I pop open my metaphorical, metaphysical? Whatever, I pop open my not real eyes and see the light starting to peak over the horizon. Today is going to be a good day, I think to myself as I start to drain my pod. The twiglings also wake up, stepping off their docking points and proceeding to wander the two foot space between my pod and the hedge wall. Hopefully the stupid things follow my directions enough to stay inside the wall. Because that’s what I order them to do. God knows they are stupid enough to wander off. I’m honestly debating if leaving them alone is a good idea. Just then, number two and four walk straight into one another. Bouncing off each other they both clatter to the ground. Yea, this might be a bad idea. My pod finished draining so I turn my attention to getting myself properly dressed and ready. After a bit of head shaking I manage to get most of the sap out of my hair. Then I simply wipe the rest of my body. Perks of having no hair anywhere but on my head, easy to clean and dry off.
As I go to remove the sap from the two lumps on my chest, I’m reminding once again of how utterly fucked this all is. I’m still surprised I haven’t gone insane. As I stand staring down at myself lost in thought, strange feeling starts to surface. It’s not just anger, it’s a mix of two emotions. It takes me a second to parse the feelings out, but it’s anger and anxiety. Why now! It was supposed to be a good day. It still can be a good day, I shake my head and push the feelings to the side. Today is going to be another learning day, and maybe I'll even get the twinglings to do something useful. Right as I think that twigling three walks a little too close to the bushes where my cloths are hanging, and manages to snag my chest sash with some of the poky bits on it’s head. And the dumb thing just keeps going, now walking around with what is effectively my bra on its head. I tell it to stop and wait over by the rest of the clothes. Yea, I stand corrected, it’s going to be a long day. I open the inner petals and hop down. First I try on the new pants Shara gave me, they fit well enough, aside from being a little too long. Next up I grab my sash from twigling three’s head and put it on, then over top of that is my shirt. Thankfully it has finished drying. Then I grab my mace and the shield I made last night and head out. I make sure to give the twiglings one last order to stay inside the hedge, but I’m pretty sure they will forget, or don’t care.
I set off out of the woods, making my way to the road and head towards town. It’s a relatively peaceful trip, only the occasional bird call disturbing the silence. After a few minutes of walking I get to the edge of the fields and can see the wall of town. Only when I’m half way through the fields do I notice something is off. There is no one else out here, I look to my left, no farmers, I look to my right, no farmers. It’s kind of eerie, is it a holiday or something? I push my curiosity aside for the moment and continue down the road. The closer I get to town, the more my unease grows. The gates are still closed and there is not a sound save for the crops rustling in the wind. Normally the faintest sounds of people could be heard over the wall and out here, but not today. As I approach the gates a sentry on the wall sees me and gives a look that's a mixture of surprised and dumbfounded. He quickly recomposes himself and calls out to me.
“Oi lass, you got a death wish or something, what are you doing outside the walls?”
“Um, I camp outside of town.” I say hesitantly.
“By the nine, it’s a miracle you aren't dead. There is a muster order in effect, report to the hunt lodge, something about a nasty monster. I’ll tell em to open the gate for ya, get to the lodge.”
With that he leans over the inside of the wall and yells something I can’t understand at someone on the other side. A moment later I hear a loud thunk from the gate and it slowly cracks open. I walk my way over and slide my way inside. The gates are promptly pushed closed behind me and a loud thunk signals the lock bar being dropped back into position. The two men who presumably pulled open the gates go back to grumbling about work off to the side.
I continue my commute only to be met with more eerie silence and shuttered homes and shops. Every house and store without fail is still closed up. No one walks the streets, only the occasional leaf or bits of hay blow by. The lack of activity is concerning to say the least. What the hell could make a town go from bustling to seemingly abandoned overnight? Well, I’ll probably find out when I get to the lodge. As I continue my way through town I start to slowly see other people also moving along the streets, all in the same direction as me. It mostly looks like hunters, with a few better armed people who I can only assume are town guards mixed in. Now I have a really bad feeling about this. As I approach the lodge the scattered people turn into a small trickle entering the building. I can hear the voices from far off too. There are a lot of people in that building, and i’m debating whether I want to go inside or not. Unfortunately, a lot of people have already seen me and it sounds like this is an attendance required event. If i skip they might find out and come after me. I planned on skipping town soon anyway, but I should attend long enough to see what is up. I’ll stick my head in, find out what is going on, then head home and pack up.
Reluctantly I follow the flow of people into the doors. The moment I cross the threshold my ears are assaulted by a tidal wave of noise. There are more people in here than I care to count, all packed in like sardines. There is easily double the amount of people of that night party I saw in here. All sorts of people are here, ranging in class from soldier, mage, warrior, archer, and so many more. All of them anywhere from level one, to the highest I’ve seen being a fifty two. I can’t see anyone from Alex’s group so I post up by the door just in case I decide to GTFO. After about a minute of waiting a loud voice bombed over the crowd, immediately silencing the room.
“Alright, that’s enough of a wait, let us get started.”
I recognized that voice, it was Gult, but that is the guard captain doing here?
If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.
“Late last night we received a message about a dangerous monster that appeared in the area about three days ago. It is a named monster called Petal, and it’s a new variant of dryad called a Willow Dryad. If you don’t know what a dryad is, ask someone who does or go read that book you all are supposed to memorize. Petal was last seen north of town at approximately level nine, you know what that means.”
Ow fuckity fucking duck me! Why the hell are they sending the entire town after me now, I didn’t even do anything! What the hell was in that message?! While I was have a full on crisis run through my head, someone spoke up.
“And why the hell should we stick our own asses our for this eh?”
This was followed by a chorus of angry adventures asking essentially the same thing plus why they were dragged out for this. Gult then silenced the room and continued speaking.
“Quiet! This is an apocalypse class monster, determined by your organization's higher ups. Additionally the council of nations and by extension our king and the local lord demand it dead.”
The room immediately took on a cold feel, various groups whispering among themselves in the throng of people. All trying to figure out exactly what that meant. The picture wasn’t pretty, those who knew had pale faces and were telling their comrades, who in turn developed their own pale complexions, meanwhile Gult continued his speech. Probably sensing the anxious environment of the room, he gave news that was uplifting, to literally everyone but myself.
“We have reinforcements on the way. Several high level hunters are coming in addition to the lord's army. Both groups should arrive by nightfall and are only the first set.”
That seemed to bring some relief to the room, and freeze my blood as cold as a stone in the arctic. But as I’m frozen by the door, debating on running now or waiting to avoid drawing suspicion, Gult delivers the final blow to my restraint.
“Given the severity of the situation, rewards are being offered by the local lord, and the hunters guild. The combined total is around five hundred and seventy five gold to any man, woman, or child who can slay the creature and bring back its head as proof.”
Instantly the room erupts into thunder as everyone starts clamoring over the reward. Yea, I might be able to hide amongst the locals, but there is no way in hell they don’t find my pod. Who knows what they will do to it, and I don’t want to find out if I can or can’t live without the pod. I look around to make sure no one is paying attention to me, then I slip out the door while the ruckus is still going on. After I carefully close the door behind me, I turn around to come face to face with the two guys who were guarding the gate when I first dragged Alex back to town.
Bane (Human, Level 41 Guard)
Frank (Human, Level 39 Warrior)
“Whoa there, I don’t think Gult dismissed every one yet. You wouldn’t happen to be trying to get a head start would ya cutie?” Bane asks.
“You could be in a lot of trouble for trying to ignore a muster order, might even be executed for disobeying the lords authority.” Frank says.
God damn it, I do not need to deal with this right now. I need to think of a way to slip these assholes quickly. Think, think, think, shit I got nothing at the moment.
“Oh come on, got nothing to say? Tell you what, go for a little walk with us and we’ll pretend we didn’t see you.” Frank says.
I can tell from the lecherous look in their eyes they intend to do a lot more than walking. No thanks is an understatement. But how do I get out of here? Well shit, I’m going to have to make a run for it aren’t I? It’s that or get raped, but honestly getting chased around by the town guard isn’t a great prospect either. Not to mention they might discover my real identity if they catch me, and they might have their way with me while I’m locked up anyways. While I’m debating whether I want to bolt or not, the familiar voice of Alex calls out from behind me.
“Hey there you are Nina. See I told you I saw her leaving.” Alex says.
I turn around to see Alex and his full crew, including Durin making their way out the doors.
Durin (Human, Level 25 Rouge)
Durin is a short fellow with brown hair and brown eyes. He’s wearing leather armor on his torso and has two daggers strapped to his hips. Behind the group are the guild master, a bunch of high level hunters and two people shielded by the hunters who I can’t identify. Oh fuck me this isn’t going to end well. Before I can respond the two stooges cut in.
“Hey official business boy, buzz off.” Bane says.
“Official business indeed, whatever the matter I will handle it from here. If you have any problems with that you may discuss it with captain Gult.” Bardin says.
The two sleaze bags look like they want to argue, but seem to understand they can’t. With a curse under their breath from each one the turn and file off to go harass some other poor soul. The ruckus is still going on inside so I can only wonder what this group is doing here, then Bardin answers that question for me.
“Nina, you will accompany us to the locations where you found Alex. And do tell, what were the guards bothering you for hmm?” Bardin asks.
Shit, do I come clean or bluff? The dude might know if I’m bull shiting. This is to much quick thinking for me, plants are supposed to be slow! Calm down, just remember the best lies always have a hint of truth. So I just need to tell the truth in a way that doesn’t get me in trouble. Alright lets try this.
“I was trying to get to my camp and pack it up before the horde of hoodlums behind you gets cut loose and it gets destroyed.” I say.
Bardin turns and looks at one of the men who is hidden by the group, the man steps forward. He doesn’t seem like a fighter, unlike the rest of the gaggle. He has slightly nicer attire than most people in town, and once I inspect him I see why.
Kevin (Human, Level 51 Truth seeker)
“She isn’t lying.” Kevin says.
“Good, I can respect the sentiment to save one’s belongings but perhaps not at the risk of defying an order from the lord miss Nina. Let us be on our way then.” Bardin says.
I get the feeling I don’t get to say no to this so I meekly follow along between Alex’s group and the guild master’s posse. Something tells me it’s going to be a long and painful day.