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As the wood elf Alys and the Ireacan Jarlsboris Wildfall walked down an empty street on the right side of the tracks, a couple of tough looking penguins ushered them into an abandoned building, where six other penguins waited.
Alys fumed when Wildfall stopped her from boxing the ears of penguins who presumed to 'usher' them. "Cool it," he said. "Be chill, I got this. Gentlemen, or ladies, I can't really tell. How many we be of assistance today?"
The penguins looked at each other in insulted disbelief. The head penguin - the one wearing a rose colored scarf- stepped forward. "'Gentlemen' would be the proper nomenclature in this particular case. I assume your passes are in order?"
Wildfall nodded and started to answer but Alys quickly cut him off. "And who are you to be demanding passes? Isn't this town commanded by the KoL?"
"Why, of course it is," the head penguin said without missing a beat. "But with the Council temporarily.. abandoning the town to our favor, we've taken it upon ourselves to enforce the rules of this town. Surely a creature such as yourself could understand the importance of rules and tradition."
Alys thought for a moment. "Fine. Here's our passes. We want to be on our way."
"Your optimism amuses me. Very well, you may be on your way." The head penguin paused, and then held up a fin. "After you choose your assignments, of course."
This time, it was Wildfall who interrupted before Alys could speak. "Fine, we agreed to that when we came into town. What exactly do you want?"
"We've a couple tasks," another larger penguin said. One with a silver beak. "That would be suitable for rookies such as yourself."
Silver beak ignored the glares and handed a piece of paper to the boss in the scarf, who seemed to smile, though it was hard to tell with his beak. "It would seem that we have two options. Would you care to pass out toys to underprivileged Knob Goblin children on the wrong side of the track? Or would you prefer the more enjoyable and rewarding task of breaking the knees of poor Knob Goblin teens who made the unfortunate mistake of having a slight excess of debt to honorable and reputable businesspenguins?"
"Breaking your knees isn't an option?" Alys asked.
"It is an option for tougher species," he replied. "But for the likes of you, no. It is not an option. Now which option would you like to choose, little girl?"
Alys looked to Wildfall, and he waved 'stay calm.'
"To slap you around with a large trout," Alys calmly replied.
" Tempting, but I am a married penguin," the boss smoothly replied. "Although one with a limited amount of patience."
"Well," Wildfall replied, "I think the choice is pretty easy, right, Alys?"
"Yes."
"Alright," Wildfall answered, relieved. "I guess we'll take the..."
"We'll take the knob goblin teenagers mission."
"Yeah the.. ga'what?!" Wildfall blinked back his surprise.
"Very well," the boss said, turning to a smaller assistant. "We shall have your list prepared in a moment. Please wait outside."
"Ga.. what?" a stunned Wildfall repeated.
"Come on, Wildfall." Alys said, ushering the Iracan outside.
"Scum like that don't hand out 'toys'. They've got a weird ulterior motive that I want no part of. I'm surprised they're too stupid to realise that injured debtors won't be able to pay their money back, so we'll be doing the penguins a favour if we warn their targets, right?"
"That.." Wildfall paused and blinked. "Makes a lot more sense than breaking their knees, actually. Sure it isn't too risky?"
Alys just responded with a shrug and moved forward with her plan, undeterred.
Hopefully it is easy to see the potential between Alsy and Wildfall at this point- plus I also liked my use of the penguins, though I'm a lil biased. Next up is Shelldor's return although.. it's got an important twist in it. Stay tuned for that!
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