Book 1, Verse 16

Vivian was covered in sweat and her outfit was much dirtier than it had been when I saw her earlier in the day. Her long and wavy brown hair was now dirtied and clumped up, and under her hood I could see her pale skin was red from effort.

“So Shinko, how did things go with Niels?” She asked with a hint of smugness in her voice. “Did he end up having mercy and not alerting the authorities about you?”

She sat down beneath the lone tree that stood in the center of Clearwood’s plaza. The shade was cool and comfortable in the afternoon light of the sun.

Now it was my turn to be a little smug.

“You could say that.” I replied as I sat down next to her. “He did not, in fact, alert the town guard to my presence. He did decide to finance our trip and come along with us, if that means anything.”

Vivian looked gobsmacked.

I slowly turned my head towards her and feigned surprise at her expression.

“Oh? Has something I said surprised you? Whatever could have caused such an odd reaction?”

“Quit being smart!” She playfully shoved me away. “I was just surprised that a tiny little baby was able to convince a fully-grown elf to help us.” She quickly regained her composure and looked down at me with a smirk. “Though I guess little babies are pretty cute.”

I looked up at her indignantly in the light of the afternoon sun.

She was a little taller than me; if I had to guess, I would say she was only four or five inches above me.

Okay, maybe that wasn’t strictly a “little” taller than me; but in my defense she was still well under six feet tall, meaning that she was in the same height range as me, meaning she was not allowed to call me short!

Five feet four inches tall is a completely respectable height for a man.

“‘Short priest.’ Maybe that’s what I should call you instead of ‘strange priest.’” She smiled playfully.

“No! I am not short! Short ends at five feet tall!” I said defensively.

In response to this, Vivian laughed a little.

“Well that’s not accurate at all! Even little children are that tall.” She scoffed. “Besides, who measures things with their feet?” She leaned against the trunk of the tree and crossed her legs.

“What do you mean?” I was confused, then realized something horrible.

I cleared my throat as Vivian relaxed.

“Vivian, how do you measure how tall something is?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, I measure in feet, but what do you measure in?”

“Why are you asking?” She replied, confused. “Oh, right. Monastery.” She leaned her head from side to side and thought for a few moments. “I guess it depends on where I am. In Clearwood, I’m thirty four sprigs tall.”

“Sprigs?” My voice wavered.

“Yeah. I think in Kuzges I’d be… two silvers and three coppers tall.”

“What?” My voice started to become desperate.

“In Taggen, where I grew up, I think I’d be near one dormet tall.”

It was worse than I feared.

There was no standardized unit of measurement for height.

I opened my mouth to stop the insanity from continuing, but Vivian looked like she remembered something.

“Back to the important stuff; how on Firma did you get Niels to agree to help us? What did you tell him?” She was genuinely curious and shifted so that she faced me better while I sat next to her.

I made eye contact with her for a few moments before I started speaking.

“I told him about how he’d lost his faith and hope in God, and he decided that he wanted to find it again.”

Vivian nodded, expecting me to go on.

I blinked at her.

“That’s it?” She said, deadpan.

“What else do you want me to say?” I replied. “That’s what happened!”

“You’re a bad storyteller.” Vivian blew me off. “So when are we going to go?”

“Niels said that he’ll be ready to meet us in the town center tomorrow morning.” I looked at her. “But enough about what I did; how did things go for you?”

Vivian’s generally playful expression disappeared and was replaced by a kind of grim stoicism that I’d only seen while playing army shooter games back home.

“We were outnumbered twelve to one. They had our backs against the wall. I still remember the bloodcurdling cries for help that came from the wounded as they were picked off one by one. If you were there, you would’ve been crying like the short little baby you are.”

“Enough about my height!” I interrupted.

She snickered.

“Was it really that bad?” I asked, concerned.

“Not at all. The Monster Hunters tend to have really slow business in the spring months. All the winter monsters are either dead or sleeping and I don’t think any morads have been seen in seventy years.” She leaned forward and pulled her hood back, letting her wavy brown hair fall as she put her head against the tree. “All I did was help a few people take care of some dolnits that were spotted close by.”

“...Could you tell me what dolnits are?” I asked hesitantly.

“Oh, I thought you knew; I’m pretty sure that all kinds of monsters are used in stories in the holy writ.” She didn’t smile. “After all, every priest I’ve met usually compares me to them.” She didn’t sound amused.

I shook my head, and she continued.

“Dornits are like dogs; you know what dogs are, right?”

I nodded.

“Alright; except unlike dogs, they have these claws that can sink into their paws and they never have tails. They usually hunt in packs of four or five, and someone spotted a few near the edge of town yesterday. It didn’t take long for us to find and kill them.” She said plainly.

“And what’s a morad?”

“Morads are like bears, but they’re bigger, have scales instead of fur, and dig really well.” She shrugged. “But no one’s seen any for a long time. I think Niels told me that they were all gone.”

I processed the information she gave me for a few moments.

“So, how much did you get for dealing with those dornits?”

“Not much; like I said, the spring isn’t a good time to hunt monsters.”

“Wait, if that’s the case, then why did you want me to work at the tanners? Wouldn’t they also be having slow business during the spring?”

“Why is that?” She asked.

I narrowed my eyes at her as she stared at me for a few moments.

When she didn’t get it, I sighed.

“Because they need dead monsters to tan, Vivian.”

“Yeah.” She replied. “Oh! I see the problem now.” She shook her head and blushed a little, before standing up and brushing herself off. “Anyway, since we have Niels helping us now, I guess we don’t really need this money, do we?”

“What do you mean? Money’s always useful.”

“I thought priests weren’t supposed to like money.” Vivian said. “Of course, every other priest I’ve met never let that stop them from doing anything to get more of it.”

“That’s not entirely true; priests aren’t supposed to love money. I don’t love money.” I said calmly. “But we are commanded to make good use of the gifts we’re given; and that includes any financial gifts.”

Vivian nodded.

The light of the afternoon sun shone down on us and illuminated the rest of Clearwood beautifully.

“Well, even when you say that, I can only think of one thing I want to do with this money.”

“What would that be?”

Vivian smiled.

“Do you know how to play cards?” She smirked.