In the morning, Hilda found herself well rested and in good spirits.

  Dalia seemed to be in better spirits as well, having slept in retive safety for the first time in weeks. Sheryl was quiet, though, and a bit nervous. When Hilda asked the felind what was perturbing her, she said she was “very confused” and “just needed space to think”. Hilda tried to give her the space but they did have a job to do.

  They tore down their camp and packed up for the remaining day and a half trip to Thraes Hold. The road was worn and well traveled but not free of dangers. Mercenary guilds on the frontier occasionally marked out hazardous areas that were to be avoided if possible. They passed by two danger zones, with wooden stakes and red fgs marking perimeters within view of their path.In the near future they might be entering those zones to clear out any monsters. It was one of a few common mercenary jobs that could be found in the frontier. Clearing out a known danger, investigating unknown dangers, scouting and surveying. All things Hilda expected their little group might do. There was also the odd escort job one might find, but many merchants had go-to groups they'd hire.

  Eventually they encountered the inevitable, though.

  Stray monsters.

  Thankfully, a trio of Lindel hounds was hardly any risk to just Hilda let alone their whole party. They were awful things, with one too many joints on each limb ending in bicwed stubby paws. Their bodies were close to that of a mid-sized dog, but their bck fur was uneven and patchy over gray skin. The face was also like a dog's, but the eyes were sunken in beyond sense, the lips were permanently shrunk back past the gums, and the teeth were elongated and bck. A spawn of the beast in the old capital. Nobody actually seemed to know what was there, but it emanated distinctive monstrosities that were rgely attributed to the sick glow from the heart of the former Balreli republic.

  The hounds weren't very smart. Sheryl and Dalia heard them coming hundreds of meters out. They agreed Dalia should stay back, as her dagger wasn't really appropriate to fight with. When they charged, Hilda intercepted two, intending to evaluate Sheryl with the third. A swift, twinned thrust with swords of both steel and magic ice handled them promptly. Just in time for Hilda to see Sheryl stomp the third hound’s neck. The catgirl had already toppled the monster with her shield and disabled it with a ssh. Hilda was impressed.It was honestly the most exciting thing to happen all day. They talked and got to know each other for the rest of the afternoon.

  Dalia was from near the shores of Lake Ruhon. She was actually old enough, at forty eight, to have seen the abyss strider emerge, during her childhood. She didn't see the now-duchess DuSonde fight it, of course, but Dalia was aware of the various deeds and oddities of Hilda's mother.

  Hilda spoke of Sondegürd, the seat of her family's duchy. She had grown up (for the second time) there, and she recalled her childhood wonder at the orchards and rolling hills of the Sondervand. On principle, she avoided specifically gzing her family's estate, though. It just felt tacky to brag about being rich.

  The two of them occasionally had to console Sheryl for having little to speak of her own life. The felind had been a child on a pntation, then a worker in the O? shipyard, and that was it for her life. She was a decent carpenter as a result, but hadn't had many interesting experiences of her own.

  That night they set up camp and continued some light chatting about strategy over dinner. Hilda tried to head off the conversation from the night before by offering to share a tent with Dalia this time. Sheryl had seemed kind of out of it all day, and Hilda worried that the felind had trouble sleeping next to someone unfamiliar.

  Sheryl agreed, devoid of intensive thought on the matter. She'd have time to think about whatever the st night meant on her own, so she let it go. Dalia smiled warmly and affirmed the idea. The elf wasn't sure what she'd get up to with Hilda but she was looking forward to it.

  When Dalia asked Hilda if they could cuddle that night, it certainly surprised the noble transmigrator, but she supposed the girl felt vulnerable. She didn't think it through past acknowledging, internally, that she wanted to that very much. She said, “If that's what you want.” The elf beamed at her and Hilda felt thankful that Dalia couldn't hear her heart pounding.

  She was wrong, though. Dalia loved to hear the change in tempo as she got close to someone. Fae traditions built many rules into the societies of the Vexwood, but out here she could indulge in teasing until her heartwood sang. As a bonus, she might get to honestly brag about bedding a daughter of Verea DuSonde, even if it took her decades to get back and rejoin the rangers. It felt nice when Hilda embraced her, too.

  Nothing much happened other than a peaceful night's rest in each other's arms, though. Dalia believed she had miscalcuted how mollifying Hilda's embrace would be, and Hilda simply decided to let Dalia take the lead on anything further. At least while they went through the bustle of their travel and arrival in Thraes Hold.

  The frontier outpost was a walled-in vilge with a small wooden palisade. Hardly the most secure pce in the world. Much like the rest of the hold, though, the wall got the job done and that was enough. Thraes Hold was built around an old recimed Balreli fort built into the north facing ridge. It was hardly designed to protect against the real threat - monsters from the south - but it didn't need to be much more than a pce for local noncombatants to run to. The lord's manor was built into the ridge as well, directly connected to the fortifications.

  Easy as it'd be, Hilda wanted to dey her inevitable meeting with Count Vasi to the st of her necessary tasks. Members and successors of the imperial peerage were expected to announce their presences to local leadership, allegedly so no one with an important title could turn up missing. Hilda figured they could do all of their other errands and maybe clear out a red zone before she met with the Count. She didn't love trying to adhere to noble conversational etiquette, so that could come st.

  They went to the mercenary guild first. It was simple to find, as it was one of the rger buildings in town. The Hawk Company, personally owned by Count Vasi and the rgest group in town, was run out of the building as well. However, it didn't actually overshadow the guild administration, which handled various publicly avaible jobs for mercenaries.

  Just outside the building was a strangely exciting thing for Hilda. A sizable cart filled with a half dozen nd drakes - wild monsters built like a cross between a panther and a monitor lizard - was one thing, but the people dawdling next to it were hobgoblins. They didn't look like the more monstrous depictions of goblins Hilda remembered from earth, but they instead looked like green people. They had rge, pointed and mobile ears, slightly bigger mouths than humans, and simirly bigger eyes that cked sclera and had catlike slits.

  The two men had simir tones of green skin and were wearing basic tanned leather reinforced with drakebone. One had yellow eyes and the others were orange. Yellow was the tallest and juggling a hacky sack with his feet, of all things, occasionally passing to the woman, who'd bounce it right back. Her skin was a cool viridian with red-orange eyes, she was wearing a bck hooded tunic over bck pants, and she was shorter than Dalia.

  Dalia and Sheryl were weirded out but otherwise calm. The goblins were just on the other side of the entrance, and they slowed their game as Hilda's party approached. Any building tension was broken, though, when a man in a vested uniform came out and started speaking to the goblins.

  “Isra, Sachi, Dolph,” he said, “nice to see you all healthy. The work looks good, as always. No more visits from the queen?”

  Hilda blinked. What queen?

  The hobgoblin woman spoke, “No, she's busy pnning her big expedition south. I also think she gave up searching for eggs in Thraes Hold.”

  The man blinked now, “Eggs?” He asked, confused, “The merchants have chickens.”

  “It's not worth expining, Otto,” said the orange eyed hob. “We might send you a job for the expedition, too. Just a heads up.”

  Otto nodded, “Of course. You can drop that off in the back.”

  The goblins started moving and bid him good day before he spun on his heel to see Hilda and co, still awkwardly standing near the door he was in front of. “Now, who might you three be? New mercs in town?”

  “Yes, I'm Hilda,” she said, “and they-” Turning to see whether Dalia or Sheryl would introduce themselves, Hilda saw the slight fsh of fear in Dalia's eyes.“Dalia,” said the elf.Turning back, Hilda saw Otto's eyes follow to Sheryl, who introduced herself too. Then, his gaze lingered back on Dalia for just a moment before focusing on Hilda again, who said “We're looking to work as a small team. Two swords and a bow.”Otto smiled, “come right in, then! You'll have to mind some rules about the Ademhill cn, who you just saw, though.”

  Eyebrows all raised, the three followed him in, where there was somehow the cssic adventuring guild combination of a tavern and job posting office. Internally, Hilda sighed, must everything be so cliché? She did notice many of the people eating were in Hawk Company garb, though, so maybe it doubled as a company dining hall.

  They registered for their mercenary identifications while Otto expined that Ademhill cnsfolk were to be left alone by local mercenaries due to deals made by Count Vasi and the guild. The cn trades with merchants at the outpost and takes jobs for Thraes Hold, there would be no guarantee of rewards for attacking any of them, and there might even be punishments. Sheryl and Dalia were at least receptive to the concept. Don't attack the goblins and they won't attack you? Easy rule to follow.

  After their registration, they checked the posting board, which had nothing surprising on it, and went to rent a room at a nearby inn. They got a room with double bunk beds and had a warm dinner before retiring for the night. Nothing else happened that night.In the morning, they stopped at the local smithy, bowyer, and fletcher to reequip Dalia properly. She even got a backup string this time, at Hilda's expense. The bowyer seemed to recognize the elf as well, but said nothing about it. Hilda was unworried, though, as she had a few more cards to py in that matter.

  With further regards to Dalia, she sent letters via bird to her mother and her sister, updating them on her status and mentioning two things. For one, she had encountered a colred Vexwood ranger near Thraes Hold, thus someone seemed to be snatching elves from the border. For two, she could confirm that Thraes Hold was dealing with the Ademhill goblin cn. Ana and the Duchess would both take action from the former news and the tter came with the promise of a search for more information.

  By that afternoon, they'd grabbed a job to clear a nearby red zone of a few nd drakes. The overgrown lizards were more dangerous than Lindel hounds, but more lucrative as their parts were fairly useful in a number of ways. Their bones and scales were durable, could be processed back into valuable metals, and the meat was nutritious and edible.

  The problem with durable bones and scales, though, was how tough it made them.

  For all her strength, Sheryl couldn't easily break their skin with her sword, and only Hilda's sharper thrusts could draw blood from the beasts. Dalia was as good of a shot as Hilda expected, but her expectations for elven bow proficiency were tempered by cinematics from her past life. The Vexwood ranger hit two of the three drakes they hunted in the eyes and embedded arrows in the soft tissue of all three. Sheryl did okay, if a bit bloodied, but Hilda figured she'd have to start training the felind to have her keep up. Of course, bummed by her performance, the catgirl still pulled her weight, literally, by dragging two of the mule sized beasts back to Thraes Hold herself, while Hilda and Dalia struggled with the third. Hilda figured the goblins had the right idea with a cart. Another thing she'd have to buy.

  She had half a mind to just purchase a small house in town, but she didn't want to funt too hard. After getting their reward, and another quiet night at the inn, Hilda knew she had deyed too long.

  On their second morning in Thraes Hold, she expined to Sheryl and Dalia that she had to announce herself to Count Vasi. She initially told them they could take the day off to rex, but both insisted they should come. Hilda was unwilling to tell them no, though she knew the Count would take the presence of two freed sves, if not two free minorities, as a political maneuver that wasn't necessarily her intention.

  Hilda hated political maneuvering.