-White Bunny POV-
The nicest way she could describe the Adventurer’s Guild was that it had character. The floorboards creaked with every step, and the wind whistled sharply through the boarded-up windows. It was the middle of the day, and most of the tables were empty. The more normal adventurers were drinking in the middle of the day, and the others...
A girl tinkered with what looked like a metal spider. A huge pile of scraps was arranged haphazardly on the three tables she took for herself. She hummed to herself, not seeming to care about the rabid twitches of the spider's legs or the green liquid oozing from its abdomen.
Another woman chanted over a wilted daisy, wisps of green smoke rising from the plant. Three tables to her left, two knights stared into each other's eyes, not speaking, not blinking.
[Black Wolf: Why am I here?]
The wolf asked, looking around the room with no small amount of apprehension. His eyes lingered on each of the swords for a moment too long, as if it took physical effort to shift his gaze away.
[White Bunny: She's walking right up to you.]
The knight approached the wolf slowly. Cautiously, as if she might scare him off if she moved too fast. Her smile cracked on the edge of desperate.
"Have you ever thought about becoming an adventurer?" the knight asked. Her voice was cheerful, too cheerful for the sleepless circles under her eyes. "We're looking for members to join our party."
The wolf hesitated, and-
"No! Don't leave yet!" the knight said frantically, putting herself between the wolf and the door. "Please, we really need- I mean, this is a really great opportunity for you! Just hear me out, okay?"
There was only one knight desperate enough to recruit strangers into her party. Every other party was completely filled, but this one- the knight spent all her time going person to person, practically begging them to join her party.
The wolf nodded, and the knight nearly wept with relief.
"Great! This quest is- this quest is completely safe! But also super exciting! It gives free skill points! You love skill points, right? Everyone loves skill points!"
The knight laughed, a note of panic rising in her voice.
"You'll join the party, right? Please tell me you'll join."
━━━━━━━ ● ━━━━━━━
-Black Wolf POV-
The three of them sat at a "table," yet another thing the wolf did not like. The "chairs" were dead wood, separating him from the earth. The bunny rested in his lap, and he ran his fingers through her fur, mostly to distract himself from the huge black sword strapped to Emil-iath's back.
╔═══━━━─── • ───━━━═══╗
Join Knight Emil-iath’s party?
[Yes]/[No]
╚═══━━━─── • ───━━━═══╝
The wolf accepted the invite. He wasn't sure what he was getting himself into, but he trusted the bunny... even if he wasn't too sure about the woman in front of him.
Ant, Wolf, Bunny - those were things he understood, but Knight?
"So, uh, you have a bunny?" Knight Emil-iath asked awkwardly, breaking the silence.
The wolf nodded slowly, not sure why she was stating the obvious.
"That's great!" Knight Emil-iath said brightly, and- her smile faltered when the wolf didn't respond. Then, she forced it back in full brightness.
"Right!" She clapped her hands together, another gesture that was completely out of place in the dimly lit room. "Standard initiation, uh... name and skills!"
The wolf nodded. He took a deep breath in. He hadn't been able to speak yet. He knew it was possible , but he just- he opened his mouth, trying to force the words out. Come on.
"It's alright if you don't have a skill yet! Just- any ability, official skill or not!"
Twenty seconds passed. The most he could manage was a choking sound.
"Hey, hey, hey. It's okay!" Knight Emil-iath said quickly, sounding a little bit panicked. "You don't have to force yourself to talk. That's- that's what we invented paper for!"
She laughed weakly at her own joke. He tried to smile, too.
What was wrong? The wolf thought as he followed Knight Emil-iath across the room. He knew how to form the shapes with his mouth, but the words wouldn't come. He hadn't spoken since his siblings had burned in the fire, and-
Knight Emil-iath set a white sheet and a black feather on the table in front of him.
"You don't have to write anything you don't want to. Just- give me a name to call you by, okay?"
She let out another weak laugh. He didn't know why she kept attempting her jokes. The wolf approached the table, setting the bunny down.
He examined the black feather. The wolf used to play the feather-guessing game with his brother all the time, and he had become very good at it. The wolf held the feather up, squinting at the way the light passed through the feather.
[White Bunny: Stop looking so curious about everything. A human would already know all of this.]
The wolf quickly lowered the feather. The gleam was too muted to be a crow. A distant cousin? He chewed on his lip, thinking. If a human was already supposed to know, it must be a common bird for the area...
[White Bunny: Knight Emil-iath is waiting.]
She told him. He started to panic.
[Black Wolf: I need more time! I can't tell which bird the feather is from!]
[White Bunny: Why would you- she said to write your name , not guess the bird. ]
That... kind of made sense. The wolf stared at the white sheet. He could vaguely remember seeing humans draw on the sheet with the feather.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
The wolf held the feather the way the humans did- or he tried to, at least. He carefully dipped the tip of the feather in the strange black sludge. Some of it dripped across the paper, but- so far so good.
[Black Wolf: ... I don't have a name.]
He realized, chest tightening. His mother was supposed to gift it to him before she-
[White Bunny: Will is the most common name for humans.]
She told him, her voice leaving no room for disagreement. He carefully copied the same letters down on the paper, writing the word will in shaky letters. It was... mostly recognizable.
[White Bunny: The first letter should be capitalized- no, don't scratch it - just forget it. We're supposed to come up with an ability for you. Read me your status window.]
╔═══━━━─── • ───━━━═══╗
-Status Window-
A short description of your various titles, skills, and quests.
Name: Will
Class: Human (current form)
Title(s): [Child of the Forest], [The New King]?
** Some titles cannot be claimed.
Skills: [Silver Slash], [Healing Touch], [Death Dance], [Communion]
Active Quests: [The Dark Forest]
Completed Quests: [Hunt or Be Hunted]
…
Additional Attributes:
Health: 28/30
Strength: 20
Speed: 15
[click to view full attributes]
╚═══━━━─── • ───━━━═══╝
[Black Wolf: So I just write all the skills?]
[White Bunny: Do you want the knight to be suspicious of you? She thinks you're just some hopeless kid, so keep it that way. Write [Healing Touch].]
He did as the bunny instructed, then handed the paper to Emil-iath.
"You have a healing skill? That's great! We're missing a healer in our party!" Emil-iath said excitedly. She kept on talking, words coming far too fast for him to understand. Swift skill, burst skill, buffer, mage. The wolf tried to absorb as much as he could, deciding to ask the bunny about it later-
The door swung open. A few humans- adventurers, he had learned from Knight Emil-iath- had come and gone, and no one really seemed to care. The adventurers were all focused on... doing their own thing, even if the wolf couldn't tell what that was.
This time, almost all of the adventurers stood up, leaving swiftly at just the sight of the man at the door. Only two of them remained, the girl with the spider and the woman... the woman whispering to a human skull .
The man didn't seem fazed. There was this... almost untouchable aura to him. He strode into the room, two swords strapped to his back. His hair was tied up neatly, grey streaking through the black.
"Xi-ren, you're back!" Knight Emil-iath greeted with a bright smile, waving to the man.
The man stared at the wolf instead, right into his eyes and down to his soul.
"What is this?"
Knight Emil-iath's smile turned strained.
"Will, this is Knight Xi-ren. Xi-ren, Will."
"I didn't ask for his name," Knight Xi-ren said lowly, eyes never leaving his face. "I asked what this is."
Knight Emil-iath took a deep breath, like she was bracing herself for a fight.
"He's the newest member of our party," Knight Emil-iath said. This time, her voice was steady. She looked at Knight Xi-ren without trying to smile or smooth over the tension.
"No."
"We need another member in our party, Xi-ren. If we don't do participate in this quest, then-"
"Then no one else has to die?" Knight Xi-ren asked, voice as sharp as the edge of a blade.
"Don't be like that. You know what the other Kingdoms will think. With the current political situation, we can't afford to-"
"We're knights . Who cares about the political ramifications?" Knight Xi-ren said icily. The knight turned to the wolf. His eyes were hard, not an ounce of compassion in them.
"Leave."
"You can't just order people around , Xi-ren! That's not how-"
"Isn't that what you're trying to do to me?"
Emil-iath paused for a brief moment, then she charged right ahead.
"Don't you think you're overreacting? Going to die, going to die- that's all I ever hear you say! But how is he even supposed to die in a dungeon that doesn't have a boss? We just need him to stand there so we meet the minimum party quota!"
Her voice echoed through the empty room, anger running through it like a living pulse.
[White Bunny: Sounds like a very glorious duty.]
[Black Wolf: You're mean.]
"Zelv-erth is dead, Emil-iath," Knight Xi-ren said quietly. There was something impossibly heavy in his voice, a boulder too great for any single person to move.
Emil-iath stared at him.
"... what?" Emil-iath asked. Her voice trembled. "Zelv-erth? Are you sure?"
Xi-ren stared at the table.
"It's not confirmed yet," Xi-ren said. His fingers curled into fists. "But we've lost contact, and the last thing he reported seeing was a wolf."