Chronicles of Eden - Act VIII (62 page)

“Because the queen has heard of your skill of monster hunting and wishes to extend an offer to you,” one of the knights called out.

Silence filled the cottage while the two guards waited for a reply. After a long pause Max spoke up again to his sisters with a hushed whisper.

“Please get dressed and get out here.
Right now
.”

Leaning back from the curtain he turned to smile nervously at the two knights who looked at him with slight smiles on their faces.

“They… they’ll be right… out,” Max stuttered before looking down with a deep blush.

A loud crashing sound came from the backroom followed by a wild ruckus as the three sisters scrambled to get dressed, with Max cringing and flinching from each bang and clatter that echoed out from behind the curtain. He sighed then glanced up to the two knights that were still watching him.

“I only did that when I was really little,” he defended. “It was a long time ago. They just like to tease me.”

“Of course,” one of the guards replied.

“That is what older sisters do, isn’t it?” the other remarked with a smirk.

After a while things quieted down in back, with Mika then pulling aside the curtain and walking through with sisters following after. The now fully dressed girls came out and stood behind the counter while observing in awe that two knights from the royal kingdom were really standing in their home.

“My word,” Mae breathed out.

“Wow, you weren’t lying for once,” Milly realized with a curious look at Max.

“What do you mean for once?” Max barked out at her. “I don’t lie to others and you know it!”

Mika held her hand up and snapped her fingers, silencing her kin and bringing their focus back onto the two newcomers who were waiting patiently for them to settle down.

“Are you Mika Harollson?” a knight asked.

“Yes, I am,” Mika said walking around the counter to stand before the woman. “It’s an honor to have those from Rockhelm visiting us. To what do we owe the pleasure?”

“Queen Leanna wishes to extend a job offer to you and your sisters,” the guard said holding out a scroll. Mika took the parchment and unrolled it with a curious eye while Milly and Mae came over to her sides. The three girls read over the document from the queen herself then looked at the knights in wonder.

“Is this for real?” Milly asked.

“Yes,” a knight answered.

“When would you need us?” Mae questioned.

“Immediately.”

“We accept,” Mika declared.

“Glad to hear it,” the knight commended with a nod. “Please hurry, time is of the essence.”

“Payment will be delivered to you upon completion of this task,” the second guard mentioned. “Do you require anything that would help you with this?”

“Three horses, that’s all,” Mika said looking down to the scroll.

“Done,” the guard said waving her companion away. As the other knight made her way outside the woman straightened out her gauntlets before looking around at the store with a casual eye. “I suppose you do have all the equipment you need, and your skill I should hope matches the stories we’ve heard about you.”

“Our skill will surpass what you’ve heard about us,” Mika promised while eyeing the parchment carefully.

“We intend to hold our reputation as the most capable monster hunters Eden has to offer,” Mae boasted.

“Is that so?” the guard skeptically mused. “I was under the impression that Benjamin Stonewall held that particular title.”

“Oh please,” Milly sneered with a grin. “We could kill monsters way faster and better than he could. Slaying these things is a woman’s job anyway, he shouldn’t be risking his neck and penis with it in the first place.”

“He may be a man but he’s got a rather high kill count when it comes to monster slaying,” the guard commented with a shrug. “While I’m sure any monster that manages to rape him would give birth to some truly terrifying and tough offspring, there’s no denying his ability when it comes to dispatching the filthy things.”

“Whatever,” Milly huffed. “We’re still the best. You can tell the queen we’ve got this handled.”

“Let’s hope so,” the guard said as she turned to walk out. As she left the sisters gathered close to read the details about their assignment while Max watched them curiously from behind the counter.

“You do realize that Benjamin could dance circles around us with killing monsters, right?” Mae mentioned with a worried glance to Milly.

“Yeah? If he’s so great then how come they didn’t give this job to him instead of us?” Milly quipped. “The queen asked for
us
specifically, remember? That means we’re better.”

“Even so, you need to show more class with our clients, especially those sent from the queen. We don’t want the world to think we’re arrogant hunters or something as low as that.”

“It’s called having self-confidence and being awesome, dummy,” Milly retorted stubbornly.

“It’s called being thickheaded and complacent,” Mae shot back.

“If you two are about done,” Mika interjected. “We need to get ready to leave right away.”

“Wow,” Max said in wonder. “A real job from the queen herself? That’s so amazing! What is it she wants you to do?”

The sisters glanced to him then back down to the scroll with their orders from Queen Leanne. It was the kind of job they were employed for routinely. Slay the monsters that were harassing humans, protect the men from being raped, the usual contract parameters they had agreed to in the past. Of course this particular offer had a noticeable difference compared to those they had taken on in the past. It was still rescue and protect the stolen men, guard the woman and children they found, be the heroic hunters they had trained to be.

Only this time the number of monsters they were charged with killing was substantially higher, enough to warrant a little concern with the trio of vixen hunters as it appeared they would be going up against a horde of lustful creatures all on their own.

*****

Running along a worn trail in The Outerlands a white horse was pulling a carriage behind with swiftly moving feet, the mare having no trouble pulling the wagon along while keeping pace with a centaur running next to them. Lucky continued galloping at a brisk pace while the wheels of the carriage behind him rolled over the grass and dirt of the only road leading through the wooded area they were venturing through. Trees and large moss-covered boulders passed by on both sides of the trail as the travelers made their way towards the centaur kingdom, with Kroanette’s excitement to return home causing her to brainstorm of any possible way to shorten their travel time.

“Let’s take a shortcut up ahead to the left,” she suggested pointing in front of them. “We’ll arrive at Ruhelia in a matter of hours.”

“No, we won’t be doing that,” Specca said shaking her head. She was seated up front with Alyssa while holding the reins for Lucky, the two girls sighing softly as their co-mate was once again proposing a shortcut as she always did.

“Why not?” Kroanette demanded with frustration. “Can’t you see I’m trying to help by getting us to Ruhelia as soon as possible? Give me one good reason why we cannot take that route.”

“For starters,” Alyssa mentioned glancing to the left. “If we turn left now we’ll be going straight off the cliff.”

Kroanette blinked then looked to the side as the trees passing by suddenly stopped to reveal they were traveling along a ridge overlooking a valley. After seeing the steep cliffside stretching out a long distance before them on the left side of the trail she slowly looked back to the girls with worried eyes.

“That certainly wouldn’t help us reach Ruhelia in a timely manner,” Specca commented. “You know, since we would likely be dead upon impact.”

“And secondly,” Alyssa continued in a bored tone. “Ruhelia is in
that
direction.”

She pointed to the right, with Kroanette showing puzzlement as she tried to place the kingdom’s location in her mind with being in that direction. The centaur looked around at the passing trees for a while then turned to her co-mates in question.

“Are you sure?”

“This trail leads around the valley to our left and also keeps us a good distance away from Stonegate,” Specca clarified. “Remember that monster village that we did
not
want to be anywhere near in fear of our lives? We were going to travel around it, which meant going a little out of our way first before we could reach Ruhelia.”

“Stonegate is over there?” Kroanette exclaimed as she pointed out at the valley.

“No, it’s back there,” Alyssa sighed, using one hand to point behind them to the left and the other to hold her face tiredly. “We already passed it, we’re just following the trail that leads up between it and Ruhelia before it turns towards the kingdom.”

“Do you have any idea where we are right now, Kroanette?” Specca worriedly asked, though she was quite certain she knew the answer already.

“Um…” the centaur replied as she looked around the area in confusion.

“How did she manage to find us way out in The Outerlands before running off a cliff or something?” Alyssa quietly muttered.

“Oh, Kroanette,” Specca gently empathized. “We really do need to help you with your navigation skills.”

“Excuse me?” Kroanette snapped. “Are you implying that I don’t know where I’m going? That is utter nonsense! I am-”

“The legendary courier, Kroanette,” Alyssa dryly interrupted. “Who has no sense of direction whatso-freaking-ever.”

“How dare you!” Kroanette roared as she grabbed her whip and snapped it hard at her side. “Take that back, Alyssa!”

“Alyssa, don’t be so mean to her,” Specca insisted at the witch before smiling nervously at the enraged centaur. “Kroanette, I’m not saying you have
no
sense of direction, but… perhaps a few lessons on navigation couldn’t hurt. I just want to help you so you don’t get lost again.”

“I do not get lost!” Kroanette yelled thrashing about in a fit.

“Two days ago,” Alyssa spoke up again. “You ran off the trail saying you found a shortcut. It took us four hours to find you again and bring you back onto the correct path.”

“That wasn’t… I just…
arg
!” Kroanette snarled in frustration.

“It’s okay, Kroanette,” Specca promised with a weak smile. “Accidents happen. I just want to help you become an even
better
navigator, that’s all.”

“And just how do you intend to do that?” Kroanette snapped.

“I know my way around the wilderness pretty well,” Specca boasted. “I did my own traveling before living at Ashwood after all. I bet I could get us to Ruhelia without even having to watch the road in front of me.”

“Specca, watch the road!” Alyssa cried out.

Looking back ahead with a jump Specca saw a blonde haired girl merrily skipping out from the trees onto the path, moments before she was quickly trampled under hoof by Lucky and crushed under the moving wheels of the carriage. A short yelp was all that was heard from the poor girl before Specca and her companions screamed in shock.

“Stop, right now!” Alyssa ordered.

Specca snapped the reins to get Lucky to come to a quick halt while Kroanette skidded to a stop next to them on her feet.

“Holy shit, you ran her over!” Alyssa exclaimed as she hopped up to look behind them in surprise.

“I didn’t- I didn’t- I didn’t see her,” Specca nervously stammered while shaking, eyes still locked ahead of her as the image of the blonde girl being run over kept replaying in her mind.

“And you’re criticizing me for being slightly turned around out here?” Kroanette barked at her. “At least I never ran over anyone before!”

“You are always more than ‘slightly turned around’, Kroanette!” Specca cried out shutting her eyes. “And you ran over Jacqueline in Eston, remember?”

“It was dark in that town, that wasn’t my fault! Besides, she’s an evil flesh-eating Darker One! She deserved it!”

“That girl jumped in front of me, I couldn’t have stopped in time anyway!”

“You could have tried to at least drive around her!”

“Hey!” Alyssa called out. “How about we agree that you’re both terrible and go see if that girl is still alive or not?”

Kroanette quickly holstered her whip and took off behind them while Specca whimpered with her hands still shaking as they held the reins for Lucky.

“Alyssa… I… I…” Specca whined.

“Okay, calm down, Specca. Let’s just take these away from you,” Alyssa gently said as she pried the straps out of the nixie’s hands and moved them aside. “There we go. No need to have you running over anyone else today.”

“What have I done?” Specca sniveled as she started to cry. “That poor girl.”

“Pull yourself together,” Alyssa said shaking her a little. “Accidents happen, remember? Now go over with Kroanette and see if that girl is ever going to walk again while I go get the others, alright?”

“Okay, okay,” Specca agreed with a few deep breaths. She and the witch hopped off the ride, with the nixie nervously walking towards where Kroanette was now standing still on the road while Alyssa opened the doors to the carriage and ran inside.

“Hey, guys? We got a problem out here. And to answer your first question it’s all Specca’s fault.”

“Alyssa!” Specca whined grabbing her hair in embarrassment.

“Specca?” Kroanette called over. “Please come over here, right now!”

Specca gulped then ran towards the centaur, fearing how grim the scene would be. As she got closer she saw Kroanette watching something with disbelief and an open mouth, the nixie then looking over to see the blonde girl from earlier lying on her back with a curious smile and not a single scratch on her.

“Haha, that was fun!” Cindy laughed as she sat up and looked around happily. She turned to Kroanette and Specca as the two were staring at the girl in surprise.

“Are… are you alright?” Kroanette slowly asked.

“Uh huh!” Cindy said with a big nod. She stood up and dusted of her legs then smiled brightly at the two girls.

“I’m okay!”

“But…” Kroanette pondered in confusion, looking back towards the carriage then to the new girl who appeared perfectly fine. “You were run over just now, weren’t you?”