Chapter 11 #3
Alsen caught a faint shade of red. He got the subtext. “Anyway,” he said, looking over the village they had entered. “We can’t really go to an inn without money. Unless you haven’t actually spent everything…”
With a theatrical gesture, Luna pulled the invisible bag from behind her belt. She opened it, turned it over, and shook. Nothing fell out. “We need to find some work.”
“Adventurer work,” he added.
“Well, we definitely aren’t making a career in elderly care in here.”
He snorted, immediately feeling guilty for having done so. Damn it. He was supposed to be better than that.
They found an inn near the village center, a modest establishment called the Quiet Rest. At the side of the inn, to their luck, hung a board with pinned notices.
An adventurer board, Alsen figured. They approached it, and indeed, the notices had odd jobs on them. Not many notices hung there, though.
‘Clean up the stables, reward: 5 silver’
What a bargain.
‘Lost cat. Reward: 1 gold’
Not great.
‘Help cook for a family gathering. Reward: 5 silver.’
Someone needed to clean this board up.
‘Chicken don’t add up. Reward: 5 gold.’
‘Lost sheep. Reward: 2 silver.’
Luna tore the chicken one from the board. “This one has the highest reward.”
He couldn’t argue with that. The back sheet of the notice had, well, he wouldn’t call it an address, more like very rough instructions about how to find the correct farm. By the river against the flow, turn left by the old shrine, the second farm to the north.
They walked through the village, up by the river, looking for an old shrine.
“I’ve realized something,” Alsen said. “Savnoj and his thugs called us F-rank adventurers. We aren’t that, but probably all the good jobs are managed by an adventurers’ guild or something like that.”
“Right, so I’ve never seen anything like that. We can count the chicken, though.”
He shrugged. Sure. They needed a place to sleep, as it was afternoon already.
They found the correct farm, hopefully. An old man with a white beard and suspicious eyes sat on a wooden chair on the porch, watching them approach.
“Hey,” Luna said. “We’re here about a notice.” She waved the paper.
“Been about time for someone to show up. So many adventurers, and no one’s willing to put in a bit of honest work.” He got up from the chair. “Youngsters these days. All they want is to raid tombs and expect treasures to rain on them.” He headed to the old house’s side.
They walked with him.
“Back in my day, adventurers did actually dangerous things. Actual jobs. Now, when a man needs a hero, it takes a week for two newbies to show up.” He stopped by a large coop.
“Here are my birds. They can’t get out, but they are getting lost. Something or someone is eating them.
Find who or what, and the gold is yours. ”
Luna and Alsen exchanged a glance. He focused for a split second, sending out a wide range life scan.
The spell pinged his unconsciousness with all the chickens, the farmer, the cows that were grazing on the pasture behind his house, the animals at the other farms, and one animal that rested in a den about two hundred yards away from the coop.
She ducked by the coop, lifting a patch of white fur. She showed it to the farmer. “Do you have any animals with fur like this?”
He leaned closer. “Can’t see much. But Jolly has dark fur, and there are other dogs around too.”
“Think it’s a fox,” Luna said.
Alsen pointed towards the den. “And it has a den over there.”
The farmer stared at him, mouth gaping.
They all headed there. As they got closer to the den, Luna stomped a few times. A fox bolted out from the den in the ground, blitzing away.
“Well, shoot it or something!” the farmer shouted.
Alsen focused, forming a point of force floating around him. He noticed the death glare from Luna’s side eye, but he knew what he was aiming for, anyway.
Indirect missile.
The point flew from Alsen. In a curve, it hit the den, exploding the patch of ground into a mess of dust, fur, and feathers.
The fox vanished in the fields ahead.
The farmer grunted. “You missed!”
Luna stopped glaring, faintly smiling instead.
“With the den destroyed, the fox will never return,” Alsen said. He motioned over the mess. “I see quite a few chick feathers and bones, so this resolves your chicken vanishing.”
The farmer glared at him. “I guess. Lazy newbies. Can’t even finish the job properly.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a golden coin. “Here.” He tossed it at Alsen.
Luna caught it midair. “The notice says five gold. This is one.”
“Five gold for proper work. You’ve been here for two minutes. I ain’t paying you five coins for that.”
“Oh, really?” Luna’s face sharpened. “Things don’t go well for people who don’t pay us.” She turned towards Alsen. “Reminds me of the lumberjack that claimed he put gold on the notice by accident and wanted to pay us in silver, instead? It was so sad to watch his house burn down.”
“Indeed,” Alsen said. “That was such a tragedy. Fate truly punishes cheaters in mysterious ways, doesn’t it?”
The farmer paled a bit. He got the point. In a rushed move, he fished in his pants, pulling out four more coins. “Don’t ever come back.” He tossed them at Luna.
She caught them all. “Pleasure doing business with you.”
They left.
On the way back to the inn, Alsen pondered how badly they got scammed back in Ambervale. Gold coins seemed to be pretty precious, actually. They burned through hundreds of them, because they had no idea of what the value actually was.
The sun was about to set when they reached the inn. They sat down, checked the prices with the waitress, and ordered a room. Half a gold coin was enough to cover all the expenses.
They ate, downed a couple of beers each, and went to sleep. The fox turned out to be a welcome distraction, but the ceremonial sacrifice crept back into Alsen’s thoughts.
Luna also didn’t talk much. They got a room on top, so again, Luna climbed up on the roof to sleep there in her sleeping bag.
It must have been pretty great.
Alsen sat down with his spellbook. He had nothing to write. His mind also couldn’t focus on the creation of new spells.
So, he at least did his breathing exercises, the most intense ones, meditated for a bit, and went to sleep.
Tomorrow, they were going to enter Vellhorn.