Chapter 14

After grabbing all of our gear from the Inn we left the city through the main gate. We headed east toward where the town is located. It would be quite a long journey, but it would be nice again to go on another long trip. As we walked along we made small talk. We talked of the mission we were on and what we needed to accomplish. We had people going missing in a town far to the east. It could be monster activity or there could be a murderer around. We wouldn’t know until we investigated more. We had never done this kind of thing before. This kind of thing was usually left up to the town guard. Though things had gotten too complicated for the town officials to handle it and they had called us in to assist them. We would do our best to track down whatever was kidnapping the people. It didn’t matter to us what was doing it, we would kill it just the same. That was the point in the contract. To go there and get rid of whatever was causing the problem.

My world had changed so much in just a short time. I had gone from an orphan to an adventurer in a week and this all felt so natural. It was as if this was what I was meant to do. I now had access to the dragon Kalastrovax who would with time teach me to harness powers that I couldn’t have dreamed of before. I was also traveling with a beauty named Sora. It was just good luck that I had managed to find her and rescue her in time. We had been traveling together for a while now and had gotten comfortable with each other. We had spent almost every moment together since her rescue. She had become a valuable partner for me as an adventurer. I would have been able to complete any of our contracts alone, but with her help we had grown into a great team. We talked about all we had learned from our study in the library. About the history of monsters and dragons. It was interesting and it gave a direction to go once we had become better adventurers. We would eventually need to find a way to release Kalastrovax. With his help as we slowly released his bonds he would be able to teach us about magic and more about how the world worked. I still couldn’t wrap my mind around the existence of Gods but that had little to do with our current situation.

We walked until noon and stopped for a quick meal and a rest. It was nothing special, just some sandwiches we had the maid at the Inn make before we left. It was a pleasant day for travel. A nice breeze blew through as we sat and ate. It could be said that we should hurry because someone else could disappear if we did not make haste. The problem with that observation was that whoever was taking the people was only doing it every few weeks and the most recent one was only a few days ago. So it would appear that we had time. We would probably have to wait around the town for over a week before they acted again. While we were there we would take care of any smaller contracts they had like bandit activity or a monster sighting. It would be dull to just sit around in a small town after being in the Capital for a couple of weeks. As nice as it had been the few days we had waited in the city to research and choose a contract in all honesty it had become a bit dull. I had come to a realization about myself. My heart yearned for travel. My entire life I had been kept a prisoner. I had always wanted escape and now that I finally had it I could not stay in the same place for long.

After the quick break for lunch we got back on the road. We walked at a leisurely pace. We were not in any hurry to get there. We were living for the joy of the journey. I relished every step I took while on the road. The miles went by and eventually it was time to stop for the night. We had found a little spot where other travelers were resting for the night. So we set up our tent a little bit away from the other travelers and started cooking our dinner. The others didn’t approach us. I suppose they thought we might look down on them since we were adventurers and they were merchants and peasants. I had no such ideas but they could think what they wanted. We finished eating and turned in for the night. We didn’t need to stand watch tonight. Any monster or group of bandits would be insane to attack a group of this size.There were a couple of guarded caravans here that had their own personal guards. So I would leave it to them to look after the camp. I slept peacefully and without dreams.

We woke up early before most of the other travelers could get up for the day. We made up some oatmeal and ate quickly. We didn’t want to be bunched up with a group of merchants so we quickly set off and headed back down the road. It was another day full of travel. We would keep this up until we got to the town. Every night we would stop around a big group of merchants for safety and then set out before everyone else. This worked out fine for us until the third night. We were walking along looking for a campsite with other people but had yet to find a place to stay for the night. This was when we were set upon by bandits. It had been odd that we hadn’t seen anyone for quite some time so I had already been on alert for something like this to happen. I instantly had my sword drawn as did Sora.

It was a group of five bedraggled looking bandits. It seems banditry didnt pay as much as one would assume these men looked almost like corpses. “Hey boy, Hand over everything you've got while me and the lads have our way with that girl you got over there. We don’t wanna have to kill you but if you put up a struggle we will. All we want is all your gear and a little time with that girl. We don’t care that she's an animal. It all feels the same. Now come on boy, don't put up a struggle.” I didn’t stop to think or say a word. These idiots thought that they could come before us and demand our stuff and worse they wanted to use Sora. I couldn’t allow that and before the words had even completely gotten out of the idiot's mouth my blade had hewn his smug head from his body. Sora was right behind me and stabbed the man to the far left straight through. We had caught the men completely off guard. They had not expected us to resist but that is exactly what we did.

There was only one word to describe what we did to these bandits. Slaughter. It was a completely one sided killing. They didn’t stand a chance. We came at them before they could even raise their swords to reist. Five corpses laid on the ground before us. We were both drenched in blood and it was almost time for the sun to set. I took out the map we had to search for a water source. We did not want to go to sleep while covered in all of this mess. I saw what looked like a small stream that shouldn’t be too far off. We should only be about a fifteen minute walk to the little stream. We left the corpses where they laid. They didn’t have anything we wanted. Let the vultures eat them if they wanted. These men didn’t deserve any better. We walked into the woods and lucky for us the stream was right where the map said it was. It only took us twenty minutes to get to the stream. I set up the campsite while Sora washed herself in the stream. After she was done I went down to the water and washed off the blood and grime that was stuck to me from battle. The thoughts of what I had done didn’t even enter my mind. Those men had been the worst sort of scum and they needed to be eradicated. I had killed before and would do so again. These men were lower than animals in my estimation and didn’t deserve my consideration. I put on a fresh set of clothes and made my way back to camp. Sora was waiting there for me when I got back. She turned around when she saw me approaching.

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I said. “Well that was a little more exciting than what I had bargained for so early in our trip.” Sora said. “Yes, I didn’t expect us to be attacked either. Those vermin must have been on the lookout for a small group like ours. They probably let the larger caravans pass by without issue, just lying in wait for a small group or a single person to come by and attack.” With that said we decided not to dwell on it any longer. They were dead and we weren’t and thinking about it wouldn’t change that. We ate a quiet meal and then decided it was time to go to bed. I would stand watch for most of the night. Those men may not be alone and I didn't want to be snuck up on in the night. I set up a log as a seat and waited while looking out in the night with the fire at my back. Nothing happened while I was on watch. So after enough time had passed I woke Sora so that I could grab a few hours sleep.

Darkness once again enveloped me in my dreams. What could he want? Was there something he needed to tell me? I waited in the darkness for Kalastravax to speak. “So you have no remorse for killing your own kind? That is good my young friend. Because the things we will need to help me escape are more than likely in the hands of you humans. Oh don’t get me wrong a large part will be held by the monsters, but I can think of a couple that are most assuredly in the hands of humans.” I thought for a while and responded. “I won’t go around just slaughtering other humans wholesale. Those men from earlier were the worst sort of vermin. I will help you get what you need to be free, but I will not just kill other humans. If at all possible I would like to avoid that if we can.” Puzzled with my statement Kalastravax said. “I don’t understand why some humans are fine to kill while others are not. This must be a human thing. If I want something I take it. End of story no creature, even other dragons, will stand in my way.I have been tricked and betrayed too much for me to spare a life when I would further my goal by doing so. Well my little friend do as you like. I won’t ask you to kill your own kind, but when it comes down to getting what we need you will either have to kill your way to it or find some alternate way to get it.” I agreed with his assessment. “Yes, it will be up to me to decide what course of action we take. If it comes down to it and I have to kill a few humans I will do what must be done. Though I would prefer to use other means to achieve our goal.” “Agreed. Well sleep for now Alex. Sooner than you think we may find a piece of what we are looking for. I will let you know if we ever get close to it.” With that the image in the darkness of a chained dragon disappeared and I drifted back into sleep.

I woke up and made my way out of the tent. Sora was making breakfast so I started putting away the tent and sleeping rolls. With everything put away I sat down by the fire to eat some breakfast. I told Sora about my dream and she agreed that if it could be avoided we should not kill humans. Though if there was no other solution we might have to do it that way. We finished eating and then we started out once again. We were still a few days away from the town. I hoped we wouldn’t run into any more bandits but only time would tell. We headed off once again going through the same cycle of walk, rest, walk, and sleep. It was a little boring but after four more days on the road a town finally came into view. Luckley we hadn't come across any more bandits on the road. We made our way up to the small gate where the guards were stationed waiting for anyone wanting to enter the city. They looked at us with much speculation as we approached. We walked up to them and displayed our adventurer placards. That lessened their scrutiny by quite a bit. They said we would still have to pay the copper coin entry fee. I paid for it and we made our way through the gate. We asked for directions to an Inn and where we could find the mayor of the town so that we could start investigating the missing people. He gave us the information gladly and we made our way to the Inn.

We would be in this town for a while so we needed to get a place set up to stay. We walked inside and were greeted by an older woman that I assumed was the Innkeeper. She came up to us and asked if we needed anything. I told her we would be needing rooms for at least two weeks and meals for that amount of time. I also told her we may be here longer depending on how long it took us to finish the contract. She said that was fine and she had a room available that had two beds in it so we wouldn’t have to pay for two separate single rooms. That worked well for us. We had gotten used to being around one another and if we were both going to be working on this contract together it would help to be near each other. We ate a quick lunch after putting our gear into the room. After we finished eating we made it over to the mayor's office to ask about the contract. While we were there we would also ask if there were any more contracts they needed completed while we were here. We already knew there would be a lot of idle time between attacks so it would help to have something to do while we waited. We walked into the office and made our way up to the receptionist to ask if we could see the mayor. She told us to take a seat and she would tell the mayor we were there to see them.

The receptionist was back after only a few minutes and waved us into the office. Once we made it into the office we finally saw the mayor. She was a young woman with brown hair and green eyes. She was quite a beauty for such a small town and I caught myself staring for a second too long. For some reason Sora reached up and pinched me. I didn’t know why she did that but it snapped me out of my revelry. The woman introduced herself as Lara. She hadn’t been the mayor for long. In fact she had become the mayor when her father, the previous mayor, had gone missing. She had been voted into the office to replace him. She didn’t have much experience with this kind of thing but she was apparently something of a town idol from what I could understand. She told us about the disappearances. Much of what she had to say was already in the reports we had read at the guild. She did say that they always happened at night and were never closer than three weeks apart, usually closer to a month or more. We had at least a week before whatever it was attacked again. With that information in hand we asked if they had any contracts they needed taken care of while we were in the town. She said they had seen some goblins at a nearby farm a few days ago but they didn’t have anyone they could send out to investigate. They also had an open contract for a certain purple herb that could be found in the forest about a day north of the town. We took both contracts and decided we would tackle those tomorrow. We had a week to gather the herbs and find the goblins before the next attack was supposed to happen. We wanted to be in town when it happened so that we could look at the fresh sight of the attack to look for information. We headed back to the Inn with our mission for today accomplished. We each took a turn in the bath before having supper and turning in for the night. Tomorrow we would try to get these contracts completed and make it back to town before the next attack. Maybe we could even find out a little about what was attacking in the city while we were out. Only time would tell for now. I needed to rest. We had a big week ahead and I needed to be prepared for what may lay ahead.