Year 18-1
Becoming a hunter gave me pride. More importantly, it gave me alternatives. Running away or waging war were always my choices. They were the only paths my heart could entertain until I earned a badge.
Hunting allowed me to war without treason. Every beast slain was a distraction, a chance to remain at peace. Coping without letting go, I foolishly made the mistake of believing I had moved on.
Michael had always assumed I wanted the right to fight monsters because I was angry, but he never took the time to ask what made me upset. He was proud of my achievements. For a while, after every bounty, every job, and every kill, I returned home to tell Michael, Loreal, and Farrah. But my duties grew over the years. I always had the luxury of staying in Nestle. Regardless, I eventually had to venture out to find a challenge enough to keep my skills entertained and utilized.
When I was 18, I traveled to the South East of Nestle to a place called Sous. It was a city of small islands connected by metal bridges.
I didn’t go there for the sights.
Sous was plagued by creatures of the sea living in its waters and, at times, crawling out into the air. It was also where one of my adopted brothers lived at the time. After making his Vow, Harris was granted gifts of water. Naturally, a place surrounded by and built from a great body of water was a good fit of location. While I took on requests and bounties in Sous, I stayed with Harris.
He was doing relatively well using his gifts to help local merchants, but his new living arrangements were lesser than that of the home we knew in Nestle. A single room smaller than that of a bread closet was his, and while I was in town, it was mine as well. Still, I didn’t mind. Hunting kept me busy and outside too often to care how small our beds were.
“You should take a day. You’ve worked yourself for weeks now without a break,” my brother complained while we walked streets made of iron and steel.
The air was always salty, and clouds kept the sky gray even on a sunny day. Crowds of people moved like fish in a barrel and stank like them too.
“I’ll rest after my next job,” I said.
We were on our way to the marketplace. The local fishermen requested Harris’ skills, and I needed to speak with a potential client waiting for me.
“I’ll never understand you,” he said.
“What is there so complicated about me?”
“Hunt, kill, eat, sleep. Hunt, kill, eat, sleep. You do nothing more,” Harris laughed.
“I do what I do best,” I said.
“You are a visitor in this city, but you refuse to experience more than the bloodshed you could have found in Nestle.”
“I’m not here for pleasure.”
“But would it kill you to find any?” My brother questioned while we crossed metal bridges taller than the trees I never saw in Sous.
“As a mage, shouldn’t you push me toward a life closer to the Gods and fidelity,” I joked.
I could hardly take Harris seriously when he wore such ridiculous attire. Mages wore robes to signify their lives being covered by the grace of Gods, but Harris lacked a particular build to carry the look. At first glance, the traditional robes of Harris’ God that he dawned daily, purple decorative robes, were a woman’s dress. He wasn’t required to wear them. Tucker wore a cloak and hood embellished with his God’s text and emblems. Harris could have done the same, but perhaps he preferred to walk without the restraints of proper pants.
“Father has written to me, Mother as well. They worry,” he said.
“About?” I questioned, considering nothing had been said directly to me concerning fears.
“You’re older now, still a boy but becoming a man, and yet,” Harris paused.
“Spit it out, Harris, or have you grown softer than usual,” I joked.
“There is more to life than hunting. Don’t neglect yourself a chance to feel, a chance to have something or someone worth your constant fight,” he said.
I rolled my eyes, ignoring the lecture as we finally arrived at the marketplace.
“I’ll find a wife just as quickly as you do, Harris,” I said as we went our separate ways.
Sous was a region made up of islands, but its marketplace never touched the water. At the core of the six main islands, a raised platform was skillfully built to float without making contact with the ground or the tides. Metallic bridges that allowed citizens to reach the platform served as the only supports keeping it from falling. The advanced structures were so complex they didn’t exist anywhere else. Sadly, after a king had spread rumors about several creatures they meant to banish from the land, dwarves who built the marvel of Sous disappeared. While others faced persecution from the crown, the short craftsmen were spared, but I think their principles drove them to leave when others were forced to.
Locals moved about as they would on natural earth, but I, a person unfamiliar with such heights, moved slowly. The merchants were stationed closer to the large platform’s center, leaving the outer edges to be traversed. Nothing kept people from falling over an edge and into the waters below. Though the fall wouldn’t have killed anyone unless it was winter, what rested in the water was the deadly aspect.
The Hunters Guild told me to find my client selling leather at the market.
Hunters rarely received direct instructions from their superiors. Though we were part of an organization, most of us found clients independently and reported our work to records afterward. The purpose of our guild was to make sure hunters were compensated fairly for the work we did. Had we not had a guild, Hunters would have been in greater competition with each other. Clients would haggle us to work for dirt cheap, or we would charge whatever our pockets felt was right. With a guild, everyone knew the common fee for most jobs, which saved us from fighting each other and customers. However, for a job to be handed out, it must have been urgent, or the client requesting help had done so enough to become an annoyance.
In either case, when direct assignments were given from the guild leadership rather than clients, instructions could often be vague. Elder hunters were like the rest of us, ego-driven, short-tempered, or crazy in ways beyond description. Instructions could often be short because elders were too impatient and expected the rest of us to iron out the details. They'd leave us to hunt down our clients with little information aside from a town and a name to look for.
Lucky for me, finding a leather merchant at a market was simple compared to the riddles I had received in the past. The hard part was maneuvering around once I was on the risen platform.
Man was never meant to stand so high, nor were we meant to do so above waters full of things eager to eat us like rabbits.
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