Chapter-2: In Service to a Wizard
The wizard was correct. Even though they had yet to receive their first job, they were being "generously compensated."
There new employer went on that night to explain the terms and conditions of their contract: First, they would receive a weekly stipend whether that had anything to do, or not. Next, the got a base of operations at the Tower of Lolamach. From there, they would be paid accordingly (based upon the importance and danger of a given missionโincluding expenses). Plus, the wizard let them know that he was constantly working for the peace and welfare of the people, and he would never ask them to do anything malicious nor cruel. Overall, they really couldn't ask for much more.
There were a few caveats that they had to abide by: Foremost was that they were never to recruit any members that had not been approved by him, and that they had to accept Sara Monfort as the resident ranger. Also, they were not to take-on any contracts outside of those given by him without being submitted and approved beforehand. Pretty much, they were under exclusive contract to the mysterious wizard, and had to do what he said.
While the draconian, yet generous, terms of the contract made Nora a bit uneasy, she did finally get her ranger.
Evidently, Sara Monfort had been in the employ of the wizard for quite some time. She was a Half-Elf, and had spent the better part of the last twenty-years lending her skills to his agenda. Her human side was most prevalent in her height, standing at five-foot, and ten-inches tall. Selk was the tallest at six-foot-two, then Nora at six-even.
Sara and Selk hit-it-off almost instantly. Nora figured it was because the two were more for the outdoors than the others. But Kerryllon seemed to keep her distance from the new recruit. They all knew that the Half-Elves were looked down upon by the vast majority of Elvenkind, and even though the sorceress didn't seem the type to hold on to the old-ways, the were still the remnants of these ancient cultural-bigotries that haunted her. Even so, Nora reckoned that once they got to know each other, they would be as-thick-as-thieves. And speaking of thieves, Nora thought, with no small amount of irony...
The only one she had to really watch out for was Cira. The Halfling had a rather amorous way of welcoming someone new, and she wasn't sure of the ranger had such liberated views on such activities. But as their first week in to tower wore-on, she found that she needn't worry about the thief, and should have been more suspicious of Selk and Sara's "camping-trips."
***
Selk had just finished the makeshift lean-to as Sara arrived with a pair of fat rabbits dangling from a leather thong.
"Two fat hares, one arrow," the ranger bragged, and then taunted, "Top that, barbarian!"
"By Sif's nipple, you did," Selk retorted, sardonically, "...the same arrow shot twice, I'll wager!"
"You're just jealous, cupcake, because I can hit a squirrel's asshole at a furlong, and you couldn't hit an oxen's ass at one pace," Sara teased, laughing at her own wit.
"But I know who's ass I
can