"Hunt?" Asked Thorn in a questioning tone.
"Yes, a hunter tradition that is held every month. It's a good way to train against beasts and hunt for equipment at the same time," explained Damian, but his tone betrayed his worry. "The huntsman asked for every member of the special gifted division to attend the hunt."
"Isn't it just a good way for us to leave the headquarters for a while and have some fun?" asked Rokara, her excitement made the others sigh.
"It's not that simple, Rokara… why would the huntsman of all people ask for your participation?" said Damian, his tone becoming even more serious. "They plan something, and neither me nor Paul can be there to help."
"How come?" asked Talon.
"Both of us were called into the imperial palace," stated Damian, his expression only seemed to darken more before saying, "And the thing that worries me the most is… Paul couldn't see anything about the hunt."
"What does that even mean?" asked Rokara.
"Oh, only Talon knows about it, but it's not really a secret… Paul is what we call a seer, someone who can see parts of the future, and he is one of the few who can see the most of it and the clearest."
At the mention of that, everyone marveled at Paul's ability, but that feeling of awe soon turned into concern.
"So why is it that he can't see anything?" asked Talon, now with the same concerned expression as Damian. He was one of the few who understood how strong Paul's foresight was, so the idea of it not working drew concern.
"We have no idea, nor enough time to get to the bottom of things…" Damian expressed his worries, and without any clear solution, everyone became concerned. "We have no clear solution, but I needed to come here to at least warn all of you."
"That's all," said Damian as he walked to the exit of the barracks before abruptly stopping, his head wasn't looking back as he said it. "All of you have the rest of the day off, be prepared because none of us know what will happen tomorrow; you are permitted to leave the headquarters, just be back before it's too late."
After Damian left, the barracks fell into utter silence; no one even uttered a word, except Rokara. "So, what are you all waiting for? We have the day off; let's go outside of the headquarters!" said Rokara in a hurry, then grabbed Talon by his arms and dragged him away.
"What are you doing, you brute? Let go of me!" shouted Talon in anger, but his words were falling on deaf ears as Rokara continued to drag him out.
"I suppose we should go and follow them," said Thorn with a light chuckle as she saw Talon's furious face as he was getting dragged away.
The members of the team walked together on the streets of the capital. Rokara, still dragging Talon, spotted a lively tavern. With an excited grin, she rushed straight to the bar, dragging a protesting Talon along with her.
"What are you doing? Just let go of me this instant!" shouted Talon. However, he had no other choice but to let Rokara tug him inside the tavern. No matter what he tried, Rokara's firm grasp did not release him.
"What do we do now?" inquired Thorn, his gaze fixed on the diminishing image of Rokara, who had pulled Talon into the tavern, both of them disappearing from view.
"I think that none of you want to go in with them?" Asked Quinn the others who remained.
"I would go in to hold back Rokara from irritating Talon to death, but I need to find something on the market down the street." Said Thorn as she pointed to the left of them at a buzzing marketplace with various stalls everywhere.
"I think I just go with Thorn." Echoed the voice inside of Quinn's mind as an answer from Aria.
"And you, brother?" Asked Quinn form his brother, Orion.
"I don't really want to go inside the tavern so I just follow Thorn and Aria." Murmured Orion before looking at the two and asking timidly. "If its not a problem for you two."
That only made the two of them chuckle, "Why would it be, lets go already!" Laughingly said Thorn while Aria nodded vigorously.
"Are you coming with us too, brother?" Asked Orion.
"No, I wanted to Talk with Talon about something, and it's not like Rokara will let him go anytime soon, so I will go after them." Said Quinn as he started to head the tavern's way.
"Okay then, I guess we will meet up when we go back to the headquarters?" Asked Thorn, but she already started to walk to the direction of the market.
"Yeah, see you all soon!" Said Quinn as he waved to the other without turning back.
As Quinn set foot inside the bustling tavern, the lively atmosphere and the scent of various drinks and foods filled the air. He could see that the two was in the back of the tavern, Talon was forcefully set down at one of the chairs.
"Come on, Talon! We're here to enjoy ourselves. Have a drink, it'll lighten your mood!" exclaimed Rokara, ordering a round of drinks for the table.
"What are you doing you idiot? I don't know about you, but I'm only seventeen. I don't normally care about the imperial laws, but if they found out that we are drinking here… I'm not going to get fined, we only got a silver for first weeks payment! Shouted Talon at Rokara, dreading the idea to get parted with his money.
"And even if we don't get fined, I'm not going to spend more of my payment, at least not on dumb stuff like alcohol!"
"What are you crying about, a beer here only cost about four silver." Stated Rokara matter of factly which only managed to scare Talon even more. "Four copper?! Thats too much to pay for a beer, are you out of your damn mind?!"
"Why are you so boring every time except when we are sparring? Should we spar instead so you stop with your whining?" Asked Rokara, her words sounded like that they were mean as a joke, but her tone suggested that she was dead serious.
And while the two bickered, a waitress arrived with two wooden trays in her hand, and on that tray, five big jugs of ice cold beer. With a smile, the waitress placed the two jugs of beer in front of the two from, and went straight to the other tables.
"Not like I have much time left to live anyway!" Said Talon as drank it all down in one huge gulp. The bitter, ice cold drink almost made his throat hurt from the cold.
"That's the right attitude!" Laughed Rokara as she wasted no time and mirrored Talon's actions and drank all of her beer in one big gulp.
"You two just arrived here but both of you are already drinking?" Asked Quinn who arrived to their table just as they finished their beers.
"Quinn, you are here too! Sit down and have a beer with us!" Shouted Rokara as she began to wave to the bartender, "we want another round!"
Reluctantly, Quinn took a seat at the table next to Talon, who immediately averted his gaze the moment their eyes met.
Before the atmosphere at the table could even turn awkward, the same waitress arrived at their table, and this time placed three jugs of beer in front of them.
"Hey… Talon—" before Quinn could even began what he had to say, Talon, as a gesture of him ignoring Quinn, began to gulp down his beer.
***
At the market, Thorn, Aria and Orion gazed at the various stalls, and Orion couldn't help but ask, "Thorn, are you actively searching here for something?"
"Yeah, I intended to get a gift for Talon. His birthday passed around three weeks ago, but back then we were still in the slums at Dein, so celebrating wasn't even an option for us." Said Thorn, but just then, her eyes shined as something suddenly caught her interest.
A medical stalls with a gray haired old man behind it, the stall had various medical herbs and ointments, monocles and eyeglasses, and the thing that Thorn was searching for for almost half an hour, an eye patch.
"Good afternoon sir, for how much do you sell that eye patch for?" Asked Thorn as she pointed straight at a black eye patch that sat beside a bundle of medical herbs.
The gray haired old men showed a surprised smile, "It's five copper coins for that one." Thorn felt pain as she heard thee price, but she picked exactly five copper coins from her lather pouch and put it before the grey haired old man. "Then I want to buy that eye patch."
***
As time passed, Talon and Quinn found themselves in an even worse state. Though not entirely drunk, they had reached a point where they couldn't be considered sober either.
"Just so you know, even thought Master John is one of the four huntsman, he is a great guy, he and Damian are on friendly terms, so stop blaming me for learning from him." Complained Talon, his otherwise deathly pale skin was somewhat flushed as his voice was.
"I already said sorry, like..." Quinn started to count on his fingers, but he failed miserably as the world around him spun, and everything became blurry. "Like three times."
"Oh… right, thanks!" Said Talon as he began to chug down on another jug of beer.
Rokara looked at the two, laughing hysterically as she clutched her stomach, barely able to catch her breath from the laughter.
"And just so you know, I took the arm of one of the huntsman… I don't really remember it, but I took it." Murmured Talon to Quinn who looked at him in wonder.
"That's amazing—" Murmured Quinn before burping one loudly from the beer, then falling asleep with his head resting on the table. While Rokara was still laughing at the two, three familiar faces walked up to them.
"What happened to these two?" Asked the voice coming from Aria's gift inside of Rokara's mind.
"All of us drunk for a bit, this two can't hold their alcohol." Said Rokara before bursting into another fit of laughter.
As Rokara continued to laugh, Orion approached the table and assisted his half-asleep brother in standing up. With Talon still mostly awake, Thorn did the same, helping him back to the barracks.
"We'll rejoin you in a minute. I just need to talk with Talon," Thorn stated. The others proceeded to the headquarters, while Thorn led Talon away for a private conversation.
"Hi, Thorn!" Talon smiled warmly at Thorn. His mind began to clear as the chilly night air helped him regain focus.
Hi!" Thorn mirrored his expression with a warm smile. Then, she gently brushed the hair away from his left eye as she delicately put the eye patch on his left eye.
"It's a bit late, but happy birthday Talon!"