Book of Kings

Chapter 30

Why am I always the last one to arrive?
The sun just rose and both of them are already here, waiting for me.
I saw Walsh waving me over to his and Eta's table.
"Mighty good morning to you Walsh, Eta. You two up so early?" I sat down next to them in the cafeteria with my breakfast, "hope I didn't keep you waiting."
"What? No. The sun just came up and we just came here a bit before you. We still have some hours left, plenty of time," Eta said taking a bite of a piece of bread.
"How you doin', Walsh? You ready for adventure? Packed your things, researched up on what we're doing?" I shook him by his shoulders.
"I'm doing very fine and actually, we just only received instructions," he pointed towards Eta.
She then unpacked some papers and gave them to me.
I didn't even look at them and handed them to Walsh.
"I already know what we have to do."
"How come?" Eta asked.
"Last night, I had a little talk with 'Specialist' Ayke, saw him almost falling asleep on his desk. Works real hard and he was already finished with assigning who had to do what, so I took it into my own hand to get a preview-"
"Did you break into his office?"
"Yeah, I broke the lock and took a quick peek," I said as seriously as I could.
"Really?" Walsh asked.
"Gods no. I just asked him nicely if I could see and he said yes. He's a nice person, maybe a bit young-"
"Bit young? He's older than you! We both are too, you're 'a bit young' to be in the guild, period," Eta interrupted me for the second time.
"Everyone chooses their own destiny," I shrugged at her.
"Shut up," she responded.
"Secondly, I'm not a thief or a criminal AND I don't care enough to break actual laws for something I would get anyway the day after. Who would?" I looked at both of them.
They didn't answer.
"Something about a village... What was it again?"
"It's about a village called Cheles," Walsh shuffled through the papers, "no one heard from it in quite a while and the so-called 'Reeve' hasn't paid taxes in two months."
"I think I've heard about Cheles once or twice before but," I said to myself out loud, "why? Why have I heard about it?"
I thought hard about the village name.
"Cheles, Cheles, Cheles, Cheles, Cheles," I muttered, "oh yeah. My father told me about it, it's his father's, as in my grandfather's, hometown. Can't remember much about what he told me, could have been interesting to compare how it changed over the years ."
"How is your family doing?" Walsh asked me curiously, "I wonder that they let you join the guild when your barely an adult."
"They're fine with it," I waved him off.
"That can turn out fortunate for us. Maybe your father can tell us about the village or the surrounding area," Eta said.
"No can do. The last time he was there was almost a decade before I was born and it's not like he's around here to even be asked."
She sighed, "no brains, annoying, and apparently no connections too but I have seen you in training, you're strong and tough, at least you have that. You can be the pack mule."
"How long is it going to take us to do this?" I asked ignoring what she said.
"A week at most. Traveling forth and back is going to take almost four days and I think we can clear up whatever the problem is in three extra days."
"We don't need anything special for this, right?"
"No, but we still have to request items from the guild's quartermaster. Armor and weapons if it comes to a confrontation, could be bandits or monsters. At least one bow, arrows. Rations for seven days."
"Naturally."
"Torches or lanterns and a tinderbox. Rope and two tents. Oh, and a medical pack," she wrote down all of the things she mentioned.
"What if we can't handle whatever we have to face?" I asked.
"Then we'll have to call licensed adventurers to handle the situation but if it's not a whole group of bandits we can handle it, weaker monsters or animals too but if we find something like hobs or even one troll or worse we'll back off.
I bet it's just a lazy reeve who refuses to answer the letters send to him and to pay his taxes."
"Do we really have to worry about a troll? They do not usually approach villages, most, if not all, dangerous creatures do not," Walsh said.
"Well, usually means that sometimes they do, right?" I guess, "but don't worry if we find any danger we'll back off as Eta said."
"If the guild would think we couldn't handle this, they wouldn't have sent us. And we're capable to handle most 'normal' things, right? You and me, and Eta, trained for this a whole entire year. Don't tell me you're scared?"
"He just has realistic worries," Eta finished writing, "can you go to the quartermaster and fetch the items?" She tried handing me a sheet of paper.
"You think so? How many trolls have been seen near villages the last few years or even hobs? As guild members you should be prepared but not fearful," I refused the paper "and no, do it yourself."
She groaned, "Walsh?"
"Sure, I'll do it," he responded and then on he went, doing the bidding of a woman who could have done it herself.
"And what are you going to do in the meanwhile? You said we still got some hours," I asked Eta.
"I'll sort our belongings."
"Great, anything I can do?"
"No, nothing that comes to mind or any of us can't do better," she said annoyed, thinking, "oh, how good are you with a bow, never mind, forget it. Just remembered, Walsh is better than both of us. Looks like you'll have some free time. Just be here at noon then we'll travel to Cheles."
"Great," I thumbed up then made my way outside too.
"Remember, noon," Eta said louder as I went out.