First Day

"You're new here, aren't you?"1

"Yeah, it's my first day."2

"Nervous?"3

"Does it show?"4

"A little, but don't worry. I'll watch out for you. Make sure you don't goof up anything too bad."5

"Thanks. I'm Retchal, by the way."6

"Horm. You know, I never thought I'd see a gal doing this job."7

"Why? Don't you think I can handle it?"8

"No, no, I'm sure you can. I'm just surprised you'd want to."9

"So it's alright for you to do it, but not me, because I'm a gal?"10

"Oh, it's alright. It's just a little hard for an older guy like me to get used to these new ideas."11

"How long've you been working here, Horm?"12

"Let's see, just over thirty five years."13

"That's a long time. I can't imagine doing anything that long."14

"Well, when I was your age, I couldn't either. Are you having trouble there?"15

"It's this stupid cowl. I can't seem to get it on right."16

"Don't take this like I'm making unwanted advances, but I can adjust it for you, if you'd like."17

"Would you? That'd be great."18

"Just pull it a little bit here and slip your ears through like this. How's that?"19

"That's much better. Thanks."20

"No trouble. I don't know who designed those things. I think they're made for humans and their ridiculously small ears."21

"Yeah, they're so little it's surprising they can even hear. But why do we even wear cowls? I've heard some folks say it's to hide our faces because we're ashamed of what we do."22

"No, you shouldn't ever be ashamed of what you do. We execute the orders of Lord Solover himself. That's why we cover our faces, to remind people we are not acting as ourselves, but as his agents to keep order in this land. You're too young to remember how things were before Lord Solover took over, but I wouldn't want to live like that again."23

"It was pretty bad?"24

"Terrible! Total anarchy. I'm lucky just to have survived."25

"I guess I should be grateful I didn't live back then."26

"I know, it's easy to take it for granted how good we've got it now. But what really gets me is when I heard people complaining about Lord Solover, saying he denies them their freedom and takes away their rights."27

"You're right, Horm. I mean how can folks say stuff like that after all Lord Solover's done for them?"28

"It's foolish talk. That's what it is. And I'll bet it's those humans who start it."29

"Are humans that bad?"30

"Not all of them, of course, but there're some of them who like to do nothing better than cause trouble. They'll go around talking about their noble ideas like they're better than everybody else. But without a strong ruler to keep them in place, those same humans'll turn nastier than any goblin I've known."31

"And we help to keep them in place, right?"32

"You bet we do. Take those brigands the guards'll be bringing down today. If you asked them, they'd probably make up some nonsense about being freedom fighters trying to overthrow a tyrant. The truth is they're just a bunch of greedy, gold-grabbing thieves who wanted to get their hands on some of Lord Solover's treasure."33

"Thanks, Horm. That kind of puts everything in place. Before we get started is there anything, you know, special I should look out for?"34

"The worse thing that might come up is some of the prisoners'll try to escape. You wouldn't believe some of the things I've seen these idiots do. If does happen, just get out of the way and let the guards handle it. That's their job."35

"I never really thought about something like that happening."36

"Well, don't worry about it. We're a team now. Whatever happens, we'll get through it together."37

"Right, a team. I've got that."38

"I think I heard the guards coming with them now. Ready, Retchal?"39

"Ready, Horm."40

"Then let's get to work."41