[x]Showed up the prized courier when I played substitute for a day. Now people are asking for me instead, and that's apparently bad for business.
[X]well, it's not actually a plan or anything, but you know it'll happen, always does.
[X]"It's okay, I can't die, I've got bills to pay." I wink and give a goodbye wave before turning on my heel.
-----
It is with perhaps a little too much regret that I leave the parlor on my trek eastward, some drunks have been causing trouble and generally being a nuisance on the way from here to the port.
So far they haven't really... done, anything, not really. One or two men have been lightly assaulted, and some woman was groped in passing, some booze has been stolen, which in itself is worth checking in on, but on a sense of scale. Well, they're not really worth setting a bounty on, and when I saw them on the board yesterday for... quite a bit of money, well, I snatched the job up and vowed to make some easy coin. Like any good hunter should. It seemed like a great opportunity, considering the guild has me making 'reparations,' and all.
I had not spared a moment's notice to wonder why anyone would think them worth the money, nor how fishy the job could be, until this morning. The throbbing of my heart informing me the end is coming, just like I had been told it would.
Even now, with every step outside this corner of the world's City of the Seal, I find it harder and harder to breathe. The desire to fall to my knees and lock myself in a cellar for the day away from harm is, overwhelming, and only the warning I was given on my first end keeps my legs moving even as they begin to feel like mush.
"Death waits for no-one. If you get clever with your final moments and find a way to keep yourself in this world... It will be a very lonely eternity."
There are many possible interpretations of such a statement of course, but I am not dense. It was said with cold eyes and a sword held to an old friend's throat. If I run, if I hide, maybe I can get away, as much was clearly stated. But at what cost... how many will die in my place?
No, painful as it might be, I could not bear such a cost. And so I trek to this sketchy bounty, fighting this pulsing, and the grief almost worse as I mourn the loss of everyone, just as they will soon mourn me.
No-one, man nor woman, should know when their final moment is. It is an old frame to reference, the shards of long since broken glass cutting into my fingers as I run my hand over it with delicate attention.
-
It is with a heavy heart and weak knees that I finish tracking the drunkards down. For those who will kill me, they certainly are sloppy, the trail could have been followed by any infant, let alone an adult with working legs. I would almost rather they be a red herring, and my death will fortunately be due to tripping and falling off the edge of the nearest cliff. Surely then I would just be considered clumsy instead of embarrassing.
"Stop right there!" I shout as they come into view, four men doled up in heavy fur traveling coats, reeking of spirits. It is with an idle glance that I notice one disappear behind some trees as the other three turn to me, most likely thinking he can get away while his friends fall. Really I hadn't realized I was so intimidating as to make someone turn tail on their friends.
Then again, nothing says these men are actually friends.
"By order of the bounty board," this is a private joke, anyone with enough money can host a bounty on the board, so a lot of hunters over the years have taken to considering the board as a sort of authority, in lieu of any actual singular figure to look for, "you are to surrender yourselves immediately." There are of course laws on how the board can be used, but for us that rely on it, the law basically amounts to 'bring people in, sometimes they are needed alive, sometimes not.'
"Really?" One of the men asks, already his tone getting on my nerves. Perhaps I am a tad bit grouchy at the moment, i really wish my legs would stop feeling like mud. "To who? All I see is some pretty boy!"
For clarification purposes, I am not a boy, I am not even male, I'm just, handsome. It's a good thing, besides, it's not my fault my father stole all the curves I was supposed to have... That is also a private joke.
I take joy in the briefest glimmers of fear to cross their eyes as I bring my hand upon the pommel of my blade. Their minds apparently catching up with the fact that there is in fact a warrior in front of them.
I hear the faint crinkle of steps among leaves behind me, and with a quick moment I ready Shift for activation. Apparently their fourth wasn't running away.
And a moment later I stomp, and I watch a glass bottle move through the space my head had just been from behind the man who swung. It takes them a few seconds to realize I moved.
And in that time I contemplate what approach to take here.
[]All out, no mercy. The bounty didn't specify 'dead or alive' and I don't want to take any chances here.
[]Sure taking them alive might in theory be harder, but it would also allow me to take it slow. Besides, with that showing, there's no way they kill me.
[]I will need my power for whatever actually takes me. Let alone the fight after. Better do my best to save it, even if it means taking risks.
