by Tj Dixon
“It’s less than what a dwarf would expect for the work you did today. I may have hired an errand boy, but the work you did was that of a skilled helper. Not that I’ll pay you any more than this. You’ve set my expectations now though, so I hope you can live up to them.” Grundle says with a shrug.
“I’ll do my best.” I say with a smile.
It seems that Kai wasn’t exaggerating. The crowds on the way home cover the whole of almost every street. I am a little taller than most of the dwarves, but only slightly and some are just as tall as I am. I even see one dwarf who is a couple of inches taller than me. Everyone is elbowing and pushing their way through the crowd, so it is hard going. I really wish I had my left arm back to protect myself and sometimes I fear I am going to be pushed over.
Eventually I arrive at the jail and go down our street, which is a lot less busy than the other streets. I breathe a sigh of relief when I reach our home. I eagerly push the door open and find an unexpected sight. In front of me is Elucia struggling to get her little black top past her head. She is covered in sweat so I assume she was working hard, but more importantly her top now covers her eyes, leaving the top half of her body completely bare. I just stand there stunned and I start to feel a tingling sensation unlike anything I’ve felt before.
Suddenly Elucia pulls the black top past her eyes and her cheeks go bright red. She covers her breasts with both arms and stands there like that. After a few moments she recovers her senses and glares at me. “Shut the door!”
“Ok.” I say. I turn shut the door and start to turn back towards her.
“No, don’t face me! Face the door and wait until I say it’s ok to turn around again. It’s bad enough that I have to wear this ridiculous outfit, without a perverted little boy peeking at me!” She yells.
“Don’t worry, there wasn’t much for him to see.” Lucy laughs. I didn’t even notice Lucy was there. I don’t know why I was so stunned to see Elucia like that, but even thinking back to it leaves me feeling weird.
“Shut up, you stupid little fairy!” Elucia yells sounding really upset, but Lucy just laughs.
“I’m really sorry Elucia, I didn’t mean any harm.” I tell her.
“I’ll throw something at the next person who speaks!” Elucia yells. So I shut up and focus on the door. It seems really interesting now. A few minutes pass with nothing but the sound of Lucy sniggering. Finally Elucia quietly tells me. “You can turn around now.”
“Thanks.” I say and turn to face her. Elucia’s face is bright red still, but her black top is back in place and the sweat is gone from her body. She was obviously removing it to wash. Since this place is only one room though, there isn’t anywhere private to wash or do anything.
“Next time, knock and wait for an answer.” Elucia tells me with a sniff.
“Ok.” I reply looking down at the floor.
“Well, just make sure you do. Anyway, how did your day go?” Elucia asks.
“It was hard work, but it went well and I got to use wind magic, even if it was just to feed the flames.” I tell her.
“You weren’t the only one who got to use magic today.” Elucia says with a smile.
“It sounds like your training went well. How far did you get?” I ask.
“I now have full control over basic magic of all elements.” Elucia says with a grin. I blink.
“Even fire?”
“Even fire.” Elucia nods.
“How did you make such quick progress?” I ask stunned, remembering all our fruitless efforts previously. Dairon and Lucy are better than I thought.
“It seems this ridiculous outfit helps channel and control my magic. So it seems I have to keep wearing it even when we have enough money to afford something a bit more…” Elucia says looking down at her clothing in disgust. Small black shorts not even halfway down to her knees and an even smaller black top that only covers her breasts. At least when it is on her properly, rather than just over her eyes. I blush thinking about it. “You just thought something dirty, didn’t you?”
“No!” I protest.
“Like he would bother.” Lucy laughs reminding us of her presence.
“So is Kai not back yet?” I ask. It is a stupid question, because I can clearly tell Kai isn’t back yet, but at least it serves as a distraction.
“No, but she left a note.” Lucy answers pointing at a piece of paper near the door.
“What does it say?” I ask.
“She’ll be back soon after the rush hour and she’s bringing some food with her.” Lucy tells me.
“That’s good. If she’s bringing food we can keep the money I earned today. So where’s Dairon?”
“He was embarrassed to get beaten by Elucia, so he’s training.” Lucy laughs. I blink.
“You beat Dairon?” I ask Elucia in amazement.
“It was just luck.” Elucia says with a blush.
“It was her sheer power.” Lucy says with a laugh. “Dairon has perfect control, but Elucia is as elegant as a war hammer.”
“I wasn’t that bad!” Elucia protests.
“Sometimes a war hammer is exactly what you need.” Lucy says with a smile.
“I don’t want to be compared to a war hammer!”
“I wasn’t comparing you. I was comparing your magic, but if you want…” Lucy laughs.
“No.” Elucia says firmly and glares at Lucy, who just giggles.
The door opens and turning I see Dairon enter followed by Kai. So we’re all back now. Kai is carrying a black stone bag. I am amazed at all the uses of this black stone. That stone can be flexible enough to form bags and gloves is ridiculous, but the evidence is right in front of me.
“Anyone hungry?” Kai asks, but it is only a joke. None of us have eaten a proper meal since we got here, so we are all really hungry now. Not as much as I was at the arena when I was a slave, but this is bad enough. Kai uses earth magic and forms a black metal pot large enough to fit a person in. “Dairon, fill this with water.”
“Ok.” Dairon says and the pot is instantly full of water.
“Now to add the worms.” Kai says and to my horror she empties what look like worms into the pot. They are wriggling so clearly still alive.
“They’re not really worms are they?” Elucia asks concerned.
“Do you not like worms?” Kai asks sounding surprised.
“Are you serious?” Lucy asks sounding just as concerned as I am.
“Yes.” Kai says sounding innocent and confused.
“We need to eat, so we can’t waste them.” Dairon says sounding no more enthusiastic than the rest of us.
“If you’d prefer I can get something different next time.” Kai says with a shrug and lights a fire under the pot. “You’ll change your mind once you taste boiled worm meat though.”
Elucia looks up at the ceiling and asks with a desperate laugh, “What did I do to deserve this?”
“Just be grateful you’re getting anything to eat.” Kai says sounding a bit annoyed now. “To think I carried this ungrateful girl to safety, and now I work all day to earn enough to feed everyone… and this is how she thanks me.”
“Sorry. I am grateful but, worms…” Elucia says with a sigh.
“They’re ready.” Kai says and forms a small black stone dish. She scoops out some of the boiled worms and hands me the dish. It has five large worms in. “They taste best hot, so don’t wait for everyone.”
“Um, ok.” I say and pick up a worm. It is slimy and starts to dissolve in my hand, but I get it to my mouth and bite with a wince. I smile and say, “It actually tastes nice.”
“I’m next.” Lucy says and takes the small dish that Kai hands her. She takes a bite and her face is comical. “You said it tasted nice! You stupid boy! Idiot! I’m never healing you, ever again!”
“You don’t like it?” I ask with a grin.
“No, I don’t like it!” Lucy says. Dairon takes a nervous look at his dish of worms and takes cautious bite. He winces and sighs before t
aking a second bite.
I return my gaze to my own dish and slowly devour a worm. It really tastes awful, but it is food and once I am finished I do feel better for having eaten a proper meal. Well, sort of proper. I look around and only Elucia is still eating. She winces every time she takes a bite but eventually she does finish.
“I was paid with these.” I tell Kai and show her my ten blue crystal coins. She looks at them, rubs her eyes, and then looks at them again.
“That’s twenty times what I was paid today.” She says with a laugh. “We really can eat better than this tomorrow. Perhaps double the amount of worms.”
“No worms!” We all protest at once.
“Just joking. I’ll hang onto those. That will pay for meals for the next ten days. If you work for the next seven days at the same rate you’ll be able to afford a bounty hunter permit, but I doubt you’d earn more from bounty hunts than your wages.” Kai tells me.
“Perhaps Dairon, Lucy and Elucia could do the bounty hunts whilst we continue working where we are. I don’t think I can do this forever though. Even though I used wind magic, I was bored out of my mind today.” I tell her.
“It would probably make more sense for me to do the bounty work too. I don’t earn as much as you.” Kai says.
“Ok. Now I need to start work at five tomorrow. Is that long from now?”
“It’s not for a while, but you should get some sleep right away. I didn’t even know the forge opened that early!” Kai says in a panic.
Chapter 2 (Multiple)
(Grunti)
I wake to the smell of crispy fried fungi. My favourite! Now if there was a young, scantily clad female dwarf cooking the fungi my morning would be perfect. I climb out of bed, open my bedroom door and find it is just my dad at the cooker. I shrug. It’s not like I actually expected to find a scantily clad dwarven girl cooking my breakfast. That only happens in dreams.
“Is something wrong?” Dad asks.
“You really should hire a young dwarven girl to cook for us.” I tell him with a sigh.
“We’ve been through this before. Dwarven girls can’t cook and even if they could cook, hiring one would cost a fortune.” Dad says.
“Like I always tell you, just claim it as a business expense. You are a smithy lord, so something like that is a perfectly reasonable expense.” I tell dad but like always he just doesn’t get it.
“There’s no way that I could do that!” Dad protests.
“The fungi are close to burning.” I tell him and he turns his attention back to the food. He may not look appealing, but his food is the best. Maybe I should invent a form changing device for him to overcome the weakness of not being a young girl. Wait… no way! He’d still be my dad, so that wouldn’t work. He’ll just have to train a girl to cook.
“The fungi are ready.” Dad says and carries two large plates of fungi to the table. I wait until he has placed the plates down.
“You should make me a sister.” I tell him.
“What?!” He asks.
“It’s the only solution. That ways she could cook well and look pretty doing it.” I say.
“You realise even if that was possible, she’d still be family. You shouldn’t treat a blood relative like that! It would be like looking at me like that.” He tells me.
“That would be bad, but what if you created an artificial young female body and give it an artificial intelligence?” I say and skewer a large fungus with my fork. I put the whole thing in my mouth and chew as dad shakes his head.
“The only person who could do that would be you.” Dad says with a sigh.
“Can I have the week off to do it?” I ask.
“No! We have five important orders to complete today alone.”
“Which is more important though, that, or a girl to do our every bidding?” I ask.
“The orders!” Dad tells me. He just doesn’t get it, but it just means I’ll have to do it in my spare time. The body isn’t too hard, though making it perfect will take a bit more effort. The problem is the artificial intelligence. Of course the other problem is that dad works me to the bone so I have very little spare time. This is going to take a while.
“What about next week?” I ask.
“No.” Dad tells me firmly.
“The week after that?”
“No! You can’t have any week off.” Dad tells me.
“Slave driver.” I say as I chew on my fungi.
“Don’t talk with your mouth full, or you’ll never get a girl.” Dad tells me. I almost choke at his harsh words.
“Don’t say such evil things!” I scold him when I have finished my mouthful.
“Girls don’t like dwarves without manners.” Dad warns me.
“I have lots of manners. As long as it doesn’t involve food I’m the model of politeness.” I tell him.
“Food is important though.” Dad tells me.
“Fine, but I’ll save that for when I’m with a girl.”
“That’s too late. Bad habits can’t just be discarded like a bad lump of rock.” Dad tells me.
“Fine, fine. I’ll be polite now then.” I say.
“I bet you forget before you finish your fungi.” Dad says with a hearty laugh.
“I’m not going to forget!” I tell him and skewer another large piece of fungi. I just about get it in my mouth.
“There’s a scantily clad girl!” Dad says.
“Where, where!?” I ask with my mouth still full and look all around.
“Just kidding, and you forgot your manners already!” Dad laughs.
“Evil.” I mutter with my mouth still full.
“You should really lose weight if you want a girl.” Dad tells me. I finish my mouthful before answering.
“You’re not fat unless you’re bigger outwards than upwards. Anyway, better fat than tall.” I tell him.
“Much better fat than tall! Even so, girls want a dwarf that is neither fat nor tall. Also, the outwards and upwards comparison is the medical definition of unhealthily fat. Girls don’t go by that definition when choosing a boyfriend.” Dad tells me.
“Any dwarf can be thin, but how many dwarves can do even half of what I can.” I tell dad.
“Most dwarves can’t do one percent of what you can, but most girls would rather have a healthy dwarf than a fat genius.” Dad tells me.
“Girls are evil!” I tell dad.
“That they are.” Dad says with a sad nod. For once we agree on something about girls! Now for those business expenses…
(Lucy)
Dairon and Elucia are both training together again today, but I will be looking for a dwarf capable of removing my curse. Until I can find one we have no idea how much it will cost, or even if it’s possible to remove my curse. Just because the dwarf who freed us said there are dwarves who can, doesn’t guarantee that there actually are.
I was amazed at Elucia’s control yesterday. It seemed to be because of her clothing, but I’d like to know exactly what those clothes do and how. I can understand most enchantments, but this is complex enough that only an alchemist could understand it. So for now it’s just going to be one more mystery niggling at the back of my mind.