Morphling

It was early in the afternoon near the slums around town. As people were going about their day with only a fraction of the hustle and bustle as one would see in the morning, a lone hooded figure with a diminutive stature knocked on the door of an old house facing the main road.

“…”

Seeing as there was no reaction from within, the lone figure picked up a brick that was lying on the side of the road and raised it in the air.

“I heard it the first time, Sharl, so stop what you’re planning to do and just come in. Door’s already open,” said a man’s voice coming from behind the door.

The hooded figure dropped the brick as soon as they heard the voice then proceeded to enter.

Inside, all manner of items and clutter could be seen all over. The place was simply a complete mess. Behind the mountain of junk, a frazzled-looking man in raggedy robes could be seen tampering something on a desk.

The cloaked figure lowered its hood to reveal itself as a ponytailed-silver-haired woman with light-brown skin.

“If you were going to let me in, Krumley, the least you could do was answer back,” she said in a huff while crossing her arms.

“I did,” he replied without looking back. “Can’t be bothered with pleasantries right now. I found some interesting stuff, but highly dangerous if I don- “

BOOM

“ -t concentrate.”

After the small explosion, a plume of black smoke erupted from somewhere between the man’s hands.

The man, Krumley, sighed as he turned towards Sharlua; soot still covering his face.

“Well, you have my full attention now, so what is it this time?”

Rolling her eyes, the halfling woman tossed a small satchel towards the man.

Catching it and immediately emptying its contents on his palm, he soon understands after seeing the spherical object on his hand.

“Landula pills, huh. You know I can’t just keep giving these to you, right? Besides, you’re out of luck. I’m out of Landum herbs and they’ve been getting scarce as of late. Not to mention the quality of the last batch I gave you was purely by coincidence. Pill crafting isn’t my specialty, and I can’t guarantee I could make another batch like before - that’s why I gave them to you for cheap in the first place.”

Sharlua was almost taken aback by his immediate and lengthy response, but she understood his point. Still, this didn’t dampen her determination to save her younger cousin. Wordlessly, she pulled out a parchment, got on top of a chair, and laid it out on a table for them to see.

“You don’t have to worry about that. See this? I got it from my last job.”

Krumley got closer and couldn’t help but raise an eye upon finding out what was on the parchment.

“Is this real? I heard talk from the guild that there’s going to be an expedition soon regarding a recently discovered underground fortress, but nobody said anything about a map of the place.”

The parchment showed a detailed blueprint of what seemed to be a fortress. It also begs to question as to how she came across such an item.

“I know what you’re thinking. I got it from a reliable source, ok? I’ve got friends in the Guild in high places.”

“Riight.”

Still not convinced, Krumley took another look at the blueprints and couldn’t help but feel something was off. However, it wasn’t his business to look into his client’s confidence over credibility. If what she brings is the real deal, he’ll eventually know from the results of her exploits.

“If this is real, you’ll be able to find Landum herbs for sure. An old place like this deep below should be rife with them.”

Landum herbs were uncommon in that they grew in places with dark and stagnant mana. Mainly used for curatives meant for curse-type illnesses and the like, they were often difficult to procure due to the accursed or corrupted creatures that spawn wherever they grow.

‘Or rather, they only grow where such malignant forces gather to begin with.’

“Hm? Did you say something?”

“Nothing. Just thinking about the irony of things.”

Raising an eyebrow, Sharlua simply shrugged and decided to continue.

“Since the guild found this place, you can bet that they’ll be planning an expedition soon, so I’ll need more of your tools before I apply for the mission.”

Krumley was nodding his head before he realized something.

“Hold on a moment. Aren’t you a specialized tamer? An old underground fortress once owned by bloodsuckers won’t have anything you can use.”

Indeed, the halfling before him had a special constitution to be able to tame wild beasts for her bidding. Though dependent on the beast’s own innate nature and intelligence, she was especially proficient in controlling furred beasts as far as he could tell. The creatures of the area she was planning to go, however, are expected to be mainly composed of undead and mizera, or more colloquially known as the “wretched” – cursed creatures that are either born or made from miasmic decay.

While it remained to be seen if those types of creatures can be tamed at all, Sharlua was certainly not able to do so.

“Relax, there’s enough time. The guild’s still waiting for the Magister to arrive, so in that time I’ll go looking near the borders for wargs or dire moles. Even then, the preparations shouldn’t take more than a week.”

The halfling girl showed strong confidence in her plans, but after hearing her words, Krumley’s expression darkened further.

“That’s no good. I don’t know where you’ve been that you haven’t heard, but the beasts around the borders seemed to have gone on a mass exodus towards the west. The rangers patrolling the borders haven’t seen hair nor hide of beasts in weeks.”

Sharlua froze. She had been too focused on acquiring the pills she gave to her aunt and uncle that she hadn’t kept up with any news in town. Even so, she didn’t think something of this scale that affected her personally were to happen now of all times.

“West!? Towards the kingdoms? W-Why? What happened?”

Krumley could only shake his head, “No clue. All I heard was that there was a massive disturbance somewhere in Prismordia that seemed to have reached all the way here. Something like a ripple of energy so big it affected the beasts around here forcing them to turn tail and run to the other direction.”

Biting her nails in frustration, Sharlua took a deep breath and let out a sigh. The fire in her eyes showed she hadn’t given up yet.

“It’s been some time since it happened, right? Maybe some have come back by now. Sorry Krums, I’ll have to take my chances. This job is too big for me to just let it go. I need those herbs.”

Seeing as there was no point to arguing with her, Krumley could only shake his head in defeat. The only way now is to help make sure she stays alive by giving her all the support he can provide.

“Right, guess you’ll want the usual then. You probably don’t want to hear this from me, but don’t go dying on me now, Shar.”

“What’s this, you finally interested in me Krums?” she said mischievously as she removed her cloak, revealing a body that was akin more to that of a full-grown human woman, than a young child’s.

“Hardly. You know very well I can’t get it up for anything anymore, Shar, not since the accident. Just pointing out that there ain’t many willing to do business with a quack alchemist. Not to mention I’ll be losing good alchemizing agents if you’re gone.”

“Thanks Krums, that’s definitely a “nice” way of putting it,” she said with the smile on her face gone along with an edge to her response.

“It’s true after all,” he said expressionlessly while taking out what seemed to be a blunt razor and bringing it towards her arm.

“There’s way too few of you mixed bloods that have this strange mutation. I’ve said it before and I’ll keep saying it, but it’s really amazing how well your dwarf and halfling blood seemed to have combined in such a way.”

As an alchemist and one who studies the nature of the world, Krumley always considered Sharlua an anomaly. Halflings by nature have the body and stature of a human child, but her body was that of a full-grown human woman despite being around half the size of one.

From what he learned of her over the years, her father was a dvergr, a race of dwarf that lives underground unlike their more common cousins, but dwarf and halfling pairings were simply uncommon and not unheard of. Both being of demi-hume descent, the children of such a pairing would simply result in either full halflings or full dwarves.

However, in Sharlua’s case, she was born with the body of a human woman while possessing her father’s skin and hair color. Normally, this kind of result was more likely to happen with a human partner, but humans in general look at those pairings unfavorably simply due to the nature of halflings looking like human children.

In demi-hume society, however, her parents’ pairing was considered normal albeit unusual since halflings and dwarves have many differing natures and preferences, but this wasn’t the main reason why Sharlua was considered strange.

Not only her looks, but Sharlua also came to possess a unique trait often coveted by those who want to rear beasts – a direct way to pacify them. It is not wholly known how some people come to possess these traits other than believing them to be gifts or curses from the gods, but they happen at random and can either be beneficial or destructive.

In Sharlua’s case, if she hadn’t learnt to control her unique traits, she most certainly would have been one of the most unfortunate. Of course, more unfortunate than she currently is.

Staring at her pendant wordlessly without responding, she lifted her arm towards Krumley.

With practiced motions, he took her arm and slowly began running the dull metal knife-looking tool across her arm, scraping off sweat and aught else.

“I’m running out of materials for your scent bombs, so I can only make five, for now. Once smokegrass becomes available in the market, I can make more then. Come back in an hour and I’ll have em ready for you.”

Nodding, Sharlua turned to leave before suddenly remembering something.

“Oh right, I was too concerned about how long before the expedition decided to leave so I forgot to ask, but do you have any idea when the Magister is supposed to arrive?”

Krumley placed his hand under his chin, giving it a thought and remembered what he heard, “From what I recall, most likely tomorrow afternoon or the day after.”

– - –

“Bleargh!”

“Urk…”

“Uuugh…”

On top of what appeared to be a large armored black wolf along a dirt road, Orsley and Delleen could be seen holding onto their stomachs while Gern had gone and completely emptied his to the side.

Jortus shook his head while sitting on top of a large white wolf as he looked at the trio, “I can somewhat understand from the kids, but I expected more from you, Gern. Aren’t you formerly a captain from Great Albirion? I recall horse-riding was part of an officer’s requirement.”

While raising a twitchy finger towards the wolves, he angrily roared in response, “Das no bloody ‘orse! *bleegh* I-I dunno ow anyone can be bluddy foin afta tha! *urk*”

Upon receiving the news about the discovered underground fortress three days prior, Jortus hurried their party as soon as they left Uruwan’s village. At first, he was fine with their pace and their expected arrival, but something kept bothering him about the emblem he saw adorning the fortress making him want to arrive sooner, so he made a request to Morph.

He wasn’t sure if the little changeling could understand at first, but as soon as it made a gesture to the wolf siblings, they transformed and lowered their backs to them.

With their help, the five-day trip didn’t take more than two.

On the side, Zamorg was lazily lying around while scratching his belly. Ahead of him, standing atop a hill, Morph stared into the distance.

Ahead of them lies their destination. A new world filled with more stimulus and hopefully more gene data it could acquire, and with them, new abilities.

Ahead of them was the town of Kilmarn.

***