SpoilerI want to thank all of my patrons, including:KidoTreant BalewoodOrchamusElectric HeartAiden KingCrazySith87ShadowsmageSammaxAngeliightPreytorFenixPheonix14FndersAnd my 180 other patrons!

  Thank you guys; without your help I could never write as much as I do!

  [colpse]

  I khat staring was rude, but I couldn’t help myself. There were just so many people, and no two were the same. I didn’t mean that the people within were all dressed in strange ways, though there was certainly some of that, I meant that at a gnce I ted five different species of people all sitting at different tables and doing... whatever it was adventurers did in an inn.

  There was a table with three small people that had translut wings, all sitting on stools which were taller to aodate their height. They wore tight-fitting uniforms in dark blues that looked like dress uniforms for officers bae, with medals and tassels on their shoulders and cute little caps.

  A bigger table off to one side had a mixed group. Grenoils and a human and a rge person with a hunched bad legs that bent the wrong way. They had long, long arms tucked against their side, and their entire body was covered in beige s of cloth that did nothing to hide their strange proportions. They even had goggles on.

  Someone squawked. “Look at the newbie,” and I realised they were talking about me.

  It had e from a table with four bird people at it. Their arms were actual wings that ended in taloned hands and their uncovered legs were covered in fihers.

  “Sorry,” I said with a sheepish smile before I skipped over to the ter.

  Behind the bar was a rge grenoil who stood like a queen surveilling her people, hands carefully ing out a mug with a er of her apron until she caught sight of me and looked me up and down. “You look lost, girlie,” she said.

  “Ah, I was, I think, until now.” I gestured to one of the stools near her. “ I sit here?”

  She croaked. “Go ahead.”

  I smiled at her and plopped myself down. “Um, I’m looking for a miss Julliette. Do you know her?”

  “It’s Misses, and I know her better zan anyone. Who’s asking?” She filled up a mug with something from a tap a it sliding across the ter just as a barmaid passed to pick it up.

  “Eh, I am? I met a team from the Exploration Guild in the woods. Emeric said that I should ask you about a pce to stay, and maybe work.” I smiled hopefully.

  She eyed me up and down. “I’m not a charity, no matter what zat idiot Emeric thinks.”

  I shook my head. “No, no, that’s okay. If you don’t have work then I’ll find something. Um, do you sell food?”

  “Oh course we sell food!” she roared. “Nine cop for ze best meal you’ve ever eaten.”

  “Are there bugs in it?” I asked as I started reag into my bag. I had three little pouches made from some cloth I’d kogether. One for each sort of I’d found. I pulled out the copper poud emptied it on the ter, then ted them out. “Ah, I only have eight,” I said.

  Julliette eyed my meager copper supply, then snapped a hand out and stuffed them somewhere so fast that I couldn’t see where they went. “You’re too zin,” she said before moving back. There ening at the ba the wall, a window into a busy kit where a couple of grenoil and one of those cloth-ed people were cooking up a storm. Juliette screamed a few numbers at them before returning to me. “You said you were looking for work?” she asked.

  “Um, yeah! I’m just level four though, so I ’t do too much.”

  Julliette shook her big head. “What is someone like you doing out here? Trying to get yourself killed?”

  “No, I got lost. Sorry?”

  “Tch. Fine. What you do?”

  I beamed at her. “I , and I cook and bake a little, and I’ve got the Gardening skill.”

  “You have ze cooking or baking skills?” she asked.

  “No,” I said with a shake.

  “Zen you’re useless in my kit. Go ask Dyn if he he help.” At my fused look she eborated. “He’s ze alchemist. If you ’t find him in zis pisshole zen you’re hopeless.”

  “That sounds great!” I said. “Um, do you have rooms here? With showers?”

  “We do. Two lesser sil a night.” She gred at me. “We have smaller rooms too. No showers, but zere is a unal shower for uests. One sil a night.”

  “Okay, great. How much copper is a sil worth?” I was going to o get the hang of their money system sooner or ter.

  Juliette pressed a hand over her face. “Emeric, damn you,” she muttered. “Nancy! You’re in charge for a moment,” she called out. A barmaid on the floor made that thumbs-up gesture Valerie had made before.

  The rge frog woman walked back to the window just as a ptter appeared theurned and pced it before me.

  My eyes wide the bounty. There was a big potato with a slice cut into it to release some steam and a square of butter melting a it. Some stew in a stone bowl that didn’t have any bugs in it that I could tell. Some slices of sausage with a sauce over them that was still smoking and half of a round loaf of bread that looked crisp and fresh. There were even some veggies to the side.

  Juliette, who I decided then and there was the best frog person ever, pced a big mug of milk o my pte.

  I picked up the fork o the pte and started taking big bites of everything. “Oh, oh this is so good,” I said.

  “Don’t talk wiz your mouth full,” Julliette grumbled, but there ark of joy in her eyes. Maybe. Reading grenoil moods wasn’t my forte.

  “But it’s so good,” I said after swallowing. I tried a bite of everything and it was all delicious. Even the milk was fresh and yummy.

  “Tch,” Juliette said. She reached uhe ter for something, then came up with a handful of s. She id them out in a row. The first per , then a small nickel-sized silver , then a quarter-sized that was also silver. Finally she pced a gold like the one Leonard had give the end. “Cop, lesser silver, pure sil, lesser gold. Zere’re ozer s. Gold galleons and ze like. I’m not fool enough to keep zem here. And ozer pces have zeir own currencies. Your s are worzless too far West or past ze mountains to ze east.”

  “Okay,” I said as I chowed down. It was hard to focus with all the yummy fvours running ay tongue, but I made the effort anyway.

  “Ten cop to a lesser sil, ten of those to a pure sil, ten of those to a lesser gold,” she expined.

  “So... a thousand copper to one lesser gold?” I asked.

  She nodded. “Zat’s right.”

  “So for one lesser gold I could buy... a hundred and forty of these meals. Minus the tip.”

  Julliette ughed and swept the s off the table. “You’d be a good er if you did.”

  I smiled. I was truly tempted. “How muost work pay, by the hour, I mean?”

  “By ze hour? I pay my barmaids two sil a day. Ze cooks four,” she said.

  “Oh, okay,” I said. “How much does a loaf of bread cost?”

  “A loaf of...” she shook her head again. “Here, four cop. In a proper city and most towns, one or two.”

  “Things are expensive here?” I asked before using a k of bread to dab at the stew.

  Juliette nodded. “Ay, zey are. We’re far from any town zat supply us. Most zings we need are brought in from Port Royal and some of ze towns along ze way. No farms means no local crops.”

  That made sense. I supposed that the outpost had other sources of ine, or at least something to attract people to it temporarily. It didn’t seem like a perma pce yet. Maybe one day it would bee a proper town, with farms and livestod normal vilgers. I looked around the bar and all I saw were people that looked ready for adventure.

  “So, I need a pce to sleep,” I said.

  “One sil a night,” Juliette said.

  “Ah, okay,” I agreed. “Do you need ao help you and stuff like that?” I asked her.

  She snorted. “I always do. You could stay ients if you want. Zey cost two cop a night. But if you wake up naked and wizout anyzing to your name, zat’s your problem.”

  “Right, your inn seems muicer,” I said. “I have some things to sell. I should go do that soon to afford a room.”

  Juliette grabbed a rag and started rubbing at her ter absentmindedly. “Ze first room down zat corridor,” she said with a nod to the side. “Go it. I’ll give you a cop if it’s to my liking.”

  A copper, which was a tenth of the value of a small room. “How many rooms does your inn have?” I asked.

  “Forty,” she said with a growing smile. “But I wouldn’t pay you more for g for ze bigger rooms.”

  “Right,” I said. I looked down and was disappoio find that all of my food was gone. I shoved the sadness aside by reminding myself that I could afford hundreds of these meals now thanks to Leonard. “Um, I’m supposed to go to Port Royal, are there ways to get there?”

  “Yes. You walk. You ride wiz a caravan. You hire a mage to teleport you,” Juliette said.

  “Teleport?” I asked with wonder.

  “Zat’s usually a few lesser gold for ze distaween here and Port Royal. Triple it here because no mage will want to take you.”

  I winced. “Okay. How about the caravan option?”

  “Ze st caravan arrived yesterday m. Ze one arrives in a week. Ze guards for it have all been hired already from ze local adventurers, so you’d o buy passage to go wiz zem. A few sil. More for food.”

  A week then. A week to gather things and make some moo be able to live in a proper city. A week to explore a people and make friends. I gri Juliette. “Brilliant!”

  I hopped off the stool and moved over to the side towards the room she had pointed out. “I’ll get to ing then,” I said as I held my bag to the side. “ I put this somewhere?”

  She took the bag and stuffed it behind the bar. “ing zings are in the cupboard under ze stairs.”

  “Got it!” I said.

  I found the room and slid in with a broom and ss. It was a small space, with a simple undecorated bed to one side, a chair and desk at the far end and a tiny window overlooking the back of the inn.

  I could see the tents she had mentiohey weren’t actual tents, but small squat buildings with cloth walls and roofs. Some had the sides rolled up to reveal hammocks all in a row within. There was what I suspected was a tri the far end, a human man ing out and hopping around as he buckled his belt. Not very fancy. A room would be muicer, even if it was simple.

  My pn so far retty simple, but I could go over it again and again as I broomed the floor and did the bed and rubbed the top of the desk free of dust. Get a room, thehe night. In the m try to sell all of my loot. Then maybe I could work in the inn. That did sound kind of cool.

  But I also wao see the world around the outpost and maybe find more cool stuff! The adventurers here had to be around for something. Maybe I could help?

  I wiped my brow and looked over my work. It was good enough.

  I set aside all of the ing stuff ao fetch Juliette. “Problem?” she asked. “Don’t tell me you don’t know how to do ze bed. I swear children zese days are...” she stopped wheood by the door. “Did... did you polish ze floor?”

  The floor looked , nid well cared for and just a little sparkly. “I just ed it,” I said.

  “And ze bed?”

  The bed looked fresh and weling. It even smelled nice, like fresh hay. Probably because that’s what was itress. “I made it right, right?” I asked. “Um, I try harder, if you want.”

  Juliette eyed me. “You have the ing skill zen. Good. One cop a room,” she said.

  I grinned. “Okay!”