That's all I got

I'm curled up on the couch indulging in a romance novel while the sun warms me under my blanket. The weather is cooling off but I refuse to turn the heat on. I would rather spend my money on coffee. Anyways this novel is great but if the leads would just communicate ninety-nine percent of their problems would be solved!

A golden scroll pops into existence and lands in my lap. Another one appears before Samantha but she doesn't catch it and is batting at it trying to catch it, she even tries using her foot, doing that just flings it into the wall. The look of defeat on her face was a very sad one. But I got a chuckle out of it.

"I see you're reflexes are as sharp as ever." I giggle.

"Yea." She says embarrassed.

I pick my scroll up and read it while Samantha goes and picks hers up from the floor.

A job just came through. There are reports of a Dullahan killing people on the coast of Mellor. I looked into it and there are two of them. I'm sending James to the one on the south side. You and Samantha are to take the northern one. Be sure to train her on ways to put them to rest. Stay safe and keep your head if you can.

Love, Aba

I wod the golden scroll into a ball and toss it toward the kitchen sink. Sadly I miss and it lands on the stove while it designates from flame. Samantha hangs onto hers while hers burns from existence. Aba likes to keep information secretive and these golden scrolls that burst into flame is his trick.

"I will get geared up." Says Samantha walking off to her room.

"Hold up." I speak up. She stops and looks at me. "You know anything about Dullahans?"

"I told you before I only know how to take out vampires and werewolves. Well at least I thought I did before coming here. Are they anything like zombies, low ranking demons, vampires or werewolves?" She asks.

"They are of the undead and like every time we head out, we don't know the breed til we see it. Do you remember what the undead are weak against?" I quiz her.

"Holy magic, which I'm not good at. The second option is brute force, that one I'm good at. That's all I got." She says leaning against the wall.

"Can't argue with you there." I snicker. "Good news with these undead, there is a simple way to put them to rest."

She eyes me skeptically. Probably because most "simple" things for me are not so simple for her.

"Trust me it's easy. We just have to get the rider back his head."

Her icy eyes narrow at my "easy solution". She takes a breath, "so what is this being anyways?"

"Have you heard of a headless rider?"

"I think I have watched ghost headless riders on TV. Granted they were friendly." She closes her eyes to concentrate.

"They're similar to that but they murder people. So Dullahans are out for vengeance for being beheaded. They are ghosts riding on horses and if someone sees them on the road they usually end up dead by it and then it keeps riding to whatever village it was going to. Now depending on the breed the head will be a skull or if it will be full flesh and talking." I hold my hand up to keep her quiet.

"Don't ask me how it talks when it has no lungs, just assume magic for everything." I move on. "Now can you guess it's favorite way to take a person out."

"Let me guess, it cuts heads off."

"Correct! You're getting good at this." I comment. "So our big task is to go find our headless horseman after finding his head. It'll be simple, just need to stop at Matilda's shop for some goods." I smile.

"Imma get ready then." Says Samantha heading to her room.

"I should change too." I say scurrying to my room since it's cold now that I'm out from under my blanket.

With my brown eyes I look myself over in the mirror. My shoulder length straight brown hair is in a ponytail, my black work leather pants are fitting as always, my steel chest plate has a few scratches and my leather boots could use oiling. I grab my small shield, spears, bow and arrows before leaving my room.

I see Samantha by the door ready in the leather armor Chelsea gave her, dark leggings, leather boots, with her spears on her back and a medium low quality shield on her left arm. Her dirty blonde hair is tied back in a ponytail too.

Together we head off to Chelsea's to have a few things repaired and to pick up Samantha's bow. While we wait, we go to Matilda's for things to make this job easy. Her shop always gives off the spookiest vibes with cauldrons bubbling, viles of many colors, some heads in bottles, parts of creatures in a tinted liquid in jars, candles burning as the only light source and scrolls throughout the place. Samantha shivers every time we walk in here but Matilda is one of my best friends.

"Here for some scrolls to find rolling noggins?" Matilda asks with a crimson smile. Her dark maroon hood casts a shadow over the rest of her face.

"You're fortune telling has gotten good!" I state.

"No, I yelled at Aba for not giving me proper heads up on things I need to have stocked. Now I get an itemized list of things I will need to have on hand." She giggles.

"You yelled at him?" My jaw hits the floor.

"Well I went in there to yell at him but he knew what I was there for already and that's when the lists started." Matilda shrugs.

"Crazy how he does that." I say.

"It is." Matilda says sliding a bag across the glass top counter. "4,000 gold please."

"If you don't stop giving me such a big discount you will go belly up." I say slapping my coin bag onto the counter so it transfers 10k to her.

"You worry too much. Besides you don't count your money so you never picked up that I keep slipping it back into your bedroom stash when I come over." Matilda giggles, "got to go. I have a finicky potion a brew'n."

"I'm going to need to hide my stash." I sigh.

We get the last of our things from Chelsea and I waypoint us to the Northern coast of Mellor. We breath in the salty air while surrounded by patches of trees. Mostly grazing meadows are in this area so we will most likely see sheep or cattle roaming around.

"Well let's break out those scrolls." I say rummaging through my bag. I unroll the scroll and a pink aura leads the way along the path. We follow it for awhile til we are at the edge of a grave yard.

"Sooooo?" Asks Samantha.

"We are looking for a skull or a talking head." I place my hands on my hips when I see a pile of skulls next to a grave stone. "It'll be fine."

"Mahhh." Says a groining voice.

A zombie is partially unburied and is trying to get out of the dirt for us. Samantha jabs a spear through its skull.

"Well we know it's not that one, right?" She says.

"Yup." I say, we hear more groaning. "Of course this place is infected. You cover me while I try to follow this pink line."

"Wha!?" Tries questioning me but becomes busy fighting off a small mob.

I follow the line and come across a white skull that goes to the Dullahan. "Sweet!" I say. I look over to Samantha finishing up with the zombies.

"Hey Hazel?" She asks.

"Yea?" I reply. That's her "what the heck do" we do starter line.

She uses her spear and picks something up from the ground with it. On the end of the spear is a man's head, she stuck her spear into his man bun. It looks at me as if it was judging my presence.

"You should do." Says the head.