by Pirateaba
She managed to get the fire going after what seemed like an eternity, and only noticed she’d set part of her blankets on fire after they started smoking. That was how Erin started her day.
—-
Once Erin had warmed the kitchen enough so that she didn’t see her breath every time she exhaled, she curled up again and slept for a few minutes. Or possibly hours. She only got up to feed the fire more wood, and that was when she realized she was nearly out of firewood.
That was a problem, but in Erin’s frozen state she couldn’t help but add another log to the fire. She was cold. She’d deal with the problem when she woke up more.
Three hours later, Erin was more awake. She put some water in a kettle as she moved around with a blanket for warmth, and cooked herself some eggs and put it on toasted bread. She had to have hot food, hot drinks.
Hot water wasn’t exactly Erin’s ideal beverage, but it beat cold water and she was out of blue fruit juice. She was just lucky her bucket of water had thawed while she’d been asleep.
Life was more bearable with a hot breakfast in your stomach. Erin shuffled around and stared out at the frozen landscape. Somehow, she felt like she might actually not die of cold today.
It was also warmer. Erin wasn’t sure why, but the howling winds that had infiltrated her inn and frozen her to the bone had stopped. That was to say, she could still hear the wind blowing, but it didn’t seem to be entering her inn. Why? And for that matter, where was Toren? She’d called for him a few times to stoke the fire so she didn’t have to, but he never appeared.
The instant Erin stepped outside she found the answer to both her questions. She found a huge, white thing blocking her vision.
Let’s see. There was the snowy ground, there was the sky. And in between was a…wall? Yes, a wall. Made of snow.
It was a wall of compacted snow, which, in the rays of the sun, was slowly turning into ice as the snow melted and refroze. It was nearly ten eight feet tall, and Erin had no idea how it had got there.
The pieces fell into place as she saw Toren appear in her vision. Her skeleton was busy pushing snow with a piece of wood, clumsily scooping and packing the snow into part of the wall that ringed her inn.
Erin stared. And then she realized what had happened.
Sometime yesterday, while she’d been talking to Ryoka, she’d told Toren to clear away the snow outside of the inn. She hadn’t really meant for him to do it. It was just something to keep him occupied. He’d helped dig Erin and Pisces out of the inn and cleared it out, and then Erin had been too busy hiding in her inn and trying to get warm to remember him for the rest of the night.
So he’d been outside the entire time, shoveling snow. And somehow, over the course of that, he’d created this. A wall of snow that handily blocked the wind and also trapped Erin inside of her inn. By himself.
That was the thing. Tell a human to do something and they might do it, but they’d eventually get bored, or failing that, fall down dead at some point. But skeletons didn’t get bored. Or if they did, they kept it to themselves.
Erin had told Toren to clear away the snow around her inn. And he’d done that. All night long.
He’d fought the good fight and lost. Or rather, even though Toren had cleared a prodigious amount of snow away, more had taken its place. Erin stared at the huge ring of snow and glared at Toren.
“Hey! How am I supposed to get out?”
He looked at her and Erin could have sworn he blinked. At the very least the lights in his eyes dimmed for a second. Toren looked at the wall of snow and then back at Erin and shrugged.
Erin scowled, but her face wasn’t really in it. The wall certainly made things more bearable. She could hear the wind blowing, and even feel part of it as it came over the wall. But the snow was breaking the wind quite helpfully so she just pointed at the snow in front of her.
“Get rid of that. I need out.”
Toren nodded. He walked over to the area of wall and started kicking and pushing away snow. Erin went inside and boiled some more hot water to drink. It was good to have a skeleton, even if he didn’t really think that much.
—-
“Okay, here’s the plan.”
Toren looked at Erin expectantly as she shivered at him. She pointed in the direction of Liscor.
“I’m going to buy more stuff. Food. And I need to check on my friends. While I’m gone, I want you to find more firewood. Got it?”
The skeleton nodded, but hesitated. He looked around aimlessly. Erin realized he didn’t know where to find the firewood.
“I don’t know where any is. Go find some trees.”
He nodded and walked off. Erin watched Toren slowly trek down the side of the hill and wondered if that was alright. But if he could build a wall of snow, he could find some wood, right? Toren was helpful like that. Give him a task and he got it done.
Eventually.
And she had a goal as well. Get to the city. Erin took a deep breath and set out. Get to the city. It was probably warmer there.
Trekking through the snow was unbearably hard, especially because Erin didn’t have enough layers to keep the snow from soaking her pants. In the end, she wobbled through the southern gates of Liscor, nearly frozen from the knees down and fighting against the horrible, stinging pain of her half-frozen skin.
Tkrn the Gnoll was on duty at the gates. He said something as Erin stumbled past her, but she couldn’t really respond.
“Miss Erin. How are you d—”
“Colghd! No trk!”
He blinked at Erin as she moved past him. She ignored the Gnoll and moved at a rapid shuffle towards Market Street. Her only thought was to get to Krshia. Krshia knew about warm things. She had fur. Maybe Erin could hug her until she was warm?
The cruel pain of existence lasted for several more minutes after Erin was inside the city. It was even worse because everywhere she looked, Drakes were walking around bundled up and Gnolls were walking around still practically naked. But then Erin found Market Street, and the world became a small slice of heaven. Or hell. Hell was probably warmer.
They had braziers along Market Street, iron poles and basins holding burning coals that make the air warmer. Some shopkeepers were even cooking food over the coals and selling it to pedestrians.
Erin didn’t even bother to think twice. She smelled roasting meat in the air and she was in front of the Gnoll frying food in an instant. He blinked down at the shivering human as she raised a shaking finger and pointed at the food roasting on the grill.
“O-o-one m-meat thing please.”
It was just a cut of meat dripping with fat and juices. Erin burned her mouth on it and chewed at the gristle, savoring the heat. It was the best thing she’d ever eaten—today. Possibly this week. She was quite certain she’d eaten better things over the course of her life.
She wolfed it down, and then another. Only then did she remember to pay for the food. The Gnoll accepted the greasy bronze coins and nodded to Erin, bemused.
Krshia had been watching Erin’s after-breakfast snack. When Erin finally remembered to come over to her shop, the two talked for a short while. Even then, it wasn’t a productive conversation.
“You need winter clothing, yes?”
“Y-yes.”
“I have many furs and warm clothing. Do you prefer wool or something else?”
“Y-yes.”
Eventually Krshia just started picking out clothes for Erin. She shoved them in the young woman’s hands, told her to find somewhere to change and come back when she was warmer.
Erin took the advice, and that was how she ended up in the Adventurer’s Guild, changing her clothes and trying not to stare at a naked Drake as female adventurers changed out of armor.
“What are the adventurers doing all day?”
That was the first question Erin asked Selys once she finished changing out of her cold, wet clothing and into the warm winter clothes Krshia had given her. Selys wrinkled her nose and twitched her
tail at a group of adventurers sitting at one of the tables. They stank.
“Rat infestation in the sewers.”
“Ew! But wait, why is that a job for adventurers? Isn’t that a job for an exterminator or something? Cats?”
“We don’t have many of those things in the city. Cats…Gnolls don’t like cats that much. Anyways, they tend to disappear when people get hungry in the winter.”
“Um—”
“Besides, these were giant rats. Nearly this high.”
Selys indicated a point just below Erin’s navel. The young woman gulped.
“Okay. Wow.”
“It’s not a threat the Watch wants to deal with, and it’s not that dangerous. Well—not dangerous enough to make any of the guardsmen wade in that muck. So they put out a contract. Hired the adventurers.”
Selys waved a hand at the unhappy group of warriors.
“It pays well, but no one’s happy about it.”
Erin didn’t even know that Liscor had sewers. She said as much to Selys.
“Oh, it’s just a place to put all the horrible stuff. We can’t just toss it outside the city, and all those people living together creates a lot of—”
Selys hesitated.
“—Stuff. So we dump it underground and let it flow away. The Antinium dug the tunnels, but they’re not obligated to clean it or get rid of the monsters.”
“I wish I had sewers. All I have is an outhouse and now that I’m out of acid, Toren’s going to have to start cleaning it by hand. Or shovel. I need to buy a shovel.”
“Yeah, I heard about your inn. It got covered in snow, right?”
“Who told you that?”
“Your mage friend.”
“Ceria?”
“No. The other one.”
“Pisces isn’t my friend.”
“Good!”
Erin laughed and Selys grinned. But then she made a face.
“He came into the city covered in snow. He tried to let me stay in the guild until I chased him out. He kept saying there was an avalanche. In the middle of the plains?”
Erin’s happy expression changed into a scowl.
“There was. Thanks to those evil faeries.”
Selys looked puzzled.
“The what? Oh, you mean those things. The sprites. What happened?”
“I—”
Erin paused. She remembered that Pisces said no one could see or hear the faeries.
“I uh, made them mad somehow. And they caused an avalanche and nearly buried me in my inn!”
Selys looked sympathetic.
“Nasty. You should stay away from them.”
Erin groaned.
“That’s what people keep telling me. But they’re so pretty.”
“Pretty?”
“Um. Never mind.”
Selys shook her head at her strange friend.
“They don’t go indoors so you’re safe. Just try to avoid making them mad, okay? They don’t usually bother people unless you’re someone like Relc.”
“Why? What about Relc?”
“You don’t know? Every winter the sprites follow him around for a week and cause trouble. Snow falls off roofs, he slips on ice…one time a chimney broke and fell on his head!”
“Why? I mean, is it because of the faeries?”
“Yep. He hates them. Every time he sees them he throws stuff at them or tries to grab one. They always freeze his hands off, though.”
Erin frowned. The faeries were jerks, but Relc was huge.
“He should just leave them alone.”
“He did, but they keep bothering him either way.”
For a while the two kept talking about Relc and the various ways the faeries like to cause mischief. Erin got the impression the Frost Faeries were regarded as a force of nature, rather than actual creatures by the people of Liscor.
“They’re not a threat. Well, they can cause a lot of damage if you bother them, but they’re not worse than a flood or a lone Goblin. It’s rare to hear of someone getting attacked like you were. Besides Relc of course.”
Selys paused. It was a slow day at the guild, or all the adventurers were still fighting rats underground. She looked at Erin suddenly, and asked a question that had clearly been on her mind for a while.
“Erin. Is it true what people are saying? Has the King of Destruction really awoken?”
“What?”
“It’s just something I heard Krshia saying when she got back from the city. You know, after you rescued that Ceria and Olesm. She said the other human—”
“Ryoka.”
“—Yes, her. She said the other human said he was back.”
“That’s what I heard too. But I don’t know who that is.”
“Really? Erin…”
“I’m sorry! It’s just—”
Selys sighed exasperatedly.
“I know, I know. But you of all people should know him. He’s one of your kind, a human, I mean. And even we know of the King of Destruction.”
“He’s bad news, huh?”
Ryoka hadn’t said much about Flos to Erin, only that he was some king who ruled a huge amount of land before he disappeared suddenly.
“More than that, Erin. He conquered nearly all of Chandrar and his armies were crossing the sea and landing on our southern shores before he vanished.”
“Wow. That’s pretty scary. But…I mean, why is he so famous? He never got far into this continent, right?”
“It’s not that. It’s that he managed to cross the sea and bring an invasion all the way here!”
Erin waited, but that was it.
“Okay, so he got across the ocean. So what?”
“Erin! Do you know how hard it is to cross the sea with an army? Wars on one continent are one thing, but someone actually being able to cross the thousands of miles to another continent is unheard of!”
“But it’s only a sea, not an ocean, right?”
Selys looked at Erin blankly.
“Is there a difference?”
“I think so. A sea is like the water next to land, while the ocean is…not. Plus, oceans are bigger.”
“Okay. So it’s an ocean. The point is that he did it. And now he’s back!”
That did seem serious. Erin made all the appropriate noises of concern while a thought clanged around in her mind.
“So the King of Destruction might be coming here, and that’s bad.”
“Very bad. Although…”
Selys hesitated.
“I don’t know that the council will do anything about it. Or the army, really.”
“Why?”
“Well, he’s so far away. What would we do? All the kingdoms and lands he conquered don’t obey him anymore. Chandrar will probably join together to fight him, so we don’t have to do anything.”
“So there’s nothing really bad happening?”
“No. Yes! I don’t know, it’s just really big, that’s all.”
Erin nodded.
“I get it. Oh, and by the way, I got the [Warrior] class yesterday.”
“Really? That’s great news, Erin!”
Selys’s face lit up and she smiled at Erin, worries over a distant king forgotten.
“What level are you?”
“Just Level 2. But I was wondering why I got the class now. I mean, I’ve fought a lot of things before. Why did I get it for going into the ruins?”
Selys frowned and thought.
“This is the first time you went looking for a fight, wasn’t it? I mean, you went exploring before, but you never really went out knowing you were going to kill something.”
“That’s the difference?”
“It’s all about purpose. I mean, I cook food for myself but I still haven’t gotten the [Cook] class. But if I tried to make that my hobby or job, I’d probably get the class right away.”
“And you’re a [Warrior] now as well, aren’t you?”
Selys nodded proudly.
“Level 4.”
&
nbsp; “Does that mean you’re going to buy a sword and start killing monsters?”
Erin couldn’t see her friend doing that, but she supposed anything was possible?
“What? No! It’s just nice having another class. I mean, don’t get me wrong. I’m not looking to become an adventurer or anything.”
Selys raised one hand and laughed.
“If I’d started training with a sword when I was young…maybe I’d be around Level 12 by now. But now…how many years would it take to reach Level 20? Probably at least a decade. Only someone like that Ceria has the time to level more than one class.”
“Really? That long?”
“Of course. I mean, if I were a soldier fighting on the front lines maybe it would only take a year or two, but I don’t fancy risking my life.”
That was odd. Erin was leveling up a lot faster than Selys was describing. Why was that? She started to ask Selys, and then remembered what Ryoka had said about discretion. She closed her mouth. Then she opened it again, deliberately.
“I got to Level 18 in my [Innkeeper] class after the undead attacked.”
Selys had been taking a sip from a glass of water she’d poured herself. Disappointingly, she didn’t spray it all over Erin, but she did choke and spill the water on the desk. Erin swept the paperwork and inkpot out of the way before they got drenched.
“What? Seriously, Erin?”
“Very seriously. Do you know why I’m leveling up so fast?”
Selys had to frown as she mopped distractedly at the spilled water with a cloth.
“It must be all the things you’ve done. I’ve never heard of an innkeeper fighting off an undead attack, or—or starting and running an inn by herself.”
“So it’s doing hard stuff that makes us level faster? Adversity?”
Selys had to raise her shoulders and tail helplessly.
“I don’t know. I’m sorry, Erin. I know how my class works. The more people I serve, the better a job I do at keeping people happy and sending adventurers on requests, the faster I’ll level. But this guild is so small I’ll never get past Level 20 before I retire. You’d have to ask other innkeepers how they level.”