A Day Out (3)
Baskets in hand, we arrived next at a weapons shop.
"Hmm? Well then, what can I do for you?"
I'd been standing awkwardly out front, glancing this way and that, when a voice suddenly rose from somewhere below me.
"Whoa?!"
There at my feet stood an old dwarf, his beard a wild thicket, his face caked in soot.
"Oops. I always forget you beanpoles can barely see me down here. Heh heh. Judging by the look of you... heading into the dungeon, are you?"
Ely's lips twitched. She turned toward me. With both her hands full, there was no way she could manage anything herself — so before she could even speak, I started taking the bags from her one by one.
She dusted off her palms with a couple of brisk pats, strode into the shop, and gave a slight bow.
"We'll need a sturdy pair of gloves and boots, and some leather armor."
The dwarf who'd taken the order — well, between his appearance and his trade, anyone could tell what he was, so a dwarf he was — plucked items from a low shelf one after another and held them up for us to see.
"Alright... let's see here. These are your standard leather gloves and boots. Sturdy enough, but if you knock 'em around too hard they'll fall apart soon enough. Buy new ones or get 'em patched — that's on you."
Ely took them, ran her hands over the material, and nodded.
"Kobold leather. Cheap, but durable. Perfect for starting out on the lower floors."
"Heh. Figured you two were greenhorns the second I laid eyes on you, so I pulled these out on purpose."
He wiped his nose with the back of his hand, watched Ely as she continued turning the goods over with a careful, practiced eye, then turned and waddled deeper into the shop.
We just stood there watching him go — until he bellowed back at us.
"Well? What're you standing around for? If you want to look at the goods, you've gotta come all the way in!"
Ely gave me a slightly awkward smile and started toward the entrance, then reached a hand out to me.
"Give me the bags. I'll take them in and set them down."
"What's that supposed to mean? A strapping young man who can't even carry his own bags? Don't just stand there like a beanpole gawking — get in here, dump that stuff anywhere, and come look at the merchandise! And you, miss — you look like you know what you're doing, so you come on first."
I wilted a little under the scolding I hadn't asked for — but then a sudden warmth wrapped around my hand, startling me.
That brief, gentle touch slipped the bags from my grip in an instant and set them down with a soft thump in a corner of the shop.
I found myself staring at her fluttering ears and flushed cheeks — until a voice punched through the moment and ruined it.
"Oh, I see how it is. Rubbing it in, are we? You came here to buy things, not go on a date! Huh?"
His booming voice rattled through my skull and I could feel my face heating up, but that face of hers was still enough to bewitch anyone. All I could do was smile and follow after her.
"Kids these days, every last one of 'em bringing their sweetheart along... tch. Time's too precious to waste staring at each other's faces."
The dwarf grumbled on, then gave a couple of solid thumps to a leather breastplate fitted on a mannequin.
"This one's cowhide. Tough stuff — it'll hold up. This here's the lady's size. Try it on and make sure it fits before you buy, yeah? I've got plenty of sizes."
She slipped off her robe, handed it to me, then pulled the armor off the mannequin and shrugged it on. She cinched the belts to her body and gave the armor a few testing pats.
She nodded, apparently satisfied, and started to undo the belts — then she caught me looking and turned toward me.
"...Does it look alright?"
Of course it did. Even in armor, the lines of her body were something to marvel at. That impossibly slender waist, especially, was almost unbelievable...
"If you're done trying it on, take it off and put it down already! You too — get over here and try yours on. If you're looking at weapons too, this is gonna take even longer, and these two are just..."
Bullied along by his impatient fussing, I hurriedly pulled the armor on and tightened the belts. It settled against my body with a snug, close fit. The sensation was unfamiliar, but when I patted myself down, there was no mistaking the solid, reassuring weight of it.
"Just a moment..."
She came up behind me, took my shoulders, and turned me halfway around to face her. Then she ran her hands over every inch of the armor, checking each gap and seam one by one.
"No problems. These two should do just fine."
"Alright, that settles it. Bags are right here — pack 'em up and let's move."
He handed over a pair of bags nearly as tall as he was, then bustled off toward the other side of the shop.
We stuffed both sets of leather armor into the bags and followed him. Over there, several display racks stood crowded with weapons hanging every which way. Ely studied them carefully, then picked up something with an unusual shape and held it out to me.
"Aha. The lady knows her stuff. That's a Warpick. Hammer on one side, pickaxe on the other — it'll smash right through whatever you hit. Nothing better for the lower floors. Even if you just swing it around wild, as long as you connect, you'll land a killing blow. A blunt weapon like that is perfect for greenhorns like you two. Once you start heading down to the real floors you'll want something better... but for now, that'll do you just fine."
"Would you like to try holding it?"
I took the Warpick as she suggested. It was a fascinating piece of work. One end looked like it could crack stone; the other looked equally capable of doing the same.
I was satisfied with the weight — light enough to handle one-handed — and was turning it this way and that when I noticed she'd come back carrying a war hammer and a shield, plus a small bow and a quiver.
The real showstopper was the war hammer. Compared to the Warpick it was far larger, more angular, and looked considerably heavier — and she was holding it in one hand like it weighed nothing at all.
"...Isn't that heavy?"
"Not really. I'm used to this kind of weapon, too. If it's alright... could we also get a pair of daggers? Just as a backup... is that too much?"
Daggers on top of everything else seemed like overkill, but the word "backup" made me think twice. Better to have them than not, I decided, and nodded.
"...If you think we need them, go ahead. What about the shield?"
"If you're just swinging the Warpick around, a goblin coming at you with a weapon could still hurt you. A shield will stop a clumsy attack easily enough. Want to try holding it?"
"This is for me?"
"Yes. I'll be using the hammer and the bow. I'll stay in front most of the time, and fall back to support you from behind when we need it."
Was it just my imagination, or had she suddenly grown larger? I stared, momentarily lost, at the sight of her holding out the shield with a hammer still in her other hand, then took it. It didn't seem like it'd be too much to hold in one hand — but picturing myself swinging a Warpick with this thing on my other arm, I couldn't quite make the image work.
"You'll be needing arrows too, yeah?"
"If you would."
The dwarf waddled over, arrows clattering in a bundle under his arm, then spread everything out across a low counter with a sweeping motion and started tallying with busy hands.
"Gloves, boots... Warpick..."
Seeing it all laid out like that, I was startled by how much there actually was. I glanced over at Ely, and she just smiled at me.
The quantity was one thing, but the price was what really worried me. She'd picked all this out with her own reasoning, of course — but by the time I looked over, she'd already put her robe back on and was neatly packing the set-aside items into the bags. I started to help her when —
"Just get your coin purse out, boy. All tallied up. One gold coin."
"One gold coin?!"
"What, too expensive? Can't pay?"
No — the opposite. It was far too cheap. All of this put together wouldn't even come close to what I'd paid for that longsword.
"I-is the price too much after all?"
I'd been standing there in a daze. Her voice snapped me out of it. I pulled a gold coin from my pouch and set it gently in the dwarf's outstretched palm.
"Heh. There it is, good and proper. Looks like we'll be seeing a lot of each other. I'll be counting on your business — assuming you don't get yourselves killed, heh heh."
"Wait — I have a question!"
I called out and stopped him just as he was turning to head into the back room.
"Hm?"
"How much would a longsword go for?"
"A longsword? If you mean a proper longsword, fifty silver. That's... five thousand Dicat. A bit on the pricey side."
"B-but why..."
It didn't look any different from that longsword at all. Aside from the fancy decorations, there was nothing to set them apart.
"'Why,' he says? Don't tell me you got swindled."
"I paid five gold coins for one..."
The dwarf clutched his belly and rolled on the floor.
"Bwahahahaha! F-five gold coins? Five gold coins?! And to a greenhorn like you, no less!"
He pounded the floor, wiped a tear from his eye, then his face went suddenly serious as he dusted off his rear and stood up.
"What kind of bastard sells a sword like that. You still have the thing?"
I told him I'd lost that longsword in an incident, but that it hadn't been any different from the ones on display. He nodded like he'd already figured it out.
"Those bastards. They've been fleecing greenhorns something fierce, haven't they. Yeah... you're talking about the place near the plaza, right? Popular with noble brats. They slap the fanciest decorations you ever saw on those things. Completely useless, every last one of 'em."
After giving me a thorough warning, he waved us off. We split the bags between us and trudged out of the shop.
I walked into our room in a thoroughly deflated daze. That was when her voice finally reached me.
"Um... if it isn't too much to ask... would you tell me about what happened back then?"