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  [colpse]

  “Hi! My name is Broccoli Bunch!” I decred with one arm raised to headheight and waving. “This is e,” I said as I raised my other hand to show off my cute kitty panion. e gred at my new potential friends.

  There were three of them, two if I didn’t t Milread. Both were grenoil, one a boy and the irl.

  “Hello”, the man said with a nod of his big froggy head. He had a speckled pattern across his skin that I had never seen on a grenoil before and a pair of strange goggles hanging around his neck. Other than that, he looked like a business grenoil that had taken a tumble into some mud.

  The girl grenoil looked a lot younger and a whole lot sadder. Her focus was almost entirely on the ground underfoot, one hand absently rubbing at the pommel of her rapier-like sword.

  “You two ready to head out?” Milread asked. Whe nods from both of them she turowards a one-horse wagon sitting in the middle of the road. “Well then, we just o settle and we be off. Broccoli, you missed it, but I’m charging a sil for the trip. It’s mostly to keep Missy fed.”

  “Is Missy the horse?” I guessed as I took in the horse hitched to the wagon, she--I guessed her gender because a boy horse called Missy would be a little strange--looked like a perfectly ordinary horse.

  “That’s right. Missy will save us some walking,” Milread said. “I hope one of you feels like holding the reins, I hate wearing gloves.” She wiggled her hands to show the long talons she had.

  The two grenoil found some s to hand over to Milread, and I did the same. One sil wasn’t much for a multi-day trip. In fact, that was a great pce to start a versation. “So, Milread, why are you heading to Port Royal?” I asked.

  “I’m a courier. I go from Port Royal to this outpost to Fort Tempete and then Deepmarsh and back. Round trip takes about two weeks. It’s a living.” The harpy fpped her arms and kicked off the ground to nd on the forart of the wagon where a bench was built into it.

  The other two hopped onto the back so I decided to joi the front.

  “All aboard?” Milread asked. “If you fot something back here, it’s not my problem.” She grabbed the reins from a hook o which a ntern was hanging and hahem over to me. “You’ve dohis before?” she asked.

  “Nope, but I like horses,” I said as I took the reins. “Yah!” I screamed as I whipped the loher cords.

  When the wagon finally stopped I ended up being sat in the back with the grenoil man.

  The floor of the wagon wasn’t very fortable, especially si was a small wagon with only two wheels and I was sitting right on top of the axle so that--even across the fttened ground ipost--my bum was boung all over the pd was going to get sore in no time.

  I ended up pulling out all the bs I had and pg them on the floor to act as padding. The grenoil across from me harrumphed then did the same, pulling out a thick quilt from his pad sitting on it with a humph.

  We moved past the gates of the outpost and I waved to the two guards who looked just as bored today as they did the day before. One of them even waved back.

  And then we were on the road.

  “So, why were you in Rockstack?” I asked the grenoil man.

  The grenoil looked at me. “You’re a chatty one, aren’t you?” he asked.

  “Yup! I sure am.”

  “Great. I was here for ze dungeon. I got what I came for, so now I’m heading home.” He leaned against the wooden sides of the wagon, then shifted to try a fortable.

  “You live in Port Royal?” I asked. “Ohh, I didn’t get your name. I’m sorry. I’m Broccoli Bunch.”

  “Severi,” he said. “And no, I don’t.”

  The grenoil girl leaned back a bit. “I’m Noemi,” she said.

  “This is great,” I said. “I’m making so many friends today.” The wago over a rut on the road and I ughed as I had to grab the edge to stop from tumbling around.

  “World’s tits, what kind of potion is she on?” Noemi muttered. I don’t think I was supposed to hear that, so I didn’t ent. I wasn’t on any sort of potion, not unless friendship was a drug, in which case I was an addict.

  “So, mister Severin, if you’re not from Port Royal, where are you from?” I asked. We were moving at a fairly slow pao faster than I could walk really, but without any of the effort that came from walking. If it wasn’t for all the friend-making potential orip, I might have found it a little b.

  The renoil closed his eyes. “I’m from Deepmarsh,” he said.

  “That’s twiow I’ve heard about Deepmarsh, is that a town nearby?”

  Severin opened his eyes and stared at me. “It’s ze capital of ze kingdom. Ze Kingdom of Deepmarsh... Ze Kingdom we’re in right now.”

  My smile became a little fixed. “I kind of got lost,” I said. “And I didly have a map, you know?”

  Milread looked over her shoulder. “Why didn’t you just open your map?”

  “My map?” I asked.

  The harpy sighed. “I know not everyone uses it, but did you really not know? Focus on the idea of a map, yic should take care of the rest.”

  I did as she asked, because even if it was a joke, and it didn’t feel like ohere was nothing to lose. It took a bit of focus, but I felt as if I had an option just waiting there that I had oyed with, like an itch that I didn’t notitil it was suddenly the only thing I could focus on.

  “You have got to be kidding me,” I said as I stared. I could see all of Threewells and the curving path I took to get from where I had appeared all the way to Rockstack. “I had a map the eime? Does it auto-update? That is, if I leave, and the area ges, will my map reflect that if I don’t know about it?”

  “No, it doesn’t work zat way,” Severin said. I had the impression he was enjoying my disbelief. “What level are you at? I don’t recall seeing you wiz ze other delvers.”

  “I’m level five,” I said, my attention still on the map. It was obvious that the scale was off, but it retty accurate as far as I could tell. Everything I had seen was there, with big gaps for the pces I hadn’t really explored except from afar. “Gosh I could have used this this past week.”

  “A poorly educated human, you must be from Mattergrove,” Severin said. “I assume zat you’re heading to Port Royal to find passage bae?”

  I looked away from the map for a moment to refocus on Severin. “Eh? No, no, I’m heading there to join the exploration guild and make a ton of friends!”

  “Ah, an explorer. I suppose zat would make us rivals,” Severin said.

  “Rivals?” I asked.

  He nodded. “Ze exploration and delvers guilds have been at each ozer's zroats feions. It’s mostly harmless, zough I’m sure some eyes were browned in a bar fight or two over ze years.”

  “I guess that’s okay,” I said. “As long as it means we still be friends.”

  Severin pressed his hands over his face. “Lady Hawk, would it be possible for your horse to move any faster?” he asked.

  “Don’t be grumpy you old frog,” Milread said. “The kid isn’t that bad. She’s just trying to make nice.”

  “Tch, fine. My apologies, miss Bunch. I did not mean to be short wiz you.”

  “It’s okay,” I said. “I e on a little strong sometimes. But I get so excited when I meet new people. I just want to be their friend right away, but most people need a bit of work before they’re ready for that.”

  “I... see?” Severin said. “Well, you have two days to get used to us and us to you.”

  “Joy,” Noemi muttered. It earned her a wing in the ribs from Milread.

  I tried to be nid stayed quiet for a little bit. Instead of talking I scratched e, who had crawled down to my p at some point, behind the ears as I took in the fresh air and ck of sunshihe skies were still a dreary grey and the roads were covered in little puddles, but at least the rain hadn’t returhe forests were... forests. I had been seeing forests all day.

  “So, what css are you, Severin?” I asked by act. The question had just kind of slipped out.

  The grenoil croaked. “I’m a Mudmancer.”

  “Like a mud wizard?” I asked. “That’s . So is it its own... branagic or is it a bo or like, earth and water? Wait, where’s your staff?”

  “I do not o carry around a rge stick to validate my masity,” Severin said. He flicked his hand and a wand appeared between his fingers, a long piece of dark wood with silvery carvings all along its sides and a metal bahe handle.

  “I carry a spear,” I said before poking my spear with my foot. “I wonder what that says about my masity?” Milread snorted and even Noemi chuckled.

  I had made my friends ugh! Bun one, ck of friends, zero!

  “So, does having a wand help you cast spells?” I asked.

  “You don’t know anyzing about magic, do you?” he asked.

  “Nobody taught me,” I said. “If you want you could teach me, I’m an avid listener!”

  His wand flicked away bato his sleeve. “Teachers are paid,” he said.

  “I have some s,” I said before pulling out my little pouch of coppers.

  Severihe pouch, then me for a moment. “I suppose it’s ze choice between talking myself or hearing you prattle all ze way over to Port Royal, isn’t it?”

  “I am an excellent prattler.” I reached into my pad found my scroll of fireball and held it up. “Would this help any?” I asked.

  He took it from me and unfolded it with an expert flick. It wasn’t his first magic scroll, I guessed. “Yes actually, zis would. You’ve been trying to learn zis spell?”

  “I wish I could start to try. I don’t know the first thing about casting spells so I’m mostly just getting fused by all the diagrams.”

  The wagon bumped and hitched along the road for nearly a full minute before Severin made up his mind. “Very well. Two sil for two days of teag. To be paid ze moment you cast your first fireball. It’s a ell, a beginner o should be easy enough.”

  I scooted over so that I was on Severin’s side and could see the scroll at the same time as him. He looked a little unfortable at that, but didn’t protest. “Okay! I’m ready to learn. I really want my general skill to be fireball or something awesome like that.”

  “Zat would take some time, depending on your css.”

  “My css matters?” I asked.

  He nodded. "You will tend towards skills zat suit your css most of ze time. You’re a...” He narrowed his eyes at me. “amon Bun? Never heard of zat one, but it doesn’t sound like a magic-focused css.”

  I thought that snooping at a person’s css was rude, but Severin didn’t seem to care. “I don’t think it is. It's more like a... bard css, but without the music, I think.”

  “A social css zen,” he said. “Learning a magic skill will be plicated zen, but not impossible. At ze very least you make ze effort to cast zis spell, skill or no.” He rolled the scroll up until only the first dozen lines were visible. “Zis one is outside of my specialty, but I zink teag it will be simple. But if you know nozing about magi we will not skip ahead.”

  “I’m ready to learn! I said.

  RavensDagger