Marik and Sai headed back to the mercenary guild as the sun was setting. Upon entering Marik saw The Bear look up from some paperwork he was working on and then glance over towards the bar area. Marik looked the same direction and saw a raven-haired wolfkin about his age sitting alone at a table. He looked back at The Bear and nodded his thanks before heading that direction with Sai in tow. Just as they got to the table Sai came around from behind Marik to see the girl sitting at the table and gasped.

"Ah. Sara! What are you doing here? Did Master send you? Are you doing okay? Did you need something? Are you a mercenary now, too?"

Sai sat down right next to the wolfkin and started leaning closer as she bombarded the poor girl with questions. Marik took a seat across from them and waited for things to settle down. It seemed like the two knew each other and the girl seemed kind of familiar. Seemingly unable to handle the intense questioning the wolfkin girl finally pushed Sai's shoulders back while complaining.

"You're still so hyper. Whew. Back up please, you're breath also smells kind of strange..."

"Huh? Strange? It should just smell like your brother, though?"

Well, that explained who they were meeting with. It was no wonder she seemed familiar. Of course, Marik refused to blame himself for not recognizing her since it had been almost five and a half years since they last met. He did kind of wish that Sai could refrain from trying to make his sister recognize his scent from their earlier activities, though.

"Sai, I don't think she could recognize that particular scent of mine no matter how hard you thought about it. I would actually be more worried if she could. Besides it's been several years since we saw each other."

"Huh? Oh ya. Good point. I forgot that you didn't see her when she came to visit us..."

"It's fine. So, sis, Sai did ask some good questions. What's going on?"

"*sigh* I was hoping for a slightly more touching reunion, you know? Anyways, that scary old woman told me I should meet up with you and act as your guard while I go out and see the world more."

"What is that woman thinking? I don't really need a guard..."

"Well too bad. I'm stronger than you now, so-"

"Whoa there! Granny said you're stronger than me, now? That actually stings a little."

"Well, she didn't exactly say that part. But why else would you need a guard? That's the only possible reason!"

"No no, there are a variety of possible reasons. Just that none of them make sense, including you being stronger than me. Whatever. I guess we can figure that out tomorrow or something. Have you checked in at an inn yet? Are you a registered merc?"

"Huh? Wait, shouldn't who's stronger than who be kind of important so we know if I should actually be your guard or not?"

"No, not really. At least not until tomorrow, anyway. So? Inn? Merc?"

"Umm. I haven't done either yet because I was waiting for you. Also, I don't have any money."

"I see. So, Sai, what should we do here?"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"I mean, I'm not used to having a useless sister trying to rely on me out of nowhere. I'd offer to let her stay with us for the night but-"

"That's a great idea! Sara can stay with us and you two can get closer like a brother and sister should be!"

"No wai-"

"Oh. Thank you! Don't worry, I can sleep on the floor just fine!"

"*sigh* Well, whatever. It seems like you two decided on this already. Does this mean we should also call Kiara so she can kind of be there, too?"

"Wow! That's a great idea! I'm sure she'll be happy to hear that you agreed so soon."

"I'm sure. Let's go ahead and go to the inn. I want to make sure we won't have to pay more or anything for letting Sara use our room for the night. We should also probably try and get up early so we can get her registered quickly."

The three of them stood up and headed back out to go to the inn with The Bear and Marik waving a quick farewell to each other. They got back to the inn and waited for the innkeeper to come back from whatever duties he was taking care of. As he reappeared behind the desk he noticed that Marik had one more girl with him and started to give a knowing smirk. Before he could make a rude comment that might actually hurt both mentally and emotionally, Marik explained his business.

"So I wanted to check if there's an extra cost to letting my sister stay with us for the night. If so, is there a spare room that's at least close to the price difference?"

"We ain't got any spare rooms ready at the moment and we don't charge the rooms per person for the most part. But sister, huh? Guess that makes sense after all."

That was one huge misunderstanding gladly avoided. Marik walked back to the room and opened the door for the two girls, letting a musky scent drift out and assail his nose. He made a mental note to make sure they opened the window before leaving the room from now on and followed the other two inside, noticing that both of them also scrunched their noses some.

"Let's remember to open the window at any place we stay before we leave from now on..."

"Agreed."

"Wait, this smell is because of you two? What did you do to make it smell this bad in here?"

"Huh? Oh well. First, Marik threw me on the bed..."

"Sai, I don't think she was actually asking for a detailed account. I think she meant in general because she hasn't been taught enough about that kind of thing."

"Huh? You mean she doesn't know about sex? No way! You know about sex, right, Sara?"

"Umm, you mean like, mating? Kind of? I've never really seen it or done it before but I was told a little about it..."

"Wow! Well, that's okay. You'll see it when we do it in a little while."

"Wait, what do you mean?"

"She means that's part of why she invited you, sis. She likes it when people watch, for some reason."

"I do not! Mostly! Just some people. Sometimes."

"*sigh* Well, at least with my sister here I'm not the only one uncomfortable with it."

"Hey! You didn't mind when Kiara watched before. You're even the one who offered to let her do it again, tonight, with your sister."

"No no. I offered to let Kiara in on our time together since you two wanted that. At no point have I ever said that I was comfortable with either of our sisters getting to watch our alone time. I even nearly knocked your sister out before to keep her from watching as much, if you remember."

"Ugh. Fine. I'll call Kiara. Oops, wait. I can't."

"Sai wants to talk a bit. Good enough?"

Kiara's portal soon opened up in front of them and Sara jumped back a bit out of surprise.

"Hello. Wait, what's wrong Sai? You don't look very happy."

"We're having a small argument and it put her in a bit of a bad mood. In other news, my sister's here. Apparently she'll be staying the night with us."

"Oh. So you called me so we can watch you two have sex together."

"No. That's actually the argument. I'm not particularly enjoying the idea of either of you watching us but she is."

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"That's just stupid. Fine. Let me fix this for both of you. Marik, you're amazing you know? One of these days you're going to be attracting every woman around and when you marry the next one she'll have to know what you like and all. That means that at some point you will be watched by someone else, so you might as well get used to the idea. Sai, think about it from Marik's side. He finally gets to have you to himself and he wants you to have him to yourself. He's probably only getting annoyed because you want to share and he doesn't, yet. Let him have you alone...and then give me the details later..."

"Oi! I was actually mostly fine with what you said until the last part."

"So. Are we going to try and find out if your sister can squeeze through my portal so you two can be alone tonight or do we get to watch?"

"I guess you can watch...as I go to sleep. Night."

Marik quickly stretched out on the bed and rolled over to face the wall. There were a few moments of silence and then he was pulled to roll back over onto his back and mounted by his wife. She immediately started kissing him before ho could make a complaint. After several moments of that she reached her hands down and started to touch him in all the ways and places she knew he liked and it wasn't long before he started forgetting everything else around him to focus on her wants and needs at that moment. The rest of the night was filled with some fun and a lot of noise.

The next morning he woke up to see his sister in the far corner of the room huddled up and asleep. He turned over a bit and saw a naked Sai just starting to open her eyes. She greeted him with a smile and a light kiss then crawled over his body and began searching for her clothes. Marik sighed and lightly grabbed her tail near the base, causing her to freeze up and look over at him. He smiled mischievously while yanking lightly until he could start kissing her naughtily. Her grin grew wide and she immediately moved over on top of him to enjoy some good morning exercise.

Once they had finally finished and gotten dressed Marik found his sister sitting in a corner, her knees at her chest, her hands covering her ears, and facing the wall. He walked up and tapped her on the shoulder which seemed to surprise her as she made a startled jump before turning to face hm. He gave her a wry smile and pointed with his thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the door.

"We're heading down to eat. You need to go to the guild soon, too."

Then he turned around and headed towards Sai, who was already walking out the door. There weren't a lot of people eating breakfast in the dining area so they were able to find their own table and eat their breakfast soup in relative peace. A few people glanced and took notice as they lightly rubbed against each other in a cuddling way while they ate but they were largely ignored. Once Marik was done eating, he thought about his plans for the day.

"I'm going to head over now. Would you mind heading back up to open a window and grab sis? I want to get some boring stuff done there, so I'll meet you there."

"Okay. Umm...sorry? I might have done too much after all. It seemed like Sara hated me this morning..."

"Well, you guys have a will have chance to talk before meeting me at the guild, right? Honestly, you probably already know her better than I do..."

"Mhm. I'll be there soon."

Marik got up, dropped his tableware off at the counter, and walked over to the guild. Inside and behind the counter as normal stood The Bear with a smiling face, looking over the few people in the bar area and watching for troubling arguments. Marik walked up to him and gave his greetings.

"Yo. Not too bad a morning, is it?"

"Everything except that smell you're carrying with you. You should wash up some, lad. The smell of sex is so strong on you that a rock could track you by scent right now."

"Ah. My bad. I plan to get to the river after I'm done here. As long as I can get the kind of job I'm looking for near there, anyway. In the meantime, figured I'd also knock out that paperwork for moving up in rank."

"I guess that's fine. While you're doing that I'll see what I can find you that'll bring you near the river."

The Bear dropped some papers in front of him and then started moving around to sort through and gather various documents and contracts for jobs. While they were both working on their respective task, Marik decided to add some conversation.

"So apparently that was my sister yesterday. I mean, she is my sister, it's just that I've barely known her for most of my life. Anyways, she should be coming to to try and sign up here soon, as well. I can't really vouch for her, though. Since it seems like I'll have to be paying for her living as well for at least a little while I figured I should do a job with Sai that'll de done by this evening so we can get some quick money."

"Hmm? That helps. I won't have to go through all of this, then. A lot of these will take a couple days at least. One that lets you have some time at the river, too? Hmm. These are out. You done yet, lad? I got about three jobs you can choose."

"Just finished. So, what're my options?"

"One second. Yup. Congrats, you're now eighth rank. Ah. I heard that D and Mer finally made third just the other day. Got their titles and all. Wind Tracker and Swift Wind. Thought you might like to know."

"Thanks for the info. It's good to know people you like are making it in the world."

"Ain't that the truth. So we got an area guard, a group guard, and a backup call."

"Backup? For who?"

"Hunter guild. They're training their own rookies this week."

"Hmm. Pass. The area guard is near the river?"

"It's fairly close by. Afternoon to evening. Not a lot of info, though. They just want some people to make sure nobody heads into the area until they're done."

"Sounds kind of suspicious, to be honest. Who's the group?"

"Herbalists or alchemists or some such. They want to pick some plants or something. Should be mostly safe but they smartted up some when they had an accident some time back. Cheap guard are better than none. They've been waiting for two days, though, so they might decide to cancel and just head off if nobody takes this soon."

"Sounds fine to me. We get a runner to let them know meet us at the river?"

"That would probably be the best way, ya. Hey! Someone want some quick and easy errand coin?"

The door opened about then and Sai and Sara walked in. Sara still had an awkward look on her face and refused to meet Marik's gaze. Sai had her ears and tail drooped a little, and they drooped even further when she saw Marik. She began a slow walk that showed showed she was full of sadness and maybe some shame as Sara followed slightly behind her. The Bear started whispering next to him as he saw the spectacle.

"I thought for sure you guys were fine based on your scent. Did something happen?"

"Ah. Nothing too big. She just made a discovery this morning: she's crazy but my sister isn't."

"I won't ask any further."

"Probably best. Hey Sai, I got us a job lined up for the day. All we need to do is sign off on it and then head over to the river. We don't want our clients having trouble breathing, so we need to wash off before they get there."

Sai nodded at his words while Sara looked at him quizzically.

"Sorry, sis. I got no clue how good you are or aren't at anything really. You'll have to do the full run through to join the guild. Since it might take the whole day and you still have no money, I figured that we should go earn some. Good luck."

Marik turned back to sign off on the papers left on the counter then moved aside for Sai to do the same. Once they were done he grabbed the proof copy and The Bear motioned Sara over to begin explaining things to her. Marik waved goodbye and led Sai out the door. After walking for a while they came to the town's entrance along the road. He always though it was a bit strange for there to be guards on the road when there were no walls. He headed to the guard station at the side to give a report of their business.

"Hello, there. I'm an eighth rank merc taking a duo job with this girl to guard some people out there in a bit. They should be coming through in a while to meet us by the river."

"Is that so," said the guard while barely looking up from his work. "Got proof?"

Marik handed him the paper that proved his words which the guard took and looked over briefly. After writing a few things down he handed the paper back to Marik and started doing his own work again.

"You're good."

Marik nodded his head and led Sai out of the town proper and towards the nearby tree line. Sai sped up a little to walk side by side with him.

"So, what was that about?"

"Well, those are the guards. They make sure that everything is like it should be. When you enter or exit most towns or cities or even some villages you have to talk to the guards so they can make sure there's nothing illegal going on. People who try to avoid the guards or trick the guards end up getting punished if they get caught. As far as their attitude towards me, well...let's just say that not everybody everywhere holds mercenaries in high regard. Even less so for low ranked ones like us. That guard wasn't too bad and just did his job and was done with us. There are some people, though, that think mercenaries are little better than the trash they see in a back alley. It can even be a client that acts like that, so be careful."

"That sounds stupid, though. Why would a someone hire a mercenary and then treat them badly?"

"Because they're stupid, like you said. Thinking about it, our clients might end up being like that. A lot of the time those kinds of guys, especially around here, feel like if they don't act all high and mighty towards those they consider beneath them then they might lose their place in society. Mercenaries are one of the types of people they think of only as legalized bandits, barely better than a common street thief. Fair warning now, if they are like that then this'll be a good chance for you to learn how to deal with those kinds of people, and you can't even yell at them or argue with them or anything. You have to learn to pretty much just ignore them and everything they say that isn't part of the job. Don't worry, I've dealt with it before and have plenty of practice so as long as they don't try to do anything to me physically then you can just ignore them and let me deal with them."

They finally reached the river and Marik started removing his clothes and setting them in a dry spot. Sai watched him for a little bit, then imitated him. Unfortunately it took a little longer to get cleaned up than Marik planned for since a new couple freshly naked will do as a new couple does. Once they were cleaned up, though, they got dressed and Marik started looking around the area.

"What are you looking for?"

"Mm. A few things I guess. I'm trying to make sure of what wildlife has been around recently while trying to find a good vantage spot so we can see our clients coming and greet them appropriately."

"Oh. How about that big rock over there?"

"Ya. That should work. While we wait we can work on your arcanistries as well. Ah. Before I forget, we want to hide that from everyone, probably my sister included for now, until we reach at least fifth rank. People stop questioning things mercenaries do when they get to around that rank, so it should be safer at that point. Meanwhile we'll just have to work on it in secret and then surprise everyone when the time comes."

"Wait. I don't want to hide it from Sara, though. She already knows I used to do magic and sorcery a little. Shouldn't it be fine?"

"Maybe on her part. I don't know because I can't say I really know her. I'm more worried about other people finding out through her. She would have to have some kind of mind defense at the very least before she was allowed to know and even then I would prefer a little more defenses."

"Hmm. I might be able to ask Kiara..."

"We can talk about all that later. Either way it's not something to worry about for the next few days."