Dunehold, 3 Months later

“Are you ready for this?”

“No.” I answered honestly, shaking my head. “But, after everything else I’ve gone through, it can’t be much worse. What about you, though? Will you be okay when I’m gone?”

The girl holding my hand clenched for a moment, looking up at me with uncertain eyes before giving my hand another squeeze. “I can do it.”

I gave her a smile. It had only been three months since I’d first seen her at the top of Sun-splitter Peak. We’d spent two months journeying south to the region’s capital, stopping at villages as we made our trek. Even after two months of travel, she still looked better than when I’d first met her. In the two months of travel, the girl and I had grown close, the little sister I’d never had. For a month since we had reached Dunehold, she had been living with her temporary caretaker here, at least until her father eventually made the journey south to Dunehold, where they would begin living together. I found much of her family situation difficult to understand, but then that was for her family to tackle.

I had my own more pressing and immediate thoughts and concerns.

Such as my impending fate.

Relax Rook. You said it yourself. This is hardly the most difficult challenge you’ve faced to date.

I must have been making a face as Rosalina gave my hand another hard squeeze.

“It’s going to be okay.” She looked at me as if she were the older one between us.

“Yeah.” I nodded perhaps overly vigorously.

Today was the day. The day where I’d find out whether I would become an adventurer or not.

I wasn’t nervous, I swear.

“Why wouldn’t they let you be an adventurer? You saved me!”

“It wasn’t just me.” I sighed as I looked up at the sun shining in the blue sky far above. “Tez played as much of a part as I did, and besides, it’s not like we could tell them more than we did.”

When I’d first reported to the adventurer guild in Dunehold, I’d decided to give them a filtered version of the events that had played out. They knew nothing of the True Dragon held within Sun-splitter Peak nor of the fact that Rosalina had a dragon heart pounding away within her chest.

For the best, the chance of information like that spreading would only make the girl a target. She was a source of nigh limitless power to those who desired it. Instead, the guild had been told that the enemy mage had been attempting to commit human sacrifices with the people of Kar’anza in pursuit of power, with no mention of the greater details.

To be fair, it isn’t that far off the truth.

As a result, as far as the guild knew, I had simply aided one of the members of the Red Foxes in the defeat of a mage of at least Steel caliber.

Tez will enjoy that.

Logically speaking, it was unlikely that I wouldn’t get my license as an adventurer, but anxiety still gnawed away deep within my gut.

It’s going to be alright.

For the same month that we had been within Dunehold, I’d been bunking at one of the Adventurer’s Rest. As I was on a probationary license, I stayed in one of the…. Shoddier ones, but even with that said, the place had a look at least as nice as the Adventurer Rest within Enudtsrif. A month of idling, glorified twiddling of my thumbs.

Today was the day, though.

“Rook.”

I felt a hand pulling lightly on the cuff of my sleeve, drawing my attention away from my thoughts and instead toward the present. Blinking my eyes, I was surprised to see we had in the time while I was lost in thought, made it the rest of the way to the guild.

The building wasn’t huge, but it was grand enough in its own rights, with fancy flourishes of gilded metal and columns of polished sandstone.

Here we go.

I looked back at Rosalina, giving her a reassuring nod.

“I’ll be back shortly, okay?”

Rosalina stuck her hands to where waist, cheeks puffing out. “I can manage.”

I smiled at her before turning toward the fancy-looking guild doors, some sort of wood I didn’t recognize. I nearly looked back, double-checking on Rosalina before I shouldered on.

I needed to trust that she really would be okay. Things hadn’t simply gone back to normal for the girl after everything she had gone through. She had nightmares daily and would begin to have a panic attacks if I left her side for too long. She’d been gradually getting over it, but I knew she was trying her best to be strong so that I would feel okay leaving her behind.

Three short months, and already the thought of leaving her behind was something I struggled with, but I knew I had to.

Forward. Look forward.

It was both metaphorical and literal. Inside the guild, it was packed with people of all shapes and sides. Adventuring parties coming back after completing commissions or quests or solo adventures gliding about, looking for temporary teams to join. I saw a man hefting a hammer the size of my chest over his shoulder as if it were nothing or a woman who had strangely pointed ears, and so on and so forth.

Focus.

Keeping my eyes forward, I marched toward the main desk, trying my best to not catch anyone’s eye as I did. Walking up to the counter, I waited in the short line in front of the receptionist until it was my turn.

“Uh, hello.” I muttered, not sure what else to say.

Smooth.

“Can I help you?” The receptionist, an older greying man, barely looked at me. He was instead flipping through pages of formal commission requests on his desk, commissions that would later be tacked up on a nearby free-for-all commission board.

“Yeah. I, uh, wanted to see about my application for my adventurer license.”

“Name?”

“Rook.”

“Family name?”

I shook my head; I had insisted that I had no family name when I’d first come here a month ago.

“Hmm. One moment.”

The man put the papers he was flipping through to the side, grabbing another stack of papers, and flipping through them instead as he silently nodded to himself.

I held my breath, tense, watching the man.

He nodded to himself again.

I continued holding my breath.

He nodded.

I waited.

He nodded.

“Err, sir?” My tension was beginning to be replaced by annoyance as I waited on the man.

“Oh, yeah. You’re good.”

“I’m good?” I wasn’t sure I had heard the man correctly.

“Yeah.” He nodded, grabbing something from a drawer at the large counter desk, pulling it out, and sliding it across the gap toward me. It was a green-looking metal band, my name engraved upon it.

Copper.

“Your application was waived ahead based on your probationary work with the Red Foxes and your circumstances. Most start as tin, but considering the circumstances and the results of your physical assessment-”

I briefly recalled when they’d sent me notice that they needed to assess a general baseline of my physical ability to continue with my application process, which had turned out to be nothing more than mundane drills, testing my raw strength, flexibility, and physical endurance.

“-you were set as copper. Rank promotions are offered based on guild recommendation, or you can file for an official petition to be considered for rank promotion. We are not liable for injury, death, or any other such circumstances that you may face in the line of work. You may accept copper rank commissions with either a group or one other person as a copper rank. You may freely accept commissions of lower rank and undertake them solo as you please and may partake in commissions of up to Iron in larger groups. In case of emergency quests, you may be called upon to act as a rearguard if the need be. Any other questions?”

The man had rattled his spiel off with so little enthusiasm and so quickly that I almost missed it. Had I not already been aware of the basic rules of adventuring, I would have asked him to repeat himself just to be sure.

“No Sir.” I shook my head.

“Good. Oh, and one more thing.”

The man ducked beneath his desk area before sliding something else across to me, a weapon roughly the size of my old sword sheathed in black leather.

“As you were officially recognized as an adventurer, the weapon you put in a request for was fast tracked.”

I stared at the sword, one of the central region’s notoriously sickle-looking swords. I grabbed the pommel, sliding the sheathe off as I examined the blade.

Unlike my last sword, a steel bastard sword, this one, a khopesh, was made of a dark gold, almost orange looking material.

“Quartzite bronze.” The receptionist answered for me, reading my mind. “Steel isn’t as abundant here as it is in the north.”

Other than the general appearance of the weapon, the next thing I noticed was its heft, heavier than the steel sword I had known for so long.

That explains why central style is all about power swings. The weapons are too heavy to be quick with.

While heavier than I was used to, it wasn’t uncomfortably so, and after looking around once to make sure no one was in swinging range, I gave it a single test whirl, feeling the weapon’s balance.

Huh. I quite like this.

I smiled, a smile that grew wider and wider.

This was it.

This is it. This is really it!

“Alright kid. Get a move on. Other adventurers are here as well.”

“Oh, sorry” I quickly apologize, cheeks flushing before I stepped away from the counter, sheathing my blade and belting it to my side. After losing my last sword, I’d been at a loss, until I’d heard that I the guild had connections with many weapon and armor smiths across the continent.

To have a sword again, I felt a hole in my heart close that I hadn’t even realized was there.

Well…. Now what?

I walked away before sitting down at a nearby table, thinking.

Now what?

Lost in thought once again, it wasn’t until I felt a finger tapping on my shoulder that I snapped out of it, jumping in surprise.

“Oh, sorry about that.”

I noticed three people standing before me, looking to be in their late teens to early twenties.

“It’s, uh, it’s okay.” I nodded as my racing heart relaxed.

“Sorry if this is out of nowhere, but we are looking for a temporary member to fill a spot on our team. Our normal fourth is sick, but our commission is time-sensitive, and we can’t go on an Iron without a fourth. We overheard you at the desk; you’re new, right?”

“Yeah.” I nodded.

“Tin, right?”

I showed him the copper band I’d clasped over the cloth wrapped around my right arm.

“Even better.” The guy who seemed to be the leader, or at least the group’s voice, smiled. “Well, as I said, we need a fourth. Oh, sorry, I didn’t mention the commission, did I? It’s an elimination; an adolescent Khan was setting up a nest on the outskirt of a nearby village. We must get rid of it before it becomes an issue. So, you in?” The young man reached an arm out toward me as he spoke.

You in?

Two words. Such simple words. But from those words, I felt a fire of excitement bubbling up within my core.

I reached my own arm out, and we grasped each other by the forearm as he pulled me up from where I was seated.

“I’m in.”