The Half-orc mistress

When the man was out of sight I decided to get all of my affairs in order before I left to visit the city in the desert of the black dunes. I wasn't looking forward to it since I'm not a big fan of hot weather, however, it is winter so locations in the desert might not be so bad. The desert of the black dunes truly is a hard place to live for most folks. There are only 20 cities and each of those cities having around five towns each within a few miles of each other, making about 100 different towns of various shapes and sizes. And smack in the middle of that dessert is three mountain-sized dunes all of which were pitch black. No one has ever been to those dunes probably because those who do end up lost or dead from traveling for thousands of miles in the burning sun across blazingly hot sand with whatever creatures lived in those lands.

Before I left, I decided to make a list of what I needed to have done to the house while I was gone. "I needed to hire someone to keep an eye on the place which would cost up to 1000 gold seeing as I'll likely be gone for a long time, the bathroom could use some fixing that'd be 200 gold, fixing the roof? About 300, getting rid of the bats in the attic along with the spiders? The Bats cost 200 gold, spiders are 50 gold each...might as well put in another 1000 gold just in case. Ok, that is a total of...2700 gold I gotta spend. Welp let's get busy." I spent a day and a half getting in contact with the druids to get rid of the pests that found my home, contracted the local roofer, the folks that specialize in cleaning and repairing restrooms and asking the queen to send someone to keep an eye on the place. After which I packed for the long, LONG, trip ahead of me.

I had spent 15 days at sea, nothing of which was too eventful, Nearly met with an empire ship on the way but we managed to avoid it. And as always we finally arrived in the city of Semurna. I said my goodbyes and made my way through to the main area of the city. There were shops and such all around, folks wore beautifully made dresses and suits, and other fine clothing, a many sold beautiful handcrafted jewelry, some were even selling fresh produce and food, I bought an apple while I continued my search for the estate of mistress Nulara Sepret. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a man smoking out of a pipe and I walked towards him, he must know something, "Good morning." I said "Hm." "Lovely day isn't it?" "Hm." This was going nowhere so I decided to pull something I never thought I'd truly have to use. In thieves cant, I asked him where the estate for mistress Nualra was. He took out his pipe and looked me directly in the eyes and said in thieves cant, "Well why didn't you say that from the beginning my friend, the estate is up that hill to the right, then make another right turn and keep walking until you reach a home that looks similar to the palace." he said pointing to a large white palace." "Thanks, friend, I said placing some gold in his hand, "always a pleasure to help some friends," he said making his way deeper into the market.

I made my way towards the estate following the strange man's instructions, I managed to find the place and found a strange man leaning against a pillar. He appeared to be a half-elf with dark brown almost black hair, steel grey eyes, his mustache was curled to the sides and at his sides and on his back were strange objects I've never seen before, "Howdy stranger," he said tipping his hat, "What brings ya here?" "Oh, I uh...I was hired to protect the mistress." "No kiddin', seems we've got ourselves a similar opportunity. Where you from?" "I'm from Ulvenguard." "Hoo Eee, quite a long way from home my dangerous friend, oh my apologies," he said extending his hand, "the name is Ostaram Dashkev, friends call me Oz." I reached over and shook his hand firmly. "Shane, Shane Crowfeather." "Nice meeting ya." "So why are you out here instead of heading inside?" "Well see I would've if the mistress herself were home, servant inside said we gotta wait till she comes back from the palace. Apparently, it's customary for noble folk to notify the royals should they receive serious death threats to deal with them accordingly."

I looked back to where the palace was then back to Oz, "but isn't that why we're here?" I asked him. Then a deep voice came from around the corner said, "We are." riding in on a horse a very well dressed man, who seemed to have a similar fashion to those of the area came strolling toward us, "Well hell, that's a pretty horse there, she yours?" The man gave him a stern look, "Yes, I raised this horse myself she is as fast as she is stubborn, I would have arrived earlier had she not been so disobedient." When the man got off the horse I got a better look at him, he was human, a long dark brown beard, tan skin, deep brown eyes, at his sides were two curved swords. "I don't believe you finished your thought, sir," I said, "Ah yes, we are indeed here for the mistress's protection, she needed to notify the palace to let them know she did so for them not to capture any of us. The punishments for sending threatening words to one of nobility is punishable by death." I held my neck trying not to think about having my head chopped off. "Forgive me, my name is Bayar, I the noble son of admiral Bahadur."

Oz and I introduced ourselves as we continued to wait I could almost feel the earth itself tremble underneath me, "The sam hells is that?!" Oz pointed behind me and there I saw a goliath, the sides of his head shaved leaving a long braided mohawk that reached his waist and a large bushy beard that nearly covered his chest, on his back he carried one of the biggest great axes I've ever seen, "Pardon tiny friends, is this the estate of the mistress?" he said in a low rumble of a voice, "Sure as hells ain't where you're from friend." Oz said, staring at this enormous man, "Ha! Means I finally made it early to something." "And what is your name goliath?" "I am the great Paavu. Paavu the bearkiller" "Why do they call you that?" Bayar asked him, "Funny story really, I'll keep it brief, You see there was this huge bear, black fur, mean face, horrid creature. Tormented my local village, stole food, killed the younger goliaths, so I took it upon myself to kill the beast, and that did, I even had its pelt turned into a cloak, rather dashing isn't it?" He turned around and showed us his cloak. Not gonna lie, it did suit him.

As the day became later but the sun was still out in the sky I heard a man whistle, and there I saw halfling, he had light brown hair, an eyepatch over his right eye, a hand crossbow at his hip, and a larger crossbow on his back, and he spoke with a cocky swagger. "Hello gents, I take it you were all hired by the mistress?" " Indeed we are friend." The rest of us introduced ourselves, "Good to meet you all, I'm Kevin, Kevin Littlefoot. Might I say it will be a sure pleasure to...who is that lovely, lovely woman coming our way?" I turned thinking it was the mistress when it was in reality w gnome woman carrying a rather heavy book, Kevin ran to her, "would you like some help?" "Oh how kind of you," she said before dumping him the book and walking right toward us, She had dark brown hair tied into buns, small round glasses, and she wore purple and blue robes, "Good afternoon, my name is Breena Veloptima, one of the highest-ranking students at the magic academy in the thunder coast."

Kevin, still struggling with the heavy book said, "The thunder coast? Bit gloomy innit?" "during the autumn and winter months, yes, but the spring and summer are just divine," "Oh, well, maybe you could give me a tour of the place eh?" Kevin said, finally setting down the book. At that moment four men on horses leading a horse-drawn carriage arrived at our location. We all backed away making sure that whoever was in the carriage enough space to get out. As we stood there out came a beautiful half-orc woman, she had long dark brown hair which was shaved at one side, eyes the color of turquoise, and a beautiful white and blue dress, she also had a small golden chain that attached her ear piercing to the one on her nose. "Ah, forgive me, I had lost the track of time when I met with the royals, I am mistress Nulara Sepret. It is a pleasure to finally meet you all."