It was a fine morning. Duncan was out and the misfits were hanging around but their leader had disappeared somewhere. Fine. It just meant that he did not have to watch her. He could relax and wait for his next meeting for work.
Then the nine hells broke loose. Children ran into the Sunken Flagon. And not just any children, street urchins. A whole slew of them stopped in front of the first table in the room. All but one boy seemed confused as to where to go from there, but Bishop knew where they should go. Back out the way they came. He was not looking forward to constantly watching his valuables. It was bad enough that he had to watch out with that tiefling being around.
He strummed his bow string and finally decided to cock it to site on a child. It was only a game to scare the urchin. He was about to yell at them to leave, but he noticed the silence at the table directly across from him. He wasn't sure what was going on as Avera's little band of misfits tended to make enough sound for the rest of the Flagon. But they were quiet and that did not bode well.
He took a glance at the misfits, but all they were doing was watching him and something by the door. He slowly turned his head towards the front door and found the hobbit standing there, her little bow cocked and sited at him. He couldn't help but admire her audacity. People watched in grim fascination as he turned his attention to the hobbit and sited on her.
"There are two rooms at the end of the hall upstairs." Avera didn't turn. She kept her aim level with his, "Go."
The children ran as she slowly walked towards her table, keeping her bow sited on the ranger. He kept his sites on her as well. Avera got onto her seat and mimicked his stance. They watched each other, half grins on their faces, with bows strung and arrows at the ready. It was a game of chicken, and even though the rest of the patrons had no idea what was going on he knew there would be no arrows flying. It was a testing game for them.
He slowly put his arrow away and gently settled the bow between his chair and the table. She did the same in time with his motions. As he touched the steel of his sword at his hip, she lightly tapped the base of her fire mace. They watched each other for a while longer then made a slight nod to indicate it was time to let others enjoy their day.
Duncan walked in the front door with a stable boy carrying in supplies. He turned to the misfit table and grinned, "Can ye help with the supplies, Khelgar?"
"Ah, why not since the fun has ended. Plus if I don't get them kegs out that useless helper of yours will get it all frothy!" He walked out the door to get some of the kegs, supplies and barrels. He got the kegs first, of course.
"Uncle Duncan?"
"So what does my little niece want today?"
"She has a slew of urchins in your rafters that she wants to tell you about."
The little woman didn't even blink at him, "Bishop speaks the truth. There are some urchins who wish to stay here and in return they have offered their services to the establishment."
Duncan backed up, startled, "Urchins? Little dock rats?"
She let out a deep breath, "Look, they are willing workers. They can keep the place clean and one even knows woodwork as his father was a carpenter before he was killed by a thug. Please, Uncle Duncan. Won't you help these children to have a better life?"
Bishop almost laughed at the puppy dog eyes she gave her uncle. He knew that was just a ploy, but the stupid old fool was falling for it. What women could do to men by using the puppy eyes disgusted him.
"I don't want anyone stealing from my customers! They can rebuild the rafters where a certain sorceress damaged it and they can … how many are there?"
"Thirteen. Five boys and eight girls."
"They can have the two rooms at the end of the hall upstairs. The ones that were damaged, and are over YOUR bedroom. Two meals a day as long as they do their share of work. If they do extra then I will pay them as the work is done."
Avera nodded, "That seems fair. Can they work for the customers?"
"As long as they don't harass the customers then that is fine."
She got off her chair and smiled at her uncle, "Thanks Uncle Duncan."
"I just hope I don't regret this."
The hobbit chuckled then went to the hall and climbed the stairs. Wolf stood at the top waiting for her, "So how did it go?" The other children were huddled at the corner, peeking around the wall.
"It's ok gang. My uncle says it is fine but we have to talk about this a bit." They all ran over to her as she walked towards their rooms, "No stealing from the customers or he will throw all you out."
"That is fair." Wolf acknowledged.
"I'm sure you heard the conversation." Wolf looked at the ceiling as she said this, "Don't even teasingly pretend. I saw that crop of hair." She ruffled his hair and walked into the larger of the two rooms the children would have, "Kainet? You know how to do the carpentry work and I'm sure that you can organize whoever is best at it to work with you."
"Sure can!" Announced a dusty blonde boy who stood taller than Avera.
"Good. If you can fix all that up and reinforce the floors as well then Uncle Duncan might even see fit to keep you on for woodwork. You never know. I know he's always whining about not having a good enough wood craftsman to fix stuff for himself or trade off with others."
"It would be good to have a job." The boy grinned.
"Wolf, you and Dora seem to organize everyone so I will leave it up to the two of you to set up shifts for doing work in the Flagon itself. Can any of you sew?"
"I can!" Piped Dora with a huge smile on her face, "I like making clothes!"
She turned to the girl with a smile, "You do?"
"Oh yes! I draw them too if I can get paper and pen. But I don't have much done." She looked sad.
Avera put a hand on the top of the girl's head, "Well then, let us see if we can get you drawing more. But for now, there is a lot of old linen in an old barrel in the washing room. Do you think you can make and sew up some clothes for all of you that will look at least fairly nice?"
Dora beamed, "Oh yes, oh yes I can, Ma'am!"
"It's just Avera. Wolf, there is straw out in the barn. You can use some of that to make beds for all of you. Kainet, there are boards and tools in the barn as well. Bring it all in but clean up after yourselves or Uncle Duncan will have a fit. Bree and Lordan, you can come with myself and Dora and get the old linen to set up for beds and making clothes."
She took the children downstairs and they started to push one of the two barrels of linens out of the washing room. Khelgar came around and grabbed both barrels, putting each on a shoulder. Bree and Lordan happily ran around Khelgar, cheering him on for his help.
Avera then took Dora with her to her room. She shuffled a few things about and grabbed some sewing supplies, coal sticks and a large pad of paper.
"Is all of this for me?"
"It is for you. Practice and maybe some day you can get into making clothes for people."
"But, I can't accept this."
She grinned, "You can and you will. I have more than enough for myself and I can always buy more. So go get your bed ready and start making clothes for yourself and the others. You are exempt from other duties until you have clothes made for all of you."
Dora gave her a big hug and ran from the room.
Elanee peeked in, "Are you done being a mom for the day?"
"If only we could get her to do what it takes to become one." Neeshka chortled.
"Neeshka! Will you leave her alone about that?"
"No." The two women walked into the room, "I think that is wonderful what you have done for them."
"I told you she was great with children."
"Aye," Khelgar peeked in from the door, "It's just because the lass is the same size. She's got a feeling for them because of that."
The dwarf didn't duck the incoming pillow fast enough.
N
The next week was spent doing odd jobs for Belaina. The group would go out, fight with thugs and return in fairly good order. The children had become organized into a good work crew for Duncan. He was happy with their work and even started having apples and other goodies brought in to give them for their hard efforts.
Avera and Bishop started having glaring contests. They would sit and just glare at each other some evenings. It started as a happenstance then became a game between them to see how long they could glare each other down. Both were so stubborn that it would upset Karnwyr when he came in. The poor dire wolf would nudge one or the other to try to stop this game but at least he got some pettings from the deal.
Then a day came when Khelgar carried Avera into the Flagon with the women trailing behind. He put the little woman on her chair and she plunked her head and right arm on the table. The arm was filled with arrows from the shoulder to her wrist.
"What in the world happened?" Duncan yelped. He had never seen his niece in this type of shape after any of the other battles they had gone through. He turned and glared at Bishop who had come in just before they did. Bishop shrugged but watched in curiosity.
"Someone just had to talk to some monks." Neeshka grumped.
Avera's voice was quiet, "I was the one who decided to go get the priest. It isn't Khelgar's fault."
"We rescued a priest from the Tomb of Betrayers." Elanee provided, "Avera used up most of her healing spells on the rest of us, and we ran out of medical kits. We didn't want to pull all of these out while in the graveyard and the priests were out of medical kits."
"Do you need anything, Avera." Her uncle touched her forehead and looked at her in sympathy.
She peeked up from under her fringe of hair, "Booze. Leather strap. Then start pulling."
"Sal! Some ale, a leather strap and grab me those really good medical kits that I keep for emergencies." He turned back to the group, "But how did this happen?"
"Stinking, speedy ghost with a fetish for shooting hobbits in the right arm."
"We were chasing it around but it was enjoying going after Avera's arm." Neeshka sneered, "It was probably because she's the only one who was shooting at it."
"Aye but the lass refused to stop hitting it with arrows. That's what finally did the creature in because we certainly were not able to do a lot of damage with all that running about."
Sal brought over the supplies, including some ale for everyone else. Avera looked up, grabbed her little mug with her left arm, slugged it back and got the leather strap ready, "Ok. Less talking. More pulling."
She put the strap in her mouth and her head on her left arm. Khelgar started pulling the arrows as Neeshka and Duncan held her arm down. Bishop watched and found himself respecting the little woman more as with each removal of an arrow all she did was make a little grunt. After every three or four arrows were removed she would stop them and take another swig of ale.
After all the arrows, an amazing thirty one in all, were removed from her arm she took off her armored top and pulled up the arm to her undershirt so they could treat it properly. It looked like a pile of bloody, ground meat. When the antiseptic was put on she made a chittering sound like an angry squirrel, and her little leg shook all the while, but she didn't balk or cry.
She thanked everyone and dropped down from her chair. Karnwyr ran up to her and helped Elanee bring her to her room.
Bishop glared after his dire wolf, still trying to figure out why the animal liked that woman so much.
N
A couple of days later, Avera returned with Khelgar from a meeting she had with Brelaina. They sat down in their normal spots without a word.
"So?" Elanee questioned.
"We get to go on a long trip." Khelgar informed the women.
"A trip? I take it this isn't going to be a pleasure cruise?" Neeshka grumped.
Avera shrugged, "Not at all. We get to go all over the landscape for more fun, action packed excitement. At least it's just a run to Old Owl Well to bring back some missing emissary. Or word of what happened to him. "
"At least that will get us out of the city for a while. I have been aching to get back to the land!" Elanee said in delight.
"Now don't you start going on about how the city is unnatural and all." Neeshka admonished, "I've had just about enough of that for a lifetime. But I have to admit that after that Moire bit the other night, I'll be happy to go out of town for a while!"
"It might be a good trip for us. Just to have something different to do." Avera was happy to get back out in the wilderness as well. She was used to the mere and all the animals. So many people huddled about made her nervous.
"Aye lass. I will miss the ale but I'm hankering for something new as well."
"Ok. So let's all get ready and head out."
They got their stuff arranged and walked back into the common room. Some of the children had already noticed what was going on and they hung off of her saying their farewells and safe returns.
"How long do you think you will be gone?" Duncan had noticed their packs and came over to them.
"Probably a month. Maybe two or more. It is going to take at least a week or two for us to walk to that well place. It all depends on what is going on with this emissary. "
"I don't like you being away that long."
"Don't worry, Uncle. You could always send the ranger to hunt us down if we don't come back." She laughed, "I'm sure he'd be willing to find our bodies for you."
Duncan closed his eyes, "Don't even joke. You just be careful."
She hopped up on her tiptoes to give her uncle a hug and turned to see the ranger leaning against the wall beside the door, "And what do you want?"
He grinned, "Well, if you give me a few gold I just may give you a going away present." His eyebrows lifted and his grin turned feral.
"What kind of 'present' are we speaking of?"
He leaned towards her and whispered, his fingers traced her throat to her ear. Bishop smiled as her eyes went wide and she intelligently stuttered, "Huduwha." Then his head rocked from the pressure of her open hand connecting with his cheek.
Bishop snickered as the little woman stomped out the door. Now that he knew the secret, she was almost too easy to tease.