A grey wolf-like creature emerged from the dark forest startling the lazy guards who were drinking whiskey from their steel helmets. One quickly emptied his helmet and put it on his head, the other was so flustered he forgot to empty the helmet and tipped the brown liquid all over himself.

"What a waste of whiskey," said a creature whose sharp teeth illuminated in the torchlight, his beastly growl sending a shiver down the guards spine.

"Who are you?" asked the braver of the two village guards.

"Just a traveller," finally the creature stepped into the open revealing a remarkably tall and strong looking but otherwise normal beast-kin. Instead of looking wolfish he now seemed more like a stray dog, he had a humble looking backpack on which was full to the brim with a vertically held spear on the side. Both the guards breathed a sigh of relief.

"What are you doing here so late?"

"I didn't really pay attention to the time I'm afraid, I just wanted to arrive," the dog shrugged

"It does get dangerous out there at night," the guards nodded understandingly in reply.

"Indeed" the wolf chuckled.

"Well then, welcome in. Oh and..." he tapped his still whiskey drenched colleague on the shoulder. "Don't mind this one, he's new on the job." The dog chuckled again but said nothing of it.

"You wouldn't happen to know of somewhere for me to stay would you?"

He made his way into the village, his journey had finally begun and there was no time to waste, he knew it was late so all he could do was cross his fingers and hope that the place the guard had told him about would still be open.

It was, and luckily there was room for him. He woke up thanking his luck that there was a bed available, a night under the stars was nice the first couple of times but after rolling onto a protruding root for the forty third time it was a bit much for even him.

He bathed in the small tub prepared for him, the water was cold but he had no complaints, it was a rather hot day anyway. He used the special treatment in his fur that his master told him to use in order to not 'stench like a mouldy arse' as his master would so eloquently put it. 

He clothed himself leaving his topside bare, he used the facilities to wash the rest of his clothes and hung them outside his window using the shutters and his spear.

He had to save his money so he munched on whatever he'd managed to hunt and stored in his backpack. One advantage of being a beast-kin was that cooking was unnecessary. He took a carefully wrapped morsel from his bag and wolfed it down.

After cleaning his teeth he felt refreshed and ready to explore. His nose twitched at something but he quickly moved on, this was his first time in any sort of civilisation after all, there were all sorts of sights and smells he'd never experienced.

He had one thing on his mind, it was something his master had told him he must do. It was the only realistic way for him to make money during his adventure. He needed to sign up to The Guild.

The Guild was a nationwide group that showed up in most large scales villages and all towns and cities. They were there to help fulfill requests process information, and generally maintain public order. His master used to be a member before getting her weapon stolen and her future potential crushed.

The dog grinned as he remembered all of his master's stories recalling fond memories of the time she'd spent as part The Guild. He was sure his master had romanticised the experience but was excited nonetheless.

A drew a few odd looks no doubt just because he was a new face, oh and that he was shirtless. He was not aware of this sort of thing, he'd spent his entire life not having to worry about what state of dress he was in.

He'd only smelt a few people in his life as well, which would be a weird thing to think about as a human but the dog's nose was going nuts with all the new smells. Especially the barmaid who smelt especially lovely. He tried his best not to get too close while he asked for directions to The Guild.

The barmaid cocked her head to the side, granted she had not seen a huge amount of beast-kin but that was one of the most human looking ones she'd seen. He had dog ears, tail and fanged teeth; he was quite hairy and had big pawed feet but his upper body and his face were undoubtedly human in appearance. She smiled at the way his eyes reacted to her smell, she watched the cute dog walk away, his tail swishing slowly from side to side.

The dog made his way in the direction he was instructed. He could hardly contain his smile as he saw so many people, they were carrying things, talking, selling, laughing and enjoying themselves, he'd never seen anything like it. Not on such a large scale at least.

After having to ask for directions twice more he eventually found his way to the building. The crest of The Guild was displayed on the front of the building. He walked in triumphantly. No one cared that he had entered, he looked around trying to figure out what to do. Eventually he saw someone sigh as they waved him over.

"You must be new," said the cheeky guild worker, smiling.

"How could you tell?" grinned the dog innocently.

"What do you need from The Guild, Sir?" The dog had never been called Sir before.

"I would like to become a member."

"In order to be considered as a member of The Guild you'll be tested vigorously, the entire procedure will span over three days, you will have to make yourself completely available for that time. Is that alright by you, Sir?"

"Of course, though it does seem a little more extreme than what I was expecting. I was expecting just a registration fee."

The guild worker laughed. "Indeed, the good old registration fee. Back then we also had an improperly high mortality rate of our employees. We had all sorts of characters with no training or skill becoming members. They thought they could hunt the meat when really all they could do was eat it."

"You must have had a sizable decrease in members when you got rid of it then."

"But, an increase in the success rate of jobs, which meant more people asked for our services."

"I see, you've got this all figured out," the dog said as he slapped the table in laughter.

"Not me, Sir. It's the top brass that are to thank for that. Anyway, you're timing has been very fortuitous, the next round of testing starts today. You can decide not to of course but then you'd have to wait three days."

The dog grinned. "I think I can make time."

"I'll sign you up then. The testing begins when a grumpy old fart comes rampaging out that door," he says pointing at a wooden door behind him.

"So... I just wait around?"

"You can... Mingle. If you want," said the guild worker, gesturing again this time towards a circle of Guild member hopefuls that were no doubt in the same position as the dog.

"I guess I'll do that, thank you," nodded the dog and made his way over.

He walked nervously over to the group, aiming to conquer his slight social anxiety quickly, before it became a big deal. The group responded as he walked over, luckily there seemed to be one among them who was very extroverted.

"Hello," he exclaimed. "You are not one of the regulars either, what are the chances of two faces I've never seen on the same rotation. Paula, do you see this!"

Paula smirked. "That's Kaye, he's a wannabe adventurer like myself. This is Gillie," she gestured to a young fellow who had eyes that shone as he looked at the dogs ears. "He's... Never seen a beast-kin before. Don't mind him."

"It's no problem, here wanna touch them? They're super soft!" The dog leaned down and allowed the boy to stroke him head and ears.

Paula smiled then carried on talking. "Then we have Arivarea who is also new."

"Nice to meet you all. I must say I'm not sure what I was expecting but you're all a lot nicer than I could have hoped for," the dog said and grinned. "My name is Puppy, you can just call me Pup."

All four were taken aback. Their reactions made Puppy giggle.

"Sorry, it's just that I was waiting for you to say you were joking," said Paula.

"Totally serious."

"Who..." She tried to phrase the question as politely as possible, luckily Puppy guessed her intentions and chimed in before she could ask.

"When you are raised by a drunken martial master you get used to flamboyance. She gave me an odd name but trained me to make up for it."

"I don't think it's all that silly," said Arivarea who was hooded making her facial features hardly visible but Puppy could smell her and she certainly wasn't human. "Mine is much worse. It's too fancy and up itself."

"I find it endearing, it also has so much potential for nicknames," said Puppy, grinning. He figured he could joke about considering she'd just slandered her own name.

"I already get Ari, what else is there?"

"Varea, or just Rea. Ariva also works but doesn't sound as good."

"Ariva kind of sounds like part of a magic chat in some ancient language," giggled Paula. This caused Kaye to wave in the hands in the air and shout ARIVA with a very exaggerated roll on the r.

They chuckled but before the joke could be taken any further, a grumpy old fart came rampaging out the door.

Puppy could smell that he was only human despite the fact that he had to duck under the door frame in order to pass through it. He may have been old but he was tall. Even Puppy who was quite a tall beast-kin was impressed at the sheer size of the man.

"Get over here," he barked. Kaye looked terrified but managed to wobble towards the man. The rest followed. Puppy was beginning to see why Kaye had never passed the tests.

Paula whispered over to the two newbies. "No more fun and games now, unless you want to actually die." They both shook their head, neither of them fancied dying.

"Day one is physical training," the old man said very matter-of-factly.

The giant old man swung open a set of doors that opened to reveal what looked to be some sort of torture chamber.

"This is a circuit," he said, sounding very bored. Puppy looked around at the equipment, it certainly wasn't a regular circuit even if the old man had said it was. He was a little excited that they may actually have something that could offer a challenge.

He prepared himself at the start line. Two had gone before him and failed miserably. It was Kaye and Gillie. He had not even been given a demonstration but could figure out the course with relative ease. A lot of the obstacles looked scary but had a lot of superfluous additions to make it look more difficult.

He finished the test with relative ease. He'd managed to even break a couple of records like the high jump but he figured that might just be because of his height. Arivarea was next and she likewise smashed past the baseline. She revealed herself to be quite the athlete. Puppy remarked at how well the hood managed to stay on. Paula was next who, similar to her friends, failed most of the tests. Everyone remained positive regardless, quietly cheering each other on so as not to alert the grumpy old man. For most of them it very much felt like they were back in school; trying to mess around without alerting the teacher.

Next came combat testing. They were allowed to choose from a variety of weapons, Puppy of course chose the spear. He notices Arivarea pick up a pair of short swords. Although, she looked a little uncomfortable with them. The old man stood in the centre of a dusty wooden floor, he called them up one at a time and sparred with them. The weapons were very dull but almost anything hurts if you're properly smacked with it. Kaye gave up quickly, he was using a two handed sword that he looked like he was holding for the first time. The other two did a little better but the most outstanding was Arviarea who was able to go toe to toe with the old man for a good while. He called the fight without a clear winner so that must have been enough for him to verify her skills.

Last was Puppy who strode confidently into the middle and set his stance. The old man raised an eyebrow and charged. Puppy decided to test the old man and tried to slap the sword away for a cheeky parry to set the tempo. Unfortunately the old man feigned the thrust causing the dog to swipe at nothing. Instead the old man pivoted his front foot and waist, aiming for a cleave. The dog was too nimble however and ducked straight under the sword, thrusting his spear towards the old man's belly. The old man managed to back up just in time. He grumbled as he looked at the dogs back arm which was noticeably not fully extended. The old man's veins in his head started to protrude rather alarmingly but he stopped the fight there, he'd already lost all his dignity after the girl held back on him. He wasn't going to go through it again.

Puppy wiped a little sweat from his brow and headed back to the little group. Arivarea was holding her hand out for a high five. He of course smacked her palm eliciting a satisfying crack. He wasn't sure but he assumed mutual respect had just been established.

Tests were over for the day so they all split up to clean themselves. They had agreed to meet at a certain tavern later, Arivarea and Puppy began walking home before realising they were headed the same way

"Are you, by any chance, staying at The Flure?" he said before it could get awkward.

"Considering it's the only place to stay in town, I don't think it's up to chance," Arivarea said with a little venom.

"Well, I only arrived last night so I couldn't have known!" said Puppy defensively. "Is that why you said to meet there later?" He said which made her laugh.

"Yes, I'm lazy," she said proudly. He couldn't really see her face but she could tell she was smiling.

"Well I'm not complaining," chuckled the dog.

"Also have you seen the barmaid!" exclaimed Arivarea.

"I've seen her but have you smelled her?" said Puppy. This made Arivarea pause for a second.

"You don't even realise how creepy that sounded do you?" she said scathingly.

"What? And checking her out isn't creepy. I can't help what I smell but you can help what you stare at," he said getting defensive again. He was a little surprised at how good this girl was at getting him on his back foot.

"I wasn't staring, I was admiring," she shrugged.

"You're right, totally different," said Puppy sarcastically.

"Exactly," she said triumphantly.

"How did you find those tests then?" Puppy inquired.

"Pretty easy, not like I was expecting it to be difficult though. If it was too hard they'd be hard pressed to find employees in small towns like this one."

"How long ago was the registration fee thing abolished?"

"Oh ages ago, maybe six years or something. I guess that's not ages ago actually. Feels like it though."

"Right, that's a third of my lifetime ago. Does it sound like a long time when I put it like that."

"No, it just makes you sound very young." said Arivarea with slight judgement.

"Does it?"

"You're pretty impressive for an eighteen year old you know," she said with a genuine tone.

"Thank you, you're not so bad yourself. My master told me not to expect much from this place but you're really good."

"That's because I'm not from this place!" she said with a little too much gusto.

"Where are you from then?" he asked, unable to hold back the curiosity.

"Well now, if I tell you that then that would spoil the mystery," she said smugly.

"The mystery?" he asked, a little confused.

"Of course, don't boys love a good mystery," she snickered.

"That's quite forward of you," Puppy grinned his toothy grin. The pointy canines on full display.

"What can I say to you Puppy, I'm a girl that knows what she wants." she said as she disappeared inside the tavern. Puppy hadn't even realised they had arrived and carried on walking past it for a second. He paused, a little caught off guard but smiled and followed her inside.

Arivarea was happily chatting with the barmaid who seemed to welcome the distraction. Puppy needed water for a bath but was not sure he wanted to interrupt the conversation.

"Hey, Puppy," said Arivarea. He looked towards her. "That's him," she said to the barmaid who laughed a delightful laugh. Puppy looked at Arivarea with raised eyebrows. "I was just getting some water for your bath Puppy."

Puppy rolled his eyes at her and went up to his room, at least that was sorted. Not only that but it seemed like the rest of his clothing was dry. After bathing in some more refreshingly cold water he realised that thanks to the lack of registration fee it meant he could afford a proper meal tonight. He changed into clothes, putting on a white t-shirt as well this time seeing as it was dry and made his way back downstairs. He figured he might as well look around town before dinner. He got held up at the door however by a lovely barmaid and a mysterious hooded girl.

"Ah, am I being robbed?" said Puppy jokingly as he backed away from the tavern door.

"Indeed you are!" said Arivarea nodding to the barmaid.

"Eh?" said a suddenly scared Puppy before realising he'd been got.

"Too easy," smirked the barmaid. "You're also new to town then?" she said as she approached the very confused dog.

"I am."

"Then you need someone to show you around! You're lucky I just finished my shift," she exclaimed and grabbed his arm. A suddenly very happy Arivarea skipped around them and clasped herself onto the barmaids vacant arm. The barmaid blushed a little at such a set up but they began their march outside. Then they realised that they were too wide to get out the door as a unit so they ended up letting go of each other anyway.

She brought them around town, showing them all the spots worth noting.

"Have you seen anything you like, Puppy?" asked the barmaid, blushing a little at using his cutesy name.

"Yeah, I think I've seen a couple," he said, looking at her as if she was one of them. He continued, however. "That blacksmith looks like he might actually be able to sharpen my spear." The barmaid huffed a little. "Oh and, there were a couple girls that I thought were pretty cool," he said smiling at her. He managed to get a lovely laugh out of her from that.

"You had me going in the first half," she laughed.

"Me too," muttered Arivarea.

The barmaid was named Vale, she'd had a few people wave to her on the street so she was no doubt popular among the townsfolk. Puppy and Arivarea could see why, she was a lovely girl.

"Well that's about all our town has to offer. A little boring probably for you adventuring types," she said melancholically.

"Super boring..." teased Puppy. Arivarea even yawned for effect.

"You guys are pretty mean." Vale jokingly stropped.

"Guys, my legs hurt," complained Arivarea. After her display today Puppy knew that couldn't be true but he could see that Vale may have been getting a little tired. The town was relatively flat but they'd been walking for a couple of hours.

"It's lucky we're back at the tavern then," said Vale who had apparently been leading the way back already without the other two knowing.

"That's handy," said Arivarea. Vale chuckled.

They sat at a table large enough for three more and began drinking. Puppy was a little nervous, he'd seen how his master got when drinking. If it had the same effect on everyone then he felt like he may be in trouble.

The other eventually showed up, Gillie and Puppy were the only ones not drinking and the others were very competitive about it. After the food was eaten the party quickly devolved as the members of their impromptu group got more and more plastered. Puppy ended up having to carry Arivarea to her room, a member of the tavern staff sorted out Vale and Gillie assured them that he could take care of Paula and Kaye. Paula didn't seem too drunk anyway.

After a late night but a good sleep, Puppy threw himself out of bed, looking forward to day two of his tests.