Big red simply watched the conversation happening between the Archer and the Smith. Both girls had way more charisma than himself. Archer was small, cute, and fluffy. Druid girl was nice, cute, and apparently her chest was something the human males desired. A price was given for the scrap, and another was given for the quality goods. Which...probably came from this very shop. The knives and sword were too shiny and new despite the goblins short treatment of them.

All of this despite the bean-poles negative input. Did the boy think metal just grew on trees? It came from old metal, ores, ingots which came from ores. Just because something was rusty didn't mean you couldn't get it off. Or melt it down to make something better. Thankfully the smith sent the youth into the back of the shop. They were also offered a discount due to his sons attitude issues.

When asked his opinion on the matter he just shrugged. "It's rude to turn down gifts." He replied while turning his attention to the items of the shop. Blades, bludgeons, axes, armors, shields, a lot of options. Druid Girl seemed like she wanted to turn down the offer, but the blacksmith talked her into it. Repeat customers were always good for a business. Better than one and dones, although the big red reptile guessed the porcelains either moved towns or died in the field...or sewer.

He didn't necessarily need anything. But learning experiences from their previous job made him eye the shields more. A larger shield for better projectile protection would be handy and maybe one of the girls could use the buckler. It was barely two pounds of weight and it strapped onto the arm instead of needing to be held. "How much for a kite shield?" He questioned while eying the wooden almond shaped piece of equipment. He could carry a lot of weight, even if he didn't use it all the time he could keep it on his person.

The "small, cute, and fluffy" archer would bounce back and forth on the back of her feet, very happy that they seemed to be getting a good deal. It felt good that they'd found a place to offload metal loot, even if it meant that they may on occasion have to deal with the smith's son's mouth. Ah well...she figured that maybe he'd ease up a bit now that the head of the shop had given them his approval. Or maybe he'd just continue to be a dunce when it came to attracting customers. The archer felt that her sword could use a good whetstone treatment, but she wasn't aware if they offered that service at smithies. If anything, she expected she'd be able to find a good enough whetstone at the general store later to work the chips out of her blade.

While Big Red sorted out his purchase of a kite shield, the archer would ask: "Do you sell arrows here too? My tribe used to have the smith and fletcher work in seperate places, but I don't know if that's common everywhere." She was ignorant about a lot of things, and was hoping she'd get an answer from the friendly smith. She needed arrows to shoot monsters, after all.

The smith looked over at Big Red, and followed the reptilian man's gaze as they eyed the various shields on display. The elderly human scratched his chin and walked over to the racks where said defensive equipment were stored.

"Depends on what quality ya be wantin', lad." He said, picking up one of the shields. It was a dull thing, no paint, no embellishings, not even a symbol or crest on it, and entirely made of wood. "This one? I'll give it up for cheap." He said, the corner of his mouth curled into a small smirk. "This one though..." He put the first shield down and picked up another.

This one was of significantly superior make. Not only waas the wood used of am unmistakably higher quality, but the entire thing was just undeniably better made. More clean wood work, less frayed eges, reinforced binds, a solid metal central knob, stretched hide and an evenly split, half and half colorful red and white paint-job.

"This one'll cost ya a bit. Orignally had it custom ordered by a noble here in town, but the dang fool didn't want it when he showed up to take it home. Said it wasn't suitably regal 'nuff for him. Tch." TYhe man made a sour grimace and put the shield bakc down. "Damn fool couldn't tell quality-work from some gaudy, over-rpiced piece of fraud jewellry. Anyway... I'd let this one go for 5 Silver... Err, that's 500 copper." The smith corrected himself, apparently realizing that the lizardman might not be fully fluent in the current-exchange-rates of the human world. He then perked up and turned his head to the arhcer.

"Arrows? We mostly be makin' just the heads for those here, lil' lady. We got a few, but they ain't nothin' special." He admitted in a very earnest manner. "If ya be wantin' fancier stock, you'd best go see the fletcher at the end of the street here. Real good work, if a bit pricey in my eyes." He snorted, then proceeded over to the back of the shop. Rummaging around in a lidless crate, the bulky, muscular man began fishing up arrow after arrow, until his giant hands were gasping a total of maybe 30 or so. Amusingly, most of them had different colored feathers, slightly different heads and were of different types of wood. Whoever had sold them to the blacksmith had either made them themselves, or collected various ones from different places. Regardless, the big man brought the haul up to the counter and laid the arrows out in a row, so that Steppe Archer could get a better look at them. "Sad to say, we dun be sellin' any quivers. But ya look like ya have yer own." HE said with a friendly smile.

Meanwhile, as the other two were busy talking about wares and prices, Druid Girl took it upon herself to at least peruse the options available. There were a lot of things to look at after all, even if the shop wasn't too big. Swords, daggers, spears and spearheads, maces, various pieces of metal armor and helmets... She stopped infront of a weapon rack that had various bludgeoning tools on display. One in particular was a club, a simple wooden one, with rings of metal wrapped around one end. It was the kind of instrument you used to savagely brutalize someone's face with, or easily knocked someone's teeth out with by means of side-ways swing... She picked it up and fiddled a bit with the weapon. Held it in one hand and gave it a playful swing... It was actually quite weighty despite its appearance. She decided however to put it back.

Moving on, she meandered over to the shelf with a few helmets on it. Picking up a very mundane and matte-looking kettle hat, she tried the helm on... Only to have it be far too large for the girl's head and slide down over her entire skull. In a panic, she began flailing her arms and make muffled noises as she tried to pull the helm off. The smith over at the counter raised an eyebrow and then chuckled dryly at the sight. Once the helmet was pulled off, with a comedic plop-noisem the caramel-skinned girl let out a sigh of relief and quickly returned the death-trap to its proper place on the shelf.

Next, she wandered - quickly - over to a counter, where various gloves and arm-related armor was kept. There were plated gauntlets, chainmail gloves, leather gloves with metal reinforcements, studded leather gloves... And braers of all types and make. Laying eyes on a pair of studded leather braces, the girl carefully picked them up, s if they were made of glass... Slipping them on and then securing the wrist-armor, one at a teime, she looked at them from different angles and moved her arms around. They were actually fairly comfortable and didn't interfere with her movements at all. Best of all, they wouldn't get in the way of any spellcasting either! With a big sunny smile on her face, she quickly moved up to rejoin her companions, with the bracers still on her arms.

"I'll... I'll take these!" She said happily and excited, holding her arms forward to showcase the items to the smith. He gave her a big, toothy smile.
"Oh-ho~? Good pick, lil' lady. Those ones belonged to a steel-ranked adventuer. I made some adjustments and replaced the straps, as well as replaced all the studs. You can have 'em for 2 silver."
"Sold!" The girl didn't hesitate for a second, pulling her money-bag up and emptying a large quantity of her coins onto the counter... But sicne they were all copper, it took the pair a bit of time to actually count and get the proper amount.

"Peraphs we should go visit the bank and get some of our coins exchanged..." The druid said, laughing nervously and scratching the back of her head.

Big Red watched the smith as he procured two shields. A low quality one and a high quality one ordered by a noble. The price made him shake his head. "Don't have five silver currently, so I'll take the other one." He said before picking it up and checking its weight. Honestly it didn't weigh much to him, barely registered, but he pictured one of the girls with it and his mouth quirked up just a bit. They'd probably struggle because lifting a shield wasn't just your bicep, it used muscles not commonly worked with when you were a magic user or an archer.

Still they shouldn't need a shield, that was his job after all. They just needed to know how to dodge and avoid things. Still with the shield on the hook of his back he plonked down the necessary amount of copper. Archer Girl was restocking on arrows...possibly. The ones revealed weren't uniform, different wood, different feathers, slightly different heads. As long as it flew and hit did it matter about appearances? Shrugging mentally he moved off to the side to wait on the ladies.

Druid Girl piped up and bought a set of bracers, studded leather ones. A good start to wearing armor, and it left her hands open to actually grab things. How did humans pick things up with leather gloves on? Meh, she bought them and wore them, and mentioned a bank to exchange the surplus copper coins for silver ones. It was an idea, who needed all those coins jangling in your purse drawing attention of would be thieves or envious eyes. "If you want, assuming we don't have any more shopping to do." He rumbled out, maybe the Guild Job Board had some new jobs too?

The nomad girl hummed a bit, before deciding that she could skimp a bit by buying arrows here for now rather than the fletcher proper. After all, the hide of monsters that they'd be in danger of encountering wasn't of the level that they needed to have really good arrowheads to penetrate. The girl's calloused hands would rest upon the counter as she looked, her keen eyes getting so close to the merchandise that it likely made the smith's son want to kick her out. But, she had to be certain that the arrow would fly straight...and these ones, despite the claim of not being special, proved to be adequately made. The goblin's rusted arrows would work in a pinch, but just to be certain the girl would buy eight arrows of similar enough slim lengths, not seeming to mind about what color the feathers were. Her quiver wasn't overly large, fitting a little over a dozen arrows snugly as she paid for her arrows and beamed at the blacksmith. "Thank you very much sir!" the archer said, giving a respectful bow to the smith before looking to the druid girl as she questioned if they should exchange coins.

"I think we should go see what kind of jobs we can take on first. After all, it'd be a pain to go exchange coins only to need copper anyways for stuff we need to prepare. Then, if we're already geared up, we can go ahead to the bank after," the archer said, stating what she thought was a pretty good plan, given that it wasn't like a bank was going to have all its money stolen in the span of twenty minutes while they went to scope out the quest board.

The archer laid a hand on the scabbard at her hip, wondering if she should have the smith sharpen her sword while they looked, but given the wear on it that could take some time...time that they ill could afford to spend, behind on job hunting as they were. "If you guys want , I could go look at jobs for us while you go to the bank and exchange."

"Tnaks for yer business. Feel free to drop by any time if ya lot ever need anything' else." The blacksmith, showcasing his toothy smile - mostly concealed by his facial hair - once again. The large, muscular man scooped up the coins left by his customers and opened up what was, in essence, a very primitive cash register. As he tipped his giant bear-mitt of a hand to the side, the sound of clinking coins falling into the wooden container was quite remeniscent of rain on a roof during a storm... Except much more brief in duration. Done and content with himself, the smith waved the trio a friendly farewell, before marching into the backroom where he'd tossed his inept son earlier, and began howling and yelling at the boy about various things - including, but not limited to, customer service, work-ethics, motivation, his utter lack of talent with the forge, how he smelled like old cheese and other less important matters.

Raising an amused eyebrow, Druid Girl turned from the counter and waltzed on over to Big Red by the entrance. Apparently she was very pleased with her purchase, as she kept looking at her new bracers, holding her arms up and turning them from side to side, inspecting the leather protection with the same enthusiasm that a young noblewoman showed after she'd purchased a fancy, and expensive, dress of questionable practicality.

Once she heard the other two mention their thoughts though, she tapped her chin in thought before replying.

"I honestly don't think there'll be much at the guild at this hour, at least not when it comes to available jobs. Most of the good stuff gets grabbed right after they post the questss in the morning. The only things that doesn't get picked up are usually stuff like clearing out the sewers or quests that take you reeeaaaally far from town and pay reeeeeaaaally little money in return." She mentioned. After all, Druid Girl had been in Palisade Town for a while longer than the other two, so she had managed to pick up on how things worked over at the adventuring guild during her stay in the frontier settlement.

"I don't think exchanging our money would be a real issue either. Most shops and services have change in coppr, so even if we over-pay for somethign with silver, it shouldn't matter. Still, if you'd rather have coppers on you, that's up to you." She said, tilting her head at the Steppe Archer and looking a bit puzzled as to why the nomad would want to carry a large, jingling sum of coins that just screamed: 'Hey! I got money! Please purse-snatch me!'... But perhaps they didn't have different types of currency where she was from?

Exiting the smithy, Druid Girl stretched and arched her back slightly backwards, letting out a long and cutesy 'Hmmmmmmmmmmm~'!'-sound as she did, before letting her arms to drop along her sides. Turning back to look at her companions she spoke up again.

"We might wanna pick up some new potions, to replace the ones we used when helping that girl in the cave... Oh, and if we're going into the sewers, we might wnna pick up some torches, or a lantern. It's really murky and dingy down there." She suggested. "Other then that, I don't think I've got any more shopping I wanna do... Except maybe for a snack... Or two..."

At hearing that there was likely no work left at the guild save for chasing down vermin in the sewers, the archer's back slumped a bit as she remembered the hideous roaches, disgusting rats, and literal plague down there before she waved her hand dismissively to say: "I uh...think I'll have to say no to us taking on sewer work. They've got roaches down there the size of me. It sounds stupid, I know, but someone I was adventuring with nearly died down there!" The girl protested her hardest until she just deflated a bit, realizing that beggars couldn't be choosers, and just hoped that they could take the day off after their long adventure. Despite being raring to go to work, she wasn't raring to go wade through crap for less copper than they just received for their doubled efforts.

The girl would aimlessly look around, unsure of what to do for a good bit of time before something seemed to catch her eye. "Um...I'll catch up with you two at the guild a bit later. Need to take care of something," the nomad girl would say before suddenly running off to towards the gates of Palisade. She seemed transfixed on something, but was, in fact, looking for something in particular that she'd seen when they were tussling with the boars a few days ago. With her hunting prowess it would be a simple task to maintain her sense of direction in the woods around the town as she hunted not for animals, but for the Pipini herbs that they'd used to treat the unfortunate red-haired adventurer.

The druid girl had said they were used in simple healing potions, so the archer figured that she could grab a fairly good number and sell them to an alchemist for some extra coinage. Despite the urgency with which she seemed to depart the girl would return to the guild bright and chipper, leaves and twigs in her hair and a sack full of herbs tied at her hip. She hoped that her lizard and druid friends would appreciate her gathering all those herbs, since they could probably make enough coins that they didn't need to trudge through a sewer for money. Seriously, Palisade was so small, how did its sewer get so...monstrous!?

Big Red glanced at Archer Girl when she mentioned that she'd prefer not to do the sewer. She spoke of bugs as big as her, which wasn't something he was unfamiliar with. A swamp or marsh was essentially a breeding ground for such insects, a dark and dank sewer wasn't much different. Rotting corpses, rotting feces, stagnant water, and nauseating fumes were something the lizardman had grown up with.

"To deal with large bugs or swarms, fire is a good thing to have. Alcohol burns pretty hot." He said but shrugged, fire seemed to be a catch all for most monsters out there. Even magical animals seemed to hate and fear fire, those boars the other day weren't normal sized and the sow was wary of the flaming branch. Still if she didn't want to do it he wasn't going to force her down into the sewers. She had been self conscious of the smell when they first met after all.

But the girl darted off to do something. Druid Girl mentioned replenishing their potions and possibly getting a lantern. "If we do decide to do the sewer job, a torch would be better. It might not go further ahead like a lantern, but it isn't a single direction light and it's not as fragile." Big Red said, lanterns were an extreme commodity for his people, the glass could barely handle a tap of a lizardmans finger. A torch could be swung like a cudgel and possibly light the opponent on fire, nevermind just causing a painful burn.

"But still, lets go get the potions and then exchange what we have left for silver. The less jingles we make the better." He said and gestured for the dark skinned squeaky girl to lead the way

Druid Girl watched as Steppe Archer ran off, apparently having something to do while she and Big Red went to do a potion-run. That girl was certainly full of energy, all the time. It brought a slight smile to the nature mage's face. Then Big Red spoke up, again sharing his wisdom of the world with the girl. However, this time, she felt compelled to counter some of his 'lessons' with knowledge and common sense of her own.

"Alcohol might burn well, but it's dangerous to use. It's very hard to actually see the flames, and it burns out reallly fast. Plus, it's not like anyone around here would be seeling alcohol that's pure enough to use for fuel... Unless you think watered-down ale and wine'll do the trick." She laughed slightly. "Also, torches might be good for swminging around, but you're just as likely to set yourself on fire doing that. You might not have to worry about it, big guy, but me and the arhcer? Well, we got plenty more flammable bits on us..." She said, gently reaching back and tugging softly on her long, velvety, jet-black hair.

"Also, not sure what kinda lanterns your people have in the swamps, but the ones here we got here are just a brass frame with glass on all sides... They shed more light and reach further than a torch, plus they last way longer." She explained, while they walked. "Besides, if I'm not mistakaen, my Master told me something about open flames and certain gases that can interact and cause huge explosions... What was it again...?" She tapped her chin and seemed lost in thought for a bit. "... Err... It was somehting like meth... math...? Moth? ... Some kind of gas, anyway. And apparently, that kinda gas is generated by... Well... Poo." She made a grimace that was clearly a mix of disgust and embarrassment, having to talk about litteral feces with someone. "And if that gas is down in the sewers too, we might accidentlaly go ka-booom! if we swing a lit torch around, y'know?" She paused for a bit. "Come to think of it, I think Master also said that the same gas was common in swamps and bogs too... I've never actually seen it myself though, but it sounds dangerous." She continued.

Druid Girl would continue to speak freely and merrily, all the way to the store. The pair eventually arrived at the same shop that she and Steppe Archer had visited before, and after purchasing their desired items, they were off once again. This time to the noble district of the town, where they entered the local bank. After convincing the staff that Big Red wasn't there to rob the place, they were able to successfully convert their money. Druid Girl even opened an account and squirreled some of her earnings away. After this, it was back on track to the adventuring guild. Amazingly, despite all their running around and rather relaxed pace, they still somehow got back to the guild hall before the archer.

"Pfft....! We just bathed, and now look at you." Druid Girl said, covering her mouth and stifling a laugh.

The poor poofy-haired nomad was covered in leaves, twigs and petals. She looked like she'd been running full-speed through the thickest undergrowth around, with reckless abandon and not caring what was in her path.... Actually, that sounded pretty much spot-on for this little bundle of energy. Druid Girl couldn't help but laugh at the thought of the nomad archer running through the woods, screaming like Tarzan. It was a very amusing mental picture. Still, once she calmed down, the druid noticed the bundle of herbs in the nomad's hands.

"You want to sell those?" She asked, tilting her head and raising an eyebrow. "I'm sure some pharmacists would pay you for them, but that's a fairly common ingrediant... Which means most alchemists already have a decently large stock of them on hand..." The girl explained, not wanting to overly rain on the other's good intentions. Still, most alchemists knew where to gather those plants themselves, and those that had apprentices or employees likely would just send them out to fetch the herbs for free...

"A-anyway!" Let's have a look at that quest boa-" Druid girl paused and looked at the single scrap of paper hanging from the board. "-oh... Roaches, huh?" She said, blinking and looking at the notice.

80 Measly copper for killing 20 giant bugs... While crawling arorund in an amonia-smelling, feces-wafting, dark, damp and unsanitary mess, right after getting cleaned and freshened up...? Well... That was 4 coppers per dead bug... And they couldn't be that big, right? Druid girl stared in silence at the posting, trying to find reasons and justifiable arguments to actually motivate herself enough to take this job on.

It didn't go too well.

A long, long bout of silence followed the archer girl being told that those herbs were basically worthless since every alchemist had them. One could almost see her soul trying to leave her body, feeling like an idiot for wasting an entire afternoon traipsing around the woods, avoiding stepping in dung, all for herbs that nobody needed. The thud of the archer's head against the table signaled that she understood how much of a colossal waste of time that all was.

As the druid came to realize that the literal only quest available to them was to kill roaches, the archer righted her head on the table, chin pressed down as she said: "Do noooot...seriously! Its not gonna work out good. There's rats as big as my head down there, the roaches have diseases, and if just one bites you it can be a disaster! Its better for people with full armor to do, but trudging around in sewer water in armor is gonna be awful too." Marching over and standing beside the druid, the archer would wiggle her fingers on her left hand, adding: "Me and Big Red would be fine since he's got a thick hide and I've got lots of padding, but if you got bit it'd be over like that!" she said, emphasizing with a tickling pinch of the druid girl's tanned side.

With her quirky demonstration over with, the archer would go back to the table and sit down, looking at her bag of herbs. "...I don't wanna lose another party I like because of some dumb bugs. I'll pick as many herbs as it takes, and sleep in the cold if it means we can go a day without wading through poop to fight bugs," she said, hanging her head a bit. She was still shaken from how Guard Lady, a woman who seemed so much stronger than her, just...collapsing and vomiting after a few bites from roaches. From disease. From a damnable plague that they were being told to go exterminate for copper.

Big Red glanced down at her. "Immediate fire spray would deter a wild animal or insect enough to lay 9into them before they could react. Not to mention fur is highly flammable, like your hair you pointed out." He replied before tilting his head slightly, a way of showing he was thinking. "Bundle up your fluff and cover with cloth." He continued, hell his own clothes were flammable considering the fur lining some of it.

But she did have a point, if the alcohol was too watered down then it wouldn't light and tar was too...thick and sticky to work. Granted it'd burn forever. Pitch from trees was also too thick to be very sprayable. She spoke about the lanterns and he just shrugged. "Why pay silver for a lantern and pay to refill the fuel when you can get a hard-wood branch, wrapped in pitch soaked cloth for almost free." It seemed he was also thinking financially when it comes to light sources. Oil was expensive, maybe if they were higher ranked with better paying jobs it'd be a more feasible thing for them.

Then she mentioned gases, which got an uncharacteristically huge and toothy grin from him. "I'm aware of the gases, we just call it swamp gas. It lights up pretty good. Used to light the clouds and bubbles as a hatchling despite the smell." The man said, he clearly liked the flames and possibly explosions caused by such gases. But he had been in a wide open swamp for that, he hadn't tried lighting such gases or fluids in the confines of a sewer. But if it could fit him it should be open enough to not cause a powerful explosion. Should be is the key wording.

Their errands were done quick enough, with some words and looks passed around and an irksome scenario of a banker claiming he'd rob them. If he had wanted to rob someone wouldn't he have covered up more? He didn't exactly blend in with the smaller races. They got back to the Guild before the Archer who came up a short while later. A mess and with a sack full of those herbs from the previous day. "We can still use them though, I'm sure you could make poultices out of the herbs." He said to the pair, mostly to Druid Girl since...well she knew nature and some of the properties of these plants. Archer Girl looked put out that they couldn't sell them, or she'd get a pittance for her work. He was no shaman, he was absolutely clueless about plants and their uses. He only had the barest knowledge of what not to eat...and that had been through trials and error.

He watched the pair silently as they talked about the sewer job. Neither of them was too enthused about it, Archer Girl especially because of what happened with her previous party. "If you truly don't want to do it we don't have to. I'd like to get more jobs under our belts but I'm not going to force anyone to do something they don't want to do." Big Red stated with a shrug. He was naturally build to do jobs like that but the girls weren't. And Archer Girl very clearly didn't want to go down there, and it probably wasn't just because of the smell. She had mentioned losing a party, had they died? Or did they quit without clearing the job?

"I can make some basic salves with the herbs, sure. But it won't be anything nearly as potent as an actual healing potion mind you. At best, it'll help close up small cuts and such." Druid Girl replied when Big Red asuggested she use the plucked plants that their plucky pal from the steppes had pouched from the pesky woods outside of Palisade.

Upon hearing, and seeing, the archer's reation and vehent unwillingness to do the sewer-crawling job, the nature mage simply nodded in agreement. She wasn't going to argue or persuade her friends to go through with it - especially since she didn't have any desire to really do it herself in the first place. The question was; What to do with the rest of the day though? It was a bit into the afternoon, but there weren't any jobs available that they wanted at the guild. And they'd already gone shopping for both supplies and gear, as well as visited the bank.

They could go eat again, that was an idea... One that the druid almost blurted out with questionable eagerness - but she managed to restrain herself before the suggestion exited her lips. What else was there? Walk around Palisade and enjoy the scenery? Not like the place was a marvel of culture or archietecture, so there wasn't that much to look at. Go drinking at a bar? Druid Girl had never been much for imbibing spirits or alcohol, nor was she fond of taverns where drunks and other riff-raff hung out... They had a tendency to try and get handsy with her...

They'd already bathed as well, and while going for a stroll through the nearby woods would've been lovely, Druid Girl somehow doubted that the branch and leaf-covered Steppe Archer - who had just spent her time running around collecting plants - would be up for more hiking, even if it was just for leisure. So what could they do then...? She rubbed her chin slowly in deep thought, before a proverbial light bulb finally sparked above her head.

"So! If we're not gonna go crawling in the sewers and smashing bugs, why don't we do something fun? All work and no play is bad for you, as my dad used to say! ... Even if he never followed that saying himself... A-anyway! What do you two when you got time off? Anything particular you like doing? Like say... Uh... Butterfly catching? Hoprse-shoe tossing? Wrestling?" She paused and looked at Big Red. "... Sharpening your weapons...?" It was rather obvious she didn't exactly know how lizardfolk spent their - if any - leisure time...

Steppe Archer appreciated not having to sewer dive again more than the two could ever know. Like, ever. Seriously. But, there was the remaining question of just what to do with all this free time left on this afternoon. While the proficient huntress would offer to go do some hunting, she doubted that a druid would support hunting for sport. Even if she was certain that with Big Red's help they could get a massive haul, she respected the druid enough to not suggest going off to skin animals for fun. Not like she did it for fun to begin with, mind you, but she knew that noblemen hunted for sport, often wasting some perfectly good animals just on virtue of the fact that they could.

"We could train. But that's not really 'fun', more just something so we don't waste the day. We could like...just talk, I guess. Maybe get to know each other better?" The nomad girl was frankly very unused to things outside of her steppe socially, used to, generally, having a bunch of girls her age with similar interests and similar background to chatter with. The druid girl was a girl, and knew things about nature, and that was about where their interests stopped meeting. Big Red was a survivalist, but was also a whole other species and gender than she was used to. So, maybe just chatting would do them all some good, in a way.

Those gold colored eyes glanced at Druid Girl before he shrugged. "Something is better than nothing and the plants wouldn't have gone to waste." He said as the two settled on not going into the sewer. Honestly he could probably go it alone, but why tempt fate? Something bigger than rats and bugs could be hiding in the sewer what with only a rusty grate being the only defense in the ditches outside of town.

So they'd have a free day apparently, and Druid Girl tossed some ideas around. Then Archer Girl mentioned training or talking to get to know each other. "There's plenty of light left in the day, could do some training, talking, and such." He stated before catching on that neither knew what his people did in their off time. Assuming they ever had any. Which was a given since neither traveled to the marshes and swamps on the southern area of the continent.

"Personally I think we should do some training and not just in things you're good at." Big Red said, he could teach them some of his foot work and balanced stances. The pair were smaller than him so being tackled by something would be easier to knock them to the ground than himself. A mental blink made his brain stop, he had only known the pair of girls for a few days. Was he growing attached to them? Maybe. He was probably just feeling lonely since had been away from home for a good while. He did walk to palisade town after all.

Druid Girl internally noted that these tow really were from different cultures than her own... Normally, she was fine with trekking through mud and dirt, she was a farmer's daughter after all, but even they didn't wander on out into the fields and start getting all sweaty and gross after a bath! Granted, baths back home were usually done at night,a fter the day's work was done, but still... That being said, she didn't exactly have any better ideas and perhaps - if she was sneaky - she could do more of the talking and less of the training... Though given how Big Red was, he'd probably get grumbly about it if she tried...

"Right then. If we're gonna train, I suppose we should head out one of the gates and do it on some grass. Dirt and gravel, or cobblestone for that matter, don't exactly make the best for softening a tumble or fall." She said, with a slight laugh, before gingerly strolling on, towards the east gate of Palisade Town.

A few minutes later, the group was outside the walls yet again. Not too far from the place where they'd done their very first job together actually - though no boars were in sight this time. Druid Girl pitter-pattered about for a while, checking the ground and shoo'ing away smaller woodland creatures such as mice, birds and a curious squirrel. After making sure there were no brambles, thistles or other pointy and/or hazardous plantlife in their immediate area, she turned back to the other two.

"Alright, so what should we be training?" She asked. "I doubt things like push-ups or sit-ups would do us much good if we're just doing it for today... And the same could be said for running... Oh!" She suddenly realized somehting. "You said something about training balance?" The girl inquired, looking over at the muscular behemoth of red scales. "How do we do that? ... Stand on one leg like this?" The raven-haired girl said, lifting one leg up and balancing on her lone one... A bit wobbly, but nontheless managing to stay upright without hopping aobut or falling over.

Steppe Archer would cross her arms and nod at the Lizard Fighter's idea of training in things they weren't very good at. It made sense, though, honestly she wasn't sure what she'd want to improve on. Maybe getting better in close range was an option, but she wouldn't describe herself as "weak" in that department.

The moment that the druid girl started balancing on one foot, the archer couldn't help but snicker, mostly since she was wobbling like a newborn deer. "I don't know if that kind of training is gonna do it for balance. But if you wanna work on what we're weak at, we could all start off with simple physical training. I imagine Big Red doesn't need much of that himself, but it might help us think." The archer herself wasn't really sure what weaknesses she should learn to cover. Maybe she could try and work on shooting while moving around, but that was...kind of hard. Like, extremely. On horseback she could rely on the horse going and maneuvering mostly on its own, but it'd be easy for someone running around and shooting arrows to trip and stumble and probably poke an eye out.

"Or, we could just spar with some sticks. That always works too."

Big Red looked between the two girls. Archer Girl was clearly thinking about something while they moved out of the town to the fields beyond the walls. He did watch Druid Girl work, shooing away animals and checking for spiky plants. That second part got a raised eyebrow. He knew pain was something to be avoided, but minor pains could help build a greater tolerance to the bigger pains. Eh different people different desires.

"You'd be surprised what one afternoon of exercises can do for you." He said before shaking his head at her question of balance. "That's more acrobatic balance. I'm talking more of a combat balance." He explained before shifting his stance from just standing there. His feet were spread to shoulder width, one was slipped forward a bit, and his knees were in line with his toes. "This is the balance I mean. Even if another lizardman were here and tackled me I wouldn't fall and it's versatile for melee." He stated before leaning back, leaning forward, then to the sides. His feet never moved with his upper-bodies movements.

"If you can use this stance you'll excel in a physical fight, and from there I can show you proper foot movements that'll let you keep this balance even while shifting location or dodging." The behemoth stated before turning his attention to Archer Girl. It seemed speaking wasn't something he was good at multi-tasking with. "We have all afternoon, we can start with the easy balance training. Sparring with sticks. Or we can do the physical training you mentioned. I'd have had you walk and shoot but...we lack a target that won't break the arrows." He said while leaving the decision to them. He could go in any of those directions with the two girls. Although he was a bit wary with the sparring...neither of them had shown they were particularly skilled in melee combat...

Druid Girl laughed herself once she heard the nomad snicker at her silly posture.

"Hey! Don'ät laugh!" She blurted out, before putting her leg back down on the ground.

She then listened intently to Big Red's words of wisdom once more... He claimed that a day's worth of physical excersise could still achieve something... A rather remarkable statement, considering she'd worked on a farm and was used to hard labor, and knew for a fact that you didn't develop muscles or stamina over-night for just one day of hard work. But she decided to stay silent. Perhaps lizardmen anatomy worked differently and they developed faster? She really didn't know much about the species really, apart from what her Master had told her and what little Big Red had shared... And honestly, they didn't seem too pleasant so far...

Next up was the stance. The caramel-skinned young lass watched carefully as Big Red demonstrated. It looked... Peculiar... To say the least. But the giant mass of red assured the two girls that using this posture would disallow others from tackling him to the ground... Not that she understood what the point of that was, since in most fights with weapons you didn't actually tackle someone, you tried to bonk, bap, slice or poke them... But hey! It might be good for if a tavern-brawl broke out, or an unarmed rapist tried something in a dark alley... Or some other very specific situation where weaponry wasn't involved....?

"Errr.... Like this?" She said finally, attempting to mimic what the lizardman had done... Though, not quite getting it right... Her knees were angled inwards towards one another and she looked more like a newborn calf trying to stand up for the first time... Or like she really, really, really needed to go and take a little tinkle in a nearby bush...

"So...? Uh... How do we, y'know, fight while standing like this? It's a bit awkward..." The raven-haired girl stated, trying to adjust her knees and feet to more closely resemble what Big Red had shown...

Alas, she was a not but a former farm-girl, without a single day's worth of training in any sort of martial or even basic combat-arts What she knew of fighting she'd learned herself, or by watching her Master. Trying to teach someone like that how to use martial arts was going to be a bit more work than just showing her what to do...

Steppe Archer would examine the druid girl's stance and softly grasped her knees and feet, moving them into a proper position. "If you had a stance like the one before, a light breeze could knock you down. Like this, say, if a spear was coming at you and you had a shield up, you'd just get knocked down, and then they could stab your neck. Or worse, they could stab your legs and send you rolling, and you wouldn't be balanced enough to defend them," the nomad girl said, tapping various parts of Druid girl's body to show how super dead she'd be in a martial fight.

"Its one of those things that're hard to know if someone doesn't teach you is the thing. So, how about this? Me and Big Red will spar with some sticks, and you can see how we position and move. That sound good?" she asked, and, before even getting an answer, would find a sturdy, long stick, toss it to the Lizardfolk fighter, and then grab her own. "Even if Big Red is way bigger than me, as long as I have a proper stance, he shouldn't be able to knock me down without a fight. If you would, Mr. Red?" the girl said, holding her stick aloft to block a strike, urging for Red to demonstrate that the girl wouldn't be totally floored from one attack. Which, judging from her stance, she might have a chance at. Even if archery was her forte, it didn't mean that she was weak physically. If anything, her arms were impressive for her small stature, betraying countless hours spent shooting targets, and her stance showed she'd clearly practiced a little with her sword.

Of course, Red could always just teach her a lesson in shaping up her melee skills by beating her up. But that'd be rude.

Big Red gave Druid Girl a look, she was listening but the little glimmers in her eyes said she wasn't believing what he was saying about exercising. "Always think in baby steps when it comes to physical capabilities. If you can comfortably do twenty push-ups today, you should be able to do twenty-one in a couple days. Same with anything physical whether it's strength related or stamina related." He said while giving the pair a slight flex show. He clearly didn't develop these muscles over-night, that build was one built on dedication to the physical arts and he clearly didn't expect them to even try and match his might. You didn't need immense strength to cast magic or shoot an arrow.

While in his stance he watched Archer Girl correct how she held herself with light movements. He remembered his own instructors smack where he was wrong with a walking stick. But not everyone learned through pain, he doubted bonking the poor girl would help her improve anything, if anything it'd probably have the complete opposite effect. "Once you get used to it and learn the footwork it's very easy to fight like this. Even with a weapon, because this is one of the basic stances for all forms of melee weaponry." He explained while catching the stick that Archer Girl tossed to him.

So she knew it as well despite being an Archer? He was genuinely surprised but let her say her piece as well. She gave the go ahead to strike, clearly aiming to block an overhead. The stick was held in his left hand, which coincided with his back leg. "I'm not going to be moving as fast as I can by the way, you wouldn't be able to watch the footwork that way." He said before his back leg swept in then forward in a crescent movement. The only point he was truly not balanced was when his foot barely tapped his other foot and left a trail of dust and a streak of lightly disturbed soil.

Now his left was leading, which if she looked at his upper body meant his left hand was now leading as well. The stick came up before it came down almost as if he were flicking it, but when it came into contact with Archer's stick there was a loud crack of wood on wood and he was putting some force behind it and was pushing down and forward to make Archer go down and back. He wasn't using his full strength, but about the same as your typical adult human male swinging. "Your feet never leave the ground until you're good with the stance. You lead with your weak hand and follow with your strong." Big Red stated before continuing. "If you want to try just speak up, I've found few learn by watching and more by doing or experiencing."