The Hitch

“Zen. Zen. You got to get up now.” Leo said shaking the little girl on his back. The little girl then yawned as she woke up. It probably have been cute if she hadn’t just woken up from killing nearly an entire thieves guild. Placing her down they walked into the cell block. True to her word, Zen had indeed killed the guards down here too. That being a good thing or a bad thing was hard for Leo to say as he saw quite the shocked faces on the few kidnaped people in there that had just seen their illegal warden suddenly die without a clear reason.

Searching the dead body (something that Leo was scared that he was getting used to) he found the cell keys. However Leo had forgotten he was still stealthed as he opened the first door. “Ahhh!”

Leo then quickly pulled out his adventurer tag and card saying “Easy, easy I’m just an adventurer.” This seemed to calm the victims down as they were more corporative. Searching through the cells they found four people that were taken by the thieves. Leo didn’t have time to escort them all, but thanks to Zen they were safe to leave.

“Found her.” Zentella said standing in one of the far cells. There was a young girl seemingly similar to Zen’s age cowering in the corner.

She was a wold Demi-human with silver hair. Seeing wolf ears and a wolf tail was surreal to Leo. He heard talks about demi-humans in this world where even some were adventurers themselves. Yet, Leo never saw one up close until now. This one however was a scared little girl who was taken who know how long ago. Leo figured that this wasn’t going to be easy so he knelt down and simply stayed at the entrance.

“Hey, it’s ok. We’re here to rescue you.” The little girl got startled before she looked at Leo with tears in her eyes. “Look see, we’re adventurers.” Leo then pulled out his tag and adventurer card once again and showed it to her. Zen followed suit with hers and gave an unenthusiastic thumbs up.

“Really?” The wolf girl said between sobs, “Even her?” She pointed to Zen

“Yup especially her.” Leo said as he began to ruffle Zen’s hair, “She is super strong.”

“Off.” Zen plainly said shooing his hand away. Leo then put a little flair to him removing his hand pretending that Zen actually put strength into it. This caused the little girl to giggle at the display.

Seeing her at ease Leo asked, “Do you want to get out of here?”

The little girl nodded getting up. “My name is… Cor.”

“Hey Cor, my name is Leo.” He then got up and pointed to Zen, “This one’s name is Zentella, if you want to call her Zen you got to become friends.”

Zentella then looked at Leo with her head tilted, “Why?”

Leo simply shrugged. A heat of the moment where he was still trying to soothe a scared child. “I mean… why not right. Everybody could use friends.” Maybe he was thinking about Zen too. At least back on Earth kids had an easier time making friends. This world really shouldn’t be that different… right? Leo then turned to Cor, “Can you do me a favor and close your eyes and… I guess cover your nose.” Leo had no idea if what he said was offensive. That thought scared him because he really didn’t want to piss off a whole clan in this world… Well, two clans at the same time.

Thankfully Cor obliged and closed her eyes and covered her nose. Leo then said, “I’m going to pick you up now ok?”

“Ok.”

Now carrying her back out of the thieves den they passed the bodies of the fallen thieves and carefully made their way back to the entrance. What stunned Leo on their way back however was the fact that thief he tied up was now dead. Leo guessed that maybe he should have escorted four kidnapped people that are tasting freedom for the first time in a while. Was his common sense really that off from this world or was he once again not thinking things through? Seeing that they weren’t going to get anything more out of this place the three of them came back to the surface.

XxXx

“Stop… just stop.” Sophia said not wanting to hear any more of Leo’s explanation.

“We’ll… it was the end of the mission.” Leo laughed nervously. He and the two girls were able to meet up at the guild where Sophia brought them into a private room. She had asked for a report and he gave her one… just not one she wanted to hear.

“I figured it would be tough, but you were supposed to scout, asses, then take appropriate actions. Killing an entire thieves guild is not an appropriate action.” Sophia then places her head in her hands, “Especially when you got no intel if that was all of them or their contacts.”
“Well to be fair… the request was to retrieve Cor.” He said looking over at the two girls as they were playing with some tops that Sophia provided. “We did do that.”

“Indeed you did.” The two of them turned to see Verdona enter the room and takes a seat for herself, “While the the methods aren’t ideal, the results are satisfactory.” She then looked at Leo, scanning him even, “However, the request is only half complete.”

“Half?” Leo asked as he was handed a letter from Verdona

“Yes, could you escort Cor to her clan on our behalf. Luckily for all parties involved she was not taken too far from her home. Her can of wolf demi-humans live deep in the Forest of Spirit which is a two days journey from here.”

Leo nodded, “Of course.” He then turned to speak to the kids, “Hear that Cor, you’ll be able to…” He stopped himself as his blood ran cold. Where he had expected to see a little wold girl playing with a little assassin girl was instead just two tops left alone. Why… why did he turn his head away? Why did he possibly think not keeping an eye on a child that could disappear was a good idea? Hoping beyond hope he turned to Sophia and Verdona. Surely at the very least the guild master was someone that could have seen them or know where they went. Heck, maybe she had a way to track them.

Instead, Verdona looked almost as shocked as Leo was. “They were there when I came in.”

That was definitely not something that Leo wanted to hear.