"Hello there." Calls out a smooth voice pleasing to the ears in a high tone often adopted by people who have learned how to speak in womanly sounds.
"Hello?" I call back my eyebrows knitting together in confusion at the sight of this friendly stranger sitting on a road sign.
A small rock the size of a head her chin rests on her knees as she sits squat down her arms wrapped around her legs rocking slightly.
"How do you do?" she asks with a half-moon wide smile.
Her eyes shine bright and orange like the sun.
A mesmerising visual that reminds me more of an artist’s touch than born of the chaos of organic life. Dark skin and a curvaceous form are impossible to thin yet round on female characteristics, particularly the breasts and buttocks.
A hint of arousal peeks but so does the calm indifference as if I am looking at a nude statue rather than flesh and blood. She has red hair with black streaks like oil mixing with blood the hair twirls spiralling down and drops down on a comely face unblemished as if it has never been exposed to the weathering of the world.
She wears skin-tight blue silk with golden knotted signs in a rich and provocative display.
"I do fine." Gareth answers with little eloquence.
I don’t blame him, in terms of beauty alone she is unnerving yet her stunning appearance is likely the least she can do.
"Yes, you do." She says continuing to smile looking Gareth up and down drinking in his clothes, flesh and words.
She groans. "Oh, no can’t do it after all."
Then she disappears. Not like she vanishes but her body shape shifts.
Gareth and I look at each other then to the ground where a small black-furred cat licks its paw. It looks up with purple eyes then somehow gives out a long sigh appearing almost humanoid.
The cat shifts and stands a human woman with crow's feet and stringy ginger hair tied in a ponytail wearing comfortable looking linen with boots and gloves. Her eyes are a dull brown.
"Yep, definitely a woman today but now I have bodyweight in all the right place." She says still with a wide smile giving a light nip to her hips and belly.
Where before she was thin now she is slightly thicker and her breasts are smaller but noticeably still emphasised under her shirt.
Once again though appearing less of otherworldly beauty, she is still not quite whole, I can tell she made her body this way. A shapeshifter? Today does not stop giving surprises what next is a dragon?
"You’re a doppelganger?" Gareth claims with a shout his eyes wide and set upon the woman.
"Nope, good guess but your wrong." She says and bops his nose with a chuckle and a twirl.
"What are you then?" he asks bluntly.
"A child of Fae, or so I’ve been told. Don’t know or care. Only magi ask with their beams of light destroying everything. A curious lot. Are you magi, bet you are, right?"
"We are. I’m Gareth, this is August." He says pointing to me as he calls out my name. "A pleasure to meet you. Who are you?" he asks with a smile that could swoon many hearts.
"Ain’t you adorable." She compliments him. "I’m Salcarporia of the Shooting Star. Real name, I promise." She winks with a tilt of the head. "Call me Sal for short. I know we just met but I have to ask did either of you meet a man with red hair who has extremely cruel tendencies?"
"Yes, we did, cruel is an accurate description of him." Answers Gareth.
"Ha, he is revolting shit isn’t he." She says with a chuckle. Her face shifts until it is near the exactness of Lord M. Le Fey. "He kills for amusement and inflicts pain for joy. This is no mere starving bandit he is noble with the status, resources and connections to attempt to grasp his ambition." She says in his voice.
"We have no intention of pursuing a working relationship. The meeting was bad luck and more than a little traumatic." I speak up, a hand at my belly as I remember the session of him pulling at my guts ready to disembowel me.
"You should fear him, though he is but one of a greater whole. A circle of maniac sadists whose hobbies are torture and slaughter united by their power and exile. Their return is ill news for the city." She utters with the utmost seriousness that Gareth and I are silent. We listen attentively to every word.
She continues...
"But enough about unhappy news. I have sweets, and tarts fresh from the bakery. Strawberry." She says holding out a tart towards Gareth.
He takes it and she pulls out another and holds it to me. I sigh and take it hearing Gareth moan with delight with a single bite.
I take a bite the burst of flavours dances along with my tongue.
"Delicious." Gareth claims with a happy groan and I nod in agreement focusing on devouring the tart which I finish off in a few bites.
She suddenly shifts form again this time turning into a large shaggy dog with grey fur and yellow eyes standing on her hindlegs two paws on my chest she gives me a few licks to the face.
I try to gently swat her off, but she persists and soon I am laughing at the sensation and patting her fur from ear to neck.
"Cheer up, quiet one. You are alive and well." her voice rings in my thoughts separate from my thinking using some form of telepathy.
"Thanks." I say aloud and Gareth raises an eyebrow at me.
Then there is a roar that shakes the woods and my body.
"I’m out of time then." She says transforming back. "I need help Magi’s. My companion and I have been found by one of many hunting it."
"What is it?" I ask.
"We are not safe here." Says Gareth drawing his sword.
"It is a dragon hunter of wyrmlings. One green eye with claws capable of rending dragon scale and teeth to crush their throat. They have a hard rock like skin resistant to heat they stand on two legs with one green eye. They have no back but the exposed organs attached to the eye and legs but taut lines of flesh cradling them like a woven basket. It is a Nurdang a rare aberration. I have no clue how the Circle managed to lose one" She says swiftly.
From her back flies up a small reptilian creature no bigger than a cat with blue scales and golden eyes.
"And no we are not safe I request your aid. Protect Delain and me. I beg of you."
We might die if we do. For what? Tarts and petting a dog.
"Till our dying breath." Answers Gareth. "But we should run."
"No, it is tracking Delian there isn’t time, prepare your spells we have minutes. You must kill it before it sees you it will twist your thoughts until you are mad."
"Mad?" ask Gareth.
But she is already transformed leaving Delain the wyrmling perching on the roadsign looking at us tilting to the side letting out a small screech.
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
"The plan?" asks Gareth this time his voice higher with a hint of tension.
"Fuck if I know. Claws, eyes, some sort of psychic attack. Go high up a tree, prepare to take it out in one shot, blind it somehow. Now." I reply gritting my teeth as my thoughts run desperately trying to anticipate what is coming and how to face it.
Something without thought. No useless no time to prepare the coordinate of dropping a giant stone from somewhere else. Then what? Will the binding hold up?
Will the summon be turned against us? Should I use the scroll worth more than I can make in a lifetime as an adventurer?
No.
Without a summon we are probably dead, worth the risk easier to send back than to summon in the middle of combat. Use the scroll if it turns on us. How about fighting fire with fire? It is forbidden. Is the law greater than my life?
"Come forth Ubloth from the unknown plane. Obey or be bound here forever."
It has a mass of tentacles that it uses to move and feel. It is about the height of a large dog but far broader and rounder. It has no eyes or mouth that have ever been confirmed. It is known for a consciousness warped by madness hating and longing for its home. Ears able to hear and telepathy capable of communicating and warping minds it comes into contact with.
First, it is pain, then concepts of grass, of love and fear. I feel its mind pushing into my own the pain grows with every second. "Obey or I will send you to the Shepards!"
"Okayly dokely, fuzz and buzz. Hahahahahahaha." The voices ring in my mind of a dozen personalities saying the same phrase in unison.
I send the image of our target with the command. "Kill do anything else and be reduced to oblivion." I think at it and it disappears into the trees hardly hidden with its mass but out of reach.
Night falls and the darkness shrouds I can see perfectly well. Gareth augments his sense and I have little worry about it. Where is it coming from? We have the forest edge at our backs ahead of a mud road.
"Back to back." I call out.
Gareth faces the treeline while I the road. If I take a half a step back we would touch. All is quiet, the creatures of the forest wait as do Gareth and I for what is going to happen. "It’s here." Gareth whispers.
I turn around but Gareth is already bounding forward-leaning forward for a single thrust of the sword.
A clang of claw and blade rings out and sparks fly as the Nurdang slashes in a frenzy of swipes which Gareth somehow holding his footing manages to keep out and deflect them.
He is falling back giving up ground as the force of attacks pushes him. The Ubolth leaps down from the tree's top tentacles pulling back the Nurdang’s arms they engage in a fight.
There own a psychic clash that I can sense through my connection to the Ubolth.
"Perish." I call out letting go of my spell and summoning a Minoth panther. "Slaughter the Nurdang." I command.
The Minoth panther appears behind the Nurdang leaping onto its back and slashing and biting. The Nurdang is barely visible with Gareth slashing from the front, and the Ubolth attacking from above. The panther attacking its vulnerability should be enough to take it down. But the Ubolth retreats and then starts attacking the Mintoh panther. The panther howls in pain and falls limp. I send both of them back. Nearly out of mana, my plans are in ruins.
Blood spills from the Nurdang back but without the distraction of the summons, it turns its focus to Gareth. Sal appears from behind stabbing the Nurdang pivots slightly and the point of her daggers hits the iron-hard flesh cage that protects its vital organs.
"One slash." Gareth calls out the edge of his blade glowing orange steam rising from the fire-based enchantment. He brings down the sword in an overhead slash. The Nurdang brings out its two claws folding them together and they form a shield that the sword strikes into the claws hold and the Nurdrang screams. My world goes topsy turvy and I vomit.
I come to with Gareth back on the ground in a shoving match with the Nurdrang looming above trying to bite his face off. I summon a mana bolt blasting the creature in the eye and it belts out in pain clutching its large green eye. Sal is unconscious of the group as the Delian by the roadsign.
"No one dies today." Gareth declares standing up sword held in two hands a determined glare set.
I run around the sides trying to get to the back of the Nurdang. Gareth and the Nurdang once again lock into a frenzy of strikes. I fire off another mana bolt hitting it in the eye distracting it from doing any mental attacks. Gareth seizing the opportunity slashes across the eye than with a flourish of the blade lunges stabbing through the eye and into the organs at the back. Then with precision, Gareth hacks off the arms and legs of the creature the limbs drop in a puddle of thick blood.
I walk up behind him and pat him on the shoulder and say. "Nicely done. Nudrang Slayer."
I walk by him and check on Sal. Her chest rises up and down indicating she is breathing. There don’t seem to be any visible wounds. I move over to the roadsign and the same with Delian the scaly chest rising and falling with each breath tiny rings of smoke escaping its mouth. "They are both unconscious. Hard to tell how much damage they took. Nothing normal wounds, the effects of the psychic assault, I suspect." I say to Gareth relaying my thinking.
He is picking up our bags filled with rabbit corpses. He passes them to me. "Here I will check them." I take the bags and he spends a few moments with each casts a spell then says to me. "They need rest but nothing permanent. We should keep watch, make sure they are comfortable."
We move them together carefully and built a campfire to keep us all warm. Gareth and I eat some salted meat, it is better than nothing but a sorry meal in comparison to the hot soup we could be eating if we were back at the inn. I look up at the array of stars as Gareth starts to maintain his sword. We chat idly, proud of our victory over the Nurdang but patiently waiting for the Shapeshifter and Wyrmling to awaken.
"Someone is coming." Gareth says his sword is drawn standing up he plants it on the ground ready but not raising it for combat.
I remain sitting but ready to fire off some magic at a moment’s notice.
"Hello there." Says the stranger in a deep voice with clear pronunciation.
They are wearing iron scaled armour and a wide-brimmed straw hat that covers their face. They have a sword at their hip and a buckler shield. They carry a spear in their right hand. They stand tall and thin head and shoulders above Gareth. Their hands are bare with three fingers and a thumb.
"Welcome, how goes the road?" Asks Gareth.
"Long. I have to ask what your business with the dragon and the woman is?"
"Waiting till they wake, guarding them until they do." I answer this time.
"Oh, how come they to this sorry state?"
"Sit by the fire, and we will tell the tale." Replies Gareth.
"Alright." He says and joins us by the campfire sitting next to the sleeping Sal as we introduce ourselves.
"The name is Timmer, I have no other. I am sentient of the Iracki."
As Gareth takes a spot on the ground we tell the story of our encounter with the Nurdang further of our brutal meeting with Lord M. Le Fey. He listens closely and then tells us his own story of travelling from Sparti where war preparations are in full swing.
The news should hit Athfen’s by morning that Sparti has declared war. We talk much about what this means, who will win and our loyalty to Athfen.
He offers recently baked meat pies we tuck into them the pastry crumbling in my mouth as he brings the discussion back around that he has been asked to courier a Wyrmling out of the region and that he was to meet an old friend Sal here early today but was delayed with petty village drama being the first accused of stealing as the outsider.
Sal wakes up with an audible yawn.
"Sal. Are you alright?" asks Timmer.
"Headache aside yes." She replies clutching her temples and wincing. She sits up and looks over to the sleeping Delian seeing him alive says "Thank you, Magi. You kept us alive I cannot thank you enough."
Gareth brushes his fingers at the back of her head. She sighs with relief as the augmented healing takes effect.
"Now I'm grateful." She says with a laugh. "Thank you, August and Gareth. I will return this favour one day." She says with a half-bow while sitting up.
A favour. I put on a half-smile breathing through my fear and disappointment. No surprise nothing like being rewarded with gratitude after fighting with our lives on the line. They were damn good tarts though. The pie could have used more herbs.
"Anytime. Glad we could help." Responds Gareth with a smile.
"It was worth it to see a dragon. He is beautiful." I say glancing over at Delian.
"It is late will the two of you stay the night?" asks Sal.
"No, we have a comfortable bed at the inn the Regretful Goblin waiting on us." I respond.
"It has been a pleasure but August is right. I do hope our paths cross again." Says Gareth standing up and I follow.
"Farewell, Magi." Says Timmer.
"Goodbye." Sal says with a sad smile.
We wave our goodbyes and make our way down the mud road with our bags of rabbit corpses not enough to even pay back our combined day’s rent.
We walk into the Regretful Goblin as the midnight bell rings and the slamming of the gates can be heard, a sound which while quiet reverberates throughout the whole city. Despite the late hour, the inn is even more packed and louder than before.
I see the slaves who are acting as a waitress have changed and where before it was a plain-looking middle-aged human female her name I believe is Grecis who was running the place now it is male orc the husband most likely is on the night shift.
"I am heading to bed, I guessing that you will be staying?" I ask Gareth drawing close to talk over the noise of the inn.
"Yeah but not for too long if we are going to be up for dawn. See you in the morning, oh I will make sure not to pay. Can’t go wasting any money." He shouts back ending with a cheeky wink.
"Goodnight." I answer chuckling and leaving for the staircase shimming through the crowded tables. I bound up the stairs and into my room opening it with my key.
After closing and locking the door I take off my robe and undergarment before sliding into bed with a stray thought that I had no alarm to wake me up for dawn before drifting to sleep.
Ending my first day as an adventurer.