image [https://i.imgur.com/XIZL0SH.png]

A white fox the size of three men lay panting on a bed of hay. Its beautiful white fur stained red with its own blood. Black charred fur covered its side, and its body had a large wound.

A man with long white hair crouched over its body. He wore burnt, tattered leather armour and carried a broken bow.

“Those bastards,” he said. “Kitsu, how dare they do this to you?”

Victor watched this scene unfold. What’s going on? He thought.

A figure in a hooded cloak approached the white-haired man. A smell like rotting fish emanated from his body.

“Poor thing,” he said, looking at the two.

“Who are you?” The white-haired man asked. “Why did you save us?”

“I can heal your pet,” he said.

“He’s not a pet!” John said. “He’s my dear friend.”

The fox howled, and blood leaked out of its mouth

“Your friend is going to die,” the figure said. “If you don’t do something…”

“Fine! Heal him,” John said. “What do you want in exchange?”

The figure smiled, and Victor could feel a sinking feeling in his gut.

“It’s simple,” the hooded figure said. “Destroy Sun Helm, the village where the man who did this to you resides.”

John clenched his fists. A conflicted expression covered his face.

“No!” Victor shouted. “Don’t do it!”

John’s expression quickly turned to hatred.

“I accept,” John said.

“Then let me begin,”

“No!” Victor shouted.

“Great king, bless this poor wretch with your power.”

“Stop!” Victor tried to run towards them, but the two of them seemed to get further away. They zoomed out until the darkness engulfed him. Where the two figures were, a giant purple skull manifested. It took form through swirling purple energy, and its face wore a savage look.

The skull turned to look at Victor, and laughed, its teeth chattering like bones. Victor tried to run, but the skull moved faster than he could.

Victor turned to face it.

“Bastard!” he said. “I’ll take you down with me.”

The skull opened its mouth.

Victor launched a punch straight at it, but a swirling pink haze enveloped his hand.

A twisting, tearing feeling filled his arm. Like all the tendons in his arm were being warped, changed, transformed.

The purple mist enveloped his whole body. Victor screamed. As his flesh felt like it was being ripped and being redesigned into something unnatural.

His sweat formed a puddle below him. Victor looked down and saw his reflection.

He woke up.

Light streamed in through the window, and sweat covered his brow. His head pounded as if someone had smacked it with a sledgehammer.

“What,” he said. “What was that?”

His head pounded, and Victor's body ached all over.

A knock came from the door.

Blasted old man! He thought. Was he never going to let him rest?

Victor got out of bed.

The door knocked again.

“Coming!” he shouted.

Victor thrust open the door.

“Hey, you!” Taiyo stood at his door wearing a long Red Saree and golden earrings. She stood leaning forward, with her hands behind her back.

“Did you just wake up?” she asked.

It wasn’t Mr Kamal.

I must still be dreaming, Victor thought.

He shut the door.

A knock came from the door again.

Victor opened it.

Taiyo was still there, though this time her cheeks were puffed and red.

“Hey!” she said. “Who just closes the door on a visitor?”

He wasn’t still dreaming, it seemed.

“Sorry,” Victor said. “How can I help the daughter of the high priest?”

“I told you just Taiyo is fine,” she said.

She slipped in through the open door before Victor could shut it again.

“Ouu,” she said. “So this is where you’ve been staying.”

She looked around his room and stared at his unmade bed.

“So you just woke up!” She said,

“Uh, yeah.” Victor said.

Why was she asking?

Taiyo began making the bed for him.

Victor felt his face turn red in embarrassment.

“You don’t have to do that!” he said, grabbing her arm. It felt surprisingly strong.

Taiyo paused, her brown eyes focusing on his arm.

“What?” she asked. “There’s nowhere to sit.”

Victor looked around his shed. Aside from the wash place, everything was cramped. The sides of the shed were filled with unused tools, and there was barely enough space for two people to stand.

“It’s my bed,” Victor said. “I can make it.”

“It’s fine.” She grinned at him. “I enjoy this kind of thing.”

She fluffed the pillows and smoothed out the bedsheets. She did in seconds what usually took Victor a few minutes (When he was bothered enough to make it)

Nodding in satisfaction, she sat down on his bed.

“So,” Victor said. “How can I help you?”

She pushed a curly lock of hair behind her ear with her right hand. “I’m here to claim my prize, of course!”

“Prize?” Victor asked.

“Our wager!” she said. “Have you already forgotten?”

“Oh.. right… wager.” Victor said.

She sighed at him.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“Yesterday, we had a contest,” she said. “You said you’d tell me anything if I won.”

“Actually,” Victor said. “I agreed to tell you who I am.”

“...”

“...”

She threw a pillow at him.

“So you do remember!”

Victor caught the pillow with one hand.

“I’m just some wandering traveller,” he said. “There’s not much for me to tell you.”

“Lies!” Taiyo said. “The day I found you, you were covered in so many cuts I didn’t think you’d live. And the way you copied my movements yesterday…”

Ah, right. Yesterday.

“Why don’t I remember this?” Victor said.

“You saved my life,” she said.

Victor frowned.

“I remember being there,” he said. “I just… don’t remember why.”

“You said you were a Mythril Adventurer?” she asked. “Tell me about them.”

“It’s a long story,” he said.

“Not here,” she said. “It’s too stuffy.”

Taiyo wrinkled her nose in a way he found rather cute.

“Old man Kamal will be after me,” Victor said.

“Who do you think he reports to?” she said, putting a hand on her hip and grinning.

“The high priest?”

“My Father.” Taiyo puffed out her chest. “He can’t say anything if you’re with me.”

“Are you certain?” Victor asked. “I won’t get lynched for hanging out with the high priestess?”

“We’re just going on a walk!” she said. “It’s not like we’re breaking decorum.”

She blushed slightly while saying this.

“Alright,” Victor said. “It’s a good excuse to get out of work.”

“At least I found something that makes you happy…”

“What?”

“Nothing,” she said. “Let us be off!”

Victor opened the door to the house, and as they exited, the sunlight glared in his eyes. The sounds of villagers ploughing and birds twittering reached their ears. Somewhere in the distance, Pawan’s Bastadon bleated. The the greenish orange grass swayed in the wind, and pollen from the golden fields of sun grain made his nose feel bunged up.

“It’s a good way to wake up,” she said.

“Is it?” Victor said. “The Bastodon always wakes me up when I’d rather keep sleeping.”

Taiyo chuckled.

“Most foreigners would find the heat here unbearable,” she said.

“I grew up in a desert,” he said. “Heat doesn’t bother me, neither does cold.”

“A desert?” she asked.

"Djinn Nomads raised me," he said.

“Djinn Nomads, you mean like Bronx?” Taiyo put a finger on her chin. “But you look nothing alike.”

“My gran told me she found me by the ocean,” he said. "I washed up on the shore."

“You must have washed up from the northern shore then, given your hair colour.” She put a finger on her chin. “Your parents must have been from the Northern Archipelagos,” she said. “Though,” she tilted her head. “I’ve never seen eyes like yours before.”

“Well, I could say the same to you,” Victor said. “Your eyes are golden like the sun.”

Taiyo averted her gaze, turning her back to him.

Victor felt disappointed. The caring look in her eyes made him feel warmer.

“L–look,” she said. “There’s something up with the Water Tortles.”

Victor looked at where Taiyo was pointing. Three navy blue turtle shells, each the size of a cow, lay huddled up inside of a fence.

A bald man, looking in his forties, stood outside the fence, frowning. He wore red leather armour and carried a black stringless bow strapped to his back. Victor thought his face resembled Mr Kamal's.

“Mr Garyu,” Taiyo said. “Is something wrong?”

“These damn tortles won’t come out of their shells,” he said. “I need a mount so I can finish my hunt.”

Victor opened the gate and knelt down next to the Tortle shells. When he crouched, the shell towered over him. He placed his hand on the side of the shell. It was surprisingly cool to the touch. Vibrations travelled through the shell into his arm. It felt like it was shuddering.

“Something has startled them,” Victor said. “They need time to calm down.”

“And you are?” Garyu looked Victor up and down as if he was sizing him up.

“That’s Victor,” Taiyo said. “He’s my guest.”

“Be careful around foreigners,” Garyu said. “You don’t know what crap they’ll pollute your mind with.”

Victor frowned. He walked back over and stood beside them. Garyu was tall for a southerner, about a head shorter than Victor.

“You said you needed it for a hunt?” Taiyo asked. “What happened?”

“I’m ashamed to admit it,” Garyu said. “My quarry got away from me. I was tracking a Sun Fox for days, only for it to give me the slip.”

“A Sun Fox,” Victor said.

“Do you know about them, Victor?” Taiyo asked.

He nodded. “Descended from sky hounds, you’d need to be above Rank 1 to think of fighting it.”

“The theory of progenitors…” Taiyo said.

“What’s that?” Victor asked.

“Oh, it’s a theory regarding magical beasts I’ve read,” she said. “All Magical beasts are descended from species more powerful than them, and each bloodline can be traced back to a certain powerful ancestor.”

“They’re an endangered species,” Victor said. “Only a powerful fighter could wound it through its hide.”

“I did leave it wounded.” When Garyu said this, a subtle smirk crept onto his face. “It had the most amazing white fur. If I can offer it to Yiho, I may break through to the next rank.”

“You’re a trophy hunter?” Victor asked.

“What’s that?” Garyu asked.

“A poacher,” Victor said.

“I hunt beasts,” Garyu said. “Offering them to Yiho in show of my devotion. Pawan then rewards me with cultivation resources.”

“Garyu is a prodigy in our village,” Taiyo said. “He’s reached the peak of Rank 1 in just his forties. Excluding father and the rest of the priesthood, he’s the strongest member of our village!”

Victor noticed Garyu puffed his chest out as she said it.

“Well then,” he said. “I’ll have to find some other way to get that fox.”

With that, he gave a cursory glance at Victor, bowed to Taiyo and walked away.

“Peh,” Victor said. “No matter what he calls himself, he’s still a Poacher.”

“Victor?” Taiyo said.

“I didn’t expect you to support the culling of rare and endangered species.”

“No! That’s not true,” Taiyo said. “I don’t like it either, it’s just…”

“Let me guess,” Victor said. “The church supports it.”

“B–but,” Taiyo said. “You were an adventurer too once. Didn’t you also hunt beasts?”

“Beasts that were a threat,” Victor said. “Invasive species, ones that destroyed homesteads, ecosystems, or attacked me first. I’ve hunted for survival, but never for sport.”

“I see…”

“The adventurer’s guild has a thorough review process,” Victor said. “Hence all the long wait times. They need to go over every detail. If they suspect you or a client is poaching, you’ll lose your work immediately and even face penalties.”

“I’ve asked my father about it,” she said. “He told me not everything in Yiho’s design will make sense to us mortals.”

“I’ll keep my thoughts to myself.” Victor said.

He had argued with religious folk before. Getting through to them was like driving a nail through steel with your hand.

I could do that pretty easily, though, he thought.

“Still,” Taiyo said. “You’ve got to admit he’s powerful, right?”

“I think you’re much more talented.” Victor said. “You’re already at 50% Blood saturation, aren’t you?”

“How did you know?” Taiyo asked.

“I reckon his magic core is about 90% formed,” Victor said. “He needs an enormous boost to break through to Rank 2.”

“Wow,” Taiyo said. “Sir Victor, you’re incredible!”

“Hardly,” Victor said. “If it was my gran, she’d know your age just by looking at you.”

“Really?” Taiyo asked. “How old do you think I am?”

Victor paused. If life had taught him anything, when a lady asked this question, it was to lie.

“Hmm,” Victor said. “I reckon you’re 23?”

“You’re incredible!” Taiyo said. “You got it exactly right.”

I was lowballing! Victor thought. What kind of insane talent did she have to be halfway through blood saturation at only 23?

“You’re the one who’s incredible,” Victor said. “I’ve only met one person who’s cultivated that fast.”

“Oh, really?” Taiyo asked. “Who?”

“An old… friend.”

“What are they doing now?” Taiyo asked.

“She’s dead.” Victor said. “Killed on a mission.”

“Oh,” Taiyo said. “Victor, I’m so sorry–”

“It’s fine,” Victor said. “Anyway.”

The sound of Pawan’s Bastodon bleating broke the silence.

“That thing is like an earthquake,” Victor said.

Taiyo chuckled.

“He’s noisy today,” Victor said.

“It’s nearly time for the harvest ritual—”

“Hm?”

Victor noticed the blood had drained from Taiyo’s face.

“I’m late for the harvest ritual!” Taiyo said. “Father is going to kill me. Sorry Victor, I’ll see you again soon!”

Without another word, she picked up her saree and scrambled away. Victor reached out a hand, but she was already gone.

“Why does everyone keep running off to this ritual?”

Victor sighed.

“Oh well,” he said.

“Victa! There you are.”

Crap,

“Come help with the fields, ya layabout!”

Damn it, Victor thought. Taiyo was his cover!

"Double work since you're late!"