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“Gooooood mooooorning!” That overly enthusiastic greeting was the first thing that happened when I stepped into the guild’s common room the next day. The wiry woman who said it continued, “You two are Kantrilla and Llyr, right?”
So far, we had only communicated through guild representatives and the board, but we had descriptions and a meeting time. It wasn’t too hard to assume that the five foot tall man and the six foot tall woman were Kantrilla and me.
“Yeah, I’m Llyr.”
Kantrilla bowed, “Kantrilla.”
“Ha! You really are short!” the woman patted me on my shoulder, “I’m Sera!”
It was amazing that people kept noticing that I was short in a world with dwarves and halflings… but I suppose since I was human that made me special.
From the same table as Sera, two more people stood up to come greet us. A somewhat more bulky woman came up close to me and grunted. Then she leaned in close, until her face was just above mine as I looked up. From that distance, it was easy to see she had tusks… rather small tusks, but tusks nonetheless. “Varragra.”
“Ah… hi. I’m Llyr.”
Varragra grunted and did the same thing with Kantrilla… though their heights matched more closely so she just stood right in front of Kantrilla instead of sort of leaning over her.
The third person coughed. I turned to see a dwarf nervously rubbing his hands together, “Sorry about that… Varragra was raised by giants so… she’s like that.”
“Like what… exactly?” There were several things she was like, so it was hard to pick out what he meant.
“Ah, well… no concept of personal space. The grunting thing is because she’s not a morning person, and the tusks are because she’s half-orc. I’m Yalgrek, by the way. Sorcerer.”
Was there a proclivity of the shorter races towards being sorcerers, or was it just a coincidence? First a halfling and now a dwarf… I hadn’t really met any other magic users though, so it was hardly a representative sample.
Sera was a rogue- she used light weapons and would deal with traps and scouting. With Varragra being a front line fighter, they had a pretty good party balance- as they should, because otherwise they wouldn’t have been under consideration.
—–
After that meeting, Kantrilla and I took the time to talk alone about who we wanted to join. I started off the conversation, “I think we can fit into any of the parties just fine. Everyone seems decent too.” Some of them were a bit odd, but that could be said about us too.
Kantrilla nodded. “I thought the same.” Then she got a far off look in her eyes, “Socks was pretty cute, wasn’t she?”
“Uh, I guess?” Personally, I wouldn’t have called a wolf ‘cute’, but I could sort of see it when they weren’t intent on ripping out my throat. “Is that relevant to what party we join?”
Kantrilla shook her head, “Not really, I guess.”
After that, we went over some of the details. Obviously party roles were well filled in any case, but because they were most interested in the same things as us- including exploring dungeons- the best match ended up being the group with Halette the beast tamer, Kasner the halfling sorcerer, Alhorn the half-elf paladin… and Socks the wolf. Of course, just because we thought we would fit best with them didn’t mean we would automatically be able to join. Their own opinions mattered- and whether or not they found some others more suited to join them. After all, we couldn’t expect them to not look for other potential party members as we considered different groups.
—–
When we went to see them again, Socks immediately came over to lick my face. “Oh, is my face that tasty, Socks? Isn’t Kasner’s face closer?”
Halette laughed, “Socks doesn’t like to lick Kasner because of the shocks. You might have noticed he didn’t offer a handshake… for the same reason.”
I looked over at the halfling, “Oh, like… static electricity?” That would explain his hair, too.”
Kasner nodded, “That’s it exactly! Because of my incredible powers of lightning, I constantly display its power.”
I wasn’t sure about that, but since I wasn’t a magic user I couldn’t be sure. It sounded more like a lack of control, but we knew he was capable in combat. They wouldn’t have kept him around otherwise, and we have looked up some of the information we could at the guild. All of them had some measure of success alone before forming a party.
“Well, we have decided we would like to join up with you,” Kantrilla said, “If you would have us.”
Halette nodded, “Of course! We’d be happy to have you. Everyone has approved, including Socks… obviously.”
—–
After that, we spent the next few hours working on the party details. Kantrilla and I hadn’t really had a formal arrangement, but we had been working together just hunting wolves and horned rabbits. In a dungeon there was some chance of finding things more valuable and harder to split than specific monetary rewards.
The most important part was informing the guild of our joining. While I didn’t think they would leave us to die in the dungeon, it was important for the guild to know we were together. If we all didn’t show up at the guild for a while, they would at least be able to guess something had happened to us and ask people to keep an eye out for us in the dungeon.
Of course, we weren’t likely to get lost. The dungeons were fairly well explored, and while they could change it was a very slow process. Maps were easily available, and would be useful for at least a year. It was possible we would die… but unless we were careless we should be able to handle a dungeon. We knew the dangers were suited for our level, and we weren’t missing any important aspects of an adventuring party. Besides, the Halette, Kasner, and Alhorn (and Socks) had all been safely visiting the dungeon for over a month- though they’d needed potions and rest for healing purposes. With us, it should be safer and more profitable for everyone.
i would just like to point out that Lyrr and Kantrilla are just as weird as they are. super lucky priestess + shorty that can beat an ogre in arm wrestling
I don’t have an exact number for how strong an ogre is but he probably couldn’t beat one in arm wrestling… yet. Maybe in a couple weeks.
Also, in Arms wrestling the Ogre would have bigger arm => bigger momentum. I was thinking that VERY strong shorty = explosive power, because even he have strengh he doesnt have mass, to put it into use. Well but i think the author will suprise us somehow, he is quite creative.
Thanks for the chapter!