Evren looked at the chest of the woman, then to her face then to Walter and said, "There's got to be a better way to tell women from men."
The other guard laughed and was promptly slapped by the embarrassed woman.
Walter was laughing too, "Evren women have higher pitched voices than men and more delicate features."
Evren frowned and shook his head, "I don't know what delicate features are. It's hard enough telling you humans apart as it is."
Walter replied, "You're a human too, Evren."
Evren held his hand up with two fingers up, "For two years… no not even two years yet. And I've only been with other humans for a few months. Why can't humans have better noses at least?"
Evren sighed, closed his eyes and tilted his head down. He tilted his head back up, looked at the woman in the eyes and said, "I'm sorry, Isobel. I won't forget now that I know."
She nodded and said, "It's, ok? I don't understand why you are saying you've only been a human for two years?"
As Evren began to explain, his eyes became unfocused, "I was a different species called a coaman, I was tortured and killed on my world which isn't this one, my soul was summoned here by some goddess and the summoning was tampered with so that I didn't arrive at Grandia, and instead in the middle of a forest, naked, alone and confused, then I spent the next year and a half working my way from the forest to here." Evren focused his eyes on her again and gave a forced smile.
Isobel looked at Evren, then to Walter and asked, "He's a puppet? Is that safe?"
Walter nodded and said, "He's not enslaved, doesn't even have a tattoo."
Evren lifted his shirt up showing his muscular upper body to the guards. Isobel blushed and looked away, Fletcher said, "Wow man! You're ripped!"
Evren looked down at himself and said, "Shit! Did I tear something?"
Walter shook his head and said, "No Evren, he's saying your muscles have good definition."
Evren looked down at his abs and flexed them and his pecs and said, "Yeah, I guess I do. Is that a good thing?"
"Well, it proves you're strong and some women seem to like that sort of thing." Walter replied.
Evren dropped his shirt back down and asked, "When you guys get ready to mate, do you take your clothes off and strut around or something?"
Walter was about to answer, then thought deeper about the question. He shrugged as if to say he wasn't wrong, but replied, "No, and we're not talking about that."
Evren shrugged indifferently. "Anyway, like I was saying, I think the dungeons have gotten too hard for me to solo. The last couple of levels nearly killed me. I'd like to get a… what did he call it? A party together and was wondering if any of you guys… I mean people, wanted to join me."
Fletcher spoke up and said, "Well Isobel is not so good at face-to-face confrontation and I'm better with a bow than a sword."
Evren shrugged and said, "Then Isobel can stab them in the back or use a longer weapon to stab from behind others, and you can shoot arrows. I'd even let you borrow my bow… Well, the mithril one, the other bow is a bit tough to draw."
Evren stared at Fletcher and said, "Now I wonder…" He went over to his backpack and pulled the unstrung bow out of it, along with the quiver with hunting arrows. He strung the bow and brought it back to the group, handing it to Fletcher. "Here, try firing this."
Fletcher took the bow and quiver from Evren, pulled an arrow out of the quiver and set the quiver on the ground. He nocked the arrow and raised the bow to draw the string and… couldn't pull the string back. He looked at Evren with an incredulous look and tried again, putting in more effort. The string moved a little bit but stayed taut.
He looked at Evren and said, "This is a joke, right? This is one of those fake bows that you can't bend."
Evren gave a half smile and took the bow back. He pulled the bow string back and fired an arrow at a tree nearby. The arrow struck the tree and embedded itself a quarter of the way in. Fletcher's face went slack from shock. He ran up to the tree and tried to pull the arrow out. Evren handed the bow to Walter and went to his backpack to get the mithril bow.
When Evren got back Walter was trying to draw the bow and could barely get it a quarter of the way back. Evren nodded looking impressed. He strung the mithril bow and waited for Fletcher to return.
When Fletcher returned, he said, "I couldn't get the arrow out."
Evren nodded and replied, "Yeah, that arrow's stuck there now." He handed Fletcher the mithril bow and said, "Try this one."
Fletcher grabbed another arrow and nocked it on the bow and drew the string back pointing at the same tree Evren had hit with the arrow. He let the arrow fly and it hit the tree below Evren's.
Evren said, "Now, draw the bow without an arrow and put magic into the bow."
Fletcher did as he was told and when a magical arrow appeared there, he let go of the string in surprise, the arrow flying wide of the tree and off into the distance. Evren said, "I hope that doesn't hit anyone."
Before Evren could do anything more, the stunned Fletcher drew the bowstring again, adding magic and launching the magical arrow at the tree. He did it several times and said, "This is amazing!"
Evren nodded and looking at Fletcher asked, "If you come with me, you can keep the bow."
"I'm in." was the immediate response.
Evren's eyes shifted to Isobel, and he asked, "Would you rather have a long weapon like a spear, or a short weapon like a dagger that's quick to get in and get out with? I can teach you knife fighting."
Her eyes shifted to the mithril bow and back to Evren, "Would I get a weapon too?"
Evren only smiled and nodded.
"Could I see both?" she asked.
Evren walked over to his backpack and picked it up. As he walked back, he was fishing around inside of the backpack and pulled out a mithril spear. He handed the spear to her and reached into the backpack again. He pulled out a sinister looking dagger in a sheath. The handle was simple and black, there was no guard and when the blade was drawn, it was black and coated with some substance. Isobel was about to touch the substance when she was warned not to, "That's poison." Evren said, "Touching it won't kill you, but you'll be sick for a while." She pulled her hand away, her eyes gleaming.
Evren reached forward and took the spear from her. At first, she resisted, then she realized she had already made her choice. Evren put the spear back into the backpack and set it on the ground. He took the bow back from Walter, unstrung it and put that in the backpack too.
"I want to go too!" A voice from behind them said.
Everyone turned to see Harley standing there. Other than Evren, nobody had noticed her arrival. Evren squinted at her and asked, "What do your parents think about that?"
Harley replied, "I'm 16, Mr. Evren. I'm old enough to make my own decisions!"
Evren turned to Walter as if to ask if that was true. Walter gave a slight nod, and Evren turned back to her.
"Do you know how to fight?" He asked.
"Nope!" She replied, "You're going to teach me magic, remember?"
Evren sighed, "I'm going to have to speak to your parents and Joseph about this."
"No need, they already know." She said with a grin.
Evren, still staring at her, said, "I'm going to teach you a spell. If you don't pass out when you cast it, I'm going to make you keep casting it until you get a headache. And after you have rested, you'll be doing it again. You're going to be casting that spell over and over again to increase your magic capabilities. Can you do that?"
With a big smile, Harley replied, "Yep!"
"I'm still talking to your parents about this." He said.
Evren explained the spell to her once and told her the magic word for it, then handed her the wand he had found in Plinth. He pointed to a spot off to the side and said, "Try it."
With a serious look on her face, Harley walked over to the side, facing the field, held the wand in front of her and put magic into it, then chanted, "Squall."
A large, continuous blast of air suddenly formed in front of Harley and whipped the field in front of her into a frenzy. She let the spell go for two seconds then stopped it and turned around with a smile. Before she could say anything, she staggered and dropped to one knee. "I did it Mr. Evren." She said and barely held onto her consciousness.
Evren looked at the other three in turn and said, "I'm impressed. I didn't think she'd learn the spell just from me describing it to her."
After a few minutes, Harley stood and approached the group. Color was returning to her face and her smile was a little strained, but she made it to them on her own.
Evren held out his hand and said, "Wand."
Harley looked down at the wand in her hand and said, "I don't get to keep it?" with a slight frown.
Evren took the wand and said, "Not this one."
As he was putting the wand back into the backpack, he pulled another out of the backpack that was black in color and had a spiraling twist to it. "This is the horn from the bicorn on the 50th floor. It is excellent in its capability to intensify spells."
He held it out to her, but before she could grab it, he pulled back and said, "After I speak with your parents."