Slayer's Duty (Other POV)

“Sir-”, I say to the journeyman as we walk up to the small structure nearby.

“I told you Tolbin.”, The man stops in front of me and gives me a glare, “Out here it’s just Nir. No sir, no journeyman. Just Nir.”

“Nir.”, I correct myself before continuing, “Do we know what we’re out here for?” The man turns back around and begins to chuckle.

“Nothing too scary.”, The yeti of a man says before he looks back at me. “Otherwise the guild wouldn’t have sent just a single journeyman and apprentice out.”, He says with a very serious tone. Nir has always been an odd man but that seemed strangely out of character for him. Before fear can grip me, Nir gives me a toothy grin and begins to walk again as he continues chuckling.

In short order, we get to the door of the small building. It is quite dilapidated which is not surprising given that the closest little hamlet is not exactly close. Nir knocks on the door and not even a moment passes when it is opened by a small young girl.

“Excuse me young miss.”, Nir says to the young girl at the door as he bends down to meet her at eye level. “Could we talk to one of the caretakers here?”, He inquires her. I feel a strange sense looking at this girl as she simply stares at the journeyman. It is not dread, but I cannot place it. Annoyance? Indifference? Before I can place that feeling though, a teen steps into view behind the girl.

“Lydia what are you doing?”, The teen says to the young girl. “Oh!”, The teen exclaims noticing the two of us outside the doorway. “Who might these people be?”, She asks as she looks at us.

“Adults.”, Lydia says bluntly. Was she disinterested in seeing two strangers at this place in the middle of nowhere? What a strange girl.

“I can see that.”, The teen mutters before she puts her hands on the younger girl’s shoulders. “Why don’t you go back to playing?”, She more so says as an order rather than as a question. Lydia walks away and turns a corner without a word.

“We’re from the Slayers’ Guild miss.”, Nir answers the teen’s earlier question with a tip of his large brimmed hat. “There have been some strange things happening in the hamlet nearby and we were wondering if any of you might have seen anything.”, He explains trying to quickly go over everything. The teen rests her chin in her hand for a moment as she thinks.

“What might you mean by ‘strange’?”, The teen finally asks us.

“Well the local rancher has been losing cows at night.”, I answer her inquiry as I take a step closer. She looks at me for a moment with wide eyes, as if she were a deer caught by a bear.

“That’s terrible!”, She says as her arm goes back to her side. “I don’t think I’ve seen anything too strange like that though.”, She answers after a moment.

“Anything at all would be helpful miss.”, Nir says with one of his grins. He was not a handsome man, in the traditional sense, but he sure was a friendly and charismatic one. The teen looks up at the top of the doors as she rests her chin in her hand again.

“Well one of the other caretakers told me they saw a knocked over tree and a strange foot print somewhere towards the outhouse.”, She finally says finally breaking the awkward silence building between us. She looks back down at us as she continues, “Did that help?”

“Very much.”, Nir answers with another grin. “Thank you miss-”, He cuts himself off realizing we never asked the teen her name.

“Dandelion.”, She answers.

“Thank you miss Dandelion.”, He says. But before we step away we hear a loud high pitched laugh from inside.

“Dan-”, The voice stutters out between laughs, “Dandelion!?”

Wait, that is the voice of the little girl from before, why would she laugh at her caretaker’s name?

“Lydia!”, The teen yells with a voice full of annoyance as she turns and looks around the corner Nir and I cannot see. “That’s my name, it’s not funny!”, She continues yelling at the young girl, her anger clearly no longer being able to be maintained.

I am about to say something but Nir puts up a hand and begins to walk off, reminding me it is not our job. I nod as we head off towards the outhouse. Not actually difficult to find since it was the only other real trail around here besides the one to the hamlet.

“So a knocked over tree and a foot print?“, I inquire to Nir as he stops near the outhouse. “A knocked over tree could just be old age or a storm.”, I add as I look at the trees all around us.

“True, but it wouldn’t be worth remembering if it was.”, The journeyman says as he raises his head and begins to sniff the air. Not sure what he expects to smell beyond the excrement in the outhouse. He begins to walk off eastward away from the outhouse and the orphanage as he continues to sniff as if he actually can smell more. “Something smells off.”, He announces to me as I begin to follow him.

“What exactly Nir?”, I inquire as he stops at the edge of the small clearing. He stops sniffing as well and looks at me with a smile.

“This ain’t no bear.”, He states full of mirth. My eyes go wide to that exclamation.

“What is it?”, I ask him trying to hide my growing fear.

“Not sure yet, but we might know once we find that foot print.”, Nir drawls as his accent spills out a little with his excitement. That meant real trouble for me when his native accent started to come out. “This is gonna be real fun. I hope you’re ready.”, He adds as he walks into the thicket of trees.

-- -- --

I look up and see the sky has become orange. “Nir, we should probably make camp. It’s getting dark.”, I say to the journeyman as he is examining the ground nearby. I receive no response. “Nir!”, I exclaim to get his attention.

“What!?”, He yells at me in anger, “I’m trying to find our prey.” He looks over at me as he continues, “You should be helping me instead of just standing there.”

“It’s almost evening, we should set up camp.”, I reply trying to keep my calm. “It’ll be easier to find our quarry when we can see.”, I add. The journeyman sighs in understanding as he stands up.

“Good plan.”, He says as he takes a look around our surroundings. “How do you feel about resting in trees?”, He questions me as he looks up at the trees.

“I’d rather not.”, I quickly answer him as he walks over to the nearest tree and begins to examine it. “Plus if our quarry can knock over a tree, does sleeping in one really keep us safe?”, I ask him.

“No, but it would protect us from anything else here.”, He says as he looks over at me. I did not think of that. “Well except maybe a bear.”, He adds with a chuckle and a shrug as he pulls out the small magical box containing our camping supplies.

-- -- --

I open my eyes looking up at the tree branches above me. The swaying of the hammock made it hard to rest properly.

“How are we supposed to get down safely?”, I ask to Nir. I wait a moment before I realize he is snoring. “Nir!”, I yell at him hoping to wake him up.

“Huh?”, The large man mutters as he finally awakens. “What?”, He groggily adds.

“How do we get down safely?”, I ask him once again.

“It’s simple.”, He answers as he grabs a rope from his belt. “You got rope, right?”, He asks as he begins to lower it.

-- -- --

I begin stretching as Nir looks off towards where we came from in this area.

“How far do you think we’ve gone Tolbin?”, The journeyman asks me as he turns to me. I stop stretching and look up at the cloudless sky.

“Maybe three erones?”, I answer thoughtfully as my gaze meets his.

“Three?”, Nir mutters more so to himself than to me, “If it’s three that might be too far but we still haven’t seen that strange footprint.”

“Sir?”, I interject to be informed of his thinking.

“I told you before, it’s just Nir.”, He responds with a hint of anger.

“Do you think we’ve gone too far, Nir?”, I ask him.

“Maybe.”, He answers before looking around and stepping cautiously around.

“Ahhhhh!”, A childish voice yells somewhere nearby, breaking our silence.

“What the-!?”, Nir exclaims as he heads towards the voice.

“Who!?”, I say as I also head towards the voice.

We quickly see the young girl from before, I think her name is Lydia, dusting herself off.

“What are doing out here!?”, I yell at the girl. She does not say anything but points behind her. Nir and I step beside her and look to where she is pointing to see a large footprint. “What is this from?”, I ask.

“Oh this is gonna be fun!”, Nir excitedly yells as he pounds his fist into his other hand, “We’ve got a big lizard.”