Today I woke up to the feeling of a soft paw tapping at my face. I guess I'll have to get used to having a furry alarm clock waking me up in the morning.
I gave Alice a good scratch before placing her on the floor. She didn’t argue and sat down politely waiting for me.
I pulled on my boots and refilled Alice’s food bowl. She seemed like she wanted to stay in the cabin, and that was fine by me. We can’t all be adventurous souls after all.
I decided to raid the pantry and check if the previous inhabitants left any grub. Bingo! A big wheel of cheese!
I stuffed my mouth with the gouda. Little known fact about me, I love a good cheese. I would eat the entire wheel, but I got stuff to do. Putting back what remained of the cheese, I closed the pantry and grabbed my hat from the hatrack.
I put it on and opened the front door of my cabin. The first thing I saw was Azael, who was standing on my porch.
“Well good morning, Azael! To what do I owe the pleasure?” I asked her.
“Good morning Faron! I came to tell you that we’re having breakfast and wanted to ask if you wished to partake? You’re almost part of our family at this point after all.” She gave me a kind smile.
“Oh, no thanks. I already ate.” slightly chuckling at eating half a wheel of cheese for breakfast.
“Well, our door is always open to you. Have a good day, Faron!” She told me before walking over to her cabin.
Damn she has a nice ass.
Fred has good taste in women.
I shrugged off the thought and remembered the weird scroll I found in Mo’or’s bag. I decided to go looking for anything like a magical shop, or somewhere that could possibly help me with revealing its purpose.
-
After walking around town for a while I came across a small tent which seemed to be selling magical trinkets and the like. I looked inside and came face-to-face with the face of a cat.
“Eek!” it screamed out. “Don’t go scaring me like that!”
I almost fell back in shock. They came out of nowhere! “I scared you?!” I asked them. “You almost gave me a heart attack!”
The cat-looking person got up from the floor and dusted themselves off before sitting down in a meditation-like pose.
“Well, did you need anything, or were you only here to scare this old lion?”
They were a lion? Maybe they are were-lion like the werewolves.
“In fact, I was. I was wondering if you could decipher the meaning of this scroll?”
The lion looked at it for a moment and then gasped.
“Where did you get this?” they asked excitedly. “This scroll is extremely rare!”
“Oh? I had no idea. I won it in a duel.”
“The scroll has a very powerful but very illegal spell bound to it. It can make any item effectively double.” She looked at me with a weary face. “Scrolls of this power will only last for about 20 minutes before both it and the spell imbued within get erased forever.”
That sounds extremely useful. I’d no longer need to worry about saving my bullets!
“Thank you for letting me know. I didn’t catch your name?”
“Oh forgive my manners. The name’s Gabrielle.” She held out a hand.
I took it. “Faron.”
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“The pleasure’s all mine!” The lion told me. “You gave these old bones some much needed action.”
“Okay well, I'll be off now. Thanks for your assistance, Gabrielle.” I gave a polite bow and exited the tent.
Okay, now I just need to learn how to cast the spell imbued within the scroll.
I practiced saying the words a few times, before I made a piece of grass double.
“Finally!” I remembered what Gabrielle had said about it being illegal, so I tried to keep my voice down.
Now let's try it with a bullet, I guess.
I flipped open my revolver and took out one of the rounds. I tried casting the spell, and it worked! I no longer needed to worry about saving ammunition!
With this newfound information, I went back to my cabin and duplicated enough bullets to feed an entire army and stuffed it all inside the Mo’or bag.
I tried to duplicate some other random items in the house for fun, but it appears the 20 minutes Gabrielle talked about were over. I shrugged and put down the fork.
It's nice to have a lot of bullets though, in case I ever needed to shoot an entire kingdom’s worth of bad guys, heh.
Immediately following this thought, I heard the door to my cabin slam open.
“Can you fight?!” the burly man asked me.
I was too surprised to answer.
“I said, CAN YOU FIGHT?!?”
“Yeah!” I answered, with a slight shake in my voice.
“Good! We need every man we can get. We’re going to war with the neighboring human empire! Report to Gabriel as soon as you can!”
He ran off to the next building.
I was shocked. Why would Gabriel decide to wage war against the humans? They vastly outnumbered the werewolves.
I ran out of the cabin and looked around for Gabriel. I spotted a familiar set of ears, either belonging to Fred or Gabriel. Good enough for me.
I began running after the werewolf. When I finally caught up with them, I was relieved to see the serious face of Gabriel look back at me. “Glad you could make it, Faron. We will need your skills.”
What did he know of my battle prowess? It didn’t matter. I fell in line beside Gabriel.
“So, why are you going to war against the humans? What did they do?”
Gabriel looked back at me with a tear rolling down his cheek.
“They killed Fred. He was only going on a hunting trip, and he was shot by a human archer. I have proof they were specifically hunting him down.”
Fred... Fred is dead?
I didn’t know what I should feel. I’d only known the man for a short time, but I was really starting to like him. And what will happen to Azael and Anu? They lost their husband. Their dad. It wasn’t fair.
I felt an indescribable anger build up inside me.
They would all pay. For Fred's sake.
I looked up at the stone walls of the city, and I felt no remorse. Those weren’t people looking down on me. They were vermin that needed to be exterminated. Vital points, All 8 soldiers weren't wearing helmets.
They dropped like flies.
I kicked open the city gate and shot two more guards.
Flipping open the cylinder of my revolver, I quickly added 10 fresh cartridges.
I could hear the battle going on outside. It didn’t matter to me. I knew exactly who killed my friend.
The purebloods.
I shot two more guards trying to block my way forward.
One tried to sneak up behind me, but Gabriel had my back. The guard had his chest pierced by his sword before he could even lay a finger on me.
-
I walked though the blood-stained gates of the city. I felt no remorse as I stepped on the corpses of the various guards strewn about.
I had reached my target. The pureblood pub.
The guard outside was already dead. A werewolf must have gotten to him before I had the chance.
I kicked the door open and shot everyone inside.
Unfortunately for me, there were 15 people in the building. I only shot 12.
I pulled out my bowie knife and got into a fighting stance.
One guy went for a jab at my shoulder, going for the artery in my armpit. Bad mistake.
I jabbed the knife into his neck. He fell to the ground clenching the wound. 2 left.
They tried to attack me at the same time, going for downward chops.
I slid under their attacks, ending up behind the two. I grabbed both their heads, twisting them.
After a satisfying crack, they both fell to the floor, lifeless.
I wiped the blood off my knife before putting it back in its sheath.
Suddenly, I saw a familiar figure walk out from behind the counter. It was priest.
“So, you’ve come to ruin my establishment. Unfortunately, you’ll have to go through me. You know, it's funny. I thought you already killed that mutt, but it turns out y-
His monologue was cut short by a bullet flying into his forehead.
“That’s for murdering my friend.” I said, with tears flowing down my face.
-
I was just about to leave the village, when I remembered the dwarf and his black market. I decided to give him a visit.
I walked into the dark alleyway and knocked on the steel door. “Open up dwarf. I have your money.” I told him.
After all the locks were removed, I put on a fake smile to greet the little person.
“Hello! What do you say we come to a de-
He started before I pointed one of my guns at him.
“No deal. That knife, or your life.” I told him bluntly.
The dwarf seemed to get the message, and walked over to the display casing, opening it.
“The ritual requires you to feed the knife a drop of your blood for it to be bounded to your person.”
I pulled out my bowie with my other hand, still keeping the gun on the dwarf’s head and plucked a hole in my finger, letting a droplet fall on the knife blade. The metal seemed to absorb the blood drop, and it immediately ceased its struggling and laid flat in the dwarf’s hand.
“Now, it will listen to your commands and your commands alone.” he said with a tiny shake in his voice.
That was the last thing he said before the knife drove itself deep into his throat.