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Description

This is the last of the fifteen quests Olifaye needs for the achievement, so I went a little overboard. Actually wayyy overboard. This was supposed to take me one day and took four. I must be out of practice with this style after so many cartoons... or else it was drawing all those bones.

________

Olifaye and Urythk were usually on the same page. Olifaye wanted to kill something; well, Urythk was always, always hungry. Olifaye wanted to wander; Urythk had a potion ingredient or two that needed restocking. Olifaye wanted to shake down this clearly questionable merchant on account of the clearly sick and mistreated calf he's trying to sell off; Urythk held her back.

Wait. Held her back? Usually Urythk was very on board with this particular sort of murder.

Ah, but there were mercenaries hired to guard the traveling market set up in this majestic, lightly drizzled forest. The Rukaan and her troll passed them on their way through, without incident beyond several nervous, wary stares, strangers' gazes shifting between the dour Rukaan clad in battered, cobbled-together scraps of other less fortunate foes' armor (or their body parts, if they were very unfortunate) and the hulking troll who was similarly garbed. There were mercenaries, and Urythk had no particular desire to start a quarrel with this entire flock of travellers, by outright killing one of their own in broad daylight.

No matter how much Olifaye gnashed her molars and struck out with her hooves, looking at that dull-eyed little calf, looking at tiny ribs and tineless little head hung low.

The merchant was well cowed, though. Mostly because Urythk almost didn't catch Olifaye in time, almost didn't stay the Rukaan's sudden bellowing charge before bronze hooves would hammer his bones into broken bits fit only for bone meal. When a six-foot-at-the-shoulder Rukaan with antlers honed like shining bronze knives and eyes glinting with intent blacker than her fur leaped at you, teeth snapping, you likely wouldn't be surprised to have your life flash before your eyes either.

And when the troll, in her voice like a mountain, like boulders grinding aggressively against each other as the landslide begins, warned him, "My arms grow tired," he tripped over himself offering up a one-of-a-kind discount, just to keep that very bloodthirsty-looking Rukaan at bay.

One free Rukaan calf, weak and meek, came away from that market with them, along with yet more stares from the ruffled and perturbed travellers. But there'd been no violence. Intimidation, yes, but - the calf was sick. Anyone could see that. And it was a troll, and trolls could care for sick things, even things that sick - and rumor had spread far enough now, with so many bounties answered and so many poachers and bandits routed, that there was at least one voice in that market whispering frantically to the rest, that troll, that Rukaan.

There hadn't always been rumors, but the stares hadn't changed at all.

Olifaye begrudgingly followed her troll away, leaving that merchant unfortunately alive and well, and the doe pondered silently to herself as Urythk held the little calf in long stony arms and grumbled without words, low and full of promise, like rib-caged thunder.

How much more acclaim would she have to earn, to rid her troll of such distrust, of such disgust, of those damnable stares?

________

Link to Import: R-0268 Olifaye

Link to Rune Mark Tracker: [link ]
Rune Mark Points and Bonuses: Fullbody, Colored, Shaded, Complex Background, Fullbody Handler, 502 word Story, Completely by Owner, Handler Training Certificate

Quest Bonuses: Skunk + skunk marking, Cleverness Potion (bank)
Quest Type: Solution
Quest Prompt: Market Malfeasance
Quest Tracker Link: [link ]

Bank Name: MonochromeFox

Prompt: Character Development 2

Description

This is the last of the fifteen quests Olifaye needs for the achievement, so I went a little overboard. Actually wayyy overboard. This was supposed to take me one day and took four. I must be out of practice with this style after so many cartoons... or else it was drawing all those bones.

________

Olifaye and Urythk were usually on the same page. Olifaye wanted to kill something; well, Urythk was always, always hungry. Olifaye wanted to wander; Urythk had a potion ingredient or two that needed restocking. Olifaye wanted to shake down this clearly questionable merchant on account of the clearly sick and mistreated calf he's trying to sell off; Urythk held her back.

Wait. Held her back? Usually Urythk was very on board with this particular sort of murder.

Ah, but there were mercenaries hired to guard the traveling market set up in this majestic, lightly drizzled forest. The Rukaan and her troll passed them on their way through, without incident beyond several nervous, wary stares, strangers' gazes shifting between the dour Rukaan clad in battered, cobbled-together scraps of other less fortunate foes' armor (or their body parts, if they were very unfortunate) and the hulking troll who was similarly garbed. There were mercenaries, and Urythk had no particular desire to start a quarrel with this entire flock of travellers, by outright killing one of their own in broad daylight.

No matter how much Olifaye gnashed her molars and struck out with her hooves, looking at that dull-eyed little calf, looking at tiny ribs and tineless little head hung low.

The merchant was well cowed, though. Mostly because Urythk almost didn't catch Olifaye in time, almost didn't stay the Rukaan's sudden bellowing charge before bronze hooves would hammer his bones into broken bits fit only for bone meal. When a six-foot-at-the-shoulder Rukaan with antlers honed like shining bronze knives and eyes glinting with intent blacker than her fur leaped at you, teeth snapping, you likely wouldn't be surprised to have your life flash before your eyes either.

And when the troll, in her voice like a mountain, like boulders grinding aggressively against each other as the landslide begins, warned him, "My arms grow tired," he tripped over himself offering up a one-of-a-kind discount, just to keep that very bloodthirsty-looking Rukaan at bay.

One free Rukaan calf, weak and meek, came away from that market with them, along with yet more stares from the ruffled and perturbed travellers. But there'd been no violence. Intimidation, yes, but - the calf was sick. Anyone could see that. And it was a troll, and trolls could care for sick things, even things that sick - and rumor had spread far enough now, with so many bounties answered and so many poachers and bandits routed, that there was at least one voice in that market whispering frantically to the rest, that troll, that Rukaan.

There hadn't always been rumors, but the stares hadn't changed at all.

Olifaye begrudgingly followed her troll away, leaving that merchant unfortunately alive and well, and the doe pondered silently to herself as Urythk held the little calf in long stony arms and grumbled without words, low and full of promise, like rib-caged thunder.

How much more acclaim would she have to earn, to rid her troll of such distrust, of such disgust, of those damnable stares?

________

Link to Import: R-0268 Olifaye

Link to Rune Mark Tracker: [link ]
Rune Mark Points and Bonuses: Fullbody, Colored, Shaded, Complex Background, Fullbody Handler, 502 word Story, Completely by Owner, Handler Training Certificate

Quest Bonuses: Skunk + skunk marking, Cleverness Potion (bank)
Quest Type: Solution
Quest Prompt: Market Malfeasance
Quest Tracker Link: [link ]

Bank Name: MonochromeFox

Prompt: Character Development 2