Punchau nearly stepped on Giada as she pulled him into the back room of the Magical Menagerie; he wasn't familiar with the establishment's layout, and the back area wasn't designed for people his size. The hall immediately beyond the door was narrow and low, and she literally ran between his legs to close the door after them. With every step she took among the crates of pet food and monkey diapers, the more flustered she became. He began to wonder just what she'd gotten herself into.

"Slow down, Gia," he said, just barely ducking under a surplus bird cage with super sharp edges hanging from the ceiling as he did.

The goblin didn't even turn around as she led him through a maze of crates to another door in the back area. "It's Giada. And this is no time to slow down," she huffed and puffed as she whipped out her keychain and started to fidget with the lock on the door. "Horde up, for real. What you're about to see has to remain secret." She didn't even look at him as she spoke, and when she got the door open, she crept inside as if expecting there to be an alarm in her own place of work.

"Uh..."

"It's clear, just talk real quiet," she whispered. He tried to grab at his toe to pull him in, but he entered on his own accord to avoid the digit being dislocated, given her air of urgency bordering on panic.

More cardboard boxes obscured his view of all but a pink appendage, next to which Giada was standing with one hand covering her mouth. She'd obviously seen what was behind the boxes before, but she looked shocked all over again nonetheless.

Punchau had already guessed that she had a drunk boyfriend or incapacitated coworker hidden back there from the others. What he found instead, however, was a naked human man with dried blood caking the back of his scalp.

"If there's one time I need to call in a favor, it's-"

"I'm outta here."

"What?! No, no no! Punch, please! My life will be over!"

Giada jumped up and literally grabbed on to and hung from his belt just as he turned to leave. Her little legs scrambled and kicked the back of his a few times as she tried to climb up him like a tree, and he at least paused to avoid causing a scene.

"It's Punchau. And come on, you can't be showing me shit like that without warning." He turned around, removed her from his belt, and put her on the floor like a child, though she was so upset already that she didn't react. "I got warrants out for me in Alliance land already."

"So don't wish for the same to happen to me. Come on, I have to live in this city - imagine what could happen to me if people found out!" She faked puppy dog eyes at him, obviously desperate for help. "Come on, my brother and sister can't keep secrets, and Serrah up in the pet grooming department is a carebear. You're the only person I know who does illegal stuff like this as a pastime!"

"I swear, if we being recorded-"

"Sorry, okay! But seriously, help a sister out. Trolls and goblins share a common ancestor!"

"Tha's literally the first time I ever heard that. I don't think most historians would back you up."

This time when Giada pouted, her expression did look sincere. "Punch, I've never been in trouble before. I can't go to jail. I just can't. Who else can I ask?"

Punchau looked down at his business partner who he could kinda sorta call a friend. He didn't know much about her except that she paid him on time, paid in full, and didn't have a reputation at the taverns in Dalaran. For goblin merchants, no reputation generally meant the individual wasn't involved in dirty business; he'd heard enough to figure out their model of word-of-mouth network regulation. His big ears twitched, scanning the sounds in the building to be sure they were alone.

At the minimum, he'd depend on Giada to continue accepting his deliveries without checking for proper licensing. She was the closest thing to a fence he could find in a legitimate businesswoman. Before he even pondered about her wellbeing as a person, he had to consider their arrangement.

"Fine-"

"I'm saved!" she whisper-yelled, accompanied with fist pumps.

"So, what you did anyway? Your BF slipped and fell?"

Disgust marked Giada's features pretty quickly. "Eww, excuse you! Humans have the weirdest skin colors on the whole planet, what kind of taste do you think I have?"

"And why he's naked?"

"Well, his robe got caught on a nail when I was dragging him down here. He's a bit heavier than me in case you hadn't noticed - it was a rough job just to get him down here, and his robe just tore right off."

"And his underwear?"

"Look, I don't have to answer these wild allegations! He hit his head on the edge of the nightstand in my bedroom upstairs, alright?"

Punchau rolled his eyes. If there was another thing he liked about Giada, it was that she was easier to figure out than she realized. "Whatever. Okay look, I can make this go away, but we gonna need a few things. Aside from you understanding that you owe me first and foremost before anyone else who did you a solid."

Her eyes met the floor as she nodded and whistled silently. "Yes, definitely. That goes without saying."

"Alright. So here's what we...need..."

Punchau actually paused second since Giada had already frozen like a catatonic basket case as he was speaking. Her face literally turned a lighter shade of green as she started pointing behind him, and the jungle troll's jaw dropped open even as he started praying that she'd simply seen a cockroach. A part of him didn't even want to turn around to confirm, but the voice essentially forced him to.

"Wha...my head...where...am..."

"Shiiiiiiit..."

Punchau turned around to find the naked human sitting up weakly, rubbing his eyes and staring at Giada. The pink thing squinted his eyes as if it took a moment for the goblin to come into focus, but when those weary eyes shot open like to giant marbles, there was no mystery as to what was about to happen.

The human wriggled his mustache one time before opening his mouth like a screaming bullfrog.

"Aaaaaaaaarrrrrrggggghhh!"

"Aaarrrgggh!" Giada screamed right back.

"Shhh! People gonna hear!"

"Aaaarrrrggghhh!"

"Aaarrrrgggghhh!"

"Aaarrrggghhh!"

"Shhhh!"

"Aaaaarrrggghhh!"

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrgggggggghhhhh ack- hurk hurk hickkkkkkkkk..."

Amid all the screaming, Giada freaked out, grabbed Punchau's steel water flask from his belt, and clobbered the human with it. The shot was a perfect blow to the temple, and the naked human's feet actually started to twitch in a sign of system shock.

Aside from the sound of only two bodies breathing, the storage room was absolutely silent. Both of them stared at the mustacheod man for a few seconds until his twitching stopped. He wasn't breathing.

When he was sure that nobody had heard by some miracle, Punchau sighed. "Well...he's dead now."

Then Giada puked in an empty fishbowl.