A Faun shoves a mob of auburn hair away from his eyes, taking in what he was seeing. Where a few days ago there was a small clearing with nothing of note but a river passing through one side, a small building now sat. It looked almost like a house, with a cozy tan paint and soft blue roof. But most houses don’t have such large windows in the front. Most houses also don’t have signs over their front doors, but this one had a sign so important that it was being hand-painted by a lady on a ladder.
The Faun took some tentative steps forward, his thin deer legs ready to run and fluffy ears perked, until he stood at the base of the ladder. The woman took a moment to notice him, yellow slit eyes trailing down to fall on him. “Can I help you?” she asks simply.
He shifts on his hooves. “Um… What’s this?”
The woman looks from him to her sign, and back again. “A convenience store.” Indeed, the words Pandora’s Convenience store Was half-painted on the wood.
“A… Convenience store?”
She turns back to the sign, adding another coat of paint to it. “That’s what I said.”
The Faun folds his arms, lowering his head to gaze into the shop. Inside were rows of shelving, each packed with colorful potions and boxes of all sizes. His brow furrows as the woman starts to climb down, seeing as he wasn’t leaving.”Why does a forest need a convenience store?”
She gives him a little shrug. “It doesn’t. But the people who come through the forest need one.” she gives her thumb a small jerk over her shoulder. “The path by Eastrose creek just got overrun by plant monsters, and if I’m right, Pygmy forest just became the safest route east. Unless you’re dumb enough to go through the mountains, of course.”
“Aren’t there yetis up there?”
“Exactly!” The woman smiles, offering her hand. “I’m Pandora, if the sign didn’t give it away.”
The Faun takes it, giving a small shake. “Aspen.”
“Well, Aspen, If you don’t mind me advertis-”
A snarl cut her off, forcing them both to jump, looking around for the source with wide eyes. The noise didn’t come back right away. But just as Pandora looked like she was going to say something else, it started up again- this time with a symphony of thrashing and growling behind it. They looked to each other, before peering inside the shop. The sound was almost coming in waves from the back door.
"...The shit is that?" Aspen hisses.
"I... don't know."
Pandora slowly steps inside. Aspen starts to follow in confusion when she picks up a shovel. She hesitates, then flings the door open with a yell before tearing down the stairs after the snarls.
“Pandora!” Aspen yells after her, running into the basement after her. Rather hard with deer legs, the stairs were a bit steep.
He skids into the room, already a mess of… ok, it was just the one overturned couch. Pandora hadn’t gotten much time to furnish her living room yet. But this didn’t prevent her from being rolled over it while wrestling a large, black beast of a dog as she hit it over the head with the now broken shovel handle.
Aspens heart pounded against his chest, shoving himself back into the stairs to avoid the slobbering mongrel. “WHY do you have a fucking hellhound in your basement?” he shouts.
Pandora gasps for air as she’s pinned to the wall by an oversized paw. “A what?”
“A hellhound! Dog of the underworld?”
As the canine shifts its weight to stomp its other arm, Pandora wiggles her way out of it’s grip just in time to avoid being smushed. “I thought this was a Chupacabra!”
“CHUPACABRA’S AREN’T THAT BIG!”
“IT WAS SMALLER BEFORE!”
The Hellhound takes the yelling as an opportunity to lunge at the two of them. They both scream, running in opposite directions. The hound, apparently still mad about being hit with a shovel, chooses Pandora to chase while Aspen was left to frantically find something to stop it with.
As Pandora hops over the kitchen counter in a bid to get away from the beasts jaws, Aspen notices something-the spice cupboard! He ducks away from the fight and rushes up to it, shoving bottles aside until he had what he wanted- Valerian.
“Pandora, catch!” he calls, tossing the small bottle across the room. It tumbles across the floor, quickly snatched up by her
“The hell am I supposed to do with this?” she yells back, but already popping the lid off.
“Shove it in its nose!”
Pandora looks over her shoulder, the mongrels snapping, slobbering jaws right behind her. Getting her hand anywhere near that mess honestly seemed like a poor idea, but she also didn’t have a better one. She takes a fistful of the herb and skids around on her heels, shoving it up the creatures nose.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
The hound suddenly freezes, seemingly in shock. Then it’s eyes start to lid, and it sways until it slides onto it’s belly with a soft whine, slumping it’s shoulders. Pandora lets out a relieved sigh as Aspen joins them, gently stroking the dog behind it’s ears.
“Well, clearly that dealer was a bust. So much for dog training… “ She grumbles, turning to the faun. “How’d you know that would work?”
He suddenly blushes, looking away. “Oh, I got this creature encyclopedia when I was a kid… It was the only thing I had to read for a while, So I practically have it memorized!” he tells her with a half-laugh.
Pandora gives a nod in reply and carefully walks over to the hellhound, giving it a tentative poke with her foot. “Well, I guess we need to find a home for this thing… Where in the forest is far enough from other creatures that it won’t cause trouble?”
Aspen frowns, opening his mouth to say one thing then closing his eyes with a low hum as he thought. “Well… Hickory Grove is pretty abandoned, and there should be food for him. I guess we could take him there…”
Pandora, for her part, was already pulling a coil of rope out from her closet. “Sounds good to me!” She ties it into a lasso, and tosses it over the dog's head before picking up the Valerian in case they needed more.
With Aspen giving directions in front, and Pandora on hellhound duty, the two were off into the woods.
~~~~~~
Aspen sighed after the third time Pandora had asked for reassurance that he knew where they were going. It had hardly been ten minutes. “Should you be living in a forest if you can’t navigate one?”
“I know my way to town and back!” she argued with a small huff. “I don’t need to know how to run around the woods if I’m just going to follow the trails, not everyone has the urge to frolic in meadows like you faun do.” Aspen just rolls his eyes at the comment.
“Speaking of species… Correct me if I’m wrong. But you’re a succubus, right?” He asked, looking to the startled Pandora.
“Why do you ask?” she sputtered.
“Well, you look human enough. Except for the teeth, and eyes,” he explains with a shrug “That’s just what my book said succubi look like. I didn’t mean anything by it.” Pandora seems to relax a bit with that
“I guess that makes sense… yeah. I am. Now don’t go spreading around.” Aspen gives another little shrug in response as they come across a stream- well, more like a trickle.
“Hey, I’m not in the business of outing-”
Almost the second Aspens hoof touches the water, a string of blue words are howled from down stream. They pause as a fuzzy, dirty little man ran towards them, heaving with the effort of running roughly twenty feet. When he finally got to them, his face was lit up like a tomato.
“You dirty goddamn freeloaders, thinking you can just piss off around my bridge and not pay!” He hisses. Pandora looks to Aspen in confusion, who just raises his arms.
“Don’t look at me, I’ve never seen this guy before. I think he’s a troll, though.”
“Bullshit, you know what you did!” The little man snaps. “This is MY river.”
“You can’t own a river, it’s public property.” Pandora points out, which only serves to make the little troll go redder.
“Well… it’s still MY bridge. And to use it, you need to pay a toll!”
“Good thing we aren’t using it. We don’t need a bridge.” Pandora starts to step around him, at which point he pulls out a club.
“Nobody passes unless they pay my fee!” He snarls.
“That’s extortion.” Pandora leans in a bit to look at his weapon, a battered old wooden thing. “And a shitty weapon. When was the last time you got a new one?”
The troll pouts his lip and holds the club close to his chest. “Not everyone can afford all the latest models, not when they won’t even pay my toll!”
Pandora gets a glint in her eye, the ends of her lips curling upwards and showing just the tips of her sharp teeth. “Well, how about a deal, then?” He raises an eyebrow, but listened. “If you let us pass, I’ll give you a discount on a weapon of your choice back at my shop. Let’s say… 50%?” The trolls eyes go wide, shining.
“I’ll take you up on that, have a go!” He steps out of their way, allowing them to step across the stream and be on their way. After walking out of earshot and then some, Pandora leans over to Aspen.
“Just so we’re clear, there’s no way I’m actually giving the fucker a discount.”
Aspen goes into a fit of laughter.
~~~~~~
Pandora gently lifts the makeshift leash from their Hellhound, Aspen crouched just a few feet away looking for any tracks. “It looks deserted,” he concludes, standing straight. “And it there’s plenty of food. Just like I remember.”
Pandora rubs the hound on the side, giving it a nudge toward the dark, twisted trees of the grove. “Go on, Benny. This is your home now.”
“Are you supposed to name wild animals?”
“Shut it.”
Benny sniffs at the ground, turns back to the two for a moment, and then takes off deeper into the woods. Pandora and Aspen watch him go for awhile, the latter being the first to break off. Pandora runs to catch up with him. “Why doesn’t anyone live here, anyway?”
He shrugs. “It’s just kinda creepy, I guess. It’s not like we’re really fighting for resources out here anyway.”
She bobs her head, glancing around for something to look at. “Um… thanks, again. For helping me with the Hellhound. I’m gonna have to borrow that book of yours or something. Especially if I’m gonna live out here in the boonies.”
He snorts. Pandora silently ponders a minute more, then gives a toothy smile. “Actually, I have a better idea” She turns to him. “Why don’t I hire ya?”
“What?”
“Well I’m probably going to need an extra hand sooner or later anyway,” She explains, “and you clearly know a thing or two about magic, and running around forests. Plus I already know you’re a decent enough person, so there’s that.”
Aspen raises an eyebrow. “And how would you pay me? I don’t have any use for gold, most people around these parts just trade if they want something.”
Pandora waves him off. “Yeah, I thought you might. That’s just another reason to have you on board, you’ll know the exchange rate! You can just have some of the stuff people try to pawn on us. Or I’ll just buy you stuff from town.” She reaches an arm out, waiting for him to grasp it. Aspen looks her up and down for a long minute
“...I’ll regret this, won’t I?” he sighs, taking her hand as they shake on it.
She sticks her tongue out, a mischievous grin spreading across her face. “I make no promises.”