Julia and Pelanna didn't know a whole lot about armor.
Leah had to explain how she got it all on and even showed how with a little flexing and wiggling she could get it on alone, but it was much easier with help. They laughed and followed her directions as piece after piece was put on in its proper place. Her armor smelled of oils, leather, and scented soaps. Leah had been sure to scrub all the chains on the mail, cleaned and polished every rivet and banded piece of metal, and oiled and worked every leather strap. Julia had laughed when she lifted the heavy mail to help put over Leah's head, but wasn't as helpful as Pelanna. Pelanna at least seemed to know which pieces went on first after that even if she wasn't as strong as Julia, and had some idea of how the straps went together after Leah started showing her.
Leah slapped the heavy visor of her helmet down as the last piece to go into place. She even had her mail mittens on over her leather gauntlets. She felt right wearing all the armor again and the girls laughed as she twisted about and checked on the sway of the hanging ribbons.
“You're the cutest knight the world will ever see Leah.” Pelanna said, coming close and hugging her over her armor. “And it doesn't seem to bother you at all. You're so strong!” Pel looked like she wanted to hand Leah her lucky hammer, but stopped and motioned for Leah to pick it up.
Julia raced past and grabbed it though. She lifted it easily enough, but Leah had to catch her to keep her from tumbling over as she brought its heavy head to her shoulder. The girl with black ears like a tiger was the cuter and stronger of the two and Leah really liked her. She had been a little worried at first, but sleeping with someone in her arms had been nice. Those ears were nice too. Leah had spent a good deal of the night snuggling her nose and face into them and Julia seemed to love it too unlike the bunny girl Luna.
“Balance. Your stance wasn't right. Spread your feet like this and bend your knees.” Leah scolded gently. “You have to be careful too. If you drop my hammer it will break the floorboards and that will make Mrs. Arlee very upset with you.”
Both girls laughed. Pel hugged her again and Julia laughed so hard she had to lean back against Leah to stay standing while she held her heavy hammer.
“You're so cute we have to show everyone. They're probably all ready to go so let's get down there.” Julia said, turning to give Leah her hammer carefully with a big smile on her face.
Leah didn't really need to sleep if she didn't want to, but found herself slipping off when she had laid in bed with these two. They were both so warm. It was really nice sharing a bed with someone, or two people even. Her hive didn't seem to squirm or move at all when she was that warm. It was really nice. Like being in the bath, but without soapy water. She liked these two and knew their laughter was kind even if they did tease her a little.
Her heart felt like it couldn't hold any more warmth. Is this what Therry meant? Is this what she was missing while living out in the wilds? Would they still like her this same way if they knew about her hive and they way she really fought? She thought about the old friends she had once. The memories were nice for only moments before they became painful again. She had to push them away, far away, but another came to her mind.
“Some things are understood right away Sarraleah. And some things just take time.” The memory of Therry's voice was so clear and crisp she almost wanted to look for him in the room when she heard it in her head.
“Oh Leah.” Julia said, stopping her before the door. “I didn't see your mark last night when we went to bed. You don't have to take off your armor or anything, but where is it? I want to see your attributes.” She was smiling and seemed excited. “You're super strong aren't you?”
Leah stopped and looked back at her new friends. She pushed up her visor and gently set the end of her lucky hammer against the floor. She concentrated. She could only do some basic magic, and this is one of the things she used it for. She was about to pull away the illusion to show them when Sarra took control from her suddenly.
Sarra made her mark on the left side of their face appear instead of Leah's on the right. Either one wrapped around their eye and would have covered their face entirely when shown together if Sarra hadn't learned the spell a long time ago to make it vanish.
The girls gasped first at the mark appearing on her face, and then again as they read.
“A's!” Pelanna said loudly. Julia just nodded her head in startled agreement. “Your other attributes are just about normal, but you have A's in strength and endurance! No wonder you were able to travel alone, and wear this armor like it's nothing.”
Sarra smiled at Leah's new friends and shut their visor before giving back control. Leah was a little startled and not sure how to go on which is probably why Sarra hid their face for her.
“L-lets go.” Leah said nervously.
Micheal waited out in the stable yard with everyone but the last three to make it down. The Brazen Boys were about ready to head off when finally the last three girls came out. They were led by Sarraleah in resplendent chain and brigandine armor that sported bright pink color wherever cloth was displayed or needed and was otherwise stitched over the top of leather straps throughout the armor. She wore a legionnaire style tasset over the knee length covering hauberk of chainmail, and her knee high boots were plated around the ankle and up her calves and riveted to the thick leather of their construction making them into intimidating sabatons. They bore pointed tips and her kneecaps hung with tinkling steel four sided diamonds on pink ribbons with enough of a spike at the tip of their cap to do some real damage with a rising knee. Her twisting snake hammer that held two dice out like points at either side showed each of the pips on their exposed faces and its leather grip was tied in with more pink ribbons that hung off the end in a small steel capped tassel.
That hammer with the cubed tips to concentrate the force would crush through armor like a brutal chunky four sided punch. She wore leather gauntlets beneath open palmed mail mittens that clung to the back of her fingers with the aid of small leather loops she put her fingers through. Her helm was a heavy steel visored barbuta that gave her a very menacing look with its slanted eye slots and breathing holes cut into the left side of the mask. She hardly had any gaps in her armor that wasn't covered by something sturdy. Even her neck was covered by the flap of her mail coif and the unobtrusive steel gorget peeking out from her brigandine.
She held her hammer nervously as she looked about at everyone and then waved with one hand.
“Hello everyone. This is what my armor looks like. Do you like it?” Her sweet voice was tinny behind the mask of the helmet, and her words a little stilted with nervous energy.
Almost everyone came to her wearing big smiles. Leah seemed to be shy even in her armor and held her hammer tight to her chest as people admired her. Many of the Brazen Boys hadn't picked up that she was a knight and some even asked to hold her hammer for a moment.
To Micheal's surprise she let them, and the young men tried to hold it one handed like she just had and failed to do so. Leah made sure to stay close and have everyone back away when they tried, and took her hammer back before they dropped it. He came to her still impressed at how she was doing when everyone was forming up to start heading back.
“You may have overpaid, but at least you got some quality work.” He said to her with a smile.
She pushed up her visor and smiled up at him. “You think so?”
He nodded. The guise didn't seem like much of a guise today. It kind of seemed like the same as pretending Lindsey wasn't as nice as she was because she harbored a complete lack of mercy for orcs bordering on sadism. Leah...This part of her was actually sweet and innocent for now. He worried about what would happen when she was pressed, but there was a spark of hope now that maybe he could turn this into a good thing rather than something to be afraid of. He had to find a way to learn about her abilities or maybe explain that problem he had to Vivian. After that he could talk to her and figure out a way to help keep Sarraleah on their side. Hopefully he would get that far. He more or less created the monstrous girl before him so maybe he was at fault for the somewhat evil nature of her existence even if she was ostensibly a force of good for now. It was another in a small list of things he had already run into that he felt responsible for.
“You might need it too.” He said carefully and held out his left hand to her.
She looked up at him and then at his mark.
“Uh oh.” She said, worried suddenly looking about. “You might have a big fight soon.” She said worriedly. She put her visor down and took her hammer in both hands as she looked about.
“Yeah I'm a little worried about it.” He told her. “I didn't want you to come along unless you knew. I don't want to drag my new friend into a bad fight after all.” He said, trying to make his voice sound sincere.
She stepped closer to him with her hammer held up.
“Don't worry!” Leah said her voice sweet and reassuring behind the steel mask after a short pause. “I can help you. I'm really strong and my hammer can't break. Jak-Jak said so. He's a big mage now, but he knows a lot about magic items.” Then she paused and went still.
“Is this Jak-Jak a friend of yours? I met a really strong mage named Jakcova the other day who works for the mages guild. Did you talk to him about it through one of the communication orbs?” Micheal said feeling a bit of sweat begin to drip down his brow, and feeling like he had maybe made too much of a leap in logic there. “I had never used one before that. They are really cool. I wish I knew how to make one, or have one to carry around in my bag.”
Leah nodded quickly as he spoke.
“You met Jak-Jak with the talking orbs?” She asked.
He nodded and motioned her to walk with him and follow after the others who were looking back at them ready to go after having their turn talking to Leah. Micheal had waited for them to finish and was now with Julia and Pelanna who waited to walk alongside the bright pink newcomer. Leah jogged the short distance til she was at his side. She clanked and jingled loudly, but he could also almost feel the weight she carried wearing all that armor as she did.
“You didn't have a bag with you?” He asked her.
She looked up at him through the slots in her visor and shook her head. Her fingers moved nervously on her hammer handle under the cover of her mail mittens.
“We can get you one in town, don't worry. Those pouches are nice, but it's good to carry food and supplies with you sometimes. We can do like Vivian did for me and get you a nice starting kit to go with your bag too.”
He had to do better than this. He kept skating the issues he knew about with her. His emotions were probably showing through to her sense of smell too. He had to focus. Or maybe not focus so much. He had to let her guise work on him.
“You would do that?” She asked.
“Like Luna and everyone keeps telling you we're friends aren't we? I want you to be prepared so you're always okay. Isn't that what friends do?” He asked. It felt cheesy, but her happy nodding seemed to brush that off. “I don't have a lot of money though so I might not be able to get you too much.”
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“Oh you don't have to buy me things...” Leah said abashed. “I have lots of money and I can show everyone how good I am with it after Mr. and Mrs. Arlee taught me more about it.”
They quickly came into pace with the others as they formed up. Leah waved at Pelanna and Julia who had been hanging with Micheal back to walk with Leah. They both smiled and came in close to walk beside the pink knight.
“We can help you pick out a good one then how about that?” Micheal asked.
Leah nodded to that, fingering her hammer and keeping her shoulders together as she watched the ground in front of her.
“Were you asking about her not having a bag?” Julia asked and Micheal nodded casually. “She said she had everything she needed in her pouches at one point, but might have left some of it behind in Rosebridge when they took her old armor to be recycled for the steel. I'm going to say a thing or two to that armorer there next time I pass through too. He does good work or so I've heard from most people, but the price he charged her was ridiculous even for a rush job.” Her ears lay flat as she spoke displaying her anger.
A panicked male cry came up suddenly then from the front of the group, they were hardly out of the village and it startled most everyone.
“Swamp troll!” Someone called out in fear and ahead Micheal saw it stand with one of the scouts legs in his hand as it stood up to its full height.
It was damn near twenty five feet tall and he staggered back in surprise at its overwhelming height and girth, not to mention the god awful smell. Dirt and mud rained down from it and spells and arrows flashed toward its face after a moment as the stunned adventuring group reacted. His first thought was for Jack and Vivian, but they were both ahead and in front of Luna looking ready to either charge in or counter attack. Luna was frantically pulling her little ember wand from her wand case.
“I'll help!” Leah yelled, breaking first into a trot and then into a dead sprint as fast as any Olympian with her hammer raised to a middle guard first and then letting it fall back in a low stance behind her as she gained momentum.
The group ahead split apart and retreated back down the road in an almost practiced response as the scout cried out in pain with his leg carelessly gripped by the huge monster as he was flailed about like a large doll in the hands of a child. He had managed to get his short sword and dagger out to slash and stab at the Trolls' long and thick fingers, but the swamp troll's careless flailing of the scouts body came with loud snaps and cracks. It tried to shield its face with the other hand and look away from the mostly harmless attacks that were hitting its thick hide. The scout's face twisted with pain and he started to scream.
“The eyes! The eyes!” Eva shouted as she flung conjured crimson daggers at the thing, but she stumbled as Leah sprinted past right next to her.
“Put my friend down!” Leah shouted, sounding tinny behind her visor as she charged in past Forgen and Dexter straight at one of the creature's legs.
Watching her fight was like a cartoon. Her hammer drifted back, her arms let all the way back in her sprint with the hammer as she practically dove into the charging strike. Her feet left the ground and she let out a hissing little grunt almost mirrored by the rushing air around the hammer in her hands as she brought it around in an almost perfectly horizontal strike. There was a teeth grating crunch and the scout was flung off the road as the Troll cried out in pain. The smack that came with Leah's strike sounded like a giant's clapping hands. The stinking horrible thing reeled and moaned in pain as it fell onto its hands to try to nurse its wounded leg. The smell was suddenly coming off of it in waves, and almost seemed like an attack of its own.
“Bad Troll!” Leah admonished the creature, voice tinny and almost innocent sounding behind the steel mask of her barbuta.
Pelanna rushed past already chanting a healing spell and Julia was slipping on her gauntlets when she stopped beside Micheal to stare wide eyed as Leah faced down the troll ahead of them now as the group spread out on the road just outside of the village walls.
It tried to swat at the pink knight with a hand larger and probably heavier than she was even with her armor. Her hammer came around as she spun and snapped one of its fingers backward. Even then Vivian and Forgen got a piece of that same arm as it reached out for her.
The stinking monstrous thing cried out and she charged forward to strike at its other hand as it braced itself on the ground spinning and moving with the momentum she still carried after the previous blow. Forgen looked ready with his shield, but hadn't stepped forward to meet the creature with Leah clearly still on the offensive. Vivian dashed back, blinking at the little pink knight as she stood fast before the creature as its massive warty hand stretched out wide enough to grab like a child would a small doll. The three sided wedge shape of the dice pointing out from the snake's mouth that made up the hammer dug in deep into the bone of its other arm as she slammed another strike home in another almost cartoonish display of strength. She even seemed to bounce a little and come off the ground as she swung with a growling little feminine grunt like an angry tennis player.
The Swamp Troll fell further as its arm could no longer support its great weight and it landed on its elbows in the mud beside the road. Everyone watched, all stunned as Leah jumped back away from its wounded hand that tried to push her away. She spun again with the momentum of her dodge and then threw her hammer with all her might straight at its forehead with an amount of force to put any Olympic hammer throw to shame.
The thing's head snapped back as the hammer hit and its eyes rolled confused and disoriented from the massive blow. After that, with Leah disarmed, the adventurer's all roared almost at once free of their stunned inaction by Leah's sudden need and arrows and spells again crashed into the Troll as it continued to flounder. It took the length of Leah's short fight for most everyone to recover from seeing a pint sized girl in armor over match a fully grown swamp troll for strength. If that wasn't incredible enough Micheal knew this was just the physical part of her greater strength. Given this in the middle of a swarm of angry stinging and biting poisonous blood sucking insects there would be no hope for any of them.
“R-return!” Leah shouted, stuttering a little as her hands shot up over her head, her voice surprising Micheal as he came for her to draw her back. The weapon shot back into her hands before it was able to splash into the muddy roadside ditch, but it sent her rolling backward on the road to handle the momentum of the flying hammer nearly at Micheal's side again.
The Troll faced away from the road whining and moaning, trying to clutch its head with its wounded arms at the same time it did its best to shield itself and its wounds. Spells and arrows took to the soft places under its arms and near its ears and the back of its legs. One of the Bunnary brothers leaped into the air with the help of the other two to land on its back as it tried to crawl away with his mouth and nose covered with a thick cloth wrapped around his head and a lit bomb the size of an apple in his hand. He ran up near its shoulder and tossed the bomb out just before the fuse ran out, cooking it like a grenade in a video game.
The bomb exploded into a cloud of poison gas right in front of its face and the Bunnary retreated by doing a backflip off the things head in an incredible show of his people's agility. The other brothers caught him, like practiced circus actors and he landed easily taking up a spear to his brothers light recurve bows.
The Swamp Troll began to cough and wheeze heavily and began to fail. Leah charged forward, but stopped at the mud and water off the road side that would have been waist deep or better on her. She seemed to whine and stomp her feet, but she took a defensive position after that looking eager to strike it if it ever came back into range.
Coughing green and black spittle, bleeding, and maimed the creature slowly died under the hail of fire and the Brazen Boy member was pulled out the swampy mud which had broken his fall. His leg and hip socket was still broken from the way he had been grabbed, but Pelanna made quick work of that with a spell that had the man almost bending over backwards as the magic healing took effect on his bones.
Being healed wasn't the same as pain exactly but it hardly looked comfortable. The injured man however did need friends to carry him as the healing had a side effect of being a huge drain on the person's stamina especially with such heavy damage undone so quickly. Luna went with her pack in her hands to offer a small stamina potion to the man. It was the first of the kind Micheal had seen, the liquid was an almost sickly orange, and he knew what any American child might take it for.
The man made a face just like he had taken a sip of his first strong energy drink and his eyes went wide as he guzzled it down the rest of it past that first taste. A few minutes later he was able to push away from his friends and continue on as if he hadn't been hurt at all. In a battle he would have been doomed still with enemies around, but luckily that wasn't the case here and he was good as new. By the time he was up and about again Forgen had wallowed out into the mud and taken the creature's ears, a front tooth, and then hacked off a toe with a hatchet from his own pack.
The explanation for the butchery was that this was the needed proof to collect the standing bounty on any of the creatures that were killed in the area of Mayonn as they were the single greatest threat to travelers, farmers, and fishermen. It was agreed that half the bounty would go to Leah, and the rest divided among the party.
The muddy man who had been healed was completely taken with Leah after that. Everyone was really, but they let the Brazen Boy, Trevor was his name, thank her first before crowding her with compliments and praise. Leah absolutely quailed under all the praise and shyly drew in on herself before Pelanna, ever the shy one too, got her out of the group and returned her to the back of the group with Micheal. They both dusted her as best they could after she had rolled in the road. Even with a few dust stains Sarreleah seemed to be glowing with happy energy as she walked, armor clinking softly, beside Micheal and Pelanna.
“That was awesome Leah.” Micheal told her without crowding her further and embracing his honest thoughts. “I really like that return spell you used. The best part was when you threw your hammer like that and then just brought it right back. There's a story I know about a hero who could do the same.”
She looked at him with her visor down and holding her hammer close with both hands like it was her greatest treasure. He was sure she was smiling.
“Thank you for acting so quickly. I'm glad you got Trevor out of that mess before he got really hurt or worse.” And found he really meant it. It almost sounded as gracious as he imagined Theradin would have said it to her in his place.
Leah laughed softly squirming a little under the praise as she walked.
“He said it was his fault for not seeing the disturbed mud near the road. He's distracted by all the pretty girls I think.” She laughed, almost a giggle.
“Don't forget you're one of those pretty girls too.” Pelanna said and then Leah did giggle. Leah walked over after that seemingly on impulse to reach out with one hand and take Pelanna's. Pel was taken by surprise a little, but then smiled broadly at Leah. Leah even put her visor up carefully with her hammer in hand to smile back.
The only other excitement while walking back to Mayonn was the sudden appearance of clouds once more from over the lake. Everyone had no desire to be caught out in another sudden rainstorm so after a little while as they grew close to the city the group broke into a jog with the Brazen Boys in the lead and on the lookout this time for Swamp Trolls that had been lured closed to the city with all the recent travel. When they returned word had seemed to finally got around that their group wasn't the only one dealing with orcs or swamp trolls today, or even that week. There were small encampments popping up all over the area and larger ones outside that were being scouted and raided in turns. On the board of notices was an open contract to raid and rescue people from a large camp like the one Micheal had been caught in. He wanted to help and his friends knew too, but with so much action it was clear he would need some real training and equipment before they went forward. Not all the orc groups spotted were the foraging kind with improvised weapons and little in the way of armor or combat skills.
Chills went through him thinking of what his fight with that orc might have been like if the orc had been armored, or even just a veteran fighter perhaps. He had unfortunate knowledge of orc culture and that orc hadn't seemed that old. Mature yes, but it had lacked the other signs typical of older orcs. Scars mostly, and the fact that its tusks hadn't worn down. Micheal shivered, feeling his own scars sliding against the fabric of his tunic, still lightly sweat covered after coming in from the long walk from Rodust.
The next surprise came when Pelanna and Julia tried to get Leah in the guild.
“What do you mean she's already in the guild?” Pelanna asked nervously, holding her abashed friend's hand. Julia came to Pelanna's side too and put her hands on her friends shoulders to offer support.
Vivian watched Leah who shied and backed away from her gaze. Forgen and Eva looked a little unconvinced, but backed what Vivian said.
“Show me where your mark is Leah.” Vivian said somewhat gently.
Leah looked around nervously and opened her visor with her hammer still in hand.
“We're still friends right?” She asked sheepishly. “You won't be mad? I didn't mean to be away for such a long time. I get distracted sometimes and went a long ways away. --Please?” She asked, her little voice sweet and shaky.
Vivian nodded with an expression of stern understanding.
“We've never met, but Jakcova has told me about you. It's okay if you fight, but no using your...other...powers. I can't do much to stop you from doing it, but I've already had someone in the Adventurer's guild send a notice to Jakcova in case.”
Leah squeaked and drew in on herself tightly.
“I won't, I promise. I won't. Jak-Jak and Therry would be mad. I'll be good. I promise.”
Vivian nodded and took the guild charter from the lady at the desk. “Your mark please.”
“I hide it with magic, but it's on my face.” She said softly as she stepped forward.
Vivian reached out and gently shut her visor.
“It's okay there's no need to show it to everyone.” She looked to Pelanna and Julia who jumped a little at her hard stare. “If anyone has gotten you to show it to them they can just forget what they saw. You're a part of our guild and our friend so we keep your secrets okay? That was part of your deal with Jakcova when he agreed to have you as part of the guild so you could have friends. I believe that was almost forty years ago now so I guess it's okay if you forgot, but I thought I would remind you of that now that I've met you. I'll be holding you to the expectations of our founding members.”
The whole situation went from panic inducing to almost a relief in moments for Micheal. He thought for sure that Sarraleah was going to freak out, but it didn't happen.
Leah went a little stiff, but nodded and stepped a little forward for Vivian to put the closed charter book to her head. Gold light shown between the pages and then Micheal almost jumped as suddenly the mark on his hand shone for a moment and then shifted from glowing silver to dull iron and then back to bronze as thunder and rain crashed down outside. He frowned at that feeling as another little chill rushed down his spine and through the air about him.
A pair of adventurers coming in had to fight the sudden mad gust of wind to get the door to shut. Papers flew and clerks groaned.
Vivian watched, looking from Micheal to the door and then back to Leah. She softened and gave the book back to the desk clerk. She glanced at Luna who was with an energetic Lindsey who was peaking at Luna's mark as she had the edge of her skirt raised. Dexter was peaking into his shirt near the stairs as Vivian glanced back at him.
“You two as well?” Both nodded and she looked around. “Anyone see my back start glowing or should I just assume it did?”
Forgen behind her tapped her shoulder and nodded. She rolled her neck, seeming a little relieved.
“I think that meant you were our silver threat... Now dealt with.” Vivian said, coming forward and putting her hand gently on Leah's shoulders. “And if that storm tells me anything we are going to need someone like you to help with this next threat.”
“We'll help too.” Pelanna said, and shied a little at the amber light peeking out from her raiment. Then so did Julia's mark on her exposed arm. “Leah will need her friends.”
Vivian sighed at her and gave a flat look to everyone else. “All right. Let's hope we figure out what's going on then. Maybe it's the guild summons and maybe it's not. Otherwise everyone be on the lookout for the next couple of days for signs of trouble. Read all the contracts you can and talk to other groups. Maybe we can reason it out.”
She looked about at everyone, and they all took confidence in their beautiful, calm leader. Even Eva seemed to relax a little after Vivian took charge. Forgen looked like he thought it had taken long enough.
“Upstairs now I think. Lets get unpacked.”
And so everyone did.