Midmorning light, bright and clear, beamed through the yellowed bay windows of the aged little storefront. The business, just a small herb and flower shop, was both modest and inviting. A cozy little space where one could find flowers both fresh and dried, and herbs both aromatic and useful. A woman, closer to forty than thirty, stood behind the counter and carefully pruned the stems from a pile of fresh mire lilies. The woman, her frame soft and curved from a life both comfortable and motherly, worked with a speed and precision not normally found among casual herbalists. She wielded the razor-edged steel clippers in her hand more like one would wield a knife than a pair of simple garden shears. Her coppery-red hair was tied up in a loose bun, and a well-loved apron hung from her neck. The woman, one Heather Ferrier, hummed happily as she worked behind the counter of her shop as she had done nearly every day for the last decade.
As Heather filled a glass pitcher from a brass tap in the back of her shop she heard the familiar bell on the front door ring. "Good morning! Please have a look around. I'll be with you in just one moment," The hip-heavy woman said as she held the heavy jug with both hands. As she turned to place the jug on the counter, she had expected to see one of her regular customers, old lady Nanthers perhaps. Instead, Heather found herself face to face with a woman she hadn't seen in over ten years. "K-Kataranne, is that you?" Heather asked in surprise.
"Morning, Heather. Long time no see, eh?" Kataranne asked as she leaned against the counter and picked a mire lilly from the pile
"Oh my goodness! I haven't seen you since that mission down in the knife barrows! I can't believe you're here! How have you been?" Heather said excitedly as she lifted the flip-up section of her counter and made her way towards the skinnier woman. Heather couldn't help but smile, couldn't stop the happy squeal that escaped her lips as she took the woman, her one-time professional partner, in a tight hug.
"Still a hugger I see," Kataranne said with a compressed laugh as she felt herself being hugged so tightly that her neatly polished boots lifted off of the stone floor of the shop.
The two women, despite being almost the same age, could not have appeared more stark in their physical differences. Kataranne was a blade of a woman, a thin but exceedingly fit warrior whose body was testament to the thousands of hours she had spent training and honing herself into a more perfect killing edge. Her clothing, the dark, oiled leathers of a high-ranking beast hunter, was neat and lustrous. The slight silver accents that adorned her coat and boots lent an air of aristocracy to her sharp, pretty, professional demeanor. A long sabre hung from her hip and her platinum blonde hair was cut into a sharp bob.
The sight of Kat made Hather all too aware of how much her body had changed since they had last met. Once, the two could have been sisters, save for a distinct difference of hair color. Yet, two children and a middle-class lifestyle had softened Heather's body into something less deadly and far more inviting. Her breasts were heavy, full, and stretched the knitted fabric of her plaid top. Her hips and thighs had thickened with each of her children, and her doughy rump had been fattened by too many sweets and too many hours spent sitting in her reading room chair. She wasn't a fat woman by any stretch, but the rounded, feminine swell of her belly and the dimpled fat she sported on her ass spoke to a decidedly domestic lifestyle. The differences between the two women were evidence of the choices that each had made so long ago. Kat had always been the more driven, career-minded one. The shiny badge she wore on her chest and the athletic grace of her body reflected that. Heather had opted instead to settle down. The first kid had been an accident, but then came child two, and with them, the homebody life had taken her without a struggle.
"Let me start off. I wish I could say that this was just a personal visit, but I have to admit that I'm here on business," Kat said as the softer woman set her back down on the ground.
"Oh, pish posh! Business or not, you surely have time for a cup of tea. Come in the back and take a seat. I insist," Heather said as she dragged the silver-haired woman along with her towards the back of the shop.
Kataranne sat on an old wooden chair, next to an old wooden table, surrounded on all sides by bundles of drying herbs and spices. Neat bundles of the drying plants hung from the walls, hung from the rafters, and lay scattered in half-tied piles on the table. "Here you are. This is my personal blend. Rosehips, cinnamon, and just a hint of rat-weed-infused tea," Heather said with a happy smile as she poured a generous amount of rose-colored tea into a chipped mug that sat in front of Kat. Heather then poured herself a cup before taking a seat opposite her long-lost friend. "Alright, now tell me what brings you to my little herb shop," Heather said softly as she blew on her tea and allowed her deeply green eyes to wander over the enviously fit woman opposite her.
"Look, I'm not going to beat around the bush. This is business. The guild is in dire straits these days. I'm here to offer you a job as a freelancer," Kat said simply before taking a small sip of her tea. The sharp woman's features softened a bit as the delicate flavor of the tea hit her tongue and she soon took a second eager sip.
"Kat, I haven't held anything more dangerous than a kitchen knife in, what ... ten years? You know I stopped taking monster-hunting contracts when my youngest turned five," Heather said with a tinge of sadness to her voice. Hunting monsters, cleansing the world of the beasts that haunt the night, it had been exciting. Heather could not deny that a part of her pined for those dangerous and exciting days. But, hunting down devils and demons in sewers and dusty catacombs was not work suitable for a mother of two. Heather had started taking smaller contracts when her eldest had been born, hunting down simple sewer haunts and cleaning out gremlin infestations. That was now eighteen years past. "Why come to me? I was only a full-time professional for a few years and part-time for a few years after that. I don't need charity. This shop doesn't bring in piles of gold, but it keeps me comfy with new linens and used books," Heather said curiously as she looked over at her old friend and saw in that exceedingly fit woman what she could have been if she hadn't chosen the domestic life.
"This isn't charity. You'd be doing me a favor actually. You might not have heard, but fatalities among hunters are up year over year. Monster hunting isn't the safest line of work to be sure, but things are grim for the guild. Our newbies, for whatever reason, are falling like flies. I don't know if it's just the stupidity of this crop of youngsters, or if this wave of monsters is particularly dangerous, but something needs to be done." Kat paused and sipped at her tea to allow the flavor of her words to sink in. "This is my offer. I want you to teach this newest batch of recruits the ropes before we send them out. Our veteran hunters don't want to waste their time training youngsters because the pay is much worse than what they might get hunting drakes or myco-slimes. We need someone who can teach them how not to die while on the job, and you seem like the perfect fit. You'll have free reign to train them how you want, but the head honchos will want you to lead a few in-the-field missions to make sure your training sticks."
"Oh, Kat, I just don't know. I don't even know if I remember anything worth passing on ... and ... well no one is going to take a fat old lady like me seriously."
"Look, this whole initiative is a bit of an experiment. The guild is thinking about implementing a mandatory mentorship period where new hunters have to work under a master hunter for some time before they can take contracts on their own. At the very least I want you to do one training mission and give us your feedback. Oh, and before I forget, THIS would be your pay per mission," Kat said as she took a hefty bag of silver from her coat pocket and slid it across the table.
"Goodness, this much just for taking a rookie on a little sewer crawl?" Heather said, green eyes wide as she hefted the bag in one hand. The bag held about as much profit as her little shop might bring in in two weeks, maybe more.
"You've been away from the game for too long. That much is about quarter pay for a mid-grade hunt," Kat said with a chuckle. The blade thin woman took the rest of her tea in one animated swallow and set the cup down as she stood up. "Tell you what. You mull it over and keep that money for today. Tomorrow you can either keep it and try doing one of these training missions, or you can come to the guild and give it back to me in person. Whatever you choose, I'd like a little more time to catch up and should have a bit more free time come tomorrow," Kat said as she gave her old friend a courteous nod and headed for the door. She turned and gave the chubby herbalist a wistful look. "And Heather, thank you for the tea. I look forward to hearing your answer tomorrow," Kat said before striding purposefully from the cozy shop.
***
"Damn it! Why. Won't. You. Just. BUTTON!" Heather grunted in frustration as she tried to squeeze herself into her old hunting leathers. She had known, of course, that squeezing easily into her old set of leather armor was a foolish notion. A decade of lounging and two kids had seen to it that her waistline was not what it once was. Still, she had come closer than she had thought. The soft fat of her ass had slid into the tight leather pants with surprising ease ... until it had come time to button. The pants were at least two sizes too small, and it looked like her corseted top was no better. Her breasts were much more sizable than they had been when she was nineteen.
"This feels silly," Heather said to herself as she gave up buttoning the pants and sat back on her bed. She saw herself reflected in the standing mirror that stood by her bed, and the image only solidified the feeling that what she was doing was silly. Yet, despite that feeling of silliness, there was an undercurrent of excitement that she could not deny. She could do it again, could go on adventures and help people by slaying the evil things that haunted the night. The money would be nice, but she really didn't need it. The truth, she realized, was that she was simply bored. Her youngest was away studying at the Imperial Academy while her eldest was off pursuing her own career. Her husband, bless his soul, had passed three years prior from illness. Heather realized for the first time that she had been left alone in her very herbaceous home. Her kids didn't need her any longer. The shop kept her busy, but the shop had always simply been a means to keep food on the table.
Hunting monsters again, even if it was foolish, was so exciting that she knew she could not resist. "Well, I might have filled out a bit since these were new, but that's nothing some thread can't mend," Heather said simply as she looked at the tight leathers. It might not be as pretty when she was done, but she knew her way around a needle and thread. A stitch here, some extra cloth there, and she knew that she'd be able to fit into her leathers once more.
***
Heather still felt like a jester as she walked through the towering oaken doors of the Monster Slayer's Guild. Her old uniform, now expanded with some clever use of spare cloth and some hours with a needle, hugged tight to her motherly frame. The copper-haired woman felt eyes on her as she entered the bustling guild hall. She knew she was out of place, but she had made up her mind even before Kat had left her shop the day before. She wanted to hunt again, even if she had to swallow her pride a bit to do so. She felt out of place with her chubby, out-of-shape body. Out of place wearing her gardening hat and gloves in lieu of proper battle attire. Yet, despite that, coming into the hall again after over a decade felt like coming home. Heather walked up to the counter that lined the entrance hall. The weight of her old hunting daggers on her belt felt good, and reminded her that despite not being an active hunter for some time, she had still earned her stripes in this arena.
"Uhm, hello. I'm not sure who to speak to precisely, but I'm here for a job," Heather said to a gnomish clerk that sat on a raised chair on the other side of the wooden counter that spanned the length of the grand entrance hall.
"Are you hiring the services of a hunter? Or selling your services as a ... hunter?" the shrewd-looking gnomish girl said as she gave Heather a curious look up and down. Heather could feel the judgement of the smaller, younger girl seeping into her through her disused armor.
"Actually, Kataranne told me to come by. I think it has been pre-arranged? I'm supposed to teach some young folk the basics of being a hunter or something like that," Heather said in an almost smug way. She drew an old brass medallion from her pocket and laid it on the counter before the gnome. The tarnished medallion was a small thing, hardly larger than a fingertip, but lay stamped with the crossed arrow and dagger of the guild.
"Oh yes, the Major said that you'd be coming by. We'll have to get you a new medallion denoting your rank. The Guild hasn't used round medallions for seven years now. The Major said that she apologizes for not being able to be here in person, but that if you accept the job, then a few prospective candidates for training have been chosen for you. Do you accept?" The Gnome said shrewdly as she started pulling some paperwork from a drawer beneath the counter in preparation for Heather's acceptance.
"Uh, yes, I agree to take on the job. Also, I've already been paid for this first mission, so don't worry about that."
"Splendid, that means less paperwork right now. Please take these and fill them out to completion," The gnomish girl said as she handed Heather half a dozen official-looking forms and a shiny pen.
As Heather sat down and started to fill out the rather basic forms, she couldn't help but do a bit of people watching. There were the striking veteran hunters with their expensive attire and gleaming golden badges, and the myriad of customers hiring hunters for work both private and public. Besides that though, Heather couldn't help but notice the strange state of the younger, less experienced hunters. Many were clad in very unprofessional ways. One wore a bevy of heavy chains in what Heather could only assume was an attempt to appear intimidating. It was a silly thing. A manticore or fanged billywong wouldn't care about such intimidation tactics, and the dangling chains presented more of a threat to the wearer than anything else. Another young hunter sported no less than five swords on his back. A third wore a hat so large that her peripheral vision was all but gone. The more she looked, the more issues Heather saw. The younger hunters were the worst, but she saw a few silver and brass ranked members with glaring issues. The guild had never enforced a strict uniform policy, but maybe it was warranted at this point. What worried her more was the fact that such lax uniforms and equipment that their training was likely in even worse state. "No wonder Kat wanted help. This place is in a sorry way," Heather thought to herself as she returned the now-completed paperwork to the clerk.
"Hmm, everything looks to be in order. Please follow me. The Major has set aside three potential candidates for your approval. They're waiting for you in the back training yard. There is a mission for you as well, a standard sewers clear and cleanse, assuming that any or all of the candidates meet your approval for a mission tonight," the gnomish girl said as she hopped off of her seat and lifted a gate in the counter to allow Heather to the other side. Heather followed the diminutive clerk down along a hallway and down a flight of stair towards the rear training grounds of the guild. It was so strange that so much had changed, yet nothing had changed about the place. Heather could even see the familiar scuffing and scarring along the floorboards of the corridor as she followed the smaller girl. "This is an experimental procedure, so you'll be free to impose any rules or stipulations on your trainees. I believe that the three chosen candidates are in trouble for one reason or another, and participation in this trial is a requirement to get back into the guild. So, you know, feel free to order them around," the dark-haired gnome said as she opened up a re-enforced door and the two strode out onto the sandy guild training grounds. Heather looked out over the familiar obstacle courses and archery ranges and she could see three figures standing around an old elm in one corner of the yard. "Ah, yes, those are your potential trainees. I am instructed at this point to leave you to your own devices, but I wish you the best. The Major speaks very highly of you and I sincerely hope that this new training experiment bears out. Good luck," the gnomish girl said politely, if a bit curtly, as she went back into the building and left Heather alone.
"Alright, nothing to be nervous about. Just some rookies, and you can teach them. You can teach them a lot actually," Heather said to herself as she took a breath and started to walk towards the gathered trainees. She walked in a way that she hoped appeared confident. As she got closer to the three, she got a better look at each of them and could see that they were