The train sped through the railways in the vast forested wilderness of Midgard. Their current destination was north of Yggdrasil. The Hinterlands were the northernmost part of Midgard. A harsh arctic land where it was cold nearly all year round with only a small period of warmth for the growth of crops for its hardy people. Signs of the North’s embrace were already reaching down as far as they were now. The green leafy deciduous trees gave way to the massive, proud eternity of the pine, creating a sea of deep green that surrounded the tracks.

Embla sat in her seat, next to Pandora and Cal, eating the beef jerky she had ordered off the food cart. It was a coincidence. The situation she was in right now was a pleasant coincidence. It was better to be with people she knew rather than be placed in a team with complete strangers with sketchy intentions.

She took a bite of her beef and looked up to see Yuki and Red reading a map. The two had barely paid the three any heed since they boarded the train. Maybe they were as shocked as she was when she found out that the people she was joining were them.

“So this is a really happy coincidence,” Embla said, glancing over to Pandora. The Elf Priestess smiled and nodded.

“I still can’t believe that you were the person who answered our request. We thought we would have to go alone all the way to the North,” Pandora said. She clasped her fingers together as her yellow-hazel eyes lit with happiness.

“Looks like we need to safeguard our food then.” Cal opened his bag of chips.

Embla sent an irritated look towards the Half-Elf Archer, who merely ignored her and ate his food in peace.

This again… she thought. Jokes got old and this joke of her being a food thief was staler than milk left in the sun. But she didn’t deny it. She wouldn’t deny it. She wasn’t above stealing someone else’s meal right out of their hand.

“Anyway…” Pandora steered the conversation away before her friend and her twin brother blew up the train car in their fight.

“Right! Why are you guys headed all the way to the Hinterlands? That seems like a really out-of-the-way location for a quest, even for you guys.” Embla tossed a piece of jerky into her mouth.

“It’s because there were no other quests closer to Yggdrasil. All the higher parties have a monopoly on quests here in the guild. Lower parties like us have to scramble just to survive.” Yuki looked up from the map.

“Three to Five-Star Parties horde all the lucrative high-ranking missions at the guild. Location. Bounty. Reward. They decide who gets what quest and there really isn’t anything other adventurers can do to stop them,” Red explained.

“That sounds like it sucks,” Embla replied. Quest hoarding? That didn’t exist when she was a young girl. At least, it didn’t exist when her sister was an adventurer. Back then, every quest was fair game for everyone, no matter the rank.

“Yeah, as you know, parties are ranked by stars. Five-Star Parties are the highest-ranked parties while Zero-Star Parties are the lowest. Parties advance through a merit system in which they receive points proportional to the quest they complete. Each Quest is ranked with a point value assigned based on the rank. The higher the quest rank, the more points you receive as a party.” Yuki looked down and gripped the hem of her robe.

Red placed a hand on her shoulder and looked at Embla. “A few years ago, a party came in and began hoarding all the quests. All the high-ranking quests. This started a frenzy where people scrambled for all quests that were high in rank and were in the best locations. Now, lower-ranked parties like us are left looking for scraps.”

“That… that sounds like…” Embla scrambled to find words to describe the entire situation.

“It’s a shit situation? The higher parties are dicks? The new system is made to screw over the little guy while the big guys up at the top eat their entire fill?” Cal piped up, looking down at the floor of the train car.

“Yeah. well, I’m a solo adventurer registered here so I can’t really relate to your situation.” She looked at them with some sympathy. It must be tough for them, wanting to ascend and climb the ranks of the Guild and have every opportunity snatched and stolen by the greedy higher parties. She didn’t have to suffer the same fate as they did. Solo Adventurers tended to wander around and only report in with their registered Guild once in a blue moon.

“It’s fine. Whatever we can gather up,” Yuki said, rolling up the map. “Sorry about going on a tangent. I forgot that we still need to go over the details of this quest. But first, let me ask and I know that you are capable but this is standard procedure with guides.”

Embla nodded.

“Are you proficient with traversing highly dense woodland?” Yuki asked, pulling out a notepad.

“I am. I am proficient in traversing cold mountainous areas and dense forests.” Embla sat back and crossed her arms, waiting for her next question.

“Are you a good tracker? Or do you have any experience in tracking?”

This one was a no-brainer but still, she needed to answer it as truthfully as she possibly could. “I am confident in my abilities to track things. I am classified as a Hunter within the Guild. I am capable of tracking all manner of prey.”

Yuki nodded and flipped the page in her notepad. “How familiar are you with the flora and fauna of the Ancient Forest?” This question and the next one were the ones she wanted Embal to answer the most.

“The Ancient Forest is home to a plethora of different beasts and some species of magical beasts. The most dangerous animals that live there are cave bears, dire wolves, and frost argentas. For the flora in the area, the plants that can be found there are the same plants that can be found anywhere within Midgard with a few exceptions. There is a species of predatory plant that disguises itself and lives within the deeper recesses of the forest known as the Meat-Eating Rafflesia. It preys on anything that gets too close and once it consumes you, it digests you slowly over a period of several months, breaking down your skin, muscle, and then bones. You’ll feel every second of it until you die.” Embla’s bangs shadowed her eyes as she explained the different animals and plants that were local to that region.

“Err… right, what about the geography?” Red asked, taking over for Yuki, who looked slightly pale.

“I’ve never been to the Ancient Pines personally. I’ve just heard stories from other hunters in my town, which was located in the Hinterlands. We should probably get a more detailed map from the village we’re going to just in case. But if it comes to general forest topography, I’m pretty good at mapping a place out so long as I know the basic layout.” Embla pulled out her water bottle and took a sip after answering Red’s question.

“Alright, I think that’s all the questions we have left-”

“Wait. We have one more.” Yuki raised her hand. She looked at Embla with an air of seriousness. The look on her face was stony. “Have you ever killed anyone?”

Embla froze. Kill? She could now somewhat deduce what this quest was now. She sighed.

“Yes, I have. A long time ago,” Embla said, running a hand through her dark locks.

“Okay. That’s it then. Now, let’s move on to the actual briefing for this quest.” Yuki’s friendly demeanor returned as she pulled out the quest sheet. “We have been commissioned to take out a bandit group hiding out within the Ancient Pines. The quest says to take them, dead or alive. The intel we’ve gotten from the village located at the edge of the forest have said that so far, these bandits have been coming in and demanding people from their village as a tribute.”

“Demanding? Wait… isn’t human trafficking a bit too high rank for our party?” Cal asked.

“No, they’re holding the villagers hostage in exchange for supplies. The villagers said that they managed to get someone out of another larger town in the Hinterlands where they transmitted this message to Yggdrasil. Since the Knights are preoccupied with something else, Ataraxis picked up their slack, and now we’re doing this.” Yuki folded the paper and placed it back in her bag.

Embla leaned back in her seat. Tribute was nothing new. She remembered a group of bandits that tried to demand tribute from her hometown. Tried being the operating word. Said bandits were quickly annihilated in the blink of an eye as if they never existed, to begin with by her master and his wife. Well, his wife grumbled the entire time having lost a game of rock-paper-scissors to her husband.

“Still. Hmm, how many bandits did they say there were?” Pandora asked.

“About a dozen. Probably more in the woods so we need to be careful about how we go about doing this,” Yuki said, crossing her arms.

“We can lure them out and I can use my burst to wipe out a majority of them. The rest that survive, we can either capture or eliminate. I’ll try not to kill the leader so we can bring him back to Yggdrasil for questioning,” Cal said.

“Hmm so this is an elimination slash suppression quest,” Embla said, placing her hand on her chin.

“Should we discuss your payment?” Yuki asked.

“No, not yet. Let’s finish the quest first and we can discuss payment later.” Embla smiled at her.

“Wow… you’re the first person to try to not swindle us out of what little money we have left,” Cal said.

“Is it really that bad?” Embla looked at him with some worry in her eyes. She may not have known this group long but she was starting to see them as her friends. They were relatively good people as far as she could tell.

“Yeah… it is. We don’t often hire guides as a result of it.” Pandora popped some candy in her mouth as she answered her question. “Problem is, we don’t really know our way in certain far-off locations so we have no choice really.”

“Well, I’ll be the best guide I can be then!” Embla said, smiling at Pandora. The half-elf priestess smiled and offered her some of her candy. Embla gratefully took some and shoved them into her mouth.

The orange glow of the setting sun had bled into the room as the train sped across the railing. Pandora yawned as she looked out the window to the rapidly passing surroundings. Yuki sighed and got up. They were all getting tired from sitting and talking about the quest. It was best for them to get some rest before they get there.

“Get some sleep you guys. It’ll be a long trip there. At least 2 days.” Yuki said, getting up. Red nodded to them and followed her out of the compartment and back to theirs.

“So how are we splitting this compartment?” Pandora asked.

“Two of us will have to share.” Embla crossed her arms and looked between the two.

“Well, I’m not sharing,” Cal said.

“I’m not either.”

“Good. You two will share that chair and I’ll get the seat on the other side!” Pandora clapped her hands as she stood up and walked to the other side of the compartment.

“Wait! No! I’m not sharing with her!” Cal protested.

“Come on, Cal. You’re the older one. Get over it,” Pandora said, “Besides, don’t you want your twin sister to be comfortable?”

“Pandora, I can just sleep in the overhead storage,” Embla said.

“What? Are you crazy? No. Just share the couch with Cal,” Pandora said, looking at the two with an annoyed look on her face.

The two looked at each other with a slightly apprehensive look, as if touching the other would cause their bodies to melt into an indiscernible puddle of blood and viscera. Pandora watched the tension and chaos with a small smile on her face. To say that she didn’t enjoy this would be an understatement because she did enjoy this far more than she let on. It would do them some good as well. At least no one would get killed on this trip if those two learned to get along.

“I’ll sleep on the floor. Hand me a blanket,” Cal said, holding his hand out to his sister.

“Eh?” Pandora blinked as she looked at a smug Embla, whose two fingers were out. “What? What just…?”

“We played rock-paper-scissors for the chair.” Embla held up her scissors while Cal looked like someone just killed his child. His hand had paper thrown. Pandora sighed and pulled a blanket and pillow from her bag and threw them at her twin.

“Thanks.” Cal spread the blanket out on the floor and put the pillow there. Embla looked down at him and sighed. She felt bad for winning. She stood and reached into the overhead storage and pulled out her sleeping bag.

“Here.” Embla held out her rolled-up sleeping bag to him.

“Really?” Cal asked, taking the bag.

“You need it more than I do,” Embla said, sitting down in the seat.

“Thanks,” Cal said, unrolling the bag.

“What should we do? We spent the entire day being briefed,” Pandora said, lying down on the chair. She held her hand out and stared at the ceiling of the train compartment.

“Got any good stories to tell Embla?” Cal asked.

“Stories?” Embla perked her head up. She saw the twins looking at her expectantly.

“Yeah. You’ve been around Midgard a lot. You see anything interesting? What about your hometown?” Pandora listened eagerly for whatever tale the black-haired girl was about to weave.

“Um… hmmm.” Embla placed her hand on her chin, wondering what she should talk about. Her eyes lit up as she fondly remembered a story from her childhood. “Well, when I was a kid, my older sister used to leave a lot to go on quests. It was our only way of earning money.”

“Only way? What about your parents?” Cal asked.

“My parents died when I was young. It’s just been me and my sister ever since.” Embla crossed her legs on the chair. “The place where we’re going. We used to live near there. About southwest of the village, we’re heading to, there’s this lakeside town called Hnitborg. It’s where I grew up. It’s where I learned how to take care of myself, how to hunt, how to cook, how to clean, how to earn money… all that good stuff.”

“Oh? We should stop there then on our way back so you can visit your home again,” Pandora said.

“Mmm! No! That’s fine.” Embla waved her hands in denial. It’s not that she didn’t want to go back. It’s that she’d rather go back when the time is right. “I didn’t exactly leave on… good terms.”

“What did you do? Did you burn down someone’s house?” Cal asked.

“No. What? Why is that your first thought?” She fixed him a glare to which he responded with a shrug. It seemed that this man lived to try and infuriate her at every turn and she had to admit that it was working. Granted, she did steal and eat his hotdog in front of him so that was a plus for her. “No, I ran away.” Embla’s gaze softened as she continued.

“Why did you run away?” Pandora asked.

“I-”

“It’s okay if you don’t want to talk about it.” Cal sent his sister a look before nodding to her.

“It’s fine. It’s not like this is a secret I hide anyway.” Embla waved him off. “I’m looking for my sister. She disappeared around seven years ago during a quest. Ever since then, I’ve been traveling Midgard, searching for clues as to where she might be. My master and his wife are probably worried about me even though I send them letters. They’re probably the closest thing I have to parents and my only living family member is in the wind.”

“Maybe when this quest is over, we can go ask around for her. You know as payment for helping us out on the quest,” Pandora said. She had an eager but smug smile on her face. This was probably the best thing she had ever thought of. They could help Embla and they won’t have to empty their coffers to pay her for being their guide.

“Eh? Really? Thanks, guys but… I already have someone who said that they found the first lead I’ve had in three years,” Embla said.

“Who?” Cal looked at her with a curious expression on his face.

“The person I came to meet in Yggdrasil. When I get back from the quest, I’ll be going over to visit him to see what he found. Then, I’ll go leave the city to continue looking,” Embla said. She looked out the window and saw that the moon was now up and high in the sky. How long had they been talking?

“We should probably get some sleep,” Pandora said.

“Yeah.” Cal slid into the sleeping bag, agreeing with her.

“Mmm. Good night guys,” Embla said. She got up and turned off the compartment lights. After making her way back to her chair, she laid down and stared at the ceiling. Embla reached into her shirt and pulled out a silver pendant with a worn sapphire embedded into it. Gripping it tightly in her hand, she went to sleep, dreaming of a field in days long gone, running around with a girl with long white hair.