"I want to talk to Ironfist." I told Karla. She looked at me suspiciously "You're not going to pick a fight with him are you?" she said. It was something that had crossed my mind, which of course would not get me very far. "No ... No! Of course not. *cough* I just want to understand what he wants exactly. I feel he's being stubborn and secretive about it." I said.

"I'll go with you." Karla said. I looked at her inquisitively, I had half expected her to not get involved. On the other hand I couldn't think of a good reason why not. "Don't look at me like that, I want to know what's going on also. It's like you said, he didn't exactly tell us the entire reason why he wanted to fight the hound. Anyways, who else is going to keep you two from killing each other, hmm?." she teased. "Yes mother." I joked as I took off in a quick jog to avoid the wrath of the now growling Karla.

We headed for the keep. If Ironfist wanted to be found, it would be the best place for him. I also felt he sort of fancied it as a base of operations for his guild. It could only ever be temporary though, you couldn't buy the keep, as you could a house or a studio, it would remain public space. This was a good thing for us, we wouldn't have to ask to talk to Ironfist.

We headed straight to the second floor of the keep and into the room where we had agreed to follow Ironfist in his quest to take on a boss. It seemed larger than before and far less inviting. There was no fire in the fireplace and only a couple of candles were lit. A table and a couple of chairs were the only significant furnishings. Only two other people were in the room, who stopped their conversation as soon a we appeared.

"Oh it's you. Have you come to gloat over my failure? To laugh at me and my foolishness?" Ironfist said in a disgusted tone. "Or maybe you feel I owe you something. Well I have very little money to offer, you simply won't get much from me." he said as he shrugged his shoulders and showed his empty hands. Thunder was looking away but I could feel Ironfist's tone was embarassing him.

"What's done is done, we can't go back. You chose a path and we chose to follow you." Karla said. "I wanted this even more than my buddy here. But even then, I'm the one that asked him to retreat. It wasn't just a selfish request, I saw the state everyone was in. We couldn't keep it up, there would have been casualties." her face just lightly betraying her feelings of fear during the battle. "We all made it out alive, that's what matters most! Some parties are not so lucky. So spare me the self pity."

"So what do you want?" Ironfist asked. "I want to know why." I said as I secretly thanked Karla for setting the tone for me. "You told us a great setup story to get us to fight with you. But there's more to it than that, isn't there? You placed yourself on the front line, and that was not negotiable. During the fight you reluctantly backed off only if you absolutely needed to take a healing potion. Then you were back in as quickly as possible. It's as if you might miss something. What were you looking for?" I pried.

"That's none of your business." Ironfist said dismissing the question as irrelevant. "Tell them." Thunder spoke, which surprised the three of us. "Tell them. They deserve that much." Thunder said as he glared at his guild leader. Ironfist looked away evidently uncomfortable with being pressured by Thunder. Ironfist huffed loudly and with his hand, pinched the spot between his eyes.

"The last hit bonus. I wanted to be one to get the last hit bonus. That's what all this was for." Ironfist said as he shrugged his shoulders. "Don't look so surprised. I wanted to move my guild up in power and a rare drop can create a one or two level advantage. No one seemed to be going after the field boss on this floor. It seemed like a good opportunity. I just didn't want to have to broadcast to everyone that I wanted the last hit item." he explained.

"It's probably irrelevant now. We would need more people to fight it. I don't know if the players we had would even come back. Even my guild members are unsure now. Except for Thunder here, of course." Ironfist said as he gave a slight smile to Thunder, who nodded approvingly. He crossed his arms, "Is there anything else you want from me?" he grumbled.

"No, that's it. Take care of yourselves." I said, then turned to Karla. She nodded and we headed for the staircase. A strong hand on my shoulder caused me to stop. "Wait." Thunder said as he opened his menu and sent me a friend request. "So that we may meet again." he explained. As we left we overheard Thunder, "You did good boss." he said. "Oh. Shut up!" Ironfist responded. We left the room, giggling to ourselves.

"So is that really it? Are you satisfied with what Ironfist said?" Karla asked me as we stepped out of the keep. I looked back at the keep, looking for an answer to a question I didn't know yet. "Wolf. Are we done here or not?" Karla pressed, her impatience was showing through. I turned away from the keep, nodded and smiled at Karla.

"Good. After all that I think I could do with a decent meal and an early night." Karla said. "I thought I was the one was obsessed with eating, I guess I'm not alone." I teased. Karla blushed out of embarrassment, "I like good food as much as the next person. Why should I deprive myself of what's offered? It's not as if I could get fat in this game anyway." she explained

I took a step back and while pinching my chin, I gave Karla's body a blatant 'once over'. I hemmed and hawed in a mock disapproving tone. Karla's face was now beet red, "You make a comment on my weight and I'll break both of your legs." she growled. She stared at me with piercing eyes, then turned her nose up and walked right by me. I smiled, maybe a little too evilly, and said:

"I wouldn't dream of it."