Ven's guilt turned to shame as he stood back up whipping the dirt from his clothes.

“Look kids, I won’t scold you, you’ll get plenty of that when we return back to your village.”

Kay turned to him in shock as he replied, “Wait they know?”

“Oh, yeah, how else would I have been able to find you. The villagers spilled that it was most likely you two that took it and they pointed me into the direction of the forest. Thanks to all the noise I was able to find you quickly, they told me to take you guys back to the village as soon as possible.” Ven’s face turned pale to the thought of the village people knowing.

“So before they punish you, I should at least hear you out.” Ven took a running position as he dashed up the boulder reaching Riker’s arm as he fixed his stance to support Ven forward. They slid back down to the other side as the path opened up before them. They continued forward as Ven hesitantly spoke out, “I was tired of taking nothing but community service jobs.”

“Is that right, then why did you take the most dangerous quest?”

“They only have second ranked jobs on the village boards, never anything higher.”

Kay joined in and replied, “because no one else wants to be a higher rank than us” Riker glanced back at them, noticing that they both kept their faces down.

“Then why hadn't you two raised your ranks fairly, you could have easily signed up for a level test and possibly gotten magic that would automatically make you level three, I assume you're passed the age requirement.”

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Ven replied, “We would have long ago if it wasn’t for the money problems.”

Riker scouted the horizon for the sky tree as he was made aware of its location. “Oh, your families are poor.” Their expressions turned downcast as Kay replied, “They're both dead.”

The atmosphere turned heavy again as Kay continued, “Our parents were good friends so we knew each other since childhood. It happened when my family went to visit his’ in the village outskirts, us two stepped out to play in the fields as the adults stayed back at his house...by the time we came back they were lying dead there.”

The sudden memory brought shivers down their spines as they recall that day. Ven replied, “It was later that day that we heard a local orc was spotted in the area. Our families weren’t fighters so it would have been easy for the orc.”

Kay looked up at the sky hoping to compose himself. He continued on, “Our houses were taken as we weren’t listed in the documents for ownership. So the village people collected enough money for us to find a place together. We lived decently for a short while, but when money gets tight people become greedy and give less each year. When we turned twelve we were able to take first ranked quests, so we survived off of those funds combined with the villager’s donations.

The year after we moved to a cheaper place to use that excess money to bump up to second rank. The donations stopped after the news of us making second ranked went around. The quests were higher paying yes, but it would have been the same as if they continued paying the slim donations.” Ven replied, “We hardly have enough money to pay for rent and food let alone pay for the testing fees.

Our meagre savings were used to buy these weapons.”

++++

The forest opened up and the path to the village laid across the flat plane. What started in the early morning ended in the early nightfall. The last light of day saluting its farewell leaving the moon to take over. Riker continued on, growing closer to the distant lights of the village. The crickets began their symphony as fireflies danced through the air. Riker took in the sights as he looked up at the splattered canvas of stars in the sky.

“I see, so you wanted the prize money from this quest.”

"Yeah'', Ven replied with a tired expression causing him to rub his eyes.