Jared lay on his bed, staring up at the wooden ceiling of his rented room. They had run out of Copper rank jobs near the town, and had decided to take a few days off. This was the first time Jared had really taken time to relax and decompress since arriving in this world, and he wasn’t sure it was entirely a good thing.

Thoughts kept coming to the surface, swirling around his mind, then fading as another took its place.

What would his squad think? He had vanished in the middle of an operation. He could see them thinking that he had deserted, run off. A sharp pang flashed in his chest at the thought.

What about his family? He wasn’t too close to his parents or younger brother, but they were his family. They probably would be sent the dreaded letter saying he was MIA. He was pretty sure his parents would hold onto hope that he was still alive somewhere; they were pretty optimistic people. His brother, on the other hand, almost certainly thought he was dead. It might be better that way. He didn’t know if there was any way for him to go back to Earth.

And, even if there was, he didn’t know if he wanted to.

The thought startled him, but as he considered it, he found it to be true. Yes, he had a good life back home, but there were a lot of things about it that he was glad to be without. And here, he had a lot that he didn’t want to lose.

He looked over at where he had rested Mimi’s form against the window, smiling as he remembered his first encounter with her.

Then his smile soured. Since then, he had basically only treated her as a tool, not a real, living, and probably sentient creature. She was in the shape of his gun, so he treated her like one, only thinking about how he could use her to his own ends and advantage.

I need to do better.

Getting out of bed, he lifted the mimic.

“Hey, Mimi, do mimics do anything for fun?”

He got a feeling of confusion from her.

“What about this, is there another form that you like, and would be more comfortable for you? We’re not planning on doing any hunting today, so I won’t need you as my rifle.”

A thought struck him, and he grinned.

“Actually, I just had an idea. You can take the shape of any inanimate object, right?”

Mimi waved a pseudopod in the affirmative.

“Good.” He set off down the stairs and out of the guild, looking for one of a couple specific buildings. He didn’t know if they had what he was looking for in this small town, but he hoped so.

It didn’t take him long to find one. It was a small shop, near the outer edge of the main plaza, with a wooden sign depicting a rocking horse. He entered the shop, finding a small homey reception area. It smelled similar to the forest, with many woodsy scents mingling in the air. Nobody was present, but he could hear the scraping sound of a planer on a plank of wood coming from a back room.

As he entered, a small bell jingled, and the scraping stopped. A few moments later, the door to the back room opened and an ipotane man with dark gray fur and mane entered.

“Welcome to Cyrel’s Toys. What can Cyrel do for you?”

Jared introduced himself and explained what he wanted.

“A strange request, but it’s within my skillset. It’ll be a little pricey, though.”

“Money isn’t an issue. How much?”

“Ten imperials will cover the materials and labor. But I might be willing to give you a discount if I gain a couple Skill levels on this project.”

Jared reached into his pouch and pulled out the requested amount.

“How long do you think it will take?”

The horse man took the gold, then paused to think for a moment.

“I could have it ready by this afternoon”

“Great.” He looked at the rifle resting on his shoulder.

“Any other requests, Mimi?”

She gave him a dismissive wave of a pseudopod. Jared nodded and turned back to the toymaker, who was staring at him in shock. “Is…Is that a…mimic?” He hissed the last word, fear filling his eyes.

Jared waved the question away.

“Oh yeah, I neglected to introduce you. Cyrel, this is Mimi. She’s my companion. Say hello, Mimi.”

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The mimic waved a pseudopod in greeting.

Cyrel blinked, fear calming to apprehension. “Like I said, come back this afternoon. I should have it done by then.” With that, he turned and practically fled to the back room, which Jared imagined was his workshop.

“It’s okay, Mimi. These people just don’t understand. They’ve been conditioned to fear and hate creatures like you. Let’s go see what El is up to; that’ll probably cheer you up.” Naomi had taken a liking to the butterfly woman, despite their rocky meeting.

They returned to the Hunters’ Guild, but Jared almost had to fight his way through a crowd that had sprung up in the few minutes he had been gone. When he finally managed to enter the building, he found the source of the crowd. Talking to Theresa, the Guild secretary, were two tall men that seemed utterly out of place.

Their lavish, yet practical outfits were made of vibrantly colored fabrics over brown traveling clothes, one favoring blue, and the other, orange. As they talked, they gesticulated wildly, showing off the many expensive-looking rings on their fingers, and they both wore floppy, wide-brimmed caps that threatened to leap off with every bob of their heads.

As he entered, both men froze and turned to look at him. The one in blue briefly turned back to Theresa.

“I believe this is the man we are looking for.” Then they approached Jared, every movement in sync. Then, it was Orange who spoke.

“Are you Mr. Jared Moore?”

Jared eyed them suspiciously.

“Who wants to know?” His hand crept to where his 1911 was strapped to his hip.

“We are representatives from the Hunters’ Guild in Fairbourne. My name is Watson Fitzcharles, and this is Rufus Ashdown. May we speak with you for a moment?”

“Pleasure. I believe we are already speaking.” Jared practically growled the words. Something about these men was setting off all kinds of alarm bells in his mind. How did they know his name, and why were they looking for him? He knew to trust his instincts; doing so had saved him and his squad more than once back on earth, and his instincts were telling him that these men were trouble.

This time, Blue answered; Rufus Ashdown as he had been introduced. They seemed to switch off every sentence or two.

“Now, now, there’s no need to be impolite. We have a matter that we would like to discuss with you, in private.”

“Do you happen to have a room here? If not, we can use ours.”

“And if I say no?”

Their ever-present smiles dipped slightly.

“That would be unfortunate. We really must speak with you.”

“If today is inconvenient, we would be willing to set an appointment sometime in the next week. It is of utmost importance.”

Jared sighed. Even if he refused here, these men were likely to keep pestering him until he gave in. Might as well get it over with.

“Today is fine. Let’s go to your room.” He didn’t want to be meeting in an unfamiliar space, but he wanted to disclose which room was his even less.

At his response, both men brightened considerably.

“Wonderful! I’m sure you will not regret this!”

Jared wasn’t so sure about that.

He followed them up both flights of stairs, then down the hall to a large set of doors. Entering them, he found himself in a massive suite, with two four-poster beds, a large kitchen area, and another door set off to the side which he supposed hid the bath.

The two men took a seat around a large, circular table, gesturing for Jared to do the same. He did so, albeit grudgingly.

Why am I being so paranoid? These men have done nothing to indicate anything but goodwill.

He tried to relax, but something about the men kept him on edge.

“What’s this about?”

Rufus leaned forward slightly.

“As Watson said, we are representatives from the Hunters’ Guild. We were sent here for a routine Guild audit, and found that you and your partner have completed a significant amount of Copper rank jobs. This is unusual for the region, which previously had around 1-3 Copper jobs completed every month.”

He paused, clearly waiting for Jared to say something.

When he didn’t, Watson continued.

“I will be straight with you, Mr. Moore. We want to recruit you.”

Of all the things he could have said, that was not what Jared expected.

“What do you mean, ‘recruit me’? I’m already a member of the Guild.” He flashed his badge to prove the point.

“While that may be true, It is not what Watson was referring to. We are part of an organization within both the Hunters’ and Delvers’ guilds, responsible for overseeing and protecting their members.”

“But why me? And what’s in it for me?”

“We are looking for individuals with promise. You show promise. It’s as simple as that. Yes, you are still quite low in level, but that can be resolved easily. The Delvers’ Guild even shows that you stopped a dungeon break nearby and saved the town. Again, very promising.”

“As for what you get out of it, a yearly stipend of a hundred Gold Imperials, along with access to some of the finest trainers and dungeons in the Kingdom.”

Jared pondered for a moment. It was, by all accounts, a wonderful deal. Almost suspiciously so.

“I have a team here. Will they be able to come with me?”

Watson waved dismissively.

“That’s no difficulty. For a promising individual like yourself, we are more than willing to take on a few that are, shall we say, less fortunate. So, are you interested?”

The longer he talked with these men, the more he wanted to jump out the window to be away from them, consequences be damned.

“Can I have a few days to think about it and discuss it with my team?”

They nodded in sync.

“Of course, of course. We will be leaving on Second Twosday, and we would hear your answer before then.”

Jared nodded. He thought the date system here was very practical. Each month had three weeks of ten days, with each day referred to by its number in the week. So the first day was Onesday, then Twosday, etc, all the way to Tensday, at which point it started over. The week was labeled as ‘First’, ‘Second’, or ‘Third’ if differentiation was required. Today was the fifth day of the first week of the month, so, First Fivesday. The deadline they set gave him about an Earth week.

“I will let you know before then.” With that, he stood, turning on his heel to go. As he was closing the door behind him, he heard one of them call out in a smiling tone.

“We look forward to hearing from you.”

Jared barely repressed a shudder. He didn’t know what it was, but those guys gave him the heebie-jeebies.