After what happened and considering there weren’t any interesting job, the whole team agreed to go west, and as far as possible from Nyx. First stop would be Tartarus province’s capital, Typhon, an eight-day trip with carts,

This morning, while the group was verifying one last time the carts and their load, something caught the two vanguard eyes, Belina was wearing a ring on a necklace.

- I don’t believe it, she accepted!

- Don’t jump to conclusion, that’s Belina we’re talking about, there must have been some sort of misunderstanding.

- We have to ask right?

- I really want to know…

Unable to resist their curiosity, the two ask her.

- You’re wearing jewelry, that’s rare.

- That? Just like you said, playing the part of a couple worked like a charm, none of my old acquaintance bothered me with marriage talks.

- That’s nice, and Dalene?

- He obviously played the part too.

Arc and Chris looked at each other, that was beyond unnatural on her part to keep wearing jewelry after it served its purpose.

- Well, we’re ready to go whenever.

- Yup, just waiting for the signal.

- Alright, Dalene says the roads are pretty narrow around these parts, so once we are on the road, we won’t be able to change the order. Chris, you take the front with our light equipment, Arc, you take the back with the food and water, me and Dalene, we will be in the middle with the heavy stuff. Is it alright with you?

- Perfectly fine.

As soon as they separate, Arc tells Chris.

- She’s being polite and SMILING, it has to be a doppelganger!

- I always had my doubt, no one can be that obtuse. She’s happy, I don’t know If she accepted his demand, but she’s clearly happy about it.

- It’s either that or Changeling.

- Who would have thought the day would come when Belina would be wearing something as impractical as a necklace?

- A smiling Belina looks so fake.

A smiling Dalene appeared behind them.

- Stop wasting time, we’re going.

<><><>

After four days, the team reached a small village, it had nothing special about it apart from an unusually high amount of tiny fishing boats being docked. A kid looks at the carts, and upon seeing the heavy crossbow he suddenly runs screaming:

- Mister mayor, mister mayor!

Chris immediately signal a stop, it’s too noisy for being a trap and it’s unlikely the kid mistook them for bandits, but there is no reason to take any risk either.

- What is it?

Ask Belina from Behind.

- Not sure, either they are in need of hunters, or there’s been trouble with hunter impersonators.

- That’s rare, but not uncommon.

She calls the two behind.

- Man the crossbows, prepare for combat.

It’s unlikely it will come to that, but better be prepared than sorry.

<><><>

A few minutes later, an aged man runs toward them as fast he can, screaming.

- You’re hunters, right? Are you free? We’ve got a request.

- We are free, but whether we take your request or not will depend on its nature, and the pay.

- Yes, obviously… Do you want to talk here, or do you want to follow me to my house?

Upon hearing this, they all think, house, not office, they must be really poor.

- We will follow.

<><><>

The house is almost empty, a pot, a fireplace a bed and a table.

- Sorry for the lack of accommodations, if you want, we can…

- Cut the chase, what’s the problem?

- An eel-shaped behemoth, at first it only attacked solitary boats, so we started moving in groups but that wasn’t enough. It jumped out of the water and swallowed a kid whole, a fisherman managed to hit it with a fishing spear but it jumped back in the water and got away.

- Continue…

- Since then, it has become almost fearless and we haven’t been able to fish properly. It attacks boat from under, capsize it, steal the fishes or attack the man, then swim away… There’s nothing we can do.

Dalene looks worried.

- How are the fishing grounds?

- Not very different from usual.

- Did you hear anything about that behemoth from other villages?

- They didn’t see it, but they lost some fish traps, and then some goats and dogs disappeared.

- What color was it?

- It looked like mud.

- Did you see if it had legs?

- Sorry, we don’t know, it’s always covered in mud.

- How frequent are the attacks?

- In the beginning, it was Every three or four days, now it attacks whenever it can.

Dalene swears.

- I see two possibilities, one is a sort of aquatic serpent and the other is an amphibian. Both have the same mud color and hunt by staying hidden in the riverbed until a prey come near. The serpent can only stay out of water for a limited time, but the other can walk on land.

- Normally serpents don’t eat that much.

- Unless it attacks to protect itself. Normally serpent will eat twice or thrice a week depending on the size, but what it eats isn’t enough, there is a possibility it will eat more often.

- Why did you swear?

- The hunting pattern is abnormal for either animal, I fear it’s a displaced animal that never learned how to hunt properly. I fear it learned to get it sustenance by depending on human settlement, but now that it’s been attacked once, it’s become aggressive.

- You wouldn’t be swearing if it was only that.

- It’s also prudent, it shows some level of intelligence, catching it might impossible unless we drag the river.

The mayor pales.

- We can’t do that with our tiny fishing boats, and there’s a regulation on the fishing net size, we could get sentenced to prison if we...

Dalene cut in.

- Don’t worry, you won’t be the ones using them, you only need to provide us the nets, we’ll drag them using our carts.

- The carts? Why not use the horses?

- Because we don’t know how strong the creature is.

- Good point.

- Now, the most important point, payment. How much can you offer?

The mayor looks worried, then answer.

- Six copper a day each, and two silver for the beast.

Arc and Chris explode in laughter, but the mayor adds.

- If you present a note written by me at the office, the lord will pay for your trouble.

- Will he? How much are we talking about?

- The rate is two crowns, it’s the same rate everywhere in Tartarus.

- That’s pretty low.

- It’s better than nothing.

Belina think then add a condition.

- We will be risking our carts, we’ll accept if potential repairs are taken care of free of charge by your people.

- Agreed!