There was something strange with the girl. For starters, she had just randomly shouted out strange gibberish. And secondly, somehow, within the limited contact they had with her, everyone in the party didn’t want to harm her.
It had taken a bit for Thea to realize what had happened, but she did. Honestly, why would she pick up a small girl who she had watched transform from a Fenrir wolf and take her back to a village?
The answer? She wouldn’t. But something had happened to her, presumably caused by the girl. Even now, she didn’t want to harm the girl. It’d be so easy to kill her, and probably safer too, but she didn’t want to. She’d have to report this when they get back.
On the bright side, the girl didn’t seem to have any malicious intentions towards the party. It’d be perfectly safe to…no. It was happening again. She was putting her guard down. What was happening?
Fuck. Oh well. She’d tell the guild. They could deal with it.
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It only took an hour to get out of Mildrgar Forest, as they didn’t have to scour the forest for an animal. They gathered quite a few looks as they walked through the town, seeing as how they were carrying a child with them. They gathered just as many, if not more looks when they entered the guild.
Thea turned to Jorreck and held out the girl. “If it’s not too much to ask, could you get her settled in our room? I’ll probably need to have some words with the guild master about this, and you’re the least likely to do something to her.”
He nodded, took the girl from her, and headed upstairs. Thea turned back to the counter, raising an eyebrow at the receptionist who had heard her request.
“Well? This is an urgent matter. I’d rather get it done sooner rather than later.” The receptionist nodded, and headed down a hall behind the counter. A few moments later, she returned and gestured for Thea to head down the hall.
Having seen the guild master a few times before, she knew where his room was. She thanked the receptionist, gave one last glare to Havel, and went to give her report.
The guild master’s office wasn’t anything impressive, in that there was nothing but a desk, a few chairs, and a window. He had confided in her before that anything more would simply be a distraction for his work.
Sitting behind the desk was the man himself. Finn had been an incredible force back in his younger years, but the years had not been kind to him. Where he used to be nothing but muscle, he was now approaching skin and bone territory. His hair even had hints of grey, giving away his age.
“Ah, Thea, so glad to see you back safely. I’m going to go ahead and say that something went wrong on your latest mission, leading to you being here now instead of celebrating?” He gestured towards a chair, inviting her to sit, which she gladly accepted.
“That’s one way to put it. The wolf was a Fenrir, not a Grand Dire Wolf, and now it’s a little girl who is currently up in our room, and seems to have a passive aura that reduces all negative thoughts someone might have towards her.” Thea plopped her head down on his desk in defeat, letting out a large sigh.
“…excuse me?”
“Well, you see,” she started, as she promptly told the guild master exactly what had happened. The story didn’t actually take that long, as she skipped over most of the little details, and she finished her retelling of events in a few minutes.
Finn sighed, leaned back in his chair, and massaged the bridge of his nose. “Okay. I’m inclined to believe she is currently untouchable, if only because she is passively negating any thoughts of harming her. I would recommend we get rid of her here and now, but according to what you just told me, we can’t.”
“I’d like to meet her, if that isn’t too much to ask. She’s up in your room?” He said, as he stood up. Thea only nodded. She knew how stubborn the guild master could get at times, so she could only follow his whims in situations like this.
They came out from the back hall to see the rest of the party lounging in a sitting area. When Jorreck saw them, he stood and approached them.
“She didn’t put up any fuss. She just laid on the bed and rolled around a bit. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think she was just a normal eight year-old.”
Thea nodded, and led the way up to their room. When they reached the door, she paused and listened for movement inside. Not hearing anything, she opened the door.
She was greeted by three empty beds, a pile of dirty laundry, and an open window. She glanced at Jorreck, and, after studying his face for a moment, turned back to the empty room.
“Well, fuck.”
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Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Briar had gotten bored so quickly. There had been nothing else to do in the room. She couldn’t even rifle through their shit, as she could only find a pile of dirty laundry that belonged to them. Though, surprisingly, the beds were rather comfortable.
She would have walked out the front door, but she didn’t think that’d be allowed. After all, she had heard the door lock to the room she was in after the giant had left. Thankfully, it seemed that he hadn’t bothered to lock the window.
She slid the window open and glanced out. She was up on the second floor, but if she hung down, she should be able to drop safely. She nodded to herself and crawled out the window.
Dangling down from the window, a breeze reminded her that she was still naked except for the bathrobe. Her mind flashed back to the pile of dirty laundry in the room. A quick debate, and she decided to ignore it. She didn’t know how dirty they were. She had standards.
Dropping down, she let out a small grunt when she hit the ground. She stood up, brushed herself off, and looked around with a grin. Thankfully, she had been in an alley, so nobody had seen her escape. Trotting out onto the main road, she finally took in her surroundings as she started to wander.
Each and every building was around five stories tall, and many actually had glass windows. There were many lamp posts on the main street, and they didn’t look to be lantern lamps, or whatever they’re called. Honestly, when she had first seen the gear the party had been wearing, she was afraid the world would be in medieval times, but this was closer to the late 1800s. Still behind her current standards, but much better than she had expected.
Maybe it was just something to do with magic? Firearms did have more parts than a simple sword or bow. Speaking of, did that mean that the amount of magic in an item would determine how useful it would be?
Would a steel sword be weaker than an iron sword with magic, or would it still be stronger than the iron? Were there magic metals in this world? What type of swords did they make in this country? After all, western countries back on Earth were known for a different type of sword than the eastern countries.
She shook her head. This wasn’t good. Her curiosity and ADHD had apparently followed her. Either that, or her new body came with those traits pre programmed already. That’d suck. Oh well. She could explore more now.
The first order of business was to sate her curiosity, and that would require finding a blacksmith. Now. Where’s the blacksmith?
She grinned as a memory of a youtube video surfaced, but her mind quickly got back on track. She wanted-no, needed to get answers. She would search this entire town twice if necessary. She really hoped it wasn’t. She hated walking.
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She received quite a few strange looks as she walked down the main road. It might have had to do with the fact that a child was wearing nothing but a pink bathrobe. Unlike her last life, the stares didn’t bother her. She even felt…proud? Why was she proud?
The clothing of everyone else, however, further convinced her that this time era was around the late 1800s. She couldn’t exactly put it into words, but it just felt that way. Though, it could have been the early 1900s too. She wasn’t a good judge of attire and what era it came from.
On the bright side, she had found a blacksmith. At least, she thought so. There were multiple weapons on display, and there was a picture of what looked to be an anvil-kinda thing on the sign with the shop’s name.
Shrugging, she pushed the door open and cautiously crept in. There was a grizzled old man standing behind a counter, head down, with soft snores coming from him. That was fine. She couldn’t speak their language yet anyway.
She walked behind the counter and into the work area, where, yep, she was greeted with the sight of a forge. The coals were still burning, and a sword was laying by a grindstone. She searched and searched, but she couldn’t find any ingots of metal laying around.
Eventually, she grew tired of all the searching, and sat down in front of the kinda-anvil. It was at this exact moment that the man from behind the counter came into the back room. He paused in shock, before he started shouting at her.
“Jru! Ejsy yjr jraa str upi fpomh nsvl jrtr!? Upi strm’y diqqpdrf yp nr nsvl jrtr!” She just kinda stared at him. She didn’t know why, but since he came in, she had been smelling something delicious.
“Hp pm! Hry piy pg jrtr! Dypq givlomh dystomh sy zr smf hry yjr givl piy!” She stood up, and the man smirked at her. She slowly walked to the exit. But when she reached where he stood, she stopped.
“Yjr givl upi applom sy?” She swallowed. Almost unconsciously, claws extended from her fingers. Before the man could even make another sound, she struck. His throat opened up, and blood started to pour out. All that came out of his mouth was a strange gurgling noise.
She grabbed him as he fell and dragged him out of sight of the front part of the store. She laid him down on the ground and straddled him. Surprisingly, he still hadn’t died. But that was fine. She’d just get to see how someone would react as their skull was slowly split open.
And she did just that. Using one of her still extended claws-how’d she do that?- she slowly cut his scalp in half, before she saw his skull. The man had unfortunately passed out while she was cutting, but that was also fine. Everytime he tried to speak, the blood from his throat spurted up at her.
After quite a bit of stabbing and scratching, she managed to crack his skull open. There. There was the source of the good smell. She cut out a piece of his brain and held it up. Some small part of her was wondering what the fuck was happening, but it was buried so deep it couldn’t be heard.
She shoved the entire chunk in her mouth and chewed. Not the best texture, but it tasted incredible. As if she was possessed, she quickly grabbed the rest of his brain and slowly devoured it.
As she ate, she could feel new things being added to her mind. She didn’t know what exactly. It was like a memory. You wouldn’t know of it unless it was mentioned, but as soon as it was, you’d remember. If that made any sense.
When she was finally done, her rationality came back to her. She stared down at the man she had just murdered. She had to admit, this was a new experience. She…didn’t actually feel that bad about it. Now she just had to make sure she wouldn’t get caught.
Naturally, it was at this exact moment she heard someone walking around the front of the shop; wooden floors aren’t exactly the best for sneaking. But the strange thing was that the footsteps were approaching the back room at a quick pace.
Her brain had only just remembered that she was sitting on top of a mutilated corpse when the person rounded the corner. It was the woman who had carried her out of the forest. The woman froze in place.
A small, embarrassed smile found its way onto Briar’s face.
“Uh. Hi?”