Rolf and Lila stared at him, dumbfounded. Had they not expected the smiling traveler to start barking orders? Was that why the both of them looked at him incredulously? Rolf frowned a moment later.
"What?" Nomad blinked. "Come. Let’s go. No time to waste."
He turned around. Finally, he did not need to listen to their bullshit. He’d been tired of dealing with their tantrums.
Lila nodded, smiling, and sprung to her feet and began walking, following behind him.
"I don't know what you're talking about, traveler." Rolf shrugged.
Nomad blinked, confused. What?
"I have nothing to do with the [Witch]. Nothing. “
“Oh please, give me a break,” Lila rolled her eyes, snorting as she walked ahead of Nomad, a spring to her step as she turned around. “By the way, we haven’t asked for your name.” She asked.
Right. Nomad needed an alias. He had to think of one fast. He needed something simple, something easy to remember and say...
"Evin," He answered after a few seconds, shrugging. Rolf and Lila stared at each other, and then at him.
"Evin, eh? Alright then. I'm Rolf, this here, the annoying woman, is-" He started but Nomad cut him. He'd had enough of their bullshit already. He knew what was coming, and he was getting sick of it before it It'd barely even begun.
"I know already. Focus, Rolf. Money. You need money, yes? You said you’re an expert in this stuff. Get working. Sniff out the boar."
“Ha!” Lila laughed as they moved forward, the forest becoming denser. "He's not a dog, traveler!" She said, laughing, turning to look at Rolf. Though Nomad could obviously see the mirth in her eyes. "Are you a dog now? Hahahaha."
Rolf’s jaw tensed. "I am not a dog.”
"Then get moving instead of falling into her traps," Nomad said. ." Nomad sighed, shaking his head.
"Fine, fine. I'll get moving." Rolf grumbled, and began walking ahead of them, sniffing.
Lila laughed, tears in her eyes, and Nomad shook his head.
"You need the money, so stop wasting time and focus. The quicker you get the beast, the quicker you earn money. Lahey needs it, no?"
Rolf sighed and shrugged as they kept walking. “Did Addy open his trap? He's not supposed to do so."
Lila shrugged. "Stop being an ass to little Addy. He's just a kid. He tries his best."
Wow. Did she just say something nice? To Rolf? What the actual fu- Nomad blinked as Lila stared at Rolf.
Rolf snorted. "Shut your goddamn mouth. And you, Evin. How’d you get him talking? He’s not usually that talkative around, well, strangers.”
“Oh, not me. It was… uh, my daughter. Emma. She was cooking with your wife. Saw she was sick, I don’t know. Seemed gloomy last night.”
“You have a daughter?” Lila glanced back at Nomad as they continued walking.
Nomad shrugged. "Not my blood. I found her wandering around. Her parents were nowhere to be seen, so I took pity on her and took her in.”
Rolf and Lila stared at Nomad.
"That's... surprisingly kind of you," Lila said after a moment, her eyes narrow as she stared at him. "I'm not saying that to insult you, mind you. You just didn’t seem the type given that slick mouth of yours.”
Nomad raised an eyebrow. “It was that obvious?” He hummed, it seemed he’d lost his edge.
“Lost your edge, eh, Evin?” Lila smirked. “And no, not obvious. Just seemed like it to a keen eye such as myself."
Nomad shrugged. He'd lost his touch, indeed. However, that was not a problem for the time being. The last time he’d done it had to be before he’d been on the run from everyone.
“Well, it seemed fun to involve you in. Things were getting rather dull with this dork. So, what's your daughter like? I didn’t get the chance to meet her. Is she cute?" Lila asked.
"She is a little devil," Nomad snorted. “Far from cute, mind you.”
“Stop,” Rolf said, his face serious. Nomad looked at him, followed by Lila. The trees of the deep forest around them seemed darker. More ominous, somehow. Rolf was looking at a spot between a bunch of trees and bushes, squinting as if he were looking for something.
“What?” Lila said, annoyed. She looked where Rolf pointed. It seemed like there was nothing, just trees and leaves. But, Nomad saw what Rolf saw after he squinted for himself: A trail. It was faint, almost invisible to the naked eye, but it led to a small, barely visible path that brought them near a tree.
“Scratches?” Lila asked, frowning.
“No.” Rolf shook his head, hand on the marks. The bark was chipped off as if something had slammed into it with force, leaving a dent on it that went slightly in.
"What is that? An imprint? It's small. A fist? A mark on the territory? Don’t animals do that?" Lila asked.
“No, it’s not that.” Rolf turned, facing the direction they’d come from. “The creature, the boar, came from that direction. Running. From something, perhaps, can’t say. But it was in pain from what I’m getting. It scratched on that first tree, stumbled through the bushes, then hit this one, hard. Left a dent. Then it likely continued on its little run. I can tell you that it didn't come here on purpose. It was running from somewhere, or from something." He said, looking around the trees.
Nomad frowned as he glanced at the dent. “Why is it charred?” “Fire. That’s why I said it was in pain—”
“A mage cast a [Fireball] or something similar,” Lila finished with a grin like she’d solved some mystery. However, her grin dissolved into a frown. “This fucker. Stealing my kill?”
“No.” Rolf shook his head. “The boar ran away, remember? And it doesn’t seem like an attack to me. The boar stopped to scratch, then continued its little run. From the looks of it, the boar was here longer than a few minutes. Any [Mage] would’ve jumped on it in that little time frame. It was… something else. Someone was hunting it with magic they would have continued chasing after it until they caught up, right? They didn't. So they weren't chasing. They just attacked, and the boar got scared and fled. They didn’t give chase.
“…And, as much as I hate to say this. This trail is older than the quest itself. When was the boar spotted first?” He asked Lila.
“Hmm?”
“On the quest, there should be details.”
“Oh yeah. It was last seen two days ago.” She said, rubbing her chin thoughtfully.
Nomad blinked. Hadn’t he come to town two days ago? Suspicious.
“Two days? Yeah, seems about right. Anyway. The track’s old. We have to move. Find something else.” Rolf sighed, scratching his head. “Apologies. Had to check on it just in case. Didn’t want to waste time.”
“What,” Lila said, “so you’re telling me, the greatest tracker in town has failed to find the boa- Oh shit! Run! Rolf! Rolf! It is coming for your blood! " She yelled, laughing as she sprung away from the tree. Rolf growled as he glared daggers into her retreating form.
“Don’t get too ahead, [Witch]. You’ll end up as its food!” Nomad sighed.
“Do your damn ‘magic’ already,” Lila grumbled, hands straightening her clothes. She sat down near a tree and leaned on the trunk. They were still inside the deep forest. “Oh, apologies, you can only smell like a dog or run around punching things. Not cast any spells. My bad."
Rolf ignored the jab as he looked down, crouching, sniffing. He touched the grass, and the leaves, then stood and looked around, frowning as he walked forward.
“Stand up.” He said.
“Don’t order me,” Lila snorted. “What? Found something? The trail of the great beast, I presume? The mighty hunter finally got his prey. Oh praise be upon him! The world is saved! The beast is no-”
“Shut your damn mouth!” Rolf growled. “Stand up! We’re being fucking surrounded.
Lila sprung up, hand gripping her staff and standing behind Rolf, facing the opposite direction as him. Nomad followed, and they had their collective eyes on three different sides, scanning for any threats as Rolf continued to look at a single direction with a serious face and a hand on his ax’s handle. He was the only one who had one. Nomad was unarmed, while Lila was only equipped with a wooden, crooked staff Nomad doubted was anything good given she was hell-bent on earning money. She could be in a similar situation as him, now that I he thought about it.
“There’s at least five—no, six,” Rolf said.
“Six what?” Lila asked, her demeanor completely a flip opposite of what Nomad had seen so far.
“I don’t know. I can only sniff the things. I have no clue what they are. They are circling us, trying for a sneak ambush. They don’t know we’re caught up on them Get ready. They will come soon enough." He said quietly but firmly.
Lila rolled her eyes. “How the fuck can you even sniff all of that? Is it some Passive? I wonder what’s the Active if this is your Passi—”
“Silence,” Nomad said, eyes twitching at the slightest of movements of the leaves.
“What? I’m just curious if he can actually turn into a dog.” Lila chuckled. “And what’s fun about being serious? We won’t die anyway, right? Right. So let's have a little bit more fun. I can handle a couple of weak things, and so do you. We don-”
Nomad heard something, and so did Lila and Rolf. She stopped speaking. Nomad glanced back and saw a blur of movement falling from the trees Rolf faced.
Six creatures. Humans. No. Not quite. Nomad observed, his body tensing as the creatures landed and stood, facing them with a golden glint in their eyes. Quite literally. Just like Lila but golden instead. They looked human, but they were different in some aspects, and that was enough to tell that they were not human, not fully.
Nomad realized instantly what they were.
No bloody way. His jaw tensed.
He’d thought it would be fine to rest in the town for a day or two. How naïve. He’d fucked around being lazy, and he was about to find out the consequences for doing such a stupid thing as resting.
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