by Tj Dixon
“More of a helper than an apprentice, given that boyo here is just an ugly human.”
“Yes, he really is ugly, but I sense talent in him. The way he was crafting that light trap when I first arrived is at least as good as most dwarves could manage.”
“He’s a wind mage, so the task suits him.” Grundle says with a shrug. “So what brings you here? Not to admire my ugly helper, I’m sure.”
“No, certainly not. I am here because I need help. The king has demanded that I craft a Shadow Finder.”
“Hmm. It seems he is taking these elves seriously. A lot of fuss about nothing if you ask me. Neither the Fallen Angels nor the Queen of Contractia will ever find this city. Unless of course we do something stupid, like sending our army to fight them.” Grundle says with a frown.
“Would you mind telling the king that?” Lord Blake asks.
“He’d have my head for sure!” Grundle laughs.
“So you see my predicament?” Lord Blake asks with a huge smile.
“To make a Shadow Finder requires materials that can only be found in the Deep Maze, and none of the bounty hunters are willing to go there.” Grundle replies with a frown.
“Why not?” I ask.
“They’re all scared of the bullfrog.” Grundle tells me.
“Is that a monster?” I ask.
“The most terrible of monsters indeed. It was awakened from its slumber by an idiot bounty hunter. She got away with her life, but only just.”
“Is it as powerful as a dragon?” I ask.
“Well, no…” Grundle admits. That’s good. I wouldn’t want to fight anything as powerful as a dragon.
“Or a Death Bird?” I ask.
“No.” Grundle says shaking his head thoughtfully. “I know I said it was the most terrible of monsters, but Death Birds and dragons are in a league of their own.”
“How about I hunt it with my friends then?” I suggest. Grundle blinks and so does Lord Blake.
“And here I was just hoping you might have some false light syrup.” Lord Blake laughs.
“What’s the bounty on this bullfrog?” I ask.
“Two thousand white.” Lord Blake tells me.
“That would be enough to get Grunti to make me a new arm and still leave me with half.” I say with a shocked smile.
“How do you know Grunti?” Grundle asks in shock and Lord Blake’s mouth is now wide open.
“He took an interest in a friend of mine.”
“A girl?” Lord Blake asks with a laugh.
“Lucy is a bit old to be called a girl.” I say.
“How old is she?” Lord Blake asks curiously.
“I’m not sure. Hundreds of years at least.” I admit.
“Is she a dwarf then?” Grundle asks.
“Wasn’t one of the outsiders an elf?” Lord Blake asks Grundle thoughtfully.
“Now that you mention it I think you’re right.” Grundle says.
“Lucy is human. She’s immortal… well, sort of.” I tell them, remembering that she has now lost her immortality. It doesn’t feel right to tell them that though, especially as I don’t think that Lucy has told anyone other than me about it.
“Sort of?” Lord Blake asks sounding even more curious now.
“Sorry, but I can’t really go into the details.” I say apologetically.
“Hmmm. Well, I assume she must at least be pretty and fairly small, right?” Grundle says.
“Very pretty and very small. A few inches tall or so.” I tell him. Both Grundle and Lord Blake blink in shock. “She’s under a curse that we need to get lifted so we can return home. It prevents her from using her full power.”
“If you can defeat the bullfrog I may be able to help with that, for a reasonable price.” Lord Blake tells me with a huge smile.
“Now wait a moment.” Grundle says sounding worried. “There’s no way some kid human is going to be able to defeat a bullfrog that bested a group of dwarven bounty hunters. I don’t imagine he even has a tier one permit, let alone a tier three permit, to go down to the Deep Maze.”
“I don’t have the permit, but if you need the bullfrog defeated perhaps you could get one for me and my friends?” I ask Lord Blake hopefully.
“How many friends?” He asks sounding worried.
“Four friends including Lucy. She knows healing magic so it would be good to have her with us even without her full power.”
“Healing magic! You are full of surprises, boyo.” Grundle laughs.
“So you need five passes. I don’t have much choice, so I’ll get you the passes. You can get the false light syrup whilst you’re at it.” Lord Blake says sounding rather resigned.
“Do you really think he can do it though?” Grundle asks Lord Blake.
“If he can’t I’m going to need to hire that damned Karina, and you know what I think of her.” Lord Blake tells Grundle.
“Thinking about it… Wasn’t one of the outsiders the daughter of your former apprentice?” Grundle asks Lord Blake.
“Are you Smithy Lord Blake Two Hammers?!” I ask remembering now who Kai’s father’s master was.
“High Smithy Lord Blake Two Hammers.” Lord Blake says with a smile.
“You got promoted?!” Grundle exclaims.
“The last High Smithy Lord was declared missing and presumed dead yesterday. Apparently everyone thinks he was assassinated.” Lord Blake says with a frown and sounding very worried now.
“You’d better be careful you don’t end up the same way.” Grundle says sounding just as worried.
“I’m too careful for that. Besides, my wives would kill me if I got myself killed like that. Now there’s a scary thought!” Lord Blake laughs, but I sense he is still worried. “Anyway, I’ll be back here with five tier three permits.”
(Kai)
“Tier three permits, for all of us! How?!” I ask in utter shock as I stare at the five white disks in Peter’s hand. We still need to add our magical signature, but that is easily done.
Getting hold of five tier three permits on the other hand is a miracle. Elucia doesn’t seem to appreciate just how difficult it is to get hold of these permits. Even if they had gotten back yet I doubt either Lucy or Dairon would either. We’ve been back home a while but I still wasn’t expecting Peter back so soon, and I certainly wasn’t expecting the permits.
“I took a job from High Smithy Lord Blake Two Hammers.” Peter says and I can tell from his expression that he understands the significance to me of his words.
“My father’s master…” I say sadly.
“I hope its ok.” Peter says rather nervously.
“I’d like to talk to him after the job, but its fine. It sounds like he’s been promoted too. What was the job, anyway?”
“We need to kill a bullfrog and get hold of some false light syrup in the Deep Maze.” Peter says.
“I’m not sure why but a bullfrog sounds familiar. What is a bullfrog anyway?”
“Some sort of monster. It defeated some dwarven bounty hunters so now everyone is scared of it.” Peter explains.
“It must be dangerous to scare the other bounty hunters. What’s the bounty on it anyway?”
“Two thousand white.” Peter says. I blink a few times.
“I must have misheard. How much did you say?”
“Two thousand white.” Peter repeats.
“That’s a ridiculous amount. This thing can’t just be dangerous. It must be the scariest thing in the Deep Maze. My father told me about a monster with a bounty of five hundred white, and it sounded like that was the highest bounty there had ever been on a monster. I forget what it was called but it could turn you to stone just by looking at you. Did anyone tell you what this bullfrog can do?”
“No.” Peter admits. “I’m sure we’ll be fine though.”
“I’m scared.” Elucia says with a shiver. Then the door opens and Lucy flies through, followed by Dairon.
“What are you scared of?” Lucy asks flying towards us. “And
what are those white disks? Are they the white coins Grunti was talking about?”
“They’re tier three bounty hunter permits.” I explain. “And Elucia is scared of the job that Peter has accepted for us.”
“What job?” Lucy asks sounding even more interested now.
“We need to kill a bullfrog in the Deep Maze.” I tell her.
“Oh a bullfrog. Isn’t that a type of demon?” Lucy asks sounding happy.
“Is it?” I ask surprised.
“I’m sure it is. I don’t think they’re meant to be that strong, but all demons are dangerous. We should be able to defeat it with brute force, unlike the ones we beat in the Black Forest.” Lucy says with a smile.
“The bounty is rather high for a not that dangerous demon though. Two thousand white would suggest a ridiculously over powered demon.” I say rather dubiously.
“Then we should have Elucia give Peter some power.” Lucy says with a frown. “Peter, be careful not to take too much. Half should be enough I think.”
“Wait, doesn’t that mean kissing?” Elucia asks backing away a little.
“Isn’t a little kiss better than having your soul eaten and getting sent to hell?” Lucy asks sweetly. Elucia goes white and for a moment I am sure she is going to faint. “Besides, do you really hate Peter that much?”
“That’s not the point.” Elucia says quietly. “I’ll do it this once, but only because you all helped me when I was being controlled by the enemy.”
(Peter)
Elucia approaches me very slowly. I don’t want to scare her so I just wait for her to come to me. Finally she is only a few inches away. She looks at me nervously.
“Close your eyes.” Elucia says with a shaking voice. I don’t really get it, but I close my eyes. Perhaps it is less embarrassing for her like this.
I’ve never really been that nervous about kissing. It’s just taking or giving power after all, but this time it feels different somehow. I can feel Elucia’s breath as she approaches my face and my heart feels like it is beating really quickly.
“Both of you do realise that this is just power sharing, right?” Lucy chuckles. Neither of us answers though, because just as she says it Elucia has placed her mouth over mine. I can sense her power much more clearly now we are connected. I slowly start to draw out her power but she has so much it will take forever like this. I increase the force pulling her power much quicker, but it feels weird somehow.
“That’s enough.” Lucy says and so I stop. Elucia pulls away and stares at me.
“It doesn’t feel like you took any power.” She says sounding as confused as I am.
“I took a lot, but it didn’t feel like it even dented your power reserves. It was a bit like taking power from the queen, except that I was careful to draw the power out much slower than with the queen.” I say confused.
“Why couldn’t Peter take as much as he wanted, short of killing Elucia and up to his own limits of course?” Kai asks.
“It’s dangerous for Peter to take too much power, and no I’m not going to explain further. Peter knows why and so do I, but nobody else needs to know. Oh, and if you dare pester either of us for more details I will make sure you get fed to a demon.” Lucy says and I am grateful she didn’t reveal the secret about my souls. Kai on the other hand is clearly shocked, and so are Elucia and Dairon.
“Oh, ok.” Is all that Kai says, apparently lost for words.
“Thank you Elucia.” I say with a nervous smile. By now she has backed away a few steps from me.
“Oh, that’s ok. I’m glad I can at least help. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be either. I’d already given my first kiss to poor Priscilla.”
“Priscilla? The artificial woman that David created?” I ask in surprise. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised she had a name, but I never even thought to ask what it was. Rin at least must have known.
“Yes. She was killed just before David moved into me, wasn’t she?”
“Yes, but how did you know?” I ask.
“Wasn’t it you who told me? Or was it Lucy, or maybe Dairon? I forget, but one of you told me.”
“Oh, well I suppose that makes sense.” I say with a nod. Perhaps it was me, but I suspect it was Lucy or Dairon.
“Anyway, we have a frog demon to hunt, so perhaps we should make a move.” I say with a smile.
“We should wait until tomorrow, so my power can recover.” Kai says hesitantly.
“That might be best. I’ve used a lot of power today too, so I’d like to recover mine as well.” Dairon says.
“I suppose a one day delay shouldn’t be a big problem.” I say with a nod.
(Nairon)
Right about now Seraph would be laughing gleefully, but this sort of thing has never been to my taste. The three young dwarves are hanging from the wall with their arms, hands and legs sealed inside the bullfrog’s goo. Actually I have no idea whether they are young, but they look just like human children, which is a bit off putting.
I wish I could just free them, but they are the enemy and right now they are part of the plan. I force myself to continue watching as the bullfrog continues to kiss the first dwarven girl. It has been kissing her for too long. I wish it would stop, but it will only stop when it has finished and when it has finished her life will be over.
“I thought you’d enjoy the show, but you seem rather squeamish.” The traitor says with a hearty laugh that reminds me of Seraph’s gleeful attitude towards killing and torturing people. The dwarf that is being kissed is obviously in no position to comment and the other two are unconscious.
“I will do my job, but only a monster can enjoy seeing a young girl having her soul sucked out of her like that.”
“That girl is over five hundred years old. Even for a dwarf she is not a young girl, though as dwarves don’t age she is still a girl. An adult girl, but still a girl since she was created a girl and not a woman.”
“What about the other two?” I ask, relieved that she isn’t a child. That at least is something.
“This one here is four hundred years old and very much an adult too. As for the last one though…” The traitor laughs.
“How old is she?” I force myself to ask even though his laughter makes it plain that she is still a child.
“Just fifty years old. Very much a little girl.” The traitor laughs. For a human she would be a grown adult, but amongst dwarves and elves a fifty year old is still as he says, a young child.
“At what age is a dwarf considered an adult?” I ask resignedly.
“At one hundred you are officially recognised as an adult, though some people will treat you as an adult from about sixty and some only when you reach a hundred and fifty.”
“So how did you get your pet?” I ask trying to distract myself from the horrific sight in front of me without looking away.