A Salamander, but Mighty

POV: Luchael

“Eight bronze Leuns??” Luchael trilled loudly, “this is outrageous! It's unfair!" He protested by stomping his foot and perking up his hare ears on his head in an attempt to appear more menacing. “The quest scroll said there would be two silver and four bronze Leuns!”

The leporan had returned to the headquarters of the Adventurers' Guild after the mission in the dungeon, the room at that time was particularly empty, with just a dozen adventurers mostly in groups of two to three individuals and behind the counter there was a young Leporan with sweet eyes and a bewitching smile. She was the first night shift Guild assistant there at the Stanbroodge Guild House.

“That's true, but the quest was very clear,” she began to say, offering him the quest scroll and pointing to some parts with a finger, “first of all, the skin of the rodamuse was required, not the whole body. Secondly, this rodamuse shows clear bite marks and lacerations everywhere… did you try to kill it with bites and scratches after a few attempts with the rapier?” The assistant asked in a vaguely provocative tone of voice.

Ok, it's ruined, but that's not my fault... Luchael thought, glancing briefly at the backpack he was holding on his shoulder, not that he was blaming the lizard monster; it was thanks to it that his adventure didn't end tragically in the jaws of some sort of giant mouse. “I had already found it like this, it was the first one I had found and I had already spent... hours walking in the dungeon!”

“I understand it, but our customer would never accept this skin for two silvers considering that it still needs to be removed from the monster's body and is damaged in too many places to be considered in excellent condition.”

“Can't we at least get to a silver Leun? With eight bronze Leuns I can just pay for o... my food and accommodation for two days." Luchael said, folding his ears back, with an almost pleading tone."

The Guild assistant shook her head slowly a few times.

“Okay…” he said dejectedly, “I'll take the eight bronze Leuns.”

"Good choice! Please deliver the rodamuse and this receipt to the warehouseman,” said the assistant, handing over the agreed money to her fellow leporan and pointing to a second door in the room, so large that once completely open it would be able to let at least two fully grown humans through. “Thank you for your service to the Guild!”

Luchael walked towards the door. There was a bell complete with a rope that had to be pulled to alert the warehouse workers to open the door. A few rings later, the door was opened by a wiry human being with a bald head and well-groomed brown moustaches; the man towered over him, his biceps as big as the leporan's head.

Luchael began to tremble noticeably, “I-I-I-I hav-hav-hav-have a-a-a-a-a…” with one hand he showed the receipt and with the other he offered him the dead rodamuse.

“Uhm…” the gigantic human studied Luchael with his eyes that inspired something feral, he took the receipt slowly - Luchael flinched anyway -, read it and then nodded firmly, taking the rodamuse's body with the same care shown a moment before. “Okay, all done. See you on your next assignment.”

The big man closed the door in front of the nose of the leporan, who, having completed the task and having recovered the money, hurried back to the inn at a fast pace; the salmadrer was visibly battered, he had to take it to shelter as soon as possible and try to help it get back on its feet... sure, there were the [Healers], but that was an elite Class, and those who practiced their powers for free were few.

Not to mention that he would have to explain why he cared so much about curing a salmadrer, a type of monster that couldn't even be domesticated.

Fortunately, the monsters all had the innate ability to heal even lethal wounds if given enough time.

- - -

POV: Tamara

Tamara had to keep her teeth clenched the whole time as every movement inside the backpack made her moan in pain, she even tried to sleep but every little sway woke her up due to the deep lacerations that moved as a result, making her feel an annoying and pulsating sensation of burning.

She made sure she couldn't hear anyone around Luchael before hissing a soft, “Status.”

___

[Tamara Parker][Salmadrer][Monster (lv.4)]

[Health: 3/40 (50)][Mana: 20/20 (30)][XP: 167/338]

[TRAITS MODIFIERS]

Hungry

[TRAITS]

[4 points to place]

► Dexterity: 10 (12)

► Faith: 4 (6)

► Knowledge: 4 (6)

► Resilience: 8 (10)

► Speed: 8 (10)

► Strenght: 4 (6)

[FEATS]

► Scale Armor (Lesser) I

► Scratch I

[1 Feat slot free to use]

___

Her blood froze in her veins: she had come so close to death that she didn't even realize she had gained two levels in a single fight, a single more scratch and she would have died! The reality of the situation came crashing down on her and began to make her tremble uncontrollably; she was human until last week, she always got up late on sundays and her biggest worry was deciding which party to go to with her friends. A week later and she found herself eating disgusting giant insects and fighting with some sort of cross between a rat and a raccoon inside a dungeon.

And she couldn't even hug herself anymore.

She wanted to call Velen, she knew there was no real need to call her since she probably found out that she had left the dungeon instantly and wasn't talking to her just because she couldn't answer her without drawing attention to Luchael's backpack or Luchael himself if she had decided to not wait for Tamara to get back to the inn.

Whatever mental or physical state she was in, Tamara would have to handle it on her own at least for a while longer.

Tamara was practically picked up, lifted and placed on the bed by Luchael, who apparently understood that the salamander monster posed no threat to him. She lay down without any protest, trying to cling to the leporan's arms as if seeking some human comfort instead.

“I'll go get you some food, you'll see, you'll feel better afterwards,” he told her as he left the room to go, probably, to order something hearty to eat thanks to the Leuns earned from the quest.

“Tamara!” Velen's voice came as soon as the door was closed, "I saw you as soon as you came out of the dungeon, what happened?? Was it that dangerous??"

“Actually, no, not that much,” Tamara said without even opening her eyes, she was still shaking, trying to force her body to do something it wasn't capable of doing, “Luchael picked a time when the majority of adventurers wouldn't have been there. Most of them cleared the dungeon of almost any danger before we got down there, in a way, we have been lucky.”

“How can you say you have been lucky?? You're at death's doorsteps!" Velen's voice expressed an obvious internal conflict, “ok, that's enough. I have to cure you.”

"No!" Tamara exclaimed hastily, “the gods might notice the effects of your magic, and if they don't, Luchael certainly will.”

“But…” the conflict in Velen's voice was lingering, “I can't leave you to suffer like this…”

“Tell me something about yourself, please,” Tamara slowly flicked the tip of her tail, “tell me the difference between deities and guardian spirits. Anything that distracts me is good.”

"Talk? About me? Alright…” Silence fell on the room for a few seconds, “the story of the guardian spirits begins with the creation of the world itself, we are practically a side effect of the creative forces employed by the gods to generate everything you see. Rivers, mountains, oceans… being born from these elements, our existence is closely linked to theirs.”

“So you guardian spirits also die at some point?”

“It depends on what happens to what generates us: if a lake dries up completely, the guardian spirit of the lake dies, if a piece of iron is melted down and forged into an object, then the existence of its spirit persists in the new form,” Velen explained.

“So would you die if the river Velenaria gets diverted?” Tamara's tone of voice became lower, her breaths deeper. She had stopped shaking.

“No, that wouldn't be enough, the only thing that would happen is that the area of my domain would shift the same way and my powers would increase or decrease accordingly,” there was a hint of sadness in Velen's voice , “this would mean leaving the domains of some guardian spirits and entering those of others, losing friends who I have known practically as long as I existed...”

Tamara stopped answering or asking any more questions, she just stood there breathing deeply, her eyes closed. Finally asleep.

“...Good night, Tam. I hope you can have a restful sleep,” she whispered softly before vanishing, present, but no longer focused on the salamander monster.

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