When Lucas awoke next morning with a pounding headache, he wasn’t surprised. He was surprised to find a still warm cup of coffee sitting on his bedside table, with a note pinned under it.
The other pretty elf told me that you’d probably need this.
Sucks to be human, doesn’t it, stud?
See you downstairs!
There was no name, but between the fact the word ‘other’ had been circled for emphasis and the small stick figure fairy drawn where most people would place a signature, he’d need to be a lot more hungover to not put two and two together.
Especially after last night.
Lucas downed the coffee like a shot of hard liquor and hastily threw on some clothes, taking just enough time to sort out which of the clothes were his before making his way downstairs. He heard voices downstairs as he opened the door to his room, though he couldn’t quite make out what they were saying. He could, however, hear Lucy laughing hysterically as he reached the foot of the stairs.
“What’s so funny?” He asked quizzically. Jubel, Monika, Lucy and Damaia around a large table, and something had clearly happened recently, since Lucy and Jubel were doubled over and red in the face while the felblood looked cheerfully confused. The human woman, her face flush, stood up and abruptly bolted out of the inn. Jubel rose to follow her, shaking his head and still chuckling. “You know how to pick ‘em,” he said, patting the shapeshifter on the shoulder as he passed.
The mercenary rose one eyebrow at Lucy, who still hadn’t stopped laughing, only for Damaia to explain.
“She was talking about you!” she said cheerfully.
“Oh really?” if his eyebrow went any higher at this point, it might well disappear into his hairline.
“Yeah!” the oblivious engineer said with a nod. “It was all good things about you - and a few about your pet. Were you a farmer before?”
“No,” Lucas said slowly, his suspicions only growing as the gorgeous elf across the table began to laugh even harder. “Why do you ask?”
“Because she was talking about how impressive your rooster is!”
Lucas’ turned away from the table and cleared his throat, unwilling to ruin the girl’s morning by explaining what Lucy had actually been talking about. “I think something was lost in translation,” was all he said as he walked up to the bar, his face flaming.
He couldn’t help but feel like he should’ve expected this. Then again, thinking back to the way his night had ended, he had to admit that he didn’t really mind all that much.
He had only just finished his second cup of coffee - served by a chuckling Andrew who had clearly heard everything Lucy had said - when he felt something fuzzy rub against his leg. Looking down, he found a pair of large, dark eyes staring at him from beneath a feathered brow.
“Keeee!” the tiny hawkbear cried shrilly.
“Lucas,” he replied, the corner of his mouth twitching as he suppressed a laugh at his own joke. The hawkbear was less amused, headbutting his leg with every ounce of its strength, only to bounce off his boots and fall over. “Keee!” it shrieked again, more insistently this time. On a hunch, the mercenary leaned over and gently scratched the tiny creature’s head. It let out a strange trill as its body vibrated, the sound halfway between a purr and a soft whistle.
“THERE you are, Isabel!” came an exasperated voice from behind him. Minerva, her red hair looking like a tangled mess, darted forwards and picked up the cub. “You can’t just run off like that,” she scolded the young hawkbear as it wriggled in her arms. “Didn;’t you learn anything from our latest adventure?”
Isabel shrieked indignantly at the elf, who scowled. “Don’t take that tone with me, young lady! Why did you come here in the first place?”
“Kreeee!”The shrill cries of the hawkbear made the beastkeeper double take, raising an eyebrow at Lucas. “Really?” she said softly, talking more to herself than anyone else. She bit her lip as the adorable ball of fluff and feathers did its best to escape her grasp, complaining loudly the whole time.
“Fine,” she said at last, “but only if he’s ok with it.” She turned towards Lucas. “Do you think Izzy could go with you and your team for a while? It seems after seeing you-” she paused for a moment, looking at him meaningfully. “ -save us, she’s gotten kind of attached.”
Ah. So the little hawkbear wanted a big bad wolf to show her the ropes… he could do that. Probably. “We’d love to have her. There is one issue though,” he said as he flagged down Andrew for his third cup of coffee. “I could be misremembering, but I think my team decided to go get registered in the capitol. Not sure how they feel about hawkbears in Invicta, and she seems to be a bit… adventurous.”
Minerva grimaced. “True,” she admitted, “but I’m worried this little one might try to chase after you anyway. She’s very headstrong. She’s only two months old, and yet the incident with the orcs is the third time she’s run off! I’ve spent over 50 years training exotic beasts, Mr Lurant, and I’ve never seen one so… stubborn! She’s smart enough to make her own decisions, but too… let’s say foolish to realize the sort of danger she’s getting herself into!”
Lucas considered the elf’s words as he finished off his fourth cup of coffee. “We’ll see what we can do, then,” he decided. “Seeing a bit more of the world might do this little adventurer some good. One condition, though.”
“Yes?” the redhead asked curiously.
“Call me Lucas,” he said with a smile. “Only people who ever used my last name were my parents and my old Captain.”
“Sure thing,” Minerva said with a smile.
They made small talk for a while as Lucas ordered and drank his fifth cup of coffee, much to Andrew’s concern. “You do realize that much coffee is… not exactly great for you, right?” The rotund barkeep asked when asked for a sixth cup.
“This one’s to go,” Lucas said, holding up his flask. “The other’s should be done packing by now, so we need to get going, sadly.”
Andrew sighed as he filled the flask, shaking his head at the man’s absurd caffeine tolerance. “Make sure you bring my cart back in one piece,” he said firmly. “Magical carts and horses are a pain to get a hold of, lemme tell you.”
The mercenary nodded as he took back his flask and wordlessly walked out the door, tiny hawkbear in tow.
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Izzabella Morias, or Izzy, as she preferred to be called, was absolutely ecstatic. She was going to go exploring! She found her the perfect exploring buddy, Big Wolf! And to top it all off, Second Mom wasn’t yelling at her about it this time!
Second mom meant well, but she was too scared all the time. Didn’t she know being scared just told the bad things where you were? If Mom hadn’t shown up the way she did back at the old cave, the mean green people would never have found them! But that wasn't all bad. Sure, she was bored and hungry for a day or two, but then she got to watch Big Wolf hunt! He had been SO COOL! She hoped she could hunt that well when she got big!
Big Wolf led her to a wooden box with wheels and some white stuff on the top that made shade wherever they went. At first, Izzy was sad - she wanted to run around and see new things, not stay in a big box! - but then the impossible happened.
The box MOVED!
Big Wolf’s Friends got inside the box, and then they made a horse appear out of nowhere to pull it! They wouldn’t let her taste the horse, but other than that, it was SO FUN! The first two friends, Music Man and Song Lady, had big ears and nice voices. She didn’t really understand most of what they said, but they brushed her feathers and scratched her chin, so Izzy figured they were ok. The last one to get in the box was the best though!
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First of all, her skin was PURPLE! Purple was the best color. Izzy always wanted purple feathers, like First Mom had, but her feathers were small and gray still. She needed to get bigger to grow nice feathers. Purple Lady was all covered in Metal - maybe she was actually Metal Lady? - and smelled kinda weird, but she gave her so many treats! She got one, then two more, then… Izzy lost count after that, but she knew it was a lot!
The sky got dark a few times too. Izzy knew because whenever she wasn’t playing with Purple Lady or napping in Song Lady’s nap, she was looking out the back of the box. They were moving really fast, even faster than Izzy could run - and she knew she was fast! - but not fast enough that she couldn’t see the super tall trees or terrified snacks they were passing!
She wasn’t allowed to chase the furry white snacks with long ears, but whenever she complained enough about it, Purple Lady gave her an extra treat, so she put up with it. In reality, some of those snacks were almost as fast as the box, so she might not be able to catch them anyway, but she didn’t let Purple Lady know that! If she did, she might get less treats, and that was just not ok!
A couple of times each day, Purple Lady and Big Wolf would go for a walk with her while the others burnt their food. It was only a little burnt, which Second Mom usually called ‘cooked’, but Izzy didn’t mind it too much. It was just a thing that the two legged people did, the big weirdos!
Once, a bunch of taller snacks - Big Rats, it looked like - tried to break the big box, but Big Wolf laughed at them and showed them what happens when Rats try to act like predators. Silly Rats. Dead Rats, too! Izzy wanted to know if they were tasty, but Big Wolf wouldn’t let her taste them. Instead, he pulled them all into a pile and burned their bodies way more than usual, until they were all dusty. She figured they must taste pretty bad, if he went that far. He didn’t seem like the sort of person to waste good food.
Izzy wasn’t very good with numbers, but she was a GENIUS by hawkbear standards, so she was pretty sure it was ten-and-four darknesses after they left Home Near Two Rivers that they arrived at Tall Stone Place. That was when things started to get interesting - for the two legged folks, at least.
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“Name and purpose?” one of a pair of bored looking guards called as they approached the gates of Invicta.
“Registering at the Hunter’s guild,” Lucas rumbled at them. He’d run out of coffee two days ago, leaving him in a predictably bad mood.
“And grabbing supplies for an innkeeper back at Twinwater!” Damaia added helpfully, popping her head out of the wagon with a broad smile. The guard asking the questions simply nodded, turning to call to a man with a clipboard in a nearby window, but the other guard cut him off, eyes wide.
“DEMON!” He shouted, drawing his sword. Damaia’s smile fell as the man glared at her with a mixture of fury and fear painted on his face.
“Excuse me?” Vivi said coldly as she tried to push past Lucas, her eyes glinting dangerously.
“Settle down,” Lucas and the first guard said in unison - Lucas to the furious elf, and the guard to his colleague.
“We’re not attacking guards on our way into the city,” the mercenary said firmly, even as he reached back to grab his glaive.
“No harassing travelers,” the guard said to his associate. “There’s no law against being a felblood.”
“What about spies?!” the second guard snarled. “You saw the elf! She’s obviously a Milassi spy!”
“I spent nearly my whole life in Fortissia,” Vivi snapped. “In fact, I’ve even served in the military. Made it all the way to Corporal. Tell me, have you served your country yet? Because I have the strangest suspicion that I outrank you.”
That made the obnoxious guardsman go red in the face. “Now listen here you uppity bit-”
“MAXIMUS!” The first guard cut him off, shouting loud enough to draw attention from the guards inside the gatehouse. “If you finish that sentence or offend anyone on the way back to the barracks - where you will spend the rest of your shift polishing every piece of armor you can find! - I will personally demote you back to trainee! Do you understand me?!”
Vivi smirked as the guard scowled and stormed off through the slowly opening gates. “As for you, miss,” the remaining guard said with a frown as he turned to face her, “You should know better than to pull rank like that! We’re not supposed to use our rank to gain favors or threaten punishment to anyone not under our direct command even while on active duty, much less after retirement!”
“You mean like you just did, Sergeant?” She said with a smug smile.
“First Sergeant,” he said firmly. “And Maximus is an asshole, which is why I’ll let it slide this time, but please don’t make a habit of it. If I have to arrest you for misuse of authority later, and that jackass finds out about it, he’ll never let me live it down.”
The elf straightened up, her smile fading as she snapped her left fist to her chest in a formal salute. “Yes sir!”
The man smiled even as he rolled his eyes. “Enjoy your stay in the capitol, folks!”
As she returned to her seat, Jubel couldn’t help but notice…
The entire time she’d been speaking, Vivi’s right hand had never left the hilt of her sword.
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With the exception of Damaia, who grew up in an even larger city, none of them had ever seen so many people at once, and even the engineer had to admit such a sight had been rare back home. She’d often stayed inside, tinkering with gears and gadgets, rather than playing with other children or learning social skills, but from the few times she had gone outside, she remembered a much more… orderly state of affairs than the bustling streets she saw before her now.
An echoing clang jerked her from her thoughts as Vivi knocked on her new plate armor. “You doing ok, D?”
The felblood nodded. “I just… miss my workshop.” She looked around the crowded streets nervously. “My nice, quiet workshop.”
The elf nodded sympathetically, idly picking up and petting distracted Izzy as she looked around. “This is a busy day, even by Fortissian standards,” she said quietly. “I’m usually good with crowds, but even I find this to be a bit much. Just try not to think about it. Here, wanna hold Izzy?” The felblood nodded anxiously, happy to have a tactile distraction from the omnipresent sounds and smells that threatened to overwhelm her. She clutched Izzy tightly to her chest to keep the squirming ball of fur and feathers from getting loose as they passed a stall selling some sort of fried meat.
“I think that’s the guildhall.” Lucas said abruptly a few minutes later, pointing towards the largest building any of them had ever seen in person.
The massive building, which was at least as large as the mansion Jubel’s family owned, had a small sign hanging just above its doors, but none of them could read it until they got a fair bit closer. Sure enough, as they approached they could see that the sign declared the relatively plain building to be the Monster Hunter’s Guild. They must be in luck, having arrived early that morning, because the doors were just opening up as they got there. A cheerful half elf girl waved as they approached, kicking a small slab of wood beneath one door to prop it open.
“Hello there! How can I help you today?” She smiled brightly as they walked into the massive foyer. There were a pair of staircases at the far end of the hall, leading up to a second floor with dozens of doors, and the first floor was filled with tables and chairs, with what appeared to be a sort of bar situated between the twin stairways.
“We’d like to register,” Jubel said, smoothly stepping in front of the irritated Lucas and taking charge of the conversation before the irritable man could open his mouth. He was not letting the caffeine deprived werewolf ruin this with his surly attitude.
“And find some coffee,” Lucas half snarled, narrowing his bloodshot eyes.
The girl chuckled as she walked towards a large wooden desk covered in various papers. “Of course! We’ll get you signed up right away, just follow me! Oh, and there’s free coffee in the common room just over there.” She pointed at one of the tables, where a few large kettles sat on even larger metal platters, with a series of cups lined up in front of them. Lucas’ scowl morphed into a broad grin as he all but sprinted towards the kettles, startling the receptionist.
“Is… he going to be ok?” she asked slowly as she saw the massive mercenary lift the still hot kettle with his bare hands and pour the scalding coffee directly into his mouth.
“You shouldn’t have said the phrase ‘free coffee’ while he was nearby,” Vivi said dryly as the manic mercenary finished the first kettle and poured himself a cup from the second, ignoring the scalding burns on his hands. “He might never leave now.” She muttered under her breath and flicked her fingers towards the mercenary, a pale green light wrapping itself around his hands as she did. “If you do that again, I won’t heal you,” she scolded the massive man.
“Fair,” Lucas said with a nod and a smile.
“Does that mean you won't do it again, or that you don’t care if you get burnt?” Damaia asked curiously. The mercenary only smiled wider in response.
Jubel cleared his throat awkwardly. “So, about registering…?”
The receptionist blinked rapidly before nodding. “Ah, of course.” She quickly led him to a nearby desk and began to rummage through it, spreading a series of forms across the desk as she found them before rearranging them into an order which was, as near as Jubel could tell, completely arbitrary. “Sign here, here, and here, list all party members here, get them to sign here, name your team here, and finally, sign this here - twice.” She gestured to each signatory line as she spoke, moving rapidly and listing the whole assortment in a single breath. She beamed as he finished signing his name and called the team over to sign as well.
“Alright then!” She said cheerfully as she looked over the paperwork. “To be clear, you’re all agreed on the team name?”
“It’s not too flashy,” Lucas said as he eyed his half empty mug, “but it suits us.”
“We came up with it together on the ride down!” Damaia added with infectious enthusiasm.
“In that case, please enjoy your time in Invicta, Valorous!”