As we sat in the living room with drinks he finally spoke again.

“You fought well but you lack experience with using your surrounding to your advantage, if the area wasn't so damaged you likely would have won. If you want I could get some of my faction to spar with you in our training arena. It will give you a chance to polish your skills and maybe learn some formal training,” Jasper offered Sammie.

“You should accept Sammie, these chances don't come often,” Sarah cried out excitedly.

“But I don't want formal training, I just want to fight my own way,” Sammie responded deep in thought, “If I learnt to fight more like you I wouldn't be like me as much and that isn't something I could ever accept. Being free to define myself is everything to me,”

Jasper gave a nod after thinking about it.

“If you ever change your mind, come see me, you will always have a place to train with us if you so choose. It is the least I can do for someone of your skill and to apologise for my actions, I went too far.” he replied, “I am so getting a tongue lashing for this,” he added with a sigh thinking about what Rebecca would do when she found out how he had lost it and if by cue she started to come down the stairs.

“A tongue lashing for what,” she asked stretching. She quickly saw me and rushed to me giving me a hug.

“Well look who it is, I thought you might have forgotten me,” she said not letting go.

“I am sorry, I-” I started but she cut me off.

“Don't worry we heard about your group getting a gathering job from the people at the inn, can't say I blame you for not thinking ahead,” she added giving me one final squeeze before releasing me.

“I take it you stayed for the feast at the end,” she asked, I didn't even question how she knew about it but I nodded.

“That must have been fun, not something we get to take part in due to how long the contracts tend to be, not something you can do with an everyday life, tell me about it,” she inquired and with that we talked. She listened to every detail without comment but when she heard about my fight with Sammie she stood up angry but Jasper raised a hand up to stop her. She sat back down and listened. When I was finally done with my story ending it when we returned to the inn, Jasper added his part of the tale. Rebecca was fuming at that. She quickly grabbed him by the back of the collar and dragged him off to another room without so much as a word. Now I was worried for him instead of Sammie. A tongue lashing was coming and luckily she must have gone far away into the deep reaches of the house since we couldn't hear anything till they came back almost twenty minutes later. Jasper looking dejected and Rebecca looking as if she just won an argument. Our faces were uneasy seeing hers but we relaxed again when they sat down. I noticed the sun was setting outside the window and started to day dream a little but was interrupted by a light knocking at the door. Jasper opened the door only to welcome Matt and Nelson inside to join us.

“Oh good, Sammie isn't in pieces,” Nelson exclaimed when she saw her, “was worried we would have to find another fighter for our group.”

“Word travels fast it seems,” Jasper commented with a disapproving tone at how the news had spread.

“We likely missed one of the best fights of the century helping out that dam innkeeper,” an annoyed Matt stated.

“We pay our dues, nothing more or less. There will be other fights to watch another time,” Nelson scolded Matt.

“After we heard the news we came straight here, sounds like you had a busy day Sammie,” Matt added.

“Next time it will be different,” she said without much thought, “anyway I want to get back to the bloodbath and get some more fights in before it gets too late,”

With that she dismissed herself and left. I tried to think about her personality more but I still didn't understand it but I guess it didn't matter. She enjoyed her life here and I was in no position to judge her. This whole event had just been another day to her. The pain she must have felt just like any other fight. In some ways I wanted to be strong like her but the idea terrified me. Does strength demand insanity I considered as I thought of it more. As time past and the darkness outside grew Jasper excused himself for official business as he stated. We decided that now was a good time to leave but my sister was having none of it and demanded we stayed for dinner. I guess I couldn't refuse her since I had been gone for so long without so much as a word and soon we were sat around a large table with plates of so many different things before us. Boar, some kind of bird I had never seen and enough sides that I worried most of the food would be wasted.

The food was simply amazing, I hadn't tasted much here but the different flavours just left us all wanting more. I was surprised how little was left when Matt the last one to finished finally put his fork down.

“That was amazing,” I stated with no other words to describe it, “where can I buy food like that?”

“Well if you go to the markets you might be able to get all that for maybe twenty thousand if you are lucky,” Rebecca replied and my jaw dropped.

“I haven't seen you in days, I am allowed to spend a bit more than I normally do with you,” she added.

“Hey Jess, I think we need to eat here more often,” Matt muttered to me before letting out a large belch.

“I don't mind if you want to come eat dinner everyday, just let me know and I will cook you a feast,” Rebecca stated. I considered it but declined, I felt like I needed to earn my own way in this world. It was a nice treat but I wanted to feel like it was something I deserved when I ate well rather than just be handed it. Matt grumbled a bit at that disliking my morals on the matter but it was light hearted and soon forgotten. Soon it was late and yawns were spreading among us. We would have headed back to the inn but we were so tired that when offered rooms for the night we just took them and before we knew it, morning came.

I had nightmares of that fight with Sammie again but they weren't as bad as the first ones and my friends were there supporting me, even Sammie which was odd since I was stuck in a fight with one and had another behind me. I guess that it was a separation of the monster that caused pain and the person I considered a friend. I woke up but didn't feel like I was going to be sick and just went about my business before heading downstairs. I knew not to expect my sister to be around but she had left breakfast for everyone and I sat down to eat. It was an odd kind of bread and soup that was semi-heated. While filling and not the best to look at it was easy to enjoy. Nelson was up next and after he had eaten his fill he explained that the day after returning from a contract would generally be a day off, sometimes two, so I didn't need to worry about slacking off. Sarah was next down, she checked up on me before grabbing something to eat and Matt soon followed repeating the pattern. When we were done we washed up and left. Nelson and Matt went their separate ways, I didn't really try asking I guess I just imagined they would do their own thing. Sarah wondered what I would like to do and when nothing came up she suggested we have a look around the market areas since we had nothing else to do.

The streets were busy from market stalls to large shops with windows displaying all sorts of products from weapons and armour to gems and supplies. We often would go inside a shop and look around, not with the intent of buying anything but just to see what was around. It was pretty fun to see all the crazy things of this world. Sarah examined a few bows even testing some of them before settling on a new grip for her current one. I hadn't planned to buy anything but with all the shops we visited I saw a few items I liked. I got some lightly armoured trousers that were made of light leather with thin metal pads around them. It was practical but didn't really weight much. Later I got a shoulder guard for my right arm that would hopefully be useful in a fight to protect me if things went badly. While it was slightly large and heavy it didn't limit my flexibility too much. Overall I parted with almost two thirds of my earnings so far but Sarah said that they would serve me well and likely help me earn more money easily enough so I didn't mind. Afterwards she led me around to a less crowded area and we had a light lunch. We talked a lot, not really about anything in particular mostly the items we saw and or shops we visited. However when we got to the end of another line of shops I noticed Emily by a stall and called out to her. She turned and saw me before getting back to whatever she was doing.

“Not much else I can offer really, stocks been pretty low with the push from a few factions recently,” said the merchant to Emily as he explained himself.

“Any idea when you will get more?” she asked.

“Hmm, could be awhile, not many people mining at the moment, might have to wait till a big contract happens. Come visit me in a week or so. I will see what I can manage to find out about such jobs.” he replied before serving another customer.

“No luck getting what you want?” Sarah asked casually.

“Seems that last contract we did was part of a huge push that destabilised one of the maps beyond the portal, the other factions there have had to buy large amounts leaving the merchants without many goods for the rest of us. Been talk of a likely price hike due to demand increase.” she explained, “on the positive side we could be seeing a rise in contracts offered to resupply the markets but some things are harder to get a steady supply so could be awhile for it to normalise.”

“Can you keep Jessica company?” Sarah asked, “I need to check with my friend quickly for more arrows in case they are struggling with this demand increase,” Emily gave a quick nod and Sarah rushed off into the crowd. Emily went about her business and I followed not sure what to do. At first she hardly seemed to buy anything getting the same response about lack of supplies but she reached a small stall that was more hidden away and found what she wanted. At first I was wondering what in fact she had wanted till I notice her buying strange pouches. They had strange threads where they closed and I had no idea what they were for. I tried asking but she didn't really explain just saying they were something she needed to replace since her ones were damaged. I noticed worn out pouches hidden under her cape along her belt but didn't understand still and she was clearly not going to answer me. When Sarah finally caught up to us with a large bundle of arrows carried on her shoulder I tried to describe the pouches and find out what they were but she didn't really know much about that kind of thing so she couldn't help, she guessed they were for a hobby or something, maybe with a special function rather than just standard pouches or maybe colour coded to help find things quickly but when I said the price she ruled that out since it was too high for simply wanting to organise things better. When we looked into a shop we passed we found Emily had wondered off so we quickly just went back to the two of us. Still my mind was constantly on those pouches but it seemed like I wouldn't find out today and finally we stopped wandering around the shops and returned to the inn. I was surprised to find my sister there. It was a quick visit to check up on me but we had a talk and she approved of my new purchases. After dinner I pretty much went straight upstairs where I sat on the bed looking out the window. I had pretty much kept the same room I rented before. Sarah had shown me an option on how to rent a room for multiple days at a time so I could store things there while I was away so this room was mine for the week. It had been a relaxed day and I had enjoyed it but my mind was still thinking about those pouches, maybe I would be able to find out tomorrow and with that I fell asleep.