“Can I help you?” He asked, brushing some dirt from his clothes. Then he blinked, squinting closer at Arek. “Wait, an orc?”

“Indeed,” Arek said, hiding a grimace as the Happy Sunflowers tensed.

“What a coincidence. I’ve got mail for you,” the postman said, gently moving some of the birds out of the way as he headed across the dirty floor to a countertop at the side of the room. He started shuffling through papers but paused. “You are the Happy Sunflowers, right?”

“We are,” Malissa confirmed, eagerly stepping forward. “Who was the mail from?”

“No clue,” the postman replied, shrugging. “The sender used bird mail. It was just signed with an M, although it’s been paid for.”

He located an envelope and pulled it free of the pile. He scanned over it one more time and then nodded before heading back over to them and handing the letter to Malissa. Arek’s nose twitched as the man grew closer – he smelled like, well, a birdhouse. It wasn’t a good smell.

“We don’t get much mail nowadays, so I was pretty shocked when this came in,” the postman said, reaching down to pluck a particularly loud bird from the ground. He ran a hand down its head, soothing the creature instantly.

“Why don’t you get mail?” Belmont asked while Malissa carefully opened the letter. Ming stood on her tiptoes to try to read what Magus had written in it. “Is it because Red Mount is so hard to reach?”

“It isn’t all that hard to reach for the birds, usually,” the post man said, wringing his hands. He glanced at the door behind them. “But not as of late. You’re actually quite lucky that the bird carrying your message arrived. The sender put some sort of protective shield around the bird, and that was probably the only reason she made it.”

“What changed?” Arek asked. “I’ll admit that the forest was quite intimidating when we passed through it, but the birds shouldn’t have to enter. Are there flying creatures hunting them as well?”

“Wyverns,” the postman said with a heavy sigh. His brow creased and his hands clenched. “They’ve taken a dozen of my beauties already.”

“Why are wyverns flying around here?” Ming asked, giving up on reading the letter until Malissa was done with it. “They’re mid D class monsters!”

“Ming is right,” Belmont said, crossing his arms. “Wyverns shouldn’t be leaving their dungeons. According to the Adventurer’s Handbook, they like very high concentrations of magic, which wouldn’t be present outside a dungeon unless…”

Belmont trailed off, his face paling.

“When’s the last time the Red Mount dungeon was cleared?” Arek asked, goosebumps raising on his skin.

The postman swallowed. “It’s been a few months.”

“What?” Malissa exclaimed, nearly dropping the letter. “Months? You need to get an adventuring team here immediately! If the dungeon is overflowing this badly already, a horde could come out at any moment. Red Mount is in serious danger!”

“We know,” the postman muttered. He gave them a helpless shrug. “There’s nothing we can do unless we invite the guild here, and the council has no plans of doing that.”

“Surely you’ve got your own adventurers?” Arek asked.

“We do, and I think we’ve sent a few of them into the dungeon already, but I don’t know what happened to them.”

“Considering that there are still wyverns flying around, I’d say they failed,” Belmont said, his hands clenched at his sides. “We need to find this council immediately. If they don’t get the dungeon cleared soon, we’re all going to be in grave danger.”

“Are you high rank adventurers?” the postman asked hopefully.

“We’ll be whatever we need to be to stop the dungeon,” Belmont replied as they rushed out the door.

Malissa slipped the note into her bag as they strode towards a signpost to locate wherever the council could be found.

“How high level is the dungeon at Red Mount?” Arek asked.

“Somewhere in the D or E rank area,” Malissa said. “Magus mentioned it in his letter.”

“Why? And did he say anything else useful?” Arek asked.

“He said we should think about trying to challenge it,” Malissa said. “But he also warned that we shouldn’t try for a few months, and that we needed to get stronger before giving it a shot.”

“A few months?” Ming asked. “How long are we supposed to stay here?”

Arek caught the uneasy look in Malissa’s eyes.

“What else did Magus say?” Arek asked, a pit forming in his gut.

“Not in public,” Malissa said with a firm shake of her head. “We’re going to want to be alone for this.”

“Wonderful,” Belmont said, pursing his lips. “More bad news.”

They reached a signpost and scanned through it. The arrow pointing to the council was trimmed in metal, which made it stand out from the others. It directed them straight towards the center of the town, so they set off at a hurried pace once again.

The council building was a little more ornate than most of the other structures in Red Mount. It was only a single floor, but it was huge, almost like a covered marketplace. A short staircase led up to a large open fronted room with three people – two women and one man – sitting in elevated chairs. They wore simple yet high quality matching clothing, and each of them had a small red cap.

Murals had been painted over all the walls, and the tiles on the floor were painted with a beautiful depiction of a mountain peaking through the clouds. There were a few people milling about within the room, but there was no line in front of what Arek suspected to be the council.

They climbed the stairs and stepped under the shade of the tall roof. They approached the council members, who were each flanked by an intimating looking guard wielding a jagged spear.