9

"Wait, so just who are you?" Melanie asked as she wiped down the bar. She was doing it purely out of habit since the Tavern hadn't been open in days.

"We represent the new owners of this establishment, our names are not important," Bella said.

We had decided that Melanie was the best person to take the lead in this scene we had created.

"Okay, so you nameless folks want me to run the tavern from now on? What about Simeon, he's been here longer than anyone. You know him, don't you Teresa?" Melanie said.

"Of course, I know my future husband, but this is about business, and Simeon is not a part of the owner's vision for this place moving forward," Teresa responded.

We knew she would get questioned since she was a recognizable face. I was glad that she remembered her answer so well.

"So, what makes me more qualified than him?" Melanie asked.

"Customers just seem to feel more comfortable around you," Bella said. Her eyes subtly wandered to the insane amount of cleavage that Melanie always displayed.

Melanie obviously noticed because she placed a hand over her chest. Her skin began turning red.

"I can't help looking this way," she said defensively.

"No one here is criticizing you in any way, in fact we appreciate whatever you and your helpers for the business you create," Bella said.

"Okay so what else do I need to know?" Melanie said and started wiping out a glass.

"For starters, your pickups and deliveries are handled on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. We understand that Simeon handled that before, so that now falls on you. Feel free to hire some additional help." Bella said.

"Wait, I can hire folks. Can I fire them?" Melanie asked.

"Yes, you have the autonomy to bring in your own staff. Speaking of bringing in people, the new owner would like you to offer live entertainment several nights a week. Will that be a problem?" Bella asked.

"Shouldn't be, with all the bards hanging around," Melanie said and shrugged.

"The last thing is that there will now be quests posted from the adventurer's guild here. You don't have to worry about that. Their people will take care of it entirely. They simply pay us for the space they take up on our wall," Bella said.

We finished going over the details with Melanie and left the tavern a few minutes later.

"Okay, so now that we took care of the finances, what should we do now?

"Now we gotta train you," Teresa said as we headed away from the tavern.

"While you two do that I will head back to your place and do some research," Bella said.

We split up and headed in two different directions. As I watched Bella walk away from us, I began to wonder how long she would remain in my life.

"Now that you have the body of a warrior, you need to be able to fight like one," Teresa said as she tossed me a stick.

We were standing in a clearing in the Forest of Silver. I had missed most of the trip thinking about my living arrangement.

"Why are we using sticks? I wanna wield a massive two-handed sword," I said.

"Why does it have to be massive, are you compensating for something?" Teresa asked and raised an eyebrow at me.

"What does that have to do with anything? I just like the way huge swords look," I yelled and instinctively crossed my legs.

"Well in my world the rule is, the bigger the sword, the smaller the staff," She said and chuckled.

"Okay fine, just give me a normal sized sword then," I said feeling slightly disappointed.

"I can't give you a sword now, because I can't hold back while training you. If I use a stick, I can beat you as badly as I need to and not accidentally murder you love," she said.

She made a lot of sense to me. I had never so much as held a sword before. If I was going to get good at fighting, I was going to need all the help she could give me.

"Okay so if you're ready get into a fighting stance like me," she said and got into a fighting stance.

I did my best to copy her. I bent my left leg and extended my right. I held the stick up in front of myself with both of my hands near the bottom.

"I think I got it," I said Before Teresa vanished.

She reappeared in front of me suddenly and kicked me in the chest. The impact of the kick sent me helplessly sailing backwards. I landed on my back and rolled over before I completely stopped moving.

"I'm not stopping, you better defend yourself!" Teresa said as she ran at me with her stick raised above her head.

"Oh crap, she's gonna cut me in half," I thought as I struggled back to my feet.

I raised my stick just in time to hear the loud clack when hers made contact with it. I looked up and saw that I had blocked the attack.

"Hey, I blo....," I started to say before another kick leveled me.

This time I landed flat on my back staring up at Teresa. Without any hesitation she began swinging down at me. I somehow managed to block her incoming strikes while getting off my back and on my feet. When I stood up straight, she resumed her fighting stance.

"It seems like you've gotten the hang of basic blocking, now let's see if you can attack," she said with a wide grin.

I was in horrible pain and breathing heavily but I wanted to surprise her the way she had surprised me. I knew she expected me to go back into a fighting stance like she had, so instead I rushed her. I ran as fast as I could at her with my sword raised. She panicked and started backing away from me.

Yes, this is working, she is completely flustered. I thought to myself as I chased her.

When her back hit a tree trunk I knew it was time to attack. I swung downward as hard as I could. She didn't raise her sword to block. Instead, she jumped and kicked her feet off the tree. That allowed her to catapult herself over my head and land behind me. Before I could turn around, she smashed her stick into my unguarded back. I dropped to my knees and clawed at my back as pain overtook me.

"I just killed you, love. You gotta remember to never underestimate the capabilities of your opponent. You know me well enough to know that I would never run from you. That means that I was trying to bait you into something. That is how a warrior thinks," she said and pulled me back to my feet.

That was how our training sessions went. Teresa would take me out to the forest and knock me around while imparting words of wisdom onto me. Then we would go back home, and Bella would heal me. Each day I tried to incorporate the things I learned the previous day into my arsenal. I got good at it.

"You fell for that move yesterday," Teresa said after I recognized an attack and blocked it.

"Well, I'm smarter today," I said and prepared to counter.

"Wait let's call it for today, we need to go somewhere," Teresa said and lowered her stick.

"Where," I said and followed her lead.

"We gotta go buy you a sword and some armor," she said.