Captain is standing on the top of Sansen Castle, overlooking a huge pit being dug by dozens of thralls at the base of the castle. The 3 Lieutenants approach Captain and stand in a line behind him.
"Sir, you called for us?" asks Lieutenant 1.
"It's been almost 12 hours, where is the Hunter?" asks Captain.
"He hasn't reported back, sir," says Lieutenant 3.
Captain thinks for a moment, "Send a scout in the direction the Hunter went."
"Do you think the hunter could have run into a problem, sir?" asks Lieutenant 2
"Perhaps, we will soon find out," replies Captain.
Lieutenant 3 walks down to the pit and recruits a thrall, "Ride out and find the Hunter. If you spot anyone else, do not engage."
The thrall mounts onto a fury and rides out of town.
Guy and Lane are hiding behind a bush, and in front of them is a wild boar.
"So what do you want me to do?" whispers Lane.
"Nothing, this is our last chance to get food for the night, so let me handle it," replies Guy.
"Well, I could probably flank it-" Guy ignores Lane and jumps out of the bushes after the boar.
The wild boar squeals in terror and runs away. Guy tries to catch it, but the wild boar keeps running under fallen trees and into bushes.
Suddenly, a stone flies past Guy and hits the wild boar on the head, knocking it out.
"There, know you can catch it," shouts Lane.
"I told you I would handle it!" Guy shouts back.
"What does it matter, kill it already!"
Guy and Lane argue back and forth, meanwhile the wild boar wakes up and stumbles to its feet.
"I can do this on my own-" Guy hears the wild boar behind him.
"Get back here!" Guy chases after it.
"This wouldn't have happened if you'd let me help!" yells Lane.
The sun goes down, and Guy and Lane have set up camp. They are both sitting by the camp fire eating wild boar.
"Mhmm, this boars pretty good," says Guy with a mouth full of food.
"Yea, pretty good," say Lane clearly still annoyed.
Guy finishes his food and leans back on a rock, "So, how did you know the Hunter was an Elf?"
"I told you I learned it in school," replies Lane
"I never went, but I heard stories, you know, about the demons and the elves, but nothing about their skin color."
"I learned a lot more than that. a long time ago, before the kingdom of man, the demons enslaved mankind. Then there was a rebellion, the humans went to war against the Demons and defeated them. After that, the demons completely vanished, never to be seen again."
"What does that have to do with the elves?" asks Guy.
"The elves were in league with the demons, not alleys, but more like the demons subordinates. After the humans defeated the demons, the elves and humans found peace. However, that didn't last long, another war broke out between the elves and humans, and the humans won."
"And now the elves are back," says Guy.
"But that's not possible. We didn't just defeat the elves we killed all of them. Elves are supposed to be extinct."
"And that also doesn't explain this," Guy pulls out the Hunter's magic page and shows it to Lane.
Lane pulls out her own Magic book and compares it.
Lane's magic book has 2 to 3 symbols per page about 20 symbols in the whole book, but the Hunter has 20 to 30 symbols on his 1 Magic page.
"Look at all these symbols" exclaims Lane.
"I thought magic users could only use a handful of symbols, based on the user's strength," says Guy.
"Yes, I can only activate 4 or 5 symbols at a time. Two of my books pages heal burn, another 2 pages heal broken bones. If I used 10 symbols together, I would get tired real fast, and if I used all 20 symbols in my book at once, I could have a heart attack. The Hunter wasn't sweating or even breathing hard will using his magic, he wasn't strained at all!" says Lane.
Guy yawns and stretches, "Well, I'll be fighting these Elves regardless of their back story, so for now I'm going to bed."
Guy takes off his clothes and crawls in his sleeping bag.
"Are you not concerned? His magic affected you," says Lane.
Guy closes his eyes, "It's strange, but I'm not worried about."
"When are you going to tell me about your powers?" asks Lane.
"I'm not, go to bed," says Guy.
Lane rolls her eyes and puts the magic page away.
Guy wakes up the next morning to the smell of breakfast. He rolls over and sees Lane has prepared some eggs and leftover wild boar.
"Help yourself," says Lane.
Guy shuffles over to the food and grabs a plate full.
After a few bites, he notices his clothes are gone. Guy panics, but then spots them hanging on a tree branch, clean.
"You cleaned my clothes?" he asks.
"Yep, and I'm about to finish up on your socks."
Lane shows him his unclean sock.
Guy looks at his clean clothes and then at the breakfast. He puts down his plate and quickly snatches his sock from Lane's hand.
"Hey!" she shouts.
Guy puts his clean but still wet clothes on.
"I don't need you cleaning my clothes and feeding me breakfast," he grumbles.
"What is your problem?" replies Lane.
"I don't have a problem, I can't take care of myself. I don't need your help."
"Oh, but you were okay with me healing you!"
"I didn't need your help than either!"
"This is ridiculous!" says Lane.
Guy puts on his boots, "If you're going to travel with me, than you need to know one thing, I don't need help."
Lane stands up, "Fine, then I won't travel with you!"
Lane quickly grabs all her belongings, "I'll meet you outside of Sansen, then we can get this whole thing over with!"
"Fine!" Guy replies.
Lane stomps off in the direction of Sansen.
"Hey, you have my other sock!" Guy shouts, but Lane ignores him.
"I don't need her help, I've never wanted help." Guy mumbles to himself as he searches for his missing sock.
Guy gives up and sits down by the campfire. He begins to remember back before he became a mercenary...
We see a huge city on a large hill, this is the capital of the kingdom. There are walls that divide the city into three parts. At the top of the hill is the royal castle, it's surrounded by a rich community, next is the second area just below the first, it is larger and not as fancy, this is the middle class. Finally, at the foot of the hill is the last section, the largest and most run-down section with mud, dirt and horse shit on the ground, it is the slums.
There are two young boys that are walking down the streets of the slums. The largest of the two boys is leading the way.
"Come on Guy catch up!" says the larger boy to the smaller one.
The smaller boy is 9-year-old Guy, the larger boy is Bear, Guy's older brother.
"Where are we going Bear?" asks Guy.
"It's a surprise!" replies Bear
The boys walk to a local stable, built against the wall, and next to a gate that leads out of the capital.
"What are we doing here?" asks Guy.
Bear turns around with a big smile on his face, "we are getting a job!"
"A job?" Guy asks confused.
"Yes, this is my plan to get us off the streets! Maybe we can earn enough to get some better clothes or at least buy some food for the night, but the end goal is to save up for a house! Let's go!"
Bear runs into the stable and up to the stable man standing behind the counter.
"Excuse me, sir, we are looking for work!"
To be continued...