Honored Guests part 2

"So where exactly are you taking us?" I asked the princess. We were walking through the treetops. The princess was with us and we were getting escorted by a small army of Heavily armed Kobolds. "We are currently heading to our city's main base of operations. There we can comfortably discuss what I need you to do." she explained. I tried walking a bit closer to her but was quickly warned by some of the soldier Kobolds. "So I'm guessing these guys are the real fighting force of this Kingdom/city?" I asked the Princess. "Correct, the hunters are better at… well hunting animals. The soldiers are more well equipped for defending the city." She explained

After walking higher and higher up the trees we made it to a building that was carved directly into the side of the largest tree in the city. The entrice was carved from the very bark of the tree and had way more guards than anywhere else in the city. "Nice house." I complemented. I looked over to Elie and she was staring in awe. "Heh, 'house'." Snickered the princess. Did she just laugh at my joke?

We made our way inside. The walls of the main rooms were covered in murals from what I could only assume was the history of this city. A fire, a swarm of bees, and a Kobold using magic to drive them off. Those were only some of the murals that filled the hall. Others were more cryptic or just downright bizarre but what was interesting was that they still had many blank spaces left to fill…

After opening more doors we made it to another wide open room. There was a giant round table at the center of the room with chairs all around. Two of the chairs were a different shape, one of them was large and looked like a throne for a king and the chair to it's right was smaller but still larger than the other chairs.

The princes sat down at the second largest chair. Two soldiers stayed by her side and the rest went to guard the entrance. "Please take a seat." She offered. I sat down at the seat across from her and Eile sat next to me. Ruffy popped out. He wanted to hear this conversation clearly. "So, shall we begin?" She asked. I nodded in agreement.

"Alright before we get into the real meat of the conversation I think introductions are in order to better know each other." She said, "I'll go first. I'm Princess Migni of the Kobold city In the Neverfree forest." She introduced herself. She waited for me to talk. "Hmm… I'm a Ratling Thief. Officially I ain't got a name but I go by the nickname 'Rat'." I said to her, (what are you doing!? That's supposed to be a secret!) Yelled Ruffy. "If I don't tell her the truth It might come to bite me in the ass later on. Better just spill the beans now and avoid any problems." I whispered to him. The princess looked curious.

"I'm sorry, a Ratling? I assumed you were a larger mouseling. What exactly Is a Ratling if I may ask?" He asked. "Well to put it simply I'm a Rat that was born smarter than most. I fought my way to this evolution stage. Actually the next thing I'm supposed to evolve into is a Ratkin. I don't suppose you've ever heard of them? The last time we were seen was on the demon side of the demon wars." I explained to her. She thought for a second. "Wait, we have a library with books and scrolls of many subjects, some as old as thousands of years. We might just have something that could help us understand you." She looked over to a soldier. "Please go to the Library and tell the loremaster to bring me anything relating to Ratlings or the Ratkin." The soldier saluted and left the room.

"In the meantime I think you should to introduce your little friend there." she said while pointing at Elie. Elie was about to speak for herself but I cut her off. "Her name is Elie and she's actually a windigo who I've made friends with." I introduced her. "Yes, I've heard all about her. She can shapeshift into a huge monster who's physical strength rivals that of Thunder bears!" She praised her. "Yep! I can also use mid-tier snow magic!" She said proudly. "But wendigos are native to colder climates. What are you doing here in the warmer areas of the continent?" The princess asked Elie. "Well… you can say I'm just sightseeing." She responded.

"Ah well let's not forget that you are a wendigo and your kind are known for feeding on human flesh. Could you please refrain from doing so while you're working with us please?" Requested the princess. Elie nodded in agreement.

"Ok, now that we got that out of the way, time for me to give you the details." she said. "My father, the king, is currently Very sick. The doctors believe he only has 2 weeks left to live." She told us. "Ok… and what do you want us to do about it?" I asked. "His Illness is curable through a special concoction of rare ingredients that can all be found in the forest. The claw of a thunder bear was one of them and we have the rest of the ingredients, all except for one." She explained. "And this last ingredient is…?" I asked.

"Vespian royal jelly." she told us.

"Oh god damn it! I knew I wouldn't see the last of those buggers!" I said in frustration. "I assume you've had a run in with them before?" She asked me. "You betcha! I still got the wound on my arm when one of them cut me!" I said as I showed her the cut I got. It was scabbed over but it wasn't deep.

"Well we tried sending some envoys to see if we could request some in exchange for a large amount of food but…" She looked troubled. "They never came back?" I finished. "Yes." she confirmed. (Vespian royal jelly is extremely rare! It's used to make new queens but if used in medicine it's said to increase its effects by up to 50 times!) Ruffy added.

"So now you want to take it by force but you can't do it alone so now you need us to break into this heavily guarded hive and steal one of their most valuable treasures?" I asked her. "Of Course we don't expect you to do it alone, we'll help you with anything you need and pay you very handsomely." She said. "Oh? And about this reward. Tell me more about it?" I asked with interest.

" For starters I'll award you with 500 thousand gold along with a tier 3 bag of holding which can hold 1 ton worth of items for your new found riches, You'll get access to any service we Kobolds could give but WITHIN REASON. We'll also give you a high quality house within the city that you can use however you want." She offered. "Hmm." I was thinking about it. "How about a little something to sweeten the deal." She said as she signaled at a soldier carrying a briefcase to come over. He placed the case on the table and opened it.

"How about a sign on bonus?" She said as she turned the case towards us. Inside there were three item's. Two curved daggers and a necklace with a shiny black jewel. "A set of daggers made from the claws of a thunder bear and a magic necklace made from the eye of the same bear!" She revealed. "And what exactly do they do?" I asked.

"The daggers have the ability to enhance any magic poured into them. This could be very useful for time's where you need to save magic but still want to be able to do heavy amounts of damage. As for the necklace it increases its wearer's magic capacity allowing them to store more mana than they originally could. Perfect for long battles!" she explained.

Hmm, very tempting.

Just then there was a knock at the door. "Come in!" Yelled the princess.The door opened and an old looking Kobold came walking in. In his hands he had a thick large book and an ancient looking scroll. "Good evening princess. I have brought the items that you have requested." He set the book down and opened it. "This book contains a list of all Beast-Kin races. Altho the book is quite old it is the only one with pages on the Rat-kin! The newer ones have no mention of them. Hmm, let's see here…" He mumbled while flipping through the pages. "Ah ha! Here it is 'Kat-rin'!" He said. "Rat-kin…" I corrected him. "Bah! What do you know!" he yelled angrily.

Watch it gramps!

He started reading the section out loud. "Rat-kin: Not unlike their close cousins the Mouse-kin, these rodent Beast-kin like to make their homes in climates that are on the colder side even though they do well in just about any type of biome. They value creativity and ingenuity above all else with their multitude of unique and often dangerous inventions. With one famous instance in which a young Rat-kin invented a Bomb powerful enough to level a kingdom Because someone, and I quote… "Dared him." The situation was later resolved after he was forced to diffuse it after he accidentally set off the countdown timer…

Rat-kin are by nature crafty and resilient. Most choose to be Gadgeteers and inventors But only the most creative, intelligent, or just plain crazy Rat-kins find success in the field. They aren't necessarily evil but they do seem to put themselves first over other races which often leads to moments where they are shunned by other races when they refuse to help in a situation in which they could get harmed, like a war they didn't start…

Among all types of Rat-kin the Black rat variety who can be identified by their black hair and red eyes are always discriminated against as they possess a unique skill or as some would call it, a 'curse' that is extremely unpredictable or dangerous. This skill is called (Foul mouth). Through their saliva or bites they can infect the victim with an infinite amount of different ailments. Not just diseases but mental conditions as well like drowsiness or even insanity!" The old Kobold stopped reading and everyone in the room stared at me.

"What!? I don't bite I swear!" I said nervously.

-As such Black rats are isolated from other types of rat-kin but still possess the same passion and drive as all the others." The old kobold stopped reading. "That concludes the section," he pointed out. The princess yawned and gave a stretch. "Well… talk about a bedtime story! Oh and the scroll?" she asked.

"Ah yes." remembered the old kobold as he handed the scroll to the princess. "I haven't the slightest idea of how we ever acquired it but it's been in our possession for a long time. The symbol on the paper is that of the old Rat-kin! I have no knowledge about the symbol on the wax seal though." Said the old kobold. I looked at the Rat-kin symbol. It was a black circle with a drawing of three curved sticks overlapping each other in the form of an upside down triangle.

The wax seal keeping the scroll shut had the face of a penguin on it. (Wait Rat! I know who that seal belonged to! A Famous Rat-kin Artist named Cromsler! Not only was he a skilled artist but a talented Inventor who had just as much passion for creating new Inventions as he had for Drawing! He was also known for hiding his most dangerous or useful inventions with only a map to find them! That scroll might just be a map to finding one of his inventions!) explained Ruffy.

After hearing this I couldn't help but stare at the scroll. "Oh? It seems you know what this is!" Said the princess. Oh shoot! I shouldn't have done that! "Don't worry, I'll give it to you after you Bring us the royal jelly." Said the princess. (Rat, you've got to take this job now! You have no choice.) Said Ruffy. I sighed.

"Fine then… it's a deal." I told her.

"Excellent!" she cheered. "But I have one more request." I told her. "And what is that?" She questioned. "Is there a place we could sleep? Somewhere like an inn? You see our shelter is pretty far away and I don't want to risk getting caught up in something in the middle of the night." I said. "Hmm, unfortunately we don't. And the house we promised won't be done getting set up until tomorrow… Well there's one spare room in the soldier barracks if you're ok with that." she said.

"We'll take it!" I said. Sure beats sleeping in a cave… Still though, this will technically be my first official heist since I've died. And I definitely wanna make a strong comeback so I can't say I'm not excited! It's time I make my mark on this world!

I won't let it end like last time. That's a promise!