Return to Stonefall

After a month-long deployment on a mission, B-ranked adventurer Connor and his party were on their way back to Stonefall to report their success.

His party consisted of his little sister, Kella, his childhood friend, Alisa, and an adventurer he met seven years ago called Tiergan.

The four of them had defeated a group of bandits in the Rock Lands that had overtaken a small village and saved the villagers.

They were now eager to get home and rest.

“I can see the city walls.”

Connor, their main frontline fighter, wore steel plate armour with a coat of chainmail beneath and wielded a sword and shield in battle.

“Finally,” Kella said with a small smile. “Can’t wait to write home about this.”

Like her brother, Kella had light brown hair and blue eyes, though her hair was much longer and tied up in a ponytail. She was wearing a combination of leather armour and chainmail. Unlike her brother however, Kella fought with a spear.

“You really think mum will want to hear about her children almost dying in a cave hundreds of miles from home?” Connor asked with a wry smile.

“She’ll love it, I’m sure, just like last time.”

Connor scratched his cheek and chuckled.

The incident that Kella was talking about happened two years ago.

Their party had agreed to escort a merchant caravan from Stonefall to Black Port and they’d been attacked by bandits.

Connor had been stabbed in the arm, Alisa had taken a bad blow to the back of her head, Kella had an arrow to the shoulder, and Tiergan had been hit by a terrified horse.

When Kella wrote about it to their mother before the siblings returned home to Pilgrim’s Post, the first thing their mum had done when they came home was slap them; then, she lectured them for the next hour on their life choices.

The only thing that had calmed her anger was the large sum of Rhams the siblings had been paid for their services.

“I just hope that the guild doesn’t call us back to duty for a while,” Tiergan mumbled.

Tiergan was wearing tattered leather armour, his bow and quiver slung against his back, and he had dull, grey eyes and unkempt for black hair.

“Why did you even sign up to be an adventurer if that’s your attitude?” Alisa asked in disbelief.

“The money.”

“I think you might’ve been able to make more in the army,” Connor said.

“Nah, the army would’ve kicked him out over his attitude. Oh, wait.” Alisa grinned.

Tiergan sighed and increased his pace. As he did, Alisa raised a small mound of dirt in front of him which Tiergan tripped over on. When he got back up, he glared at Alisa who was whistling innocently and staring off into space.

Alisa, the team’s prodigy magician, was an expert in Earth Magic and could use the other magical schools very well, too. She had short blonde hair, emerald eyes and was wearing a stainless white robe adorned with golden patterns along its sleeves and hood.

I wonder if it’s a miracle or sheer luck that we’ve managed to make it this far as adventurers, Connor mused.

No matter the job and no matter how many years passed, his party was always like this.

Connor had once wondered if he was the only one who took their missions seriously, but he soon realised that was the only member of his party that wasn’t very confident in their own abilities, so he always found himself exerting more effort than the others.

Tiergan was an expert sharpshooter and could land almost any shot without breaking a sweat. Alisa’s magical abilities and control were unlike anything Connor had ever seen, and his little sister was very skilled with her spear.

It wasn’t that Connor was weak by any means. After all, he was a B-ranked adventurer and was very strong in his own right, but he still felt the same tension and fear he’d always felt in battles.

He feared his death, he feared that he would fail and he feared that his loved ones would get hurt.

Maybe I should learn to lighten up a little, Connor thought as they approached the gates.

The moment they stepped foot into the city, they could sense that there was something wrong.