"I can't believe you two dragged me into all of this!" Alson flung both hands into the air as he lead the group out of the view of the men guarding the entrance to the Governor's estate. "You two couldn't have stopped by sooner? At least that way I could have helped you out back when I was actually scheduled to work. Now my plans for the day are out the window!"

"That is what you're concerned about?" Miwah shot back. "Your leisure time being infringed upon because you must uphold your sworn duty as a defender of this town?"

Tamma placed herself in-between the two. Her head quickly shifted from one person to the other as she watched them exchange angered gazes. "Come on, now. No need for you two to keep up the bickering! That'll get us nowhere!"

"Tell your friend that I'm tired of her pestering me!" Alson said to Tamma specifically. "I don't care where she's from. This is Farrowport. Off the coast the main of Remcroft. We have different standards from Xiwao. Not everyone here has dedicated their lives to defending strangers that don't care about them!"

"Then you are in the wrong profession!" the seamstress blurted out in return.

"Why do you two even need me, huh? You claim to have taken out a crazed grizlewulf." Alson reached down and adjusted his sword. "It’s not like I’m all that great of a fighter! I only carry this thing around to scare people, not to actually use it. You really think I'd be of much use?"

"Fine." Miwah looked at Tamma with lips curled. "Alson does not want to do his job. We will have to take matters into our own hands."

"Miwah. You know we can't... you know... for several more hours. The sooner we can get a sample for Chaston to examine, the better. He even said that the Insectus can hide inside any living organism. It's not like we have to take out another grizlewulf. There are plenty of other animals on the island that could have been infected. Less deadly ones. With all three of us working together, it shouldn't be too hard to find something that that we could easily take out."

"I think the real challenge is getting Miwah to leave me alone!” Alson interjected. “I'm sure I'll do something that will get her yelling at me again in no time."

"Miwah," Tamma said to the seamstress, "please leave Alson alone. He's already agreed to help. I've known him my entire life. I'll admit he's a bit on the lazy side but he's good to his word. He said he’ll help and I’m sure he’ll do his best."

Miwah crossed her arms and looked away. "Fine. I will not say another word to him. But I would like a weapon. That way we will not have to depend on him in case something goes wrong."

Tamma pressed her hand against body, expressing surprise as she looked at her empty hands. "I forgot that I lost my bow during the fight with the Cutthroats over at the tavern."

"You fought the Cutthroats too?" Alson exclaimed. "I don't believe it."

"It is true," Miwah replied.

"How did you two manage to take on that entire gang, huh? I'm starting to think there's something that both of you are hiding from. Even the strongest and most esteemed members of the Farrowport Guard try to stay out of their way!"

"Just a bit of tactics, Alson. And luck." Tamma made a fake giggle. "Nothing exciting, honestly."

"Then maybe your friend should work for the Farrowport Guard if she's so strong! It's easy to tell someone else to put their life on the line, eh?"

Miwah looked at the guard, one hand resting on her hip and the other pointing a finger in his face. "I have gone through more than—" Tamma put her hand up in front of Miwah's face, cutting her off mid-sentence. Yalch flew down in front of the seamstress as well, giving her a hake of the head in disapproval.

"Just leave it alone for now, Miwah," Yalch whispered.

"Fine," the seamstress said reluctantly.

"We need to shift our focus from fighting each other to fighting these parasites that could take over the island!" Tamma looked towards Alson again. "Is there any way you could secure some weapons for us?"

"We've got plenty of equipment in the armory. But that's property of the Farrowport Guard."

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"Can't we just borrow a few weapons? We won't be doing anything too different from hunting. Small to mid-size game. Not like we'll need full armor or a catapult."

Alson stroked the few hairs on his beard. "There is a lot in there. I doubt they'll miss a couple of swords."

Tamma gave Alson a gentle jab in the shoulder. "Come on. You know me. Think I could get a bow and a few arrows?"

"We've got plenty of those too."

"How about a bladed tonfa?" Miwah called out. Both Tamma and Alson replied only with confused gazes. Yalch giggled despite the awkward silence from the other two. "Sorry. That was an attempt at humor."

“I don’t get it,” Alson replied.

“Don’t worry about it. Just a bit of an inside joke between me and the lass.”

----------------------------------------

Alson continued to lead. Instead of heading back onto the path that led to the lower portion of Farrowport, the guard took the others on a sharp detour to a large and blocky stone building towards the outskirts of the Governor's area. A member of the Farrowport Guard stood by the entrance of the building. Dressed in light armor like Alson, he watched as the party approached.

"How goes it?" the short and stout young man guarding the armory asked.

"We need access," Alson replied swiftly.

"You got any authorization?"

"Chaston approved us."

The other guard eyed Miwah first and then Tamma, keeping one eye closed and the other pried open as he crossed his arms. "All right. I'll allow it." The man then stepped to the side, giving the group free access to the armory.

"Thanks, Gav."

"If you three want to go fighting, be my guest," he said while stifling a laugh. He kicked the wooden door with the back of his foot, flinging it wide open and revealing the contents inside to the others. Tamma entered first, coughing a bit from the dust that floated through the cracks of light that crept through the rough. Miwah entered behind her, placing her robe over her face to protect her lungs.

"When was the last time this place was cleaned?" Tamma said, her eyes red and her face squinting as she scoured the dark space. Bits of metal glistened from the small shreds of sunlight that went through the roof's cracks.

"Good question," Alson said as he swatted away a cobweb from the doorframe. "I wish I knew. Looks like I'm not the only slacker in this Farrowport Guard."

"Just... point me towards where you store the archery equipment so we can get out of here as soon as possible!"

"If I recall correctly... they should be in the far corner over there. Next to the training dummies." Alson pointed to the other side of the room. "Watch your step though. All sorts of sharp weapons are probably lying around here. Don't want you falling and getting hurt."

Miwah and Tamma both looked down. Among the shadows they could see protrusions and shining edges scattered all across the floor. Tamma spread her arms apart and tip-toed past all of the objects on the ground. "You know, this is a great condition to keep an armory in. It makes the soldiers more agile when they have to keep their balance just to reach their armor."

"Not like we see much action here, all right?" Alson blurted back. "So we haven't really had a need to keep this place in proper shape.”

"I think I will just use a normal sword for now," Miwah said as she eyed a barrel to her right. Swords were crammed inside of it, blades pointing down. She took hold of the hilt closest to here and carefully pulled it out. The metal slide against the steel of the other weapons, making a loud and grating scraping sound. More dust flew into the air as she removed the weapon, making her sneeze and drop the blade to the ground.

"Careful Miwah," Yalch whispered. "It'd be a tragedy for a Purifier to die out of clumsiness!"

"Ah... am... tryin' mah bess..." The seamstress turned her head to the side and sneezed as quietly as she could. "But this dust is too much. This sword will have to do for me." She held her breath before picking up the weapon and scurrying out of the armory. Although watched the seamstress leave, Tamma was too focused on making it through the sharp maze to pay her any mind.

"Just a bit further," she said quietly to herself. With a few more steps she found herself in front of a large and open crate. "Here, Alson?" she shouted.

"Yeah, I think it's that one."

She took one hand and carefully lifted the lid. Inside were a multitude of bows stacked on top of one another. She reached down and grabbed the first one at the very top, only to have her shoulders slump in disappointment when she saw that the string to the bow was snapped at one end. She threw the bow to one side in frustration. "First one I picked up and the string is broken!" she shouted.

"There should be at least one that works in there!" Alson replied.

Tamma continued to dig through the crate, coming across bows with an assortment of shortcomings. Loose strings. Missing strings. Cracked wood. The further into the crate she got, the more frustrated she became. A pile of defective weapons lay at her side before finally getting to the bottom and extracting a proper bow.

"This one should work," she said calmly. The hunter put two fingers onto the center of the string and pulled it back. She smiled as she felt the bow bend slightly. "Yeah, I can land a good shot with this."

"And the arrows should be right next to that crate."

"They better be in working condition."

"Don't worry. We just leave the broken ones wherever they landed. Those might be old but should work just fine."

Using the crate as leverage, Tamma leaned over and grabbed one of the loaded quivers that rested on the wall. She then took a handful of arrows by their shafts and scrutinized the heads underneath a stray beam of sunlight. "These look good to me." The metal sparked from the sunlight.

"Does that mean we can get going now?" Miwah shouted from outside. Both Alson and Tamma turned to face her.

"I'd say so!" Tamma slung the quiver around her back and looked back down at the ground. She took each step carefully as she made her way to the door. "Being in here is more dangerous than dealing with the Cutthroats!"