章節 1: Commission
"But why can't we go with you?!" A young girl complained.
She and her brother were sitting on the lap of her burly father, nestling next to an open fire in their comfy longhouse.
The little boy chose this moment to team up with his sister and advocate for their inclusion. "Yea! Why can't we go too, Pa?"
The man appeared to be stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Luckily, his wife chose this very moment to come from the kitchen with the rest of their belongings.
"Come on now, you two know very well that you can't go with us on jobs like this. We might run into some fallen along the way."
The man breathed a sigh of relief.
His kids knew he had trouble telling them no, but luckily his wife did not seem to have that problem.
'Cutting it a little close there, aren't we Annalise?' The man thought inwardly.
As if she could hear his thoughts, the woman flashed her husband a provocative smirk before she scooped their two little kids up from his lap.
"Let's go now kids, time to get into bed."
"AWW!"
"I HAVE RIGHTS!"
"Not in this house you don't, Noah."
The kids struggled and squirmed in their mother's arms, but it proved to be useless as they were forcefully tucked into bed.
Their father followed closely behind with a small smile on his face.
This was the same scene that happened to them every time they were commissioned for a job and it had become one of the major joys of his life.
"Your big sister will be here in the morning so just go to sleep and wait for her, okay?" Annalise chuckled as she kissed her two kids on the forehead.
"Garm, come kiss the kids." She beckoned.
The large father nodded before bending down to kiss his two young children.
With that done, the parents both got up to leave, but not before the little boy offered them some extra encouragement.
"You guys have to go and kill lots of fallen, okay?"
The parents gave each other helpless looks before shutting the door to their children's room.
"Honestly, do they think we're soldiers or something?" Annalise chuckled.
Garm simply shook his head.
"That boy's just been spending too much time around Billy Mason."
The pair chuckled before they picked up their packs and locked arms lovingly.
"Let's go meet them."
With that, the two left their small cottage and took extra care to lock the two children inside.
They expertly traveled through the cold wintery night until they arrived at a large clearing that was outside of a larger forest.
There they found two men waiting for them.
One was a handsome looking blond man with a spear behind his back and the other had long dark hair and was holding a sword.
"Glad you two could make it!" The blond man said joyfully.
"It took you guys long enough." The dark-haired man added.
"Ah, shut it. The kids wouldn't get into bed." Garm explained.
"Annalise had to tuck them in again, huh?" The dark haired man guessed.
"…shut up."
The group then burst into a fit of laughter.
It was well known by the entire village that Garm was the very definition of a gentle giant.
So much so that even his kids were capable of running over him.
The four of them frequently teamed up like this so they all had a pretty good relationship.
As they trekked through the forest together, they began to discuss the absurdity of the current job they were on.
"Can you believe Mr. Monroe actually offered us fifty gold to search some ruined old castle? Surely he must know that the place has already been picked clean by now." The spearmen said.
The black haired man, whose name was Michael, spoke. "Hey, he's old and rich. If he wants to waste his money like that then who am I to complain."
"He's just a historian looking for old artifacts." Annalise defended.
"Whatever he is, I just hope he actually pays up."
Rustle.
The group came to a dead stop when they heard the sound of moving leaves.
The men drew their weapons before Annalise's hands began to glow with a vibrant green energy.
"Whoever you are, come out with your hands up or this entire grove is coming down!" Michael ordered.
For a moment, there was silence.
The group wondered if they'd have to make good on their threat when a figure emerged from a nearby bush.
"Please.." The young boy said shakily as he held his hands up in the air.
"Shit! It's a fallen!"
"Don't move you damn elf!"
The boy who'd emerged from the bushes was a dark elf who appeared to be no older than fifteen.
He had light grey skin that was covered in a thin sheen of sweat, and a head of long silver hair.
His purple eyes were filled with fear as he silently regretted not letting that red bear eat him earlier.
"How many more of you are there?!" Garm roared.
The young boy tried to respond that she was all alone, however no words would come out of his mouth.
Annalise activated a search spell and confirmed that there was no one else around for several miles.
"She's alone. Maybe she's a stray or something."
The warriors relaxed slightly meanwhile Michael was staring hard at the young elven boy.
No longer worried he might pose a threat, another idea came up in his head. "Hey guys, we have time for a small detour, right?"
The spearmen named Alex immediately understood his friend's way of thinking and agreed.
"That's right, we have an entire three day journey ahead of us after all. Be a shame not to have a little fun while we have the opportunity."
The married couple immediately understood where their heads were at and Annalise snorted in contempt while Garm just shrugged.
"You two are so childish. There's money on the line here and you're worried about playing that stupid game." She complained.
However, the two men did not pay her any mind and continued their advance towards the elven boy.
The elf's eyes widened as he realized what was about to happen, and he turned to limp away.
Unfortunately, the men quickly caught him and threw her to the ground before tying up his arms.
"You guys only have thirty seconds or Garm and I are going to leave you behind!" Annalise warned.
"We're coming, we're coming." Alex replied as he draped the struggling child over his shoulder like an old rug.
"They are so unbelievably childish." Annalise muttered to her husband.
"They're just rambunctious young lads." Garm reasoned. "Let them have their fun."
The woman gave her husband a suspicious look.
"You wouldn't happen to have any intentions to join them, would you?"
Harm smoothly wrapped his large arm around his wife.
"When I have such an exquisite beauty by my side? I wouldn't dream of it."
"Hmph… You had better not."
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