Corrective Measures

Marching a massive four meter tall Ver-bear thing through Ala Pena’s streets was apparently about as interesting as a plastic bag blowing through. Even looking like we stopped off a horror set wasn’t enough. I’d hate to know what counts as interesting for them. My heart couldn’t take it.

Together, we hauled back the parts of the corpse and dragged ourselves before the Markets. Hoyra gave us a bit of a look up and down. She hurried along getting someone to take the Vertil off our hands. They were thankfully very accommodating for us. We didn’t even need to ask for a healer.

I waited for her outside while they worked their magic on Eri’Sol. The woman quoted us a rough estimate of ten gold for the thing, possibly more. It was a lot more than one shop could want. So it was going to take some time sorting out the deals. But that was encouraging. I could survive off that for a while.

“Making your debut taking down a Vertil, eh?” A new voice came from my right. It had some age and very much maturity to it, but still carried a strong tone of femininity. Though I had to take a half step back when I turned to meet the woman. Craning up was more than I expected. Easily a whole head or more taller than me and decorated with several scars that did nothing to diminish her appeal. Not that I also didn’t feel like she could crush me with just her hands.

“It was badmouthing me. Had set the record straight.”

“It did look like it had a dishonest mouth on it.”

“You’re telling me. The things it was saying, not in polite company.”

She laughed and patted my shoulder quite roughly. Everything in me bounced like a yoyo for a moment. “Good thing I’m not so polite company then, eh? Name’s Denica T’Lesna, leader of the Band of Thorns. Saw you coming with my little Eri all covered in blood.”

Immediately, I felt her height grow with intensity. “I tried to stop her from charging in!”

The smirk came back over her lips. Even though her features softened a touch, her yellow almost golden eyes stabbed daggers in me as light blue flickered around the iris. It almost gave her a royal feeling staring into the mesmerizing display. “Sounds like Eri! Eager and a little blind.”

“You know her well?”

“Know her? I trained her!”

“If you trained her, why didn’t you take her into your party? Even for some experience. She said everyone rejected her.”

That warm aggressive energy of Denica’s faded away like winter freezing her to the bone. “Because her family doesn’t approve. It’s something we all understand. The best compromise they could come to was letting her practice, but they forbid anyone in town from taking her outside.” What messy family business had I become entangled with? Her family must have been fairly influential to have that sort of pull.

“They’re hoping that she’ll get bored and come crawling back.”

“Most likely.”

“And because I’m an outsider and hero, I’m unaware of this and can skirt around the rules?”

“Something like that.”

“I’m not fond of being used.”

She slapped me on the shoulder again. “It’s not like we knew you were coming. She found you. I’m just happy she can see to her promise.” This was a far bigger situation than I counted on. But Denica seemed to be supporting Eri’Sol. How long would this last though? “Keep her safe.”

“I’ll do my best.”

“That's all that any of us can.” Denica turned just as Eri’Sol came bouncing out of the room. I caught a bit of that warm smile from the woman as the Eri’Sol charged at us.

“All better!” Eri’Sol declared. Blood soaked through nearly all of her clothes and stained the metal plates. I could see a little better where she had been injured. A long gash went through her chest and pants. Belts seemed to be the only thing keeping the whole thing together. And there were dozens of small cuts most likely from the second phase of that fight. We needed to get her new gear.

She turned, bouncing up to see Denica. I half expected her to hug the woman, but instead did that gesture with her hands over her stomach I had seen others do. “Master! Back from your job?”

“That’s right! But what was this seeing you hauling in a Vertil? I believe I told you to stay away from them.” A bit of relief came over me, at least her master had good sense.

Eri’Sol jumped back looking a little frightened. That was a first. Even that bear thing didn’t seem to slow her down. “But I heard they were weak and good to start out on.”

“Eri, girl, we’re going to need to work on your listening more than your swordplay. They’re used by the Markets here to trial new applicants that are wanting to register. They’re good if you want to be officially part of the Markets because they are the weakest monster that they accept requests for. It is far worse out there and if you can’t handle a Vertil you have no business trying for anything bigger. They’re not for fresh faced adventurers like you!”

Denica wasn’t quite shouting, but there was a very authoritative voice coming from her that was missing even when speaking with me. It very much gave me the same sort of energy as some of my professors, but with a hint of scolding mixed in. Eri’Sol’s ears curled down a little. I had some worries about them bullying her, but if it was eagerness and ignorance that’s a little more comforting. “I’m sorry, master.”

“As long as you remember for the future. Get some more experience and some levels on your Passer friend there before taking it on. Can only imagine how much you scared him.”

She turned to face me making the gesture again. “I’m sorry, Minoru.”

“We’re still alive, so all is forgiven.”

“Thanks! I’ll remember to do better! I promise!”

“Hey boss, I finished the talks with the client!” A new face entered, a young man looking a bit rough and wild. It was hard to tell, but he felt older than me, but younger than the leader. Short orange hair held back with a bandana around the forehead. There were only the very tips that changed to a tint of a sea foam green.

Denica stepped away from us as he walked over. “Renold! Glad I can count on you. Ferin and Derik headed out already.” She turned back towards us as Renold already started out. “Try to keep yourselves out of too much trouble, eh?”

“As long as it doesn’t come in search of me,” I provided as a joke. Looking back to Eri’Sol, we needed to get her cleaned up. There were a couple things to do. Though I think a meal and rest was going to be more important. “Hungry?”

“Definitely!”

“Let’s head over to the Twin Horns then.”

We made it about halfway before having to stop. There were several people out standing in the middle of the street with a tree. It was a little odd, especially since it didn’t look like this was a plaza or something decorative. I remembered seeing it before. And the people all looked more than a little confused as well.

I stopped by them before we continued. “Hello? Is something wrong?” As a couple of them stepped back, I saw an axe and shovel in their hands. They were removing the tree? But it looked like it had been growing for a while. It stood at the height of some of the buildings around. By how off center it was it would disrupt traffic, so why was it still around.

“Ah, Sir Hero! Just removing this tree.”

“I’m surprised you just got around to it. Looks like it’s several years old, is it special or something?”

“Definitely special, it appeared the other day. No one understands it, but we finally got the approval to remove it.”

“Can trees grow this big in a few days?”

“Maybe? None of us are very smart about these things. Some magic might be able to do it. We just figure someone’s playing a prank.”

That was very odd. A tree just appeared for no reason. Some form of magic made sense, not that I knew how it could be done any better than them. But they had it in hand and I wasn’t going to distract them any further. We said our goodbyes and marched on to the Twin Horns.