That morning when we all came down to say goodbye, Celia looked bright and cheerful. Norbert on the other hand, looked like he had been up all night and he was staying away from us.
I was happy to say goodbye, and get out of there after that. Corbit and Tim were both being closed-mouthed and keeping their smiles to themselves, so I let them keep their smiles. This was our own fault, and it seems that now Norbert thinks we are monsters because of Mei's howling last night.
Gloria wouldn't look at me, and she had a smile like a little perma grin stuck on her face as she stared out the window. Whatever they were doing, it must have been good for her to look like that.
Not that I was complaining, I wasn't trying to compete. Last night was exactly what I needed and my head felt clear like I could really focus, but then Lesha's hand started to slide up my leg.
I caught her hand in mine before she made me make some horrible noise. I looked at her, trying my best not to scowl, but I was sure I was failing miserably.
Lesha pursed her lips together trying not to laugh, and giving me a raised eyebrow. I sighed and leaned forward to get a kiss from her, and she obliged me, leaning in to meet me halfway.
We only had half a day's journey before we would be stopping. Then from that point, only Tim and I would be going ahead to get supplies with a horse each. Everyone else would be staying behind to protect the wagons.
I tried to argue that one of us should be staying back, but both of us needed to go. Tim was the only one that had any real experience dealing with the people. I had to be there to show my Guilds System tattoos on my wrist as the leader, or they wouldn't deal with us at all.
The Girls told me they could take care of themselves, but that alone made me worry more. I didn't want any of them getting hurt when I wasn't there to be able to do anything.
The ride was fairly smooth, and before we knew it, it was lunchtime. We found a good place that was out of the way and out of sight to set up a camp. This would be where we stayed tonight if everything went well.
Once everything was unhooked, Tim and I saddled the horses and said our goodbyes. We didn't want to waste time, there was ground to cover if we wanted to get back by nightfall.
I hugged and kissed Lesha, telling her that I loved her before hopping up on the horse and following Tim. We had brought extra saddlebags, and a third horse to carry extra supplies. We needed to get feed and some other supplies, including food.
"Are they going to be okay? I asked after about fifteen minutes of riding.
"We just need to focus on getting there, getting what we need, and getting back. I can't guarantee anything around here. The girls are strong, you just need to have faith that they can fight without you if they have to. You need to focus on what we are doing when we get there," Tim yelled to me as we rode.
That was right, Tim had come into the cabin before we stopped and explained what we were going to do and what to say.
"Yes, We are going to the Red Merchant and asking for Dalphonse, and ordering what we need with hoods up and only showing the guild tattoo once no matter who asks. That person has to be Grena, Leader of the Red Merchant, right?" I called over asking.
"Good, all we can do is follow everything exactly to the plan and we should be out of there with everything we need. Then, we can get back to everyone that was waiting there for us. For now, you just have to trust that your girls can take care of themselves."
I wasn't worried about them, it was the other two shit disturbers I was worried about. The werewolf and vampire, a pair of thorns in my side that I was going to have to get ahold of before I got to the city.
I needed to get my mind off things, so I turned and called over to Tim.
"Are you excited to be working with Hershal? What about that Air Knife thing? You seem pretty happy about that one, what is it? Or can you tell me?" I called over.
The landscape was starting to roll and get hilly, but I could see far ahead, there was the small town. The place didn't look very big, but it was hard to tell from this distance.
"It will be nice, he knows a lot, and you should listen to Kal, he is a Diamond Rank Tank. so he can teach you skills, but you will have to do tasks to earn the skills. They can't teach you high-rank skills but they can help you learn important things, but you have to help them. Once you get to Diamond or higher, people will be coming to you in your Guild to learn these skills just like this," Tim called over.
"Remember, it's our Guild, I just run the place, and I'm not doing a very good job yet, but we will get there!" I Called back, but Tim pointed forward.
We were coming up to the town, and the place looked very quiet, and no people were walking on the dirt roads. The place almost looked deserted, but I still pulled my cloak up and over my head and we slowed down.
I just had to keep my head down and walk my horse by Tim who was doing the same. If we did this we were fine, according to Tim, so I had to trust that he was right as we rode into the ghost town of Greled.
No windows were facing the road that we rode down, but I was mostly just focusing on the road ahead of me. The two of us kept a steady pace, and no one came out to talk to us or even look at us.
It was an eerie feeling though, I could feel eyes on me from everywhere. Thankfully it didn't take very long to get to the only building in the two with any color that wasn't off white or grey.
The Red Merchant was a dusty red squared building with a single low sloped roof. As we dismounted I was able to briefly notice. There was a window on the top floor, but I only saw the bottom of it, and I dared not look higher.
We tied up the horses in silence and then I followed Tim up a small flight of steps up to a brown wooden door without any detail. Tim opened the door, and we walked inside and there was a counter, but there were no goods displayed.
The entire place was very bland with nothing on the walls and a wooden counter that had a door behind it. We both stood silently waiting, but soon the door opened, and a very plain looking man with very little in the way of distinguishing features, or characteristics walked out.
He was a bald head man with an orange housecoat on. The man was wearing a blank expression, almost looking at us stupidly, but I waited to see what was going to happen.
"What chu want? Chu inside naw, chu can look up here at me!" The man said talking in a weird and drawn way.
Both of us stood up straight and took our hoods off, and the man waved us forward. The man smiled when he looked at Tim.
"Woah, it's chu, chu dat nif guy, right? Chu been here before, but who dis?" The man asked, pointing at me.
"Dalphonse, this is Kiada, Guild Leader of The Red Legion, and my leader as well. We need to get some supplies, and then we will be on our way, just like always. Can you help us?" Tim asked Dalphonse.
"She got da seal?" He asked.
"Yes," Tim said.
"Can I," But I cut the weirdo off.
"No, I would like to buy the needed supplies and then I will speak to your master to seal the deal and pay. Please take our order and we can be on our way."
I spoke firmly, and there was a pause, and the man looked at me for a moment, thinking about something, maybe breakfast. Then, Dalphonse nodded and extended a hand, and Tim handed him a list of everything that we would need.
Gastbo had written it out for us before we left to make things quicker, and so nothing was forgotten. Dalphonse nodded after looking at the list and told us that the master would be out shortly as he got the order ready.
I turned away from the counter after the man left back through the door. I took a deep breath in and let it out. We just had to get through this and we could leave. So far the people just seemed weird, but I had only just met one.
I wonder if they all walked around in housecoats like that? I would have to ask Tim after we left. I didn't want to talk, Tim had seemed pretty paranoid, and that usually meant trouble, so I kept tight-lipped the entire time.
After about an hour, an older woman in a purple housecoat came out, squinting at me. She didn't even glance at Tim, he was on the other side of the room.
"Are you the Guild Leader, Kiada?" The old woman croaked.
"Yes, Are you Leader of the Red Merchant, Grena?" I replied with my own question to get confirmation so I didn't mess it up.
"Yes, eight hundred gold pieces, and proof that you are the Leader, and our business is done here," The old woman croaked.
She had black hair in a big loose bun that shook as she talked until a black cat crawled out and made itself more comfortable. She paid it no mind and extended her hand across the wooden countertop.
I stepped forward and showed her my left arm, where all the black bars were tattooed. she nodded and pulled back while I pulled out the single platinum coin, and handed it over.
"You know we can make no change?" Grena said in confusion.
"It's okay, I would just like to get going without any problems. If this will help ensure this, then we will take our goods and leave your peaceful small village," I said with a smile, and Grena gave me the barest of smiles, but it was better than nothing.
Dalphonse was already outside and loading the supplies into our saddlebags quietly without talking. We got on our horses, we had already put our hoods back on and we just waited until Dalphonse was down, and then turned and headed out of town.
Once we were about ten minutes outside of the town, we started to pick up the pace. I wanted to ask about the strange way the people talked and a bunch of other things, but it was already starting to get dark.
I needed to keep my eyes focused on the road ahead, we needed to get back to the camp now that this was over.
We were lucky, the sun stayed up with us for most of the ride back, and we came up to the bend but no lights were coming from up ahead. Panic hit me like wildfire, and I looked over at Tim, but his face was filled with concern.
We raced over to where we had helped set up camp, and they were gone. Everything was gone, there wasn't a trace of them other than the fire pit and the marks where we had parked.
They were gone.
Paragraph comment
Paragraph comment feature is now on the Web! Move mouse over any paragraph and click the icon to add your comment.
Also, you can always turn it off/on in Settings.
GOT IT