by Zen DiPietro
Essley and Darthrok looked at her with their mouths slightly agape.
She giggled at them, which made their jaws drop open a bit more.
“Give her a pack and maybe some weapons and she’d look like an adventurer,” Darthrok said, staring.
“She would,” Essley agreed thoughtfully. “Sally, have you ever wanted to try an adventure?”
She hadn’t. But she’d never thrown a rock at someone or worn interesting pants that hugged her butt before, either. Today was a remarkable day of firsts. Tomorrow, she might reset and go back to her old ways. If so, she wanted to do as much as she could today.
She put on a weapons belt and slipped her best multi-socket wrench into it. Then she had a moment of indecision. She had no weapon skills, so how could she choose one?
She thought of her line of dialogue for brand-new adventurers outfitting themselves. A crossbow is perfect for a beginning adventurer. You don’t have to get to melee range to use it, so you can run away if you need to.
She swung a perfectly balanced blackwood crossbow over her shoulder, then filled a bolt pouch with master-level bolts.
Hang on. She did that wrong. She removed the crossbow, put the bolt pouch on her back, then put the crossbow back over her shoulder.
She had a lot to learn about doing this stuff. An actual adventure would probably get pretty complicated.
Planning ahead for tough times, she emptied her cash register into the backpack and packed her most lucrative puzzles, along with other high-quality supplies. She closed the backpack securely.
Ugh. The crossbow again.
After some rearranging, she wore the backpack and bolt pouch on her back, and the crossbow over her arm. To Sally’s way of thinking, there was no way all that stuff should reasonably fit on a person without massive discomfort, but it worked just fine.
She had a lot to learn, all right. “What do we do?”
Essley smiled. “We can go out and see what looks like fun to you, and then do it. We’ll see what happens.”
“Can we?” Sally asked.
“Let’s try it and see.” Darthrok pointed at the door.
“Okay,” she said decisively. “Let’s go.”
“This is so cool.” Essley bounced up and down on her toes.
“I think we’re the first to ever do this,” Darthrok said.
Sally wondered why they were all just standing around, but then she remembered that they said they wouldn’t try to force her to join them.
Tentatively, she reached out and took Essley’s hand.
“Right!” Essley exclaimed. “Let’s go!”
Following her new friend’s lead, Sally stepped out into the sun. She had friends, she had hope, and she had a brand-new curiosity about the world she lived in.
She was ready for an adventure.
Message from the author
Thank you for reading!
Reviews are critical to my being able to keep bringing you new books, so if you enjoyed this story and can spare a minute or two to leave a review on Amazon, I’d be grateful.
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If you want to read more of Sally’s adventures, they will continue in the first full-length book of the Everternia saga, Trailblazer. (Click or tap to buy the next book now.)
I hope to hear from you!
In gratitude,
Zen DiPietro
About the Author
Zen DiPietro is a lifelong bookworm, dreamer, and writer. Perhaps most importantly, a Browncoat Trekkie Whovian. Also red-haired, left-handed, and a vegetarian geek. Absolutely terrible at conforming. A recovering gamer, but we won’t talk about that. Particular loves include badass heroines, British accents, and the smell of Band-Aids.
www.ZenDiPietro.com
Other Works by Zen DiPietro
Dodging Fate series
Dodging Fate
Dodging Fate 2: Extra Fateful, Uber Dodgy
Hello Protocol for Dead Girls: A Virtual Awakening
Dragonfire Station Universe
Original Series (complete)
Dragonfire Station Book 1: Translucid
Dragonfire Station Book 2: Fragments
Dragonfire Station Book 3: Coalescence
Intersections (Dragonfire Station Short Stories)
Mercenary Warfare series (complete)
Selling Out
Blood Money
Hell to Pay
Calculated Risk
Going for Broke
Chains of Command series (complete)
New Blood
Blood and Bone
Cut to the Bone
Out for Blood
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