(Fledinem)
18th Eleasis, 20th year A.B. (After Breaching)
It was a new day, and Fledinem woke up to a wolf standing on his chest.
Time to be up, Lupa seemed be saying. She’d jumped up onto the plush, four-poster bed that Fledinem had been sleeping in, and was now crushing him beneath her weight. She looked at him for a moment with her large, amber eyes. Then she began licking his face.
“Phwah! Ok! Enough! I’m up!” Fledinem swiped at her head, but he put no real force into it. It was good natured. This had been their wake-up routine for the last few months.
Groggily, he rolled Lupa off of him, then got out of the bed. Sunlight was streaming in through the windows he’d left open last night, of the opulent guest room Lord Vance had given him.
Lord Vance… The thought made him wince. Yesterday’s interview had not gone… well. He was not sure of his exact position with the group of would-be monster hunters. He’d not been told he’d been fired by Lord Vance or the butler, but from the angry look in Vance’s eyes, he suspected that the other group members were more hired than he was.
He cast the thought from his mind, and stepped into the sunlight.
Immediately, he felt better. As the sunlight touched his skin, it began to swirl with colour once again. Warmth filled his body, and the darkness fled his soul.
The darkness that came every night was a thing he hated about this plane. Back where he was from, there was only the glorious light, shining its illumination upon his people and warming everything with its brilliance. To be in the dark was to die. He didn’t know how the people of this plane could stand it to die every night.
He spread his arms wide, embracing the light from the large, open window. Lupa walked up beside him, and sat by his side. This was another part of their morning routine.
Outside, the birds were chirping their morning in the fresh morning breeze. Some clouds lurked on the horizon, but the sky above him was unobscured, and the sun shone unimpeded. Gardeners were starting to be about their business in the manor grounds below. Fledinem watched their work with interest.
This was what it meant to be alive. To bask in the light, to be filled with the warmth of the day. To perceive the world around him and to be. Just as Lios intended.
His stomach rumbled, interrupting his morning musing. Fledinem sighed. Despite it happening for almost a year now, he still found hunger unpleasant. There were so many things about this place that were strange. Darkness. Starvation.
Lupa looked over at him expectantly. Let’s get some breakfast, she seemed to say.
“Ah, you’re right,” Fledinem agreed. He took once last glance down at the grounds below. He noticed that several of the gardeners had spotted him, and were pointing in his direction. They seemed strangely agitated.
He looked down at himself.
Ah. He’d not put on any clothes.
***
Breakfast was, to its credit, delicious. The cooks at the manor had prepared soft, white breads whose glorious smells filled the room. Cheeses of many different types and flavours danced across his taste buds. Fledinem was just choosing whether to sample some of the same ham that he’d given to Lupa, when Calliban found them.
“An early riser, I see,” the butler said, his voice professional and neutral. But then, with slightly more irritation he said, “It is customary to eat food in the dining room, instead of entering the kitchens to get it yourself.”
Fledinem looked at the kitchens around him. Several servants smiled weakly at him. One or two were staring at the wolf with no small amount of alarm as it gnawed on the ham, growling at anyone who got too close.
“It’s how we did it in Finnly Canton,” Fledinem tried to explain. Social situations were tricky.
“Regardless,” said the butler, reaching into his jacket. “It’s perhaps best that I found you here, away from the others.”
He handed Fledinem a letter, written in a handwriting that Fledinem recognised as Lord Vance’s. Fledinem couldn’t help but feel a small spike of worry that Lord Vance had not come to speak to him in person. He opened the letter – fortunately, he knew how to read – and saw what it said.
"To Fledinem Dragons,
It will not have escaped your notice that yesterday’s interview did not go well. Thanks to your actions, much of my study was burned and many important paintings, documents and tapestries were nearly lost. When hiring monster hunters, I need to know that my employees will avoid collateral damage.
However, to your credit, you did complete the task as I assigned it. I cannot fault that. Perhaps we can overlook your failures in light of your successes.
I have decided to give you another chance. My servant Calliban will give you instructions as to your next test. Succeed, and I will accept you as my employee, and will pour my substantial resources into getting you everything that I promised.
Fail, and I will consider my promises void.
Do not disappoint me.
Lord Jezediah Vance III."
Fledinem looked up from the letter. “What is the next test?”
The butler had a thoroughly uninterested expression on his face as he answered the question. “Lord Vance has selected a task that seemed suited to your…”
Here, he glanced at Lupa.
“…particular talents. Over the last few nights, a wolf has been trying to get into the manor grounds. Lord Vance considers this a threat to animals that we keep on the premises, as well as to his groundskeepers. He wants you to find the creature, and take care of it.”
Fledinem’s insides tensed. Kill a wolf? He looked guiltily at Lupa. He wasn’t sure if he could…
Then again, “take care of” is an ambiguous phrase. As long as I make sure the wolf never comes back to the manor, that’s just as good. Right?
It sounded plausible. That matched his particular talents. Namely, his talent of making friends with wolves.
If Calliban had seen his internal dilemma, the butler had chosen to ignore it. The man continued:
“You will be undertaking this task alone. Lord Vance is happy with the undertakings of the others who have been tested. Are there any questions?”
Fledinem looked at Lupa. She was staring angrily at Calliban. Danger.
He looked back at the butler. He needed this job. He needed the promises that came with it.
“No questions,” Fledinem said. “I accept.”
Ask no questions you don’t want an answer to.
***
(Helga)
“…so, your test is simple,” Calliban was saying. Helga looked at her fingernails. The butler annoyed her, and she was showing it through boredom.
The man continued.
“Fledinem has been gone for about ten minutes now. Once he finds the wolf tracks, they will lead him to this location.”
Calliban was pointing to a map of the forests surrounding the manor grounds, as if that was supposed to interest her.
“However, what lives in there is not a wolf. There is no wolf. We laid false tracks, as part of the test. You will need to travel there quickly, or else the creature that actually lives there will devour his heart.”
Helga stopped looking at her nails. She grinned.
“Ok, tee hee,” she said. “Now you have my attention.”
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