I heard it before I saw it.
Given that Tefira was a prison planet there were a lot of rough beings that were trapped here. The natives of the planet had left behind numerous ruins when they had retreated into their small pockets to hide from the invading prisoners. The ruins that hadn’t been claimed by the elves or other races had become nests for the monsters that had roamed the untamed areas.
Ranger’s Stations were a place where hunters could go to find where the latest outbreak of monsters were. If an outbreak got too large, then the army would get sent to deal with it, but usually, it was hunters that kept the monster population under control.
That meant that a Ranger’s Station was where the roughest characters gathered. Naturally it was also where the best alcohol was as well.
“Stay close to me.” I put my arm on Starna’s shoulder as we walked up to the door of the loud building. There was singing as well as what sounded like fighting coming from inside.
“I’ve been in one of these before.” The tanned Elf didn’t shake off my hand. Even if we were both capable of handling ourselves, it made us look stronger if it was clear that the two of us were together.
She pushed open the door and the first thing that hit me was the smell. It was dirty, bloody, and… lots of other smells I didn’t want to name.
The fight that we’d heard was between a group of Ogres to our right. I didn’t know what they were fighting over, but there were three of them throwing punches and the rest of the crowd seemed content to ignore them. Across the room and to our left was a bar where a pair of Dwarves were singing at the top of their lungs and offkey. A Draconic male was with them. I couldn’t tell if it was a Dragonborn or an actual Dragon in Human form, but it was just as drunk. The rest of the room was populated with various races and I didn’t want to let my eyes linger for too long. That was the easiest way to issue an unspoken challenge and we didn’t have time to fight.
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The counter directly across from us had an Elf attendant behind it in a suit. Compared to the Human attendant at the counter on the right of the wall, the Elf looked like they handled Ranger business, while the Human had a board next to them with a lot of wanted posters.
I directed Starna to the Elf. The green skinned man gave us a bored smile as we approached.
“Welcome to the Ranger’s Station. I am Rien Furstworn. How can I help you?” His dry, monotone greeting was painful to listen to.
“I was told that you kept blood root on hand and that you had a lab that I could rent?” Starna fished a coin out of her pocket and put it on the counter.
“Blood root is in the vault.” He got up and trudged through the door behind him.
I watched him disappear without a word. I glanced over at Starna who just shrugged. The fight behind us had stopped, which had me a little on edge. It was difficult to hear what was going on behind us with the singing to our left. I turned around so that I could lean on the counter and see the rest of the patrons while I talked to my partner.
There was a leonin at the table closest to us that was staring us down. Kimor were native to the planet, though they were almost extinct after the Great War. The next logical being with a massive red mane would be a WereLion. Given the thick leather jacket that it was wearing, it looked like it had enough bulk that it might be an Alpha, though I didn’t see any other feline races in the room and the leonin was eating alone. The way he was staring at Starna was unsettling and I wanted to get her out of here as fast as I could.
“Here’s the blood root.”
I turned around to look at our bored elf attendant.
“The lab is outside. Go around the west of the building and there are labs set up for private use.” He put a key on the counter. “You are in room three.” He took out a book and flipped to a page with a lot of names. “What’s your name?”
I started to speak, but a deep voice behind me answered.
“Starna Shellock.”