After camping out on top of the rocky outcropping, we spent the following to days slowly meandering back to the City. In truth, I was impressed with Becca’s fight against the D-ranked Bison. And though she wasn’t able to take it down, her reaction to the ambush by the Terror Birds was excellent. The inability to get a D-ranked core was a disappointment, but minor overall. We did try to sneak by later to dig through the one Bird that was killed, but the Bison had claimed that area and were on high alert, and so we left well enough alone.

The last two days of our trip had little of note. We slowly meandered back to the City, Becca fighting E-rankers and I gathering my plants. At this point, we had hundreds of thousands of marks worth of E-ranked cores, and things were looking excellent financially. Now, if only I could get some nicer furs….

***

On the last day, with the dressed Bighorn Sheep around our shoulders, we ran back to the City, and made our way through the West Gate, and towards one of the smaller plazas nearby. It was just after the noon bell, and the plaza was thick with people, forcing Becca to walk behind me. We had just gotten back, but I was already giving thought to the next trip, when a blur of a child ran past me. Suddenly, a scuffle broke out just behind me, and I turned to find Becca tightly gripping the forearm of the child. No, not a child…

“—were you thinking?! You think you can just rob me—” “—not it was an honest mistake ma’am, I was running an errand you see for me boss—” “—and I saw you try and cut away my bag with that knife! Don’t pretend you don’t have a –” “—and I’m so terribly sorry for knocking into you, but your bag just fell to the ground and it’s all right now—”

Becca and the scrawny young man were talking over each other, each trying to take the moral high ground—or at least the appearance thereof. We weren’t attracting any attention in this busy plaza, and the crowd largely just flowed around us, though perhaps with a bit more space given the raised voices.

I flared my ki, filled with killing intent, but directing it solely at the young man. “Lennie Fox,” I stated in an intentionally overly-suave voice, “I knew your old boss said he’d deliver you to me quickly, but this is a … pleasant surprise.”

Lennie’s face paled as the blood drained from it, but surprisingly he managed to stay stand up even against my killing intent. Becca was only half as shocked as Lennie was, but she let go of his forearm of her anyways. I dialed back the killing intent just enough to keep him focused on me, but still enough to keep him on edge.

“De-, de-, deliver me?” Lennie squeaked out.

“Yes yes, I was looking for a lackey, and your old boss was more than happy to sell me your… terms of employment. He laughed the whole time, I would add,” and chuckled myself. Lennie just look confused.

“Now,” I interjected, emphasizing it with another flare of ki, “you get 50 marks a week, payable Friday, plus a commission, paid at the completion of jobs. But, when your old boss sold you out, he said I’d have to cover any outstanding pay, so,” I said, pulling out and rattling through my coin purse, “how much do I owe you?”

“Uhh,” Lennie mumbled, “74 marks.” I flared my killing intent without speaking. “I mean 47 marks. Yeah, got those numbers mixed up. Ha ha,” he forced out.

“Good,” I said handing over the marks. “Now we’re settled. For your first job, take the Bighorn Sheep off of the nice lady, and then this one, and take them to the nearest butcher. I want the hides off both, and as many marks as you can get for the rest. When you’re done, meet us at the Latrova Café. Now… “git,” I said, flaring my killing intent higher than ever.

And with that Lennie took the Bighorn Sheep and moved off as fast as he could.

***

“So,” Becca started as we were seated on the outdoor patio of the Latrova Café, “do you want to explain what just happened there? Your killing intent leaked a little there and, uurrgh,” she shuddered, which said more than enough.

Slurp, and set my tea cup back down. “Lennie—I’ll introduce you two more formally later—is going to join our little band of misfits. He just didn’t know it yet, and frankly I didn’t expect to run into him so early. But we did—literally—and it seemed a waste not to bring him into the fold. Besides, it’ll actually help make the next two hunting trips more productive.”

“Why’d you have to scare him though?”

“It’s Lennie’s nature. He had a rough childhood growing up, even by our standards. He was orphaned and was, to be colorful, raised in a den of crime,” I took a small bite from an equally small cookie as I weighed my next words. “Do you know how to establish your authority over a group whose personal dynamics are defined by violence?”

Becca’s face scrunched at my question, though whether because of its difficulty or its phrasing, I wasn’t sure. Eventually she answered, “I suppose I’d find the biggest, baddest person there and beat the crap out of him.”

“More or less. Lennie though didn’t learn that lesson as a child but a related one: If you want to be protected in such a group, you find the biggest, baddest person there and become his lackey. Lennie’s applied that lesson several times throughout his life and it has largely determined his path in life until now.”

“And so now you’re the biggest, baddest person in his life.”

“Precisely.”

“So what was with the elaborate lie?”

“You noticed that,” I smirked over the rim of my tea cup.

“I was mostly sure. You might have found the time to do what you said you did, but we’ve spent almost every waking moment together for months, so I was doubtful you did.”

“I’m actual unsure just how powerful Lennie’s former boss was. I doubt the ploy would have failed if I had just gone for the big, scary tactic, but providing a plausible reason to sever Lennie’s loyalty, if he had any, seemed prudent.”

“Sometimes I’m really confused how old you are ….” Becca mused. “So, what’s our next step?”

“Well,” I said rubbing my chin, “originally we were going to spend the next two days in the City. But with Lennie, I think we can leave the day after tomorrow.”

“We’re leaving earlier even though you need to get equipment for him as well?”

“The equipment will be rather trivial. I only need to enscribe one more canteen, and we have ample funds now to purchase the rest. And it’s less leaving early and more like extending the length of our next trip. Considering how smoothly things went, I somewhat regret only taking a five-day trip.”

“Smoothly?!” Becca sputtered.

“I’ve had worst. In any event, as much as I’d like to get back to training, the upcoming winter has me worried. We’ll need a lot of resources—both marks and harvested materials—to keep our training schedule throughout the winter. We might be able to make trips into the wild after the tournaments, but some plants will be more difficult to find, and the weather will start shifting. No… better we take the time now to prepare and avoid any less than optimal outcomes.”

As I finished speaking, I heard the thripping of a fast pace, and short legs approaching. “Hah hah, hey Boss,” Lennie panted out, carrying the Bighorn Sheep hides from earlier. “So, what’s next?”