The first sensation that greeted her was the rough, warm scales. Skarlet's eyes fluttered as the wind roared in her ears, she pulled herself up with a stretch and a deep yawn. The feeling of her muscles straining felt intoxicating combined with the fresh clean air gently blowing against her face. She peered over the edge of Beatrice's back and in the distance she could see Otalos. For a moment she wondered why it was so easy to just rest on her back but it made sense when she thought about what she knew about dragons. Dragons don't have bodies made to fly yet they do anyways, why is that. It's actually quite simple, dragons use subconscious flight magic and the controlled air currents create a pocket around them. This, in theory, would make their back rather calm even at high speeds.

"Fain to seeth thou art awaketh skarlet lief." Beatrice spoke as she brought her wings up and slowed their approach. Skarlet sighed as she flopped onto her back.

"Beatrice, you speak like someone from decades ago, like what were you alive during the demon king's era?" Skarlet mused in her tiredness, she didn't notice the way Beatrice tensed.

"Skarlet I am old, and aye I did seeth the riseth and falle of the Demon king. But I've been asleep for several hundred years. I shalt tryeth. . . Try to adjust mine own speech with time. . . Hmph." Beatrice replied but mid sentence seemed distracted with her own speech patterns.

"Alright, um where are we gonna land?" Skarlet asked as she rose to a sitting position again.

"In the forest thither should be good, a few miles out from town. We shalt not show the people a dragon, not yet." Beatrice explained slowly, like she was focused on something else as she lowered among the trees. When she landed Skarlet stepped off and stumbled as her feet hit the grass.

"Woah, my balance is all weird." Skarlet commented as Beatrice transformed into her human form. "Maybe you should stay here. . . You'd look a bit odd in the city. There's no dragonkin or draconians in Kozak as far as I'm aware and I don't wanna draw attention to us.

"That's wise, I shalt set up a campeth for us then. Travele. . . safe." Beatrice still seemed distracted for a moment but soon turned and began to transform again. Skarlet was forced to leap back as she used her huge body to clear a space.

Skarlet turned and headed into the forest, it was nice and as Beatrice's silhouette disappeared behind her she paused for a moment to drink in the smells and sounds around her. Birds and small creatures. The bitter smell of leaves contrasted with the lighter and more pleasant smell of dew and flowers, mixing to make the refreshing smell of a lively forest. Skarlet sighed, closing her eyes for a couple minutes to calm herself. My fears and worries feel so far from this place. at this moment in this place I feel pretty free, how odd.

She trekked for about an hour before she was able to see the sun breeching the tree line, she stepped past it's leafy boundary and into the sun. Ahead of her there was the city of Otalos, she paused in shock. She'd only ever been in Aguris she'd been raised there. Aguris had shorter walls and overall was smaller, for a moment she wondered if this was what the Capitol was like, but she quickly shook that thought. Aguris was a small city of twelve hundred, Otalos may have beat that with it's five thousand but still didn't compare to the Capitol from what she'd heard it's at least two hundred thousand people in the Capitol. The walls of Otalos where tall and fancy looking to her, large grey stone bricks stacked towards the sky. From the forest's edge she could see silhouettes of soldiers patrolling the ramparts. The gate was around the size of two carriages set side by side, there was a small line of carriages and people waiting to get through the gate.

Skarlet approached the gate, after waiting in line for awhile she was stopped by the gate guard, wearing shiny metal armor without a helmet. He had shaggy brown hair and he looked at her with suspicion in his blue eyes.

"Hello there, identification please." He spoke curtly as anxiety rose in the back of her throat. She simply dug her guild card from her pocket and showed him.

He took it and squinted at it before turning to another knight. "Take her to the back, need to check authenticity of this." Skarlet felt a little annoyed but still didn't say anything as she was led inside and to a room off the side of the interior of the wall. She sat down as the new knight began using a magic device to scan her guild card.

"So what brings you to Otalos?" He asked her, the questions had started. he looked at her with unmasked suspicion.

"Shopping, I need some clothes and supplies for my journey." She explained, avoiding eye contact, his eyes were searching her and it made her uncomfortable.

"Aguris huh, shame what happened over there. Good time to get out I guess. Are you heading towards the border?" He asked, his tone softened a little as he pulled her card from the machine. "Verified hmm."

"No, my plans involve staying here for a while." She replied as he handed her card back, she got up and was about to leave when he spoke.

"Otalos is the main hub of merchants for this region of the empire, and slaves are popular here. There's people who will kidnap people to sell, your in a kingdom that doesn't care about you, they will not check whether your a legal slave. Not telling you to be careful, just informing you of what type of city your walking into." He told her before letting her leave. She frowned, no fear developed as she headed for the guild, she wasn't afraid of the people here.

Skarlet avoided the many strange gazed as she approached the guild and stepped inside, she was hit with the hot air laced with sweat, alcohol, and crude language.

"Hey, beast, get me a drink wouldja!" A voice called out, Skarlet tensed and glanced in that direction. A collared Lithian bunny girl was carrying a serving tray past a table with some rowdy adventures. One of them slapped her ass and demanded she get him a drink. He looked at her with lust. Skarlet frowned, he still had his hand on her butt, with annoyance driving her she pushed between the two.

"Hey, bitch watch where your fucking going, unless you want to get my drink instead." He had moved to looking at her but his lust died. "You're just a damn kid, get the fuck out of here." Skarlet felt something crack as she turned to look at him. "What a crude distasteful man, no wonder you have to catcall at a bar." The man stood up and began drawing his sword, but he was stopped as someone else butt in.

"Hey now let's calm down, remember no fights in the guild right." A man spoke, he was young and well groomed with blonde hair. Skarlet's hair on the back of her neck lifted as she recognized a similarity to Cody. The rowdy man clenched his teeth for a moment before nodding and sitting down.

"You're right Clarence, she's not worth it anyways. Fuck I'm over, get the fuck out of here." He shooed the bunny girl away, Skarlet was pulled away by this 'Clarence'.

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"Hey, that guy is a B ranker, I get how you feel but be careful trying to stand up for people in here. There's some big fish in Otalos right now, something is going down, who knows what though." He warned her as he held out his hand.

"Names Clarence, I'm an A ranker, the only one in this region of Kozak." He smiled as she frowned. No you're not. . . Illia is also here. She thought Absently as her desire to remove herself from this conversation overwhelmed her.

"Thank you, but I'm ok." She brushed him off and headed for the request board. Almost immediately something caught her attention. It was a request for retrieval, apparently a merchant had his cargo stolen by bandits and he wanted it back. Skarlet grabbed the commission and carried it over to the receptionist. Clarence seemed to be following her though.

"This one please." She said as she placed the commission down, The receptionist looked at it before pulling out a book and writing something down

"I've got you down as in progress, come back when you've completed it. This commission extends out from the guild so you'll need to meet the client and get a completion notice signed when your done." The man did his job methodically, he was young and wearing glasses complimenting his short neat black hair.

Clarence approached her and glanced over her shoulder. "Ah yes, Jack's commission, he'll want to meet ya. If you wait a bit the guild should be notifying him." As Clarence spoke a younger guild employee slipped from behind the counter and dashed out the door.

"So where you from?" The man at the counter asked, adjusting his glasses as he seemed to analyze her.

"A-Aguris." She said as she showed him her Adventure's card, he was making her a little nervous he seemed kind of like a noble or something.

"Ah, D rank. You're the first Lithian adventurer I've ever seen you know." He replied as they waited, before long the doors opened and an old man walked in, he was dressed real nicely, but his clothes betrayed that he was a servant to someone. Skarlet looked him over and her senses told her that he was likely pretty strong even though he looked old.

"I heard someone accepted the commission." The man spoke as he approached, he was polite and definitely educated.

"Yes, the adventures don't really have an appetite for a quest like this it seems.

This young lady just got here from Aguris. She had accepted it, you're in luck it seems." The receptionist spoke calmly and matched the educated tone of the old man as he gestured to Skarlet.

"Thank you, my name's Jack." He held out his hand.

"Skarlet." She shook his hand, her senses were confirmed with the firm handshake as they both seemed to be testing each other's strength.

Eventually Jack smiled, "I look forward to working with you dear." He then launched into the explanation. "I don't have much for you except the location of the bandit camp, I just wanted to get a look at the person who was gonna recover my cargo." He explained as he handed her a map, a location outside of town was circled. "Here is where you'll find them."

Skarlet took the map and shoved it into her pocket, "Thank you." She shook his hand once more before heading out of the guild. Clarence didn't follow, but she felt the eyes of several people on her as she left.

~

A light breeze whispered softly through the trees, the moon gazed uninterestedly down at the treetops below. It was waning seemingly turning it's attention away from what was happening below it. It seemed to be aware of the human atrocities being committed beneath the leaves.

"Come on, this'll be easy." A voice spoke out.

"I don't know John this seems like a bad idea, why didn't we just take the request at the guild?" A female voice spoke up.

"Hey Jullie, it's just some bandits it'll be fine. We kill monsters for a living what's a human gonna do?" A third voice added in.

"Yeah, and we didn't take the guild request cause most the spoils would be claimed by that merchant, greedy bastard." John replied flicking her on the head.

"Ow, hey I get that but what if we need help, the guild won't send anyone if they don't kno-." Julie began but was cut off as John put his finger to his lips.

"I can see a fire, we're getting close let's be quiet." He whispered, his companions nodded and they began creeping towards the fire. Julie approached the fire, stepping out from the trees with her sword drawn. But there was nothing, there were signs of people. Some Monster's meat was left half eaten, there was a bit of blood she couldn't tell if it was human or not.

Her eyes were dragged to something or Rather someone, a young Lithian was laying on the other side of the fire. She was naked and completely still, Julie gulped as she expected to find her to be dead. She approached the girl, the light and shadows created by the fire made it difficult to tell so she set her sword down as she crouched and turned the girl over.

She was a fox, her fur was yellowish white a kind of pretty crème color, though it was haunting watching a pretty young fox like her gaze with such fear filled eyes while mouthing "run!" Over and over with urgency.

"Um guys, something isn't right!" Julie reached for her sword but it wasn't there. She turned to look at John who had followed her over here, he wasn't there either. She was now looking up at a heavy built man with scars and a disgusting smile.

"Hey there girlie, your two friends were getting in the way of our alone time." He spoke with an almost palpable grease to it.

Julie stumbled back tripping on the fox who only whimpered in response, Julie panicked as she looked around before her eyes settled on the fox. "You don't wanna do this, I'm an adventurer there will be consequences unlike with the beast slaves you've already stolen. Besides that one seems quite fresh. If you let me walk out of here I'll tell the guild that you guys left already.

"Haha, that's a decent deal, but these pets are getting old. They have already been instilled with obedience they were slaves already after all. You would be so much more fun." He kicked the fox to make his point, she just accepted it.

"Damn useless creature." Julie spat as she drew a short sword from her bag, it was a backup. She swung at the man, he dodged too the side and grabbed her wrist before breaking it with a snap. She clenched her teeth and lifted her leg before pulling off a spiral kick and smashing her heal into the man's cheek. It was such a sudden movement that he stumbled back and was dazed, she ripped her hand from his grip and leaped back, tossing her sword blade first at him she turned and bolted.

"Damnit!" He snarled as he dodged the blade, he watched her figure disappear into the forest with growing annoyance.

"You said you could take her, all we had to do was kill her two party members. Dang man, boss is gonna be unhappy." A voice spoke up behind him. He turned to look at the two bandits dragging two corpses towards the fire.

Skarlet gazed through the trees from her perch, there was a fire going, and a few men were standing around it. She watched as the men dragged two adventurers over, they were dead and soon were tossed into the fire. She didn't flinch as she was watching something else, the female adventurer running in her direction.

Skarlet dropped from the trees, landing on the forest floor in the path of the girl. The second Julie saw her she swung, running on adrenaline and fear she didn't care whether it was friend or foe in front of her. Skarlet dodged the attack and tripped her, Julie hit the ground and tumbled as Skarlet drew her sword.

"Fucking beast, what do you want!?" Julie exclaimed, readying herself to fight again.

"Pretty bold of you to take that stance after throwing my race under the bus to save your own skin." Skarlet hissed as she approached, Julie began to panic.

"Hey wait, your an adventurer. You can't kill me that's breaking guild rules! I know you want to save your brethren, let's go back to the guild, now that adventures have been killed an expedition will be formed, you'll have a much better chan-" Julie began choking as blood began dribbling from her lips, her eyes widened as Skarlet had finally reached her and plunged her sword into her gut.

Skarlet brought her face close to her with a glare of hatred, and spoke. "Your idea is smart, but I'd rather die attempting it myself than work with a slimy creature like you."

"That's. . . N-not fa-fa-" the light drained from her eyes as Skarlet ripped the sword out. Skarlet watched as she crumpled to the ground and the blood pooled beneath her. "I know it's not fair, you were raised here, you can't be blamed for trying to protect yourself in a situation like that. You can't be blamed for having the same beliefs you were raised with. In fact in this situation, I'm the bad guy. I committed murder on a selfish hatred for actions this country wouldn't condemn. But I don't care." Skarlet frowned as she realized her confession fell on deaf ears. She then leaped back into her perch and turned her gaze back to the camp.