The Search

Defeating a monster not only is difficult because it can deliver hellish blows to the body, especially one of this size, but also finding an ideal place to leave the body after a hunt is an important task. Nature will take its course, but corpses like these have the ability to attract even bigger predators. Learning where the local scavengers search for their food and making sure the body is disposed a certain distance away from the nearest town adds extra factors of where to initiate and finish a hunt.

Luckily it was quite deep in the forest when they had slain it, but that did mean getting to the nearest town required a bit of hiking. These two exhausted guards knew the rest of their day was not going to pleasant. Now that their mission was finished, all there was left to do was find the third member of their squad who had fallen off the side of the cliff a day or two ago. Jazz was unfortunately the best tracker they had due to his heightened abilities to sense vibrations and identify sounds in different ways from your average sighted person, so after losing him, locating the monster took a bit longer than they anticipated. This delay could be a fatal mistake, but Moe kept his head up and moved at a brisk but steady pace, his eyes looking down to check his miniature compass on occasion.

Isaac was lagging a bit behind, not in as much of a rush as Moe to find the nearest town, knowing it would be the Port. Guards weren’t quite welcome there since they often enforced taxes on the imports and disrupted their way of life. Especially now, for an investigation team whose squad was not often seen in uniform, they were signaling their allegiance to the capital. Moe was starting to become harder to see as the space between them widened from their different hiking speeds.

“Jazz will be fine, he has his rations and he’s sturdy!” Isaac tried to slow Moe down with some reassurance, but the green haired man pressed on at his current pace. Isaac furrowed his brow and purses his lips. “Okay, please slow down actually.”

Moe stood at the top of a small hill, the trees and ferns let small rays of light dapple through. “We’re almost there.” He uttered, looking at the scenic view of the coast and boats docked at the edge of town. Isaac joined Moe shortly after, who had already taken out a notebook and wrote down some locations to check for Jazz. Although the place they stood was a nice view of the area and a perfect spot to appreciate the skyline intersecting with the ocean, there wasn’t much time to appreciate it.

“Over there.” Moe pointed not far down a hint of a trail obscured by the foliage. They approached the well-worn path, Isaac was relieved that they would no longer have to traverse unknown ground. He didn’t want to poke and prod at Moe for what the plans were, not until they reached town. Although slaying the monster together allowed them to put aside their differences for a moment, he could feel the divide between them again. Moe was very focused on keeping the squad together and losing Jazz was hard on him, not to mention that Jazz was his best friend. Isaac was mission oriented, and losing sight of what they traveled for would have probably devastated Jazz. Their goals were split, but both Moe and Isaac understood one another.

Their trek forward now was rather simple: head toward the town to grab supplies and then mapping their trajectory back to the lower cliff side where they had lost their friend. The evened out path from the years of foot traffic was welcomed by the duo, they didn’t have to think about how to traverse terrain and be wary of potential traps or animals. Moe would spend this time drifting off, marching and thinking of their next steps after gathering supplies. Isaac would look around and taking in what was in front of them, the sun shimmering over the tree leaves and the blooming flowers from the nearby creeping vines blanketing the forest ground.

Some time passed and they noticed a small group of civilians heading toward them, likely leaving town. “We must be close to the port.” Isaac sighed with relief as he stretched his arms.

“We aren’t going to rest there, just as a reminder.” Mor grumbled, squinting at the people as they began to near.

“One can only dream…” Isaac whined. Moe kept his eyes ahead as the group of civilians began to pass. He could hear them bickering and sneering at them. However, Isaac maintained eye contact with the individuals, scanning their wares while trying to be friendly, smiling. But as the last person crossed paths with Isaac, the guard stopped in his tracks. Moe didn’t notice his partner had stopped and kept walking forward.

“Hey, you.” Isaac’s shifted tone from their conversation earlier caught Moe off-guard. Low. Stern. Demanding. The small guard turned around to look at the farmer, and so did the other individuals. All eyes were on him.

“Where’d you get that?” Isaac pointed directly at the last person in the civilian group. Moe took careful steps back toward his partner, looking closely at what was being pointed at. Once he saw it, his eyes grew wide, his ears became hot. This person carried a backpack. It was Jazz’s sack. One in which Moe and Isaac had decorated to provide swift and easy access to his belongings. Each pocket was strapped with a different corded material, hand braided so their blind squad member could tell what part of his pack he was holding from the texture alone.

“None of your business, guard.” One of them shouted, the others laughed, turning away and continuing their trek. The one with the pack though expressed a little concern, frozen in his tracks before one of his friends pulled him along. Moe’s hands clenched into tight fists, but as he took one step forward, he saw Isaac’s hand raise stop him momentarily. The green haired guard was usually the one to get the most heated, but noticed how upset Isaac looked that it almost scared him. Usually the farmer was laid back and optimistic, but this was no ordinary moment. Both knew that this could be an extremely bad sign for their squad mate and these men were either the cause of it or had information that needed to be extracted.

“That bag looks awfully familiar. It fits the description of a man we are looking for.” Isaac said aloud, enough so that the group stopped in their tracks. The person with the sack was the only one who didn’t turn back to look at the guards immediately upon being addressed. The two squad mates noticed this hesitation and pressed. Moe unclenched his jaw. Isaac was careful with his words and had given him an opportunity to take over.

“He’s a Wanted man.” Moe said, raising his brows, scanning the group of men to see if there was other incriminating evidence.

“Wanted for what?” One of the members shouted back.

“Classified, but if I were to say anything, it was gruesome.” Moe sprinkled in some more lies. The civilian at the front of the group snickered, the others followed.

“Well, good thing we ransacked his little spot then. We took care of him.” The supposed group leader sneered. “Yeah, left him roughed up.” Another chimed in. “Do you have a reward or somethin’?”

Moe felt the blood rush to his face, his fists clenching tighter until his knuckles were as white as a sheet. Isaac’s expression didn’t change much from before, but he was much better at containing his unbridled rage than the little green haired guard.

“Ha, if admission of assaulting one of our guardsmen is a reward, you’d have won the jackpot.” Isaac smiled. “Let’s make a deal, either we take you all in for questioning or you simply tell us where to find this man.” The group’s expression changed from smug to a mixture of annoyed and fear in an instant. They didn’t think they had stolen something that could be recognized as regular guard gear and thought they could get away with it.

“What if we don’t do either?” The leader piped up, clearly fed up and doing the numbers. Several people against two guards they’d likely have the upperhand, however the other members didn’t seem to be in a fighting mood, they looked more nervous by the minute. Isaac and Moe did just take out a large beast, so there were dark brown splatters coating their armor and gambesons. Their eyes seemed to welcome another fight.

“Then we’ll take the information by force.” Isaac said with no hesitation, his hand on the hilt of his sword, unsheathing it a little to reveal that it too was darkened by their recent slaying. The group leader continued to feel smug and was about to push their luck, but the others stepped in front of him.

“Rumor has it he was taken in by someone in town. So he’s alive... somewhere, but that ain't our business.” One of the men closest to the back said in a protective tone, pushing the guy with Jazz’s pack whose color seemed to drain from his face. “That’s all ya wanted, right? Now leave us alone.” Another spoke up, as if they weren’t guilty for beating up a person and stealing their things. Isaac looked over at Moe, hoping the boy would give his permission for these men to move on. Moe nodded, as that was all he could respond with.

“You guards are a menace to society and we hate your kind.” One said as they all turned away and continued on their trek. “At least ya have good stuff.” They laughed. The two guards stood there, both holding in their rage and exchanging it for nervousness and fear for their friend. Isaac and Moe turned their attention back to a nearby silhouette of the port town in the distance, obscured by the trees ahead of them.They knew what their next steps were and they both were not looking forward to it.