She had to put up with a measuring tape circling every piece of her as the armorer called out numbers. She never did ask Bertold about their measurement system. She’d have to do that tomorrow morning when her next round of questions started up. Speaking of which, didn’t he mention something about the Hunter’s Guild? Had Norcross hijacked that too? She felt the urge to turn her head and glare but the armorer had already been complaining about how fidgety she already was. It wasn’t her fault! The measuring rope tickled!

The armorer finally got around to introducing himself. “I’m Nate by the way.”

“Cassidy.” She took a measured breath. Trying to be amiable despite all the indignations.

It must of worked. He continued about his work before trying to strike up conversation. “So, you must be a friend of Raylen then.”

She looked over at ‘Raylen’. He didn’t contradict the man so she stayed silent. Didn’t stop Nate.

“Raylen comes to me for all his armoring needs. Always brings his friends too. Claims I’m the best one in the city.” He spoke up with pride at that. Cassidy just listened and made agreeable noises.

Raylen finally decided to join the conversation for ones. "You don't have to make it sound like a compliment. It's the truth. With your Fitting Skill Set you were able to make yourself a set of scale armor so fine it earned you Points."

The man actually blushed before turning his focus back to Alera. “You chose a good piece. One of the best ones you can get for a ranger, minus enchantments and all. A bit expensive for a Tier 1 though.” He looked up at that as if asking a question. She ignored him and focused on the far wall. It was splintering. The man finally picked up on the mood and just got back to work. She found it odd he’d left Norcross out of the conversation entirely. Maybe he was already used to Norcross’ taciturn personality. Luckily after that social ordeal, the measurements were finished quite quickly. He asked her to give him a week and shooed the both of them out.

As they stepped out of the store, Cassidy looked over to Norcross, his eyes were examining the street for… something. “Raylen?” She asked.

He stepped out into the human flow. “You’re welcome to call me that if you’d like.”

She wasn’t sure she liked. She was holding onto several grudges now. “Bertold only gave you one name.”

He looked back to make sure she was following. “Most people don’t bother with a family name.”

“Oh.” That seemed sad. She thought of all her family gone and buried. What would be left if they had no name to share? “Mine’s Lennox.”

He paused and looked at her. “I forgot. Bertold said you owned land. It’s rare to have a name to pass on without land to go with it.”

“So, farmers?”

“Rent land from nobles.”

She paused, remembering the knights’ introductions. “Does that make all four of you nobles?”

He kept walking. “Of a kind.”

Of a kind? What was that even supposed to mean? She thought it was pretty black and white. Did that mean anything for her? Before she could ask, he spoke up.

“That reminds me, Bertold said you needed your land registered. Why don’t we grab lunch and then I can take you to the Bureau so you don’t run into any problems?”

She was still staring at the back of his head in suspicion. “Only if you let me buy.” No way was she going to let him pull that stunt on her again.

He was silent for a good few paces before he responded. “Fine, but you are going to need my help if you want to get registered.”

“Fine, fine.” She said happily. A weight was lifted off her chest.

Everything finally went smoothly. Norcross let her pay. She ignored her dwindling funds, counting on Bertold’s sales. They maintained a light, friendly conversation and Norcross cut through the bureaucratic tape like butter. Leaving her to highlight on a magical map where her home was. The clerk noted it down and Norcross leaned in to see how far away it was from the city.

“That’s quite the trip.” He said still staring at it. “I never realized you guys had been traveling for so long when we met you.”

“Yeah, it wasn’t fun” she admitted. “I think I like hunting far more than exploring. There’s too much traveling involved.”

He nodded with a smile.

“You’d best tag along with any caravans on your way back. There’s a lot of space there to run into bandits.”

At this, she nodded too.

Once they were out, she thanked him and said she’d head back. Norcross just followed along beside her “…in order to keep his guest from getting lost.” She just gave up at this point. It wasn’t worth the fight.

They met Shakira and Edel in the tavern next to the inn and shared some drinks with them. Shakira seemed set on trying to pull Cassidy out of her shell, giving Shakira an ongoing battle. The alcohol may have helped in the end. Cassidy didn’t remember what happened when she woke up in the morning. She did feel like this hangover was a good reason for her Resilience to go up, though a quick view of her Attributes proved her wrong. She did notice she was close to breaking through on Speed and Stillness was still stuck at 9.9.

Muttering about flawed worlds, she got dressed in yesterday’s clothes, planning on adventures that wouldn’t allow for a dress, and put her weapon in place. She went downstairs to see Bertold at a table and joined him. He waved over the server to ask for their breakfast. She felt like a plant wilting from dehydration.

“Not feeling too good, are we?” He asked with a smirk.

She picked up her hanging head to glare at him. “How the hell are you so fine?”

He laughed. “I don’t throw ‘em back like you do. Gotta say, I’ve never seen a Tier 1 challenge a Tier 4’s alcohol tolerance. You were doomed from the start.”

She was frowning now. “I don’t remember any of this.”

He let out a chuckle and grabbed one of the plates being offered to them. “That does not surprise me one bit. If it helps,” He glanced over. “You held your own longer than any of us expected.”

She ignored her plate and just dropped her head to the table. The inevitable smack lighting up fire through her brain. “Just keep that crazy woman away from me. I do enough stupid things on my own.”

He dug in, ignoring her pain. “That you do.”

She glanced at her plate through a screen of hair. “Did Norcross—”

“—Raylen now.” She looked up at him. “That was one of the losing sides of the bet. You have to call them all by their first names now.”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

She frowned. “I don’t want to be overly familiar.”

“They insisted. Each of them.”

Damn.

“Why do they keep bothering with me? I mean Norcross was trying to buy me stuff all day yesterday.”

“It’s Raylen now. And don’t forget, you’re an Initiate baby bird without a resource in the world.”

“No need to insult me.”

“Fine.” He smirked. “They’ve just taken an interest in you and are trying to be supportive. Raylen… is very prominent. I’m sure fiscal responsibility made sense to him.”

She was glaring at the table. “Well it’s damn insulting to me. I’m an adult. I can take care of myself. Besides, you never bothered helping me. I had to drag every answer out of you with tooth and nail.”

“Yeah, but I never took interest in you. Just your property.” She glared at him but he was unrepentant. “Look, just set some boundaries. Explain what you’re not ok with. They won’t mind. Afterall they’re just trying to be helpful.”

“By getting me drunk enough to black out?”

He burst out laughing at the memory. “Yeah, like that. But in case you’ve forgotten, you made plans with Shakira too.”

She looked at him in disbelief.

“No, really. You’re meeting for dinner here tonight to discuss dress patterns and patenting.”

She chose to change the subject. Pulling her head up and scooting in her chair. “How goes our inventory? Met with any buyers yet?”

That changed his tune. He looked down at his food and grimaced “Not yet.”

She waited. He didn’t elaborate. Their usual dynamic. She moved on.

“Are you taking me by the Hunter’s Guild today?”

He shook his head. “Raylen wanted to get you a dagger. He said it wasn’t safe for you to just use a bow.” She turned more fully to glare at him. He continued, “I believe it was around that time you threw up on his shoes.”

She just groaned.

He stood up. “You’ll have to face him and his money eventually. Best get it out of the way now.”

She was growling now but he just walked away.

Her breakfast had grown cold during their talk but she munched on some of the eggs anyway. It was always important to keep your strength up. That was one habit she was more than happy to continue. She didn’t know what to do about Raylen though. When were they even suppose to meet? She had bigger plans, like the Adventurers’ Guild. Granted she had planned on buying a dagger first, but she no longer wanted Raylen’s help. He’d take her somewhere fancy she couldn’t afford and then buy it himself. Yet, if she left without him, that would be a direct slap to his face and he’d been nothing but kind.

What she really needed was to walk her dogs. That was something to do besides worry. She got up and went over to the server, resting against the wall. “Sorry to bother you, but I need to take my Companions’ for a walk. Do you have any suggestions on where we should go?”

She looked at me askance. “You’re the one with those two monsters?”

Well she didn’t have to put it that way. “Yes.” Cassidy tried to keep the smile up.

She was silent a moment. “If you follow Weaver street to Weevil and make right, just keep walking till you see green. You’ll know when you get there.”

“Thanks.” It was more grimace than a smile at this point but it worked. Cassidy made some more credits magically roll out of the air into her hand before offering them to the server. That earned her a smile and a kind good-bye

Koda and Sugarbear were ecstatic to leave the small room. She hated to do it to her babies and ruin their fun but she gave a firm heel command and they fell in to either side, their jubilance restrained. As she walked out of the inn she turned back to the server. “If anyone asks, you know to tell them where I am?”

“Sure, sure.” A lazy flip of the hand.

Good enough. She hit the streets in the early morning sun. Koda and Sugarbear stuck to her sides but their noses were waving all over the place. A few people stopped to stare. She just kept her eyes on the signs. Weevil Street, Weevil Street, Wee—” There it was. Turn right.

She almost walked into a man loading up a cart. “Woah.” He was backing away from her dogs like they carried the plague. He stopped to glare at her. “Don’t just let those things run loose! They’re going to cause an accident.” They were fine. She just walked by. “Hey! HEY!” He was flat out yelling now so she did bother to stop and turned back to glare at him.

“What?”

“I said—”

“I heard what you said. Obviously, it was useless. These are Companions you moron. Leashing them would not only be ridiculous but insulting.” She swiveled on her heel and continued before he could chime back in. She had learned recently how rare Companions were. She learned people never wanted to share their growth with a Companion and even Bertold didn’t know anyone with two, but she didn’t feel an ounce of grace this morning. She was being unfair, but her hangover and just everything going on made her grumpy. She had other problems to worry about!

It took a good while, but they eventually saw the green and with a whistle let her dogs free. They knew where to go and went of running to play in the tall grass, shaded by a few trees. A few people startled at the running mass of canine but no one else seemed bothered. She caught up just as the two started a game of tug-a-war with a stick. Leaning back against a tree she just watched them. They stayed there until noon when Norcross, Raylen, whatever, showed up. He stayed mostly silent as the dogs wrestled with each other but spoke up when they broke apart.

“I neve did get to see your dogs in action on the trip.”

“Well there wasn’t much action.”

“You plan on taking them to the dungeons with you?”

She glanced at him uncertain now. “Is there a reason I shouldn’t?”

He shook his head. “Just take a map, you’ll want to avoid the areas with narrow tunnels.”

“Right.” He was so much more helpful than Bertold. If only he didn’t try to buy stuff for her.

“Bertold… reminded me we talked about a dagger last night.”

Now he laughed. “I may have mentioned one but you weren’t in the mood to talk.”

Her face heated, so embarrassing. “Right, Sorry about that.”

He just waved it off, still smiling. “No worries Sharika’s done worse. In case you didn’t notice, she can get a little wild.”

It was her turn to laugh at that understatement. “I’m never drinking with her again.”

“Never say never. She has her ways.”

“But about that dagger. If you still want to help. I have a budget of about 400 credits and could use advice on a shop… and probably the weapon itself.”

He was working to hold back a smile and failing miserably. “400 should be more then enough to get you dagger. In fact, you could probably by three well made ones at that price but sure and I’d be happy to help.”

There. Confrontation done. She nodded her head in thanks and whistled to her dogs. They ran over. Even playing half the morning hadn’t worn them out. Attributes were something else.

Raylen took her to a decent blacksmith that sold her two reliable daggers for half the price she’d been willing to spend. Better yet, once it was over, Raylen was happy to direct her toward the Adventurer’s Guild and send her on her way. Not pushy at all. She was humming a happy tune by the time she stepped foot in the building and even the daunting task of figuring out the unknown didn’t stop her. She turned to skim down the line of requests on the wall. Most required parties, all asked for Tier 2’s or more. That was fine. She was more interested in the dungeon. It was recommended for Tier 2’s but wouldn’t stop her at Tier 1. Besides, Bertold had pointed out her Skills should let her handle anything Tier 2 with ease. People made way for her, or rather, her dogs as she approached the line to the dungeon clerk. She ignored the stares.

As she was waiting, she remembered something and took out her broach from yesterday. Fixing it to the front of her shirt she continued to wait. Once it became her turn the clerk just looked at her broach and said. “You really need a party.” No one said anything about that before.

“It’s fine. I got it.” Still hummin her happy tune. The clerk hesitated before handing over a map with reluctance.

He called after as she was leaving. “We are not responsible for any damage or loss of life!” She just kept humming and grabbed a seat at a nearby table.

The map was complicated. Things looked fairly simple at the start. Two winding paths that broke off into large caverns, but after the first three the options exploded. Paths and caverns went everywhere, eventually some stairs indicated there was another level if she ever made it that far but she was more than happy to keep to the first few caverns. Any farther and she was sure she’d get lost.

Steps sounded behind her and she looked to see a young man with several people at his back. They were all varied in shapes and sizes but one looked like she had a nose that could cut metal. A bow was on her back. The man introduced himself with a friendly grin. “Hi, I’m Tremaine and this my party: Drev, Nissi, Carbain, and Lor. We’ve been practicing some dungeon runs recently and I just noticed your about to start too.” She nodded not sure which name went with what person. He pulled up a seat. The rest of his group found places to sit or stand elsewhere.

“A Tier 1 challenging the dungeon sounds pretty brave.”

“Or stupid.” Someone muttered under their breath.

Like any good salesman he flowed right past that comment to keep up his spiel. “You’d get a lot more out of it though if you have a party to protect you. Why don’t you join us on our next run? You’ll be able to go deeper and get a lot more experience for when you strike out on your own.” He was meeting her with crystal blue eyes and a smile so wide it was showing teeth.

She instantly did not like this guy. Never trust someone who smiles that much, but Raylen’s words were rolling through her head and they had an archer. Maybe if she was nice enough she'd get to learn more about their Skill Sets and ask all those questions she'd bothered Bertold with. So, she answered his smile with one of her own. “Sure, that sounds like it’ll be very helpful!”

“Great.” He laughed. “We’ll be meeting out side the dungeon tomorrow at noon.”

He got up to leave. “See you then.”

She watched them go out and felt stares all coming her way. When she went to meet them though, they were always looking somewhere else entirely.