Chapter 9

Village Ellen

On slow nights, Ellen’s job wasn’t to serve and entertain customers, but to help clean and do other household chores. She’d gotten a lot better at this of late, probably because she was on the verge of hitting Level 7 just from working around the inn. Lauren didn’t push about the fact that the other Ellen had immediately left in the morning.

“Psst.”

Ellen looked up at the noise while she was fitting a stretcher into one of the legs of a chair where it had popped loose. She hadn’t even known the crossbar supports were called stretchers until she’d worked here, but it was one more tiny little detail she’d picked up as basically hired help. What surprised her more is she didn’t mind it, even if Adventurer Ellen was off having all the glory.

Peeking in the window, Ellen saw Hunter Ellen motioning for her to come out. Ellen sighed and set the chisel she’d been tapping into the wood down, then rose with a stretch. It was still early evening, so no need to worry about it getting late, but she needed this done tonight or early tomorrow.

Talking to herself was more important, though.

After a quick look about to make sure she wasn’t being watched, Ellen slipped out the door to meet her other self. In a small place like this, at a late hour, even the front door was safe to leave by if she didn’t tarry. Even so, she wasted no time following Hunter Ellen around the side.

“What are you even wearing?” Hunter Ellen asked that with a lifted eyebrow, staring at Ellen’s outfit.

With her cheeks heating up, Ellen huffed and glanced downward. The dress wasn’t her normal choice, that much was true. A simple lace-up bodice and long skirt, it was plain yet attractive… and very domestic. It wasn’t at all like the normal practical outfits she wore.

“I’m stuck here doing the tavern work, anyway,” she mumbled in her defense. “And our old clothes were getting pretty filthy. Lauren loaned me this while our spare clothing is drying.”

Hunter Ellen bit her bottom lip, but said nothing further about it. “What about Adventurer Ellen? Did she already leave? I was hoping to give her an update on what I found.”

Ellen crossed her arms and frowned back. “She left this morning. A merchant was staying the night and she managed to catch a ride with him for pretty cheap. I can tell her what you want, it shouldn’t be a problem. What’s the news?”

A heavy sigh escaped Hunter Ellen as she stepped further back into the shadows beside the inn. Ellen followed uncertainly, now rubbing her sides. The cold air was starting to get to her, even with the warmth of the dress.

“Have you thought about what happens when she gets a license? I’m sure she’ll come back here for you eventually, but then what? We’re three people.” Hunter Ellen crossed her arms in a mirror of what Ellen had just done. “We could form a party but we’re all the same person. That’s going to attract a lot of attention once we’re out doing quests, even if we say we’re triplets.”

Ellen scowled, then shook her head. “We could make it our gimmick, but I’ll push this right back at you. Should we even go back at all yet? I think we should stay on the frontier until we have a name for ourselves. Dad may find us if we adventure too far into Thallis. If we keep to the fringes like this it’ll be a lot harder for him to find us.”

Hunter Ellen raised her hands. “Hey we aren’t actually arguing here! I agree. That’s why I wanted to talk to you about Onroc. I found it, and I think we might want to make it kind of our base camp until we know where else we’ll be working. It’s not that far from Merriweather, and it’s ruined but we could set up a little tent city to live there easily. I didn’t see any signs of dangerous animals, just a lot of cats.”

“I do like cats,” Ellen muttered.

“Yes, I know,” Hunter Ellen agreed. “But a better reason is because we’ve already messed up adventuring once. We need a place we can train and swap stories and um… go to in case we uh…”

She hadn’t been thinking about it much, but Ellen wasn’t that different from Hunter Ellen. She caught the meaning right away and flinched.

Hunter Ellen saw the comprehension on her other self’s face and nodded. “Exactly. It’s not the most comfortable place, but this way we’ll know where to regroup if that happens. I’ll show you where it is later, once Adventurer Ellen is back. Um… how long until she’s back, anyway? Maybe we should have set up things a little closer to the guild…”

“Maybe,” Ellen agreed with a shrug. “I doubt anyone is going to just stumble on you there, though. She left with a merchant, so if she comes right back she’ll be back uh… five days from now I think. Probably six. Can you last a week out there?”

The flinch was already telling enough. “A week? Maybe if I can figure out how to use a sling in time. Could I borrow a little food from you to um, get me through tomorrow and the day after? I’m already out.”

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Ellen sighed, “I thought as much. I do have some jerky and stuff in the room, I’ll drop it out the window after we’re done here. I thought you were going to be a Hunter? Can’t you hunt things?”

“I thought you were going to be a Laborer? Are you in labor yet?” Hunter Ellen mimicked the question and stuck out her tongue. “I just hit Level 6, I’m still figuring a lot of things out and I don’t have a good weapon for it. I’ve built a sling but I’m not very good with it yet. I did have a lot of options for picking a Class though. That was pretty weird. How are you doing with yours? Still going to change Class later?”

Smoothing her dress out, Ellen glanced aside uncomfortably. “I… well I don’t want to be an innkeeper’s helper for the rest of my life, I’ve been wondering if I’ve been going at this all wrong. Maybe I should try for a much different Class than you, or… I don’t know. I might just see what my options are at Level 11. If there’s nothing good I’ll change Class then, instead of finishing my Level up.”

Hunter Ellen bit her lip. “You’re a lot more timid than me and Adventurer Ellen. That’s weird, I thought we’d be more the same. Are we actually different people after all? What happened to proving dad wrong?”