The town was at its typical bustle of powerful brutes who took pride in their works. Douken, even though was a half-blood in comparison to the rest, always felt like such a major link within the village's culture. After all, what better way to make trade with these works in and out of the village than someone used to traveling from land to land, dealing with the trade deals and caravan sales with the goods the folks in town.

Today was no exception with Douken pulling a cart through town with two large barrels before heading over to the pub. Locking in the wheels to ensure it would not roll off, the half-orc crawled out under the cart's pulling rod, heading over to the pub's door and giving it a quick knock before heading back over to the cart, hauling one of the barrels over his shoulder. As a response to the knock, an inside hand opened the door popping his head out, yelling, "That best be my order knocking!"

"Don't worry, Wingloug!" Douken called out, patting the barrel on his shoulder, "I got your signature ale right here, marked ready to drink from the brewery!" This gave the other orc a toothish smile, stepping out to give a hand by grabbing the other barrel before the pair bringing in the drinks inside.

With Wingloug setting his full barrel down inside the nearly empty pub, Wingloug asked, "So, any trouble getting these moved over here?" as he stepped into the back, grabbing an older full barrel on the way back before getting it ready to be swapped with the empty one resting behind the counter.

"Not really. The route from the brewery to here is pretty light on danger," Douken replied, moving the full one into the back 's storage, getting a short laugh from the barkeep, not speaking until the half-blood returned as he went to swap the barrel he grabbed with the empty one set up before working on plugging in the spout.

"Knowing your record, you would of taken a bandit highway to reach here anyways."

"If that route was the shortest!" Douken laughed before heading back to business, pulling out a scroll of paper and ink and quill, opening it up, showing the contract of the delivery. "I am sure you are familiar with this part."

"Right, right," Wingloug muttered, stepping away  from the newly set barrel before heading over to sign the sheet. "There is still the part of the deal where you return the old barrels back to the brewery without extra cost, right?"

"But of course."

"Good. Well, I don't exactly have the gold on hand to help tip ya, so how about a drink on the house?"

"… I think I can take that deal…"

Angela sat in her study, normally off limits to others, when she heard a knock at her door. Taking a sigh she whirled her finger and the door undid its many chains, she did not like to be bothered while working. In came Melina, her tall young priestess. “My Lady, there is a job but I’m not so sure what to do with it? We don’t bodyguard jobs for deliveries often…” She squeaked out as the annoyed look on Angela’s face simmered.

“I suppose it can’t be helped.” Angela’s face softened as she pushed herself up. “I guess this would be the perfect time to see how good she still is at her job.”

Blinking a bit confused Melina ran after Angela as she left the room. “Who my Lady?”

“My daughter Aelwen was a bodyguard and courier for her uncle Frey. I think it is high time she gets off her ass and goes on a job. That is what my other half would say.” Melina listened closely as Angela spoke. Finally, they found the halfling, as small as she was, doing some training with her war hammer. Melina had never seen a war hammer being wielded by someone of her stature before. She was certainly small and strong. 

Aelwen was of elvish descent, Aerkai to be exact, and her stature showed. Her father had been rather tall but her uncle had been short. Remnants of his blood had slowly left her mother and only affected Aelwen slightly at birth. Her small stature was one of the things given to her by that blood bond. She had quicksilver eyes and long pinkish hair tinted with silver strands. Her skin was lightly sun-kissed. Fixing the purple witch hat on her head the little one looked up to her tall mother and nodded.

She came over as she slung the war hammer over one of her shoulders. “What’s up?”

Angela wasted no time telling her about the job and handed her a map of where she would be headed. “Don’t mess this up Aelwen and make sure to follow the rules they set up for you. What you do reflects on me as well.”

“Yeah, yeah whatever.” The halfling’s words shocked Melina as they were rude but maybe it was because Aelwen didn’t know this Angela like she did. She had heard that this Angela was a tad different from the other one. Though she had heard Aerkai could be rude as well. 

Pushing Aelwen through a gate, the halfling screamed at her mother and Angela was laughing hard. It shocked Melina but realized this was probably how it was back where Aelwen came from. When the halfling landed she fell right on her butt in the crowded city of the Port. Getting up she dusted off her short purple dress and sighed. Her body features were accented with a black corset so that they knew she was much older then she appeared, if not for her breasts she could be confused with a child.

After dusting herself off she slung the war hammer over her shoulder again and went to find the person who she was hired for. She tilted her head and found Douken. “Yo, I heard you were the person I am supposed to talk to. You got a package and you need a bodyguard. I’m a bodyguard and need you so… I was told by my mother to meet you here. Your guild made a contract with my mother and well she sent me here. I am Aelwen.” Her friend hand went out to do a handshake like her uncle had taught her, at least she had some manners going on. Her little capelet of purple fluttered in the breeze around her shoulders.

Annoyed Aelwen realized she hadn't gotten the paperwork. "Mother… Fucker… MOM." She yelled and stomped her foot. 

A gate appeared and Angela threw the papers out of it. "Dance for them!" Quickly Aelwen scattered to grab the dancing paperwork.

"Screw you," Aelwen yelled at her mother with a smile as the goddess disappeared again. After reorganizing the paperwork she offered it up to Douken. "Sorry about that… Mother can be a bit of a prick when someone interrupts her alone time."

The tavern was pretty quiet and empty when the halfling made her presence known, gathering the attention of the orc tavern master and the half orc courier. Douken, listening on, raised an eyebrow at the remark she made, though unsure of exactly the duty he was being assigned to. Typically, if a job was one that required a bodyguard, it typically meant a contract stating what was actually happening.

Still, it would be rude to decline the introduction, thus accepting the handshake while replying with, "Douken. I am sure you got the contract on you that tells of the details?" This small note seemed to have ticked at her a tiny bit before calling out to her mother before said paperwork was dropped out of a portal, a cheeky statement attached to it as well.

Once Aelwen had collected the scattered paperwork, the half orc took it and skimmed over the details, taking occasional swigs of ale with his eyes never leaving the paperwork. While on the face of things seemed like typical contract information about "protect X as he/she delivers Y," the writing itself was coded for those in the guild so information could not be leaked out. Information about what is to be delivered, the pick up, the drop off, the combination. All hidden within the text written before them and up to the courier to translate it on his own in his head without speaking a word of unnecessary information to anyone else, as saying there was a code in general was taboo in-of itself.

"Come," Douken told the small female as he moved over to an empty table before setting the mug and paperwork down so he could reach into his bag and pulling out a collection of maps. Sorting through them, the one he unraveled was of the local area. Picking up the mug, Douken pointed at a building in the map, stating, "We are currently here," before moving it across to the more farmland area of the port city, "and the pick up is here. You will wait for me there." Scrolling a small always away to another farm, he told her, "I need to head over here first to finish this job. It is on the route for me anyways, so it will kill two birds with one stone."

Flinging his head back on the final drink, the half orc chugged what remained of the ale before slamming it down on the table before asking, "Any questions?"

“I’m not a dog,” the smile leaped to her face that this could be interesting as she strolled along with him. Her silver eyes moved to the map and she took time to sigh and pull the map down from his hands. “My name is Aelwen.” There was an enchanting look in her eyes as she balanced the war hammer on her shoulders. It was gaining the attention of those around her. It looked stained with some red tint and it sent visible shivers down people’s bodies.

“I use to courier myself for my uncle way back when. He ran a merchant guild. You are in capable hands.” The war hammer was scrolled with pictures and stories, excellently crafted since it came from the guild too. Maybe she didn’t want to scare him and maybe she wanted to play nice. 

Once he asked her about questions she took a few minutes to shake her head. “Only the rules of engagement. Many times there are strict rules that the courier and bodyguard must follow while they are on a mission.”

There were many questions in her mind about what this was all about. “Hey, Douken… You wouldn’t happen to know why your guild contracted a Goddess for the job, would you? It’s odd.” Maybe the package was something for her? She groaned a bit. Her mother’s new jobs were stressful on her. After she had her questions asked she began to skulk off and head to the spot where she would meet Douken for the delivery.

She put the war hammer head first and stood upon the head of it. It made her so much taller than she actually was. She looked bored as she held the hat to the top of her head as the gentle breeze of the sea rolled by her. “This world is so weird Ma.”

Of course. With how much the girl seemed attached to her war hammer, he should of figured the rules of engagement would be the first thing she would ask about. "No killing," Douken stated bluntly. "Even if it is to defend the package, we are not allowed to take lives. Knocking out, however, is fair game." In fact, most of what the half-orc had done was knock them out while on duty. "All we have to do then is report to any nearby road patrols we come across. Whether they wake up or get carried away before then is not our worry."

As she made it seem it was the only question she had, the half-orc took that moment to clean up the table by collecting the map and scrolling it up once more. However, during that time, another question came up. "No clue," he once again stated bluntly. "It could be by personal request, or it could be that the recipient is to her or a church of hers. That, or they love torturing me with missions that require  being the escort because they know I hate having to be babysat…"

Walking back over to the entrance, the half-orc hurled one of the empty barrels over his shoulder before curling the other underneath his other arm. "If that is everything, I will meet you over at the meet up site! Don't be afraid to take your time getting there, but I would like to depart before sun down," he ordered before pushing himself out the door and loading up his cart with the empty barrels.