, I assumed she put it there so she could cheat people, it made me wonder if there was more to it.

Of course I hadn’t forgotten what she said about my tails. I had to get used to these things, but I definitely didn’t like the idea of a bunch of barefoot dudes just trying to rub them with their feet. Kitsune could use magic, change forms, and stuff like that.

Of course I had no real idea how, and I got the feeling Loysa was the sort who would only say so many words in a day, so I figured it wouldn’t be wise to ask. I could already hear her ‘how should I know’ being thrown back at me.

So that left a little experimentation. The guild receptionist told me about concentration and how to see my total points. I had a surprising number at the outset, I can only assume from saving those scientists, cleaning up their mess and stopping the spill. That must have been worth a lot.

But when I’d done that, I felt more about myself, it was probably my body’s mana. ‘So,’ I thought, ‘Maybe I should treat mana like an appendage, and my feel for it is like a sense of touch, like my hand at the end of my arm, and I can just manipulate it some…’ I tried to picture myself with fewer tails, the others merging with my mana, almost like they were in an extradimensional space. My knowledge of kitsune lore was definitely coming in handy.

Drawing them into my mana was an odd sort of concept, and I wondered if I could store other things there, and if I could, what limits that would have. It was something I would experiment with later, there was still a line of people who frankly looked less than pleased. A few still gave me dirty looks like it was my fault the foot freak perv decided to run off.

In retrospect, he probably had no intention of even buying anything, he just saw my tails and got in line.

‘Sicko.’ I thought, and reached behind me to see if what I’d done worked. I rotated my tails around briefly. …two…three…four…and that’s it.’ I counted them off as each slapped against my hand. Good. I could keep four up and out of reach…. But that would still take some getting used to.

“So, why is this line so long?” I was getting bored. Very bored.

“Because this guy is the best. You’ve got money, right?” She asked. I nodded.

“Yes.” I answered.

“You want to live, right?” She asked.

“Yes.” I answered again.

“So your equipment is your life. You’ll need protection for your ears, and we should replace that.” She waved her hand up and down in front of my clothing.

I looked down, she had a point. It didn’t really fit this world, and even though clothing was variable enough that it wasn’t attracting attention… I had boobs and hips now, frankly nothing fit right.

I crossed my arms in front of my chest, it was hard not to be self conscious in the first place. It was even harder when she so blatantly called attention to the fact that my clothes were fitted to a man’s body with a very different build.

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I fought the flush to my face as best I could, but she’d already turned around.

To say I was uncomfortable would be an understatement, my feet shuffled around on the dirty, dank ground of the alley, it smelled of moss and mold, and the fact was, the foot groper person now had my nerves on pins and needles now that I understood what he was doing.

In a way, Loysa’s calm indifference actually helped, she didn’t make any lewd commentary or exacerbate the issue, she was very standoffish, I suppose, but then again our meeting hadn’t started off on the best terms. I felt a little bad, I mean if she was cheating at cards, maybe it was because she was desperate? True I hadn’t forced her to come along, but when I mentioned the hidden ace, she’d agreed to the receptionist’s request.

I wanted to know more, or just to say something, I don’t know, But before I could think of what to say or how to say it, we reached an open doorway. I could hear the clanging noise of hammers and the roar of flames, the smell of sulfur and metal and who knew what else amid the odors within, but when I got in, it was not what I expected.

I ‘thought’ I’d see a bunch of people working. What I ‘got’ was an ordinary looking interior shop with a long counter, on the walls were swords, small simple pistols, sets of shields ranging from the familiar kite shield of a knight to the later bucklers I knew of from history. Helmets and leather caps sat on wooden heads, and a hammer and anvil sat against a wall with a stool waiting for use in impromptu repairs.

“Joachim, I got one for you.” Loysa snapped and stepped aside.

This much was expected. The proprietor of the shop was a squat, powerfully muscled dwarf whose thick bushy beard was covered in singe marks where sparks had burned bits away. He had bushy brown eyebrows that matched his beard and thick, hairy arms. His hands had bulky leather gloves over them and he wore a heavy apron over a leather shirt. He looked up at Loysa when she entered.

“Loysa, let me guess, Sami saddled you with another toothless greenhorn?” The dwarf, evidently ‘Joachim’ asked while giving me a once over.

I did my best to look confident. ‘You’re a kitsune, a powerful magic being, and a tinker, you just got here and you already saved a bunch of lives.’ I told myself, trying to project a confidence I didn’t really feel.

He rubbed his chin with his thumb and forefinger while Loysa answered, “Something like that. But she’s got a few skills at least, I need you to outfit her with the tinker toys and some solid protection. And remember, kitsune, so she’ll need mana infused clothing.”

“Toys?” I asked. That didn’t sound right. “What quest did you even take, are we babysitting children?” I asked.

“I’m doing the babysitting.” Loysa replied, and gave me a look that said ‘I’ was the baby in that analogy.

“But no, ‘toys’ is our jargon for the tools of the trade. On account of children always dream of being adventurers, and they get little toy versions of what we use. So, the word just stuck. Got me, toothless?” She asked, and I cocked my head.

“Toothless?” I asked.

She sighed, “You’re just full of questions, aren’t you?” She rubbed her forehead, “Yes, yes, I’ll be patient with her, you don’t have to tell me…”

I had no idea who she was talking to. But she refocused her attention and picked up a gear of the countertop, she touched the projecting metal portion. “The standard gear has a minimum of seventeen teeth. You have no ranking because you’ve done no quests. When you complete your first job, you’ll get the rank of one tooth. Your slate will track your rank. You can rank up by doing lots of small jobs after that, or do harder or more dangerous jobs. Rank up high enough, and you’ll be ranked ‘Full Gear’ that’s the highest rank there is. Do that, and you might be offered a receptionist job when you’re ready to retire.”

“Wait, Sami? That little gnome was-” She interrupted me at once.

“A full gear. Yes. That’s why nobody… nobody interrupts her while she’s reading.” Loysa answered with a shake of her head.

“So what rank are you?” I asked. While we were talking, I noticed that Joachim had not been idle, he was crouched behind his counter sorting through items, one after another of which he put down on the surface where I could see them. A steelblue scarf, some leather bracers, a leather corset shaped garment that I could see would fit very close to the skin. Some round little flat things connected to a band and a small circlet that probably fit around the neck.

Loysa seemed to be thinking about what to say, whether to tell me or not, “Like I’d show that to a toothless greenhorn.” She snorted and crossed her arms. “Earn your first tooth, don’t run off with those tails tucked between your legs, and then I’ll tell you.” She pointed to the fluffy tails that bristled behind me.

Alright, I am new. But even so.

Joachim put his hand to his mouth and coughed into it, “If you two ladies are done jabbering, c’mere.” He said and put his hand on the equipment he’d laid out. “That’s genuine wild werebadger leather, the only thing tougher than that is dragonskin, and even that, not by much.” He said with a cherub-like grin on his face. “The knife here,” he reached for a leather sheath and drew the blade, “is genuine rousanite ore. It’s twice as sharp as steel and three times as strong. You shouldn’t be fighting much, but if you have to, it’ll serve you well.” I looked down at the little blade, it wasn’t all that large, half the size of some of the larger knives I’ve seen, but I did like the way the dark metal reflected back at me. It was almost the color of obsidian and obviously crafted by somebody who knew their work.

“These ear pieces should help when you have to deal with a lot of noise, as tinkers sometimes do. Or if it gets really loud later in the day, a lot of kitsune’s use these to dial down the noise.” He held them out to me and rotated a small dial on the left. “Just don’t rely on them too much.” He cautioned me, “Tuning people out gets addictive if you do it too often.”

That answered that question before I could even ask it. It made perfect sense, too.

He went through the assorted gear, the steel woven scarf to protect my neck, the minor enchantments against illness, a constant concern for adventurers, and in the end he said, “That will be ten thousand creds. Or?” He raised one eyebrow and stroked his beard.

“Or?” I asked.

“You can dispense with all this and get the cheap stuff for a thousand creds and never come here again.” He answered.

“Because you’ll die out there.” Loysa said when I was quiet.

“Oh.” I thought he was asking if I wanted to be thrown out of his shop but… clearly I misread it. “No, I’ll take the good stuff.”

“Good, you might just get a few teeth before the grave.” The burly dwarf said and reached for his slate.

“Don’t I need to try it on or-?” I started to ask, but he shook his head.

“Magic items size themselves to the wearer, doesn’t matter if you get bigger or small or anything.” He said and when he extended his slate, I touched mine to it, and then my cred balance appeared along with a request for ten thousand out of my total.

I put my thumb over the acknowledgement request and approved the transaction, then it was done.

I was minus ten thousand creds, but I was up one full set of equipment.

“Give her a minute to get changed, you can keep her old clothes.” Loysa said, I almost objected, but other than my toolbelt, there was nothing I was that attached to. So I went along.

“Fine. Just send in the next when you’re done.” He said and went into the back room and started yelling something I couldn’t make out, at whoever was hammering in the work area.

I almost hesitated to take off my clothes, since it was both the middle of the store and I was with a woman I barely knew. But then I remembered, ‘Wait, I’m a woman now… I guess it’s not strange. And we’re alone in here. And there’s no changing room. Do they even have changing rooms in this world?’ It was way too uncomfortable to ask, and maybe this was why they had people come in one at a time.

I shrugged, and got to it, setting aside my tool belt, I pulled off everything but my boxer briefs and shimmied into my new armor, boots, scarf, ear protection things which, I was right, did secure by a very tough but springy metal to the circlet I wore beneath my scarf.

I secured the blade to my front and my belt to my waist and then I was done. Interestingly, he’d included another couple of pouches that could be secured to my corset. I’m sure there was another name for what I was wearing, but it looked so much like a corset that I couldn’t think of it any other way. It didn’t ‘tighten’ like those, it wasn’t trying to reshape my body, rather it fitted close to my skin and when I ran my hand over it, I felt nothing underneath. It was like touching a wall, you wouldn’t feel anything on the other side of it.

“Good stuff. Honey badgers have some of the toughest hides, but werebadgers are the only things we can really make stuff out of. Unfortunately, there aren’t many ways you can kill those.” Loysa explained, and I admit, I was baffled.

“So how did they get this one?” I asked.

“There are four ways.” She said and held up her hand. She ticked off one finger, “Poison. Get them to drink it, or poison something they’ll eat.” She ticked off another finger, “A blade in their mouths or up their asses. Good way for an adventurer to commit suicide if you ask me.” She ticked off another finger, “Old age. You just find a dead one.” She ticked off one more finger, “and finally, exhaustion. They’re tough, and have a lot of stamina, but a good team with some magic support can run them to death, lure them away from any source of food or water, and eventually they’ll just ‘die’. They’re as smart as they are friendly, which isn’t very. But it’s still better to avoid them.” Loysa’s explanation sounded almost ‘teacher-like’ and I really started to wonder how much experience she had under her belt.

“So now what?” I asked when I tossed my old clothes on the counter.

“Now we get started.” She said, and went for the door shouting, “Next!” just as she walked out and making a sharp left to go out the other side of the alley.

All I could do was follow, I didn’t even know what adventure I was going on, yet. But I could hardly wait to find out.