The sight of scorched lands was slowly left behind, as the galloping of horses sounded.
There were three horses, one in the lead with two behind. The back two horses were each carrying two people each. The riders were, of course, the scouts, and the passengers, well one of them was Jim, the guide. The other…
Well, he looked like a damned outlaw, especially with a rucksack slung on him with a gods damned scythe hanging from it. It looked like he looted a village on the way.
As these three rode, the rider in the lead had a foul face.
Karl was regretting opening his star sucking mouth previously.
He just had to invite a damned felon to join him back!
Of course, Jeffrey wasn't an actual felon, but it's the look that makes the man. And Jeffrey looked like a damned kidnapper.
Karl was the scout leader of this three man surveying team. They just needed to report if there were traces of a dragon and look for solid evidence that the dragon was loitering around. Of course, the main objective was just to check for dragon traces. It didn't matter if they found the location of the dragon or not, though they would've been rewarded pretty well if they did complete their subsidiary objective.
Karl had an excellent reputation amongst the scouting forces that he was selected for this urgent mission. He was a strict yet easy going leader. He was currently courting a lady whom he fancied, and he was at the most crucial stage before they could truly get together.
Thinking about how his reputation would most certainly decline if he came back with the cloaked figure behind him, he felt like crying.
It didn't help that this prick brang all his tools along! It looked like they pillaged the village!
At this train of thought, Karl thought of ways he could minimise the damage to his reputation. Maybe this guy could be part of the guard teams? That way, it would look more like he recruited a suitable mercenary. But no, he looked too criminal for that.
"No no, perhaps he can still be part of the guard team, he has pretty good trapping skills and as a farmer living on the frontiers, he should be adequately strong. I just need to convince him to take off that damned getup!"
Don't get him wrong. Karl had tried many times to make Jeffrey take off his sketchy outfit beforehand. But Jeffrey was too stubborn, mumbling some crack about his father or some jack. Karl hadn't been paying attention.
…
On their journey, the whiney scout was quite social with Jeffrey. And spoke with Jeffrey quite a bit despite Jeffrey's perfunctory and basic replies.
As the sun started to set, Karl called everyone to a halt.
"Aight, stop here, we'll set camp."
Everyone dismounted their horses and the scouts started to prepare the campsite.
Gathering twigs, starting a small fire and setting down sleeping mats. This was done in under five minutes, showing their professionality.
Jeffrey just sat, staring intently at the little white chick that moved around on the ground in front of him. It grew restless from having to sit still in Jeffrey's hands all day.
"Ay, that's a funny lookin' birdy you got, huh," Jim stood over Jeffrey's shoulder and peeked at the little white chick.
"Mhmm."
"Soo, Jeffrey, whatcha gonna do when we get to the city,"
"Mmm," Jeffrey was fully engrossed in his new pastime. 'Bird watching.'
"Well, I was thinkin', since we're both from the same place, maybe we work together for the time bein' y'know."
"Mhmm, mhmm"
"Ye, so I was thinkin' of takin' some jobs at the Laborers Association, where we and a couple of others can start our own band of labourers and earn some coins.
For the time being of course, until the dragon leaves, then we'll come back. We can also find you better farmland too."
"Mmm."
Jeffrey wasn't listening to a single thing Jim said.
…
As the moon showed its countenance, the scouts handed out some rations and everyone had a nice dinner of hard jerky.
"Us three will take shifts through the night, you two can just sleep."
"I'll take a shift," Jeffrey's baritone voice barely audible through the black bandana covering his mouth.
"No no, it's alright, just sleep, we're trained for this."
Frankly, Karl didn't want such a sketchy individual looking over him at night, it gave him the shivers. Even if the sketchy individual was just a random farmer.
Jeffrey showed his defiance by staring at the scout leader. Jeffrey also didn't like the notion of being watched at night by others. He couldn't sleep if that was the case.
The scout leader responded in kind, with an unyielding stare directed back at Jeffrey.