Chapter 13

The golden wheat fields of Westfall came in stark contrast to the lush green forests of Elwynn. The flatlands were considered the bread bed of the Kingdom of Stormwind, hence the entire province was covered with farms.

With the walking distance now in days, not hours, the decision to use transportation was unanimous. Even Lonaraa agreed that it would be unreasonable to travel by foot.

All four sat on the hard wooden seats with Osbeorn laying on the floor between them.

With crime skyrocketing ever since the Defias Brotherhood took over the eastern parts of the region, more and more adventurer groups traveled to crown-controlled areas to help fight the notorious crime syndicate.

With the Sentinel Hill watchtower coming into view, Corben straightened out, saying. "Almost there. The first order of business is to rent a room and get lunch before we start questing."

"I hope you don't plan to drag us into defias territory right away, boss," Jithu asked with a yawn.

"Not without a healer. My potions aren't enough for us to deal with defias bastards." Corben replied.

Eldum took his pipe out of his mouth and said matter of factly, "It won't be easy to find a healer, lad."

"Maybe some of my kind are around. We had a lot of paladins and priests among the first volunteers." Lonaraa joined the conversation.

"Let's just see what we can get when we reach the town center," Corben said.

The horse-pulled wagon had reached the town limits. The rows of simple Wooden houses with straw roofs lined both sides of the dusty dirt street. The massive watchtower on the hill was seemingly visible from every part of the town.

Their ride ended at the very entrance of the tower. In front of it stood the local marshal dealing with the crown-issued quest-related business with a notice board right beside him.

"We are not talking with the marshall about quests until we have a clear picture of what is going on around these parts," Corben warned his group as he and others hopped out of the wagon one by one.

With the bright noon sun above their heads, the area was quite crowded. Many returned from their quests and pick the next ones. Some purchased food from the numerous stalls around the tower, while others mingled around trying to form parties.

The group, with Corben in lead, went to look at the listings on the notice board.

Overall, there weren't any surprises.

The usual gnoll, defias, and murloc killing bounties. Some farmers needed to clear their farms from bums who just decided to live on their property. Of course, there were also plenty of hunting quests.

There also were odd resource-gathering tasks here and there, but those didn't pay much.

The only thing that raised some eyebrows was the rapid increase of the mechanical harvest watchers going on rampages. Mechanical marvels of gnomish origin were designed to be steam-powered automatons tending the fields and scaring away the birds.

As for listings of either looking for teams or additional members for existing ones, most groups looked for either healers or other specialized classes like mages while more common classes tried to find companions.

"Nothing useful. Let's get some rooms in the inn and then pick up a bounty quest so the day isn't wasted." Corben suggested, knowing that most of the team would be against slacking off for the day.

"We could get to the coastal or the river area and kill some gnolls," Jithu said, adding with a whisper. "Maybe we'll get a useful tip or two from our friends."

"Not a bad idea." Corben agreed.

"But what about the task we accepted? Shouldn't we at least put out an ad for a healer to accompany us to the Moonbrook mine?" Lonaraa asked, with Eldum nodding in agreement.

"There are about twenty other groups looking for a healer. Unless we pay way above them, our chances are slim. There is no point getting a temporary team member who asks for about sixty to seventy percent of the cut." Corben dismissed her suggestion.

Getting rooms in one of the town's inns wasn't hard. Once everyone had secured a bedroom, the group entered the tavern area to have lunch.

Once they found a table, getting the tavern maid's attention was easy. While the group waited for the food their eyes obviously fell on other patrons of the tavern.

Most were the usual adventurer types sitting in groups of three to six. Considering that Westfall wasn't the most dangerous and lucrative region to quest in, most of the people were either on their level or below.

Then a lone night-elven woman entered the room with a sleepy expression and sat down at a table for one person.

She had long dark blue messy hair with part of it tied in a tail. Her long, thick eyebrows peeked out of the hair that covered the sides of her face. But the most noticeable features were the light purple skin and the very long and thick sharp ears.

She twisted her dark red lips in a scowl as she clearly didn't enjoy the noisy public and scratched the scar lines on her nose and right cheek.

"A night elf priest in these parts?" Corben whispered, assuming the woman's class by the white robe with bluish lining she wore.

"Welp, time to upgrade my collection," Jithu whispered with a mischievous smirk as she pulled the panty stealer two point six out of her bag and put the glove-shaped contraption on her right hand.

"You better stop, you damn crotch bandit!" Corben hissed. "I don't want to be banned from the entire region because of your shenanigans."

"Relax. She won't even know what hit her." Jithu said disappearing into stealth.

"Vote to kick her out before we are arrested together with her?" Corben asked.

"It's not that bad. Lass just having a wee bit of fun." Eldum said, taking out his pipe.

"That 'wee bit of fun' might bite us in the ass," Corben replied as a loud shriek interrupted everyone in the room.

All eyes were on the elven woman who was holding a gnome by her hand with a snarl.

Before anyone could put together what was going on the woman snatched her underwear out of the gnome's hand and shouted at her. "Go drown yourself in the nearest well, you thieving pest!"

Jithu snapped around in a robotic manner and started marching toward the exit with a surprised expression.

"Mind control spell," Corben said loud enough for the gnome to hear, making Jithu's expression turn from surprise into terror.

The elven woman, meanwhile, put her panties in one of her robe's pockets and tried to get the tavern maid's attention as if nothing had happened.

Jithu marched past her team's table and whimpered through her teeth. "Help."

Corben just looked away and motioned for others to do the same.

"We can't let her get killed." Lonaraa, as always, was the moral core of the group.

"Then hit the crotch bandit in the head and hope she passes out." Corben said.

"We need to apologize to that woman and ask her to stop." Lonaraa stood up and turned to Corben with a pleasing expression.

"We can get another…" Corben stopped mid-sentence knowing that she is not backing down. "You will be the death of me, woman." He remarked with a sigh and stood up walking towards the elven woman with Lonaraa following.

He walked up to the elf's table, did a light bow and spoke in the most professional tone he could muster. "Good day, miss. I'm terribly sorry about that tiny pest's actions but could we come to some agreement where you do not drown her?"

"You know what she did. I'm doing the world a favor." The woman replied matter of factly.

"Yes I am well aware, but she slipped away before I could stop her." Corben said.

"Maybe we can compensate you for the trouble. As crude and… and p-perverted our companion is, she doesn't deserve to die." Lonaraa chipped in.

"Why would a draenei team up with that criminal? Did they trick you?" The woman asked.

"My friends are not bad people. We will pay for the damages. I-I know how humiliating what she did is." Lonaraa got a lot quieter in the end.

"Get better companions, girl. Your kind does not need to sink that low." The elven woman shook her head.

"That's a bit uncalled for," Corben said.

"'Uncalled for' you say. After that thief…"

"Which you are drowning her for. Sure, her offense would warrant a good beating, but not a death sentence."

"I'm not killing her, you dullard! I will cancel the spell before she jumps in." The woman said. "Like I need trouble with the guards over that waste of air."

"Thank you. We still would like to compensate you for all the trouble." Lonara said before Corben could say something offensive in response to the elven woman's insult.

"Give that pest a good beating for me and we are even. Or you can just pay for my meal."

"Sure thing lady, your lunch is on us." Corben said motioning at their table.

"Breakfast." She said following the pair.

Just as they had sat down Jithu ran back into the tavern and froze on spot seeing the elven woman sitting with her team.

"What is going on?" She asked.

"We are paying for the nice lady's meal so she doesn't drown you." Corben replied.

"Sure thing. Sorry about that. Couldn't help myself." Jithu said with an awkward smile and squeezed in between Corben and Lonaraa, adding. "It's a condition."

"I didn't know that being a thieving perverted moron was a birth defect." The elven woman said dryly.

"Hey!" Jithu jumped up to her feet on the stool.

"There, there. Be a good kid and sit down." Corben patted her head. "We don't want the nice lady to drown you."

Jithu let out an incomprehensible grumble and reluctantly sat down while Corben introduced anyone. "Since we are good friends now, I am Corben, and this is Lonaraa, Jithu, Eldum, and that big fluffy fella is Osbeorn."

"Yiliana." She said absentmindedly, finally getting the tavern maid's attention.

Since Corben planned to pin the bill on Jithu, he wasn't that concerned about what Yiliana would order.

Night elves were a tall race, averaging just over two meters in height, and Yiliana was no exception.

She was about average height for a night elf, and like most of her kind, she also was very slim compared to a human. After all, night elves were not known for consuming Osbeorn amounts of food in one sitting.

She did get a large mug of coffee, which wasn't the cheapest thing to order, and started to take large gulps of the bitter drink right away. Since the only place where to get the coffee beans were the goblin trade cities, it was considered a luxury and each tavern kept a rather small supply, keeping the prices high.

'Must be hard for her to be awake during this hour. Not counting that goblin's shenanigans, it would explain her grumpy demeanor. I'll just wait for the food to arrive before trying to talk with her. If my guess is right and she is a priest, I can't pass up the opportunity to recruit her for at least a few quests.' Corben formed a plan of action.

Night elves, as a nocturnal race, slept during the day, making any long-term cooperation with them rather hard.

Seeing that Eldum was cleaning his pipe, Corben took a stamina cigar out of his bag and lit it up with his fingertip.

"Do you have some of that stuff just dried?" Eldum asked.

"Stamina mix?"

"Aye."

"Sure, I have a few bags left." Corben fished out a small linen bag and handed it to the dwarf, who stuffed his pipe with the herbs right away, sniffing them just in case.

"You are smoking them instead of making potions?" Yiliana asked with genuine curiosity. "I thought humans didn't have such practice."

"Saves time and vials." Corben said with a puff.

"You have me intrigued. I would like to see if human-made ones are any good. Do you have any spare?"

"Insulting my skills and then asking to try them. You sure have no shame lady." Corben remarked, handing her one of his cigars and casting flame on his index finger.

Yiliana lit the cigar, put it in the corner of her mouth, took a long puff, and sipped coffee without taking it out.

"Not bad. Too dry though. Leaving a bit of juice in gives a stronger taste." She said with another puff.

"Everyone's a critic."

"Learn from your elders and maybe you won't die from tripping over your own feet," Yiliana said and turned her attention to the plate the tavern maid put in front of her.

A temporary silence set in as everyone concentrated on eating. Jithu noticed that Yiliana watched her with suspicion, as if contemplating using mind control on her again.

"So are we going for gnolls or something near the town?" Jithu asked.

"We could go for gnolls but it's some distance away. You really need to construct that steam-powered horse you promised." Corben said.

"We can't afford materials. When we have spare twenty gold or so I'll make one with a carriage. If you don't feel like walking we can just hit the nearest defias camp and call it a day." Jithu reminded him.

"Dealing with defias is a lot harder. Osbeorn and I may not be enough to keep them distracted." Lonaraa said with her mouth half full.

"So you don't even have a plan of what you are planning to do in this region?" Yiliana asked between stuffing her mouth full of food, drinking, and smoking the cigar that never left her mouth.

"We do have a plan but we can't just rush into Moonbrook mines without a healer and a plan," Corben said.

"My friend lost his brother and crew there because of the defias scum. We are going after their mining cards so their families have at least something of theirs." Eldum joined the conversation with his mouth full making even his friends hard to understand what he is saying.

"Right." Yiliana leaned away from the dwarf to not get any spit on her.

"We could just juice up Osbeorn and Lonaraa with your potions and go in guns blazing, get what we need, and then blow the place up as we retreat." Jithu enthusiastically started to draw a plan in her notebook.

"Or I could drug you up and let you loose on them. Rogues are easy to replace." Corben put up a counteroffer.

"Why are you with this group?" Yiliana asked Lonaraa.

"They are nice people with their particularities and Corben can lead us with no problems. He was first to accept me and help me to lessen the prejudice against my kind, so please don't assume I don't know what I'm doing." Lonaraa said, raising her voice a bit.

'The draenei girl seems to trust them. Maybe there is something to this group after all… Save for that perverted thief. If she tries to steal from me again, I'll make her march right into a gnoll camp.'

"I see. I have no intentions of joining any group permanently, but I could offer my services as a priest while you operate in this region for a reasonable cut of profits. With one condition."

"What condition?" Corben asked. Even if this elven woman seemed to be disagreeable and did not have the best opinion of his group, a healer was hard to find and one needed to be less picky when considering them.

"My main mission is to find a thief who stole a family heirloom from a close friend of mine. The said thief is hiding among the defias somewhere in Westfall and I know how he looks. If we see him you will help me capture this thief and retrieve the heirloom."

"That should be no problem. As for your cut, we are splitting all income evenly. Does that work for you?"

"Sounds fair. But if you decide to just stand with a thumb up your ass and get in harm's way, I will demand a much larger cut."

"Anyone against her joining our group?" Corben asked the rest of his team.

With no one protesting, he continued. "Let's just go on a bounty quest as a test and see how we work as a team."

"Agreed."

'Finally, we have a healer. With that, we can start doing some serious business. Let's see how long she sticks around. Something is telling me there is more about her than meets the eye.' Corben shook Yiliana's hand, accepting her as a temporary team member.

Proofreading by Sad_Smiles and Visur Nyxan.

AN: Thank you for reading the story, and if you have caught up to the latest chapter, you can check out my other work or join my discord server (Link is in my profile) where additional chapters are available.