image [https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/f5b1d7ad-50a0-42ad-b58b-160a92eea989/dh0cse1-8e257c89-bd18-42cd-b5c3-2350e8cf2ae5.png/v1/fill/w_1280,h_359/chapter_five_by_lizzielance_dh0cse1-fullview.png?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7ImhlaWdodCI6Ijw9MzU5IiwicGF0aCI6IlwvZlwvZjViMWQ3YWQtNTBhMC00MmFkLWI1OGItMTYwYTkyZWVhOTg5XC9kaDBjc2UxLThlMjU3Yzg5LWJkMTgtNDJjZC1iNWMzLTIzNTBlOGNmMmFlNS5wbmciLCJ3aWR0aCI6Ijw9MTI4MCJ9XV0sImF1ZCI6WyJ1cm46c2VydmljZTppbWFnZS5vcGVyYXRpb25zIl19.uRoDoPuXtQ-U8FmqbZQ8TKRmg2Su4rIxtkEnIdVWBBM]
The moon shone bright in the sky and took Celine several blinks to adjust to the light on leaving the cave’s entrance.
With the first part of the quest completed, she had taken some extra time to cook up some food while Bahamut fussed over whatever his plan was about. This left her with a tight window of three hours to get back to the training grounds. Two of which were spent making her way down the mountain back to the town entrance, unaware that Devnar purposely took night post in readiness for her possible arrival.
He signaled to the others the moment Celine’s back was to him and she didn’t recognize him in his full armor, as is required of posted night guards.
With barely a muffled yelp of surprise, two burly men swooped out of the nearby alleyway and snatched her off her feet into the alleyway on the other side. Just swift moments later did she find herself bound, gagged and left abandoned next to a random barrel with no way to recognize who it was that had grabbed her up but full knowledge of who would have set up this very situation.
Devnar had always been self-serving and willing to do things that would ensure he would come out on top of everyone else but this was a new low for him to go just to be sure the locally popular chef of Towne Fat Duck stays in Towne Fat Duck. This fact ignited a fire in Celine’s heart and she tried so hard to scream, to get noticed and hope someone would take notice and rescue her of the tight binds.
Nothing happened.
The opaque quest box appeared before her and shown the timer was now in the red in fifty minutes. Surely if she thrashed, rolled, screamed, kicked, anything, then someone would take notice.
Still nothing.
Where was everyone? Normally at this time there would be locals drunk and swaying about on the streets, the women of the night playing favor with the drunks to curry funds for living, even at the entrance of the Towne. Yet the street remained quiet. The guards were unflinching and unmoving, and she knew Devnar was to blame.
Panicking, she frantically kept searching for a way to cut free of the binds or even shove the gag out of her mouth so she could call for Bahamut’s help as the time ticked down in front of her very eyes.
“I can see why it is you want free of this place, Little Flint.”
Celine looked up through tearfilled sights and sobbed towards the Dragoon. He reached down and used his claw to cut the gag off her mouth, listening to her blubbering, rambling, and cursing as he tended to the ropes.
“I only have two minuteszzyaaahhhh!” She suddenly found herself cradled in his arms as he flew up and with two strokes of his wings she could see they were high above the town. “There!” She instinctively pointed towards the training ground and he dove in that direction with her screeching in his ear from the terror of the quickly rising land.
image [https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/f5b1d7ad-50a0-42ad-b58b-160a92eea989/dh0csdm-15f38e15-5f8f-42c8-8896-516328966264.png/v1/fill/w_1014,h_788/chapter_five_quest_by_lizzielance_dh0csdm-pre.png?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7ImhlaWdodCI6Ijw9OTk0IiwicGF0aCI6IlwvZlwvZjViMWQ3YWQtNTBhMC00MmFkLWI1OGItMTYwYTkyZWVhOTg5XC9kaDBjc2RtLTE1ZjM4ZTE1LTVmOGYtNDJjOC04ODk2LTUxNjMyODk2NjI2NC5wbmciLCJ3aWR0aCI6Ijw9MTI4MCJ9XV0sImF1ZCI6WyJ1cm46c2VydmljZTppbWFnZS5vcGVyYXRpb25zIl19.ByooXPiePTMtIfX-0JsZdlHOrp9NQrOSUIrx2a6KiDM]
Her feet touched the training grounds as the quest box shown the final time and she waited with baited breath for the new window, the extra ones she often had seen when a PC completed a quest but could not fathom at all what it said to the individuals. Now she could find out!
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image [https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/f5b1d7ad-50a0-42ad-b58b-160a92eea989/dh0csd6-49a75a13-f1b5-4974-addd-6c5c4039109e.png/v1/fill/w_1014,h_788/chapter_five_quest_two_by_lizzielance_dh0csd6-pre.png?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7ImhlaWdodCI6Ijw9OTk0IiwicGF0aCI6IlwvZlwvZjViMWQ3YWQtNTBhMC00MmFkLWI1OGItMTYwYTkyZWVhOTg5XC9kaDBjc2Q2LTQ5YTc1YTEzLWYxYjUtNDk3NC1hZGRkLTZjNWM0MDM5MTA5ZS5wbmciLCJ3aWR0aCI6Ijw9MTI4MCJ9XV0sImF1ZCI6WyJ1cm46c2VydmljZTppbWFnZS5vcGVyYXRpb25zIl19.WsKSvkW0URTODwlVgasJ3_UgVqQPvyJLe79YwJWMgnA]
“What does it say?” Bahamut leaned over, seeing her shocked expression and that she hadn’t yet taken notice he shifted his form to appear as another elf by her side.
“That I… that I…”
“FAILED! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAH!”
The pair turned their gazes towards the trio that now entered the training grounds with a crowd of locals forming around them, Devnar standing at the front with his helmet off to reveal his gloating expression.
“Now she has to remain as nothing more than the NPC Chef of Towne Fat Duck.”
“Hm? Say that again, I didn’t quite understand your words.” Bahamut raised a hand behind his ear with a blank expression but Celine felt something mischievous from him.
“Oh, I’ll gladly say it again and this time for the whole town to hear.” Devnar inhaled and with a flick of his finger he amplified his voice to be heard throughout the foothills. “Celine is now known as the NPC Chef of Towne Fat Duck forever more until her death.”
Celine raised her hands to cover her face, wanting to hide the immense amount of emotions overwhelming her senses. She barely registered the scattered laughter or that Bahamut started to gently guide her off the training grounds and away from the crowd. Unaware that he was speaking with those that showed a level of care about her circumstance and helped guide them to a quiet place.
It was as soon as she heard the shut of a door that she completely broke down, falling to her knees in intense sobbing with any notice at all on how Bahamut got down with her to cradle in his arms. He remained quiet and calm as the storm of emotions swirled inside the human woman that had numbed her to everything in her surroundings. As her sobbing slowed and the emotions ebbed down, she welcomed the warm darkness to silence the storm inside.
“Ah see she's fallen asleep.”
Bahamut looked up to find a surely elderly woman filling the doorframe with her large form, gently smiling at the pair.
“A dinnae ken wha yer, laddie, bit a'm sure glad ye tae be thare by her side richt noo. She's mah adoptive daughter, ye see, left abandoned at mah door step whin she wis a bairn. Auck, this is mirk times fur her noo, a'm sure, bit ah trust ye tae bade 'ere till she weathers back. Ah trust ye... Fur noo.”
“Call me Amu Bahat.”
“Mm…Ah wull fetch some cooncil juice, 'n' some claes. That loin cloth o' yers is a bawherr embarrassing tae keek at. Ye bade wi' her. A've a tavern tae mynd, 'n' as ah wish tae be th' yin tae haud mah daughter, ah will hae tae let ye dae it fur noo. It seems she's taken a liking tae ye.”
He nodded in acknowledgement then lowered his gaze down to Celine as she slept in his arms on the floor, raising a finger to brush some of her dark strands from her lovely warm olive toned face and wiped dry the moist tear trails. In the standards of humans, Celine did naturally come off as normal and unassuming, but in his standards, she immediately caught his attention the moment she trembled into his cavern and stood her ground against his threats. Delighting him with her skills and that fiery spirit that is fighting to stand strong against the drowning tides of the world.
It felt more an honor to him, not desperation against a meek impending doom, to be bound to this woman, even with as short a life as she will hold compared to his own near immortal life. At least now he has freedom of the mountain and freedom to learn of the world again, feeling excited for what was to happen and to see with his own eyes how the world leads up to the next cycle of Atlia’s Sealing Ritual. He felt, for the first time in ages, a sense of hope that maybe, just maybe, this time would be the last time of that cursed Ritual. That just maybe he and his Dragoon family can finally be free of Ov’Rea and return to their journeys of the universe.
Only time will tell and right now, he wants to focus on- “My Little Flint.” Whispered to her as he squeezed her against his form. “Let’s see about your dream, together.”
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“A woman entered and exited that cave in the span of a day, you say?”
“Yes, sir.”
“What of the Dragoon?”
“We saw no signs the Dragoon had left his domicile, sir.”
Azezel leaned back from this intel as his troop camped just a half day’s walk outside of the town. “I thought the people of this town no longer paid tribute to the Dragoon.”
“We have not seen any other enter the cave in the past three years of our observance, sir.”
“So, this woman is the only one?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Hm, then it is trivial. We will continue forward with our plans of service to this desperate town.” Azezel grinned with a wave of his hand for the spy to exit his tent.