Stacy’s eyes shone.

  “Lindon!” she shouted across the hall, and a young man with dirty blonde hair and wearing leather armor looked up from his beer and sausage pastry. Stacy waved him over, and he pointed at his food, remaining where he was.

  “Come on, there’s a contribution point in it for you!” Stacy shouted.

  Lindon shrugged and took a sip of his beer.

  “Ugh!” Stacy groaned loudly before turning her gaze back to Zack.

  “Jack, go over to Lindon and he’ll tell you about thurgenrat hunting.” The men waiting in line behind Zack breathed audible sighs of relief. “What’s your weapon of choice?”

  “Uh, I don’t have one.”

  “That’s okay!” Stacy said hurriedly. “We can give you one on lease-purchase! We’ve got daggers and spears right now, which one do you want?”

  “Wait, first off, how much are they?”

  “A spear is eighty lindra and a dagger is thirty.”

  Zack’s eyebrows rose.

  The daggers at the market had been forty lindra and up.

  “Yeah, see! Good prices! You can’t beat the Guild’s prices for gear! So which one? Come on, before Lindon finishes eating and leaves!”

  Stacy’s desperation was leaking through like water through a sieve.

  “A dagger, I guess.”

  He could afford to pay for the dagger outright, if he decided not to hunt thurgenrats after all, and he’d rather have a concealed weapon.

  Stacy leapt from her chair and went through a door to the back offices. In seconds she was back with a dagger in a sheathe.

  “There, take it, go! Talk to Lindon!” She pushed the dagger towards him so hard it nearly fell off the counter—Zack had to catch it. As he did, the next man in line pushed forward and Zack was squeezed out of the line, off to the side.

  “Welcome back, brave Adventurer…” Stacy said, her focus now shifted.

  Well, he had a dagger now.

  That was a plus.

  Lindon was smiling wryly, watching the show and sipping his beer. He beckoned Zack over, half his sausage roll sitting directly on the table in front of him.

  “Stacy’s pushing the thurgenrats on you too, huh? I’m Lindon.”

  “Jack, and yes.” He set the sheathed dagger on the table. “Are you hard up for contribution points?”

  Lindon rolled his eyes and took a bite of sausage, chewed for a moment, and then answered around the food in his mouth. “I was, until today. Far too many thurgenrats running around for this time of year.”

  Zack eyed the food service window, which Lindon noticed. “Go on, get your grub. I won’t run off on ya. A point’s a point.”

  So he did still want more contribution points.

  Zack got up and bought himself a tankard of beer and a sausage roll—not bad for one lindra.

  When he got back to the table and took a sip of the beer he discovered why: it was watered down, and decidedly mediocre. The ale in the Knights’ Lounge in the Castle had been far superior, and he hadn’t even liked that that much.

  “So why are there so many thurgenrats now anyway?”

  Lindon leaned in close.

  “The Warden screwed up. He let the lupinoids get overhunted, and the thurgenrats bred out of control. Nasty things only take a couple days to reach maturity.” He spoke a little more softly, though Zack could tell it was still loud enough for people to overhear even with the din of adventurers chatting and eating.

  “The Warden?”

  Lindon gave him a funny look. “Yeah, the Warden. Oh, right, you’re new. He works for the King and manages the forests near the city. He’s supposed to prevent overhunting for exactly this reason. Someone probably paid him off.”

  “Ah, okay.” Zack was enjoying the sausage roll a lot more than the watery beer. “So, thurgenrats. Are they easy to kill?”

  Lindon grinned. “Nothing easier. They’re the weakest monster around.” He eyed the dagger. “You good with that thing?”

  “No…” Zack replied hesitantly.

  Lindon frowned now, concern evident in his furrowed brow. “Oi, Jack, thurgenrats are weak, but they’re still dangerous. They’re fast little bastards, and if they bite you, you can catch bloodrot.”

  “Hmm…”

  Well that was disturbing.

  “And if you go getting bit all the time, you’ll be spending all your earnings on tonics, and healing at the Church.”

  “D’you think I should buy some armor, then?”

  Lindon snorted. “Yeah, right, you even ranked yet? Even if you were, ain’t no G rank can afford armor.”

  Zack frowned. “So should I go trade this in for a spear? Stacy offered me one.”

  “Maybe. Spear is good at first, and you can keep them thurgs at a distance, and kick ‘em away if they get close. But if you’re fast and know what you’re doing, dagger is faster.”

  “What do you use?”

  “Rapier.” He shifted his hip, showing the long, narrow-bladed sword on his hip. “Great for poking, bit less reach than a spear, but I’m better at [Swordsmanship] anyway.”

  Zack pulled the dagger out of its sheathe and took a close look at it. It had only a tiny cross-guard, but the hilt was textured and easy to grip, and it was sharp on both edges with a wicked tip. The blade was just shy of twelve inches long.

  Lindon held his hands out on the table, showing the approximate size of a thurgenrat. It was roughly a little larger than a housecat. “So they’re like this, right? With a dagger, you’ll want to grab the neck, like this, so it can’t bite ya, and then you just jab into its ribs or belly and twist the knife, then throw the whole thing away. It’ll bleed out in under a minute and then you can go cut its tail.”

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  Zack composed his face like he was listening attentively…

  But that sounded like horrible advice!

  That was crazy dangerous!

  Maybe if he had a gauntlet, so his hand and arm were protected from biting, but he’d still be down, either on a knee or bent over, and thurgenrats were swarming. There’d probably be more than one.

  In the end, he took Lindon’s advice with a huge grain of salt.

  But he kept the dagger.

  It was getting to late afternoon when he stepped out of the Guildhall and headed over to the pet shop where he had gotten the clearsteel case the day he [Tamed] Sienna. They did indeed sell live mice, for three lindra each.

  So Zack got one and a small wooden box to transport it in for another three lindra and took it back to Vlad’s apartment, where even from the doorway Zack could tell Sienna was hungry and antsy.

  ***

  Saa!

  She could tell it was him from his footsteps.

  She lifted her head and flicked out her tongue, excited.

  For the first few days, she’d been worn out and sleepy and pleasantly full from the mouse she’d eaten at the orphanage, and she’d been content to enjoy her new nest.

  Then Saa brought her a cold stale mouse, which she ate because she was hungry but it was really unsatisfying. It had sat awkwardly in her stomach as it digested, and now she wanted to explore outside her nest.

  Saa came into their room and she could tell.

  Saa’s aura was a cool blue-green, as usual.

  But he had a little grey aura in his hand! The aura of prey!

  “I got you a live mouse, just like you wanted, Sienna.” Saa brought over a box containing her food.

  Wait!

  ‘Wait’ had become Sienna’s favorite word, because Saa always listened.

  Nothing else in the world ever waited for Sienna to be ready. Everything was always happening so fast she could barely react. But Saa was good and waited for Sienna until she was ready, every time.

  Saa took a seat on the bed and waited.

  “Okay, what? Not hungry?”

  Hunt!

  Saa did that thing with his face and his aura flickered. He was worried about something.

  Good at hunting, Sienna reassured him through their bond.

  She waited while his aura continued to flicker.

  “Okay, wait a minute.”

  Yay!

  She liked her nest a lot. It had the warming rock and the little sun all the time, and Saa brought her plenty of water, and her hole was a good size even as her body grew.

  But she wanted to explore Saa’s nest, too!

  She saw it from inside her nest, but that just made her more curious about the parts she couldn’t see.

  Saa was back and Sienna slithered over herself a couple times in excitement.

  “Okay, I put the sign on the door. For now, we’re going to stay in this room, okay?

  Yay! Hunt! Yay!

  Saa’s aura flickered again.

  Good at hunting!

  Saa walked over to the wall that opened and shut. Most of the time it was shut, except when Saa was coming or going.

  “You can’t go past here, okay, Sienna?”

  She flicked her tongue out.

  Okay.

  Hunting time!

  Saa would relax when he saw how good she was at hunting.

  First, he put the little box on the ground and opened the lid, and a scrumptious looking mouse jumped out.

  Sienna didn’t miss it!

  Her eyes were too good for that.

  It ran under Saa’s sleeping spot, out of sight.

  Good, Saa gave it a head start!

  Sienna would show him.

  Next, Saa came and opened the top of her nest.

  Hunting time, she said through their bond, and slithered over the wall of her nest and down onto the ledge, and then another ledge, and then down onto the floor. The wood was smooth, a little too smooth on her belly scales. It didn’t grip like dirt or stone did. Her tongue flickered out again and wow! All the scents were much stronger down here, outside her nest.

  The important scent, of course, was her prey.

  And it smelled frightened. Just how she liked it.

  She was the predator here!

  And she had Saa to back her up, although she wouldn’t need his help!

  Slowly, she slithered along the slippery wooden floor to the cave formed under Saa’s sleeping spot. The mouse’s grey aura had stopped moving, up against the wall. She got closer, and…

  She lunged!

  But she slipped!

  The mouse darted just past her fangs and started running.

  How embarrassing!

  Fortunately, she didn’t think Saa saw that.

  The hunt was on!

  The mouse’s little claws were better suited for gripping the slippery floor and he was agile, running and jumping.

  But Sienna was big and fast!

  Lunge!

  This time, she caught him, and she squirted her venom into her prey.

  Then she let go, and bit it again! A few times, to teach it a lesson!

  Sienna was super fast!

  The mouse was already dead, of course. Nothing Sienna bit ever lived after.

  Sienna was a good hunter!

  She coiled around her spoils and lifted her head to see Saa all the way on the other side of the room, looking at her.

  Good at hunting!

  He did the face thing again, and his aura pulsed.

  “Good job, Sienna.” Then his aura flickered.

  What was he worried about now?

  Sienna looked around, and saw she was near the moving wall. Her tongue flickered out, and she could smell even more scents on the other side.

  ...Maybe another time.

  Exploring, she told Saa, and she uncoiled from around her prey and started moving all over the room, checking the corners and in the cave and on top of the cave and inside a weird soft and squishy cave and she almost got lost but she found her way out on her own. Saa just sat on the little ledge and watched her go.

  She liked exploring. If she wasn’t so hungry, she’d want to go through the moving wall and see what was out there.

  But hunger won out. She proudly slithered over to her prey and picked it up and carried it back to her nest.

  She might be able to climb back up onto the ledge after swallowing it, but she didn’t want to ask Saa for help.

  She could do it!

  Saa was nice and got off the small ledge, and she slithered up and onto the big ledge and over the wall of her nest.

  “Ready for the lid?” Saa asked.

  Wait!

  Sienna poked her head over the wall and flicked out her tongue, getting a good taste of the air outside her nest.

  She loved when Saa waited.

  After another taste, she lowered her head again.

  Okay.

  Saa lowered the lid, and Sienna unhinged her jaw and swallowed the dead mouse whole.

  It was delicious.

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