CHAPTER 3. Thrun.
Needless to say that when you are the creature of the night you will suffer from insomnia. Suddenly your life gets extra eight hours of free time to do whatever you want. Priceless!
I had not to pretend sleeping while I was in tavern. After performing everyone returned to their drinks and didn't pay any more attention to my person. I took a seat in the dark corner of the tavern hall so that I could take a break from constant chatter and movement around me and let my mind wander on random thoughts until morning.
Praise the Armok! I finally found the weaponsmith! Won't be burning down this city today it seems... The shop owner was pleased to swap my silver warhammer for a small finely crafter copper sword, which was considerably more comfortable to wield and haul.
I decided to make one more trip around the marketplace, looking for armor that would fit my size, but, apparently, no one does breastplates for human kids.
While I was crossing the market I noticed that two merchants, a human and a goblin were loudly shouting at each other something incomprehensible. Then suddenly a brawl occurred in which both got some good punches and now were lying apart and vomiting all over the place. What a scene... Passing by.
I was standing outside the city gate and looking at the forest I came from yesterday. That gave me shivers, but at least I knew that I can fly fast enough to not to get caught by boogeymen.
The trip this time was more pleasant. I have managed to hunt down... a bear.
I mean, literally a bear that was ten times heavier than me! Though, when I just engaged him with my sword he managed to jump away from my attack! Bloody hell, a ninja bear.
After brawling some time I have managed to choke down the bear into loss of conscious. Don't ask me how, but I did it and got some fresh blood in reward. Unfortunately the bear woke up and I had to stab him to death. Gladly I was thirsty no more.
Here's the strange thing. I feel that there are two creatures under this hill. But where is the entrance? Huh, was that a human speech?
I have managed to get myself into a lair dug into the hill with entrance under the tree root. It had two turns inside, and I took the one to the right and saw a naked woman sitting in the middle of a tiny room in almost complete darkness. I spoke to her and she kindly replied to me, told me her name is Thrun and that she was a farmer and then a beast hunter... Though she didn't feel like an old lady I would definitely say that she was not a young girl either. There was something weird in how I sensed her. And she was completely naked.
I asked her if she by any chance wants to go with me, but she replied negatively avoiding answering my "why?" question. I shrugged and returned to the exit when I realized that the sound coming from the other chamber in this lair was unusual. And I sensed the smell of rotten flesh.
Oh my Armok... A beast, here... I have grabbed my tiny sword out of sheath and the beast turned its head on the rasping sound. Its ugly face was eyeless and had three horns, and what I firstly considered to be a huge boulder was actually its impressively big and muscular body. The monster was tearing apart a body, either a human or a dwarf unlucky enough to become its prey. It slowly turned to me and started moving in my direction. Without hesitation I pointed my sword at its face and demanded to stop its approach. I didn't expected it to actually answer, and when it actually did, I was baffled.
"You are a dangerous animal. You are a lady" it said with its deep roaring voice and attacked me. I was caught by surprise and it managed to fell me to the ground, hitting the wall behind and losing my sword. "But I am not going to be your another prey", thought I remembering that I am a maxed-out character after all, plus a vampire.
So I have stood up and struck a monster without any hesitation. First dozen of kicks, punches and snatches were successfully dodged by both of us, but eventually the monster started getting damage, but so did I as well.
"I cannot just stand by! After all it was me that felled Thub Mindfulatic the dwarf!"
I was shocked seeing the girl naked and bare-handed fearlessly approaching the monster...
(Maybe she had balls, but I couldn't see that in the darkness)
I don't know for sure up until this day WHY did she live in the lair with that monster. Was she a prisoner and waited for an opportunity to escape or fight back? Was she a slave?
I actually had a possible clue on that when I found out the information regarding her real age and her past, but that barely explains why things happened as they did just now.