Bold Greetings

Confusion swamped me for the moment as she walked inside. I didn’t know why she was still here. She had left, I thought. Everyone did. Yet in defiance of my expectation, Eri’Sol came back. As I started to snap out of my shock, she turned towards me. It seemed that my emotions or reaction came through in my face with how she changed. “You okay, Minoru?”

I blinked and realized I wiped my eyes a little standing up. She didn’t leave. Why? “Breakfast huh? We couldn’t have that downstairs.”

“You were still sleeping.”

“When did you wake up?”

“At first light.” What the hell? I didn’t even notice her leaving. Was I that out of it? And what about her, didn’t she need recovery time? “Got in some light exercise before the kitchen opened!” It was just as though everything was normal. I could only smile and nod to her.

“Let’s have breakfast then.” I knew that I had questions before, but they all turned to dust and blew away. She was a whirlwind. But that wasn’t so bad.

Our meal finished, we stepped outside. The town looked a little more lively than yesterday, but maybe that was just the mornings. I glanced over at the Markets down the street, but then back to Eri'Sol and her trashed armor. With a completely cleaned up set of armor, she sort of looked out of a post-apocalypse scenario with it in tatters. That needed to be handled first. “How much did your armor cost?”

“This…I think it was a few gold for it.” She said it so cheerfully like that was a common amount of money. And maybe it was when you were more established. But I hardly had that to my name. And it didn’t seem like we’d have the gold from the Vertil for a while.

There had to be something affordable that we could find for her. “That’s a little outside of my price range, but we should still replace it. It’s nearly destroyed.”

“No!” She said sharply. Eri'Sol sounded almost possessive about it, like I was trying to steal it. “We just need to get it repaired.”

“Can that be repaired? It’s going to take so much work to patch that back up and will it even be as strong?”

“Of course, I know a shop that I frequent for my daily maintenance and repairs. She can handle you too if you want.” I looked down at the hole in mine remembering I was still walking around with that exposed. It was something that I wanted fixed, but I was considering it something I’d live with until I got more money. I wanted to get some sort of upgrade, maybe a little fitting with my class. This seemed like what they gave everyone at the start. A repair job would bridge the gap till I could make that a reality.

I looked over her damage again. “How much is it going to cost? I’ve got a little bit on me if you can’t cover it.”

“I’ll be fine. It’ll just be a silver for this.” That still sounded like a lot, but if it got her back in shape I couldn’t argue.

At her guidance, we walked down the street. It took us further away from the town center. Being my second day in town, I hadn’t really explored the area yet. So it was refreshing to see different parts. There was more variety than the capital where it felt space was a premium with everything crammed in. It was open and spread out here. Buildings grew tall or wide as they needed, giving each a completely unique shape. The steep black roofs and layered stories made for a varied and compelling horizon to stare over.

It was a little difficult to tell where we were going since most of the streets didn’t look as well defined. There were gaps that looked more than alleys. I was going to need to rely on her to navigate around. The clock tower would save me getting back to the Markets, but that was it.

Eri'Sol stopped finally and pointed up to the sign. “We’re here! Kaln’s Repair and Maintenance.” The shop was fairly small from the outside. If all they did was fix things, they probably didn’t need to have a stock of goods. It blended in with everything else with the dark near black wood that covered the building. Without being able to read their language I was never finding this place again.

But Eri'Sol marched straight in while I tried to figure out some means of remembering the place. Once I realized she disappeared, I rushed in after her. There wasn’t even a moment for me to find her as I heard a heavy stomping and loud voice break through the silence.

“Eri! What happened to you, my girl?” I caught sight of a massive human woman more than a head taller than Eri’Sol, just all muscle and chest picking the girl up off the ground. She gave her a deep affectionate hug, though with all that muscle it sort of looked like smothering.

If I hadn’t watched it happen, I would have thought I was seeing a giantess trying to kill a catgirl by hugging her to death. And I feared a little bit that it might still happen. Though, they thankfully broke from their embrace after a rather long minute. She grabbed Eri’Sol by the arms, shaking her around like a doll.

The woman looked over the damage that she took. There was both some shock and concern for the girl mixed in with someone that was taking notes. “You look like you got used as a chew toy by a Howlin! What trouble have you gotten yourself into this time?” Not the first time for Eri’Sol I see.

I cautiously approached in the hopes of avoiding a deadly hug. This woman looked like familiarity didn’t matter to her. She treated everyone equally and I didn’t have the fortitude that Eri’Sol possessed. I did get an immediate locked-on pair of eyes on me. I already started to run away, but it was too late now.

The next moment my head was nearly swinging in the rafters with how effortlessly she picked me up. She spared me a hug, but I still felt like I was in danger, just a different sort. “Now who’s this young man coming in with my little Eri?”

“One of the heroes!”

A wide smile still hung on the woman as she finally put me down and firmly patted me on the head. It felt a little like a hammer tapped down a nail. Hold together bones. “Yes, the plain hair does give it away doesn’t it! So Edwind went and replaced them already. Not even cold in the grave.”

I kept my silence for the moment, but tried to process what she just said. It wasn’t exactly new information, but the tone and manner felt like I was missing something. But while I was trying to read the subtext, Eri’Sol bounced in for me.

“This is Minoru, he’s a healer! We killed a Vertil!”

“More like got mauled by one going by your looks, Eri. What happened?” As I considered what I might ask, Eri’Sol went about detailing our struggle with the bear thing. She explained in a surprising amount of detail including acting out scenes. After the fight she seemed fairly subdued. But it only took a night to get all that energy back.

As she concluded, it made me think back to how she jumped in front to take a hit for me. She called me her friend so casually and protected me. People didn’t do that. Did Eri’Sol have any selfishness in her? What should I do?