Dragged behind a figure wrapped in a collection of furs stitched together to make a cloak is the carcass of a Jackalope, this figure is walking towards the village of Ilshard.
Ilshard is predominantly a mining town, though it's closeness to a wild zone is both a blessing and a curse to the people living there, bringing grand quantities of rare minerals but also a far higher amount of both magical and non magical beasts losing control of themselves and attacking anyone and anything they see.
Which is where guards come in, see, Ilshard is the second furthest village from the capital, just barely losing out to Hage in distance, this of course leads to very few visitors and very very rare passing patrols from the magic knights, so, to make sure that this town isn't over run by feral beasts every day, parties of guardsmen patrol the boarders of the town, and kill any beast that gets too close,
these aren't people who were sent by the capital, but instead volunteers who are trained, this might not seem odd or unique, as most towns have guards stationed there, but these are not people that report to the government or any kind of power at all, on top of that it has been extremely effective the village of Ilshard very rarely sends out distress signals to the government, because they are so effective at handling the beast hoards.
As the figure follows the trail up to the village the two guards on station at the moment look at her with suspicion for a moment then let the figure pass, they know this one well.
As she makes her way to the 'Windmill Butcher and Bakery' to sell the carcass, she listlessly ignores the stares and whispers of those around her and continues dragging the jackalope on the sled down the road.
- - - -
I unlatch my about to be sold quarry from my sled and as both my hands are full kick open the door of the Butchers and waddle in, as I do so I hear a gruff voice yelling from the back room, "Oi Brat, how many damn times do I have ta' tell ya? NO SLAMMING OPEN MY DOOR DUMBASS!" As this voice finished yelling a very sharp cleaver gets thrown from the back room and lands with a sharp thunk into the wall next to my head.
Not even flinching I rush up to the counter and heave the carcass onto the selling table and slam my hand onto the customer service bell "AH don't fuckin' throw sharp weapons at the only customer willing to give your sodden store the time of day during the winter you asshat!"
The face of a disgruntled grizzly bearded older man comes from the same door the butcher's knife did, "you ungrateful punk, don't go dirting my floors with your muddy shoes!"
I dart over to the entrance where the shoe wiper mat lays and while not breaking eye contact, wipe all the mud and dirt off onto it
A vein appears on his forehead as he glared at me "you ass! I'm gonna have to clean that now!" He shakes his hand at me.
I smirk at him for a bit before walking back with my now cleanish shoes, "alright, alright, slow your broom and take a look see at what I have for ya this time!" I say as I lean my weight onto the bar separating us.
He looks at the consistently wrapped carcass in front of him and gives a little "tsk" before cutting the tightly wrapped string with a knife he takes from a knife holder under the bar and then unwraps the brown paper to reveal the skinned Jackalope carcass.
He looks with a sneer at me, "pfft a juvenile? You going soft on me, kid? As he says this he begins to inspect the meat in front of him.
He mutters "good condition, but…" he glared up at me sharply "the skinning was subpar." He stares at me, half judging half wondering if I was feeling under the weather.
I look away and say "I got distracted…" then I turn to him with just as ferocious a glare "and as for it being a juvenile, you know the adults hibernate during heavy winters like these!" I slam my hand onto the bar "and anyway it's still meat, ain't it? So, get to payin' up, ya moron!" I scoff out
His eyes intensify "Moron? MORON!? The only one allowed to call me that is my wife! So keep that word outta ya mouth if ya know what's good for ya, Shepard the Hunter!"
I look at him even more affronted then before "So what if my long departed decided to empart upon me such a bad name! You've no room to boast, Mason the Butcher!"
As both of us prepare to beat the shit outta each other a small "Ahem" comes from the door we both freeze.
As we both slowly, nervously turn to the door, we pale at the sight of a plump short red haired older lady with a scarily serine smile on her face looking as both of us with a closed eye smile.
Sweating nervously we both prostrate before her bowing at her with fervor and say in unison "M-Ms Hearte..!/ H-honey bon..! How are you this morning.?!"
She looks at us with faux concern on her face and says "ahh, has my bear of a husband been bullying the sweet little helper again..?"
Both of us twitch like we've been slapped "b-bear.. / little…" as if gloomy purple clouds we'll over only us two, we go sulk in the corner.
As Ms. Hearte snorts and shakes her head she says "aww come on don't be like that you two, don't you have business with each other?" She then walks to her part of the shop, where a wall mounted furnace lay barren of any flame, she snaps her fingers and the furnace lights up and she looks at us with a feral smile "get to it then!" As the fire picks up steam it also makes for an extremely intimidating picture.
We both simultaneously say "geh!" And scramble back to what we were doing, now much more cordial with each other.
He placed a bag down on the table "for a juvenile, I'll give you, 2,050 Yul." He says, crossing his arms in the process.
I look at him determinedly, and say "do you know how long it took me to get this? I had to creep up on the Alderbeste's territory to find anything close to this big! It's obviously worth 2,500!" I say, crossing my significantly scrawnier arms.
a flicker of concern lingers in his eyes for a moment before he scoffs and says "2,250." And tilts his head up at me slightly, as if challenging
I look at him smugly and say "2,450 and I throw in the spleen as well." As I say this I throw one of the smaller packages I had on my sled that I brought in for this exact purpose onto the table
He eyes the spleen with hunger in his eyes and the coughs and looks away "deal." He then adds some coins to the purse and I take it off the counter, I then place the entrance of the new bag to the entrance of my coin bag and let the new Yul fall into the half full sack.
I look at him smugly before waving my hand and saying "pleasure doing business, Mr. Hearte!" And walk out the door
On my way out I hear a muttered "tch, cocky brat…" as I close the door I am greeted by the common chill of this time of year and the smell tempting me to go back inside my favorite building in this town to buy some tantalizingly fresh bread, but I shake my dead and gather my sled and head to the job board near first street.
- - - -
As I make it to the Odd job board I hear a man yelling near, "PLEASE SOMEONE HELP, MY SON, ROBERT, WENT INTO THE FOREST AND HASN'T RETURNED YET!" old man Dervish who sells plants yelled fervently, he takes a breath and continues "I FEAR HE'S GOTTEN HIMSELF LOST!" Said the man, sobbing desperately.
I looked away, a part of me wanted to do something to help, but the realist in me is screaming that not only am I twelve, I'm also not at all strong, I'm really only effect in a fight when I'm ambushing my enemies…
'Leave it to old man Allen…' I think to myself as I look at the board to see any job I could do in a day or two.
[DINK]
As I look at the job board I absolutely refuse to look at the grey Board that has appeared to my left.
"MY SON WILL DIE OUT THERE AND NO ONE HERE IS DOING ANYTHING!! HOW CAN YOU ALL BE SO DAMN CRUEL!!!" the voice of the apothecary Dervish screams out
I unconsciously look at the old man in need, but in the way of his figure is a grey Board saying…
[QUEST BOARD ACTIVATED: BASIC QUEST, SAVE ROBERT HALESON, GENERAL DIRECTION: DEEP IN DURINGER FOREST]
[QUEST OBJECTIVES AND REWARDS: REWARD FOR SAVING ROBERT: SKILL, KI SENSING
GET OUT OF THE FOREST WITHOUT ROBERT GETTING HURT PHYSICALLY:
SECRET REWARD
DEFEAT ALL ENEMIES: SECRET REWARD
find. what's. hidden. deep. between. root. and. hawthorn.: ??? ]
[QUEST FAILURE CONDITIONS: ROBERT DIES
FAILURE PUNISHMENT: USER DIES FROM SHAME]
… God fucking damn it all to hell!
I close my eyes and count to ten, then breathing in and out deeply I looking past the Quest Board, then look at Dervish and ask "where did he enter from..?" as I say this he suddenly stops crying and looks at me.
He looks shocked as he says "h-h-huh?" As he rubs his eyes as if trying to rub away the lies and see a truth that even as he did so, did not change.
My eyebrows twitch as I glare at him " do I gotta repeat myself? Mr. Haleson, where did your son enter the forest from, so I can track him down and bring him back." I walk over to him as I say this.
He falls to his knees and says in a shaky voice "h-h-he *sniff* went in thr-through-t-the ea-eastern e-entrance.. b-but n-never c-c-came b-ack…." After saying this he falls back into sobs.
Believing I'll not get any more information from him I prepped to go on a rescue mission.
- - - -
This is all for this chapter, this is probably going to be a two parter as well, hope you enjoyed!