The cabin's already broken roof caved in under the sudden rush of water, ruining the little shelter the group had from the rain. Rowboat swore loudly as she grabbed both Norman and Pail under her arms to protect them from the debris from the cabin that was practically crumpling in on itself. Pretty darted out the door in an instant, her animal instincts winning over her protective ones. Rowboat quickly followed, holding a giggling boy under her left arm and a dazed man under her right.
A few seconds after everyone got out, the shack-like cabin was washed away like a sandcastle. The heavy rain had caused a mudslide on a nearby mountain, which, through some divine punishment, basically only hit the cabin they were stationed in. Rowboat cursed like a sailor as her only shelter was reduced to rubble, along with all her stuff. Her angry muttering was interrupted by a loud yip from Pretty; it seemed like she’d found something.
Rowboat and the people she was hauling made their way over to where the huli jing was calling from. There they found the spirit fox manically cleaning the dirt off her paws in the mouth of a cave. The giant woman dropped her human cargo off on the cave floor before sitting down next to Pretty, thanking her for finding someplace dry.
“Ahem… Th-thank you…” Norman coughed awkwardly. He didn’t know whether to offer his condolences for the ruined shack or not; he had never talked to a person who had just lost their house before, and he didn’t have the social skills to figure it out. “Sorry about the… uhm… house?”
Rowboat chuckled bitterly as she wrung out her soaked shirt. “Don’t worry about it. It was gonna happen whether you were here or not. They say us hybrids are cursed with shit luck, and I’m starting to believe them.” She sighed in defeat. She wanted to prove the world wrong and make a name for herself, but things just kept going wrong, one after the other.
Norman awkwardly scooted closer and gave her a weird, rigid pat on the back. He wanted to pat her on the shoulder, but he wouldn’t reach unless he stood up. “Well… can’t you just find a job in some city? Why are you living in the woods in the first place? It seems very uncomfortable, to be honest.” He said with his usual complete lack of tact and empathy.
The giant chuckled; the human man’s ignorance lifted her spirits slightly. She wanted to see whatever place he came from, where the people were this ignorant to the dark side of the world. “Ha! I would if I could. Hybrids are technically equal citizens to humans and demons, but reality isn’t that kind. Nobody wants to hire someone like us; we’re seen as incompetent due to our unstable biology.”
Norman was about to question the whole unstable thing, but it seemed Rowboat already knew what he was going to ask. She pointed her chin at Pail, who was busy whittling, and spoke in a hushed tone, “He can’t fly, can he? By the way he moves, I’m guessing he got the wings but not the bones. He’s lucky, though. One of the girls in my maid dorm was a half-harpy, but she just got the hollow bones without the body structure needed to support them. Poor thing broke something almost every day.”
Norman glanced at Pail with a strange emotion he hadn’t felt before. Something akin to pity but more… warm? Complex emotions were uncomfortable, so Norman quickly pushed the feeling aside as he looked back up at Rowboat. “And… you? You seem perfectly capable to me. If you could carry both of us, plus all our things, you’d do great in construction or farming.” He didn’t intend to be encouraging or to compliment her. He just found it strange that someone so strong would struggle to find work, even if they were discriminated against.
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Rowboat patted her sturdy chest and let out a defeated chuckle. “I sure look strong, don’t I? Titans usually have 3 hearts to keep their large bodies working, but I’ve only got one. The most I can do is carry things; if I do heavy lifting and rushing required of a manual laborer, I’ll pass out within an hour.” It’s not like she didn’t want to work; she wanted to be part of society just like everyone else, but she wasn’t pretty enough for housework or front desk work, and she couldn’t read, so working in stores or offices was impossible. A few years ago, she threw in the towel and decided to live in the forest instead of dealing with all that.
“But you can still carry things, right? How much would you estimate you could carry while still keeping a regular walking pace?” Norman asked, very intrigued. So what if she couldn’t do a lot of physical work? Back on Earth, she’d still be very sought after. His good little worker brain started calculating all the things she could do. Maybe mechanics would be good? Or maybe a baker or line cook would put those strong arms to use best.
The towering woman clenched her hand, calculating how much weight would slow her down. She’d never really thought about it before; just being strong meant nothing when you didn’t have the stamina to back it up. “The same as a horse, probably. Only at a walking pace, though. If I ran like that, I wouldn’t last more than a few minutes.” Not that her walking pace would be slow; a single step took her further than three steps of an adult man, five if that adult man was Norman
A horse!? Norman was alight with excitement. Having the strength of an animal in the body of a sentient being that could follow instructions was… well, it was fucking fantastic. He wanted her. He wanted her badly. He didn’t know what he wanted her for yet, but whatever he did, a walking powerhouse would be immensely useful. He began drafting a mental work contract when he realized that he should probably ask the woman in question if she even wanted to work for him.
“Ahem… and how much payment would you require for your services?” He asked as smoothly as possible; confidence was the key to business deals… probably. He was just an accountant, he hadn’t hired anyone in his life.
Rowboat tilted her head in confusion. Payment was for shop owners and higher class workers like secretaries or guild workers, not for simple laborers like her. “A bed and a meal every day is the usual compensation for full-time work. I’d be stupid not to take an offer like that, especially now that my home has been reduced to rubble.”
Norman gripped her giant hand with the seriousness of a man about to propose. “Miss Rowboat. May I have the honor of hiring you for a place to sleep, three meals a day, and a salary of five Lapis per working day?” He asked with sparkling eyes, looking deeply into Rowboat’s tired ones.
The woman was taken aback. Was he serious about hiring a defect like her for the salary of a senior guild worker? The offer was so good that it made it seem like a joke, but the man in front of her was clearly a wealthy prince from a faraway land. Maybe picking up slaves like her and Pail was one of his hobbies, and the offer of work was just a way to disguise his abnormal interests. Even if that was the case, Rowboat didn’t mind. If Pail liked him so much that he wanted them to be family, then he couldn’t be that strange.
Realizing she was lost in thought, she quickly pulled herself together before Norman changed his mind. “Absolutely! I will work as hard as I can for that kind of pay, master!” She declared loudly, making the cave rumble with her impressive volume.
Norman was glad that the offer he came up with on the spot was so enthusiastically accepted, but he’d rather walk through a bed of hot coals than be called master by anyone ever again. “...just Norman is fine.”
“YES, MR NORMAN!”
