The engine to the armoured truck sputtered off as he pulled the key out of the ignition. With his short buzzing hair red as the fiery heat of the continent, Arnold Wyndham stepped out of the driver's seat, shutting the door behind him.

He adjusted his bulletproof vest and muddied jeans, ignoring the dirt that had splayed his maroon shirt. After checking his shoulder slung Greaser submachine gun to be fully loaded, he then gave the metal fuel tank stock a flick to check its capacity. The thick clinking told him he still had enough fuel for his flamethrower attachment to use should things truly get too hairy. Though he was the youngest Guide he knew of at the age of 24, he made up with a trained physique, military skills, and a quick ability to learn. 

Circling the truck to the cargo bed, he opened the back door to reveal a single female human. In her early 50s with whitening brown hair, while not easily discernible from the rugged cloak she wore, the woman was actually one of the wealthiest individuals from Citi. Her business had led her to travel south to Ampyre. Blackmail, kidnapping, or secret arms deal, Arnold never asked. It was not his job to question these things, let alone her name. He just had to deliver the people over. He preferred a professional detachment from the shadier side of the business of being a Guide.

"Come on, my lady. We're at Altaro," he gestured for her to leave.

Despite a look of hesitation from the woman, she eventually stepped out of the truck onto the dry dirt floor. Immediately, her face contorted into twisted disgust.

"What a dump!" she cracked under her breath. "How do these backward barbarians continue to beat back out military might I do not know."

"Very good madam," Arnold replied, barely half listening. "Stay close to me. We do not want to be separated."

He double checked to make sure all his doors were locked and the truck magnetically sealed before leaving the safety of the hidden pass where the car sat under the shadows of rocky outcroppings.

The town of Altaro was just a short hour's walk away in the distance. A dozen stone buildings were surrounded with hundreds of makeshift tents and huts. Technically an illegal gathering, the Seracue government - though having condemned it - never shut the place down, as it brought much-needed trade through its black market. However, they do put up a show of force, occasionally raiding the town, especially when they needed more equipment for the war and aren't willing to pay. Raids were not common though, as if they do so constantly, there would be no one left to bring the goods it. The entire town was a society balanced on a needlepoint bureaucratic corruption and a seedy underworld's laws.

He led his charge into the tented outskirts. Shops were set up to sell mostly Dogon technology. Power cells, handheld radios, guns, bullets, and the likes. A few sold trinkets like gaming devices and digital watches. Some sold manufactured drugs. Those fetched high prices from Seracue's wealthy elites looking for kicks and toys.

But they were not here to shop. Arnold headed straight for the few stone buildings central of the town. One of them served an open-aired bar with cracking stools and tables which sold the rank rum that Seracue was infamous for. He was not there to drink either.

Instead, he headed up to bartender. "I'm here to check in. Wyndham. Three days."

The bartender looked up. "Wyndham, huh? Alrigh'. Fhree hundred for fhree 'ays. Pay up."

He bit his tongue and handed the man his credit chip. Arnold watched as the bartender pulled out a scanner and blipped it over his chip and the digital number on the face of the oval-shaped chip dropped from 1,758 to 1,458. He was handed the chip back.

"By the way, Wyndham. There's someone looking for you. Doing a transfer."

For a moment, he was stunned still. Then, anger sets in. "What? If someone's doing a transfer with me, why do I have to pay for the three days?"

The bartender smirked and shrugged. "Slipped my mind. No refund."

"Son of a-" Even though Arnold had not moved for his gun and simply raised his voice an octave, the bar-goers stood from their seats and glared him down. Arnold calmed quickly and gave a forced smile. "-beautiful woman."

The tender laughed. "I figured yous say a'."

His charge, the old lady, was in a shocked panic at the sudden hostility, but otherwise did not move either due to fear or confusion.

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

"Don't worry ma'am. We're still on track." Arnold reassured her, then grunted to the bartender. "Where's the Guide wanting to transfer?"

"She's ou' back. Care now, boy. She's walking wi' people some'ing fierce."

Without even acknowledging the bartender further, he left for the back of the building with the woman following him.

His charge asked, "What's a transfer?"

"Sometimes Guides wants to switch clients mid-journey, either because the roads are different or situations have changed, like a political mix-up or army roadblocks."

"W-wait a minute!" the woman stammered, scared. "You're just going to leave me with a stranger?"

"We don't have to accept anything. Well, I don't. You don't really have a choice, to be honest. I'll vet her for you, don't worry. Won't let some snatcher take you or anything. After all, I still need to get paid."

"I-" she seemed to have wanted to speak up, but was unable to come up with a retort.

"Let's see what they have to say first before we make any judgement call. If the Guide's dirty, I won't even touch their offer. No point getting swindled myself."

They turned the corner of the building and was greeted cheerfully.

"Hey, Arnie!"

"Guh!" He almost jumped back, recognising the voice. "Talia? What are you doing here?"

The elf grinned. "I'm the transfer, of course."

He sighed, both out of frustration and relief. His client asked, "Who is she?"

"Her name's Talia," he introduced. "Don't worry. If we accept her offer, I guarantee she'll finish the job. She's a good Guide, if not a miser."

"I resent that," the latter replied.

"So what's the deal?" Arnold crossed his arms. "It's not like you to ask for a transfer."

"Well, something came up and I have to double back to Ampyre. I'll bring your charge there and you bring mine to Citi. You get an extra forty percent from my cut and I don't take anything from you. You have to head back anyway, right?"

He sighed. "Hang on to your breaches. Who are your clients?"

Talia looked around them as if to make sure there were no one nearby. Then, she raised a hand in the air and signalled with a thumb up. There was a puff of brown smoke and the smelling tinge of rust bursting in the air around them. Before Arnold even blinked, three new figures stood between him and Talia.

His charged made an attempt to run, thinking they were under attack. Arnold instinctively grabbed her arm and yanked her harshly back. "Didn't I say not to separate?"

"S-sorry! I just panicked." He let her go and she wavered on the spot, still looking ready to run at any moment.

Out of the three newcomers, he was surprised to recognise two of them. And despite the surprising teleportation trick, he was much more stunned by who they were.

"Josh? Luce?"

"You know each other?"

Luce chimed in, "You know us?"

"Yeah... I uh... we met six years ago, on The Walking. Path You all were trying to cross the Helm. We fought the Rankor together. But I'm not surprised you don't recognise me. I had my uniform and mask on back then."

"Oh, right." Josh smacked his palm as the memory came back to him. "You're that Arnold?"

"Yeah," Arnold confirmed. "Arnold Wyndham."

"I'm surprised," Talia noted. "You're a lot calmer at seeing someone appear before you from thin air than I thought you would."

"Really, Talia? Me? Surprised? Have you seen my life?"

She shrugged. "Fair enough."

He turned back to Luce and Josh. "What happened to you? We haven't been able to find out anything after we saved you."

Luce looked almost offended. "I'm sorry, but I specifically remembered that we were the ones who saved your hides."

Arnold scoffed. "In your dreams maybe. We were the ones with the incendiary grenades and the giant robot, remember?"

The blonde girl zoned in. "And you wouldn't know how to use any of those had we not been there to teach you!"

"Okay," Talia announced aloud. "I can see you three are going into some sort of weird catching-up, and I honestly couldn't care less. So I'm going to take my charge and collect my paycheck, okay? I'll get Rushtae to set up the transfer for your cut of the loot. Come on, Miss. Let's get you to Ampyre."

The female client stammered, "B-but, I don't even know you!"

"That's alright," Talia reassured. "You can stay here if you like. I'll pick you up again when I come by, if you're alive that is." With a nonchalant wave goodbye to Arnold and the other three, Talia began walking away.

The woman stopped, considered her options, and with a look of hopelessness in a foreign land, jogged after Talia.

Arnold was left with the trio and he could not help but notice one of them was an unfamiliar green haired elf girl. "Who's the new girl? I'm guessing you guys didn't make it across the Helm? What happened to Jacques?"

"Oh. This is Adelaide Wiltkins. She's my... something." Luce was visibly flustered but her tone soon turned sombre. "Anyway, we um... we made it across the Helm, actually. But Jacques, she..." Her voice trailed off.

Josh finished for her, "Jacques didn't make it."

"I'm sorry for your loss," Arnold replied honestly.

They had only met and spoke for a couple of hours all those years ago. But even then, he could tell Luce and Jacques were close, so his condolences came out sincere. He had liked their group. Shou likened them to getting on like a house on fire due to a shared weirdness in personality. Arnold did not find themselves to be anywhere near the weird side back then, but times had built them a much more flammable house.

Josh decided to quickly change the subject. "What about you and your friend? What was his name? Shou?" Arnold nodded. "What have you two been up to. You're obviously not a soldier any longer."

Arnold laughed. "Yeah. Well, a lot of crazy stuff happened since the last time we saw each other. Why don't we go resupply and talk in the car?"

The elf girl named Adelaide made a scoffing noise. "How crazy can it be?"

"Well," Arnold answered calmly. "We did adopt a pet Titan, how's that for a start?"