Page 3 of The Glass Unicorn, Part 1 (Quest Wars #1)

We encountered the smell of the village of Dusmaria before we reached the village.

The odor of sewage was overwhelming and I grimaced as we came to the outskirts.

From here, we could see that the village was laid out in a grid fashion, with wide streets and narrow alleys.

I suddenly realized my eyesight was far better than what it had been back in the regular world, because I squinted and could see someone standing on a balcony over an alley, pouring something from a slop bucket into the back streets.

I had a feeling that I knew what it was, but I really didn’t want to think about it.

“What can you see?” Thornhold asked.

I grimaced. “A lot of filth. Stay clear of the alleys.”

“Why?” Brynn asked.

“Just trust me,” I said, wrinkling my nose. “Okay, let’s get down there, get what we need, and then head out tomorrow morning. I think we have enough for a room and some food, if we all sleep in the same room. We don’t want to spend all our money on the first day.”

Ray blushed. “I’m not sure what my girlfriend would think about that?—”

“Dude, I said sleep . I’m not about to take off my clothes in this dive. My armor? For the night? Yes. But not my clothes.” I motioned for them to follow me.

In our weekly games, I always took the lead and I wasn’t about to give that up now. Even in the paper RPG format, I was the most level headed of the group. During the next couple of weeks, we were going to need common sense.

As we approached the village, I tensed. Just as I’d feared, the mood was one of thinly veiled chaos.

Everywhere I looked, questionable vagabonds eyed us.

Our clothes were shiny clean and we had that newly minted look.

I wondered if any of them were other players.

Or were they all Syms? In-game denizens?

So far, there seemed to be no real way to tell, unless they gave themselves away.

That’s why I was loathe to get in any conflicts with anything relatively humanoid—the fees and fines could be steep.

“What are you looking at?” Thornhold asked, tapping me on the arm.

I glanced down at him, shaking my head. “Not here,” I whispered. Raising my voice just enough to be heard, I said, “Everybody, be cautious. We’re getting some greedy looks.”

“Right,” Brynn said. She placed her hand on her sword as we entered the gates to the village.

The smell was rank, so much so that I untied the bandana from my backpack strap and folded it into a triangle, tying it around my face and nose.

“Use your handkerchiefs as masks. It helps a little,” I told the others.

They followed suit.

It was late afternoon, and I was getting hungry. “We need to find the inn and see if we can afford a room.” We should have compiled all our money so we knew in advance how much we had. The last thing I wanted to do was to flash any coin here in the village.

“Do you remember how much money you have?” I asked, keeping my voice low. “I have ten silver coins and a gold one.”

The others each had the same amount, which meant we had fifty silver, and five gold. There were ten silver to each gold coin, and 100 copper to each silver. We weren’t well off, by any means, but we had enough to comfortably cover a room.

“All right, so we find an inn?”

I was suddenly aware that I needed to pee. “Cripes, I need to go to the bathroom.”

“There’s a row of outhouses up ahead. We can go in one at a time while the others keep watch.” Ray motioned to a row of individual toilets up ahead.

The last thing I wanted to do was walk into one of those, but I couldn’t wait till we reached the inn. I grudgingly agreed and we gathered by the toilet on the end of the row. The wood was rotting, and the stall—about four feet square—looked like it was ready to come crashing down.

As I reluctantly opened the door and peeked in, the inside was surprisingly clean. Oh, it wasn’t spotless, by any means, but the floor was covered with footprints, not filth, and the walls were surprisingly clean. I wasn’t sure what I’d expected, but this was better than my fears.

“I can’t light a match in here to see what I’m doing—too much methane.”

“Your watch has a light on it,” Reggie reminded me.

I’d forgotten about that.

“Right,” I said, slipping inside and shutting the door.

As I pressed the button on the Game-Guide watch, a bright LED light shone forth.

One nod to technology that I was grateful for.

I set my backpack on my feet to keep it off the floor and opened it to pull out my bath tissue—there wasn’t any in the stall.

It took me a moment to figure out how to unbutton the leather pants I was wearing.

But a moment later, I was hunching over the opening, trying to keep my ass from touching the wood.

After I finished, I buttoned my pants again, and took a moment to stuff the little bag of coins down my top.

The brass filigree over my crop top was form fitting, so I patted myself down and found a hidden pocket on the side of my pants.

Pleasantly surprised to find it was a zipped pocket, I slipped the coins inside, then zipped it tight.

As I returned to the others, I glanced around. “Any water nearby?”

“There’s a pump over there,” Reggie said.

I darted over to the pump and washed my hands, then decided to wash my face as well. Brynn took a turn next, and then Thornhold.

“Damned armor, so tight I can’t…” His muffled voice came grumbling from out of the toilet. Finally, he reappeared. “I think we should have taken more time in the dressing hall to figure out how to work this blasted armor,” he said, letting out a huff.

“All right, shall we head to the inn? I saw one down the street as we passed by,” Brynn said.

“Sounds good,” I said.

As we turned around, heading back the way we came, there was a sudden flurry of movement as we passed a tavern and two very large men tumbled out, drunk off their asses.

They were dressed in skins and rags, but they were taller than any of us, and they looked burly enough to crush a skull with their hands.

“Well, lookie here ,” one of them said, setting his gaze on me. “An elf maiden. Nice abs, girlie,” he said, slurring his words.

“Ignore him, just keep moving,” Ray muttered under his breath.

I took a deep breath and stepped to the side, determined to move around him. But apparently he and his buddies weren’t done with the conversation.

“Where do you think you’re going, wench?” The asshole reached out to grab me. His bros laughed as he wrapped his fist around my wrist.

“Let go of me,” I said, staring up at him. He was at least a foot taller than I was, but I didn’t care. Nobody threw hands on me and got away with it. I immediately reached for my dagger with my other hand. Beside me, Thornhold stiffened and lifted his axe.

“Let her go, or you’ll regret it,” he said.

I suddenly realized that these were Syms—not other players. There was a subtle energy to them that told me they were fair game. And then, I knew. They were ogres.

“Oh, I don’t think I’m going to regret it,” the first said, his face darkening. His buddies, both drunk as well, lifted their clubs.

“This is your last warning,” Brynn said, unsheathing her sword. “Let her go. Now .”

There was a moment of silence, as we eyed one another. I waited for him to loosen his grip, but he didn’t. In fact, he began to squeeze tighter, yanking me up to his chest.

“Fine. Your choice,” I said, then slashed at his arm with my dagger. Reasoning with drunken ogres wasn’t on my bingo card for the day, but there you go.

Thornhold charged forward with his axe out, as one of the other ogres headed for Brynn.

My dagger bounced off the ogre’s skin.

“Crap,” I muttered.

And the fight was on.