Enna whistled as she walked down the street. It was off-key to a degree that would have caused Emiel physical pain, but they weren't here right now so she could do what she fucking wanted. And why shouldn’t she whistle! It was a beautiful day in Trailsend. The birds were singing, the air was crisp, and she was in a pretty good mood considering the fact that three days earlier she'd lost an entire lung to a direbear. Which of course meant that something had to come along to spoil it. Today, that something was four feet tall, four foot one if you counted the spiked-up blonde hair. She didn't know and she didn't care what Barrun had been doing before he decided to sidle up to her in the middle of the street and she had no desire for him to ask her how she was and what she was doing on that fine day. Did that stop him? Absolutely not, fucker was tenacious like a leech.
"Goin' to the bank," she grunted at him. Given that he was two full feet shorter than her, it took her a bit to notice that he'd stopped following her and was instead standing stock still in the middle of the road, apparently paralyzed by shock. When she finally stopped herself and turned to look at him, he was a good yard or so behind her. "What?" she asked, glaring at the rogue.
"Why're you goin there, to rob it?" he asked, jogging a bit to catch up. Lady Madeline followed behind him as always. The way she looked at Enna always felt a little judgy for her tastes, so Enna stuck out her tongue at the dog. Not her most dignified moment. Whatever.
"No, idiot, I'm going to make a goddamn deposit. You know there's other stuff to do in a bank besides crimes, right?" She shifted the satchel she had slung over her back, making it clink and jangle.
Barrun laughed. "Yeah, I just wasn't sure if you were aware! You don't seem like the type to be puttin' in savings, is all I'm sayin." He stuck his hands in his pockets, looking up at her with a weird expression on his face. "How long've you been doing this?"
Enna shrugged, making the bag clank again. "Since I signed on with Jaria, basically. Needed something a bit more secure than an employment contract."
"So you're tellin me you've been fiscally responsible for years and you never told anyone?" Barrun raised his eyebrows at her. "And what d'you mean, more secure than a contract?"
Enna rolled her eyes at him. "You dumb or something? Standard mercenary company contract. Company manager holds on to your assets so you don't have to tote giant sacks of gold around when you're guarding caravans. Uses it as capital for advertising, maintenance, other stuff, but still has to pay you back. In event of death, they use some of it to do your funeral, and if you don't have anyone else around to claim it they keep the rest." Barrun was again openmouthed at his illiterate teammate rattling off semi-legal terms, but Enna pretended not to notice. "If you fuck up real bad, they can claim you violated the contract and keep the assets. So, banks." She kept walking, deciding not to look at the rogue anymore.
"Did that happen to you?" Barrun asked, his voice a little less mocking than before.
"Eh, brought it on myself. Manager said I messed up the group cohesion when I had some fuckin drama with the guy who was supposed to be mentoring me." She had said that as casually as she could, but she couldn't stop her voice from hitching at the end of the sentence. She dug her fingernails into her palms and kept going. "Kicked me out, left me with just the stuff they couldn't possibly claim I didn't own. I came to Jaria without a lot more than my horse and my axe. So I don't fuckin trust mercenary companies, no matter how much they try to claim they're good guys, you know?" It was hard to keep the bite out of her voice. She focused on squashing down the anger rising within her and let her vision blur. Her feet knew the way to go, she could check out for a little.
Blessedly, Barrun was silent, and for a while the only indication that he was still next to her was the tapping of his boots on the cobblestone. Enna knew they were still about a block from the temple of Waukeen where she had an account, and for a moment she entertained the possibility of making it all the way there without Barrun bringing up any more of her past. Of course, he had to ruin it, but she hadn't expected much better. Goddamn chatty coworkers.
"You think Jaria'd do something like that?"
Enna sighed and refused to acknowledge the way Barrun's voice had softened or the way he was probably looking up at her with big pleading gnome eyes. "You're like fuckin, fifty years old- don't correct me, I don't give a shit- and you're still this dumb?"
Instead of snapping at her like he should have, Barrun only made a dismissive noise. "Smarter than you, I think. I at least know when people have my back."
Enna laughed out loud, a harsh bark unrelated to any feelings of humor. "Nobody has anyone's back, asshole. You do what you have to so you can get what you need, and anyone who pretends otherwise wants to sell you something. You work together with someone in a fight, it doesn't mean they'd stick their neck out for you off the battlefield. Someone tells you they'll be there for you, means about as much as a pixie's fart when shit goes down." She dug her nails into her palms again, focusing on the spark of pain to keep the memories from rising to the surface again. "And if you think different, you're dumber than me."
That shut Barrun up for the rest of the block. Enna could see the temple of Waukeen's ornate banners ahead of her, and quickened her stride, hoping to leave the tiny rogue in the dust, but that fucker managed to keep up with her all the way up to the temple's elaborately-carved doors. When she put a hand out to open the doors, he put a hand over hers, and she genuinely had to resist the urge to break his arm. Instead, she turned to him, meeting his gaze for the first time in like ten minutes. "What?" she snapped.
"I just wanted you to know that you don't have to be afraid, Enna," he replied, looking up at her with something like sympathy. "You can trust your friends. We aren't going to hurt you, and we'll have your back no matter what."
Enna reeled back, feeling bile rise in her throat. She swatted his hand away, shoving him out of the way as she slammed open the temple doors and bolted inside, leaving him out on the street. Fuck that idiot, she thought as she marched over to the cleric's desk and dropped her heavy bag of gold in front of him. She hadn't been afraid of anything in her life, and she sure as hell wasn't starting now.
Author's Notes:
This was written on for the "trust issues" square of hurt/comfort bingo, 7/17/2017. The beginning of Enna and Baruun's long and beautiful friendship! Hard to believe they went from this to him essentially using her for mounted combat. Now THAT'S best friendship. I based a lot of the bank worldbuilding on the real-life history of medieval banking, but gave it to the clerics of Waukeen instead of Catholics.