Cless opened her eyes but she felt strange. Her mind was hazy, her body didn't obey her and yet she wasn't paralyzed. She was lying down on a bed but it wasn't in her bed at the inn. She was... in a cage with wooden bars and an open top inside some big room. She smelled lavender and felt the soft fabrics underneath her. She tried to speak but only a gargle came out.

A giant woman with a pretty embroidered dress came and looked over her cage. She spoke in a language Cless didn't understand and smiled. Cless drank something and slept.

Cless woke up in pain. She heard fire creeping all around her, heat, smoke. The cage was burning and so was everything else. She heard shouts, angry cries and the sound of things breaking. Glass, pottery, wood. Breaking. Burning. Her flesh was burning. A wall collapsed and broke her cage. Cless could only crawl out through the opening, coughing because of the smoke. She crawled on what should've been a pretty wooden floor and the fire burned. Her skin itched.

She saw sunlight on the other side of the collapsed wall. There were figures moving, more giants. Angry giants. They were fighting other giants. But Cless wanted to get away from the fire. Away from the smoke. There was a promise of sunlight and fresh air on the other side of the wall.

Giant killed giant and they fell down. She couldn't make who was fighting whom, but maybe they wouldn't notice her down there. So she crawled. Underneath the collapsed burning wall, avoiding ashes and cinders, climbing out of the giant house, and into a cobblestone paving. She was out of the smoke but even breathing hurt her.

She tried to cry for help. She cried, but it was not a shout. It was the kind of cry with tears and sadness and hurt. The giants noticed her because of that. They got even angrier. Several of them ran to kill her, for there was no other way those faces meant anything but death. Other giants came and fought those that wanted to kill Cless. She kept crying. Her arms, face, back, and legs hurt.

One giant with two big swords killed a lot of other giants. Blood splashed everywhere, even over Cless. Another giant, a female, picked up Cless. She looked at the giantess' face and found odd that she looked like her aunt Karen.

The giantess that resembled Karen ran away from the mob of giants. Cless fainted from the pain. Her entire body except for the belly and chest hurt.

Cless woke up screaming. She could still feel the burns and her face was damp. She looked around and Silverfang licked her face, hence the dampness. Cless looked at her arms and the feeling of the burns were exactly where her deformities were.

"That wasn't just a dream." She told herself. "I wasn't born like this."

She went to her notebook and sat down on her desk. She tried to write down as much of that dream she could remember. The memory would fade soon enough, she knew. Tears came to her face as she forced herself to remember. She wrote in a hurry, the desk already too small to fit that many drying pages. At least she didn't spill too much ink on the sheets of rabbit parchment.

Cless stopped writing and re-read her recollection of the dream. Thinking about it rationally, she figured that it must be a memory of her as a baby. She closed her eyes and recalled the face of the woman she saw. She grasped at that face and desperately tried to keep that in her memory, but the face faded.

Just the feeling of comfort that face irradiated remained. And the tears.

Her recollection of the night's ordeal was interrupted by someone knocking at her door.

"Come in," Cless shouted.

Now that she had Silverfang with her, she didn't bother locking the door anymore. Karen's inn was safer than almost anywhere due to her Skill and she doubted someone besides either Karen or Balthus could defeat the Lycan in a fight.

The door opened and Josefine's head popped in.

"I heard you scream, Cless. Are you okay? I'm sorry I couldn't get up here earlier but I couldn't let tonight's soup burn."

Cless wiped her tears and tried to smile at her coworker. "I am fine, Josie. Is aunt Karen here?"

Josefine seemed both angry and concerned. She stood there, just her head and part of her side coming from the half-open door. Cless waited for an answer and it came after Josefine sighed and hung her head.

"No. Boss Karen is not here, she said she'd be out the entire day because Balthus sent a signal to her. And that you have the afternoon free today as well. Cless, what happened? Did the wolf assault you?"

She looked at Silverfang and he whimpered, ears lowered. How did a ferocious bloodthirsty Lycan become this pet dog? Cless ruffled his neck and shook her head.

"No. Silverfang can't hurt me or even disobey me. I just had a bad dream."

"Don't lie to me, Cless. A bad dream made you cry that much?"

She wanted to talk to Josefine and tell her about the dream, but something deep inside Cless told her not to. That she should not trust her coworker and tentatively friend with that story. But when she thought of telling Karen about it, the weight of keeping that secret was not there anymore. Karen was in the dream as a giantess, after all.

"I don't know," Cless lied. "I really don't know and it is scary, Josie. Is boss Karen around?"

Josefine sighed. Cless was caught in her dishonesty. Cless looked down at the floor, too ashamed to look at Josefine.

"It is okay if you don't want to tell, Cless. I can wait. Just this is not you. Sad, gloomy. Please bring my sunny chirpy Cless back."

They smiled at each other. "Sorry. I just need to put my head in place and I'll tell you about it, okay?"

Josefine pouted. "Fine. Just don't take too long or I'll nag you until you do."

"Sounds like a plan."

"Josefine went outside but returned right after, "Oh, some of our guild members came to ask about you. They are waiting at the north gate. Lyle went with them."

Lyle was almost ripped to ribbons by a feral Lycan that later became the tame Silverfang a few days ago. He almost died but before that, he was brought to the inn, where Karen could keep him alive. But he was already up, and that was too fast.

"Is he already out and about?" She asked anyway.

"Yes. Despite your Cleric magic and boss' innkeeper powers, he was one of those that spent the most time recovering I've ever seen."

Karen set a healing and recovery aura for people in her inn at all times. She also set a death aura for bugs and vermin and that meant she had the only lice and tick-free inn in the whole region. Too bad Karen's Skill didn't work outside the inn. But it was troubling that Lyle got that close to dying. Why would they come looking for her? Oh...

"What time is it, Josie?" Cless asked already regretting the answer.

"It is almost noon."

Cless jumped, bumped her knee on the desk and spilled some ink.

"Shit. I gotta go!"

Balthus was still away investigating the orc situation and she had another full day to dedicate to the guild. She couldn't squander it.

Josefine entered the room entirely, "Here, let me help you get ready. Quite the fancy armor fashion you got going there, Cless." She said pointing at the brass-iere hanging on a coat hanger.

Cless snorted, "A bear sent me sliding on the forest floor on my boobs. No more."

"Ouch." Josefine covered herself reflexively.

With Josefine's help, donning her armor was really easy. No fumbling with straps, no contortions to pass the arms in the sleeves of the stiff brigandine. Cless wore a shirt underneath the brass-iere and trousers. She really needed to buy more clothes. Or just dye everything she owned blood red. If only she had a Skill to mitigate damage and no shame of her own body, those bikini armors would seem so attractive. Cless imagined that a life without wardrobe malfunctions and armor repairs would be pure bliss. Or maybe self-repairing clothing.

Still daydreaming to not wallow in the dark feelings the dream left on her, she went down to the pantry, took some of the spoiled venison and fed Silverfang before going out with the bag of tools clumsily clanking on her back. Cless went to the north gate and found a crowd of teenagers. A lot of them. Some she barely recognized. They were her one year seniors. The sixteen-year-old ones.

"There she is! Guild master!"

The crowd quickly surrounded Cless and they started to bombard her with all kinds of questions and requests.

"I want to join your guild!" — "Please go delving with me!" — "I heard you are giving away free armor" — "Do you wanna date my avatar-like person?" — "I forgive you for sending me to jail if you give me a brigandine." — "Why didn't I get one of these too?" — "Wanna be my girlfriend?" — "I'd do you for a brigandine!" — "For the Blind Eye!" — "I'd do you your hear and makeup for a brigandine!" — "Why did you send me away if you were going to give us armor!" — "Show me your boobs too!"

And so on. For the still somewhat socially timid Cless, it was overwhelming. Only the fact that there was a huge and all around bad-boy-looking wolf next to her saved her some personal space. For Cless that just had that realistic dream of almost dying in a house fire surrounded by a mob of angry giants? Time to freak out. She summoned all her anger and struck with the rage of a hundred menstrual cramps.

"Everyone shut up or you'll become food for Silverfang!" Cless yelled. The wolf perked up right away. She thought he would be asking 'Would humans come back on the menu?' and felt the need to explain herself to him. "That's just to scare them, Silverfang. You will never eat humans again, promise me that," Cless corrected herself in a low voice.

Her commanding voice born of her profession plus her meager experiences leading her gang as they 'horsed around playing delver guild' paid off. The sea of teenagers parted, giving her enough room to stretch out her arms and spin.

"Better. Trust me, don't annoy your boss and more important of all, don't annoy the healer," She quoted one of her favorite books. "Okay. Blind Eye members, line up box formation by my left. Guild supplicants and everyone else on the right. Hurry up!"

The people scrambled around and formed up. Cless looked around checked her guild. "Vanessa, move to the other side."

"But I am in your guild! I just went to jail because of a mistake!" Vanessa complained.

"Fine. Then obey your guildmaster-to-be and go to the other side." Cless rolled her eyes and was about to shove murder bitch Vanessa over when she walked on her own.

"Oh. I didn't know you were going to hand over the charter to Toby," Vanessa quipped, obviously mishearing Cless. "How magnanimous of you."

"That is not what I said but can you just stay quiet for a while?" She turned her back to her guild and addressed the ones attempting to join. "This guild has no spare funds. All our cash flow and rewards are based on personal contribution and teamwork. You want a brigandine armor, you gotta earn it. You want a weapon, either earn it or craft it yourself or loot off the bodies of our dead enemies. I see that most of you have a weapon already, that's good. And I won't be handing over my charter to anyone. Keep that in mind while I talk to the others around there and keep your voices low."

Greed. These losers had a year to level up and earn decent proficiencies and get some coin to gear up, but they were worse than her guild would be next winter. She doubted half of them were above level ten. Honestly managing twenty people was already a huge headache. Cless thought she'd be better off with a wolf pack under Silverfang's command. But she was a creature of civilization. Abandoning the comfort of a bed for the freedom of the wild run was not in her plans.

"Members of the Blind Eye. You were asked to go with us work in the woods and you, on your own words, refused to go with the 'slave driver'. Well, the only three that decided to come earned not only over three thousand Experience Points on a single day but also a suit of armor. We faced great danger and also earned a great reward. I don't know if we are going to earn as much coin from our work today, but I know that if we do, that coin will be invested in those that helped me work. Lyle and Lawrence, I won't hold your wounds against you. Try not to get almost killed just to skip work, but I will give you your pay." Her joke made some of them laugh.

"But seriously, I want to know which of you are against adding more people now. Before you manifest yourselves, I will say my opinion. I think that we need to finish our logging job before we can bring in more members. Show of hands, folks."

She counted ten hands for adding more people, which meant fourteen plus herself against. Cless found a need to hire an accountant and an assistant fast.

"We are not adding anyone else at this time until we finish our logging job and get everyone in our guild trained." She turned to the ones willing to enter. "In ten days after I finish all the guild's current tasks, I will hold a selection. I will pick ten new members to join. You are dismissed for now."

They were not happy. Some of them were even measuring Cless to try and do something really stupid. Silverfang growled and some boys, notably Lyle, Arnold, and Shane cracked their knuckles. Cless glared at them and put her intimidation to work. Discouraged from attempting violence, they went away.

After they were without any strangers around, Cless addressed her guild with an apology.

"I'm sorry I'm late, but I had a terrible night. I could barely sleep." She didn't want to mention the dream. "We are going to deliver the wooden logs today. You don't go and think that the coin we earn on the day will be spent right away. It won't, especially when it was coin earned through the effort of several days. Whoever wants to go, follow me."

They all did. After the events of the last days, none of them wanted to miss out on the guild's earnings. They spent the whole afternoon cleaning and hauling the previously felled logs to the end of the farm road by the treeline. Cless kept training her clerical prayers healing small nicks and cuts whenever they appeared.

Now all they had to do was to call in the sawmill to bring an oxen cart to carry the wood. And negotiate on a price.

Name: Cless (no surname)

Race: Human.

Level: 22 ( 234,135 / 253,000 Exp)

Class: Cleric 5 (11,211 / 15,000 Exp)

Profession: Warmaster 6 (18,066 / 21,000 Exp), Weaponmaster 6 (18,066 / 21,000 Exp)

Base Stats: Strength: 12 — Agility: 14 — Health: 21 — Intellect: 21 — Magic: 32

Available Status Points: 0

Skills: [ Absolute Contract (S) ]

Proficiencies:

Appraisal — Status: 20

Crafting — Crude Weapons: 5

Magic, Cleric — Mending: 14 (+3) — Detoxify: 6 — Light: 2 — Turn Undead: 1 — Blessing: 4

General — Prayer: 10 — Scribe: 2 — Houseworking: 3 — Math: 2 — Reading: 6 — Forestry: 9 (+2) — Skinning: 7 — Herbalism: 3

Social, general — Negotiation: 11 (+1) — Persuasion 1 (+1)

Social, martial — Leadership: 16 (+1) — Intimidation: 14 (+1) — Tactics: 12

Movement — Tumbling: 3

Weapon — Long Blades: 4 — Short Blades: 2 — Unarmed: 7 — Archery: 12 — Spears: 3 — Maces: 17 — Staves: 4 — Axes: 8 (+3)