My master, Huntress protect her, used to say that the best Hunters always listened to their instincts. It's entirely possible she had a very low opinion of me if she actually believed that, because I completely ignored the warning bells going off in my melon and just politely ate the rather bland food the Mercenary offered me after that. Don't blame me, I was starving and my body was literally at the precipice of unconsciousness. I finished off a third helping of the "stew" as it were, and decided to go look at the deceased Chimera. I'm inordinately proud of the fact that I was able to stand up without stumbling or vomiting all over myself. Also, I didn't walk gingerly at all. Anyone saying otherwise would be a liar. But I digress, so anyway, I looked at the disgusting heads of the last chimera that had ambushed me and asked,"Name?"

"Cassandra", she said, "my friends call me Cass", she offered politely. I was taken aback for a brief moment but recovered quickly. "So, do you use a katana?", I asked looking at the neat cut that had sliced clean through the Chimera's neck. "Yes, and a wakizashi", she replied. "And you can put enough strength into your swing with just one hand to do.... this?", I asked pointing at the clean cut on one of the heads, while keeping my back to her. I heard her walk towards me and this time she'd belted on her swords. They were a gorgeous pair of eastern swords, or at least their scabbards and the handguards definitely were beautiful as sin. Both scabbards were black as the night and while the Katana's had intricate designs of flower petals on it coloured bright red, the only slightly shorter wakizashi's had a multitude of snakes etched in a dull green. The handguards were round and had probably been recently cleaned to a gleaming silver finish. But what stood out even more were the beautifully worked figures of birds in flight between two concentric rings that made up the circular handguards. On most swords, such artistry might have made the handguards weak or prone to breaking, but I could clearly feel the two swords resonating with each other and the handguards seemed to be the heart of the resonance from which arcane energy flowed out all over the swords, including the scabbards. There was no visible sign of any of this that most normal people would be able to see and I was reasonably certain that most hunters and mages wouldn't either. I was willing to bet everything I owned on the fact that an extremely talented smith had worked on these blades while imbuing them with their will. I was already wary, but my hackles were now raised and the warning bells in my head had rung hard enough to possibly be audible to everyone in my vicinity. I realised she had seen me admire her swords and I pointedly looked back at the severed head again. I was now pondering the loss of my own cheap weapons - probably completely dissolved into goo inside the Chimera's stomach - while waiting for her to answer when she sighed and said, "You did just remark about my affiliation with the Crimson Cloud, yes? Do you think they hire anyone who can lift a sword? Do you think they'd hire a woman who could do less than I can?"

She almost had me then, but I smiled sardonically while looking her straight in her eyes. "You're a Captain, aren't you, Cassandra?", I said. She bit her lip and nodded slightly, "You're an irritating hunter, Mr...?", she looked at me as if urging me to finish her sentence. "No need for Mister. You can call me Aridan", I said. "That's not your real name", she said accusingly. I nodded and continued, "That's the name I use on my contracts. You haven't earned the right to know my Birth-name or my Given-name" She gave a polite nod. "Ok.... Aridan. You're right. I'm a Captain in the Crimson Cloud", she said and she unclasped her cloak and put it on right side out this time, instead of inside out. It was a fine wool cloak of a light grey colour with thin red trims on edges. On the chest, there was an embroidered red cloud with three parallel slanted stripes of black colour inside it. Yes, she was definitely a Captain. I swear I heard the betrayer singing a ditty on my grave right then. I sighed loudly and she quirked her eyebrow in response. "Cassandra, by any chance, you're not running from the Crimson Cloud, are you?", I asked, dreading her answer. She didn't say anything, instead just looked me in the eye and nodded slightly. Then she said, "I... left my company just before a skirmish. I need to disappear and the northern kingdoms are the best bet and..." I sighed, again and cut her off, "And you need a hunter to get anywhere even close to The Bells of Dissonance." She nodded and said, "Yes, that's the job I have for you".

Absolutely brilliant! Helping a Crimson Cloud deserter disappear. I get the nicest of jobs, I tell you. Just after escaping a near-death situation is a strange time to wish for the Betrayer to break open your skull with his club and yet right at that moment, I'd have let him beat me to death, resurrect me, and then beat me to death once more just to get out of this situation. I could just about imagine my Master laughing at my predicament. My Master and the Huntress had the same twisted sense of humour, but if there's something they both had taught me, it was that a real hunter doesn't let something as important as sense get in the way of paying their debts. I looked at the mercenary and said, "You have a deal." I think she was surprised at how easily I had accepted, but she merely nodded and asked, "What would you like in payment?" I merely pointed my finger at her and said, "You're not the only one with honour. I owe you a life debt, possibly twice over. You get this one for free." A ghost of smile appeared on her face and bloomed into a full grown beautiful one after a tick or two. I don't think I'd seen someone smile so vibrantly in a long while. How long had it been since I'd gone back home? Six months? Eight? I made a mental note that I'd go back home and stay for a while once I was done with this job. First things first though, so I continued, "However, we need to take a slight detour before we get back to Blackburr and claim the bounty. I created a refuge, ten leagues to the south along the river bank. It should have spare clothes for me. I can't really go back to the village with half-burnt clothes sticking to my skin and looking like a fire mage ate me and shit me out the next day. I'd usually be able to get them inside an hour but I'm too weak to fetch them at anything resembling a decent speed. So we have to first follow the river south, get my clothes and then we can continue to Blackburr. We still have what? Four days to claim the bounty?"

"Three", she said shaking her head,"It took me one day to track you down and you were unconscious for another three. The week will be up in another three days. We need to get back to Blackburr before sunset in three days." I was slightly irked. Those cheap bastards had overridden my bounty before my fortnight was up and they'd also reduced the time limit on it. "Did you at least ask for a good bit of money?", I asked. "Yeah, it's Ten Aurix in total", she replied. I shook my head in disgust. They had never offered me more than four. I was going to have a little chat with the council of Blackburr, if I was still alive after this job. We decided that I'd just have to ride her horse with her. It was a black horse with a white mark on its forehead. It was of a sturdy stock, from what I could glean. The cheeky bastard even snickered at me when I remarked it would have to do for our purpose. Horses are fucking snarky at the best of times. Never trust a horse, I say.

After a remarkably quick (for a horse carrying two people) and quiet journey, we reached my refuge by noon. My estimation of the horse's pedigree had definitely been off by a bit. It made good time. I was about to praise it, but it pompously told me to mind myself when I opened my mouth to speak. Damned horses, I tell you. We got off the horse and Cassandra patted the side of its neck. It was probably her own horse. I had assumed she'd probably nicked one off the Cloud's stables but her familiarity with it was enough to change my opinion on that matter. "There should be plenty of food around here for you, Keshi", she said. Interesting! She'd named her horse after a demon from the legends of the old world. I mentioned the same to her and she just smiled at me and said, "Keshi named himself. I wouldn't dare to presume that I had any right to give him a name. Our stable master told me to call him Keshi because that was the name he preferred." It would seem that the Clouds had a hunter among their ranks. What a disgusting monster! In my opinion, there's nothing worse than a hunter who works for mercenaries. Sure, I work for money, but I don't shake down villages till they're unable to pay the taxman nor do I burn them down for not paying their due. I've heard some horror stories about most mercenary outfits. I was shaken loose of my inner monologue when Cassandra elbowed me in the ribs and said, "So, where's this refuge of yours? I've never seen a Hunter's refuge." I smiled at her and said, "We're already within my refuge", and then I sat down in lotus position and closed my eyes and said quietly, "Huntress, your son begs for your protection. Please allow me and my companions the use of this refuge." The area around me bloomed to life. The forest was already lush-green but now it positively shone with vitality. It wouldn't be something visible to most people, but even the mercenary could feel the wave after wave of rejuvenation pulsing out from where I was sitting. I saw her stunned look as I got up to tell her to wait here for me. It's one of the genuine pleasures of my life to see the look of surprise on a person's face when they experience the effects of a Hunter's Refuge for the first time. This time though, I couldn't make myself smile. Helping a mercenary, hell owing one was like a persistent ache in my teeth, so I merely sighed again and said, "You should wait here. I'll be back in an hour. Then we can continue on our way."

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She was silent for a while and then mumbled to herself, "I feel like I have the strength of a thousand warriors coursing through me." I answered, "That's because you probably do. The Refuge doesn't provide for free though. It provides rejuvenation and sustenance for an indefinite period of time while you're within its boundary, but in return, you have to defend it from those that would exploit it. The strength will drain from you once we leave but some residual effects will remain for a week or so. I recommend you lie down and sleep or meditate to build up your strength." She nodded and immediately took off her cloak, bundling it beneath her head as she lay down. She wore a blue tunic underneath that showed off her remarkably muscled physique. She also wore matching black denim pants which were slightly flared at the bottom for some reason. They did show off her toned calves though and by the Huntress did I feel physically inconsequential standing next to her prone figure. Swallowing a growing mix of dread, admiration and paranoia, I took a northward route to an unusually large bush of brambleberries, behind which I'd hidden my spare set of clothes. I picked up the bundle of loose tunic and reinforced combat pants and snagged a few bunches of the berry before turning back. Reluctantly, I set a couple of the bunches down next to Cassandra's head and took the rest with me. I love brambleberries. They usually grow by the droves in Refuges. I took my clothes straight to the river bank. My refuge here extended a few handspans into the water. Free flowing water magnifies the rejuvenation effects of a Refuge, so I'd chosen this place intentionally. An hour in the water would heal me right up. The burns I'd suffered had mostly healed but I'd taken a real beating when the last Chimera had ambushed me, so I could barely walk let alone sprint at my usual speeds. I took a deep breath and let myself fall to the bottom of the river where I lay peacefully meditating for a good, long hour.

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Within an hour, I woke up feeling as if the Huntress herself had blessed me. I no longer felt like every bone in my body had been crushed to powder. The burning sensation in my right leg where the Chimera had sunk its fangs in was also entirely gone. I was still hungry but I'd left a bunch of brambleberries at the riverbank along with my spare clothes, so that would be taken care of very soon. I tore the clothes that had previously been sticking half burnt to my skin. Thankfully my right sleeve had not burnt entirely off so Cassandra couldn't see my Evertree Blessing. I quickly pulled on my pants and decided to check what my face looked like now. I'm not vain but looking like a melted ball of wax is a good way to incite a mob of pitchfork wielding farmers in these parts to violence, so I hoped my face was back to how it usually looked. I stared into the clear river water and sure enough, my round face had reformed back to its original state. I had black eyes and naturally white hair which was unusual for someone my age. I usually wore my hair long enough to require a ponytail but the damn Chimera had burned them off and I was too lazy to grow them out right then and there, not to mention I didn't have the energy to spare, so they'd have to remain in the short fuzz that they'd grown out in at the moment. There was a distinctive scar running from below my right eye, diagonally across my nose continuing in an arc all the way to the middle of my chin and then down my neck where it faded off at the bottom of my Adam's Apple. It had never healed despite my gifts and probably never would, but my Master used to joke that it gave my face character. My chest sported a few burn marks but the skin was completely healed so the marks would probably go away in a week or so. I looked pretty worn and tired, which was a given considering the ordeal of the last few days but you could just make out the my athletic build underneath all that. I put on my single sleeved shirt and right as I was buttoning it up, Cassandra walked in on me. Thank the Huntress, the sleeve was already buttoned tight.

"Your bands. How many do you have?", said Cassandra.

That wasn't entirely unexpected. Most people didn't know about the specifics of a Hunter's Blessing, a series of thumb-wide "Bands" so to speak weaving in and out of the skin of a Hunter's dominant arm spiralling down from the top of the arm to wrist. The number of circuits these bands make before reaching the wrist signifies a Hunter's potential. I had four which was neither too strong nor too weak. But unlike any Hunter I'd ever known, my Blessings were coloured white instead of black. I could will them to look like they were black but I was extremely tired and hungry and thus instead of showing her the bands I merely shrugged and held up four fingers. She nodded and pointedly looked at my sleeveless arm, so I made sure to tighten the sleeve at my right wrist again. My left arm (the non-dominant one) was sleeveless, as was customary for most hunters. "We should leave", I told her and she agreed. I picked up the bunch of brambleberries and devoured them by the time we reached the clearing where I had left her. She pulled on her cloak which she had left there and whistled to Keshi. She asked me to hop on but I flatly refused. "How are you going to keep up with us", she asked. In response, I just took off at the fastest speed I could muster while watching a half bemused expression on her face, and said, "I should be asking that of the two of you." But just like that the damned horse almost caught up to me, and I'll be the Betrayer's nephew before I'd admit out loud that the horse was a right freak for having done that. I can usually travel anywhere from two hundred to three hundred leagues a day, depending on the urgency of the situation and the bloody horse was keeping up with me. Apparently, it had been taking pity on me and going extremely slowly earlier. Miraculous bloody horse. "Still a damned horse though", I mouthed at it and it replied, "Still only a tiny Hunter", right back at me. The cheek on this blighted monster! I heard a soft bark of laughter and I was sure it was neither me nor Cassandra. Damned horses, I tell you! We had to reach Blackburr in three days, but we'd probably reach there inside a couple of hours. "Cassandra, you need to ask your horse to stop when you see me signaling for it", I said. I looked back to see she was nodding at me while pointing a finger in my direction hoping to get her understanding across to me. And then we took off with all the speed I could muster dodging snaking roots and inconvenient branches as the light of the shone somewhat brightly through the reasonably thick canopy. Turns out, even fully healed it takes a while for the body to get back to full strength, so it took us four hours to get back to Blackburr but something was wrong and as I got nearer I got a good look at it and felt ice form at the pit of my stomach.

The Leisure Lodge, just outside the border of the village was surrounded by angry folks carrying pitchforks, sickles and torches. "This is what happens when you take up work at the ass-end of bumblefuck nowhere", I chided myself. I held up a fist and heard Keshi slow down. I looked back at Cassandra and told her to wait. "I need to check why the Leisure Lodge is about to get crisped. You should wait. I don't want you putting your bounty at risk for meddling with what these ingrates might think is a matter for only their village", I told her and turned to go confront an entire town which was about to burn down one of a handful of places that had made me feel welcome in the past decade or so. Whoever coined the phrase "Hunter's luck" never met me or probably did and decided to be fucking ironic for a living. Sick bastard!