‘You can stop running now.’

My feet slowed from a run into a slow walk.

‘She saw’

‘Yeah, she did, but I think your overreacting.’

‘How can you be so calm. What if she tells someone we don’t need any attention right now. We need to deal with her.’

‘I don’t think so. You’ve done nothing wrong, so she has no reason to tell on you. Take a few breaths and calm down.

I lent back on a nearby wall and collected my thoughts. Then, after a  few minutes, I got up from the wall.

‘better?’

“Yeah, much better. God, that was stupid. How am I going to iron that over with her?”

‘We will deal with later. We are losing sunshine. Come on; we have stuff to do.’

I got up and started walking back to the centre, stopping once in a while to ask the nearby citizens if they knew where the adventure guild was. The adventure guild was on the far side of the town in its own place. It was a large grey stone building with a clock on its front.

‘Why does a village like this need a building this large.’

‘I don’t know; let's go inside and find out.’

I walked up the small set of stairs and pushed the large oak door. The sounds of countless people talking immediately assaulted me.

‘I've never seen so many people in one place before,’ I said to Alexis

‘Yeah, it's been a while for me as well. Looking over there,’ I looked to the right, and I saw a bird made out of water flying around the room carrying something.

‘is that?’

‘yep, that’s magic. Judging from that control, they are pretty skilled. Be careful. My past experiences with mages have never ended well.’

I nodded and decided I would keep my distance from him. I looked around and saw a sign that said reception on it. I walked towards it and stood in the queue.

‘What happened that caused you to be so wary around mages.’

‘Most I've met have been obsessed with knowledge and would do all sorts depraved things to obtain it. Because of my unique abilities. They were obsessed with me and understanding how my body works.’

‘why?’

‘if I had to guess why they wanted it, it would be to harness my abilities for their own personal gain, but I'm not 100% sure. I feel like there was something else, but I never found out what it was.’

‘Damn, I was curious to see some magic up close.’

‘don’t let me discourage you; it has been a few years since I last saw a mage. Maybe they have changed, but it would be best for both of us for you to keep me and your abilities a secret.’

‘Alright’

I stood in the queue for what felt like hours until I finally reached the receptionist’s desk.

“Hi, sorry for the long wait. I’m Charlie. How can I help you today?” the receptionist said with a wide smile on her face.

“It's fine, really. I was wondering is it possible for me to apply for the adventure guild.”

“So you want to join the guild. No problem, I can handle that for you. Give me a minute.”

She stepped away from her desk and disappeared around the corner. A few minutes later, she came back with a pen and a document.

“Sorry for the wait. We are quite busy today. I usually don’t handle these, but seeing how you waited so long, it would be unfair to send you somewhere else.”

She put the document on the table and gave me the pen.

“please fill in the relevant information and give it back to me.”

I did so and gave her back the document.

“Alright, name Adson, female, born on the 18^th of march, and you are beast kin. Correct”

“That is correct. “

“Great. One moment.” And she disappeared around the corner.

‘Adson, your birthday is very soon, isn’t it’ Alexis chimed in.

‘yep, I’ve honestly never had a proper celebration before.’

‘is that so. Interesting’

‘what are you planning?’

‘you will see.’

The receptionist came back holding a green card and gave it to me.

“This is a provisional card. Before making you an official member, we need to assess your physical and mental ability to see if you qualify to join us officially. Come back tomorrow in the morning before 8 pm. It's on a first-come, first-serve. The earlier you arrive, the faster you can become a member. Is there anything you need me to explain”

“No, that is all. Thank you.”

I left the receptionist and the adventure guild. When I stepped outside, the sun was starting to set.

‘We were in there a long time where we. Damn, all the stores are all closed.”

‘next time, don’t sleep too long. And we might have time to have a look around.’

I grunted in return and made my way back to the jaded rabbit.

*********

I stood in front of the inn with my hand on the door.

‘Do you plan on sleeping on the streets tonight?'

‘no’

‘then stop worrying and go in.’

‘but what if she.’

‘but nothing. Go’

I suddenly felt my legs moving forward, and my body made it through the door.

The inn was filled with patrons, just like the day before.

‘Please stop doing that.’

‘Sorry, but you have to face this, trust me, it will be good for you.’

I pulled the hood on my cloak up and slowly made my way to the stairs hoping to avoid making any eye contact with anyone. I made my way to the stairs, took my hood down, walked to my room, and entered it.

“finally”

I threw myself on the bed and closed my eyes.

*KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK*

“Hey, it’s me, Anne. Can you please come to the door? I wanna apologize.”

I got up from the bed and walked to the door. I looked through the peephole and saw Anne. She was wearing her usual barmaid outfit.

‘Crap, what do I do.’

‘just open the door’, Alexis said.

“Please let me in. I just wanna talk.”

I steeled myself and opened the door.

Anne stood there with a surprised expression on her face. She probably didn’t expect me to open the door.

“Do you wanna come in and talk” I pointed towards the bed.

“err yeah, thanks.”

Anne walked in and sat on the bed whilst I grabbed a chair from the desk and sat on it.

“I just want to apologize for this morning. The way I reacted was unprofessional, and it was unkind.”

“No, it’s fine, really I kind of overreacted.”

 “Even so, I shouldn’t have reacted that way. It was very shocking; you know the” she pointed at her mouth.

“It’s fine; really, I try to keep it hidden. I kind of got too comfortable.”

A sad expression briefly waved across her face.

“I’m sorry I made you feel uncomfortable here.”

We both sat in silence, not sure how to continue the conversation.

‘Dammit, this is so awkward…. I have to do something.’

I got up and walked towards Anne and stuck my hand out to her.

“Let’s start again from the start. My name is Adson.”

She looked at my hand briefly and smiled.

“The names Anne owner of the jaded rabbit”

She took my hand and shook it firmly.

Anne looked at her wrist, and her eyes widened.

“I have to go. If I don’t go back, things will get a bit out of hand down there. If you have time, you wanna talk later.”

“errrr… yeah, sure.”

She gave me a wide smile and left.

‘Oh look, you made a friend;

‘Shut up, Alexis.”

I jumped into bed to put the whole thing behind me.