StarChaser: Another (18+)

The Next Morning, at Autumnhollow:

Most of Philia’s belongings from the wagon still remained on the patio floor of Autumnhollow. Her plan today was to start unpacking them and getting things organized. Meanwhile, Siria, Kvaris, and Kinu were keen to return to town and secure the rewards for the team. Ingrid planned to take Viel to the spot where Philia had her workmen bury her things. Cecil and Gwen would be teaching the mice how to use firearms, which leaves Zefir and Sammy to do shopping at the town.

Before anyone could leave however, Philia found what she was looking for and brought it to the dining room where everyone was still having their breakfast.

“Let’s use these to keep in touch with each other.” Philia said, laying down a small bag atop the table. She took out several sets of earpieces along with their U-boxes.

 

That Philia had in her possession multiple earpieces for long-range communications was not a fluke. One of the advantages of having to relive one’s life from the moment of birth was having the time to make all of this possible. Her earpiece in particular was compact and rugged, highly water-resistant and electric-resistant, making it perfect for adventuring like real military-grade earpieces. That she had made many of them wasn’t simply for redundancy, but also to disseminate them among friends or followers when the need arose.

Being in Terragalia, Philia customized her earpieces so they could be secured firmly to the ears of anyone regardless of what part of the head it was on. These earpieces consisted of a curved chassis that clipped on the earlobes and gently pressed at the back of the skull behind the ears, using vibration against the bones to generate the sounds instead of an earbud.

As Philia showed everyone how to put them on, Kvaris then asked the obvious question.

“What are these for?” she asked.

“These let us talk to each other from a distance.” Ingrid replied. “Since we’re all heading to different locations, it’s best we coordinate our actions accordingly.”

“Right.” Philia said. “Now these little rectangular boxes are U-boxes. I call them that because they do a lot of other utilities. First of all, they hold a second pair of earpieces…”

Philia opened up a U-box revealing a pair of earpieces nestled within.

“Your earpieces can operate for three hours before they need to be charged. You will know your earpieces need charging because you’ll start to hear a distinct beeping sound… When that happens, simply swap earpieces with the ones inside your U-box. Once inside, those earpieces will be recharged, it takes approximately an hour to reach full charge.”

Everyone nodded, they were all catching on quickly. Even the mice looked at these new tools with interest.

“These U-boxes also serve as a signal booster…what does that mean? Obviously there’s a limit to how far these can send and receive messages and these U-boxes help increase that distance. Just keep it in your packs or pocket. And finally…”

Philia laid down another clip-on object. This one had a few buttons on it. “This is the switchbox, you press on this button to start talking. This other button is the same but you need to hold it down, it also resets the first button in case it was already pressed… there’s situations why you’d need that… anyway, everyone put them on and I’ll demonstrate.” She then left the house, Ingrid, Zefir, and Gwen helped the others put them on.

Ingrid pressed on her switchbox “Philia, this is Ingrid, send traffic, over.”

The Terragalians jumped in their seats when they heard Philia speak clearly in their ears despite her not being in the room with them.

“This is King Fish. Copy your last. Over.” came her voice.

“King Fish?” Siria asked.

“It’s a call-sign.” Ingrid replied “I guess we don’t need to use it though…”

“Actually, I think it would be helpful…” Sammy said slowly “...even if someone eavesdrops on your conversation it will muddle it further for them.”

Zefir pointed and lightly wagged his finger in Sammy's direction “She got it… Sammy, you perfectly described why we use call-signs over the radio.”

“Radio? I thought this was called an earpiece.” Sammy remaked.

“It’s a type of radio. Some are small and wearable like these earpieces while others can be a big talking box, it all depends on the usage.” Ingrid explained.

Philia had taken her place back at the table. “Yes, so about those call-signs, we don’t need to do them right now-”

“Starchaser” said Ingrid.

“Overlord.” Cecil quipped. “And I’m writing this down…”

“Baseplate.” Zefir chimed in.

“Outlaw” Gwen said, “because we’re runaways.”

“Night-rider” Sammy declared.

“I’ll still be Kitty-Five” Viel said shyly.

Siria thought for a while. “Ranger-Two.”

Kvaris was about to say something when Ingrid said “Kvaris will be Anubis, and Kinu will be Amarok.”

The two garms looked at Ingrid. “What are those?”

“Garm-like gods from our world.” Cecil replied.

Philia’s eyes lit up “Oh! Nice theme! Anubis is a god from a rich fertile land surrounded by a desert while Amarok belongs to the far northern lands which are frozen… nice thinking, Ingrid!”

“Alright, I’ll be Anubis.” Kvaris grinned.

“No problem being Amarok.” Kinu concurred.

 

“Someday,” Ingrid said “You gotta tell us your story and how you kept all of these things under wraps while developing them.”

Philia shrugged “Eh, if I wasn’t doing the objectively AWESOME things, then it was being in boring meetings regarding shit that were factually non-issues. I’ve compartmentalized all memories of those into the recycle bin in my head where it belongs. When I have to sit through meeting number three-hundred twenty-six or whatever I just doodle down diagrams for my research or jot down notes of how I’ll solve the current engineering problem I was facing before I was called over to sit through their worthless discussion over some non-issue. I remember telling minister whatever-his-name-is on my third or fourth boring non-meeting that if there wasn’t a naked dancing girl in the room with us, I’d skip the next hundred.”

“Now THAT is how you get a meeting rolling.” Ingrid smiled, waggling her eyebrows.

“And whenever they turned to me for input I’d just ask myself ‘what would Machiavelli do?’ If it was something I could use to gain more money and influence then yeah but otherwise I zoned out and focused on the real issues of life; problem-solving for what can i use to replace the wood and polymer parts of my replica guns or formulate tweaks to my summoning spell when it came to bringing yet another complex machine from Earth. And if my mind was drawing a blank then at least I had something WORTH spending my vision on.”

“Hear! Hear!” Zefir thumped his mug.

“Yup!” Kvaris raised her mug as well.

“Then there’s the occassional asshole that comes out and tries to pull rank or inflate his or her artificially-made peerage. I don’t have time to listen to those. Usually it happens at parties, I skim through people to see if they're of any use to me then move on, I don’t do small talk and retire from the party without a word.“

“Yup, boring indeed! Glad you’re out of that artificial dick-waving.” Ingrid laughed heartily.

“You guys knew what Ingrid did back on Earth when someone tried the same to her?” Philia asked the group. They shook their heads.

“Nothing.” Cecil said. “She just brushed it aside and kept walking.”

“Yeah but…” Ingrid was giggling now. “You jumped out and wrapped yourself around that idiot’s head until it fainted like a goat.”

“Hey!” Cecil snapped “Goats take more to scare. Besides, we’re on a time crunch to save actual lives, nobody has time to listen to that thing make pig noises about…whatever dumb non-issue it was about.”

Philia giggled, she knew that event.

“Also” she continued “As soon as I could talk I always made sure to get tutors that only taught the real lessons anybody worth a damn needs; history, science, magic, military matters, stuff that I can make use of to rebuild. I wasn’t in the mood having my time wasted on other non-lessons, I had about like, fifteen years as allowance to rebuild everything up from scratch so I too was on a time crunch.”

“Smart.” Cecil said “cutting out all the worthless stuff.”

“Yeah, never attended all the stuff I never needed in school either.” Ingrid smiled.

“Which brings up an important topic. No, nobody shall ever suggest to me or Ingrid to attend any dumb magic school setting. We will not do that.” Philia told everyone.

“Agreed. I’m too cool for that.” Ingrid said.

“Now let’s focus on the REAL important things. Guns! Sci-Fi! Modern tools!” Philia said, holding up relevant items. The earthlings punctuated her enumerations by chorusing “Yeah!” as she held up her pistol, her earpieces, and her slapping her bag.

“So far the only town I’ve been to here in Vele is New Gorpsial and it was a town worth saving. Focused on adventurers, merchants, and people making a buck to enrich their lives and nobody getting in their way. As a matter of fact, I’m morally obligated to nuke Elion-Nosco for not being like NG. As soon as I can get weapons-grade plutonium.”

There was a resounding thump on the table. Philia raised her mug.

“Never change, Veles, this is a country worth dying for!”

“To having more oxygen for everyone worth a damn!” Cecil joked, raising his mug as well. Everyone followed suit and the mice squeaked along as well.

“You still haven’t told us how you kept things under wraps…” Ingrid muttered, but seeing Philia annoyed at remembering to attend non-issue meetings was something she could relate to too well and decided to not press the question.

 

____

“So, what do you think about that story that Ingrid, Philia, Cecil, and I are reincarnation from a different world?” Zefir said as they rode their wagon back to New Gorpisal. Philia was driving the wagon with Kvaris sitting beside her, there had been a change in plans and she was brought to New Gorpisal since she was an Artificer. As she cleared the forest she saw that most of the monsters had now been cleared away, with only a few piles of carcasses left which now were being loaded into wagons, and a few adventurers shooing away any scavengers that got too close.

Siria thought about the question.

“It’s still hard to believe but I don’t see any other possible explanation.” Siria replied. “The fact that Philia is a princess with the power and money to create things like this makes me think otherwise, however, considering what kind of man her father is, then such technology, as you call it, would've been made known a long time ago.”

“And yet, Zefir who says he’s never met Philia before never needed to teach Philia how to use the magic tools.” Sammy added. “And Ingrid with her ability to weaponize the ether, Elion-Nosco would sacrifice so many lives to have someone like her as their slave warrior, and yet she was familiar with their function…”

The sorceress nodded.

“I don’t see the harm in believing in the story.” Sammy said. “What do we have to lose from agreeing they are?”

“True.” Siria replied “The worst is that Elion-Nosco technology has like that…”

“Then we would have been invaded a long time ago.” Kinu interjected. “Can you imagine a hundred of those howitzers striking us from miles away? Not even the Imperial capital of Veles could withstand such an assault.”

Sammy added “Let’s not forget the border skirmishes only a few years ago when Imperial troops were stationed at Lavai and Yore because of the Elion-Noscoites massing up at the Farrun river…”

“In that case, I would agree.” Siria conceded. “I’m guessing you want me to acknowledge this as a way of saying that you… earthlings as you call yourselves, are still quite ignorant of the larger world around us?”

“Exactly,” Zefir said “...Philia is the most knowledgeable here because she grew up here, having to live her life from the moment of birth, I would be the second most knowledgeable since I’ve only been here for a year while Ingrid scarcely a week. It’s important you know this because it is inevitable that we might commit a cultural faux pas…”

“Fow pah?” Sammy asked.

“Meaning we may say or do things that are unusual or even insulting because we’re ignorant of certain cultural norms, now that we’re traveling to different places, it could happen. So if we come across such a situation it would be really helpful if all of you would be so kind as to let us know…” Zefir explained.

“Understandable.” Siria said.

“It also goes without saying that we earthlings have decided it’s best to hide the fact we’re from another world. We’ll just say that Earth is just another country from some far-off sea.” Zefir added.

“We have a concept in our world called the Primed Directive. Now don’t take it the wrong way, but our world, or rather, former world as you have experienced is far more advanced than yours and the PD states that it’s not a good idea for a more advanced world’s technology to come into a less developed world…could cause a lot of very unpleasant consequences. Not right now, no, but over the course of time, it could ruin things.”

Siria nodded, she was starting to understand why he was saying this.

“I understand… the guild after all prioritizes confidentiality with the abilities of their guildsmen. We know the dangers of having the crown or those in power abuse other people’s abilities.” Siria said.

“I don’t know what secret you’re talking about.” Sammy smiled.

“Me neither.” Kinu said. “I don’t know what we’ve been talking about all this time.” she added in a singsong voice.

“Thanks guys.” Zefir said.

____

An hour later, at the Veles-Elion-Nosco Border:

“Whoa. This is pretty huge.” Ingrid said as she surveyed the unearthed chamber. Philia’s workmen had dug out a big squarish chamber into the ground twenty feet high and fifty feet wide and across. The chamber was lined with stones for stability and a wooden ceiling placed over it which then was covered with dirt five feet deep. They used the tracking device that Philia provided them to locate the hidden cache. Ingrid dug down until she heard the hollow thump of wood as Philia told her.

Using her abilities, she quickly dug out the earth covering the ceiling and then Viel used her telekinesis to lift the big pallet-like boards.

As Ingrid stood guard, she spoke into the radio.

“This is Starchaser actual.” She began. “We’ve found the chamber and Kitty-Five’s working on item boxing them. Over.”

“What’s actual?” Kinu asked over the line.

“This is Baseplate, ‘actual’ is a designation for the team leader’s callsign. Over.” came Zefir’s reply

“King-Fish copies, Starchaser.” Philia replied over the line quietly. Everyone could hear in the background many people talking, with Kvaris currently speaking loudly as she argued her case for The Whales to get a good piece of the reward. “Anubis is currently negotiating procurement for some really good soulstones. Over.”

“Overlord here, what kind of soulstones are we talking about? Over.” Cecil said.

“This is King Fish, You know how in video games you can charge your super bar by punching enemies in the face? Those kind of soulstones, over.” Philia replied.

“This is Baseplate. Uh yeah, we need those for our melee fighters. Over.” Zefir assented.

“Starchaser actual copies. How is it going over there, Baseplate? Over.” Ingrid queried.

“Night-rider and I just left the forge after making our order of glaives to finish. We’ve already put out an order for the mice’s armor and belts. We’re heading out to Dain’s after Night-Rider’s done shopping for the scarves so we can have their brooches done. Over.”

“Copy your last, What kind of armor we’re looking at? Over.” Ingrid asked.

“This is Amarok, what do you mean by Copy? Over.”

“It means the message was completely understood. Over.” Philia replied.

“Amarok copies. Over.”

“Baseplate here, we’ve put an order for Lamellar armor with gambeson underneath. Night-Rider’s back, we’re heading to Dain’s now.” Zefir said. “How’s the mice?” he added.

“This is Outlaw.” Gwen replied. “We’re testing their marksmanship, they’re accurate shots.” her voice was accompanied by sounds of gunfire.

“Head shot!” Cecil cried triumphantly in the background.

“Overlord.” Cecil said quickly. “These pellet guns you’ve given the mice are hitting really hard, King Fish. The Companion Rogue’s Shillelagh got enhanced too. Over. ”

“Copy, good to know it extends to the CRS. over.”

___
“Talk about enhanced stopping power.” Zefir said as he and Sammy entered Dain’s shop.

“I guess because the Companion Rogue’s Shillelegh is bound to the weapon it too acquires the properties of Cecil’s enhancement lens by proxy.” Sammy remarked.

“Aye! Here comes the hero!” Dain beamed gladly. “Whit can ah dae for ye?”

“We’re all heroes, old man!” Zefir said as the two clapped each other’s shoulders. “I saw you at the celebrations last night too, you were all armored up and carrying a big bloody hammer!”

Dain laughed heartily . "Aye, that's richt! Feels braw tae swing ma hammer now an' again!"

“Our friend Ingrid’s made some new friends, Swarm Mice. We need you to add some identifying runes on them so everyone knows they’re our familiars.” Zefir said, handing him a paper with the letters S,A,B,E, and R.

“Easy job, boyo!” Dain laughed, then his expresson soured a bit. “Ah’ve a wee askin' fer ye, lad. Last night, some o' our gallant fallen left a few enchanted weapons. Thae were created by that barmy wizard Deregor. A reckon ye could gie them oan tae a few o' yer mates? A'm sure they could make better use o' thae weyapons."

He turned his head to a nearby table where a collection of various weapons lay. They were all richly decorated and in Zefir’s eyes reminded him of the type of weapon skins in video games that people would fork out dollars for just to buy some cheap validation from randoms online.

"A daft wizard made these barmy weapons, aye, but they’ve got their pluses. I’m certain if ye had a steady hand and a bit o’ savvy in the arcane arts, ye an’ yer pals could bring oot their true potential." Dain finished.

“But of course, Dain.” Zefir replied. “As a matter of fact we got some that have Apport Rings, like my friend Sammy Foster over here.”

"Foster?” The dwarf looked up at the orc girl in surprise “You’re Tom’s lassie, aye? Yer fae the Nightmane Tribe, aren’t ye? Weel, ah’m reckonin’ a Blood Rider like yersel' could put the Mad Wizard’s strange weapons tae guid use, aye?"

Sammy nodded “Yes, Tom Foster’s my father, and I’m sure me and my ride-mates can pay honor to Deregor’s gifts.”

“Anubis, Amarok, are you copying this? Over.” Zefir said quietly. He was familiar with the legend of Deregor the Mad Wizard. He had crafted some really odd weapons that could only be summoned when conditions were met.

“Get them all if you can.” Kvaris said over the line. Zefir smiled, he could feel her wide toothy grin from her voice alone.

“Amarok here, what do see? Over.”

“three long pole axes, some spiky balls, four lances, a bo- I mean a quarterstaff, A big warhammer, daggers, military picks, some scimitars, and some really strange staff, looks like a wizard’s.” Zefir said quietly

“For Anubis and I, take the pole axes, spiky balls, lances, picks, scimitars, and daggers. Over.” Kinu replied.

“Got it, anything else?” Zefir asked.

“This is Starchaser actual. Interrogative.Three axes? That wizard made more than one per item?” Ingrid asked.

“That’s an affirmative, Starchaser actual.” Philia replied. “Deregor created many of these conditional weapons, it shouldn’t be strange to find some of them in the possession of more than a few adventurers.“

___

Viel watched as Ingrid used her strength to kick away at the dirt wholesale as she collapsed the chamber. She would use her defensive Aegis aura to create a large, flat, round surface under her feet so she could flatten out the ground, leaving more no evidence of anything being excavated there.

She wasn’t exhausted but her hands felt a little shaky as she had brought in quite a number of objects that spanned such a large room. She could only wonder at what other wonderful objects Philia had either crafted or pulled from her homeland and hope they would.

“Had Philia always been an artificer?” She asked as Ingrid effortlessly kicked round gouts of earth as if it was simply light desert sand.

“Yes.” Ingrid replied. “Philia had always been putting her genius to use by constructing all sorts of interesting gadgets. That said, considering that Philia had lost most of her power due to rebirth we must temper our expectations. However, just by bringing weapons from our world that’s already a miracle enough.”

“I see” Viel said. “What did Philia say by ‘nuking’ Elion-Nosco? Based on the context she seemed to imply unleashing some kind of grand-scale damage-”

“Grand-scale destruction, Viel.” Ingrid corrected her. “She’s talking about a Nuclear Weapon, it tears apart the very fabric of reality and it’s… well it’s not exactly forbidden to use in my world, but considering it can destroy a city more then fifty times the size of New Gorpisal, it’s usage is highly restricted.”

“That’s a relief.” Viel sighed “I can’t believe anyone would be so barbaric as to use such a weapon…”

“It’s not that people aren’t that barbaric.” Ingrid interjected “But many countries possess such weapons. There’s a doctrine in our world called Mutually Assured Destruction, meaning that it doesn’t matter who strikes first. Let’s you and I are both queens of our respective kingdoms; if you use a nuclear weapon on my country, then I’m given precedent to do the same… the result? We end up destroying each other, not worth the loss of so many lives as a result. It is what keeps our world generally more peaceful. Large scale wars cannot happen anymore because it gives justification for their use, ministers and other country leaders are forced to settle their conflicts at the negotiating table rather than steel and blood.”

Viel nodded thoughtfully. “I see… peace through terrible power.”

“Zefir may have mentioned this before, but such a power also has its peaceful uses. As a matter of fact, the electricity that powers the lights and other devices in Autumnhollow right now as we speak are probably drawing from a nuclear source…” Ingrid finished tamping down the ground and helped Viel up.

“Come on, step up the rider tassels, we gotta run back home.” Ingrid said, sitting on her haunches. Viel put her feet into the loops of her rider tassel and put her hands on Ingrid’s shoulders. Sparks of electricity flowed around them as Ingrid wound herself up for a really fast run.

“Just keep your hands on my shoulders and you’ll be fine.” Ingrid said before she ran faster than the wind, turning the world around them into a blur of color. Ingrid extended her Aegis aura around Viel, preventing her from being blown away by the wind and interia that as far as she was concerned, Ingrid was leisurely jogging in place.

___

Meanwhile, back in New Gorpisal:

“I’m going to be out for a week, probably.” Zardos said to Siria as he lay back on his cot. “But I figure I could get back in three days.”

The sheep-like felmoon healer looked at him sternly, causing the bandaged minotaur to lay back. “Yeah…I’ll be here for a week.”

“You’ve used yourself as a shield from those vicious life-draining undead monsters.” The felmoon bleated “You’re staying here for a week if you want to be able to fight again.”

Kinu and Kvaris nodded, “Just stay and rest, Zardos, there’s not going to be any more trouble for the next month or two.” Kinu said, stepping further into the cubicle curtains of the field hospital set up at the Fenrir guild hall.

While there were a few casualties in the fighting, there were many wounded and some like Zardos had taken some really serious damage. While it looked like a minor wound, Zardos’ mana was currently at a dangerously low level, black curse marks marred his body and thanks to the efforts of the healers, most of them were already starting to fade away.

“Just look at it this way…” Siria said, putting her hand on his. “A big hero like you needs to be fully recovered… otherwise, who’s going to protect the little squirts the next time a Red Moon happens?”

Zardos chuckled, making a deep bovine rumble. “Alright, I’ll rest up.” Turning to the felmoon healer he said. “Iohann, right? I can definitely recommend Siria Bluethorn’s team The Whales. Siria I’ve known for a long time, she’s extremely capable. Her teammates are led by a human, Ingrid Lily and I’ve tested her strength, she’s also with Amaduscia Enthana’s daughters. You’ll be in good hands.”

The felmoon’s long sheep-like ears twitched. “Amaduscia Enthana, King Tulan’s Iron Shield?”

“The one the same.” Zardos said. The Enthana sisters lightly bowed in greeting.

“Kvaris Enthana.”

“Kinu.”

The curtain opened slightly as Philia poked her head through. She was going to check in on the team when she overheard the conversation. Stepping back and closing the curtain, as well as not wanting to intrude on the conversation, she touched her earpiece.

“King Fish to Starchaser Actual, do you copy? Over” she said quietly.

“Starchaser copies, send traffic. Over.”

“Possible FNG, felmoon. That’s a fluffy sheep-girl in case you didn’t know. Looks like a cleric or healer. Over.”

Ingrid’s response was immediate. “Whales Team, This is Starchaser Actual. Felmoon cleric has my approval pending your assessment. Oh and from this point onwards, King Fish, will be my number two when we’re not in an adventuring situation. When we’re on the field, Siria takes command. If any of you have objections speak freely. Over.”

___

“King Fish objects.” Philia said. “I just told you I’ve skipped so many meetings to break the Prime Directive a hundred times over! Over.”

“Ranger Two-here, but you are privy to many known secrets where Elion-Nosco is concerned.” Siria replied “And you have lived a life in a royal court. As Starchaser mentioned, I will take over leadership when we are adventuring, which is my preserve.”

“Overlord objects to King Fish’s objection.” Cecil said back in Autumhollow, his voice interrupted with the occasional sounds of gunfire as the mice continued to hone their precision. “We were pretty disorganized back on Earth when you got corrupted, you know. That surprise attack you launched when you were Melrondia? Do you really think that would have happened if someone else got corrupted and you were still with us? …over.”

“No…no that wouldn’t have happened.” Philia said quietly “But why are you trusting me? I’m…”

“Responsible for pruning out the worst of the Dark Empire’s officers as you tried to take leadership as Melrondia, all for the cost of one starchaser and one slime, that’s a steal, King Fish.” Ingrid said.

“You may have shot your own maids that you grew up with, King Fish.” Gwen added. “But you and I know that one day they were going to tell the king where you hid those WMDs like anthrax.”

“Philia, what the hell!?” Ingrid said, but she was laughing. “...you’ve brought a deadly disease to this world?”

“No! It exists here too! I merely collected the spores!” Philia whispered harshly, her face burning in shame. Kvaris was laughing in the background. “Alright, I accept… but what about Kinu and Kvaris? They’re Amaduscia Enthana’s daughters for God’s sake!”

“We’ll take an advisory role.” Kinu replied.

“Ingrid’s assessment is correct. King Fish, you’ve had actual experience dealing with all sorts of people in the higher echelons of life, while Siria is the most experienced adventurer here. Amarok and I have knowledge in the middle. We have no objections.” Kvaris added.

___

Meanwhile, the Felmoon Iohann beheld a strange sight as Siria, Kinu, and Kvaris simultaneously touched their right ears, their expressions quizzical before they wordlessly looked at each, somehow communicating with their eyes alone. And then they started talking strangely to each other.

“Don’t mind us.” Siria said “just some fancy spell our Artificer is working on, it still is imperfect.” She lied.

After a while she turned back to Iohann.

“Zardos said you were looking for a team?” Siria asked. The felmoon nodded.

“Yes. I’m Iohann of the Treanthorn Tribe.” The fluffy-haired felmoon replied. She looked human except for her goat-like eyes with the long horizontal pupils. Her impressive horns with their dangling jewelry also had a pair of ribbons drooping down from them. Her ears long and droopy and covered with downy fur. Unlike Millarna’s silky hair, hers was quite wooly, tied into braids which in turn tied back into a puffy ponytail capped at the end with various rings. She wore a tribal-type dress: a matching white frock and long skirt with large blue accents over which very stylish-looking patterns were embroidered. Atop these were the vestments of her Order.

“I come from the mining town of Fairhaven,” Iohann bowed. “That’s where I honed my skills as a healer under the Church of Saint Ygris The Merciful. The mines enrich the community although more than few people bite off more than they could chew trying to get more lodestones and gems they could reliably carry in those treacherous caves.”

“I see.” Philia said, having entered the cubicle. “I’m Philia Lovelock, also part of the Whales, I'm an artificer as well as Ingrid’s assistant. Sorry to overhear your conversation, but shouldn’t we continue this conversation elsewhere? This man needs his rest.” she gestured at Zardos.

“Yes please do…” Zardos said, smiling “I’m recovering pretty fine now, as you can see…”

Iohann shot him a look, causing him to chuckle “Relax Iohann… I’ll rest properly, Siria’s right… I need to take my recovery seriously or Fenrir’s going to be filled with incompetent adventurers.”

Iohann bleated and sighed. “Very well, Zardos, please take this seriously.”

“Philia…” Zardos said…dropping his voice to almost a whisper. “It’s good to see you outside of the palace, finally.”

“You know her?” Siria stepped aside to let Philia approach and give Zardos a hug.

“I was her sword instructor when she was five, stayed around for two more years before I returned to Veles.” Zardos explained, patting Philia’s back.

“Please rest well, old man. I want to see you again.” Philia said.

“Yeah, I’m glad I didn’t see you until now… your medicine ideas are horrifying!” he joked, before the two of them burst laughing.

“What…did Philia do?” Siria asked, slowly.

“I accidentally struck his leg with a real sword, so I stitched up his wound using knowledge from my world…”

“It stung like hell!” Zardos laughed “But I was surprised how fast it healed…not to mention how I didn’t get sick at all.”

“Stitch?” Iohann said, looking wide-eyed with horror.

“I accidentally cut him pretty deep, so I poured a cleansing potion; alcohol, similar to the substance you find in ale or wine but concentrated. I used it to kill the little monsters called bacteria. A side effect is that it is quite painful but necessary. Afterwards I stitched his wound shut and then…well, Zardos is a very tough and healthy man so he recovered quickly.”

Philia helped Zardos lay back in his bed. “I’m convinced… if Zardos knows you then that’s all I need to know. I approve Iohann, and besides, we need a good healer… and I know a particularly dumb teammate of ours who has a nasty habit of using herself as a shield…”

___

Elsewhere…

“Whoa, whoa boys.” Zefir said, gently tugging on the reins. The aurochs stopped, the wagon now parked parallel to Inzir’s furniture shop. The two bulls chewed their cud with indifference as Zefir and Sammy disembarked to browse the shop.

“Zefir my boy!” The goblin Inzir cried happily, embracing him and patting each other’s backs. “I heard you were quite a hero, shooting down monsters from all the way up the tower!”

Zefir laughed, scratching his head, pretending to not know what he was talking about. “I think that’s exaggerated pops, no one can shoot that far… but I know what isn’t exaggerated…” he pointed at a long stately dining table with accompanying chairs near the middle of the shop. “I want to buy another table, that’s for sure!”

The goblin’s eyes lit up. “That’s quite a family you and missus are planning to have, you horny tephran!” he said, referring to the giant cat-like species like the Guildmaster.

Sammy laughed, patting Zefir’s shoulder “With his gallantry last night, I approve!”

“Hahahaha…” Zefir laughed nervously “S-something like that.” he looked back at Sammy who grinned and waggled her eyebrows at him.

“Alright, you heard him, boys!” Inzir turned to his aides “Wrap that up!” he pointed at the dining table. “Let’s not have too many things in this shop banged up today.” he said. Sammy laughed at the double entendre.

 

Philia, Kinu, Kvaris, Iohann, and Siria entered the shop and found Zefir also purchasing some additional cabinets and chairs.

“We’re going to have to walk back home.” Zefir said. “We’re not going to fit in the wagon.”

“It’s fine, I have an Item Box.” Siria said. “So whatever you need to buy, I’ll store it with me.”

“Dining table, cabinets, chairs,” Philia enumerated, pulling out a small notebook from her traveler’s valise from her hip. “And two big beds… and yeah you got everything it seems… anyone else have other suggestions?”

"This is Kitty-Five." Viel said over the radio. "We've returned to Autum- what again? Oh, alright. We've returned to Hotel Bravo and will be releasing a third of of King Fish's buried loot on the patio. Over."

"Hotel Bravo?" Sammy asked. Kinu, Kvaris, and Siria looked at Zefir and Philia.

"Copy Kitty-Five. King Fish out." Philia said quietly, turning to the others she told the others "That's short-hand for Home Base, a code name for Autumnhollow."

"Oh." The Terragalians chorused.