Mouse kicked a small rock, and watched it clack down the cobblestone road. It shined, pausing Mouse. He knelt down and picked it up, rolling it in his hand. The rock split, revealing a slew of blacks and whites webbed together. It fractured, reflecting light off its endless sides. Smiling, he stood and pocketed it.

“Are you okay? I saw you on the ground just now.” An unfamiliar voice called out from behind him. Mouse turned, seeing two men looking at him. One stood tall, maybe thirties, and the other average, younger. Both of them wore badges with the town name on their tunics, listed as town guards.

Mouse tensed, his hand automatically sliding down to his hip. Disappointed in the nothingness there, he recalled leaving his Anrix sword at the inn with Taiga. The taller one stepped closer, cocking his head a little at Mouse, “sir?”

Taiga warned him to not draw attention to himself, and to stay out of sight of any law enforcement. And yet two walked up to him? How annoying.

“What!” He snapped. The guard paused, scrunching his eyebrows together.

“I just wanted to make sure you were feeling okay, that’s all.”

Mouse weighed Taiga’s words for a moment. He could kill them. It would ensure they didn’t follow him or report them to anyone. Yes, this would work well.

Mouse flexed his fingers, taking a step towards them. Taiga wouldn’t have to know. It’s fine. No one would know. There were plenty of humans. What’s two less?

A young child’s giggle caught in Mouse’s ear, followed by a young boy and girl running out of a bakery. The average guard turned and waved at them. The children ran up to the guard, and the three started chatting about something unimportant.

Humans loved to talk.

“Sir, are you okay? Do you need help?” The taller guard looked Mouse up and down, and stepped left, between he and the children. His hand didn’t fall to his weapon, but rested on his hip, in easy reach.

“I’m fine, thanks for asking. Just found a rock on the road I liked.” Mouse turned, walking off. He waited for pursuant footsteps, but instead heard both guards talk to the children.

Mouse shrugged the encounter off, and followed the road for another minute or so, before pulling off and walking alongside the inn he and Taiga had checked into the night prior. He hopped up beside a large oak, grabbed hold of a thick low-lying branch, and pulled himself up. A small sack he’d tied to his belt earlier caught on a branch. He untied it and held it as he climbed higher in the tree.

Once he stood even with the eve of the first floor, he jumped to it, and climbed up the balcony above. Using the crowning of the balcony door, he hauled himself across and up to the eve of the second floor, and on level with the third floor.

With the window still ajar, exactly how he’d left it, he slid it further open. His sack of goodies in one hand, he heaved himself over the windowsill and back into the room he and Taiga rented for the night.

“Hey, welcome back,” Taiga said without looking up from the small, wooden table he sat at. He scribbled something in a small book, with a few sizes of coins in little piles scattered about. Taiga paused writing and glanced up at him, and then to the small sack he held. “You got breakfast?”

Mouse nodded, and poured out the contents of the bag on the table, messing up Taiga’s piles of coins. He didn’t seem to mind. Mouse displayed the contents proudly. Two berry muffins, a rabbit, four peaches, and two biscuit crackers. He’d thought ahead and made sure they’d have something to eat on the road.

Taiga sighed, his chin dropping into his palm, and looked at Mouse. “I didn’t give you enough money for muffins or peaches.”

“I know,” Mouse smiled, slightly giddy from the anticipation of sweet berries from the muffin. He had to remind himself, be patient. Taiga would finish talking soon, then he could eat.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“And the rabbit, did you hunt it?”

Mouse nodded, “down the path we came yesterday.”

Taiga rubbed his eyebrows, and closed his eyes. “How did you get the muffins and peaches?”

“I took them.”

“So, you stole them.”

Mouse shrugged. Taiga stared at him a moment, then grabbed a biscuit and took a bite. Mouse took this as the ‘okay’ to eat, and slid into the empty chair across from Taiga, grabbing a muffin. He bit into it, and the sweetness of the berries burst into his mouth. Worth the wait.

Light glistened from the table, and he paused mid-chew as his eyes drew to the table. A purple gem, unremarkable in Mouse’s opinion, fastened to a gold chain laid behind the coins. Annoyance pricked at the sight of it.

“You’re still thinking about that thing?” The berries soured in his mouth.

“We’ve talked about this.”

“Yeah, and?” Mouse huffed, blinking back the image of the queen at their covered cart as they readied to be smuggled from the castle during the early light. He still debated whether it was arrogance or ignorance that brought her to them that morning.

Mouse doubted some measly purple rock could contain such magic. Though he supposed anything was possible. “It’s a leash.”

Taiga’s eyes met his. He lowered his pen. “We know the corruption is real, the Guardian Spirits are sick, and they’re attacking humans. Everything that’s happened is exactly as the queen said.”

“I don’t need any protection.” Mouse clicked his tongue, glancing out the window as a breeze blew against the oak.

“Wear it for show.” Taiga softened his tone. “At least pretend. It’ll be problematic if anyone notices the corruption doesn’t affect you.”

As Mouse munched, Taiga returned to his piles and scribbles, “we’ll be out of money soon.”

“Can’t we just keep camping outside and taking what we need?” They’d slept outside the few nights since… Grhaanfjes death. They’d only stayed at an inn due to overnight rain.

Mouse looked at the hand he’d touched to the snow covering the Grhaanfjes’s body. His fingertips still recalled the cold of death beginning to blanket the Guardian. He’d tried listening for Grhaanfjes’s voice once more, but only silence replied. Whatever corrupted Grhaanfjes did so in such a way, it severed the Guardian Spirit’s connection to each other.

But to corrupt a Guardian to the point of attracting and breeding demons should be impossible. Guardian’s naturally consumed an abundance of corruption while releasing purity. So, what could cause this? Was it preventable? What could they do to save his family?

“We’ll need money to get around. Some towns have fees for travelers. And food aside, it’ll be autumn soon. We’ll need lodging for much of late autumn and winter.” Taiga took another bite of his biscuit, counting a pile of coins while stacking them.

Mouse chewed slowly, savoring his berry-filled goodness. “There were mercenaries at the tavern.”

“Okay, and?”

“Why don’t we do that for money?” Mouse shrugged, stuffing the rest of his delicious treat into his mouth, and reaching for a biscuit.

Taiga paused after swallowing, “you want to take mercenary jobs? It’ll take longer to travel north if we’re making detours.”

Mouse considered. Leryn Forest was top priority. Veering from that wasn’t an option. “Can’t we take jobs heading north? So we can do them on the way?”

“We can try. We can join and see how it goes. We can stay at guild-affiliated inns along the way, which would save on costs.” Taiga returned back to his scribbles, tapping the side of his thumb on the map while he thought on it. “It would also give us an easy way to gather information, while limiting our interactions with Lanria’s knights as much as possible.”

Taiga bit his lip, weighing invisible pros and cons in his head, as he always did before making a decision. Mouse nibbled on his biscuit, wishing he’d stolen another muffin over buying the stale, slightly bitter garbage he currently had in his mouth. Plus, it would have saved money. A win-win for both he and Taiga. Next time.

“Sure, let’s give it a shot.” Taiga picked up a few coin piles and dropped them into a small pouch, making space to see the map better. “We’ll head east,” he touched a small dot with his index finger, and slid it to the right and stopped on another small dot, “there’s a mercenary guild center here. We can get registered there before moving north.”

Mouse nodded, putting the disgusting waste of money down, and picking up the second muffin. Taiga watched him bite into it. He chuckled and shook his head slightly, clearing the table and packing up the map and food. Mouse checked around them, leaving nothing behind, and shut the inn door on their way out.