"Look mom, I know it's been a while since you were out in the wilds, but this is just how adventurers dress these days." Samivella, known as Sammy to her friends and family, did a little twirl. "You'll just have to get over it and recognize that things have changed."
Marianna sighed at the folly of youth. Long years out in the great wilderness that surrounded their little kingdom had taught her much about fighting and surviving. She may have become a shopkeeper when her daughter was born, but that didn't lessen her experience. "Sweetheart, I completely understand that you have to be fashionable to make your mark, but fashion must be balanced with practicality. And I don't understand how this could possibly protect you in battle."
Sammy's so-called armor consisted of a diaphanous scrap of white loincloth, just enough to cover her crotch and the crack of her ass, her legs totally bare, held to her waist by a slim gold chain. She had a pair of leather ankle boots marked with traces of silver and wedge heels so high that she must have been walking on her tiptoes. Her upper body wasn't any more covered. Two steel disks, worked with the image of a snarling dragon, covered her nipples. Barely. Plenty of pink areola peeked from the sides. Who even knew how they stayed on. Her shoulders were guarded by very slight looking pauldrons of the same steel, with the same dragon motif.
Sammy rolled her eyes. "Well, looks can be deceiving. This is all enchanted, so I'm just as well armored as if I was wearing plate, and I'm so much faster. You can hit me in the belly with an ax and it will just bounce right off. And don't try to tell me you didn't use your sex appeal back in your day." She gestured to a daguerreotype of a younger Marianna. She was wearing a tight leather vest, cut to show her generous cleavage and a pair of cloth shorts pulled so far up into her ass that you could see the outline of her pussy.
Marianna conceded the point. A young adventurer had to stand out to make a name for herself. "Just, what would your father think to see you parading around dressed like this?"
"Mom!" Sammy fixed her mother with a withering look. "We both know you have no idea who my dad is. How many times have you told me that you got knocked up at a royal orgy? So sure, maybe the king is my father. But we both know you had every courtier, serving boy, and stable hand in town inside of you that night."
Marianna sighed in defeat. Sammy was right. She liked to believe that the king had fathered her daughter. And Samivella certainly had his spun gold locks, so it could be possible. But the king had enough bastards working in the palace that most of the servants had the same hair. "Fine, wear whatever you want. Go out into the wilderness naked if that's what works for you. I just want you to be safe. What has the guild given you for your first contract?"
"A goblin nest popped up near some orange groves to the west of town yesterday. I'm going to go burn it out."
Marina thought for a minute. A fresh goblin nest was a good mission for a new adventurer. She could see why the guild gave it to Sammy. "Alright, please be careful." She kissed Sammy on the cheek and sent her on her way. "And be smart."
Sammy may have only been nineteen years old, but she wasn't stupid. And her mother had been a good teacher. So she knew better than to just charge right in without getting a good idea of what she was dealing with. She could smell the goblin nest before she saw it, a mix of rotten meat and spices. From a low rise on the outskirts of the grove she was able to get a good look at the nest with her spyglass. Unlike most animals, goblins didn't breed. They budded, falling from the fungal growth of their nests when it grew large enough. She could see it now, a wet green lump the size of a pony. As Sammy watched one of the cancerous growths on the nest split open, and a small goblin spilled out in a gush of fetid fluid. She counted six, all told. Mostly sitting around sharpening sticks, or jerking off. Sammy sighed and shook her head. Nobody had ever been able to explain to her why goblins had dicks when they didn't breed, but boy did they love to masturbate.
"Well," Sammy said, stowing her spyglass and checking that her sword was loose in its scabbard. "Six of them with no real weapons shouldn't be much trouble. Good thing I got here before too many of them were born." She was about to rise and draw her sword when a shadow loomed over her.
Marianna couldn't sleep. Sammy still wasn't back. She knew that it was too soon to panic, that any number of things could have delayed her daughter. But she was still worried. So she tossed and turned in bed, ears alert for the sound of her door opening.
