Loners

Chapter 2

Jari opened his eye and winced. The night had ended like every other he spent in Port Agu. Hungover and feeling like fire ants were parading around his mouth and throat, he got out of bed. Betha snored in the next bed over. A herd of Loxodons could have stampeded through their tent, and she wouldn't have blinked an eye. He didn't see Toli anywhere in the room, and that meant he was only in one likely place . . . a fair dwarven lass's bed.

As he washed his face in the bowl of water in the middle of the tent, Toli burst in with a smile that only a well laid dwarf could, or would, make.

"Good morning, Jari."

Jari nodded in his direction and went back to washing his face.

"It's an absolutely lovely morning, isn't it?" Toli pressed.

Jari shook his head and wiped his face. "Do you have any news, other than the good time you had last night?"

"Actually . . ." He pulled a piece of parchment from his pocket. "New bounties posted this morning. Seems like a group of Dark Elves raided a settlement and destroyed it. Thirty coins a scalp," Toli said.

"That a fact?" Jari asked, snatching the paper out of his hand.

They heard a loud groan behind them, and without turning around, they both said, "Good morning, Betha."

Jari went back to studying the bounty poster and muttered under his breath. He looked over the rim of the paper and said, "Toli, put the word out. I'm forming a new company. We leave at first light to search for this group. It says there should be at least twenty, so I'll need at least fifteen more hunters."

Toli saluted and ran out.

Betha walked up behind him. "Another contract?"

"Seems so." Jari walked over to his armor, and as he put it on, he said, "Group of Dark Elves causing some sort of ruckus. We find them and exterminate them," he said, pulling his dented helmet on.

"How much per scalp?" she asked.

"Thirty."

She ran her paw across the edge of her battle-ax and said, "For thirty a scalp, I'll stuff the bodies as proof."

"Easy, Betha, these are Dark Elves, not shitty little goblins. You know they have talent and are slippery as mercury. Don't rush in headlong like the last battle, or you won't live long enough to spend the scalp money," he said.

Betha snorted. "Don't tell me business, Jari Rockjaw. I've saved your worthless hide in more battles than I care to count. Now, do you want to go and collect our coins or join the Yellow Dwarves?"

Jari's face flushed.

"That's what I thought. Now make yourself useful while I get my beauty sleep," she said.

"The Dwarven Lords will retake Labrys before that happens," Jari muttered under his breath.

"What was that?"

"Nothing," he said, picking up some bacon and a cast-iron skillet.

Several hours later, they walked over to The Scalp. There were only a few dwarves in the bar drinking by themselves. Toli sat at the bar, chatting with the old dwarven barkeep.

"Where is everybody?" Jari asked.

"They heard it was Dark Elves, and the other hunters wanted no part of it," Toli said with a shrug.

"We can't kill twenty Dark Elves by ourselves," Jari said.

"Speak for yourself, Jari," Betha said after ordering a drink.