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Since you been gone
I can breathe for the first time
I’m so moving on
Yeah yeah
My music radiated through the Titan’s Trap. Nearly everyone in the establishment had their eyes on me, and the crowd was the largest I’d ever seen in Grumbsy. Several boats had just arrived today to drop off more folk ready to leave the West behind them.
Not to mention some of the local tribes had begun to warm up to us. Mostly because of my music. At least that’s what I tell myself. A bard is supposed to believe in oneself right?
It was a wealthy bunch as well. My hat was filled with twice as much copper as usual. Success like that was amplified by a more intoxicated crowd. I may have some of my allies to thank for that. Particularly Roan.
After a long performance I noticed most of the audience had shuffled out. Perhaps because it was late, or perhaps because the sailor had been ranting obscenities left and right. I couldn’t be too mad at him, if we went any longer I could have damn near bankrupted the crowd the way I was playing.
I sat down to have a drink of my own and relax. Not long after, a group of hill dwarves stumbled through the front door of the Titan’s Trap. At least I assumed based on their small stature and beards. Most dwarves I’d encountered in my life were mountain dwarves who typically stood taller than myself.
“Hey short shits,” Roan burped as he walked over making himself right at home at the stool nearest them, “What brings you folks to these parts?”
“Oh,” The oldest replied, “We are here on business. Quite a bit of business truth be told. Not that us dwarves mind a little work.” He didn’t seem too offended by Roan, but he certainly wasn’t excited to talk to someone so crude.
“Fucking dwarves,” Roan laughed causing the visiting businessman to grow even more irritated.
“Well what the hell are you doing here, skin and bones?” The Dwarf quipped back.
“Drinkin,” Roan chugged his foaming beverage as if he wasn’t irritating anybody. “You guys should try the troll it gets you really fucked up.” The disgusting beverage was a recipe of Trant’s that he was particularly proud of. We all hated it. We never drank anything else.
“No I think we’re good,” The dwarf replied, noting the level of intoxication of the sailor. He turned his attention to the half-orc that sat nearby, “What are you looking at fuck face?”
“The fuck did I do?” Vergusson examined the room making sure he was the one being talked to. Which he clearly was.
After he couldn’t think of an answer himself, Roan finally placed a hand on his shoulder, “Racism.”
“Oh yeah,” Vergusson looked down at his own body and remembered he’s half orc. Then he went back to drinking his own troll. I was fully prepared for a violent reaction, but he couldn’t have cared less. He was more interested in talking to Glish who had an over sized mug of troll in his own hand.
After taking a sip of my jug I heard Roan drunkenly say his own name like he was a big deal. Gimble, their leader, introduced himself, then Doc, Thob, Knob, and Tyler.
Once he made their acquaintance, Roan’s attitude changed very little, “So are you little bearded bastard’s gonna be in town for a while or are ya just passing through?”
“We don’t really know.” Gimble pointed to the dwarves behind him. “We got some great smiths lookin for work. So we may end up sticking around and setting up some blacksmith stations.”
“Oh we got a smithy aye?” Glish was facing the opposite direction paying no mind to the dwarves when he announced himself. He hopped off his stool onto the bar counter, walking over to them with very apparent jealousy. “You boys looking to get some work done while you’re here?”
“Yes we have some materials we’d love to utilize.”
Crossing his arms with arrogance, and condescension the Hafflin announced, “Well my brother and I run the only smith station in town.”
“Yes we met with your brother Liam earlier today,” Gimble explained enthusiastically. “We’re actually renting out your space for the next few days for our own projects.”
There was a brief pause. “Well, fun fact about me bud, no one tells me anything.” It was clear Glish was a bit upset about how much respect his brother has for him.
As Glish whined to Doc, Roan held his arm out showing off his muscles. “Me against any of your boys. Any one of them. I got this.”
“Care to make it interesting?” their leader inquired.
“Always shorty,” the seaman replied.
“If my guy wins you leave us alone for the rest of the evening.”
“Okay,” and without thinking about his terms Roan blurted out, “If I win you guys have to buy a round of troll each and we drink all night.”
Gimble shook his hand with a smile. Then quickly patted Doc on the shoulder. The young hill dwarf was more than eager to compete against the seaman. His short arms were thicker, and appeared far stronger, but my fellow human was far from deterred.
When he sat at the table, the pair locked eyes, then hands. Without anybody asking me I took on the responsibility of judge and referee. I placed my own hands on top of theirs and asked. “Contestants, are you ready?”
They both nodded.
“TOO THE DEATH!”
While neither actually attacked with a lethal blow, both fought like their lives depended on it. It was a valiant effort from two incredible men. The battle lasted for quite some time, until a familiar voice out of nowhere shouted, “OVER THE TOP.”
Without even thinking Roan re-positioned his hand over his opponents, and quickly pushed his fist to the table, finally defeating the tiny dwarf. As honorable travelers, they kept to their word and drank all night. Though the coin didn’t seem to be much of a problem as they were more than happy to buy the rest of us drinks as well.
Having already been over-served before the arm-wrestling contest even started, Roan was barely able to stand up by the time they paid him their dues. I carried him to his room as no one else wanted to. He kicked and punched the whole way, insisting that he’s the one who needs to put me to bed.
I awoke early the next morning, and headed outside to meet Syrielle for a round of morning training. After a couple hours of light sparring she had me run laps around Grumbsy for about an hour.
Much of what I had drank from the night before came back out onto the dirt. Yet, I did not turn down. She insisted my cardio needed to improve, and this was the best way. Especially if we’ll be traveling all over the place.
After I finished the laps, she said I was done for the day and should rest my body. Both of us headed back to the tavern for a meal. When we got there, Roan arrived, appearing to have woken up just moments ago. “Where are my dwarf friends?” he asked before greeting me.
“You can’t exactly call them friends,” I told him.
“Why not?”
“Because their terms of the bet were that you would leave them alone.”
“Yeah but I won the bet. So that means we’re friends.” When a man’s right he’s right.
“I don’t know… do you need them for something?”
He nodded, “We’ve been looking for them because they said they have a job.”
“Who is we?”
“Bro…” Yarrick complained.
“My question was valid Yarrick, who the fuck are you?”
After he didn’t answer, Roan decided to head to the smith station to find the dwarves. It was silly of him not to have already checked there before asking people where they are. Syrielle and I followed of course for it appeared and adventure was soon to be found.
Sure enough, Doc was sitting outside Liam’s Shop smoking a pipe. The sailor was incredibly happy to see the man he was looking for. “Morning fucker!”
The dwarf didn’t appear as upset to see the sailor as I thought he’d be. He nodded softly, “Roan.” After greeting his friend he addressed me, “I never got your name?”
“Elrin Daun of Gladland. The Fighting Writer. And this here is the samurai Syrielle.”
“You said Elrin?” He nodded as he shook my hand. “Nice to meet you Elrin.” Then he extended his hand to Syrielle. “It’s nice to meet you too. I haven’t seen a samurai around these parts in ages.”
“Enough flirting,” Roan demanded, “You said you needed a hand with something?”
“We need lots of hands,” Gimble exited the shop with a smile. “And we certainly have a job shady hands like yours might be good with. Not that we usually like workin with folk like yourself, but when the ugly come into our realm and take our things, it may be wise to turn to their own.”
“Aw shucks,” Roan could not have seemed more honored by the comment.
“Just days ago,” Gimble sat down in a chair near the one Doc sat in. “We received word from a friend of ours a bit to the North of here. A few items we’d given them had been stolen. With our busy schedules we have a hard time replacing the gifts at a discounted price and, more importantly, we don’t like our weapons being wielded by the wicked. We choose our clientele carefully.”
I got chills.
“So you think people who steal things are wicked?” Roan sounded offended.
“Our clients suspect it was the elf Onvy,” Gimble continued, “Though it could have been his twin brother Yvno. A couple of tricksters who currently operate out of Portertown. A pretty large town to the South along the coast. At least that’s what our investigations have told us.”
“What was stolen?” I always ask the obvious questions.
“A sword of a dragon’s tooth,” Gimble couldn’t have been more proud to talk about his creation. “And enchanted armor made of Osirion Steel.” His eyes drifted around as if we weren’t even there.
Doc felt the need to chime in, “The family also lost an amulet. An item of absurd sentimental value. They are willing to pay quite the hefty price to get it back. It’s not a piece we gave them, but friends in need are friends in need.”
“And an adventure is an adventure.” Porter-town was an 8 day journey on foot. Thankfully we were able to snag some horses and cut that time down to five days. It was an uneventful trip. Roan and I sang a variety of songs back and forth. He may never say anything nice about me, but the man seemed to enjoy my company. And it was hard for me not to appreciate him as well.
Syrielle spent most of the time quietly smiling, but every once in a while I could hear her singing along with me. She chatted with all three of us a lot, but I never actually saw her talk to Yarrick with my own eyes. She just told me about her conversations with him later. It sounds like he talks a lot.
There were 2 small towns with inns we were able to find. Without the devilman to scare people we didn’t have much of an issue sleeping through the night. The other 3 nights we had to rest outside per usual and take turns watching.
At the end of 5 days, we came upon a rather large town near a fairly significant lake. The sign read, “Welcome to Porterton.” It was nearly twice the size of Grumbsy, with a marketplace to fit.
I had been to larger cities back in Eurome, but around here this was nearly a metropolis. Eager to study the town I stepped forward, only for Roan to grab my arm. “Hold up. We should wait first. Yarrick has a friend in town.”
“And I’m assuming…” I searched all around us and the little man was nowhere to be found. “He’ll be back in a few minutes?”
Roan shrugged, “I don’t know his friend. Hopefully he won’t take long to find.”
“So we’re just supposed to wait here?” I, admittedly, whined.
“Missions aren’t pretty princess,” Roan explained. With obnoxiously sassy eyes, Syrielle slid behind him with her arms crossed nodding her head in agreement as he continued to berate me. “We gotta be careful around here. This town’s big and unregulated.”
Believing I understood him I said in an affirming tone, “So it has poor infrastructure.”
“No dumbass,” He bitched. “It’s crime infested. Or just like… Probably run by a douchebag or something I don’t know. Yarrick’s got a buddy, but I’ve never been here. So we’re gonna wait, and that guy’s gonna tell us more about this place, then we’ll figure out the best way to go in as a team. For all we know his friend knows exactly where the stolen goods are and our cleanest option is to just take it without anyone seeing our faces.”
Syrielle wagged her finger at me as if she wasn’t as clueless as I.
We sat patiently for a bit, in a comfy spot just outside of town. I had barely the time to think of a way to describe what sitting felt like before someone came scurrying through the bushes. “Hello,” A man confidently stepped into our view. His hair appeared slimy and unkempt, while his face was covered in dirt. “Howdy folks. My name is Greasy Carl. Yarrick says you’re looking for some stolen stuff.”
Roan was fast to take charge, “My friends Gimble and Doc said they were taken around Sutterton up North. They think the thieves were a couple of elves named Onvy and Yvno who hang around Portertown.”
The Greasy man laughed, “Yeah well lucky for you, I’ve been keeping my eye on some stuff around here for a while. I can tell you for free that those boys hang around here from what I’ve seen. And for the right price… I’ll let you know the rest of what I know.”
Almost happy to be told that Roan crossed his arms, “Alright name it.”
Yarrick raised a hand, “I owe him a favor. Now.”
“Taking our best ninja are we?” Roan shook his head. “Alright you slimy little shit you got yourself a Zeusdamn deal. Myself, tweedledick, and the dickless wonder will snag all the goods.” From the way he pointed at myself and Syrielle, I was not the one he called tweedledick.
Mr. Carl very greasily explained what intel he had. The special armor was likely still in the Smith’s shop. His operation worked closely with Tony Machiolla of the Machiolla Crime Syndicate. A dangerous organization that has roots all over Eurome. They had some connections in Gladland, but honestly I didn’t really have any interaction with them.
Tony was only one man, but he wouldn’t have come over here without a horde of mercenaries and sellswords working loyal to the coin he provides. One of those warriors for hire purchased an extremely high quality sword that came into town just a few days ago.
The jewelry could in theory be anywhere. But the highest quality items were very likely kept by Tony’s wife, Dellah Machiolla. Their home could have potentially the highest security on the continent, if you believed the word of the man called Greasy. He insisted we wouldn’t be able to break into it in our wildest dreams.
Completely unaffected by the claims, Roan declared, “Have you even met my buddy Yarrick?” His eyebrows raised with a prissy attitude.
Carl was confident nobody could get the job done. Problem was he wouldn’t really go into details. About anything. Despite bragging several times about his deep complex understanding of the criminal underworld.
Once we were done asking him questions Roan turned to Syrielle and asked, “So. Am I right in assuming you’re a complete fucking weirdo about your sword right?”
“Like I won’t walk around without it?
“Yeah…”
“Yup.”
Snapping his fingers the sailor announced, “Okay so I’m gonna go ahead and say that maybe your best option is to go talk to the sell-swords. And figure out what you can on your own. Honestly, I’m curious what’ll happen if I don’t tell you more.” Pointing between me and himself, Roan added, “Elrin and I will go check out the black smith.”
“Who put you in charge?” Syrielle asked but didn’t actually sound like she had a problem because she probably wanted to do what he suggested anyway.
“You ever pull off a heist?” Roan quipped. “I’d love to hear your plan.”
“Heist?” I wasn’t that surprised but still didn’t like the word.
“Yeah,” The sailor nodded.
“I thought we were closer to like… Law enforcement or something?”
Roan had absolutely no idea what to say. Yarrick, on the other hand, actually did have something to say for once, “We’re secret agents.”
“Yeah…” The sailor nodded emphatically. “It’s pirate shit. But we’re the good guys.”
It didn’t take much convincing. The items we were searching for were taken by criminals. I was quite nervous about doing any of this alone, so the fact that I was partnering up with an experienced man was comforting.
The fact that it was Roan was a lot less comforting.
Before I knew it the small one was gone and the Greasy man slithered after him. My samurai friend bid us adieu and headed down the road to where the sell swords in town usually hung out.
With haste, myself and the man who may have admitted to being a pirate at one point in his life made our way to The Smith’s Workplace. It was a populated neighborhood and a rather lively evening. Men of all kinds walked about. Street performers, much like myself, played all over town as small throngs watched.
The market place was massive, three times the size of Grumbsy’s. And apparently it wasn’t the only one in town. I hadn’t known that any city in Kayos had grown so quickly. It made me wonder if even further south, closer to Hellas, there might be something even more magnificent.
As we closed in on the black smith’s shop Roan told me to do a quick walk about as he inspected the place. I gladly continued to look upon the culture all around me. A dubblin played a massive guitar like a banjo while singing a song one could only describe as artsy.
Somebody that I used to know
But you didn’t have to cut me off
Make out like it never happened
And that we were nothing
I laughed. I cried. But in all honesty I did neither. Though it was a pretty good song.
As I nodded to myself tapping my feet to the beat, I noticed a pretty girl staring at me. When I looked back she turned away with a blush. Within a moment I was next to her. “Hi, I’m Elrin. You from around here?”
Her nerves seemed to fade as soon as I gave her attention, “Yes I am. You must be new here? I feel like I would have seen you before.”
“Oh if I lived here I promise I would have talked to you long ago or at the very least I would have spazzed out thinking about it…”
It was a coin flip comment, there is no such thing as a woman who doesn’t react to a joke like this and there’s really only two ways it could go. And one of the most rewarding feelings in the world is the reaction I received; a laugh.
She blushed again, and looked at her feet. In a moment, she found the courage to make eye contact again. Of course Roan was right there to grab my arm and spoil the fun. “You ready?”
“No.”
“Let’s go.”
I told her I’d be right back. But I would not be right back.
My crude-unkind-never-to-be-forgiven-dickbag-of-a-worthless-ally dragged me towards The Smith’s Workplace and quickly declared, “So… I’m assuming you are at the very least good at distractions?”
Almost offended, I replied, “I can be sneaky.”
“But you’re better at making a scene,” Roan chirped. “I mean you’re whiny, you’re good at singing, you can complain about being a virgin.”
Having heard one compliment I couldn’t care about the other two things he said. “Who do I need to distract?” Also I never said I was a virgin.
“The Emperor of Eurome,” he announced, shaking his head. “The fucking blacksmith you dipshit. Who’d you think? There’s a few of them there. I’d say our best option is to get me in the armor before I get into a fight. If we just go in and fight them someone might scream and the guards will be on us. Once I’m in the metal, I can get it right out of here…”
“Okay?” I said hoping he’d say more. When he didn’t I continued to question, “Why do you get to wear the armor? You’re probably pretty good at distractions too?”
“If you promise me you’re a really good ninja I’d happily be the distraction.”
Stumbling through the front door I shouted, “Excuse me. I had sex with this wife’s husband’s wife and now he has this like weird goblin rock and I like it when it’s green. Can I have some armor?” There were two average sized orcs, making them larger than me, walking towards me.
One confused hill dwarf stood behind the station holding materials in his hand. There was also an older human with massive muscles that sat near an anvil with a smith’s hammer in his hand. Several full plate armors were behind him.
“You here for trouble?” One of the orcs announced walking over to me.
“You want a coin,” I spilled some copper, silver and gold coins on the ground in front of me, mostly copper. Then I fell over to start picking them up. Struggling to grab each one. Taking all the time I could so Roan could to get into position before I really started to make a ruckus to cover for him. How he was going to sneak into the armor I hadn’t the faintest idea. And I never learned how.
As the orc grabbed my arm, the human announced, “Let him go. I’m sure we have a thing or two we could sell him.” He pointed at the ground before I picked up the last of my gold, “With money like that, a man like you could use a magic weapon. You ever seen one of those before?”
I lied and shook my head no.
He walked over to a nearby wall and pulled a sword off a rack. Walking over to me, I could see the piece of crap was rusted. “They never look normal. These magic weapons. They always have some odd… deformity. At least on the outside. The worse they look, the more powerful they are.”
There wasn’t a whole lot I knew about magic, but I knew what he just said wasn’t a thing. But he certainly thought I was drunk enough to believe him. And now I had to figure out how to believe him without losing all my money.
“It can slay a magic beast,” The blacksmith announced. “The worst of demons. Maybe even gods. A priceless sword. But I’m not in the business of priceless. I’m in the business of selling.”
Pointing the rusty blade towards me he announced. “So… If you need to protect yourself, and you’re as wealthy as you have shown. I’d say you need look no further than here.”
“That’s the coolest thing I’ve ever seen,” I jumped up to my feet making sure to lose my balance just a little. “Can I hold it?”
The man laughed, “Normally yes. But we have a rule against letting those who’ve partaken in alcohol to hold sharp objects around here.”
“I’m not drunk,” If there was one acting talent I had, it was looking drunk when I wanted to. “You’ve had all the beer. I washed the water.” I forced a burp, a cool little trick I learned a few years ago. “And so, with power. I’ll take the sword. And we’ll fight them.”
All eyes were on me, including my friend in the back giving me a thumbs up as he stepped behind one of the full plates that nobody else was looking at. The two orcs stopped coming forward but still had their eyes trained on me.
“Sir,” The old man smiled. “I understand your hesitation to buy such a magnificent item without even being able to hold it. Just for you… I’ll cut the price in half, and you’ll go walking out here with the greatest weapon in all the land.”
At the top of my lungs I shouted, “I’LL PAY FULL PRICE BECAUSE YOU’RE DRUNK!” My lungs absorbed a bunch of air as I added on, “AND WITHOUT THAT SWORD AND THE GOLD I’LL BE ABLE TO THROW IT AT THE BAD GUYS.”
Eventually I realized I wasn’t being clever and grew disappointed in myself. I reached for a nearby tool and fell into the table toppling everything over with a loud crash. “I SAID I’M NOT DRUNK!”
The orcs gripped me by my arms. I wrestled about while they yelled random profanities. Their boss complained and whined about my behavior. He demanded they take the money off of me for causing such a mess in their shop and potentially affecting the other customers, despite the shop being empty.
In the middle of yelling he heard a loud clunking noise from behind him. Roan had finally shoved himself into the full plate armor, but had also somehow stumbled into the stacks of armor near him as well knocking several of them over.
“GET HIM!” The boss shouted as his men let me go. With rageful eyes the old human looked at me and screamed, “YOU’RE WITH HIM.”
Holding the rusty sword he charged me. I grabbed a nearby tool and deflected his first slash, then immediately grabbed his sword hand. We wrestled for a moment before I slammed his wrist into my knee, disarming him.
Then I elbowed him in the face and he punched me in mine. Then he punched me again. And I think he realized it was working because he threw a couple more punches and suddenly I was on the ground.
I didn’t even see him grab the hammer that he held over my head. I also did not see whatever the object was that hit him in the back of his and knocked him out. Roan was exchanging punches with one of the orcs while the other rolled around on the ground holding his leg in severe pain. The dwarf was also out cold, barely twitching on the floor.
By the time I’d gotten to my feet he’d successfully pummeled his final opponent unconscious. “This thing’s awesome,” He said, “So light. And I could barely feel his punches.”
There was a commotion outside. Likely from people hearing the tussle coming from inside. “Yeah but can you run in that thing?”
Slipping the metal footwear off, I saw Roan’s bare feet for the first time. There were tattoos of wings leading from both heals to his pinkie toe. His big right toe appeared moldy and black. “Running ain’t the problem when Hermes guides you.”
He slipped a small knife off a nearby counter, and then cut both of the wings on his feet. A golden light burst from his feet nearly blinding me, “You got an exit plan?” He asked me.
“A what?”
“I’d come up with one if I were you,” And just like that he took off in a blur. I was utterly stunned by the insane speed he suddenly displayed. I ran to the door, and just barely saw him blasting his way out of town. Faster than any man or beast I’d ever seen.
A couple of guards who appeared on alert simply stood still and stared at the armored blur flash by. I shuffled away from the door and tried to get as far from the crowd as I could.
“Get that scoundrel now!” The owner of The Smith’s Workplace was standing in the doorway pointing at me holding his head. The orc that was knocked out had woken up and ran after me. The guards finally reacted and began chasing me as well.
The crowd got out of the way for the most part. People didn’t like the idea of a man sprinting at full speed and crashing into them. I was a little bit quicker than the men chasing me, but I didn’t know my way around town.
I quickly turned in an alleyway and found myself in a dead end. There was a window with a small group of boxes just below it. I climbed as fast as I could, but they spotted me going through. Thankfully It was easy to lock from the other side so they couldn’t chase straight after me.
The drop wasn’t too significant. Inspecting my surroundings, I noticed stands of food in crates all around. A young girl holding a basket of fruit nearby saw me hop through the window. She had a worried face, but thankfully she asked, “Do you work here?”
“Maintenance,” I smiled and walked away.
I circled through the store, noticing more items than just food but didn’t care enough to pay attention then to even remember now. When I saw the front door, the dwarf was standing there with three town guardsmen next to him. They were speaking to an employee of the store and I had a pretty good guess what the topic was.
Not wanting to waste time, I picked up a piece of fruit, and threw it across the room crashing directly into a vase on the other side. Nobody saw the vase, but they heard the crash. It may not have been the vase I was aiming for, or even close, but a win is a win.
As they all sprinted for it, I dashed for a different set of boxes under another window, much like the one outside. Except this one had food in it that I stepped all over to just barely reach the window. They shouted as soon as my feet cleared the threshold.
I managed to climb through pretty quickly and dash away having given myself plenty more time than I had before. The town bells went off and I never felt so bad. One of the proudest moments of my life.
Without much difficulty I made it to the edge of town. Several guards had gathered by the time I got there. Way more than before. They clearly had an on-call infantry and the boys weren’t too drunk for work tonight.
I could only hope Roan managed to escape with the goods before the bells went off. Though I should also hope that I could make it outside because I could care less about that armor getting back where it belongs if I’m dead. I feel like there are worthier causes to die for.
Having grown tired from all the running I wasn’t sure what the best move was but I knew I had to act quick. Just because they lost me doesn’t mean they won’t find me again. I worked my way around some of the houses. Noticing the guards circling around the outside perimeter.
There were some bushes near some of the houses I was able to hide nearby. But, apparently I didn’t do a good job because a guard spotted me and pointed me out to another guard.
I circled back around the houses as the pointer gave chase and the other stayed on the perimeter. I dashed right around the next house and hopped straight over a fence. The guard on the outside ran past the fence expecting to catch me on the next opening. I hit the dirt hard and sprinted straight into the bushes.
For a second I thought they must be getting tired too until I realized these weren’t even the same guards. He was right on my tail, but I powered straight through the agony. There was only one place I knew to go. Only one place I could run to.
The barracks wasn’t far out of town. Before I could even reach it, I saw Syrielle walking down the road. Katana in its hilt on her waist, while the sword we were here to recover was held in her right hand resting on her shoulder.
At first she smiled, then she saw my turmoil I was in and she smiled harder. She dashed straight for me and I could feel the guard on my ass. My legs were slowing, and his were fresh.
When she was barely 20 feet away from me she yelled, “Duck.”
I followed her instructions and she leapt through the air. Her leg extended outwards and her feet collided with his face before he could bring his sword up. The next guard came in right behind him swinging. She stepped back just fine and slammed the hilt of the dwarven-made-dragon-tooth-sword into his head. The strike didn’t knock him unconscious, but then she kicked him in the head. Then he was unconscious.
After double checking her work she walked over to me. “Looks like you’ve had fun.”
“The time of my life,” If she thought I spoke with sarcasm, then she thought wrong. “What have you been up to?”
“Dueling,” She held out both her own sword and the one she acquired. “The guy who had the sword said he wouldn’t fight a woman but one of his friends did so I fought that guy. Then his brother wanted revenge so I fought him. Then I beat up three more of their friends before the guy I wanted to fight finally fought me and I now have the sword.” Looking me up and down she asked, “What exactly have you been doing?”
“Just rogue things.”
We decided it was best to sneak into the bushes from there. The guards had scattered outside the city and we had a debate whether or not they were good guys or bad guys. We decided it was best to just avoid them and stop hurting people so that we can convince ourselves we were “the pretty good guys” at the very least.
Needing to finish the mission we worked our way to Machiolla’s home. Having heard nobody could possibly break in, neither of us had any intention of turning down. Problem was we certainly weren’t experts in stealth and Syrielle wasn’t dumb enough to think she could take what might be a whole army by herself.
Not that she didn’t want to try, but she admitted it was stupid and she didn’t need to. “That’s how I’m gonna die though. Just saying. Whole fucking army.”
We stayed very quiet as we cased the scene. It was fun acting like we had a clue what we were doing. There weren’t any guards around. Really any at all. It seemed to be a pretty open home as far as we could see.
Just large and magnificent. With an elegant garden out front and a variety of statues. Nearly every Olympian was on display, as well as gods and creatures I’d never seen before. Or at least couldn’t recognize straight away. The home itself was a mansion with well over a dozen rooms at least. Though we couldn’t tell much from the outside.
We thought about just trying to go in, but then noticed the town had formed mobs with pitchforks. We realized that perhaps the best thing to do is bail on the mission from here. From their perspective they are protecting their hometown from intruders. And there’s more of them than us. They don’t need to be the army Syrielle was talking about. And she doesn’t need to kill half of them so that friends of friends can get their sentimental jewelry back. It’s not turning down, it’s a moral decision.
So we stepped back into the bushes to sneak away. The moment we did the samurai spoke in a fearful tone I’d never heard from her before. “Elrin…”
I spun around to find an male elf, slightly taller than the samurai, holding his hand to her head. Both their eyes glowed green as her muscles shook and tightened. The elf smirked at me “You can surrender. But I’m not sure how much that’s going to help you.”
“Who are you?” What the fuck else was I going to say?
“Onvy,” He replied. “I’m the guardian of this establishment. I was curious to see if the two of you would ever make your move, but either way we can’t have people casing the place and not being punished.” He pointed at the incoming mob, “And from my understanding, you’ve been rather naughty around town as it is.”
Syrielle had dropped to her knees breathing very heavily. Onvy snidely looked down at her, “I’m sure my boss would like to have a word with you. I’ll let him decide the permanent damage.”
His arrogant smile pierced my very soul, and then in an instant his pride turned to pain. The elf squealed like a pig being slaughtered and I hadn’t any idea what happened until I saw the culprit step from behind him.
“Yarrick!”
My small ally held a dagger in Onvy’s side. He stepped around to the front of the trickster so he’d face to face with his victim “The paralysis should fade soon. I’ve left you alive so your brother won’t come for me. If you do seek vengeance, I’d be happy to meet him one day.”
Walking over to Syrielle he helped her to her feet. She was sweating and panting, but after taking a few breaths the color returned to her face.
Our little ally waved us to follow him down the road, but he was leading us away from the house where the jewelry was. “Wait Yarrick? If that guy was the security guard and you just took him out can’t you go back and get the amulet.”
He pulled the amulet out of his cloak, shook it in his hand, and then put it back.
Syrielle shouted for all the town to hear, “Yarrick who the fuck are you?”
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