Like always the Sleepy Artist stunk.

I was sure it was just the paint and stuff, but it put me on edge. It made me want to leave, enough so that like always I turned Lughes and Crane's offer down.

"I'll be fine. I actually have someone I need to keep an eye on, so it's okay. Thank you though," I said gently, trying not to be too rude.

"Someone to keep an eye on…? Why not bring them here? We'll make dinner," Lughes offered with a frown, as if unable to comprehend why I'd actually turn him down.

Gosh he was making it hard to do so though. Dinner? Really? I bet it would be delicious…

"She's not a member. Plus she's human, and doesn't know about us," I said with a small shrug.

"Ah… that is a thing, then, isn't it?" Crane said with a nod.

"It is. Though soon that might not be much an issue. Vim is bringing us a human resident! A special one!" Lughes told me.

"Hm…? Vim is?" I asked.

"Should be here any day. I've not met her, but I've heard good things about her. She wants somewhere… quiet to call home," Crane said.

I'm not sure I'd call this place quiet; to be honest… but it was away from everyone else at least. The few members farther north from here were the solitary types. The ones that didn't want you to visit in the first place.

"Well… If I end up not finding a band to join I'll stop back in and see her, I guess. If Vim shows up while I'm here, let him know we're staying in those visitor tents outside the city," I said.

"What…? In those slums? Branches, please… just stay here. If not here, at least an inn. We have friends here, they'll happily get you a nice room," Crane said worried.

I smiled at my fellow bird, and nodded. "I appreciate it Crane, but it's okay. As I said I got responsibilities, plus I'm hoping to not be here long. We talked with a recruiter this morning first thing, it sounded good. They have a contract with escorting a bunch of prisoners, so we might have work right away," I said.

"Gosh… prisoners?" Crane worriedly frowned at that, glancing at Lughes as she did.

I ignored the look they exchanged, and the thoughts clearly written on their faces. As easily understood as some of their paintings.

They didn't understand my lifestyle at all. But that was fine. They didn't need to.

Only I needed to.

And well… my mother, I guess. She understood.

Vim did too, oddly.

"Still… I'm glad you're all well. Give Shelldon my hellos, if I'm here past the morrow' I'll come visit again," I said as I picked up my bag, as to leave.

"Goodbye then! Remember to not fall in battle, I've yet to paint you!" Lughes reminded me.

I laughed at that as I left, waving goodbye to Crane as I did.

Shutting the door behind me, I ignored the dingling bell and the soft conversation I had left behind. They were talking about how odd I was, but I was used to it. Many in the Society found me and my family odd, even the members that were more like them than me and mother.

Though it did offend me a little, I didn't let it bother me or get too upset over it. Because I knew I was being odd.

As they said, I was staying in the slums. The tent we were staying in, the cheapest place to sleep in town, was just a giant old tarp. I had worried about leaving Slip there, since it had been obvious some of the people staying in it had been… the less desirable types. Not even we mercenaries seemed to use it, which was telling since most mercenaries were unbothered by such things.

We were just too broke to stay at any actual inn, is all. Between Slip and I we only had enough to feed us, and even then we'd struggle to do so… and only then if we also added to it with hunting and fishing.

Hopefully the recruiter we had spoken to earlier had good news for us tomorrow morning. Even if we had to spend the next month escorting prisoners, it was at least something. They paid well, and their band was actually well known.

Or well… Slip had recognized the name. I had never heard of them.

How was it humans were so good at knowing what was going on in the world…? I was older than all of them, yet I sometimes felt like a child when listening to them talk. It was as if they could somehow talk to their fellows over long distances, instantly. There were times they spoke of rumors and happenings that sounded so recent, and so distant, that I couldn't comprehend how they knew so much details. Even I failed at such a thing, even for things I'd witnessed with my own two eyes.

Maybe it was precisely because they didn't live very long that they were so good at gossiping. They lived quickly, so were quick themselves…?

No matter.

Pausing before a store, I stared into the window of what was likely some kind of clothes shop. There was a very ugly dress, made of some kind of bird feathers, hanging on a rack in the window. It was to puffy, so big, that I doubted any woman could actually wear it. Even the larger women would get crushed by it, wouldn't they…? Or maybe it was light, even though so big and puffy?

For a tiny moment I thought of all my sisters, my mother, and those like Slip I've known over the years. I tried to imagine them all in it, and found myself shaking my head and walking away.

Surely it was just a display piece. Like how blacksmiths and artisans had projects on display in their storefronts too. As to show off their skill and expertise. Sometimes they had things on display that had no proper use, or had unrealistic proportions. One smithy near Telmik I'd visited had a huge sword, one so big and heavy that I knew even we non-humans wouldn't have been able to use it properly.

Vim was likely the only one in this world capable of wielding such a weapon… but those like him didn't need such things. Their fists alone were enough.

"Speaking of Vim…" I mumbled as I wondered if maybe I should pass on the job even if offered it. I'd like to ask him a few questions, and if he was going to be here soon this was a good opportunity. It's been a few years since I had last seen him. He had checked on me, back when I had first left the nest and became a mercenary, every so often. He's not done so lately, which told me he and my mother had decided I was capable enough to be left to my own devices finally… but… well…

Glancing at a nearby window, and the reflection of me upon it, I wanted to groan at myself.

Yeah. Definitely doing fine.

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Half-starved, covered in wounds, and jobless. Barely a coin to my name. Plus I was now responsible for a young woman, one who I wasn't sure yet what to even think of or do with.

She was a nice girl. She hadn't lied. She could cook, sew and mend clothes, and the few spars we had on our trip here had proven she was no slouch either. She was still just a human woman, but odds are she was unique. A rarity.

Mother would like her, probably. At least, as much as she could for a human.

But I knew better than to get too attached. Even if we hadn't been mercenaries, she was still in the end just a human. A poor one. One who had grown up on a farm, and had been told to leave since they hadn't been able to afford her. They had not wanted to keep her, since in their eyes she had been not worth the food and resources she took up in comparison to what she provided.

It was hard to understand, but I knew sometimes humans were like that. They could be as cruel, if not crueler, than we could.

"I don't want to get stuck with her, though…" I said as I returned to walking. I headed for the eastern gate, as to go to the slum-tent and check on the burden I was trying to figure out how to get rid of.

Part of the reason I wanted to see Vim. I didn't want any help myself, I'd not take money or resources from the Society… but she was a different story. There shouldn't be any harm to ask for a resident permit or something for her, right…?

Like The Sleepy Artist, there were many locations that had humans living amongst them. For some they were friends, others workers and servants. No matter where she went, or what she had to do, Slip would have a much better life amongst the Society like that than with me as a mercenary. Or well, with anyone as a mercenary.

Vim would understand, I'd think. Maybe. If not, if he didn't allow her to join the Society, he'd at least be willing to give me enough coins to pay for the taxes and fees as to get her residency at one of the towns nearby. Even here in Ruvindale, maybe.

Doing such a thing would be a great way to get rid of her without making me feel like an utter scumbag, at least.

"Gods I'm as bad as my siblings, aren't I?" I complained as I realized what I was doing.

I didn't want to be burdened. I wanted to be alone. It was one thing to be a part of a band, to have comrades and whatnot, but she was dangerously becoming something more. Something more akin to a friend, or worse.

I didn't want that, so I wanted to be rid of her. As if it was her fault or something. As if I wasn't just annoyed because I had to admit life was hard alone.

Our little trip here had only taken a week, but along it I had found out how nice it was just to have someone else around. She didn't just help out with hunting, cooking, and little things but did so much more. It was nice to have someone to talk to, and ask questions with. She had told me about the local news, bands and wars she knew of, the towns and their laws and rules… she helped explain more about the value of a coin, and whatnot, too. Stuff that my parents and Vim had tried to teach me, but I had not really absorbed properly for some reason. Maybe because I had been so excited at the prospect of leaving the nest that I had simply not paid as much attention as I should have. Or maybe because they had taught me so much too quickly, and so it had all blurred or something. I wasn't sure, but it didn't matter.

I had no choice but to admit I was enjoying her company, and she was useful. Even the fact that I occasionally had someone to keep watch while I slept, though rare I needed such a thing, was worth a lot more than I wanted to admit.

"Maybe this is why my father warned me. I had found his warning about friends odd, since it had come from him," I whispered as I passed under the gate of Ruvindale, and headed for the open pasture in the distance. There were rows of shoddy tents, and shacks past them. There weren't many people out and about out here and the few who were looked… unhealthy. One of the women I passed looked like she had a bad limp, and had a weird look on her face. As if she was half asleep, while she walked. Probably was.

Reaching the tent, I entered carefully. There was a group of people who were sleeping right at the entrance, for whatever reason, and I didn't trust them much. They were sitting together on broken boxes and crates, and the conversation they had been having came to a stop as I passed them. I ignored their looks as I walked over to our little section of the tent, where there were two small cots hidden by a thin white sheet. So thin you could see through it.

"You shouldn't do that in here," I said, warning Slip as I stepped past the sheet.

Slip startled, frowning at me as she glanced around and covered her chest. She had been wiping herself down. "Why…?" she whispered, worried all of a sudden.

"Because they can all see you through the sheet," I said as I grabbed her shirt off my bed and tossed it at her.

She put it on, though did so slowly. She didn't seem bothered, at neither me having seen her naked or my criticism of her actions. She was though staring at me rather strongly.

"What?" I asked as I sat down on the cot I had claimed.

"You stopped me because you're worried about me. Not because you want only you to see me," she said simply, as if it made sense.

My back straightened a little as I processed her words, and I wondered why she was even bringing such a thing up. "Yeah…? Look at the people here. You don't know what they'll do," I said softly.

"Hm… maybe. Brother used to warn me too, sometimes. Are you a religious man, Branch?"

"Kind of," I admitted. I wasn't like the humans, but I did have gods. We all did. They had made us. And unlike the humans, we actually had known them. We had proof of their existence, they didn't.

"Hm…" Slip frowned at that as she finished getting dressed. She grabbed the cloth she had been wiping herself down with, stared at it for a moment, and then gestured at me with it. "Are we a couple, Branch?"

"No? Did you think we are?"

"No. Not yet, at least. I was hoping we would be, though."

Great. "My mother told me any woman I brought home would have to be stronger than her," I said.

She smiled at that. "Really…? What a neat mother. Well? Am I stronger than her?" she asked.

Funnily enough if I and my family had been human, Slip might have been so. But unluckily for her, we weren't.

I shook my head. "No. Not by a long shot."

Slip's smile slowly died. "I see… that's too bad. Is that you telling me to give up on the idea, or are you being serious?"

Shifting a little, I glanced over her shoulder at the sheet behind her. I saw through it, just as the person approaching us likely did… and I studied the way the man walked.

He was carrying something under his cloak. A weapon maybe…?

I stood, and ignored Slip's worried expression. She had wanted an answer to her question, but I'd have to put that on hold.

Stepping away from Slip and our little cots, I walked out from behind the sheet as the man came to a stop a few feet away.

"I don't appreciate your comments," he said as he lifted up the thing he had hidden beneath his cloak. It was just some kind of metal stick. A poker for a fire, maybe.

"What comments…?" I asked. What had I said?

"It's one thing to deny me a show, but to claim I'm some scumbag? Who do you think you are?" he asked, his voice rising.

Calming down a little, thanks to the anger I recognized in his voice, I glanced around real quick to see if anyone else was going to join in on this.

It didn't look like it. There were half a dozen people, other than us, in the tent right now, and each one of them looked ready to bolt. Several looked terrified.

Maybe he was the local bully or something. This was the slums, as Crane and Lughes had pointed out.

"I think you've just proved whatever you assumed I had said, so what would you like to do?" I asked plainly.

There was no point trying to calm him down or avoid this. I may not be as knowledgeable as the humans about their culture, or their recent gossip, but I knew humans well enough. And what I did know well about them was their tendencies and how to deal with them. My mother, and Vim, had taught me more than I needed to know when it came to such situations. Even if I had forgotten most of what they had taught, as I had about their currencies and cultural rules, I'd never forget enough to not know when a man was out for my life.

He wanted blood. He was going to get it.

Though I did wonder what had actually set him off. Had my comments earlier to Slip, about not showing off her naked body here to these random people, really been that offensive…? I had thought such common sense was… well… common sense.

Oh well.

"Smart ass, are you? Fine." The man must have noticed the finality in my tone, as I had noticed his, for he smirked and scoffed and stepped forward.

"Branch…!" Slip called my name worriedly as the man approached, but I paid her no heed. I shifted my weight a little as the man lifted his metal weapon, as to use it like a club against me.

Were we going to get kicked out over this…? Maybe I'll end up accepting Lughes and Crane's offer after all.

"Humans…" I scoffed under my breath as the man attacked… and I dealt with him as I had been trained to.

Without any mercy.

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