Paperwork

The leader of the former gang of bandits walked silently, holding his broken arm. I lumbered along behind him, having to rip down any tree branches low enough to hit me. This was a lot of them unfortunately. I towered over Trent the self-proclaimed bandit king. He wasn’t a small man, he just wasn’t a half giant.

I was maybe eight and a half feet tall, with thick heavy set muscle. I wore a chest plate nearly double width across over a leather jerkin. Steel bracers covered my forearms. Steel bands with spiky protrusions were wrapped around my knuckles. Wool pants covered in leather padding were tucked into Giant Sized brown leather boots, custom ordered for obvious reasons.

I had sandy blond hair and a short trimmed beard, the other thing I had inherited from my father, a giant of the frozen north.

I held the lock box under one arm, as we made our way back into the little mining village that occupied the valley near the river’s mouth. It hadn’t been buried very deep, just under a loose collection of rocks to mark its location.

The first markings of civilization began to come into view as we found the road. Coalwrought was an impressive sized city. Made rich from the trade on the wide river that nestled the town between the mountains, and more importantly from the high quality iron ore pulled from the mines and refined into heavy steel bars. Smoke rose over the workshops where the smelters could be found. Grey stone walls were spotted with guards.

The sound of hammers rang in the air as craftsmen made weapons of war and tools of prosperity. Large stone buildings with real glass in the windows and steel tubed chimneys were hallmarks of the small cities’ wealth. I walked past the colossal stone gates toward one of the largest stone buildings in the center of town. Three stories tall with golden waving banners marked it as the holdings of Baron Thaig Steelbound of the dwarves.

I pushed Trent in front me through the massive wooden doors into the great hall. I wondered why the construction was so huge, especially for dwarves. They must be compensating for something, not that I’m complaining, I wouldn’t have fit inside otherwise. This building served as the courthouse, guardhouse, jail, treasury and city hall. I prodded Trent toward one of the clerk windows.

“Aldrich Ironsundr here to collect the bounty on Trent the bandit leader.”

The dwarf behind the counter had a short well-trimmed beard almost unheard of amongst dwarves. Spectacles were pushed high up his nose. He looked up at me, and called one of the guards over.

“Take the prisoner.”

He said without breaking eye contact. Half giants were a bit of an oddity. That was being generous, half anything was a bit of an oddity but some were produced with more regularity than others. In some places you couldn’t swing an elf without hitting a half elf. Places like that though tended to be the lowest rungs of society. Giants were normally killed on site. No, there weren’t too many half giants around.

“There will be some paperwork for you to fill out.”

I sighed of course there was, that’s why I made Dix do it. She was… better equipped for this sort of thing. I ended up breaking four of his iron tipped pens before the scowling clerk took the papers back and let me dictate the necessary information back to him. He finished with an exasperated sigh and passed back the papers for me to sign. I did it without breaking his pen.

The teller returned with a large sack of gold pieces and passed them to me, thanking me for my service to the king. I opened the purse outside the building and let out a low whistle. Trent the asshole was worth quite the pretty penny.

I added the contents to one of the pouches on my belt and began moving toward the Inn that held the rest of my compatriots. Other dwarves moved out of my way as I marched down the cobblestone streets and store lined walkways.

The inn was one of the only buildings in town that wasn’t made of stone. A wide two storied building that marked the edge of town. I wasn’t allowed inside. I took it in stride. Causing trouble would have soured our relationship with the locals. I bent over low to stick my head through the door.

“Dix! I’m back!”

A high-pitched voice screamed back “Keep it in your pants I’m coming!”

I stepped back from the door as a bright light the size of an apple flew from the bar, veering straight into my chest and bouncing to the ground. I grabbed my chest staggering backwards.

“Oh, the pain! My gods! For surely thine blow has struck my heart. Forsooth the light fades from this world!” I placed the back of my hand to my brow.

“Don’t be an ass Sundr.”

The diminutive pixie picked herself off and dusted herself off. She could have easily fit inside my pocket I know because after one particular evening she actually climbed into my pocket and started shouting “I’m really happy to see you!” in the deepest voice she could manage at anyone who happened to be close by.

“You manage to get the box?”

“Of course, where did you want it?” I held the safe at arm’s length over her head.

“That’s really not funny, what if you dropped it? You would feel terrible if you smushed me, who else would do your paperwork?”

“About that, I turned in the bandit leader at the courthouse, so I had to do my own paperwork.” I shook the box a bit.

“Be careful with that, who knows what’s inside it.” She chuckled.

I grinned and put the lock box back under my arm. “I do all the killin’, I do all the paperwork and you started celebrating without me.” She wobbled on her feet.

“It’s a good day for us. We were able to collect on all of the bandits, not just the ones you left breathing. And their gear will hawk for a great price. On top of the payment from our friends in high places, the Giant’s Hammer will be set for a long time.”

The Giant’s Hammer is one of the best mercenary groups around, if a bit small. A real band of misfits one and all. Most of our fellows were of… ahem, mixed heritage. I was really the only real fighter we had so far, but we made up for it with the versatility of our members we had. We’ve only been operating for about a month but we had an enchanter, a scout, a pair of healers and one delightfully drunken pixie who handled all of my paperwork.

Dix was the only member of our little gang who was full-blooded. She stood an absolutely adorable six inches tall, with strawberry blonde hair cut in, what else, a pixie cut. Her rosy cheeks made even more so by the continuing celebrations. She jumped up to my shoulder.

“Wilds, are you getting taller?”

“Probably, giants don’t ever actually stop growing. Unlike some.” I quipped back.

“Shove it, Sundr. So what’s our next move?”

“Gotta drop the box off to the Gold Rock guys. That will finish up all of our business in this area. I think we should move on after that. I had a lead for a job in Prescote.”

She wrinkled her nose at that. “The Human city boss, really?”

“I know, nobody’s favorite but we should keep up the momentum. We’re building a good name for ourselves as competent professionals.”

I could understand her anxiousness though. Prescote was dominated by humans, and whereas the dwarves were coolly polite and only slightly wary, humans could be viscous.

“We can talk it over with the group tomorrow after we turn in the Gold Rock job.”

She nodded. “We have the funds now, so there are a lot of options open to us. There’s no rush really.”

“Who did we leave at the camp?” I was getting tired. I needed a nap.

“Thain.” The enchanter.

“Alright I’m heading back. We’ll break camp tomorrow after we bring the box back in.” She hopped down off my shoulder to hover at about my height.

“Don’t worry about us boss, I’ll keep them in line.”

“It’s not them I’m worried about.” I called back over my shoulder as I made my way out of town and back to camp.