Hal walked down the cobbled streets toward the labor guild. The roads were mostly open around this time, and most who were on the streets had a goal in mind. The few individuals that did loiter were given a wide birth by everyone to avoid any potential trouble they might cause. Hal took care to follow suit in avoiding those that stood around but also to avoid stepping in any puddles on the uneven road. It hadn't rained in the past week to Hals knowledge, and he'd prefer to show up to his first day of work as clean as he could.
The majority of the building along the road were built of the same combination of wood, stone, and whatever filler material was available at the time of construction. On occasion, Hal saw a building constructed entirely of wood, with a bit of opaque glass, these were, more often than not, a business of some kind. They weren't the only places of business, by any means, just the most prominent and the cleanest looking.
The labor guild wasn't anything fancy. It was a short, long, stone building with small openings in the side and a person sitting behind each. Every window had a short line in front of it of all kinds of people. Young, old, dirty, clean, strong, weak, almost any type of person could be seen lined up. Seeing a line mostly formed of younger people, Hal took his spot an waited to reach the front.
The line moved smoothly, each person was dealt with promptly, either rejected for whatever work they applied for or told were in the city they needed to go to complete today's job. Most of those in line already knew what they were trying to do, but occasionally someone new would show up in one of the queues, and the staff member would start asking questions about what they could do. Hal was expecting the same treatment when he reached the front of his line but was given an entirely different reaction than he anticipated.
"You, from The Old Man?" Said the man at the window.
"Yes, sir," Hal answered quickly and politely.
"You new?" Said the man in a brisk tone.
"Yes, sir," Hal responded.
"Name?"
"Hal," Hal chose not to give his full name.
"Alright, take this slip and head to the location described. Give the slip to the man in charge, he'll put you to work for the day." The man said swiftly. "I assume that you can read if you came from The Old Man?" The man asked almost as an afterthought.
Hal nodded before speaking, "What kind of work is it?" Asked Hal curiously.
"Don't know, probably delivery or something else like that. You'll collect your pay from the manager on-site at the end of the day. NEXT." The man's voice wasn't callous or dismissive, just hurried.
Hal didn't have much choice but to move away from the window and look at the direction written on the slip of parchment in his hand.
>Well, it's showtime Tinct,< Said Hal in his mind.
>Yes, it is,< Tinct responded,
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Hal carried the formerly heavy bag down the road. When he'd gotten to the job site, he'd received a sack filled to the brim with packages, had a set of instruction rattled off at him as swiftly as the person speaking could handle, and been told to deliver the contents of the bag to the locations on the labels by the end of the day. He had been informed by someone else that he should be especially cautious about getting the confirmation of delivery before handing over the product. If he didn't return with the proof for every destination, he wouldn't receive any pay.
So far, everyone had been accommodating about yielding the confirmation to Hal before he handed over the parchment wrapped sacks of unknown contents. Now at the last delivery site, Hal expected this to be much the same. Raising his hand, Hal knocked on the door of the house.
The building was deep in the slums, constructed from whatever scraps the builder had available. Many of the houses surrounding it were either blatantly falling apart, or barely livable. Still, this one stood just a bit stronger than it's neighbors, suggesting that the person inside cared for the building, or had others do it for them.
>Something is wrong.< Voiced Instinct
>What do you mean?< Hal asked.
>I don't know. Whatever it is, it feels slimy.< This was one of the rare statements from Instinct that contained any indication of emotion, and that emotion was disgust.
Before Hal could investigate what elicited such a reaction from his companion, the door to the house opened with a hideous creaking sound, revealing a portly man with oily skin and a flat nose, an orc.
"What do you want, kid?" The large man asked gruffly.
"I have a delivery for you." Speaking with a smile, Hal didn't let his internal unease show on his face or in his voice.
"Alright, here's the confirmation." The greasy man handed over a folded piece of parchment and held his hand out for the wrapped item.
After passing over the package, Hal hurried back to the job site while stuffing the confirmation into his bag alongside the others.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
>Guess your feeling was off this time Tinct,< Hal said in a jovial tone
>That appears to be the case.< Instinct said with the smallest hint of caution.
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"What is this?" The manager said while holding up a blank creased piece of parchment for Hal to see.
"I.. I don't... I don't know." Hals stuttered out the response.
"Well, whatever it is, it's not a delivery confirmation. You know I can't pay you unless you either come back with the item or a confirmation, right?" The manager said sternly and swiftly, not giving Hal a chance to speak. "Either you go get the confirmation, or you get my package back. If you can manage that before sunset, you'll get your pay, otherwise, you get nothing." The manager spoke in a dismissive tone before walking away from Hal to deal with someone else.
>What do we do Tinct, I don't know who gave us the fake confirmation,< Hal asked his companion in a distraught manner.
>I do. That orc. He's one of the only ones that handed us a folded parchment.< Instinct said calmly
>How'd you rule out the others?< Hal asked, cautious of returning to the wrong location on a hunch.
>The one, the manager, showed us had a grease stain,< Tinct voiced his lie with the same hint of disgust he'd used before.
>I didn't notice it, but I'll trust you,< Hal said, before rushing off to retrieve the confirmation.
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Back in front of the greasy man's house and hopeful about finishing this quickly. Hal knocked on the door far more aggressively than he had previously, leaving a small dent in the door's brittle wood.
The door opened with the same creaking from before, and the same greasy man was on the other side.
"What do you want, kid?" The large man asked gruffly.
"I came to get the delivery confirmation," Hal said boldly.
"Alright, wheres my package?" The man said, taking on a disgusting smile.
"Uh, you already have it," Hal responded in a confused tone. This was not going how he'd hoped.
"Well, then you should already have the confirmation." The man took on a sickening tone that imitated joy while speaking. "If that's all, I am in the middle of something, so do run along. HAHAHA," The man's laugh could be heard even after he'd slammed the door in Hal's face.
>What do we do?< Hal asked, his spirit all but broken by the interaction. This was his first time dealing with someone blatantly trying to be mean to him.
>Hal, let me do something. Don't watch.< Instinct said while nudging Hal to pass control of their body to him.
>Alright,< Hal said, stopping the tears that had begone to form in his eyes.
Rapidly Hal's features took on a far more horrendous tone. His skin turned green, his black nails grew into claws. His veins felt like fire was rushing through them and they pressed against his skin. His lips split into a bestial grin, and his eyes started glowing an acid green while the pupils become much narrower.
Knocking harder than Hal had previously, leaving a visible break in the panels of the door, Instinct waited for the fat man to open the door.
When the door creaked inward, before the disgusting being on the other side could speak, Instincts clawed hand flashed into the house and grabbed the greasy collar of his shirt, pulling him out into the light of the setting sun.
"WHAAA' The fat man screamed in surprise at being so forcefully pulled around by someone much smaller than he.
Instinct dragged the man into the middle of the street and onto his knees so that he had to look up to see the acidic glow of Instinct's eyes. The feat was harder than Instinct would have liked because of the filth's expanded waste.
"I believe you have something that belongs to us. Hand it over," Instinct's command was cold and emotionless.
"I don't know what you're talking about. Now let me go." The fat man said while trying. Unsuccessfully, to pull Instinct's hand away from his shirt.
Calmy reaching his spare hand up to the wrist of the creature before him, Instinct spoke again. "You know exactly what we want. Hand it over, or I break your wrist. Then, your arm. After those, we'll see what comes next." The promise was as flat as almost anything else he said, but Instinct's glowing eyes grew brighter with the warning.
"You wouldn't, you couldn't." The pig did not seem to believe that the child holding him was actually capable of following through on his words. Taking on a much more confident tone than his position afforded the filth spoke even further. "Besides, I told you, Without a package, I won't give you the confirmation, and if you are telling the truth about having delivered it already, why don't you have th... AHHHHH"
Instinct did not wait for the greasy pig to finish speaking. Opting instead to deliver on the promise he'd made previously. The pig's wrist had given easily under the strength of Instincts grasp, snapping with as little resistance as a large branch.
"Hand it over, or the arm is next." Instinct promised coldly.
"It's in my pocket," The man cried while reaching into his pants.
With a speed that was in contrast to his massive frame, the fat man produced a small dagger from his pocket and stabbed it into Instincts arm, causing him to release his grip on the fat creature's shirt.
"HAH, see kid, THAT'S WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU TRY TO ACT TOUGH. NOW RUN ALong before, before.." The pig's threat of further harm was cut short when he saw Instinct reach up and calmly pull the dagger from his arm and the wound in his arm close at a visible rate.
"And I was trying to do this the easy way, on behalf of my brother." Instinct said, in reference to Hal. "Well, looks like we will be using a different method." Instinct took on a stance reminiscent of a beast before lunging at the fat man with significantly more speed than he'd used previously.
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To his credit, the fat man did manage to land a heavy blow to Instinct's stomach before having all of his limbs snapped in half. While wailing in the streets of the slums, the man had revealed the location of the delivery confirmation along with a small pouch of coins that Instinct took as well.
With the parchment and the coins in his pockets, Instinct leaped onto the roofs of the building to rush back to the job site before sunset, at which point he returned control to Hal with a simple sentence.
>You'll be sore tomorrow, don't push yourself, and eat well tonight.< >Dhakhaan rhaan der o.< >Fate be with you.<
Hal didn't question Tinct on what he'd done to get the confirmation, he didn't question the blood on the arm of his shirt, or the hole, and he didn't question the pouch of coins he found in his pocket. All he did was walk to the manager and hand over the delivery confirmation and collect his pay.
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"In retrospect, both of my brothers should have been more observant of the other, as they had just caused the end of the lighter half of my childhood. Even if I didn't know it yet," I spoke to the person across the fire, to the best of my crippled voices ability. "Before you ask, this was long before my brother became one, became me, and long before the world of today, but it's all relevant to your question."