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After the initial shock wore off and they had both had a good nights sleep, Bill and Paula, now known as Texxan and Xavieras, awoke to the smell of wood burning. The thick pungent odor hung in the air all around them. They sat up in the small tent that was just inside the walls of the city of Freeport. What a site they beheld as they awoke though. Just outside of the tent was, what they thought, some type of vender. A large grotesque man, who as they watched him noticed just every few minutes would reach around behind him, and with NO concern about anything, would scratch his big butt. They could not believe their ears; they actually heard him moaning out that he had food for sale, as well as other items, but FOOD! They thought who in their right mind would buy food from a creature such as him, even though the food was just different kind of pickles? To which, even the names of the pickles sounded rather disgusting. He reminded Bill of a big oaf he had played football with in college, he always called him �bubba� and thus was what he nicknamed this big fellow. He told Paula of the nickname for him, she bit her lip to keep from roaring in laughter. Just as they had settled back into the tent to try and figure out what their next move was to be, a small, pointy-eared man stumbled into the camp and sat down close to them. They noticed wounds, deep gashes, on the mans arms and torso, as though he had been in a terrible fight. They both scrambled to their feet and began tending to his wounds. As they touched the man it was as though his wounds just disappeared. They looked at each other in astonishment. What had just happened? One minute the man was bleeding and near dying now he looked healed and no signs of wounds anywhere. �Thank you very much� the man said � I thought I was a goner, you must be paladins� he said. �Paladins?� Bill asked. �Yes, or are you of the cleric class? It really doesn�t matter I don�t guess.� He stood and bowed from the waist to both of them and then handed Bill several coins. Bill took them and thanked him, bowing in the same manner the man had just bowed to him. �Thanks again friend� he said as he waved and ran off past the guards and out the gate. Bill looked at Paula and then at the coins in his hand. He counted 10 of them; they were pure white, not very heavy though. Silver he wondered, but they weren�t heavy enough to be silver. Platinum maybe, yes that�s what they must be he decided, but platinum was very expensive, or it had been anyway. Bill gave 5 of the coins to Paula and pocketed the other 5. They may need these at some time. Someone, during the nite, had placed two skin bags full of milk, 2 cloth wrapped lumps of some kind of biscuits and 2 rolled up scrolls, along side of them in the tent. Neither of them had bothered them, thinking they surely belonged to someone else and didn�t want to get in trouble so soon after arriving here, but now no one was around and they were still there. They moved back into the tent and quickly took the items and put them between themselves. When they moved the bundles they also found 2 small swords, that had been covered up by the bundles. They each took a bag and a lump and one of the swords. Bill opened and read the scroll out loud. It was written rather crudely but it told them to go see a man in a temple and to give this scroll to him to start our training. Paula thought it wouldn�t be such a bad idea to get some training to survive here in the strange land and Bill agreed with her. They rose and began asking different ones they came across, where they might find this temple place that was noted in the scroll. After wondering around the city for a short time they finally found the temple and went in. Various venders were set up inside selling their wares and in the bottom of the big temple they found the man they were looking for. The man wasn�t much bigger than Bill; but then again Bill was no small man. He had played football in college and had quite a good physique. Paula too had participated in athletics in college and had quite a well formed athletic build as well as being quite beautiful. They both gave the scroll to the man. He asked their names. �Texxan� replied Bill. �Xavieras� replied Paula. The man wrote down their names in a book and told them to begin by training in the art of swordsmanship, by slaying rats, snakes, and such at the front gate. �You will find there are bounties on most of the things, for one part or another, and you may be able to sell them to some of the venders here within Freeport. Now go and use your training wisely Texxan and Xavieras� the man said and turned to speak with some others that had come to see him. In exchange for the scroll they gave him he gave each of them a tunic looking piece of clothing. It was heavier than the clothing they now wore and both thought it would be good in a fight as armor of sorts. They put it on and headed out to the front gate where they had been before. Once there they noticed several other people slashing and hacking at huge rats, and snakes and even some were killing the orc things that attacked Bill. They rapidly skinned the rats and snakes and from the orcs they noticed some were scalping them and even looting the bodies of clothing and weapons. �Well, when in Rome do as the Romans do� Bill said with a smile, looking at Paula. And with that they both plunged in and began slashing at a large rodent. When they had killed and skinned it they took it to the vender they had nicknamed �bubba�. He bought the things they brought him off of the rat, whiskers, fur, ears and even a tooth. Some of the other things he didn�t want and they discarded them and went back out.
