Solo Warrior 20: From Bat To Verse

[Bungleau]

Back to Chapter 19 - - - Back to the Beginning

Upon arriving in Brimloch Roon, Missy Hissy tried to fit into the normal village crowd. Okay, so she tried not to stick out too much. A slender ratling warrior, armored as an assassin and armed as an avatar, she drew glances wherever she went. Some were the curious stares of children, wondering who this strange new person might be. Some were the bitter stares of townfolks, wondering what trouble she would bring to their town. Some were the envious stares of failures, wondering what she had that was so special, and wondering why no one else saw it in them.

She ignored the stares, except perhaps those of the children. She smiled at them every so often, sometimes a smile of pleasure, and sometimes a smile of wicked knowing. She enjoyed watching their parents sputter and spatter after she looked at their children, watched them try to make up excuses for going in the opposite direction even though they hadn’t purchased the bread they needed.

She avoided the stares of the adults, for to match their eyes was to sign their death warrants. Kill or be killed, but if you didn’t notice the cockroaches near you, you didn’t have to squash them.

Missy turned toward the temple, where Malakai welcomed her and asked her to search for a fountain of youth. Missy obliged, privately wondering what good youth would do after several centuries. Sadly, this temple offered no new studies for her; in her meager time in the Gael Serran, she’d surpassed all but the most gifted of teachers.

She then visited the smithy, where Strumbold welcomed her and reviewed the Carta she’d been given.

“Impressive,” he said. “Damosh gives you his highest recommendation… something he hasn’t done since the last dwarven civil war.”

He looked over at her. “Well, you may have figured out by now that he’s the senior guildmaster around here. There’s little he doesn’t know, and what he shares, I know. If ya be needin’ anythin’, I’ll do what I can.”

Missy grunted. “Appreciate it. How much can you give me for these weapons I picked up along the way?”

He tallied up her swords and armor. “Twelve hunnert gold,” he said with a grin.

Missy took him up on the exchange, and asked if he had any work that needed doing.

“Work? Yeah, I’ve got work. That bloody centaur Argothius left without paying for his helm. Bring me his payment, or bring me the helm. It’s a fine helm in any case, and I can recover my money on it.”

Missy agreed, and headed to the pawnshop. There, she once again found work as a delivery girl, taking an iron hook from Miruth to an apparently insane pirate. Well, she’d seen few pirates that would qualify as sane anyway, so she agreed to help.

Sensei Asami at the Bushi dojo asked for help in eliminating a fallen samurai golem, or something like that. Missy wasn’t sure; she figured she’d just kill what she needed to, and the dojo could sort it out later.

Missy then walked into the wizard’s guild, where the proprietor, one Sebastio, welcomed her warmly. She reviewed his wares, but saw little of interest, and soon learned there was nothing more he could teach her either. “Got any work you need done?”

The innocent question was no sooner out of her mouth than Sebastio began to answer. Instead of a simple yes or no, he began a tale of vampires and sacrifice from years gone by.

Missy noticed that the cockroaches on the floor scurried away at the mere sound of Sebastio’s voice. One kept trying to run under her tapping foot, as if it wanted to be squashed.

Sebastio continued talking of hardships and isolation, lo these many years.

A glowbug which had wandered into the shop bashed repeatedly against the windows in an attempt to escape, and finally committed suicide in one of the lit candles that filled the shop.

Sebastio droned on about a resurgence of vampires and badly written romance stories.

Missy felt her legs growing numb, and glancing out the window, realized that the sun, which had been stretching high in the sky when she came in, was now laying out for its nightly slumber. Her fingertips were raw from twiddling them to pass the time while Sebastio rambled. Her mouth was dry, and she could feel herself getting faint. As she sat down on the edge of a display case, careful not to knock over any potions, she suddenly heard Sebastio ask her a question. “Beg your pardon?” she replied.

“I said, will you take the job?” asked Sebastio.

“Sure, I’ll do that,” Missy replied. But before she could ask who she was supposed to take care of, Sebastio launched into another long diatribe about how dangerous the job was going to be. She saw a mouse pull a poison bomb back to its mousehole; moments later, she saw the greenish fog of the bomb sieving from the hole, and the entire mouse family stumbled out, one by one, with what seemed like great satisfied grins on their faces as they keeled over dead. Feeling the hunger growing in her stomach, Missy felt she understood; by the time she got out, it might be dinnertime – tomorrow night!

A while later, Sebastio finally finished his long monologue. Bidding him goodday – correction, goodeve, Missy hurried out into the town. “Why couldn’t he have just said ‘kill the vampiress’ and be done with it?” she growled. Stopping at the inn, she grabbed a meal of venison and tubers, something to keep her strength up.

On to chapter 21

[ 02-26-2003, 10:53 PM: Message edited by: Bungleau ]

[LiOnHe@rT]

haha great story bungleau! though a bit long i muz say.........................
btw, were u the one sending those emails to me n other ppl who helped u name those characters??? [img]graemlins/saywhat.gif[/img]

[Bungleau]

Yep, that was me... and as for the length, Missy met Sebastio this time... 'nuff said. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[LiOnHe@rT]

haha, i'm surprised that Missy didnt juz die hearing Sabastio talk n talk n talk till the sun went down.......

[Dude 77]

another good story!

[Wyvern]

I'm still chuckling over this one! I also forwarded it on to some of the long ago posters who had also written some stories based on W&W!

Wyv

[Bungleau]

I updated it slightly from the advance copy you got, Wyv. Made a couple of minor corrections, and added the suicidal cockroach above.

Glad you enjoyed it, though! It's a pleasure to get such good feedback from folks.

Chapter 21 is in process, and I've got some nice things with the leprechaun which will show up in chapter 22 or 23, depending on how long it takes me to document getting through skull castle.