Free Gareth and th Lost Island by Patrick Mallard Page A

look.
    “Slithering salamander shit!” Tralnis swore under his
breath as he grabbed Gareth’s arm suddenly. He pulled Gareth away
from the booth so they would be out of earshot of the Dwarf at the
counter. “I think you better be the one to do the talking here,”
Tralnis suggested in a tone just barely above a whisper.
    “What’s wrong? Do you now that Dwarf?” Gareth
inquired.
    Tralnis closed his eyes, and stroked his beard before
he answered. “She’s an ex-girlfriend, and things didn’t end well
between us at all,” he admitted.
    Gareth stood there for almost a whole minute with his
jaw hanging open, as he tried to process what he had heard. They
had always been too busy to go visit Tralnis’ family in the
caverns. “I thought you were kidding when you said female Dwarves
had beards as well,” he managed to say when his brain rebooted.
    “Now you know why all Dwarves are bisexual. When both
sexes look the same, the soonest you find out if your date is a man
or woman is when the clothes come off,” Tralnis explained.
    “That makes sense,” Gareth stated. “So that I don’t
go into a situation blind, why don’t you tell me why you two broke
up?” he suggested.
    Tralnis looked intently at his shiny black boots, too
ashamed to meet Gareth’s eyes. “She caught me in bed with her
brother,” he admitted.
    Gareth put his face in his hand, and shook it slowly
from side to side in frustration. “You know, I really wish that I
could say that surprises me, but I can’t,” he complained. He put
his hand back down to his side, and took in a deep breath to center
himself. “You’re right, I should do the talking,” he muttered, and
walked back to the Shipping Guild booth.
    Once they stood in front of the counter, the female
Dwarf didn’t give Gareth a chance to speak before she snarled,
“Tralnis… I thought I had seen the last of your two-timing,
despicable carcass.”
    “Bregga, you’re looking well,” Tralnis replied,
ignoring what she said.
    Bregga rolled her eyes, and turned her back to
Tralnis to show she had no desire to talk with him. “What do you
want?” she asked Gareth bluntly.
    “We… I mean, I was hoping you could tell us
how we go about chartering an airship,” he said, hoping his
correction at the beginning would make her more interested in
helping him.
    With an irritated snort, Bregga pulled out a form
printed on a half sheet of paper along with a worn out pencil.
“Gods below and above, save me from stupid ground pounders!” she
muttered under her breath. “Write down your name, where you are
wanting to go, how many are in your party, and what type of cargo
you have, if any. At the bottom of the form, write down the most
you are willing to pay. If it looks like a good deal, more than one
ship might be interested and it’s possible you can get the price to
come down in a bidding war. When you’re done filling out the form,
give it to me and I’ll post it on the job board,” she instructed
them.
    Gareth took the form, and filled it out quickly. He
handed the form back to Bregga. She quickly read over the form, and
let out a very unladylike laugh that shook her impressive beard.
“So you’re Gareth Mintel. Good luck finding a captain willing to
piss off Deek Nutleiss, one of the biggest merchants in the IRD,”
she scoffed as she crumpled up the form, and tossed it into a waste
bin behind the counter. “Magnate Nutleiss made it clear that any
captain doing business with you would never do business with him,
or any of his partners, ever again,” she explained. “Get out of my
sight, and take that pile of dragon shit called Granitestaff with
you,” she ordered. To drive her message home, Bregga reached up and
then pulled down the wooden blinds to close up the booth for her
lunch break.
    “That could have gone better,” Gareth observed
dryly.
    Tralnis shrugged his shoulders in a noncommittal
fashion. “Actually, I thought it went rather well. Last time Bregga
and I