Dimi and Ivan were in the basement that had become the room where they trained for a couple of months now. That’s where Ivan had dumped all of his old training equipment and anything that had a connection to his past. Why he hadn’t just thrown it all out was a mystery to the minotaur, but it was fortunate for the princess.

The eleven-year-old princess Dimi dried her forehead with her right arm. Then she went back to hitting the punching-bag.

She tightened her fists and raised them to eye height, just like she was supposed to do. She made a straight line when she threw a punch at the bag. She made sure that it was her knuckles that connected with the bag. She didn’t stand still so her legs were active as well.

“Ivan…“ Dimi jabbed the bag, then she stepped backward. “When do I get to punch a… you know… creature?“

“When I say so.“ Ivan grabbed the bag and pushed it in order to make it move around. Dimi held her parades up as she moved around the bag in motion and stepped backward to evade being hit by it. “Humans rely on magic first, then their physical strength. If there has ever been such a thing as a human boxer, then I don’t know of them. You are most likely going to become the first one. So when you get in the ring for the first time, it won’t be against a human. It will be a creature like a satyr, a minotaur or something like that. Someone who was born with a perk a human doesn’t have. I want to be absolutely sure you got the techniques right since you will have a disadvantage.“

“I’m not scared of perks.“ Dimi worked her way toward the bag and then made a power-shot.

“Then you might not be that smart.“ Ivan grabbed the bag once again. “Alright, water break. Then it’s time for work.“

Ivan watched Dimi dry the sweat away with a towel and get something to drink. He was not comfortable about training the princess at all. But it meant the world to her, made her feel like she had some sort of control over her life. And she had been much more cooperative than he had expected. She did as she was told without complaining, both when it came to practice, exercising and work.

As he looked at his goddaughter and felt conflicted, he noticed something that filled him with horror.

“AAAAAAAAAH!!“ Ivan grabbed one of the sandbags used for weight-lifting and threw it toward Dimi. The girl got startled and jumped to the left to evade the bag and noticed something small running away and up the stairs.

“Ivan, what the heck?!“ Dimi looked at her surrogate parent with a mix of confusion and annoyance. “You could have hit me!“

“A mouse! I saw a mouse!“ The minotaur looked more like he had seen a ghost. “I hate those filthy little things!“

Dimi looked at the giant bull-man, surprised how startled he seemed. Then, she snickered. “Ivan… are you scared of mice?”

“No, I’m not scared of mice.“ Ivan crossed his arms and grunted. “They just make me… uncomfortable. They are filthy little animals with diseases and they eat you out of the house.“

Dimi breathed through her nose as she made a bad attempt at keeping a straight face and not giggling.

“Alright, break is over.“ Ivan pointed toward the stairs to the ground floor of his home. “The wheelbarrow has been packed and there is a list on it with addresses as usual. And while you are going to town…“ Ivan cracked his knuckles as he marched toward the fireplace to fetch his sledgehammer. “… I have a mouse to catch.“

***

Dimi huffed and puffed as she pushed the wheelbarrow. Ivan’s home was at the edge of Jadedale. It was convenient for him since it meant that if travelers had to rest or pass through Jadedale on their journey, there was a chance they would come to his house first. But it was unfortunate for Dimi since most of Ivan’s customers either lived in the center or at the other end of Jadedale. And Ivan’s nearest neighbor Sunmut lived at least sixty feet away at the other side of the river. Dimi had once asked Ivan if it was normal that blacksmiths had a delivery service. Ivan had smiled and answered that it was a service he had just thought of, conveniently after having Dimi around to do it for him.

Jadedale was, for a lack of a better description, a circle of houses. Dimi had looked at a map that showed how the homes in the little town were built to circle around a green stone in the middle of the town. And around this stone was the town square where creatures set up their stands to sell their wares. And around the biggest circle of houses was a lake that surrounded the town. and there were only two bridges, meaning you had to pass town square to get past the town. Unfortunate for travelers, good for the town economy. 

As Dimi took a short break to stretch her arms as she reached the bridge that would let her cross the river. She also greeted a friend.

“Hey Nora!“

“Hey yourself, fellow human.“

As Dimi grabbed the handles once again to carry on with the deliveries, Nora thought about two things that greatly annoyed the elf about her current situation.

First of all, that she had been right about it being easy for her to pretend to be a human. Aall she had to do was wear a dumb hat to hide her pointy ears and no one would for a second consider the possibility that she was related to the seven feet tall supermodel-looking creatures.

The second thing that annoyed her… was her new profession.

She was a scholar. A former nurse. A highly educated woman. The former king’s bookkeeper and personal secretary. A woman of many talents.

And she had been reduced to a simple fisher-woman while she was hiding from the orcs.

Then again, simple might not be the right word since she was an outstanding fisher. Her stand at the public square in Jadedale was usually surrounded by the many people who had heard about the new fish-seller and her unorthodox methods to catch fish.

Nora however thought it was downright bizarre that not-elves DIDN’T use bow and arrow to catch fish.

“There you are, you bastard…” Nora released the arrow from her bow-string and the arrow penetrated a salmon. She reeled in the fish thanks to the string attached to the arrow. She placed the salmon in her basket with the others and went back to scouting for shadows in the water.

***

Ivan had searched the whole house from bottom to top. But he had yet to find the mouse.

After an hour of searching while being armed with his giant hammer, the bull-man decided that enough was enough since he had work to do.

As he worked in the forge, Ivan couldn’t not help but be bothered by the fact that he had no idea how the mouse had gotten into the basement. He had checked for holes of some sort, but there were none to find.

And then he realized something:

The door to the basement had been open when they went upstairs. And Ivan was so sure he had closed it. So maybe the mouse had somehow… opened the door? Or maybe… maybe someone had opened the door for the mouse?

Ivan paused as he considered this. Then he decided that it was a crazy idea, that he must simply have forgotten to shut the door. So he went back to work.

***

After getting around town with the wheelbarrow, Dimi was a bit tired in her arms.

The 4'8 feet tall woman with the fluffy beard and burned clothes that lived in the house that was her last stop knew that and invited her inside for a quick cup of tea before Dimi went home.

“That’s very nice of you, ma’am.“ Dimi entered the dwarf’s house.

“Nonsense.“ Agate the Dwarf gently pulled Dimi’s arm as she led her to her dinner table. “It’s to my advantage that you like me. Being nice to people you do business with is an investment in the future.“

Agate poured her a hot cup of tea from the kettle that had been kept warm by a heat crystal. Agate’s daughter Amethyst joined them. She was glad whenever Dimi came since she did not know many girls around her own age.

“You are gonna LOVE mom’s latest invention.” Amethyst smirked as Agate triumphantly held a metal box in her hands. There was a rectangle-shaped hole on top of it.

“Dear ladies!” Agate smiled triumphant. “Do you like warm bread?”

“YEAH!” Dimi and Amethyst giggled.

“Well then, feast your eyes on the invention of the century… THE TOASTER! This fella warms your bread thanks to heat crystals as well as, thanks to a mechanism I have worked on for weeks, shoots it out by itself before it gets burned! And it will do so in three… two… one…”

Nothing.

Agate looked at her toaster with defeat written all over her face. Then she sniffed. “It’s stuck and now it gets burned. DANGIT!” The dwarf woman marched toward the kitchen, embarrassed.

“Dimi, you won’t guess who comes to town to perform this Friday!“ The dwarf girl who had finally begun to grow her own beard was gleeful beyond belief. “Turell and his traveling theater! It’s gonna be so great!”

“Turell is coming to Jadedale? He wrote my favorite play; Remain Standing.”

“It’s so cool that you know theater.“

Agate returned to the table and was pleased to see her daughter being friendly with the human girl. There weren’t many kids in Jadedale, and the children in Amethyst’s school in Onyxville did not interact with Amethyst due to her recent hirsutism. But Ivan’s goddaughter that had moved to town about a year ago did not seem bothered at all. “You know, my husband is still traveling, so maybe you would like to join us?” Agate said.

“I would love to!“ Dimi smiled like a watermelon, she hadn’t seen theater since she had left the castle. But she made a meek sigh. “But I can’t. I have to work.“

“But you work all the time.“ Amethyst looked disappointed. “Can’t Ivan give you a day off?“

Dimi knew that her working schedule was part of her training, so she shook her head. Then she made a forced smile. “Ivan says that some people don’t have jobs at all, so I don’t complain.”

***

Ivan had been irritable while he and Dimi worked in the forge that day. He had not found the mouse yet and it annoyed him beyond belief. But they went on with their day and did not talk about it.

Later, Ivan and Dimi went outside the house after dinner to practice footwork as usual.

Dimi dodged left and right while Ivan kept throwing pebbles after her while holding her arms up to guard her face. He had managed to land some hits, but she protected her face every time.

“You always had amazing footwork.“ Ivan laughed as he had thrown his last little rock.

Dimi smiled as she dodged the stone. “I started to go to fencing before the castle got attacked. My fencing teacher used to hit me with a stick all the time.”

Ivan looked concerned as he picked up the pebbles. “She didn’t… hurt you, did she?”

“Hurt? Nah. It was just kinda annoying. And embarrassing. Kinda like this.“ Dimi dodged as Ivan began to throw tiny rocks after her once more.

But then he stopped. Ivan lost his balance and fell as someone pushed him from behind.

Dimi looked quite surprised, and so did Ivan once he saw what had shoved him from behind.

It was a deer.

Poor Ivan did not like those either.