by Pirateaba
“Sure, sure. I’ll just spend it on important stuff. Like—fancy dust rags! Or alcohol! Or…a dress?”
Selys eyed Erin sternly and shook her head.
“How about a weapon? You could probably afford a good one, with that much money.”
All told, the bounty on the Shield Spiders plus the fee she earned from selling their carcasses earned Erin just over eleven gold coins, reduced some because some of the spiders had been burned too badly to use. That was generally agreed to be a lot of money, but not a lot for the bounty on the carcasses.
One of the more senior Drake adventurers not currently staring at the Ruins leaned over the desk to talk to Erin. He was friendly and yellow-scaled, and Erin couldn’t remember his name.
“You could have gotten a far better deal selling the spider’s bodies elsewhere. Probably half again as much, especially if you went right to the right merchants. The Guild charges far too much for its service.”
Selys glared at the Drake who had spoken.
“The Guild pays a good rate for monster parts! If you’ve got a problem Ylss, take it up with the guild master – or the council.”
Ylss flicked out his tongue dismissively.
“The Guild won’t listen, and the council won’t either. But I’ve been talking to the Human adventurers and they say their guilds pay them far better than ours does.”
“That’s because Human adventurers go out and fight monsters instead of their city watch. If you want to negotiate prices, go slay a Shield Spider nest yourself. Erin here—”
Selys glanced around. She spotted Erin with her hand on the door.
“Erin, are you going already?”
Erin waved and smiled and opened the door before Selys asked if she wanted to stay. She did not, especially if it meant listening to another argument. Drakes were surprisingly – or was that unsurprisingly? – hot-headed.
It was time to go back to the inn, before she splurged on everything. So Erin only bought a few essentials from Krshia, a few more from other shops, fended off the Gnoll’s attempts to get her to have a cup of tea, and went home for lunch.
—-
When Erin returned to her inn she found it had been ransacked. She spent a few minutes staring at the trashed kitchen and her upended bags and supplies. They hadn’t ever been neatly organized in the first place, but the person – or people – who had visited her inn while she was away had tossed everything onto the floor and trampled it.
They hadn’t taken much. Erin didn’t have much. But they’d taken quite a bit of food, spilled the rest on the ground, and taken other of Erin’s vital necessities.
Like her toothbrush. When Erin realized that was gone she finally flipped. She grabbed the bag of her money – noting that the rest of the money she’d hidden in the inn was also missing – and stormed back towards the city.
—-
Selys had to half-jog to keep up with Erin as the other girl stomped through the market.
“So let me get this straight. You don’t mind monsters attacking you, but the instant someone steals from your inn you want protection?”
Erin glared at Selys.
“Yes!”
“But they didn’t even steal anything important. Some food and a few coins—”
“One gold coin and three silver coins!”
“Why didn’t you hide it better? Or put it under lock and key?”
“I don’t have a lock. Or a key!”
“We can buy a vault, or an enchanted lock and key if you want. I know a good shop—”
“No. I want a weapon.”
“Suit yourself. Here’s a good shop the adventurers talk about.”
Selys pointed and Erin made a beeline for the store manned by a burly Gnoll. He bared his teeth at Erin and nodded silently at her.
“Erin human. Greetings.”
“Hi there.”
Erin smiled back at the Gnoll, showing her teeth as well. It was a Gnoll thing which she had learned. Selys just nodded at the Gnoll without showing any teeth.
“I’m looking for a weapon.”
The Gnoll nodded and spread one hand to indicate his wares. Erin stared at a veritable armory of weapons on display. Most made sense to her, but only in the sense of having seen them in movies. They all looked sharp.
“For a friend of Krshia, I will do my best to oblige you, yes? Do you fight with any weapon besides your hands, Erin Solstice?”
“Um. No. No…in fact I’ve never held anything larger than a knife.”
The Gnoll paused as he unhooked a devilish-looking scimitar from a weapon rack. He put the weapon back and nodded.
“We have many weapons for beginners and self-defense, yes? Daggers, clubs…these weapons would be best.”
Erin stared at the dagger he carefully offered her hilt-first. It looked pointy, and the metal was polished until she could see her vague reflection in it. But that was about all she knew about weapons.
“I’m not too sure a dagger would help against most of the monsters I see wandering around my inn.”
Then again, she doubted even the battleaxes would help if she was fighting a rock crab.
“…How about a crossbow? Do you have one of those?”
Selys looked confused.
“A what? You mean something like this?”
Selys held up two bows and made an X with them. Erin laughed.
“No! Never mind.”
The Gnoll shopkeeper scratched at his head and then shook himself. It was like a dog and Erin unconsciously edged away in case he had fleas.
“I have heard of these weapons. Minotaurs use them and some humans in southern continents. But they are not common or easy to obtain here, yes? It would cost many gold coins and take months to arrive.”
“Okay, no crossbow then.”
Erin sighed and stared at the racks of weapons.
“You don’t have to buy a weapon, you know. I keep telling you our adventurers will guard your inn.”
“For eight silver coins a day per adventurer? And that’s for the lowest-level ones, right? No thank you.”
Erin shook her head. She had a better idea than Selys’s option in mind, and fortunately it didn’t involve her learning to poke people with bits of metal.
“Do you have any good short swords? Is that a short sword?”
The Gnoll nodded. Her pulled a sword that was indeed short off the display and placed it on the counter. Erin poked the hilt gingerly, keeping her fingers away from the blade. Selys hovered beside Erin, making sure the human’s hands were well away from the blade. Both she and the Gnoll seemed more anxious than Erin was around bladed weapons.
“You know buying a sword won’t immediately give you any classes? You need weeks—months of practice before you’ll learn any skills. And I wouldn’t try swinging it around by yourself Erin, I really wouldn’t.”
“I’m not stupid.”
“No, but—”
“How much?”
“For you, two gold coins and three silver.”
Erin looked at Selys. The Drake nodded cautiously.
“That’s expensive. But it is good craftsmanship.”
“Fine steel. You will not find better in the city.”
The Gnoll nodded and tapped the blade. He seemed honest, at least in that Erin hadn’t met a dishonest Gnoll yet. They were a bit more straightforward than Drakes, while Drakes were more like humans.
“Okay, how about a shield? A uh, buckler? Is that what they’re called?”
She pointed and the Gnoll brought out a metal shield rounded in the center. It was a tiny shield, meant to be held in the hand to deflect weapons rather than arrows.
Selys objected.
“It’s too small. Look, you need a larger shield if you really want to equip yourself. Which I still don’t recommend, by the way.”
“I know what I’m doing Selys. Anyways, it’s not for myself. How much for both?”
“We do not sell many bucklers. I will sell both for four gold coin
s Erin Solstice, so long as you promise not to use either without first being instructed.”
She grinned at him, her hands already going into her money pouch.
“Deal. But like I said, these aren’t for me. They’re a gift. Or maybe a bribe.”
Selys was shaking her head as the coins changed hands and the Gnoll found a sheathe for the short sword.
“A bribe? For who? Who’d use something as small as—wait. You’re not thinking of—Erin! No!”
Erin lifted both weapons into her arms. Even with her [Lesser Strength] skill, they were heavy. She turned to Selys and copied the Drake’s exasperated expression.
“Why not? They’re cheap, I know them personally, and they live around my inn.”
“They’ll stab you in the back when you’re asleep!”
Erin walked away from the Gnoll shopkeeper, arguing with Selys as he watched them in bemusement.
“They haven’t done it so far. Besides, these are the good ones. Well, sort of good. I already feed them.”
“This is a terrible idea, you’ll see.”
“No, it’s a great idea. You’ll see.”
—-
Rags stared down at the shiny weapons Erin offered her and then up at the human smiling at her. Slowly, the small Goblin shook her head.
Erin’s face fell. She thrust the sheathed short sword at the Goblin and the Goblin backed up into her bodyguards.
“No? Why not? Come on, it’s a great deal!”
Rags shook her head again, and the other Goblins following her moved in front of her and barred Erin’s way. The far taller innkeeper scowled at them and they quailed a bit, but there were seven Goblins including Rags in the inn, and only one Erin. If it came to it—
They’d probably run. But strangely, Rags was confident Erin would never try to hurt them. She was a strange human, possibly a good one. She just had terrible ideas, like the deal she was offering the Goblins.
“Look. It’s really simple okay? I’ll give you these weapons and feed you guys as much as you want. In return you guard my inn. Keep thieves and monsters away. It’s not a bad deal, right?”
It was a bad deal. While Rags was no eloquent orator, her own train of thought was quite clear. Her splintered tribe had been small even before the Chieftain had been killed. Now, it was in a power struggle and Rags was leading the smaller breakaway faction who didn’t believe all humans should be eaten on sight.
More than that, the small Goblin knew the Floodplains and was sure that defending the inn was a death sentence. What the strange human girl was offering was a terrible deal. The magnificent weapons tempted Rags greatly, but even they couldn’t outweigh the massive disadvantages of Erin’s deal.
Now, how to explain that to an idiot? Rag’s brow furrowed and she tried her best. She gargled a few syllables in her own language at Erin, and then tried the language Erin spoke in. Neither worked. Erin just stared at her blankly, like one of the grazing animals—cows.
“You don’t want the sword?”
Rags nodded. She pointed at the other Goblins and at the ground and then shook her head.
“But you don’t want to guard.”
Rags nodded again.
“Why? Is it because there aren’t enough of you?”
Nod, nod. At last Erin was getting it.
“Well—you could be tactical about it, couldn’t you? What if I got you a bow and arrow? That might be better than running around in a huge mob like you guys do.”
This time all the Goblins glared at Erin. That was valid, traditional Goblin tactic. Rags had improved on the formula by swarming in controlled bursts and incorporating devilishly cunning tactics like feints into their strategy, but swarming was what Goblins did best.
“Fighting in a huge mob just doesn’t seem that smart is all I’m saying. But what if you all had bows or something?”
Again, Rags shook her head. She mimed shooting an arrow and then poked the Goblin in the head next to her gently.
“Oh, not strong enough? Really?”
Nod. Rags really wished she could speak other languages, or barring that, one human could understand her. It was just as well she was a genius and Erin was bright enough so they could communicate this way.
And it seemed like Erin got it. Bows were useful, but not as good as having many knives. Goblin’s shorter reach and weaker strength meant that they couldn’t fire as far or as hard as a human or Drake archer anyways.
“I get it. Small arms and small bows, right? Size does matter. Too bad you don’t have any crossbows.”
Rag’s ears perked up at that. But the Goblin didn’t react in any other way, letting the human girl muse on, oblivious.
“I guess—well, yeah, anyone in armor wouldn’t be killed by a few arrows. But crossbows and longbows can pierce that stuff, right? But longbows—”
Erin eyed the Goblins. They were around four feet tall on average, and only the weird ones like the Chieftain got any taller. And even he would have had trouble stringing the massive longbows that could reach up to seven feet in length.
“Life is tough, huh?”
This time all the Goblins nodded. Life was tough. They were at war—well, Goblins were always at war, but this time they were at war with each other. The tribe was small, food was scarce because winter was coming, and they only had a weird human in an inn to feed them food in between running from the countless adventurers pouring into the region.
“Well, I guess I could return these things.”
Erin sighed and placed the short sword and buckler on a table. She noted how all the Goblin’s eyes were drawn covetously towards the weapon. Drat. She’d thought it was a good idea, but when she really thought about it she understood Rags’ predicament.
Besides, when Erin stood in front of the tiny Goblin girl she felt like she was still speaking to a child. Perhaps—perhaps she was. How long did it take for Goblins to grow up? How could you tell how old they were anyways?
Erin eyed all the Goblins as they seemed to confer with their leader, Rags. They were injured, most of them. They came into her inn every few days and ate as much as they could before waddling out, and they paid. But Erin had the distinct impression the battle that had started at her inn hadn’t ended with Klbkch. The Goblin’s faces were hard to remember, but some changed every few days. And Rags had her own cuts and scars on her body.
They were—well, they were evil, some of them. But the ones in front of Erin struck a chord with her. A sense of shared suffering, perhaps. And Erin had an idea that would help them, and maybe her a tiny bit.
She stood up. The Goblins immediately looked up at her. Erin pointed.
“Stay there. And don’t steal the sword or I’ll flatten you, got it?”
She walked back into her trashed kitchen that she still hadn’t found the time to tidy up. She walked to the back of the kitchen and opened a cupboard and stared at the jars inside. The thief who’d ransacked her inn hadn’t even gone near this cupboard, or tried to drink what was inside. Very wise, given the contents of the jars.
The goblins were all crowded around the short sword when Erin lugged the massive jar of acid fly juice back into the room. They were gingerly touching the blade and cutting their fingers on the edge when they looked up. When they saw what Erin was carrying they immediately fled for the door.
“Hold it!”
Rags paused and tripped up the Goblins behind her. They crashed into a pile and she stared suspiciously at Erin as the human groaned and set the jar on the floor. She rubbed her back and beckoned at the Goblin.
“I’ve got an idea that’ll help both us out. And I’ll give you the sword and buckler, okay? I’ll put it on your tab.”
That did the trick. Rags was over caressing the blade in a second. Erin pointed to the acid jars.
“You know what this is, right?”
Rags nodded. She kept a very respectful distance from the green, glowing acid sloshing in the jar and made the other Goblins stand even further back. That mad
e Erin feel better too. She wouldn’t put it past one of them to trip into the glass jar, and that would not be a pretty sight.
She patted the glass jar.
“Dangerous stuff. And I don’t want it. But what if I gave you some smaller jars? You could sort of throw this stuff at people, right? Not on Shield Spiders, though. It doesn’t really work on them. But other things—yeah. What do you think?”
She pulled out a small, human fist-sized jar and showed it to Rags. The Goblin blinked down at the small jar and they looked at the bigger glass jar in sudden comprehension.
“I’ll sell you these acid jars and you can pay me, okay?”
Erin waited. Rags studied the green acid fly liquid mixed with the occasional fly body. She knew fully well how dangerous the acid was. She was also impressed Erin was brave enough to harvest the acid flies, especially given how big some of them got. And the deal she was offering?
That was a good deal.
The Goblin looked at the jars and saw a thousand different tactical options, not least of which was letting other Goblins drink the deadly acid if she left it out in the open. Erin looked at the Goblins and saw a convenient recycling machine that might pay her.
Both human and Goblin smiled.
—-
It was weird making a deal in sign language, but Erin had played chess players from other countries before. Even a deaf chess player and two mute ones. One of them had kicked her ass twice in a row, and she’d had a great time laughing with him over a stupid move she’d made—
The point was that she could communicate more or less with Rags. The small Goblin was extremely smart, and that was before you compared her with the other Goblins following her. They’d contented themselves with picking their noses and wiping their fingers on each other while she and Rags ‘talked’.
Eventually, the deal had been for Rags and her Goblins to pay several bronze coins per jar of acid. It wasn’t much, especially since Erin would have to buy newer, smaller jars for the Goblins to carry. But it was better than her pouring the acid out on the ground like she’d been doing. There was a huge scar in the earth outside of her inn that testified to how smart that idea was.
