Three silvers, as it turned out, did not go very far in the markets. Len had no gift for barter, and no prestige to trade upon to get better deals. This meant that she was stuck scraping the bottom of the barrel for any goods she was getting. Staring morosely at the fruits of her journey, she sighed. One rickety cart, one crude pickaxe, one slightly better lumber axe, three crappy daggers that were on their last legs, and just barely enough food to last the four of them the week. Kila had begged out of any further adventuring for the moment, indicating that she didn’t want to tempt Len into begging for more money (which was fair enough). It wasn’t a lot, but it was gonna have to do.

“All right, guys, we’ve got our work cut out for us.”

“So what is your grand scheme here, oh fearless leader?” asked Larry.

“Well, we’ve got some tools, time to go make some money.”

“Doing… what exactly?”

“Basic harvesting. Gather up some lumber, sell it, that type of thing.”

“Your plan, just to be clear on this, is to have us running around doing chores for the next month. You do realize that we’re gonna die at the end of this month unless we do well at the Grand Proving.”

“If you’ve got a better idea I’d love to hear it. We don’t have a lot of options here and I’m kinda flying by the seat of my pants.”

“Fantastic, first time in my life I’ve gotta depend on someone and it turns out she doesn’t have the slightest fucking clue. Look, if we need cash why don’t we just find some farmers to pillage. We’re only a couple days away from the outskirts of human territory. Should be plenty of easy pickings that way. Just gotta avoid any troops and we’ll be fine.”

“First,” she said pointedly. “We’re not doing that. Second, there’s not a chance in hell that we’re doing that. And third, terrorizing a bunch of farmers isn’t going to teach you a damn thing about taking on hardened combatants. Gonna have to aim higher if you want a chance here.”

“And you think chopping wood is going to do that?”

“As a matter of fact I do. At least once it’s combined with the other things I’ve got planned for you out there.”

He caught the glint in her eye and, just for an instant, his cocky demeanor wavered.

“Oh, I’m quaking in my boots,” he muttered.

“Can it, Larry,” Moe said, emphasizing the goblin’s new name. “I’m not interested in hearing you whine any more. She’s probably gonna give up on this whole thing in a day or two, so we might as well go along with it until she caves. We’re all dead anyway.”

“Real optimist there, Moe,” said Len.

“A realist. You can pretend that you’re gonna be different all you want, but I’ve seen enough like you to know where this is going. You’re gonna try real hard right at the start, act like you have a perfect plan that will see us through this but it’s not gonna be long before you start doubting yourself and us. Then you’ll realize that you don’t stand a chance at the Grand Proving and you’ll chicken out. Leaving us three completely screwed while you just slink away to some meaningless spot in the middle of nowhere to live in your cowardice.”

“Listen, you little shit,” Len said, having had just about enough crap from everyone today. “I’m at the end of my sanity trying to deal with all this Dungeons and Dragons bullshit and you’re not making it any easier.”

The tabletop game reference went over his head, but the sudden change in her demeanor caught him off guard nonetheless.

“We’re in a shit situation, I’ll grant you. Not a damn one of us is prepared to deal with this. Best I thought I could hope for was a half-decent placing in the lower ranks. Instead I’ve somehow landed in a bigger competition with greater stakes than I was ready for AND I managed to piss off the guy in charge of preparing me for this shit. You three are a sorry pack of minions but you’re all I’ve got and I damn sure ain’t gonna waste you. Quit your bitching, grab the cart, and get a move on before I decide we should start practice early.”

“Practice?” he asked, baffled.

“Yeah, practice. You don’t think I’m we’re just gonna be spending the days chopping wood, do you? I know a thing or two about taking on larger foes and I’m gonna make sure that by the end of the month you lot can take down ogres on your own.”

He didn’t look terribly convinced by that but still grabbed the cart. She caught a slight smile from Curly, who’d remained silent throughout the whole affair. Larry sulked, but said nothing as the quartet made for the woods.

* * * * *

Their first day of work wasn’t terribly eventful, just a moderate amount of lumber work, some rock breaking, and a whole lot of practice taking falls (she might have been taking out some of her annoyances with them, but the fact of the matter was that learning how to fall properly was one of the most important lessons to be learned in martial arts). The whole process was exhausting, but they were able to gather enough materials for Kila by the end of the day that she was willing to pay them… one whole silver. Len looked at the piece dejectedly, but her friend wouldn’t budge.

“Look, I’m giving you a better price than you’d get anywhere else. I can use the rocks you brought in, but this wood’s gonna take ages to cure. Maybe just stick to gathering fallen stuff tomorrow? Stuff that’s dried enough that I can at least get some proper charcoal out of it in the kiln?”

“Sure thing, boss,” Len grumbled.

“That’s the spirit, keep the customer happy and your fortunes can’t help but improve!”

Len had some doubts about that, but decided that she wasn’t gonna win anything by continuing to whine. The silver was enough to get them a cheap room at a crappy Inn, which would have to be enough for her for the day. Her trio of goblins had mostly shut up after the training. They were bruised, battered, and more than a little grumpy, but they weren’t in open revolt so they either saw some value in the experience or were too tired to complain anymore. Either way, the silence was welcome.

She didn’t love the fact that she had to share the room with the trio, but sacrifices needed to be made if this was to work and she didn’t like the idea of leaving them to their own devices for the night. They got the floor and she got to sleep on a (hopefully) lice-free bed for the night. As far as new beginnings went, this wasn’t a story to write home about, but she had to make do.