∼ Small Town Adventurers∼

Chapter - 008

Light drizzle shrouded the treeline of the Heartweald as the world was bathed in the light of the morning daybreak. The peaceful scenery of bird song and wind rustling the wet underbrush was only broken by the animated voices of a group of people walking along the forest's edge.

"Sun's up. It's about time we called it a day, innit chief?" A lackadaisical voice droned out, the ache of his body almost transferred through the tone of his words alone.

Throwing the weary-looking rogue who dragged himself along with the group an exasperated look, the man in the lead stopped walking. "Didn't I tell you to drop the nicknames," The man scowled.

"Okay, Oren." The rogue dragged out his words, in clear mockery. Clenching his fist at his friend's irritating antics, Oren glared him down.

"If you would just stop whining at any given opportunity, we might've finished up before even twilight broke. Then you could've been back to your damned cathouse and done all the whoremongering you'd want."

Seemingly offended by Oren's words, the rogue straightened his drooping posture.

"Oh my - Oren, don't speak so ill about your mother's house like that, else she might hear and good ol' spankin'. You know, she has a lot of expertise in the area, that woman." He spat back.

Barely letting back a growl, Oren began walking towards the smirking rogue, his gloved balled into fists so hard that the leather creaked audibly. But before he could take more than two steps, a small but rough hand on his chest stopped him.

"Stop it, Oren, you know better than to take Jasper's bait." A woman said, her voice feminine but stern. At her touch, Oren felt his anger abate somewhat, letting his annoyance drain as he took one long breath. Taking a look at her, the woman with whom he shared his heart and bed; a brown-haired gal outfitted in cured-leather clothing, blue eyes, and a ponytail running down to her back, he just nodded his head in surrender. "-And Jasper, that goes for you as well. Better stop before Oren knocks out your teeth," She paused, giving him a piercing stare. "Or I do."

Hearing this, the smug expression on Jasper's face quickly drained away, as he knew all too well that her words were never empty.

"Yeah... sorry Ailyn," Jasper apologized, now seeming more sheepish than anything as he rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. "But you know, it's been almost a week since those dumb brats disappeared. If they truly were still out here, it'd be in the belly of a beast. And we're not even getting paid more than a dime for this." He grumbled.

Oren turned his gaze from Ailyn to look at Jasper and the rest of the members of his party. Jasper, the hedonistic rogue. Lars, the tall archer, and group mute. Fennik, the taciturn scout who barely spoke in any other situation than when reporting anything dangerous he spotted to the group.

They, like Oren, all too shared expressions of weariness and exhaustion. Even Ailyn did. Knowing that this task given to them by the quartermaster was a lost cause, Oren could only give in to the sentiments of his party. "Fine, let's head back." He sighed heavily, hating the idea of giving up a task they had invested so much time into already.

"Finally!" Jasper erupted, the exhaustion and weariness he had previously shown, gone as if it had never been. "Waiting for me, are women aplenty, I hear them calling me home!"

Sharing a look of slight disbelief with Ailyn, Oren and everyone else simply trailed along the rogue who had already made headway home.

However, they didn't get far when the sudden and unexpected words came from Fennik, halting everyone in their tracks. "I hear something," He said simply, gaze pointed towards the thick forest growth.

While such words would've generally not sparked as much alertness coming from anyone else, but when it was the taciturn Fennik, everyone knew not to take them lightly. Before they themselves even heard whatever it was Fennik's acute hearing picked up, they had all drawn their weapons in preparation.

A large broadsword, finely polished and dual-edged, in Oren's capable hands. For Ailyn, a slender shortsword fitting her slight build and a dagger in the off-hand. As for the ever silent Lars, he had already brandished his bow without a word or a sound as usual, an arrow already knocked. And, Jasper who held a pair of twin daggers in either hand.

Soon, whatever it was Fennik had noticed, made itself known to the rest of the party. But instead of something big and feral, of the likes which usually roamed the Heartweald bordering the Evergreen Forest, an unusual splotch of red contrasted the vibrant green of the forest as a small creature burst from the thicket of the treeline in chase of a brown rabbit that bounded across the grassy weald.

Barely larger than the rabbit itself, the small red creature's large and pointy ears bobbed as it took chase. A sleek tail that ended in an arrowed point trailed after it, and wholly oblivious, the creature didn't even notice the party of humans before it practically bumped into Oren who stood dumbstruck at the sight of the odd little demon.

The impling's eyes widened. The black irises encasing its yellow pupils, making a stark contrast to its otherwise crimson visage. Completing the sight, small grey white nubs protruding from its forehead, and odd markings, almost like that of a tattoo, ran the length of its brow and down its right eye.

A living breathing demon.

Coming to an abrupt halt, all thoughts of chasing the rabbit any further which bounded to and fro between the humans' legs was dashed from the impling's mind, replaced by fear and surprise. For a long and silent moment, the group of five simply stared in open-mouthed shock at the impling who in turn did the same. Jasper was the first to break the silence.

"I...um, is-is that a demon?" He asked hesitantly, a mix of both trepidation and amusement warring on his usually roguish face.

He couldn't exactly decide whether or not to make some joke about everyone acting like pansies for causing such a fuss about this little fellow, or be genuinely worried by the fact that a bonafide demon from the tales his mother would always tell when he was but a child was here, in the flesh.

"Uhuh," Oren nodded, not taking his eyes off the startled creature.

As if that was the cue, the impling finally snapped out of it, turning tail as fast as its wiry little legs could take it.

"Jasper! Quickly, catch it!" Ailyn suddenly called out.

"Wait... really?" Jasper asked, casting the skittering demon an apprehensive glance. "But..."

"Yes! Just do it! abyss-dammit," She fumed, not caring for his worries.

Just as the impling thought that it would be home safe, one stride away from the thick underbrush of the forest, it felt firm hands gripping around its thin waist, pulling at it as its feet left the ground. "Nyargh!" The demon screeched in protest.

Jasper, who had just proven exactly why he was the party's rogue with the display of speed he used to cross the distance between the demon and him, now held the flailing and hissing impling in his gloved hands.

But even so, he held it as far away from his face as possible, as even the claws tipping the small demon's hands and feet were enough to tear furrows into the hardened leather of his gloves. "Come on! Someone get me a rope for this little bastard!" He yelled, trying his best to restrain the unruly creature.

Within just a few minutes, the flailing demon had been forcefully pacified by the thick rope wound all around its torso and legs, pinning its arms to its sides, and stopping it from doing anything other than hiss and spew unintelligible foulness at its two-legged tall captors. Over to the side, Jasper sat on the ground, cradling and rubbing his hands that were riddled with many minor scratches and cuts, cursing to himself and shooting the tied up impling scathing glare every once in a while.

The small demon shared an equal amount of animosity towards the rogue, but that was heavily dampened by the fear it was currently feeling as four pairs of eyes scrutinized it closely as it was held up for all to see by the female human, Ailyn.

"I thought imps were... bigger?" Oren said hesitantly, breaking the silence. "I mean, from the stories, I had kind of expected something at least a little more dangerous than some rabid cat." He let out a nervous chuckle.

"Don't think it is an imp... or maybe it's an infant?" Ailyn said speculatively.

"I couldn't care less whether it is an imp or not, rather will someone explain why in the seven blazes there's a damned demon running around in the Heartweald!" Jasper piped up from a few paces away as he rose to his feet.

"It has to be a pet of that resident warlock of ours, is it not? Should we return it?" Ailyn shot Oren an inquisitive brow, but he just shrugged in agreement.

"A warlock," Jasper scoffed mockingly before meeting Ailyn's serious gaze.

"Oh my... you're not jesting." His eyes went wide. "When in the abyss did a warlock arrive in town?!"

Everyone except Jasper shared a knowing look, eyes-rolling.

"Well if you'd ever once in a while step out of the Sullied Bride, you might at times get to know what's happening around you and your precious whorehouse." Ailyn droned off.

Jasper held a hand to his chest and gasped as if those words had actually hurt, but before he could get out some witty retort, Oren spoke up. "It's been nearly a month since the baron let in this lone warlock, he should be living on the edge of town in the old mansion from what I've heard. Though I haven't caught a glimpse of him yet."

"A warlock..." Jasper echoed with a shake of his head, disbelief tinging his voice. "Why in the abyss would the baron do that? Mages have quite the reputation for having a few loose, and warlocks even more so insane than those wand-wielding pansies."

"Heard that he is an exile... from Arcanum... something about his daughter... dying in experiments..." Fennik said, barely animated and talking in short bursts.

"Yeah... I heard the same from some of the baron's guards." Oren admitted with a bit of hesitation managing to creep into his voice.

"See! If even those crazies over at Arcanum wouldn't want him, the man must be some looney madman. What if he decides to thank us for bringing back his damned pet by using us as experiments?!"

"Yeah... I don't know about this Ailyn," Oren said a bit sheepishly. "Maybe we should just let the little fella go or something, and forget this ever happened." Shared looks of apprehension were shared between the men.

"What's wrong with you guys?" Ailyn suddenly piped up, drawing the attention of the rest of the party. "Did someone waltz up and grab you all by the balls or something? Where is all your courage and bravado that you're so damned fond of? I don't see you chickening out whenever there's coin on the table, so why are you acting like a bunch of wusses now?"

Although Ailyn's words were a bit hurtful to the pride of the men, she was successful in getting their collective attention.

"If this is really the warlock's demon, even if he hands us but a pittance for our troubles, the kind of money a mage of such a caliber can throw around would be enough to set us for life. And you all know how desperately we need this..." She said, a bit of sourness entering her voice at the end.

"So what? Are we just gonna roll in there and demand compensation?" Jasper scoffed.

"You're blowing this out of proportion," Ailyn shook her head. "If we get paid, we get paid. Other than that, we just go about our day as normal. Besides, we have to check in with the guild in Eldam within the fortnight, so after we hand off the little bugger, we have to get our things packed for the caravan heading out of town."

"Fine, if we're going to get on with this, I don't want to spend another second looking at this little bastard's impish face," Jasper pointed an accusatory finger at the still tied up impling who simply hissed at the rogue with righteous indignation.