"Ugh. I hate this." Sis said with both her words and the look on her face as the two of us quickly made our way out of Heremays's shop and towards the nearest convenient alley.

"C'mon, you look darling." I said. 

Heremays happened to have an adorable lime greenish dress, just a few shades brighter than Sis's normal fishing gear, complete with an equally adorable slightly-darker sash, all in just her size! Well, basically her size. Heremays had to do some quick modification, but the dude works fast. And, I gotta say, it turned out great. She looks incredible.

Though, to get her to agree to wearing it, we had to add her fishing rod holster thingy. Not my preferred outcome, but we also didn't really have a choice. Still incredible, though. Especially after Heremays and I fixed her hair. Which took a bit. She doesn't keep maintain it very well, but I think we did a good job with the time we had. 

"How much did you spend on this crap, again?" 

"Not important." 

To be honest, I grabbed the money I was keeping in the spoon drawer and basically just started throwing cash at Heremays, who was more than happy to help. I think he was in the middle of helping someone when we came in, and they seemed pretty annoyed at me, until I threw money at them, too. That seemed to alleviate their concerns. All in all, I think I spent around 150 gold in this endeavor. 

Sure, maybe I overpaid a little bit, but, uh... You pay extra for convenience. Yeah. 

"Also, it's weird how you put this on me yourself." 

"It's not weird. I had my eyes closed the whole time."

"That's the weird part. I just don't get how you did it so quickly." 

"A man has his talents."

"Hm. Okay." Sis concluded with a shrug.

Aaaanyways, just as soon as we were basically out of sight, I put my hands together, realized I probably just could have just teleported us from a dressing room, and we returned to the house and opened the door once again. 

"Took ya long enough." Said the hard hat guy as we stepped outside. "We been sittin' out here for almost 5 minutes."

"Y-yeah, was behind some boxes and stuff." I said.

S just chuckled knowingly.

"Great. Now, the rest of yous go get dressed and get in the carriage."

"A-actually, we could just get to the duke's place ourselve-"

"Just get in the damn carriage."

"Okay." 

"Glad to hear it. Now, I'm supposed to tell you that, being personal guests of the duke, you have nothing to worry about, your ride will be protected by our very best. And by that, of course he means our fifth best, because the other four are gonna be protectin' us. Place like this is probably a monster breeding ground after dark."

I don't know about that. Hasn't been anything anywhere near our place thus far, at least. Though, that could just be 'cus we're usually pretty quiet by the time night comes. Come to think of it, I have seen some pretty freaky looking shapes in the distance some nights. Might be some truth to what this guy's saying. 

"Right. Not that we'll need protection, anyways." S said with refreshing confidence.

"Just keep the suits clean, will ya?"

"No promises."

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a trio of adventure-y types, an excited yet dangerous looking chick in shadowed leathers, a taller dude with weird armor and a bunch of equally weird gadgets, and a shorter, heavily armed and armored dude with a rat on his shoulder chatting it up and goofing off together. I figure they're probably these guys' protection. 

 I couldn't help but think they looked familiar somehow.

"Oh, hey, it's the guys from 85." Sis said, evidently also taking notice of them as the three of us walked towards the carriage.

"What?"

"Nothin'."

"You seen those guys before?" S asked.

"Yeah, I think so..." I said.

"Guild hall, before we checked out the dog bowls." Sis recalled.

"Oooooh, yeah. That was it."

"That place near Starsford? You guys went there while I was out?" S asked.

"Yeah, just went fishing though."

"Riiight. Maybe we should head there after this. The place repopulates pretty often, I've heard." 

"Y-yeah, should be fun." I said, admittedly a little nervous.

"So long as we can go fishing on the way out."

"Right, sounds like a plan."

The carriage was even bigger than I thought it was, now that we were up close. Looked real nice, too, like some sorta old-timey train car. Though, it was a little dirty inside, probably because of the people that got to ride in it on the way here. 

S seemed distracted by something as we approached the carriage. He was looking over at the man in front, the guy holding the reigns or whatever their called on the horses. I presumed he was the driver or the coachman or whatever, though he was surprisingly well armed if that was the case. He was clad in thick leather padded armor with heavy chains over it. Though, instead of a helmet, he was wearing a hard hat, for some reason. He also had a shield and a mace, the kind that's just a ball with spikes on a stick at his side. 

"Oh shoot, it's-" S began, a devious smirk growing on his face. "Hold on, check this out."

Uh oh. That phrase plus and that look is a terrible combination. 

Before anyone had a chance to stop him, S ran over to the guy, stopping just a few feet away as he picked up a conveniently placed small stone. Then, the he reeled back and-

OH GAH- HE'S GONNA THROW A ROCK AT THAT GUY. WHY? WHAT ARE YOU DOING-

The rock sailed through the air at incredible speed, and flew both straight and true, directly towards the heavily armed coachman's skull. The stone crashed against the side of his hard hat with an thunderous and echoing *clink*-

"Why the hell would you do that?" I asked in desperation. 

S just chuckled.

What's funny about this? The dude's gonna be piss-

Or...

No, I guess he isn't? He... He didn't seem to mind. Actually, he didn't even flinch. Did he not feel it? Did he not hear it, at least? How? What?

S burst out laughing. A few of the construction guys started chuckling, as well. I was confused. 

"What was the point of this?" Sis asked.

"Nothin', was just kinda funny." S said. 

"Is he, like, deaf or something? That's not very nice." I said. 

"Nah, nah, it's not like that. He's not deaf. He's, uh..." S said, trailing off and leaving me confused. "Yo, Todd!" He shouted after a moment.

The coachman's head turned over to S, allowing me to see his face. It was utterly unremarkable, except for one thing. His eyes. 

Now, I fully understand the irony of me of all people being taken aback by ones eyes. But that didn't stop me from being taken aback regardless.

They were a deep, heavy brown, and for the most part looked pretty normal. Except for one thing. They didn't move. It was as if he was constantly staring off into the distance, eternally facing forward, looking straight through anything he might be looking at. I wont lie, I was unnerved. And I felt terrible for it. 

"Ah, S! Greetings!" Todd said with a smile and an utterly unremarkable voice. "Didn't see you there."

"Right, of course you didn't. Fancy meeting you here! What's up, buddy? How you been?" S said, hopping up in the seat and giving Todd what looked to be a practiced handshake.

"I've been. You know how it is." Todd said.

"Right. So, workin' for the duke now, huh?"

"Apparently."

"Right. Gotta say, I'm glad it's you driving us, instead of some stuffy chauffeur or something."

"Indubitably." 

Indubitably?

"Right. Well, I gotta get to puttin' crap on. Great seeing you again, though!" 

"Likewise!"

"Later, dude!" S concluded as he hopped off and walked back over to us.

"That was fast." Sis noted as S returned.

"Right, he's not much for conversation, so I try to keep it brief with him."

"He an old friend of yours?" I asked, despite the answer being painfully obvious.

"Right, something like that. We've crossed paths a bunch. He's a bit odd, the most oblivious bastard you'll ever meet, but there's no one better to have around when you're deep underground, effectively blind, and surrounded by all sorts of nasty crap on all sides." 

"Oblivious?' Is that what that thing with the rock was about?"

"Right. He's got pretty selective senses. In that he doesn't acknowledge the existence of anything that isn't imperative to his job or doesn't call his name." 

I think that goes beyond oblivious. "... And he's driving? W-Will we be alright?"

"Yeah, we should be fine. He's good at this stuff, especially when there's animals involved. We should be alright, probably." 

"Uhuh..." I said. Somehow, I still had a real bad feeling about all of this.

"Keep your hands ready." Sis suggested.

I think I'll do just that.