'It's fine, I can't do it.' Noah thought to himself as he walked. He was walking back the same way he came from. He didn't want to risk getting found and questioned by Nightmare. He couldn't stop thinking about if what he did was the right thing. Whenever he thought about the people he met he just thought, 'If they want to get rid of Nightmare themselves they can. I can't do it.' However, he purposefully avoided the towns and villages that had people he knew. He just couldn't imagine looking them in the eye. He sighed, thinking about the fact that he would have to face the people at the village again. He took a deep breath to calm himself down and shook his head. 'It's fine, I can't do it. I don't want to risk my home getting destroyed because I couldn't kill a dragon.They'll understand, right?' He thought to himself worried.
While he was lost in his thoughts he didn't notice the sounds of sticks and twigs snapping. A starving coyote was hiding in the brush next to Noah and was creeping towards him. Even when it got to about a meter away from him he still didn't notice it. It was only when he shook his head when he saw it out of the corner of his eye. He quickly spun around while the coyote leapt at him. Noah jumped back and just barely avoided getting bitten. He messed up the landing however, and ended up falling on his butt. He quickly sat back up and saw the coyote facing him. He saw the eyes of the coyote, and looking into them, noticed the hunger and bloodlust in them. This caused him to remember the malice that surrounded Nightmare, and Noah started to shake. He quickly shot back up, turned around, and ran away as fast as he could. The coyote quickly ran after him, and would've caught him if it didn't collapse out of exhaustion and hunger.
* * *
It was about a day later and in the evening when Noah finally got back to Northspear. He was walking towards the west gate and was about 100 meters away from it when he saw a familiar face. His father, Sean, was on the wall over the gate. He seemed to be shouting orders at the other guards. As Noah was about 50 meters away, the gate opened up and his father with a group of 4 other guards. They met at about 10 meters away from the gate and Sean was the first one to approach Noah saying, "Welcome back son! How was your mission?"
Noah walked up next to his father and whispered so that only his father could hear him clearly, "I don't want to talk about this here, I want to get the mayor and town board first." As Noah finished the guard closest to him looked very confused, in fact, all of the guards had varying levels of confusion on their faces. However, none of them asked Sean or Noah any questions; they knew through their experience that there are missions that no one would be able to know about until a long time after it was finished. Sean and Noah began to head into the town, the other guards following closely behind.
When they got past the gate, Sean told the other guards that he would be taking Noah to the town hall and that he would be back in a bit. The guards said their goodbyes and then headed back to their posts. Sean and Noah then began to head towards the town hall. While they were walking Sean said, "I'm gonna take you to the town hall and then head back to the gate to finish my shift. Owen will most likely be there so just tell him you want to talk with the board and he'll tell you where to wait."
"Alright." Noah mumbled and looked down at his feet.
"What was that?" Sean asked, looking at Noah concerned.
"Nothing." Noah quickly responded.
"Okay, if you say so." Sean replied, clearly worried about Noah. Noah didn't look away from his feet the entire walk to the town hall as he thought about what he was going to do when the town board got there. After what seemed like hours of walking, they arrived at the town hall.
"Hey, Noah? Hey!" Noah was suddenly jerked out of his thoughts by a tap on his shoulder. He quickly looked around and saw that they arrived at the town hall. He then looked at his father, guessing that he was the one who tapped on his shoulder.
"You sure you're doing alright bud?" Sean asked, becoming even more concerned about Noah.
"Yeah I am." Noah softly replied, looking away.
"Alright then, I'll leave you here then. I'll be coming back as fast as I can as soon as my shift is over." Sean said and then moved to look Noah in the eyes, "If you need to get your thoughts together, this can wait. You can go home if you want to, alright?"
"I'm fine, I'll see you here." Noah responded and then moved to open the door.
"Okay then." Sean responded, turning away and beginning to head back to the west gate. Noah stopped with his hand on the doorknob and took a deep breath. After a moment, he turned the knob and entered the town hall.
Noah entered the reception area. It was a relatively small room with chairs put along all the walls except for the one opposite the door so people could sit down. One was put on both the left and right walls. The left one led to the meeting room while the one on the right led to the town board's official offices. A small desk with only one person behind it was put in front of the door on the opposite wall. Only Noah and the receptionist were in the room so Noah just walked up to the receptionist. The receptionist was a young man who looked to be in his early twenties and was strikingly similar to Owen Headspear. He shared a similar build with it being a bit leaner and shared the same hair and eyes. The reason for this was that this was Owen's son, Reyn . Noah had met him a couple of times before because his father put him in minor government positions to prepare him to be the next mayor. This worked in the sense that he was a diligent, cheerful, and hard worker who worked to improve people's lives the best he could, but had the side effect that he ended up dozing off alot like he was at this moment. Noah sighed and called out Reyn's name a few times before giving up and ringing the service bell.
"AHHH wha-." Reyn nearly shouted, startled. He shook his head a few times and looked around before seeing Noah. "Oh hey there Noah, haven't seen you around for a while. Anyways, what can I do for you today?"
"Nothing much, I just want to meet with Owen and the town board." Noah answered.
"Well normally you would have to wait and schedule a meeting with them, but Owen has told me that when you show up to immediately bring you to his office. He'll probably tell me to get the rest of the board." Reyn said and then sighed, getting up out of his chair. Noah sympathized with Ryen because while the board had official offices in the town hall, only Owen and sometimes Philip could be consistently found in the town hall. The reason for this is that the people in board positions are in those positions because they are some of the best in their field in the town. They are usually doing the jobs that got them those positions. Sarah is in charge of the bank, Mark is in charge of the construction company, and Philip, when he's not helping Owen, goes around town making sure things are going as planned.
"I assume you don't have anything else to do." Reyn said, walking over to the door on the right and placing his hand on the door knob.
"That's correct." Noah said, nodding and following after Reyn.
"Good." Reyn responded and opened the door. He led Noah down the hall of offices towards his fathers office. All of the office doors were on the right with each door having the name and the title of the board member. He stopped outside of the office and knocked on the door a couple of times. After a little while, Owen opened the door and Noah took a deep breath.
"What is it?" Owen asked. He sounded stressed.
"Noah's here." Reyn responded, pointing towards him.
"Hey." Noah said somewhat softly and made a small wave when Owen looked at him.
"Oh." Owen said, a bit shocked. He quickly regained his composure and followed up saying, "Quick come inside. Reyn, go get the rest of the board, Philip's out checking things at the farms. If Sean is on shift you know not to bother him."
"Alright, I'll head out right now." Reyn responded, nodding. He turned away and walked down the hall. Owen moved out of the doorway and motioned for Noah to move inside the office. Noah walked inside and took a look around as it was his first time in it. It was a small room, about 5 meters by 7 meters with the door opening into the right corner of the room. There were windows on the wall on the opposite side of the door. There was a desk by the left wall, and there was a big map of the town on the right wall. On the wall with the door there were some filing cabinets. There were a few chairs by the wall with the windows, Owen gestured to them and said, "Take a seat, we're going to be waiting for a bit."
"Alright." Noah responded, nodding and taking the chair by the left corner.
"So do you want to give your report to me or wait until the rest of the board gets here?" Owen asked.
"I would like to wait." Noah responded, looking down at his feet.
"Alright then, let's wait then." Owen responded, walking over to the desk and sitting down.